A Warning Against Complacency

A WARNING AGAINST COMPLACENCY.

Amos 6:1-7.

Amos was a farmer from Tekoa, to the south of Jerusalem (Amos 1:1). The LORD called Amos to ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel’ (Amos 7:15). The prophet’s ministry was thereafter directed mainly to the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, with their capital in Samaria: but he was not unmindful of the two tribes of the southern kingdom of Judah, with their capital in Jerusalem (aka Zion).

“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria,” begins this oracle (Amos 6:1a).

The picture is of a corrupt, uncaring leadership. They are “named chief of the nations” (Amos 6:1b) and make unfair comparisons with other nations (Amos 6:2). They are “named” as those “to whom the house of Israel came” (Amos 6:1b; cf. Exodus 18:16) but are hardly worthy to ‘sit in the seat of Moses’ (cf. Matthew 23:2-3). They imagined that “the evil day” belonged to some remote future, but they were causing the “seat of violence to come near” by enthroning violence in a reign of terror (Amos 6:3; cf. 2 Kings 15:16).

We are presented with a picture of luxury and laziness (Amos 6:4-7).

While the common folk slept on thin woven mats upon the ground, these leaders lay on beds of ivory. They sprawled upon their couches. They ate veal, and the choicest lambs of the flock - without a care, it seems, for the future of the flocks and herds (Amos 6:4).

They improvised music, imagining themselves thereby to be emulating David. They drank wine from bowls - were they sacrificial bowls, or is the allusion to excess? They anointed themselves with the finest deodorants (Amos 6:5-6).

Yet they were not grieved at “the affliction of Joseph” (Amos 6:6)! We are reminded of the way that Joseph’s older brothers cast him into a pit, and then sat down to eat bread (Genesis 37:23-25), apparently oblivious to ‘the anguish of his soul’ (cf. Genesis 42:21). God hears the cries of His people (cf. Exodus 3:7) - and so should we!

‘God resists the proud’ (James 4:6). Therefore these who are named “chief” of the nations (Amos 6:1), who indulged themselves with the “chief” ointments (Amos 6:6), shall “go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed” (Amos 6:7). This is the fate of a complacent, uncaring leadership.

There is the very real possibility that ‘religious’ people are trusting in their religion, rather than in the true and living God. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, ‘salvation is of the Jews’ (John 4:22) - and so it is, for salvation is only found in Him (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). That is why we insist that Christianity is not a ‘religion’, but a relationship with Him.

Perhaps ‘Christian’ people, too, can end up trusting in their denomination, rather than their Saviour. After all, in the final analysis, those who are “at ease in Zion” are in no better state than those who “trust in the mountain of Samaria” (Amos 6:1a).