Member Devo - Alyssa Tan

This is what the Lord God showed me: behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said, "Amos what do you see?” And I said, “a basket of summer fruit.” And the Lord said to me, the end has come up on my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares the Lord God.

“So many dead bodies!” 

“They are thrown everywhere!” 

“Silence” 

Amos 8:1-3

This word in Amos is striking. Silence to injustice could lead to dead bodies thrown in the street, without a voice decrying the loss. If that image terrifies you, it should. If it sounds like events of recent days, it’s meant to. We are in a season, be it blizzard, winter, or ice age where we cannot till our fields to produce a bountiful harvest, we must subsist on what we already have. Coronavirus, racist killings, and riots of late show us fruits of injustice, anger, and suffering sprung of seeds sown long ago. Yet, the worst of this vision is not in what is present, but threatened absence of the presence of God. 

“I will never again pass by them.”

Complicity to injustice poses great threats to human life, the greatest of which is withdrawal of God’s presence. This presence is the reality central to a flourishing life. There is no hope for a peaceful, just society without the presence of God. We know that God did not forsake his people and in fact went out of his way to be near. This is good news that places demands on our actions. We cannot tolerate corruption and oppression and rush to turn a profit. We cannot ignore trauma and death to inhabit the marketplace (8:4-6) We need to recognize injustice, mourn its presence in our life and society, and turn away from it while it stares us in the face. Because we are far worse off facing “a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord”, than we are weathering the storms of grief tearing at our nation. And God’s goodness allows space for this grief.

God promises restoration in the following chapter and throughout scripture. But it’s not here yet. So we let go of our pride, of our right to privilege and prestige and cling to the God who repairs and restores, finding rest only in the justice with which he righteously reigns.