In his perceptive volume, The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggeman suggests that the Exodus happened because Yahweh wanted to implement the divine vision of what a nation-community should and should not look like. Led by Yahweh, Moses learned that any society that enslaves "others" and rules by the ruthlessness of authoritarian and dynastic government is abhorrent to God. That insight, combined with an unflinching obedience to God’s will, made Moses the "greatest" of the prophets. In Egypt, power was more important than righteousness; wealth was more desirable than mercy; rulers were more important than the common people; and the strong were more important than the vulnerable.

The Hebrews would be set free to model Yahweh’s nation-community. Their faith in God would be rewarded not just with their emancipation from Egypt, but also with the richness of a communal life unlike any ever seen on Earth. The world would then know what kind of God Yahweh was, and Israel would be a witness to God’s greatness and glory. Yahweh obviously intended Israel’s life to be a morally and religiously compelling one in at least the following way: If you ask members of the powerful, ruling class in a given society whether they are happy with the status quo, you will get one answer; if you ask the oppressed and exploited in that society the same question, you will get another answer.

God intended that through Israel’s passion for justice and righteousness, regardless of class or wealth, through its compassion for the weak and vulnerable, and through its fidelity to the highest principles of the Decalogue, the world would be astonished. At the very least, the masses who were powerless, weak, and oppressed would find in Israel’s society a model for what God’s "ideal" was for all people, not just Israel.

By the time of Amos, Israel had abandoned Yahweh’s vision of a good and just society. Idolatry was rampant. Justice was rare. The poor had to sell themselves into slavery to pay their debts and the courts would not protect them. Yahweh’s promise that Israel’s faithfulness would bring prosperity and blessing had been perverted to mean that Israel’s prosperity proved Israel had been faithful.

In the midst of peace and security, Amos thunders that instead of the day of "salvation," the day of "judgment" had come. Israel’s sins were many and it felt no remorse. The ideal community Yahweh had envisioned was gone and in its place was the evil of hierarchy, corrosive wealth differences between classes, and corruption in the courts and in the state. The leaders of Yahweh’s chosen people were oppressing and exploiting the very people for whom this new nation-community was established! The people most under the protection of the covenant were now defenseless. How could Yahweh continue to bless and protect the nation? It would assume that the way Israel treated the poor and vulnerable received Yahweh’s approval.

Yahweh’s grace and forgiveness are offered to reconcile the individual to God; they are also offered to reconcile us to each other. Ephesians 1 and 2 make it clear that one purpose of the crucifixion was to "break down the dividing wall of hostility between us," to help us enjoy the kind of community Yahweh intended from the beginning in Eden, the kind we will know in the Earth made new. When Israel failed to be that community, Christ founded the Church. That is why we today must hear the message of Amos in our time.

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