Woe to those who are at ease in Zion And to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria. (Amos 6:1)1

The prophet Amos addressed his warnings of chapter 6 to a group of people who lived in sensuous luxury, complacent and feeling safe from danger. The Anchor Bible says, "These people are thoroughly comfortable with themselves and completely at ease in their situation." As for their trust in Mount Samaria, "the sense is that they feel secure behind the mighty walls of the capital city and have confidence in its defenders."2

Why, then, the woes?

These people were at odds with their Maker. True, they practiced religion; they even were "longing for "the day of the Lord" (5:18). Yet how different matters looked from God’s standpoint:

The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared: "I loathe the arrogance of Jacob, And detest his citadels." (Amos 6:8)

God hated their religious exercises, poisoned as they were with pride, selfishness, and hypocrisy. Through Amos, he warned the chosen people. Nevertheless, there was a self-satisfied group that was guilty in God’s sight, rushing headlong toward punishment. How foolish to put trust in structures and defenses rather than in God!

The messages of the Old Testament prophets has meaning for us today, although we mustn’t leap unreasonably to applications. I’m asking myself:

Do the descriptions above find any parallels in the state of mind and actions of residents of the United States, our "Christian nation"? In the prosperous, relatively secure existence of many upwardly mobile young Americans, some of the intelligentsia, and certain government leaders, has the despicable immorality of TV and the movies become the norm? Is injustice widely accepted? Are these the false gods of 2001? Have the events of Sept. 11 and following given some warning about trusting America’s defenses rather than God?

Even the fact that religious people of his time were "longing for the day of the Lord" didn’t bring comfort to Amos. Why? Because those folks’ rosy expectations weren’t going to be met. They probably saw "the day of the Lord" as a welcome time when the nations around them would be judged—"put in their place"—and themselves "properly" exalted. Yet in reality that "day of the Lord" would be "darkness and not light" for them (5:18).

Looking at our own thinking and actions as members of Christ’s body, why are you and I "longing for the day of the Lord"? Is it to be freed of the irritations and inconveniences of life? If so, is that a good enough reason?

As I write, the media are reporting the crash of American Airlines flight 587 in a Queens neighborhood. I remember words of Ellen White: "Confusion, collision, and death without a moment’s warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near!"3

True, she wrote that passage in 1890, and we might debate how long the time of the end, the closing of probation, could last. But I would like to focus on our attitude in response to calamities in the United States. Isn’t it tempting for Adventists to think, with relief, that if things are getting worse, then we’re getting closer to the time when Jesus will take us out of this troubled world? I admit that such thoughts have come to me.

But is that attitude any better than that of the "chosen" in Amos’s time, with their wishing for judgment on their neighbors without listening to God’s appeals to themselves? If I am so eager to get out of this world that I think well of disaster, as long as it’s not destroying my loved ones, then where is God’s love in me?

In regard to people of worldly bent mentioned above, it’s too easy to write them off. But wouldn’t it be an act of love to alert these fellow travelers to a coming day of judgment? Are we doing our absolute best to accomplish that task?

I am praying for God to help me understand the pain he feels by the eternal loss of one person for whom Jesus died. Then I’ll be content to stay here just as long as I can to help bring people to Jesus.

Notes and References

1. Bible quotations are from the NASB.
2. Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Bible: Amos (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 553.
3. Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times (Apr. 21, 1890), quoted in Messages to Young People (Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Publishing, 1930), 90.

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