Two weeks ago, we talked about how Amos confronted the sin of injustice.  Last week, our Student Pastor, Jason Gilbert, walked you through Amos’s rebuke of the Jewish people for their blatant rejection of the Mosaic Law.  What we are going to do today involves a bit of what we did in both weeks.  Today, we are looking at Amos’s confrontation of greed and the oppression of the poor, two things that generally go hand in hand, and that are both explicit violations of God’s Law.

But before we begin, we need to understand what the Bible means by physical/financial poverty.  I’ve heard Americans claim to be poor who are significantly overweight (not saying that in a derogatory way, but to point out the physical fact that they are not suffering from a caloric deficit), who own two or more cars, iPhones/smart phones for everybody in their household,  who live in a house or apartment equipped with a HVAC, heat, a refrigerator, a microwave, a stove and an oven.  I don’t see anything in human history or even presently in another culture, and certainly not in the Bible, that would in any way comprehend that a person living in such a condition could be considered impoverished.

So, let’s be clear, poverty is not the inability to own an iPhone, purchase expensive clothing, live in a house with a two-car garage on a couple of acres of land, and go on nice vacations.  Poverty is the inability to sustainably acquire basic physical needs—food, water, clothing, shelter, and basic transportation.

Poverty refers to a condition of living that is so dire that one's ability to supply food, shelter, clothing, and basic transportation is, at worst, insufficient for today and, at best, insufficient for the very near future.  In other words, the best condition of poverty means you can earn enough money to supply the basic needs of life for a very short amount of time, and the worst condition of poverty is that you don’t have the means to provide the basic needs of life for even a day. Either way, a person living in poverty has no margin of error when it comes to the resources needed to survive.

Poverty is worse than hard times; poverty is the end of the rope.  Poverty means the difference between surviving and not surviving, living or not living, is so small that, apart from total faith in God, a person can never be at ease.  Addressing a large gathering of people that included a tremendous number of poor people, Jesus said,

 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:25-34)

Jesus wasn’t talking about being anxious over which shirt you were going to wear today, but rather if you have clothing to wear today.  He wasn’t talking about being anxious about deciding what you were going to eat today, or which restaurant to go to, but rather if you were going to have food to eat today.  He preached that sermon to a crowd of people who had so little access to financial resources that there was every logical reason to worry about how they would sustain themselves with food and even clothing.

 Therefore, having to live frugally and thus having to drive an older vehicle, plan meals within a strict food budget, live in an older home that’s not outfitted with the latest furnishings or technology, purchase your clothes from Walmart, and not being able to go to Disney World for vacation is not living in poverty!

Poverty is not hard living; it’s barely being able to live—literally!

Now, some of you are thinking that by my definition, nobody is in poverty, that is, I’m making the definition of poverty so difficult that nobody could be considered poor.  If you think that, you don’t know much about the world.

Throughout human history and still today, much of the world’s population lives with a razor-thin margin between having what they need to survive and not having it.  They are on the bottom rung of the sustainability ladder, one step away from total rock bottom.  There is no margin of error in their life at all.  They are one more war, one more crop infestation, or one more drought away from starvation, with no reasonable way to change the reality of their life.  Most of the world has no access to a life that is any different from the one they are living.  In Western society, especially in the United States, any able-bodied person who wants out of poverty has a very accessible legal pathway to do so, but for the rest of the world, that’s not necessarily the case.

So, as we who live in the most prosperous society in human history and study the subject of poverty and the sinful behavior by the Jews that oppressed those living in it, we have to make sure we are not looking at this through the lens of our cultural condition!  Instead, we have to see it through the eyes of the kind of people Jesus was speaking to: working-class people who needed to be reminded that God would indeed make sure they had food on their tables and clothes on their backs, because there wasn’t a lot of evidence in their circumstances to assure them there would be.

We have to see it through the circumstances of life that Jesus taught to pray, “Give us this day our DAILY bread.”  He wasn’t saying that to a group of people who needed to be on a diet, who had leftovers in a refrigerator, or a card from their government that they could use to go to something called a grocery store to purchase food!  Jesus was saying that to a group of people with very little evidence in their lives that they would have access to what they needed to survive, and thus the need to be reminded to trust God!

With that as our understanding of poverty, let’s now turn our attention to God’s expectations on how those living in it were to be treated.  As is typical in our culture, I frequently hear strongly held opinions about what people believe God commanded concerning poverty, but many times those opinions have been formed and clung to in total ignorance of the Scripture.  Therefore, to avoid misunderstanding or misinterpreting what we read in Amos, we need to examine the standards God clearly communicated to the Jews for how they were to treat the poor, and, in so doing, rightly understand the sin Amos was confronting.

To begin, let’s look at Leviticus 19:9-18:

9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. 10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:9-10)

 They were not told to give a certain amount to the poor, but rather to leave a certain amount for the poor to pick for themselves.  Also, notice that the poor couldn’t pick it whenever they wanted; instead, they had to wait until the owner had already picked what belonged to him first.

Moses continued,

11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. 12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. 13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. 14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:11-14)

 As we discussed two weeks ago, to oppress means to do something that makes it more difficult for a person to rescue themselves.  It is to trample over a person who has already tripped and fallen.  It is to take advantage of a person's weakness when they are at the end of their rope for your own advantage.

One of the ways somebody could trample a person living in poverty would be to withhold their earnings.  In Biblical times, the typical hired worker was living in poverty.  They were working that day to secure what was needed to sustain their family the next day; therefore, withholding their wages for that day would make it even harder for them and their family to purchase the food they needed to have the strength to work as needed the next day!

Finally, there’s incredible clarity of what oppression looks like in verse 14.  To curse the deaf is to do to them what they have no ability to defend themselves against, because they can’t hear what you are doing.  To put a stumbling block in front of a man who can’t see the thing he is going to stumble over is again intentionally doing something to somebody that necessarily negatively impacts a person’s ability to walk the path of life.

Moses then turns his attention to how the poor need to be treated in the justice system.

15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. (Leviticus 19:15)

 There was no concept of “equitable” justice, just justice.  As we stated two weeks ago, justice can only be just if it’s the equal application of moral and ethical standards. The poor were not given the right to steal any more than the rich were given the right to take advantage of the poor.  Everyone was to be measured by God’s standard, regardless of their earthly condition or status, because God doesn’t define justice as a process of applying equal outcomes but rather of applying equal standards.

Moses then closes out this section with something that shouldn’t at all surprise you.  He writes,

16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. 17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:16-18)

 If you know anything at all about the Bible, you know that at the end of the day, everything God expects of us is summarized with LOVE, which necessarily means giving others the same effort that you give to be a blessing to yourself.

Skipping ahead to Leviticus 25, Moses gave God’s instructions on how family members were to interact with family members who became poor.  Moses wrote,

35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. (Leviticus 25:35-43)

 Now again, it’s key to remember we are talking about poverty in the context of the Bible, not Western culture that thinks if you can’t afford all the streaming services and video games you want, then you are in poverty!  There is a lot we could talk about in this passage, but for time’s sake, I just want to make sure you understand the main points in it:

Family, not society, was the first to be responsible for helping family members who ended up in poverty.

You were not to charge a family member who ended up in poverty interest, nor charge them any more for food than what it cost you, but the person was still expected to pay back the loan and pay for their food!In other words, you were not allowed to use their poverty as an opportunity to make money off of them (i.e., a loan shark who takes advantage of people with bad credit), but there were also no rights or expectations of handouts!

Long term, family wasn’t expected to give a person anything but an opportunity to work for their food and shelter.

Selling yourself into this form of slavery was a business deal like any other.Both parties agreed to terms, but in Jewish law, no matter the terms, in the year of Jubilee, all bets were off, and you, as well as anybody born to you, were released from the contract.

Lastly, it’s essential to understand the type of slavery Moses was referencing.The Mosaic Law permitted a form of slavery that is similar to how things work with the NFL, NBA, and MLB.  If a person signs a contract with a team, that team can choose to sell or trade them to another team.  The athlete has no say in the deal; only that the original deal made with him is what is traded or sold to another team.  That athlete will continue to play the sport with his new team under the terms he had originally agreed to with his former team, or he can retire from playing, which is a key difference in how things were done with the form of slavery that Moses is speaking of here.  If a person was sold or traded to somebody they didn’t want to work for, they couldn’t just quit.  They were obligated to fulfill the terms they initially agreed to, regardless of who they were traded or sold to; therefore, God told Moses that when a family member is in such dire conditions that they need to sell themselves to another family member to survive, that family member cannot turn around and sell or trade them to somebody else.

Let’s now turn to the book of Deuteronomy and look at a few other passages.  First, let’s look at Deuteronomy 15:1-15:

1 “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. 2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. 3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. (Deuteronomy 15:1-3)

First, it’s important to notice that in this passage the term “brother” is not being used to refer to a family member but to a fellow Jew.

Second, the seven years is not a reference to seven years after you agreed, but to a specific year on the Jewish calendar, the sabbath year, which occurs every seven years.

Finally, it was in this sabbath year that all the debts of Jews to other Jews were forgiven, not deferred until the Sabbath year was over, but a total erasure of the debt.  A debt means that I temporarily granted you the right to use money that belongs to me, and as such, you are obligated to return it to me.  Forgiving the debt means I no longer have any rights to it, and, as such, it now belongs to you.

Moses then wrote,

4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess—5 if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. 6 For the Lord your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. (Deuteronomy 15:4-5)

 The promise was that if everybody did what God told them to do, nobody would be poor!  God would bless the land with such prosperity that everybody with land (which would be everybody if they did what they were supposed to do) would have an abundance!  It would be a land flowing with milk and honey!  But if you know the history of Israel, they never fully obeyed God, just as we don’t either.  Therefore, Moses returns to the way they are to treat the poor, because, given their depravity, there will inevitably be poor people. He writes,

7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. (Deuteronomy 15:7-9)

 Notice again that there is no demand by God to give people what they need, but to loan them what they need (“sufficient for his need”)!  God expects a person to work for their own needs, and that includes repaying those who loan them what they need.   This is not meant to imply that giving gifts was wrong or unethical, but rather that no one was morally obligated to do so.  A wealthy person could give a person anything they wanted, but a poor person was never given the right to expect or demand it.

This passage also ensures that poor people were not disregarded because the sabbath year was getting ready to begin, meaning the likelihood of not being repaid was significantly higher!  This law is also why there are a variety of verses in Proverbs that tell people not to make loans in amounts that they can’t afford to give away if the person never pays them back.

Moses continues with how this person, who is currently unable to survive, is to be treated,

10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ (Deuteronomy 15:10-11)

 God tells them that if you are a generous giver, which here means giving LOANS to meet the needs of people who may not be able to pay you back before the debt is legally erased, then God will bless you; in fact, God has blessed you so that you can do things like this!  But there is also an expectation of the person receiving the LOAN to make every possible effort to pay the person back!  Nowhere is the person permitted to see a LOAN as a gift simply because they were in a desperate situation.  A person receiving a loan was never permitted to view it as a gift, but rather as something they owed.  Again, it’s not saying a gift couldn’t be given or received.  There were certainly no laws against that, but a person couldn’t come to someone expecting a gift; that is, expecting to be given something they did nothing to earn, nor had any intention of making it a top priority to repay.

This spirit of generosity was not only to be extended to the person who was in the dire situation of being unable to physically meet their own needs, but also to people who were under contract to work for you as a slave.   This again is key to understanding what Amos was rebuking in Israel.  Moses wrote,

12 “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. 14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. (Deuteronomy 15:1-15)

 When the employee finished out his contract, the master wasn’t just to see him out the door, but was to furnish him liberally with the fruit of the labor the servant helped the master create—AKA a bonus!!  Moses again says the reason is that at the end of the day, you were all salves in Egypt until God rescued you, and as such, you would still be slaves in Egypt had God not rescued you!  In a similar fashion, even though you worked hard for every dollar you made, unless the Lord blessed your work, you wouldn’t have anything to show for it.  You can claim you’re the one who made the crops produce, the animals multiply, and your business dealings go so well, but without the favor of the Lord to protect and bless your efforts, it could all be gone in the blink of an eye.  All that we have is a gift from God—period!  As such, the person who faithfully and diligently labored for you to help you achieve success should not be treated minimally to the letter of their contract, but upon their completion of the contract (meaning they were faithful to do what they said they were going to do), you should generously bless them in proportion to the success they helped you achieve.  An employer was required by law to be generous to his employees in proportion to how God blessed them while they worked for him, assuming that the employee faithfully did what they were supposed to do. And remember, in Biblical times, most employees in this context were functionally living in poverty.

This leads us to the final passage I want us to look at before we see how Amos rebuked Israel for its greed and abuse of the poor.  Deuteronomy 24:10-22 is highly applicable to what Amos confronts.  Moses wrote,

10 “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. (Deuteronomy 24:10-11)

 The purpose of verses ten and eleven is to make the agreement public and, in so doing, protect both parties.  In a just society, it realistically removed the agreement from the realm of one person’s word against another, so that if there were any issues down the road, there would be witnesses who could testify in court about what was agreed.

Moses then gave very clear protections for the poor from being oppressed when they received a loan.  Remember that oppression is stepping on somebody when they are down; it’s doing things that intentionally and unnecessarily make it more difficult for a person to stand up on their own.  Moses wrote,

12 And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. 13 You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 24:12-13)

 Oftentimes, a poor person gave their cloak, which is an outer garment, as a pledge for a loan.  Now remember, if a person was poor, the only likely thing they might have left to offer as collateral was their cloak!  A cloak wasn’t an accessory to look cool; it was necessary to stay warm.  If all you had left was your cloak, which was likely for a person in poverty, then not being given that cloak back could cost you your life! You could die of hypothermia during the night.  Therefore, when a person gave their cloak as security, or collateral, for a loan, the lender would publicly accept the cloak from the borrower as a sign of the agreement, but was then required to return it to the borrower before sunset so the borrower wouldn’t freeze to death.  Again, keep this in mind as we read Amos in just a few minutes.

Moses then said,

14 “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. 15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin. (Deuteronomy 24:14-15)

 In saying you shall not oppress the hired worker who is poor, God wasn’t approving oppressing workers who were not poor, but rather ensuring the ones who are a lot easier to take advantage of because they were in a desperate situation were not taken advantage of.  It was never permissible or ethical to hold an earned wage overnight, but it was even more unethical to do it to a person who needed today’s wage for tomorrow’s bread.  A person who wasn’t poor likely had enough to stop working for an unethical person and find employment elsewhere without causing their family to starve to death in the process, but if you were truly poor, you didn’t have time to look for another job; you needed what you earned today!  Continuing the theme of justice, Moses wrote,

16 “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin. 17 “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, 18 but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. 19 “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this. (Deuteronomy 24:10-22)

 So we see again that landowners were to pick the harvest, but not over-pick it, so that the more difficult things that would take additional time and effort to pick, the things not yet ripe, or the things that got dropped, were left for those in poverty to pick themselves.  Nobody was required to give anybody anything; people had to work for it.  Notice that these things were not reserved for Jews, but for anyone who was presumably obeying the laws of the land while living in it or passing through it, who was also suffering from poverty.

Now there is one exception to all this.  Among the variety of tithes (gifts of 10%) and offerings that were required from every Jew, one of them was designated for the poor.  Every three years, Jews were to give an additional 10% tithe to the Levites to help the poor (Deuteronomy 14:28-29).  So, there were indeed resources to simply give to people in need, but they were limited to 10% of the nation's annual income every 3 years, which equates to 3.33% annually.

 Understanding the generosity and ethical treatment of the poor, God clearly communicated in the Mosaic Law, King Solomon wrote the following:

21 Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. (Proverbs 14:21)

31 Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. (Proverbs 14:31)

17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. (Proverbs 19:17)

9 Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor. (Proverbs 22:9)

 But, centuries later, after being clearly taught the Law of God and reading the writings that highlighted the need to obey God’s law, the Jews had lost their heart for the poor and were justifying oppressing them!  As Gilbert talked about last week, they relaxed the clear expectations of the Law to make room for their sin, and in this case, it was to make room for their greed.

The following are four specific examples in Amos of how the wealthy and influential people of Israel blatantly violated the Law regarding the treatment of the poor.

 The first blatant violation of the Law was in how they dehumanized the poor.

 They treated the poor as less valuable than themselves. 

 6 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals--7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; (2:6-7)

Verse six is interpreted in a few different ways, but I side with those who see it as a condemnation of judges who accepted bribes from wealthy, influential people who didn’t want to be found guilty of violating laws that protect poor people from oppression.The condemnation demonstrated how little human life was valued in Israel.  Judges only needed to be given some silver or a pair of sandals to disregard God’s commandments and rule in favor of the wealthy who were blatantly violating God’s laws as they related to the treatment of the poor.  Amos ensures that we see this statement in that context when he adds, “trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted”.

Continuing with the theme of how much life was being devalued, Amos writes, “a man and his father go in to the same girl”. Again, this is interpreted in many ways, but I believe the best interpretation is that poor women were being treated as nothing more than tools for sexual gratification.

 The second blatant violation of the Law was that,

They openly violated the laws concerning collateral for debt. 

8 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. (2:8)

It was as straightforward as it could be in the Mosaic Law that when a poor person gave their cloak, or any other item of clothing, as surety for a loan, that item of clothing was to be returned to them on the same day.However, judges were being bribed, so the lenders were able to keep the items they had pledged.  And look how flagrantly disobedient the lenders were.  They slept beside altars, presumably intended for making sacrifices to God, on the garments God told them to give back.  The level of religious hypocrisy among the Jews was incredible, something we are going to get into next week.

Furthermore, “the wine actually belonged to those who had pawned it. The verse presents a picture of ruthless fore-closure against honest debtors.”¹Pfeiffer, C. F. (1962). The Wycliffe Bible Commentary: Old Testament (Am 2:6). Moody Press. Once you’ve paid off the judges who were there to protect people from being taken advantage of, the wealthy and influential people had no problem keeping things like wine that were given as surety for loans, even when the loan was paid back or in the process of being paid back in the manner agreed upon.

In other words, the wealthy and influential people in Israel were outright stealing from the poor.They were taking things that were not legally owed to them from people that couldn’t defend themselves because the judges that were supposed to protect them had been bought off, many times for nothing more than a couple pieces of silver or a pair of sandals, something that in the end didn’t have a lot value, but ironically was something that a poor person wouldn’t have any extra to compete with the bribe!

 The third blatant violation of the Law was that,

They saw themselves as entitled to the lives of the poor.

1 "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring, that we may drink!' (4:1)

 Throughout human history, and still today in many cultures around the world, being fat is a sign of success, because poor people can’t afford to get fat!Poor people made just enough money to survive.

Meanwhile, Amos says the wealthy women of Bashan, a region in the northern Kingdom of Israel known for its fertile soil and ability to raise large numbers of livestock, including cows, were themselves lazy, fat cows lying around on their fancy couches, drinking wine all day while their husbands took advantage of the poor.These women knew their husbands’ business practices were unethical and illegal, yet instead of confronting their husbands' sins, they barked at them to keep doing it.

They ultimately justified their husbands' treatment of the poor because they saw themselves as more valuable to God and Israel than the poor people working for them.They believed poor people owed them a life of extravagance!  The arrogance that had infested Israel was astonishing, and it’s something we are going to dig deeper into in a few weeks.

 The fourth blatant violation of the Law was that,

They cheated the poor through dishonest business practices in the market. 

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, 5 saying, "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, 6 that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?" (8:4-6)

“8:4–6. Israel’s businessmen single mindedly pursued a profit, and did not care that they were trampling the needy and doing away with the poor of the land (cf. 2:6–7; 5:11). Preoccupied with making money, the businessmen begrudged the interruptions caused by the monthly feast of the New Moon and the weekly observance of the Sabbath. They impatiently fidgeted till these days of rest and worship (Ex. 20:8–11; 23:12; 31:14–17; 34:21; Num. 28:11–15; 2 Kings 4:23; Isa. 1:13–14; Ezek. 46:1–6; Hosea 2:11) were over so that they could resume their aggressive dealings. They cunningly found ways to add to their profits—skimping thestandard measure so that customers got less than they paid for, boosting the price by substituting heavier shekel-weights so that customers were overcharged, and cheating with dishonest scales by tampering with the cross beam of the balances. Not content with these covenant violations (Lev. 19:35–36; Deut. 25:13–16; cf. Prov. 11:1; 16:11; 20:10, 23; Hosea 12:7; Micah 6:10–11), they compounded their sin by deceptively sellingan inferior product—the sweepings of soiled and trampled grain mixed and packaged with the clean pure wheat. They cared nothing about human suffering or the inability of the poor to pay their prices. Instead, they forced the needy into slavery in exchange for insignificant sums (see Amos 2:6 for comments on a pair of sandals).”²Sunukjian, D. R. (1985). Amos. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1448). Victor Books.

These practices concerned the food people purchased.Meaning the caloric intake of the poor was being deceitfully reduced so that the wealthy could get fatter.

New Testament Application

You can live a life surrendered to God and earn a lot of money, but you can’t live a life to earn money and be surrendered to God. 

Note: 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24)

Living is not measured by what money can buy but in how life is experienced in what Jesus bought—an eternally favored relationship with God! (Luke 12:15, 20-21)

 Note: 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” … 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15, 20-21)

The Biblical mandate for Christians to end spiritual poverty with the only thing that does (The Gospel of Jesus), is not an excuse to not help the poor! (Matthew 25:33-46)

Note: 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. ’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:33-46)

Now it’s important to note that the mission of the church is NOT to end poverty. Matthew 26:6-13 makes that clear.

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” (Matthew 26:6-13)

However, the fact that we can’t end poverty and that our mission is to end spiritual poverty in no way gives us a license to not help people who are in a dire situation of having no reasonable ability to provide for their own physical needs.

It’s also important to note that the church is ethically obligated to NOT financially help an able-bodied person who chooses not to provide for themselves, or who refuses to stop doing the things that are financially ruining their life (i.e., drug, alcohol, or gambling addictions, or materialism that keeps getting a person in overwhelming debt, etc.).  That person needs to suffer so that they will stop living foolish, selfish, immature, entitled lives! (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15)

Meanwhile, the New Testament is very forward about the necessity of the local church helping widows and orphans (James 1:27).  An orphaned child is in the ultimate condition of poverty.  There is no reasonable way for an orphaned child to provide themselves with food, shelter, and clothing!  However, the Bible also makes it clear that the widows the church should help are those who indeed have no reasonable way to help themselves (1 Timothy 5).

 Challenge

Are you calling yourself poor to justify not tithing to your local church, and giving generously above and beyond your tithes to the opportunities the Lord puts in front of you to advance the Gospel and love others the way He loves you?

 To those who are new to Venture, you need to know to serve as a pastor, trustee, or staff person in this church, paid or not, you have to sign a “job description” (“role description” for volunteer positions) that states you are committed to giving at least 10% of your income to Venture (tithing) and in addition supporting other things over and above your tithes to Venture.  We believe it is a matter of integrity that I and everyone else involved in leading this ministry are not asking people to sacrificially invest in something we ourselves are not willing to be held accountable to give to as well.  We believe we cannot teach the most prosperous and materialistic culture in human history to live generously if we are not willing to publicly commit to at least a minimal standard that models it.  It is in no way a commitment that we feel we deserve praise for making or that we see ourselves as somehow more righteous than someone else, but simply an effort to be above reproach in the church we are leading and in the community we are trying to point to Jesus.

So, with that, I can’t emphasize enough that God’s plan A to save people from Hell and give them His life is indeed the local church.  Therefore, if the people in the local church don’t prioritize funding that work, that local church can’t do what it is they are supposed to do.

Now, some of you might be saying, “I thought this sermon was about caring for the poor?”  It is!  Listen, a local church is supposed to fund the cause of Christ and the work of the ministry to the church and the community in which it exists, and that includes financially supporting the people who lead the church in proportion to how they serve the Church (Luke 10:1-9, 1 Corinthians 9:14, Galatians 6:6, 1 Timothy 5:17-18).  The local church is also supposed to help fund the cause of Christ globally (Matthew 28:16-20).  I cannot urge you enough to truly pray about a sacrificial gift this Christmas season to Venture’s 2025 Global Missions Offering to help that cause!

Finally, the local church is absolutely supposed to care for those who can’t provide for themselves within the church, as well as those it interacts with outside of the church, and that’s not just in their own community.  Throughout the New Testament, we see Paul calling on churches to take up an offering to help impoverished believers in Jerusalem.

But a local church can NOT financially do what it's supposed to do if the people in the local church keep coming up with excuses for not funding it!

“Over the last year, the median evangelical gave $350 to church and $50 to charity, for a total of $390.”³https://research.lifeway.com/2022/01/14/are-evangelicals-generous-enough/#:~:text=The%20average%20evangelical%20gave:%20*%20$1%2C923%20to,*%20Read%20the%20Bible%20at%20least%20weekly

Meanwhile,

 “Women, on average, spend more annually on coffee than men, with figures estimated at $2,327 for women and $1,934 for men.”⁴https://balancecoffee.co.uk/blogs/blog/coffee-consumption-statistics-us#:~:text=Women%2C%20on%20average%2C%20spend%20more%20annually%20on,at%201.82%20cups%20a%20day%20in%202020.

 “The data found that spending on entertainment by the average U.S. household rose by 5%, increasing from $3,458 in 2022 to $3,635 in 2023.”⁵https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-spend-3-6k-annually-160010917.html

I did a Google AI search to compare how much Americans donate to charity with how much we spend on noncharitable Christmas-season stuff.  It reported:

“The total amount spent on the Christmas season is substantially higher than the total amount donated to charity annually. For example, the over $964 billion in holiday retail sales in 2023 nearly doubles the approximate $557 billion in total charitable donations for the entire year. This indicates a strong consumer focus on personal and gift expenditures compared to philanthropic contributions.”

 So yes, this sermon is about helping the poor, and for us to do that faithfully as a local church, it requires people to be faithful in their financial support of that local church.  The local church can’t do what it’s supposed to do if the people in the local church don’t fund it to do what it’s supposed to.  I’m flabbergasted by the people in local churches who criticize the work of their local church but don’t tithe in that church to fund it!

We can’t build a movement of Christ that right-sides up the counties on the western side of the Charlotte metro region and takes names off the list of people groups around the world who have no access to the Gospel if we don’t fund the local church with the facilities, staff, and programs needed to do it.  It’s that simple.  But if we all learn to prioritize giving over everything else we do with our finances, we will see things happen we can’t imagine.  When God’s people sell out to God’s Work, God shows off!

So, as you go into this Christmas season, I challenge you to remember the spiritual poverty of this land, the total inability of people to save themselves, and the massive spiritual wealth we have to give them.  I challenge you to consider what could happen if we faithfully labored with Christ and built a local church that was a true, life-changing movement of the Gospel capable of growing in its Gospel influence long after we are dead and gone.

I also want to challenge you to understand that, to do that, necessarily means bringing the Gospel to this region and around the world, while not ignoring the human suffering in the people and communities we are pointing to Him!  We cannot preach the Gospel of Christ while ignoring the suffering of those to whom we preach it!  We must do BOTH as a church, and therefore, we need the financial ability to do both. That means all of us need to be committed to, at minimum, tithing to the thing the Bible says is God’s Plan A for doing both—your local Church!