Amos 2 (1)

Pray Psalm 58.3-5.
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear,
Which will not heed the voice of charmers,
Charming ever so skillfully.

Sing Psalm 58.3-5.
(Arlington: This Is the Day the Lord Has Made)
The wicked from the womb rebel; from birth they utter lies.
Their tongues of serpent’s venom tell; all truth their ears despise.

Read and meditate on Amos 2.1-3.

Preparation
1. What was the sin of Moab?

2. What would God do against them?

Meditation
What a barbarous, inhumane, dishonorable thing to do, to dig up the bones of a neighboring king and burn them to dust. The Edomites and Moabites descended from common ancestors. More respect and regard should have existed between them. God found this act despicable and deserving of the severest judgment.

Since this is the way the Moabites treated dead kings, God would bring the living king of Moab down in wrath, sending fire throughout his realm, devouring his palaces, killing his descendants, and cutting off all judges in Moab. This would leave the country—or what remained of it—in anarchy and tumult, with the shouts and trumpets of warfare ravaging every village and town. We can scarcely imagine a more terrible calamity.

The judgment against Moab is unique in this litany of condemnations because no mention is made of treachery against Israel. God hates sin in His own people as well as against them. But He hates sin wherever it happens, even when it involves enemies of His people devouring and destroying one another. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that the slave-seeking Edomites may have taken some Moabites into captivity, with the intention of selling them into slavery. We don’t know, but something provoked the Moabites to the extreme action of exhuming an Edomite king and burning his bones to lime.

The Moabites considered themselves justified in doing so. But God did not. Do we ever consider ourselves justified by some biting remark, well-timed snub, bit of backbiting, or angry scowl? What does God think, Who calls us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves?

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
Sounds have many different interpretations and one’s perspective makes all the difference.

Consider Moses and Joshua: As they were coming down the mountain from receiving God’s Law, they both heard the same noise (the sound of Aaron and the people in sinful revelry with their onerous golden calf) but their personal perspective changed everything. Moses, the man of God heard one thing, Joshua the warrior, another. “And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, ‘There is a noise of war in the camp.’ But [Moses] said: ‘It is not the noise of the shout of victory, nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing I hear’” (Ex. 32.17, 18). Same sound. Different perspectives. As an aside, both wrong.

But the point being, the destruction of Moab contained dying “with tumult, with shouting and trumpet sound” (Amos 2.2).

Those very same sounds are heard in the victory over Jericho. “So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat” (Josh. 6.20).

When David brought the ark back to Jerusalem after a period of its absence, we again get these same sounds: “So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet” (2 Sam. 6.15).

We have a choice about the sounds we hear from God.
Are they going to be sounds of our judgment and destruction?
Or sounds of blessing, rejoicing, and victory?

God likes noise. Not cacophony. But joyful noise.
Shouting. “For the joy of the LORD is [our] strength” (Neh. 8.10).
“Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous;
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Ps. 32.11).
“Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
Sing out the honor of His name; make His praise glorious” (Ps. 66.1, 2).
“Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
Sing to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm,
with trumpets and the sound of a horn;
shout joyfully before the LORD, the King” (Ps. 98.4-6).

We can either die with tumult, shouting and trumpet sounds, or we can live with happy tumult, shouting, and trumpet noises. Praising God. Obeying His Law. Living exclusively for Him and His Kingdom.

Make no mistake. God sees, God judges, God is never confused about what is right and what is wrong.

Trusting and obeying Him.
That differentiates between one sound and the other, and how they are heard.

Trumpets will sound.
Will they be playing Moab’s tune or ours?

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4.16-18).

Tumult. Shouting. Trumpets.
They will sound. How will it sound to us?

Reflection
1. What place does the sound of singing have in your relationship with the Lord?

2. The Bible make much of sounds in our relationship with God: singing, shouting, hearing music. Why do you think such noise and sounds are so important to God?

3. Whom can you encourage today to have a “noisier” relationship with the Lord?

The meaning then is, that the Moabites could no longer be borne with; for in this one instance, they gave an example of savage cruelty. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Amos 2.1-3

Pray Psalm 58.1, 2, 10, 11.
Pray for judges and rulers in our nation, that they might judge uprightly and speak righteousness in all their doings. Rejoice to see the work of God in our nation, and take up your own work in Him for this day.

Sing Psalm 58.1, 2, 10, 11.
(Arlington: This Is the Day the Lord Has Made)
Do you indeed speak righteousness, you rulers of the earth?
And do you judge the sons of men according to their worth?

No, not at all, but in their hearts they seek unrighteous ways;
their hands weigh out upon the earth cruel violence all their days.

The righteous will rejoice to see the vengeance of the LORD.
All men will say, “Then God must be, the righteous to reward.”

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.