The prophet Amos was a humble shepherd
when he was called by the Lord to be his prophet during the reign of King
Jeroboam II around the year 750 BC. It
was a time of prosperity for the people of Israel, yet they still continued to
stray from their faith like they had done so many times before. The prophets like Amos were sent to the
people to admonish them and to warn them that unless they mended their ways,
they and the land would be doomed. The admonitions were, for the most part,
unheeded. The people went their own way.
We hear Amos tell them today: “Seek good and not evil, so that you may
live.” Such a simple, basic message, but
we today, like so many in Amos’ day, do not heed such a message. We see so many in the modern world seeking
the wrong things. Archibald MacLeish, a
poet, writer, and librarian of our US Congress had this to say: "A man who
lives, not by what he loves but what he hates, is a sick man." But we can
be drive so easily by anger, by hatred, by revenge, that the good and the
values of our faith often take a back seat.
In the words of the prophet Amos, through our words and our actions, may
we “let justice prevail at the gate.”
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