Amos 4:4

"Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgressions; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three days; and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings and publish them: for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah."

False religion is the root of all social ills, and here the prophet poured out God's wrath upon the polluted, innovative, and unauthorized worship that marked the religious culture of Israel.

"Come to Bethel, and transgress ..." Of course, they called it "worship"; but it was no such thing. It was, first of all, conducted at an unauthorized place, Jerusalem only being the appropriate place for the Jews to worship God. They pretended, of course, that it was the true God whom they adored there, but it was not true. The "god" they really worshipped was the filthy "Baal," the old god of the Canaanites, and with all the drunkenness, fornication and other debaucheries practiced by the pagans for centuries prior to God's placing Israel in their land. The identification of such human lust with the worship of Almighty God was at the very seat of all Israel's troubles. We have no desire at all to accommodate with that school of expositors who are willing to declare that the only thing wrong in Israel was social injustice as manifested in the oppression of the poor. That was only the froth that had risen to the top of the barrel of rotten irreligion that characterized Israel's culture at that time. What do such exegetes suppose was the utility of those "garments of the poor" spread out around "every altar" in Israel?

"Your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three days ..." To interpret this as it stands in our version, "Amos exaggerates in order to emphasize the beloved fallacy"[17] that the "more" they served "god" (!) the better things would be for them. The tithes were due once a year, but in this place Amos seems to say, "If you tithed your possessions every three days" it would be only an increase in your sins! Why? nothing connected with that worship at either Gilgal or Bethel had any genuine connection whatever with the true worship of the Lord. The New English Bible, of course, translates this:

Bring your sacrifices for the morning,

And your tithes within three days.

We believe that our own version is better and that Amos used hyperbole. Amos utterly rejected the worship of Israel because it was not offered to the true God, but to Baal, because the idolatrous images of the calf were adored there, because the so-called "worship" consisted of drunkenness, fornication, gluttonous feasting, and other low forms of debauchery, because they were violating the clear rules of the Pentateuch regarding freewill offerings, by publishing the names of the donors, and by offering leavened bread, which was contrary to the law of God, and because their oppression of the poor indicated their heartless and disobedient disregard for the entirety of God's law.

"Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving which is leavened ..." Here is a clear, forceful, and undeniable denunciation by the prophet Amos of a violation regarding one of the rituals in the service of God. The Mosaic law has this:

"Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread." (Exodus 23:18).

However, some expositors of God's message in Amos are very unwilling to let this go unchallenged, because it contradicts their major premise that only the social ills were of any concern to Amos. Well, there's no social involved here, however it may be sought; and that is the mountain truth that set off a series of comments like this:

"Amos does not here refer to the transgression of any law in existence.[18] It is not, however, likely that Amos is sarcastically charging Israelites with a breach of ritual regulations.[19] Amos is not condemning the offering of sacrifice with leaven because it was forbidden in the law, but because the presence of leaven was simply another sign of their affluence."[20]

Despite postulations such as those, it is quite clear that the Law of Moses was indeed in existence when Amos wrote, and it was known wherever Jews lived; and this prohibition in that law would never have been mentioned in the context here unless that is the way it was. As for Smith's notion that "leaven" was the sign of anyone's affluence (!), one would be hard-pressed indeed to come up with anything more ridiculous. The children of Israel, while in slavery, had plenty of leaven, hence, the prohibition that the Passover should be celebrated with "unleavened" bread.

Note also another violation of the Mosaic law in the matter of publishing the names of donors of "freewill offerings."

"And proclaim freewill offerings, and publish them ..." The violation here is two-fold. Freewill-offerings were not supposed to be motivated by any specific regulation, but the people of Amos' day had "proclaimed" freewill-offerings, that is, exhorting the people to give them. They were supposed to be absolutely spontaneous; and these proclamations were a violation of that intention. Furthermore, as an added incentive, they were "publishing" the freewill-offerings, that is, they were publishing the names of the donors! This, of course, was a good fund-raising device, but it was contrary to God's will.

Now, in the light of these very specific, yet incidental, references to the Law of Moses, it is impossible logically to support the notion that no such law existed when Amos wrote. If no such law had been in existence, it would have been necessary for him to explain why the things mentioned were sinful; and the fact of no explanation being offered proves the prior existence of the Mosaic law which included those prohibitions. The mere denials of scholars who wish to think otherwise are worthless in such a clear-cut demonstration as is found here.

"For this pleaseth you ..." The ancient Israelites had fallen into the error of supposing that whatever was pleasing and acceptable to themselves was allowable in the worship of God. Many moderns are blinded by the same delusion. The determinative factor regarding what is, or is not, acceptable to God in his worship is the fact of whether or not God has commanded whatever actions, sacrifices, etc., are offered. The proposition that God has no concern with regard to "how" he is worshipped by men is refuted on every page of the Bible. Cain was condemned for violating God's prescription for worship; and, both in that instance, and here, there is no way to limit God's displeasure to prior social injustice on the part of the worshipper. And why do men do otherwise than what God has commanded in their worship? The answer is right here. As in this case with ancient Israel, "they do what pleases them" and not what pleases God.

DISASTERS GOD HAD SENT UPON ISRAEL

In Amos 4:6-12, are listed no less than seven calamities which the Lord had visited upon Israel in the hope of inducing them to repentance and wooing them to return unto the Lord. The lesson to be derived from such events is one which has proved to be very difficult for the human race to learn; and yet it is one of the oldest admonitions in the Holy Scriptures:

"And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:17-19).

The simple and obvious meaning of this passage is that man's environment shall exhibit a certain hostility to him throughout man's pilgrimage upon earth. Also, the opposition which shall arise from the environment itself has a benign purpose, not the mere punishment of man, but "for his sake," in order that he might not forget God. This principle, from the very first book in the Bible is carried forward in the last book of the Bible, in Revelation 8-9, in which is related the story of the seven trumpets sounding over the human environment; and significantly, the disasters foretold there are part and parcel with the disasters visible in this section regarding God's dealings with ancient Israel.

Amos' view of these calamities is clearly that of emphasis upon their relationship to the long-standing covenant with God. If the Pentateuch did not exist, if there had been no solemn covenant with God, then this portion of Amos makes no sense at all; but, of course, they did exist, and had long existed when Amos wrote. Speaking of Amos' view of these events, Howard said, "Such an interpretation of history can only possess significance within the covenant situation."[21]

Regarding the disasters mentioned here, Motyer enumerated them as follows:

"God sent his people seven warning chastisements: famine (Amos 4:6); drought (Amos 4:7,8); mildew (Amos 4:9a); locusts (Amos 4:9b); epidemic (Amos 4:10a); war (Amos 4:10b); and earthquake (Amos 4:11), before the great threat of direct confrontation."[22]

The ancients regarded "seven" as a round, perfect number, and the appearance of this number of disasters in this list proves that this denunciation is not "a fragment," or that any of it is missing; it is all here. It is the cumulative weight of these calamities which was supposed to have its effect upon Israel. Time after time, God had sent punishments upon them, but in every instance, he had received only obstinate and stubborn rebellion from his people. This situation clearly called for redress, and Amos here proclaimed God's intention to destroy the Northern Kingdom, showing by these repeated opportunities Israel had had for repentance, that despite the ultimate severity of God's judgment, his final destruction was nevertheless one that bore testimony to his longsuffering, as well as to his justice and holiness.