AMOS 1:6-8 SELLING YOUR NEIGHBOR

6 This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath .Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, 7 I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. 8 I will destroy the king of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, till the last of the Philistines is dead,” says the Sovereign LORD.

The sin of Philistia is that of treating people as a commodity. Raiders would “harvest” the countryside of the undefended rural villagers and sell them to the highest bidder. While in war, prisoners of war were subject to ransom, death or slavery, the common folks of the defeated kingdom were not to be so treated. To separate a man from his means of existence and his source of meaning, the land, and to take away his freedom for your own gain were seen as abominations. In this commerce in human flesh, the Philistines showed an utter disregard for human dignity. Their drive was greed and they would stop at nothing when it came to accumulating wealth.

We, like the Israelites listening to the words of God coming from the Prophet Amos, are all too ready to pile on the Philistines. “How horrible!” we say. “Praise be to our God who is the champion of the poor and downtrodden.” Our evaluation and exultation of God are correct. But the words of the prophet are words of God, and therefore, living words that are to be applied to our own lives. Specifically we do not engage in the slave trade, but is there any aspect of our lives where we profit off the involuntary suffering and servitude of other populations of people? The answer to this question is much more complex than the problem of low wages for coffee workers, taking our factories to foreign countries in order to pay lower wages, or employing illegal aliens. The root of the challenge is at the level of our attitude toward populations of people. We must carefully examine our lives and see if there is any place where we use stereotypes in order to gain an advantage or turn a profit in some manner. The vast majority of the people in the populations we stereotype have never done us any wrong, nor have we ever met them. We simply dehumanize them by labeling them like objects and encourage others to do the same. When we stereotype people we separate them from their true identity and their humanity, and we seldom do that if it is not to our advantage.

Whatever the form of my greed-based inhumanity to my neighbor, Lord, expose it to me so that I might repent and live in closer obedience to your will. You have commanded me to love my neighbor. It sounds so easy, but has proved to be so hard for me. Recreate my heart so that I can love those who are different from me and those with whom I am in competition. Amen.