AMOS 1:9-10 CAN I BE TRUSTED?

9 This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath .Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood, 10 I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses.”

O traitor your name is Phoenicia. No one is more universally despised than the one who turns against a friend or ally. Unlike Syria, they did not slaughter the people. In contrast to the Philistines they did not capture innocent people. But like Syria, Tyre was inhumane to the people and like Gaza they profited by trafficking in human flesh. Making their sin even more despicable, Tyre sold into slavery people with whom they had made political treaties. In short, they sold the very people they had committed to protect.

Promise-breaking for profit has become epidemic in a culture of individual rights and situational ethics. Expediency and convenience have replaced honor and sacrifice. The prophet calls us to examine our souls and see which of our attitudes and practices involving other people we would not like to see in the light of day.

What is our attitude toward the unborn? The child in the womb is dependent upon us, indeed is produced by us. There is an implicit treaty written into the process of procreation. To voluntarily kill the very child we have been privileged to bring to birth and nurture for any reason is questionable, but to do it for convenience or to avoid negative life-style consequences is definitely unacceptable in God’s eyes. The active participation in the abortion industry by health professionals, the very ones who are committed to promoting health and life, is a modern parallel of the sins of Tyre.

For many of us our sin is far more subtle. God’s command to love him and to love our neighbor is a call to a life of integrity and service. If we are to live in faithful obedience to God then undermining a co-worker’s credibility in order to get a promotion, claiming someone else’s work as our own in order to get a good grade, embellishing on our resume in order to get a job, blaming another in order to avoid punishment and lying about a product in order to make a sale are under God’s condemnation as betrayals of others in order to make a profit. In this world, if we are to avoid such pitfalls we must live carefully, intentionally, repentantly and altruistically.

O God, when I examine my life and the motives for what I do, help me to see my thoughts and actions as you do. Clear my eyes of the fog of rationalization and self-justification. Give me the kingdom vision to see all I am in the light of your steadfast love for all human beings. Keep me faithful in my relationship with you and all those around me. Amen.