As we look in our society today, we would note situations where people are being oppressed, ignored, or taken advantage of by more powerful people. We can hear the prophetic voices in calling for raising the minimum wage, realizing that it is difficult to live on such low income with today's prices. Many social services are having the state money allocated to them reduced. There are people who will not get the help that is needed and voices are crying out.
This brings me to this Sunday and the appointed Old Testament reading (Amos 7:7-15). It a prophetic word being delivered by Amos to the northern kingdom where people were being oppressed and neglected. Amos describes God's judgment with the imagery of a plumb line. The text reads:
"This is what the LORD God showed me; the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line."
Then the Lord said,
"See I am setting a plumb line in the midst of a my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." Amos 7:7-9
God was using Amos to be a prophetic voice, and he was only a shepherd. Yes, God can use any one of us to be a prophetic voice to help in working with injustice or become a defender of the poor. Might not God be laying a cause on your heart to which you could do battle in order to bring God's kind of life to those who are downtrodden?
I invite you to reflect on the role of prophetic voices today and what you might seek to do. May God's blessing be upon your worship this Sunday.
Pastor Marty
This brings me to this Sunday and the appointed Old Testament reading (Amos 7:7-15). It a prophetic word being delivered by Amos to the northern kingdom where people were being oppressed and neglected. Amos describes God's judgment with the imagery of a plumb line. The text reads:
"This is what the LORD God showed me; the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line."
Then the Lord said,
"See I am setting a plumb line in the midst of a my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." Amos 7:7-9
God was using Amos to be a prophetic voice, and he was only a shepherd. Yes, God can use any one of us to be a prophetic voice to help in working with injustice or become a defender of the poor. Might not God be laying a cause on your heart to which you could do battle in order to bring God's kind of life to those who are downtrodden?
I invite you to reflect on the role of prophetic voices today and what you might seek to do. May God's blessing be upon your worship this Sunday.
Pastor Marty
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