W5 - Make#1

Amos was one of the only two prophets who prophesied over the northern kingdom of Israel. Unlike Hosea his contemporary, Amos was from southern kingdom of Judah. He was called to go north to declare the message of God to Israel (Amos 1:7; 7:14) sometime between 760 and 750 BCE (Bandstra, p. 288). The message concerns social justice in Israel, where a lot of injustices and corruptions are found in the midst of its society.

What does Amos say is wrong with Israelite society? 

The northern kingdom of Israel was having a good time of peace and prosperity in about the middle of the eighth century under the strong and capable kingship of Jeroboam II. However, Amos points out that an awful scene in Israelite society is the economic problem: the gap between the rich and the poor is getting much wider–the rich are becoming richer, the poor poorer. He also denounces that rich people live luxurious and comfortable lives and do not pay attention to the poor and the needy at all (5:10; 6:1,4-6). It is even worse that some of them abuse the poor for their financial gain; inhumanely they trade them as cheap commodity and treat them as animals (2:6-7; 5:11; 8:4,6). They violate the moral codes and defile the house of their God (2:7-8). They oppress and humiliate men of God by force (2:12). Money is more important than justice as bribery and corruption are a common practice to gain and grant favor in the ruling of unjust judges (5:12). (Stanley, 429)

In addition, the heart of the problem is a deeper spiritual illness. According to Amos, the wealthy do not really respect the covenant relationship between the Lord and Israel. They just diminish it to merely the proper observance of public rituals (Stanley, 429) and opportunities for their own financial gain by practicing deceit with false balances in selling grain and wheat to pilgrims on the occasions of the Lord’s festivals and Sabbaths (8:5-6). They do not really care about the Lord, their spiritual life or their relationship with him. Amos rebukes them for just being faithful in enjoying the feasts and happy songs instead of mourning and lamentation for their spiritual predicament (8:10). With the message of the Lord, he warns them of their current ungodly status as a famine in which they are hungry not for bread, and a thirst, in which they are thirsty not for water, “but of hearing the words of the Lord” (8:11).

What will happen to the people of Israel if they don’t change their ways? 

Like the rich in every generation, Israel’s elites do not want to listen to this kind of message, which challenges their way of making money and having lives of luxury and ease. It also warns them if they don’t change their ways, they will be facing destruction. Amos prophesies over their future with the Lord’s words. The God of hosts will finally send foreign forces to invade their land and wipe out their armies, and their strong and mighty men will have to flee for their lives without anything in their possession (2:14-16). There will be mourning and wailing in the squares, in the streets and in the vineyards of the land (5:16-17). The enemy will pull down their custom luxury houses, where they shall not live (5:11), destroy their temples, slaughter the people (9:1), and bring their luxurious and comfortable lifestyle to an end (6:7). There will be no avenue for them to escape neither the world beneath nor heaven above, neither mountain nor sea (9:2-3). They will try to flee, but they will be caught and brought back to justice before the Lord–a kind of “You can run but you can’t hide” game. The survivors of this coming onslaught will be deported in disgrace and shame into exile in foreign land and will no longer enjoy the revelry of the loungers and will be killed with the sword (6:7; 9:4). The consequences for their transgressions will be too much to bear if they don’t repent. (Stanley, 430).

Is there anything that they can do to avoid this fate?

Amidst all these prophetic warnings, however, there is still hope for Israel when Amos is able to urge his audience to seek good instead of evil so that they may live and to affirm the possibility that the Lord will be gracious to Joseph’s remnant (5:14-15). If they turn away from their self-indulgent lifestyle and go back to the Lord with repentance by creating and developing a just and fair society to all, changing their treatment towards the poor and needy, they will live and be able to avoid destruction and all the consequences. The answer lies within their hearts and actions whether or not they wish to change for the better–“hate evil and love good”–and respect the God of Israel and his covenant with them; they will see the Lord's mercy upon them and their doom will be avoided (Stanley, 430).

•  Bibliography:

Bandstra, Barry. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2008.
Stanley, Christopher D. The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009.

Week 3: Make Option 03

Biblical Wisdom found in the Hebrew Bible (Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes) is a very interesting but challenging subject to learn. In order to better understand biblical Wisdom, we should have some knowledge of the ancient Near Eastern literature that could help us with this. We will find out the origin of these works, their titles, their content and context, and the reason and way that they help improve our understanding of the biblical material based on the following questions given by Dr. Lester this week. 

Where and when did these works come from?

 

Throughout the ancient Near East, wisdom teachings played a significant role in shaping the way people thought about ethic and moral issues, and worked as a crucial channel of passing on their moral and ethic standards. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two influential regions that led to the creation of the wisdom materials of the TaNaK. These works were originated from the rich source of oral traditions, very popular among the illiterate masses; then they were composed, compiled and put into collections by the literate elites of society. (Stanley, p. 495).

What are their titles?

Their titles are “the Instruction of Shurappak,” “the Admonition of Ipuwer,” “A Song of the Harper” (Stanley, p. 496), “Man and His God: A Sumerian Variation of the ‘Job’ Motif,” “The Protests of  the Eloquent Peasant,” “The Babylonian Theodicy,” “A Pessimistic Dialogue between Master and Servant” (Dr. Mariottini, “The Pessimistic Literature of the Ancient Near East”), “The Maxims of Ptahhotpe and The Teaching for Merikare,” “The Instruction of Amenemope,” “A Man and his God,” ““I will praise the Lord of wisdom,” “the Babylonian Ecclesiastes” (Bandstra, p. 407, 409, 427), just to name a few.

What are they about, and what happens in them? 

“The Instruction of Shurappak,” a Babylonian text of this kind contains wise sayings similar to the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible. An Egytian book of this kind is called “the Admonition of Ipuwer,” which resembles the books of Job and Ecclesiastes on the nature and presence of evil in a similar fashion (Stanley, p. 496). Another piece of song called “A Song of the Harper” found in an Egyptian tomb sounds very close to the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, exhorting people for a life of pleasure and ease since no one is absolutely sure what the other side of life looks like. “A Pessimistic Dialogue between Master and Servant” is a dialogue between the master and his servant on finding something worth living, with a similar approach in comparison to the first chapter of book of Ecclesiastes, in which the author talks about trying to find meaning in life with various activities.
Some other works are similar to the biblical book of Job, namely, “Man and His God: A Sumerian Variation of the “Job” Motif,” talking about human suffering asking his god for an explanation and mercy; “The Protests of  the Eloquent Peasant,” telling the story of Khun-Anup, a peasant, robbed by a noble and proceeding to go to the lord’s court to request justice be done to his case, and finally a happy ending with the peasant receiving his positions back; “The Babylonian Theodicy” known as “The Babylonian Job,” with a story similar to the book of Job, dealing with a man and his friend coming to comfort him during his suffering, but also failing to solve his problem (Dr. Mariottini, “The Pessimistic Literature of the Ancient Near East”).

How and why do they improve our understanding of the biblical material?

These works give us a good knowledge of the historical, social, cultural and literary context of the influential world in which the writers of the biblical wisdom lived and interacted with the masses because Israel was located in between both regions (or countries) Egypt to the South–Southwest and Mesopotamia to the North–Northeast. Hence, no wonder the ancient Near Eastern literature influenced that of the Hebrew Bible. It might help us read and understand the biblical material from a wider angle with a panoramic view. Therefore, we need to read the wisdom books in the Hebrew Bible with the lens of one who live beyond Israel in the region in order to thoroughly understand their true meaning and purpose of these wisdom teachings. Then, I hope my eyes will be open wider to see things beyond the Bible on the whole. By the way, that is part of the reason I was wondering how the book of Job could be included into the TaNaK though Job himself was not one of Jewish people or related to them–“He was from the land of Uz” (Job 1:1).