Covenant Contempt: When Grace Becomes Guilt Text: Amos 2:6-16
Introduction: The Privilege of Judgment
The prophet Amos has been on a tour of the surrounding nations, announcing the judgment of God. He has declared God's wrath against Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. We can imagine the Israelites listening to this litany of denunciation with a certain grim satisfaction. Their enemies were finally getting what they deserved. The surrounding pagan nations, who did not have the law, were being judged for their violations of natural law, for their gross and inhuman cruelties. But then the prophet turns, and the prophetic shotgun that had been pointed outward is now leveled directly at Judah, and then, in our text, at Israel itself.
And here the standard is different. The indictment is different. The reason for the judgment is different. The surrounding nations were judged for being inhuman. But Israel is about to be judged for being unholy. They are judged for their covenant infidelity. God's judgment always begins at the household of God. To whom much is given, much is required. Israel had been the recipient of staggering, world-altering grace, and they had taken that grace and trampled it into the mud of their idolatry and injustice. They thought their covenant status was a free pass, a sort of diplomatic immunity from judgment. Amos is here to tell them that their covenant status is precisely what makes their sin so heinous and their judgment so certain.
We live in a time much like theirs. The visible church is filled with people who believe their baptism, their church membership, or their notional assent to a creed is a get-out-of-jail-free card. They believe that because God has been gracious, He has therefore become indulgent. They treat the grace of God as a cover for their sin, rather than a catalyst for holiness. But Amos teaches us that God’s past grace is the very thing that sharpens His present judgment. The charge against Israel is not that they were as bad as the pagans; the charge is that they should have been holy, and were not. They had been given everything, and had profaned it all.
This is a covenant lawsuit. God the great King is bringing charges against His vassal people, and He begins by listing their specific treaty violations. And as we will see, their vertical corruption in worship led directly and inevitably to their horizontal corruption in society. You cannot worship idols and be just to your neighbor. It is an impossibility.
The Text
Thus says Yahweh, "For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn back its punishment Because they sell the righteous for money And the needy for a pair of sandals. These who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the poor Also turn aside the way of the humble; And a man and his father go to the same young woman In order to profane My holy name. On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar, And in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. "Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, Though his height was like the height of cedars, And he was strong as the oaks; I even destroyed his fruit above and his root below. And it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, And I led you in the wilderness forty years That you might take possession of the land of the Amorite. Then I raised up some of your sons to be prophets And some of your choice men to be Nazirites. Is this not so, O sons of Israel?" declares Yahweh. "But you made the Nazirites drink wine, And you commanded the prophets saying, ‘You shall not prophesy!’ Behold, I am weighted down beneath you As a wagon is weighted down when filled with sheaves. So flight will perish from the swift, And the strong will not instill his power with courage, Nor will the mighty man make his life escape. He who grasps the bow will not stand his ground, The swift of foot will not escape, Nor will he who rides the horse make his life escape. Even the most courageous of heart among the mighty men will flee naked in that day," declares Yahweh.
(Amos 2:6-16 LSB)
The Indictment: Corrupt Justice and Corrupt Worship (vv. 6-8)
The Lord begins His case against the northern kingdom of Israel with the same formula He used for the pagan nations: "For three transgressions... and for four." This signifies a full measure of sin, an overflowing cup of rebellion. But the sins are not crimes of war; they are crimes of the courtroom and the marketplace.
"Because they sell the righteous for money And the needy for a pair of sandals. These who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the poor Also turn aside the way of the humble..." (Amos 2:6b-7a)
The foundation of a just society is a just legal system. When the courts are for sale, everything is for sale. Here, justice is sold for silver. A righteous man, one who has a just case, is condemned because the price of the bribe was met. The poor are sold into debt slavery for a pittance, for something as trivial as a pair of sandals. This is not just about greed; it is about contempt. The lives of the poor are valued at less than footwear.
The imagery is striking: they "pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the poor." This can be understood in two ways, both of which are likely intended. First, they are so greedy they would stoop to steal the very dust a poor man throws on his head in mourning. They would monetize his grief. Second, it is a picture of them kicking a man when he is down, grinding his face into the dirt. They are not content to simply win; they must humiliate and crush the humble. The "way of the humble" is turned aside, meaning their access to justice, their path in life, is violently obstructed.
Where does this kind of societal rot come from? The next verses show us it is downstream from their worship.
"...And a man and his father go to the same young woman In order to profane My holy name. On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar, And in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined." (Amos 2:7b-8)
This is not just random immorality. This is cultic prostitution, a staple of Canaanite fertility religion. A man and his son are visiting the same temple prostitute. This is a direct violation of the holiness code in Leviticus, but more than that, it is done with a high hand, "in order to profane My holy name." Their worship is a calculated act of blasphemy. They are taking the name of Yahweh, the holy God of Israel, and dragging it through the muck of a pagan orgy. They are syncretists. They want Yahweh and Baal. They want the covenant and the Canaanite cult. They want to be God's people on their own terms, which is another way of saying they don't want to be God's people at all.
This profanity spills over into every aspect of their religion. They take a poor man's cloak as a pledge for a loan, which the law required them to return by sunset so he would have something to sleep in (Ex. 22:26-27). But instead, they use these garments as blankets for their drunken feasts "beside every altar." They are literally feasting on their injustice in the very presence of their false gods. The wine they drink is purchased with the money from unjust fines, "the wine of those who have been fined." Their communion is corrupt. Their offerings are theft. Their worship is an abomination because their lives are an abomination. The two are inextricably linked.
The Aggravation: Grace Spurned (vv. 9-12)
God now moves from the indictment to the aggravation. What makes their sin so particularly vile is the backdrop of God's immense grace. He recounts His mighty acts of salvation on their behalf, not to stir up fond memories, but to demonstrate the depth of their ingratitude.
"Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, Though his height was like the height of cedars, And he was strong as the oaks; I even destroyed his fruit above and his root below." (Amos 2:9)
God reminds them that they are living in a land that He gave them. He cleared it for them. The Amorites were a formidable, terrifying enemy, giants like cedars and oaks. But God, for the sake of His covenant promise, utterly destroyed them, root and branch. Israel did not win the land by their own strength; they received it as a gift of grace, a gift won by divine warfare. To take this gift, this holy land, and to fill it with the very Canaanite practices for which the Amorites were judged, is cosmic treason.
He continues to build the case.
"And it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, And I led you in the wilderness forty years That you might take possession of the land of the Amorite. Then I raised up some of your sons to be prophets And some of your choice men to be Nazirites. Is this not so, O sons of Israel?" declares Yahweh." (Amos 2:10-11)
God goes back to the beginning. Redemption from Egypt was the foundational act of salvation. He didn't just rescue them; He led them, He provided for them for forty years. And He didn't just give them land; He gave them His Word and His Spirit. He raised up prophets to speak His truth to them and Nazirites as living symbols of total dedication and holiness. The Nazirite vow was a voluntary act of separation unto the Lord. These men were walking, breathing reminders of the holiness to which all Israel was called.
God then puts them on the witness stand: "Is this not so, O sons of Israel?" He calls them to testify against themselves. They cannot deny the history of His grace. It is their story. But what did they do with these gracious gifts?
"But you made the Nazirites drink wine, And you commanded the prophets saying, ‘You shall not prophesy!’" (Amos 2:12)
This is the heart of their rebellion. They did not just ignore God's grace; they actively sought to corrupt it and silence it. They saw holiness in the Nazirites and tried to defile it. They heard truth from the prophets and commanded them to shut up. They did not want to be reminded of their covenant obligations. They wanted a God who would leave them alone, a religion that made no demands. This is a direct assault on the means of grace God had provided for their own good. It is a hatred of the light.
The Verdict: Judgment Unavoidable (vv. 13-16)
Because of their covenant contempt, their spurning of grace, and their war against holiness, the verdict is now rendered. The judgment is inescapable.
"Behold, I am weighted down beneath you As a wagon is weighted down when filled with sheaves." (Amos 2:13)
This is a staggering image. The sovereign God of the universe, who holds the stars in His hands, describes Himself as being crushed under the weight of His people's sin. Their iniquity is a burden to Him. His patience is exhausted. The language here can also be translated "I will press you down in your place," like a heavy wagon pressing the earth. Both are true. God is burdened by their sin, and He is about to become a crushing burden to them.
The result will be total societal collapse. All the things they trust in, all the sources of human strength and pride, will utterly fail them on the day of God's judgment.
"So flight will perish from the swift, And the strong will not instill his power with courage, Nor will the mighty man make his life escape. He who grasps the bow will not stand his ground, The swift of foot will not escape, Nor will he who rides the horse make his life escape. Even the most courageous of heart among the mighty men will flee naked in that day," declares Yahweh." (Amos 2:14-16)
Amos piles up the images of futility. The fastest runner will not escape. The strongest warrior will find his strength useless. The mighty man, the gibbor, will not save himself. The archer will break. The cavalryman will be overthrown. Even the most elite, courageous special forces, the "most courageous of heart among the mighty men," will be so terrified that they will drop their weapons and armor and flee naked in shame and panic. When God rises in judgment, all human strength, all military might, all skill and courage, becomes less than nothing. There is no escape. The Lord declares it, and it will be so.
Conclusion: The Weight of the Cross
The sins of Israel are the sins of every human heart that has tasted the grace of God and then turned away. It is the sin of the modern West, a civilization built entirely on the foundations of Christian grace, which now actively profanes His name, silences His prophets, and corrupts His holiness. It is the sin of the compromising church, that wants Jesus as Savior but not as Lord, that wants the comfort of the covenant without the obligations of it.
God is weighted down by the sin of His people. This image of the cart laden with sheaves finds its ultimate fulfillment in another place. It points us to the Via Dolorosa, where the Son of God, the true Israel, was literally weighted down, crushed beneath the cross upon which He would bear the full weight of all this covenant infidelity. He was crushed for our iniquities.
On that cross, the judgment Amos describes was poured out in its fullness. The mighty man, Jesus, did not deliver Himself. The swift one did not flee. The courageous one was stripped naked and shamed. He absorbed the full, terrifying force of God's wrath against sin, so that all who take refuge in Him might escape that day of fleeing naked.
The warning of Amos, then, drives us to the cross. It forces us to ask if we are treating God's grace as a license to profane His name. Are we selling the righteous for trivial things in our own lives? Are we trying to make the Nazirites drink wine, pushing for compromise where God demands holiness? Are we telling the prophets of God's Word to be quiet when they make us uncomfortable?
If we are, then we must know that God is weighted down by it, and a day of reckoning is coming. The only escape is to flee, not from God, but to Him. We must flee to the one who did not flee, Jesus Christ. For in Him, the crushing weight of sin becomes the gracious gift of righteousness. The God who is burdened by our sin becomes the God who bears our burdens. The judgment that leads to naked shame is replaced by the grace that clothes us in the perfect righteousness of the Son. Let us therefore hear the word of the Lord, and repent.