Chapter 2 opens with yet another oracle of judgment against yet another pagan nation: Moab. While I’ve discussed it at length over these first 3 lessons of Amos, I will reiterate that it is paramount that we take notice that YHWH fully expects the nations (meaning non-Hebrew nations, gentiles) to also obey His laws and commands, because disobeying these laws is what is prompting YHWH to react against them. It puts to shame the central, age-old, Church doctrine that YHWH’s laws and commands were only ever for Israel and no one else so the Church is exempt. The Book of Amos destroys that notion in detail. Paul does so as well by explaining in Romans 2 that the laws given to Israel in the Covenant of Moses are no different than the natural law, the knowledge of which is innate to all human beings without the need for it to be written down. The nations not having immediate access to the Torah is no excuse for gentiles to transgress…to go against… all that the Torah demands. This is because all the Torah really does is to flesh out in fuller detail what the natural law placed by YHWH into all of mankind already communicates, and therefore how it ought to be acted-out.
Tom Bradford
8 сен 2024
