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[6] Seek Yahweh and live,
or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,
and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.
[7] Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,
and bring righteousness to the ground!
[10] They hate the one who reproves in the gate,
and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.
[11] Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and take from them levies of grain,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not live in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
[12] For I know how many are your transgressions,
and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
and push aside the needy in the gate.
[13] Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;
for it is an evil time.
[14] Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;
and so Yahweh elohe- of hosts, will be with you,
just as you have said.
[15] Hate evil and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that Yahweh elohe- of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
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This is the Track 2 Old Testament selection that will be read aloud on the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 23], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. If a church is on the Track 2 path during Year B, then this will be paired with a singing of verses from Psalm 90, one of which says, “Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us and the years in which we suffered adversity.” That pair will precede the Epistle reading from Hebrews, where Paul wrote, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” All will accompany a Gospel reading from Mark, where it is written: “Peter began to say to [Jesus], “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
I wrote about this reading and posted my opinions on my website back in 2018, the last time it came up in the lectionary cycle. That commentary can be read by clicking on this link. At that time, I placed focus on the message of Amos being a prophecy of bad times coming, such that I leaned heavily into the political signs of the times (2018), as if Amos were here today warning Americans where they were headed. While I do not disagree with my opinions then, I feel this song of doom and gloom needs to be seen from the whole view of the setting that is Proper 23 and the accompanying readings. I welcome all readers to view my prior article and then compare what I wrote then to what I now add. As always, I welcome comments, questions, suggestions and corrections via email.
In this presentation above, you will note that I have added the verse numbers, which the Episcopal Church erased, for some reason. Because there is a gap that excludes verses eight and nine, I see it as a nicety to let the readers know where something has been jumped over. Also, in three places Amos wrote “Yahweh,” which typical translations into English change to “Lord.” Because Israel fell into ruin for having way too many “lords” to whom their leaders had sold their souls, it is important that Yahweh’s name be respected and given His full due in presentation. Also, in the last two presentations of “Yahweh,” that word is attached to the Hebrew words (joined together): “’ĕ·lō·hê-ṣə·ḇā·’ō·wṯ” (from the roots “elohim tsaba”), where "elohim" is used.
The typical English translations show those words as “God of host,” when “elohim” clearly says “gods” (plural number, unworthy of capitalization). The word “tsaba” means “army, war, warfare” (Strong’s) Merriam-Webster says “host” means “multitude,” such that an “army” would then be a “multitude of soldiers.” When the key term is seen to be “Yahweh,” then the “host elohim” would be all His “angels,” which also includes all His Saints [Yahweh elohim]. Because that needs to have a chance of being seen, I have restored the Hebrew text “elohe-.”
In the first verse of Amos, in this parsed selection, we read how Yahweh led him to say, “Seek Yahweh and live.” In that, “seek Yahweh” says the leaders of Israel were “seeking elohim,” who were the vast number of “lords” that ruled over them. The Israelites had welcomed in the “gods” of other nations and built altars to them, importing priests who tended to the sacrificial needs of those false “gods” [“elohim”]. This is what goes on today, and for all times, because anything in the world can become one’s “lord.” Sports (watched and played) can be a “god” one bows down before, leading one to wear t-shirts and hats that reflect one’s ‘religion.’ Faith in government, where political parties become the “gods” to whom one sells a soul. Drugs can easily become one’s “Lord,” causing one to lie, cheat, steal, prostitute oneself and even kill (including oneself) for another temporary ‘high.’ This means to “seek Yahweh” specifically means to do everything possible to bring Yahweh into one’s life [married to one's soul], showing Him one’s desire to marry Him and become His wife, totally in submission to His Will.
The aspect of living means having gained the promise of eternal life, beyond the time a soul spend in a body of flesh, which is always nothing more than animated dead matter. Because everything in the physical realm is dead, it will always return to death. A soul can only remain in a body of death until that body of death dies and returns to the ground from which it came. To see life in the flesh as “life” is the illusion that turns souls away from Yahweh. Satan is then the influence of a soul to seek worldly things, ensuring that the soul will always return to the realm of death, for Satan to start all over again, tempting souls to turn away from Yahweh. It is the realization that true life lies in Salvation, which demands Redemption before marriage of a soul to divine Spirit can take place. That is the meaning of “seek Yahweh.”
When verse fourteen says, “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh elohe- of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said,” one needs to see how Jesus responded to the address, “Good Teacher,” by saying, “No one is good but God alone.” When that truth is applied to the words of Amos, that has Amos saying, “Seek Yahweh” again … the same as found in verse six. That means for Amos to then add “not evil,” the implication is the “elohim” that Job “feared,” making it so he “turned away from evil.” By saying, “do not seek evil,” Amos is saying there are evil elohim, those who will marry the souls of the ignorant and lead them to ruin. The ruin of Israel was because its leaders had become demonically possessed [or were led by unclean spirit] and were turned away from Yahweh.
It is from that recommendation of Amos that he then said, “that you may live; and so Yahweh elohe- of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.” This is vital for Christians today to grasp, as modern Christians have fallen into a dangerous state of religious being, because (like the ancient Israelites) they seek evil, not good. Change is necessary for eternal life. When Job then explained seeking good would then mean being one added to the multitude of “Yahweh elohime,” this was how the Israelites thought they were already. That is how modern Christians also think. Everyone always thinks “I am saved! I love God! I love Jesus!” when those words are empty, based on the reality of one’s actions. It is then how one seeks in one’s way of living in the flesh that determines if one is truly seeking good (to be a Yahweh elohim) or seeking evil (to be demonically possessed and thinking, “He, I’m rich! God must love me!).
Just in case some thick-skulled Israelites (and Christians today) missed the point of verse fourteen, Job then said in verse fifteen, “Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that Yahweh elohe- of hosts.” Here, in repeating “Yahweh elohe-sabout” (host of elohim), the issue of one’s heart was brought up. To say “hate evil” is to say the opposite of “love good.” When “love” (from “aheb”) is stated, this becomes relative to that which brings about a marriage of one’s soul to Yahweh. In order to “love Yahweh,” one must “hate evil” elohim. Being one of the “host of elohim” that are married to Yahweh means not being one of the greater “host” that are all the demonically possessed souls that walk around the earth, in their daily existence. Those are the truth of ‘walking dead,’ therefore I ventured into that in my 2018 article.
When one reads “hate evil,” one must come to grips with that being a statement (made by Yahweh through one of His elohim prophets) that says, “hate yourself.” In today’s reduced to nothing state of Christianity, all the fancy pants in high hats love to preach, “Jesus said love everybody.” That implies that any form of “hate” is to be rejected as evil. They are only spouting their sold souls when they preach that self-serving message. To “hate” is to have an enemy. Jesus said it was taught to “hate your enemy.” What Jesus said by telling them, “I say love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you,” means “love” comes from not seeing an enemy as someone to confront. It recognizes the truth that an enemy exists; and, wherever an enemy lives, so too does hate. Confrontation only causes hate to arise (in an enemy and oneself); so, to “love your enemy” means to let the enemy hate you alone, while one spends time praying to one’s lover – Yahweh. Then, one only loves good and stays away from evil.
In Yahweh telling Satan that Job was one who “feared elohim and turned away from evil,” that is a statement that says, “Job loved Yahweh and prayed that those evil elohim that surely exist in the world would find Yahweh and love Him.” There is nothing said that evil should be loved. Amos is speaking for Yahweh when he said, “hate evil. Therefore, “hate” is a divine way of seeing demons of evil, so one must hate to even look at them. One turns away from evil out of love for Yahweh, with fear of elohim being from hatred of an enemy. To love good means to turn away from evil, because seeing evil only elicits hatred in one’s heart.
It is important to see this Track 2 reading as firmly being in alignment with the Epistle reading from Hebrews. When Paul wrote of Jesus as the “high priest” as one “who has passed through the heavens,” the “heavens” are the place where true “life” exists. A soul is a tiny piece of “the heavens,” but it is only on loan for as long as a tiny piece of dead matter can envelop a soul, before becoming unusable. Thus, Paul said, “Jesus [is] the Son of God,” which means the soul-Spirit of Jesus [a name that says “Yah[weh] Will Save”] enters into one’s soul, as a divine possession [a Yahweh elohim]. That union and that resurrection becomes the marriage that “loves good and hates evil.” That “hate of evil” leads oneself to “confession” of one’s evil deeds, which is a truthful assessment of hating what one had become, worshiping evil demons. To marry Yahweh (and become one of the host of His elohim) means the resurrection of Jesus within says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”
As a Track 2 reading to be read aloud on the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should already be well underway, the lesson here is to hear Amos as Yahweh’s prophet sent to you, telling you that now is the time to turn away from evil and find love in your heart for Yahweh. The message is life only comes from a divine marriage, between one’s soul and Yahweh’s Spirit. Anything else means reincarnation or worse [eternal damnation of a soul]. To understand one needs to “seek Yahweh and live,” one will then find that one soul living is not why Yahweh takes on wives (souls). Those wives will give rebirth to His Son Jesus, so people like Amos will go into the world (where persecution readily awaits) and project the truth of Yahweh onto other souls. To reach that point of commitment, one must see one’s own soul as some king of a failing kingdom. Otherwise, one will hate the messenger and also hate Yahweh. The message is to hate yourself and repent. If you have not reached that point of true confession, it will be impossible for you to lead anyone else to do that.
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