THE FIRST SERMON TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL In this sermon, God presents a justification for judging His people: 1- God punishes them on account of that they are His own people1 – 2 2- God does not punish without reason 3 – 8 3- God will let the Gentiles testify against His people 9 – 11 4- None of them will escape 12 – 15 1- GOD PUNISHES THEM ON ACCOUNT OF THAT THEY ARE HIS OWN PEOPLE: “Hear the word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying: ‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”(Amos 3: 1, 2) It is as though, with this introduction, God calls them to His tribunal, proclaims that He has the jurisdiction to try them, on account of being the whole tribe or family He brought up from the land of Egypt; rescued; cared for; called by His name; And has known of all the families of the earth. Yet this love and care, do not imply that He should close His eyes on their transgressions; but would rather put on them more responsibility; as He would never have fellowship with transgressors. He knew them, and they knew Him; as it is written “In Judah, God is known” (Psalm 76: 1); And the Lord Himself says: “That servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed to him, they will ask the more” (Luke 12: 47, 48). The more our knowledge is of God’s will, of His secrets, and of His exalted works of love; the more we shall be asked; and the greater will be our responsibility before Him than others; according to the words of St. Cyril the Great: [As far as he, who knows the will of his Master and ignore it, and does not do what befit it, the crime would be unquestionable1]. 2- GOD DOES NOT PUNISH WITHOUT REASON: God, having the proper jurisdiction, called His people to trial before Him; And roars like a Lion, a sign that they are worthy of judgment. To reveal that He would not seek this trial for His people without reason, He enters with them into a mutual debate, to clarify the secrets of His trial, And He provides the evidence through the following seven questions: “Can two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” “Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?” “Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?” “Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it?” “Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing?” “Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid?” 1 In Luke, Ser. 93. 30 “Does disaster befall a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (Amos 3: 3 – 6) If the answer to these seven questions is in the negative, He goes on to say: “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear?The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3: 7, 8) If this talk revealed that this trial is not a fantasy, but is something very serious; and a matter of fact, realized not without cause; as the transgressions of those people have gone too far against the Holy God, as well as against themselves; These seven questions revealed as well, the following important and serious aspects that concern the relationship of God with His people; because of which this trial is being held: (1) The need for a new covenant, as is clear from the first question, saying: “Can two walk together unless they have a prior appointment and agreement? … Definitely not! How then can God walk together with His people, when the later has broken the covenant? About this, the Lord says: “If by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me, Then I will also walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins” (Leviticus 26: 23, 24) That is why, there was an urgent need for setting a new covenant, by which God reconcile with His people; according to His proclamation to the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “Behold, the day are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke,… . But this is the covenant … I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; And I will be their God, and they shall be Mt people” (Jeremiah 31: 31-33). That promise was realized on the Great Thursday, when the Lord Christ offered us His body and blood, as a new covenant, in which we encounter the Father, by uniting with Him in His Son, the crucified Jesus; By which we enjoy the body broken, and the blood shed, for the sake of our salvation; A new covenant, by which our sonhood to the Father and His fatherhood to us, are confirmed, through our union in the body of His only-begotten Son. Yes indeed, in Jesus Christ, the slain, we encounter the Father, and walk together with Him; having an agreement in the thought of His Son, and His eternal covenant. (2) God proclaims that in this trial: In His justice, He will know no slothfulness; He will forsake us to the evil which we freely acquired for ourselves; … He will be roaring like a lion in the thicket, where humanity is like a barren wilderness without fruit; We shall became a prey to be devoured; And He will be like a young lion which gets hold of the prey to take a portion of it; And there is no escape from the roaring lion or from the young lion, except by resorting to the cross, to encounter the Lion coming from the tribe of Judah, roaring, not on us, but on our sins, not to devour us, but to destroy the devil, our enemy! Let us then flee from the roaring divine wrath, because of our acceptance of the enemy; Let us flee to God our Savior, who will redeem us from that enemy! (3) By presenting to us the parable of the bird which falls in a snare; or the snare that is taken up because it caught a bird; The Lord tends to proclaim that, in the trial, we are like a bird fallen in a snare; can we be saved on our own? By my Redeemer: “I will say of the Lord, ‘He shall deliver (me) from the snare of the fowler, and from the perilous pestilence’” (Psalm 91: 3); and, “Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the 31 fowler; the snare is broken, and we have escaped; Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124: 7, 8). St. Jerome says: [What is the snare that is broken? The apostle says: “The Lord will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16: 20); And, “… that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil” (2 Timothy 2: 26). There you see that Satan is the (fowler) who seeks to catch our souls to perdition, by a multitude of snares and deceptions of all kinds. As long as we are in state of grace, our souls are safe; but once we play with sin, our souls will get disturbed, and we would be like a ship in a storm, struck by mighty waves1. He also says: Like the Lord who casts His net and catches a huge number of fish; And like His disciples, being fishermen, who gather those who receive faith in Him, and bring them over to Him; In the same way, the devil has his own hosts of demons, submitted to him, who set snares to catch and bring men over to him2. And St. Augustine, telling us the secret of our escape from the snare, says: [Because the Lord is in the soul, it escapes like a bird from a snare; … Let the Lord be in you, to save you even from bigger threats, … Be sure that the snare will be broken; … And as the pleasures of the present life will not last long, but will eventually come to their ultimate end; I wish we would not be disturbed by them; So that when the snare is broken, we would joyfully say: “The snare is broken, and we have escaped”. And in order not to assume that this could be done on your own, You should look for Him who works on saving you, and say: “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth”3. (4) “Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid?”. As we are in a perpetual state of spiritual war, as long as we are in this world, The enemy will not stop his attempts to snatch us from the Kingdom of God, to bring us over to that of his darkness. The Lord keeps on sending His ministers all the time to blow the trumpet of the gospel, until the ultimate conquest is realized. The apostle Paul says: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6: 10-12). St. Augustine says: [Let us look at two enemies: the one we see, and the one we do not see; Man we can see, but the devil we cannot. Therefore, let us love the first, and be aware of the second; Let us pray for man, and pray against the devil]. And to explain this, he says: [We suffer from men who offend us, as being vessels of the devil, used by him, and as his tools, he moves them to his account4]. (5) “Does disaster (evil) befall a city, unless the Lord has done it?”. By that, the Lord proclaims that He allows for the trial for the sake of chastisement. Many Fathers, commenting on the word ‘evil’ that came here, and in many other similar instances; discern between two different kinds of evil: the evil by nature, contrary to virtue and goodness; and that which causes pain or anguish, and is counted by us as 1 On Ps. Hom. 20. 2 Ibid 51. 3 On Ps. 124. 4 Ibid 56. 32 ‘evil’. As confirmed by St. John Chrysostom1, as well as by father John of Damascus: [These words do not mean that God is the source of evil; As the word ‘evil’ is used in two ways: It may mean evil by nature, which is contrary to virtue, and is against the will of God; Or may mean what, according to our senses, we consider evil, because it may cause us sorrow and anguish; although it may actually be a sign of salvation, whose source, according to the Holy Book, is God Himself2]. And father Theodore says: [By His divine ordinance, God talks to humans, according to their own language and human feelings. A physician, cutting or burning human members to save a patient’s life, His actions may be considered by some people as a kind of evil3]. (6) God proclaims that when He allows for judgment or chastisement, “He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets”. In all the books of the prophets, we can see that God does not deal in a dictator’s way; but often enters into debates with His beloved subjects; And because of man’s weakness, He sometimes repeats what He says several times, in order that he would comprehend what are behind God’s exalted ordinances, as much as he can endure. God loves man, and sometimes talks to him like man-to-man. When He intended to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah by fire, He said: “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do” (Genesis 18: 17), He even allowed Abraham to ask Him: “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? … Shall not the Judge of the earth do what is just?”. He did not get angry, but completed the debate as though with a friend and an equal!! … In several occasions the Lord says: “Let us contend together” … He intends to debate with man, to “proclaim His secret counsel to the upright who fear Him” (Proverb 3: 32); and “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant” (Psalm 25: 14). (7) Finally, God admonishes them, saying: “A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken1 Who can but prophesy?” (8). If God in His love proclaims His secret counsel to His prophets, How could they, in their turn, afford not to proclaim to the people, the roar of the Lion, who comes out of His tribe, to let them all fear Him and prepare themselves for His encounter?! The work of the prophets is to carry the divine message, even if it appears as a burning fire or sounds as the roar of a lion; in order for all to fear God and to return to Him; the goal of the prophets is to utter their prophecies, as a preliminary preparation for the ultimate coming of the Lord. St. Augustine in a nice commentary on, “A lion has roared! Who will not fear?”, says: [As man can tame a lion, and fears it no more; Yet, he cannot tame himself; So let him deliver himself to God alone, the Tamer of the souls! … If man – the image of God – can tame the fierce souls; Can God not tame His own image4?! … Let us the deliver ourselves into His hands, as He, alone, can tame them. 3- GOD WILL LET THE GENTILES TESTIFY AGAINST HIS PEOPLE: God intended to let their heathen neighbors: the rich of Ashdod in Palestine (Assyria in the Septuagint version), and the rich of Egypt, those near and far; come to attend the trial. It is as though, not finding among His own people, righteous men to 1 That demons do not govem the world 5; In Matt. 22: 5. 2 Expos. Of Orthodox Faith, 19. 3 Cassian: Conf. 6: 6. 4 Ser. On N.T. Lessons 5: 3. 33 arbitrate between Him and His vineyard; God resorted to strangers, to judge, if there is any injustice in His ordinance toward His people. And by calling them, God intends as well, to let them get in touch with His holy Person; And to learn, that if He is judging His own people on their sins, How could He be impartial toward the strangers?! … Namely, by their presence, they may reconsider their own position toward Him! The horror of the transgressions practiced inside Samaria – the capital of Israel – has reached an extent beyond the endurance of the Holy God; that even the Gentiles would testify that the smell of evil has reached them! … What bitterness! … Instead of having the children of the Kingdom testify against the wicked, and judge them, The wicked, themselves, became witnesses against the people of God; having seen the great tumult in their midst, and the disturbance, instead of the exalted glory of the heavenly life; and the oppression instead of justice and righteousness; and how they have turned into storehouses of violence and robbery, that they do not know how to do right any more. … About His people, the Lord say to the Gentiles: “Assemble on the mountains of Samaria; See great tumults in her midst, and the oppressed within her. For they do not know to do right; … who store up violence and robbery in their palaces” (Amos 3: 9, 10) That is why God surrounds her with anguish from every side, and takes away her authority and honor. Israel that was supposed to be like salt to reform others, became corrupted and “lost its flavor, good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men” (Matthew 5: 13). Israel, who in the eyes of God, was like the high priest who intercedes on behalf the heathen nations; if he errs, who will intercede on his behalf? … It was befitting for Israel to be the role model for the Gentiles on salvation; but now, having forsaken faith, what will be his destiny?! All this would bring forth terror to the hearts of Christians and to those of their priests in particular; as the more our responsibility becomes, the more severe our punishment would be when we err. As St. John Chrysostom says: [If others fall, they will probably be forgiven; But if the teacher falls, he will have no excuse, and will fall under the most severe punishment1. 4- NONE OF THEM WILL ESCAPE: God, in His judgment of His people, gave an amazing analogy; That if He, being the Shepherd who searches for every lost sheep among His flock, and takes it out of the mouth of a lion, even if nothing remains of it, more than two legs, or even a piece of an ear …; That same exalted care, and amazing love, would make Him search for His people wherever they are, and allow for their captivation, for the sake of chastisement. The feelings of many fathers have been so shaken before that exalted shepherding love of God; that St. Basil the Great says in one of his messages to his congregation: [Strive to rise from your fall down on the ground; and remember that you have a Good Shepherd who searches for you, to save you from the mouth of the lion who devoured you; even if nothing of you remain, more than two legs or a piece of an ear; … Remember God’s mercies, He who heals you by oil and wine; Never despair of salvation2! 1 In Matt. Hom. 15: 11. 2 Ep. 44: 2. 34 The Lord, who in His love, snatches us out of the lion’s mouth; Will take out the children of Israel from their land, wherever they are, “who dwell in Samaria” (Amos 3: 12); Will follow up their steps, even if they escape to Damascus; and even if they hide “in the corner of a bed”; to bring them over to the land of captivity. He punishes, not for punishment sake, but for two reasons: To wipe out idolatry; And to destroy the life of luxury and looseness: “I will visit destruction on the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground; I will destroy the winter house along with the summer house; The houses of ivory shall perish’, Says the Lord” (Amos 3: 14, 15).
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