Amos 8:4-7

God cares for the poor and abused in the world through His followers. Do not be deceived, making money at the expense of the poor, He will not tolerate. Do not be deceived, He cares for ALL the poor and abused in all countries. Do not be deceived God cares for the poor and abused. There are consequences to our actions.

As believers we need to hate injustice…and love others as He does.

God shows no partiality.

Every person you see was created by God to bear his image and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

Imagine the impact this promise would have on the society that embraced it. What civility it would engender. What kindness it would foster. Racism will not flourish when people believe their neighbors bear God’s image. Will society write off the indigent, the mentally ill, the inmate, or the refugee? Not if we believe, truly believe, that every human being is God’s idea. And he has no bad ideas. High IQ or low standing—doesn’t matter. First string or cut from the squad—doesn’t matter. Max Lucado

Amos 8:4-7

4 Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, And make the poor of the land fail, 5 Saying: “When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, Falsifying the scales by deceit, 6 That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of sandals— Even sell the bad wheat?” 7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their works.”  The New King James Version

The fourth vision report again emphasizes divine judgment. Amos renews the accusations of injustice before transitioning to an expansion on the Day of Yahweh.

The merchants have no respect for the sacred day. They only want it to end so they can return to their unjust business practices. God reveals how the merchants’ thoughts revolve around greed and fraud. They cheated the people into giving more money for less grain by using weights skewed in the merchants’ favor. Faithlife Study Bible

Fail means essentially “to have no means of survival.”

The New Moon, the first day of the month on the Hebrew calendar, was a day of special sacrifices, a feast day, and a Sabbath day. Rather than observing the New Moon and the weekly Sabbath with worship, thanksgiving, and rest, these people were impatient to resume their cheating and oppression of the poor. 

In biblical times, the ephah was the most common measure of dry volume. To make the ephah small, therefore, was to cheat the customer of value received for price paid. The shekel was a unit of money. To make the shekel large was to cheat the customer by taking too large a price (weight) of silver for value received. 

Israel’s system of indentured service for members of the covenant community was to be humane and limited in time. The rich and powerful of Amos’s day were making slaves of Israel’s poor, the people they had dispossessed of their lands.

The chaff and other refuse of the threshing floor, perhaps even moldy or mildewed wheat, were mixed in with the good wheat to stretch it further and make a greater profit.  

The form of the Hebrew oath marks its seriousness: God will not forget. Their works refers to the economic injustices Amos spoke against, as well as other sins, including unfaithfulness to God. The NKJV Study Bible

The rich and powerful of the land were the most guilty of oppression, as well as the foremost in idolatry. They were weary of the restraints of the sabbaths and the new moons, and wished them over, because no common work might be done therein. This is the character of many who are called Christians. The sabbath day and sabbath work are a burden to carnal hearts. It will either be profaned or be accounted a dull day. But can we spend our time better than in communion with God? When employed in religious services, they were thinking of marketings. They were weary of holy duties, because their worldly business stood still the while. Those are strangers to God, and enemies to themselves, who love market days better than sabbath days, who would rather be selling corn than worshipping God. They have no regard to man: those who have lost the savour of piety, will not long keep the sense of common honesty. They cheat those they deal with. They take advantage of their neighbour’s ignorance or necessity, in a traffic which nearly concerns the labouring poor. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Exodus 31:13 “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.

Exodus 31:15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Exodus 31:16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

Exodus 31:17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ”