AMOS IN EPIC FORM
© Neil Rogers 2020
Amos heard the Lion’s roar
His trembling soul could not ignore
The heart-quake and the earthquake’s shock
And so the shepherd, left his flock
Two kings, two kingdoms were in sight
The word of God would put them right
As pastures wither in the drought
So Carmel’s top had all dried out
Around the neighbours cast his eye
He gird his loins to prophesy
He counted off Damascus’ sins
Called judgment on its vicious kings
The Philistines provoked his ire
On Gaza’s walls he called down fire
Then Tyre and Edom took their turn
For selling captives they would burn
And Ammon’s brutal foeticide
Aroused Jehovah’s righteous tide
To Moab’s pride the Lion spoke
Of fire and carnage, ash and smoke
Amos paused to catch his breath
Surveyed the scene and risking death
On Judah launched a harsh tirade
With wayward worship they had strayed
In Israel’s lewd and drunken games
They sold the poor for meagre gain
The Nazirites to drink they forced
And muzzled prophets who had cause
To call down judgment’s crushing power
And overcome them in God’s hour
Hear this you stubborn, wayward race
I bought your freedom from disgrace
But you forgot my covenant
You did not grieve, nor raise lament
The Lion growls, you do not care
Nor understand the fowler’s snare
The trap is set, the trumpet sounds
Disaster’s coming homeward bound
Oh, Israel, what you do not know
Is how to live, your love to show
You cannot calculate the cost
When all is broken down and lost
Your precious ornamental homes
Will be laid low and all your groans
I will not heed nor turn my ear
Towards your cries of desperate fear.
Oh listen now you fatted cows
Your time has come and in your house
No longer will you crush the poor
Nor call your husbands to the door
To serve you wine in golden flasks
While you neglect to do your tasks
Your shame is written in the books
The foe will come with crooks and hooks
And through the ruins, by the breach
Your road will lie beyond the reach
Of any of your lifeless bulls
The worship of you stupid fools
Go to the house called by my name
Where Jeroboam played his game
With golden calves and built his shrines
Seduced my people, crossed the lines
Your sacrifices and your tithes
Are nothing to my holy eyes
Your worship is profanity
Your offerings are adultery
I sent my promised punishments
You did not heed my covenant
Famine, drought and mildew came
You did not turn, nor call my name
Plagues and fire I also sent
You did not grieve, nor raise lament
And so I warn you, stubborn ones
Wayward daughters, rebel sons
I will come! There’s no retreat
Prepare yourselves, your God to meet
And so I raise this threnody
To music with no melody
You fell from grace, defiled the land
Your fields are turned to ash and sand
Your strength has gone, your armies bled
Your mighty ones have turned and fled
Oh, when will you return to me?
Forsake your idols! Don’t you see
That Bethel’s bull and Gilgal’s pride
Are empty, vacant suicide?
Oh come and find me, Joseph’s spawn
Forsake the night, await the dawn
For he who sets the stars in place
And reigns in glory, in his grace
Controls the seas and marks the land
Who rides the clouds, by whose command
A city stands or falls by sword
I sit enthroned, I am the Lord!
Do not despise the poor who groan
And bring their case before my throne
I hear their cries, I feel the rod
I sense the pain where you have trod
Their stolen lands, their bloody fields
Shout out like Abel’s blood to yield
A righteous harvest, vintage wine
To right the wrongs has come the time.
Seek good, not evil, come and live
For from my hand I freely give
My endless love on those who weep
On those who turn my laws to keep
But on the ones who steal and speak
Oppression on the poor and weak
My wrath will burn, my judgment fair
Upon their heads I will declare
You do not know for what you seek,
The day the Lord shall save the weak
For on that day when I shall come
There’ll be no place to hide or run
My voice shall roar, you’ll turn and stare
Behind a lion, in front a bear
Safe at home your knees will shake
Right there before your eyes, a snake!
And in the darkness you will find
No ray of hope to calm your mind.
Your solemn offerings I despise
Your noisy, sordid sacrifice
Your sacred gifts I cannot stand
Your music and that worship band
Just like your fathers in the past
Made idols out of gold and cast
Their trinkets into Aaron’s fire
Out popped the calf, provoked my ire
When shall justice flow again?
And goodness wash away your sin?
Woe to you who rest in peace
On ornate beds you dine and feast
You heroes of both north and south
You drunkards, when you stuff your mouths
You do not know the day draws near
When terror stalks and holy fear
Will bring your feasting to an end
And into exile I will send
Beyond Damascus to the East
Among the nations you are least.
The Sovereign Lord himself has sworn
To break your pride, leave you forlorn
Your fortresses will be torn down
The dead pile up outside each town
The city’s doomed, there’s no escape
No hiding from this awful fate
Your fighting men shall all be slain
In silence you will mouth his Name
Your mansions shall be piles of dust
Your villas broken down and crushed
Do horses run on rocky brows?
Do oxen cleave the sea with ploughs?
But you have turned my justice true
Into a lethal toxic brew
Of bitterness and spiteful bile
Of vengeance sharp and malice vile
And so your vaunted victories
Shall turn into catastrophes
Stop boasting for your ill-placed pride
By enemies shall be defiled.
I’ve called the locust, says the Lord
To take the rest left by the sword
Your harvest of the second yield
Will be devoured from every field
Oh, Sovereign Lord, the prophet cried
How can Jacob’s folk survive?
The Lord relenting of his ire
Instead of insects called for fire
Oh, Sovereign Lord, the prophet cried
How can Jacob’s folk survive?
The Lord renewed the prophet’s call
He stood beside a well-built wall
A plumb-line showed the wall was true
But Israel’s crooked through and through
I will not spare them any more
My justice waits beside the door
High places of the bovine cult
I will lay waste with great tumult
And Jeroboam’s house will fall
My sword will slay them, one and all.
Then Amaziah, cursed priest
Of Bethel’s altar rose, unleashed
His fury on Tekoa’s seer
Now get thee hence! Don’t linger here!
For Jeroboam will not stand
For all you ask for and demand
This is the royal place of prayer
Don’t vent your spleen here, don’t you dare
Now get thee hence! Don’t linger here!
Go back to Judah, foreign seer!
But Amos felt the lion’s breath
Upon his neck and from his depths
He called to mind his figs and sheep
Oh Amaziah, you will weep
Your bride will sell herself for bread
Your sons and daughters shall fall dead
And Israel shall to exile go
And this will be the final blow
The foe will come and seize your land
In exile you will die unmanned
The Sovereign Lord called to my eyes
A tray of fruit which signifies
The time is ripe for Israel’s crimes
To come before the Lord sublime
And when the Lord they meet at last
Then death among their ranks will pass
The piles of bodies who can count?
In jumbled heaps and flung about
Your silent sacrificial prayer
I shall ignore, I will not spare.
Hear this, oppressors of the poor
Who on my Sabbath contempt pour
You buy and sell by unjust weight
Inflate the price, adjust the rate
A pair of sandals is the cost
For human flesh of those who lost
You sell the weak and trade in slaves
Have you forgot the One who saves?
But I will not forget your sins
My judgment comes on all these things
The Lord has sworn, then writhes the earth
For judgment has now come to birth
And on that day comes no relief
Your wail will rise like Egypt’s grief
On that great day, the Lord declares
The sun will hide, no warmth will share
In darkness then your evil rites
As celebrations of the night
Will turn from worship into pain
Like sorrow for a son who’s slain
A day is coming, the Lord said
When famine stalks, but not of bread
You have not hungered for my word
You did not thirst, your minds ungird
You stagger round and are waylaid
And fail to hear what I have said
You cows of Bashan, bulls of Dan
Who swear by Bethel’s golden one
Your confidence is in fools’ gold
Your gods are useless to console.
Then Amos saw the Lord once more
Beside the altar and the roar
Of his command brought down the house
Upon their heads. Not one could rouse
The faintest cry, nor plead their case
Like Samson’s final act of faith
The pillars bent, the house came down
Not one escaped the Sovereign’s frown
No mountain top, no hidden cave
Nowhere to run, no-one to save.
The One who summons Pleiades
The One who stills the raging seas
The One who sets the earth aright
The One who sees in dark and light
The One who gives the nations space
The One who rules the world in grace
The One who sifts the human heart
The One who never will depart
He is the Lord: that is his name
Before him none can stake a claim.
When sifting’s done the Lord declared
That David’s tent shall be repaired
The tattered walls and ruined gates
Will be rebuilt, so celebrate!
And in that day the Lord declared
All fruitfulness shall be prepared
Ploughmen, planters, those who reap
Will see a harvest and will leap
For joy as flows the Saviour’s wine
I shall be theirs and they be mine
Seek me and live, my people turn!
Come find me and my ways relearn
Forsake your gods of wood and stone
We’ll build a city for your home
No foes will ever come and take
Your fields nor seek your walls to break
Your gardens’ fruit will satisfy
Your every need and there will I
Ensure you peace and drink the wine
For I am yours and you are mine
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