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Pastor Nathaniel's Blog April 27, 2023
"God’s Care and Judgement VI"
Last week we saw that God cares about human rights - that he wants humans to flourish, whether they have a relationship with him or not. This focus on "human rights" and human flourishing continues in Amos 2:1, which says, "Thus says the LORD: 'For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime'" (NKJV).
The Moabites were relatives of Israel, Edom, and Ammon through Lot and his older daughter (Genesis 19:37), even though their god was Chemosh (Numbers 21:29). Despite this family connection, Amos points out that the Moabites had desecrated the tomb of Edom's king sometime in the past. For the last several weeks, we have seen how God's "thus says the Lord" has responded to a lot of human rights situations: genocide, depopulation initiatives, ethnic cleansing, various forms of slavery, abuse of women and children, and torture. So why is God suddenly concerned about the remains of a non-Israelite king? In the ancient world, care for the dead was vitally important.
Ancient near eastern cultures had different views on what happened to a person at the moment of death, but all were agreed that the remains of the deceased should be properly buried and their tombs should be maintained and shown respect. A violation of someone's resting place was considered a vile insult and an egregious attack on the dignity of that person, their family, and their people, because the dead were the most defenseless against what happened to their bodies. Violating someone's remains was viewed as a purposeful, violent act against that individual and everyone connected to them. According to God, how we treat the dead of friends - and especially enemies! - reflects how much or little value we have for living humans.
Friends, I doubt any of you are engaged in grave-robbing or the desecration of human remains. But let us imitate God's concern to respect the deceased by striving to defend the dignity of the dead as much as the living, because "thus says the Lord."
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
