You Fat Cows (Amos 4)

Warning! The following language is exclusively reserved for use by prophets of old; don't try this at home. Chapter 4 of Amos begins thus:

   "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan . . ."

The grazing land at Bashan was as good as it got. The cattle found there were the fattest and sleekest in the land. Every Israelite understood what Amos was saying; they heard it like this, "Here this word, you fat cows . . . ." He had this to say specifically to the women of the elite families.


God hated Israel's consumerism and their methods for sustaining it. As Amos describes it, the women of the elite in Israel prodded their husbands to bring more and more home for their consumption. They lived an opulent lifestyle with beds of ivory, couches, a diet of red meat, entertainment, wine aplenty, the finest oils (6:4-6), and multiple houses (3:1). This indulgence in itself was bad enough, but how they acquired it made it all the worse.


Specifically, the Israeli elite acquired their disproportionate amount of consumer goods through these methods:

1. fines and debts (2:8).
2. taxation (5:11).
3. cheating the poor (8:4-6).

With this going on, any tithe, offering, thanksgiving, or worship of any kind was rejected and despised by God (4:4-5; 5:21-23).

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies" (5:21).

We must check ourselves as a nation. Do we have consumption habits that affects the rest of the world? Check ourselves as individuals. Do we have consumption habits that make us unable to respond appropriately to the poor and the afflicted near us? We do not want to be included among . . .

". . . those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted . . ." (2:7).

Hang in there, the blog on chapter 5 will be more positive. Until then, here's a thought provoking accounting of consumption in our country, The Story of Stuff: