NOTES for Amo 3:7

What do Amos' words mean about God, who does nothing without first revealing His secret to His prophets? And what, then, could be said, for example, about the creation of the world or of the human being himself? As we can see, the prophet has in mind something related not simply to God's plans, but to plans in which humanity participates, or more precisely, the people of God. In fact, even the Hebrew word usually translated into Russian as 'secret' also means 'secret council.' Then it turns out that the issue is rather a council between God and His servants. Not an eternal council, with no mysticism here, but the most ordinary kind - like a ruler consulting, when making a decision, with those to whom he will entrust its execution.

At first glance such counsel between God and people may appear somewhat strange: after all, God is sovereign in His plans. But, as we can see, God's love determines the measure of His authority over the human being and moves God to give the human being the greatest possible freedom. Speaking of freedom, we most often mean the inalienable right of fallen humanity to misuse it and turn away from God. But this is only an aberration of our spiritual vision: faithfulness to God does not turn a person into a speechless and rightless slave.

Of course, Amos himself speaks of prophets as servants. But ancient Israel knew only household slavery, in which slaves were essentially in the position of junior members of the family: of course, they had no right to vote in the family council and in this respect had no rights, but they were treated as members of the household, just like one's own underage children, who also had no right to vote but otherwise were fully counted as one's own in the house.

Such an analogy is well suited to describing the 'rights' a person has in council with God. Of course, there can be no talk of formal rights in this case, but God treats His servants with the same love with which a good master treated his household slaves. It could have been otherwise, of course, and God could have treated them as children, as a father treats sons. But for this it was necessary to overcome the consequences of the fall, and before Christ came into the world this was impossible. Yet after His coming and the manifestation of the Kingdom in the world, according to the Savior's own words spoken at the Last Supper, slaves become sons. Only hired workers remain outside the house. But this is not surprising: for they always remained outsiders to the household, both free and enslaved. And all who in one way or another belonged in the house become fully and completely their own with the coming of Christ.