It seems impossible that we are already to the half way mark of our 40 days without violence. Am I less violent? I hope so. I am more sensitive to violence in its various forms, that’s for sure.
So, now I come to Amos 1:3-5, and I’m confronted again with the horrors of war. Damascus, the capitol of Aram, violently and inhumanely “threshes” Gilead, and God has had enough. From what I understand, sledges with iron teeth were used primarily to separate grain from the stalks of wheat, crushing and grinding and cutting as the sledge passed over the stalks. Unbelievably, these farm implements were sometimes used in war–with captured soldiers (and sometimes regular people) standing in for the stalks of wheat. You do not have to go back to Aram to find atrocities in war. The “rape of Nanking” in WWII by Japanese Imperial forces. The torture chambers of Abu-Ghraib. We might not use sledges with iron teeth, but we continue to blithely humiliate and anihilate without a twinge of conscience. All is NOT fair in love and war. God puts it in the “sin” category. And there are (will be) consequences.
Tongue on Fire 