And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places, yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. Amos 4:6
A famous movie actress was asked to comment on an advertisement by a social agency that was raising money to help starving children in an impoverished country in Africa. Looking at the pathetic pictures of the hungry, ragged, and dirty little boys and girls, the actress exclaimed, ‘I think that’s awful! I mean, I would love to be skinny like that, but not with all the flies and dirt and stuff.’ We are shocked at the insensitivity and ignorance displayed by that actress. She was obviously well fed herself, and knew nothing about poverty and starvation, not even enough to know when she was looking at people who are poor and starving. She just didn’t get the message, just like the people in our text who were punished by God but who failed to take heed.
The expression ‘cleanness of teeth’ is an unusual one, and is used with great effect. If the people back then were anything like today’s, they wanted to have clean teeth. If we go to any pharmacy, we will see a large section of products for cleaning teeth and for making them several shades whiter. But nobody wants to have clean teeth because there is no food to use them on. There was a good reason why these people had no bread to eat – they had departed from God and had failed to return. Despite the untimely and unwanted cleanness of their teeth, they had not heeded the message. What possible excuse could they give when God was to come in among them with destruction?
The world around us fails to heed the warnings. For example, the AIDS epidemic was a great warning against the sins of homosexuality and immorality, but instead of heeding the warning and abandoning the sin, the people simply looked for ways to avoid the contamination. Despite the overwhelming evidence that cohabitation before marriage does not work, the majority of the people go in that direction, causing untold hardship for themselves and for their children. Despite the destruction caused by illicit drugs, people keep pushing to have the drugs legalized, adding to the misery and destruction that those things cause. People who engage in sinful and damaging behaviour don’t get the message. That should serve as a warning to us.
As Christians, we know the Word of God, and what God requires of us. We know His holy standards and hopefully appreciate them. And because we know the truth, we are all the more responsible. Sometimes God has to step in and give us spiritual cleanness of teeth to remind us when we are disobedient and when we fail to give Him the service and worship that is His right. We do well to heed such warnings, otherwise we risk the peril of greater judgment.
God loves to lavish His people with goodness and plenty. And it is usually our own fault when he has to withhold His blessings from us. -Jim MacIntosh