Moving a Crowd

Amos 3:3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

One of the seemingly modern techniques used in sales has been around for thousands of years. It is used with great affect by all sorts of marketing firms around the world. I noticed it first when I worked for a door to door sales company. And this is the technique in a nutshell.

You begin to get the person to agree with you on something. Then you add something else they agree with to the mix. You keep getting the customer to agree, again and again. And then finally they agree to the purchase. It can be very difficult for the customer to back down after agreeing with you so many times.

Politicians use this all the time. They present all the things we would say “yes” to before, or if ever, they tell us the actual costs. Once we start agreeing, they move us in a direction that continues our “yes” responses. And then we find ourselves saying “yes” to all sorts of things we would never have agreed to in the beginning.

The Old Testament prophet uses this technique of repeatedly getting the hearers on their side, before they turn the tables. In the first two chapters of the book the prophet has encourage the hearers to get on board with judgment of Israel’s historic enemies. I can almost hear the crowd saying, “Yes, LORD, get ’em good!”

But then after getting them to agree with him six time, he uses identical wording to begin his pronouncement on Judah and Israel. “For three sins…, even for four, I will not relent.” I can see the crowd get a bit worked up as he recounts the evil done by the six nations. Each pronouncement getting a more and more enthusiastic response. The crowd gets a bit more animated and a bit more worked up.

And then the true object of the prophet’s writing hit them square in the chest. They are just as bad as these enemies that were destroyed. The LORD is coming for them as well.

And then we come to our text, the first in a series of questions that bring a resounding “No!” response. Five times the hearers answer “No!” And then he asks two questions that bring a contrasting “Yes!” answer. If he had asked these two “yes” questions up front, he might not have gotten as enthusiastic response.

But now he has them in the palm of his hand as he brings the core of the message. In essence he says, “Listen to the prophets. They bring your only hope.”

Amos uses these rhetorical devices to drive home his point throughout the entire book. They are employed to get the attention of the hearers. And this is a good thing.

So as we get closer to the elections, be careful in your agreeing with candidates. They have speech writers who will want you to be cheering for them, when we should be praying for them and doing the work of the Church. Get on the LORD’s side. Say “Yes!” to Him!