I Agree With Oliver, It’s A Damn Shame

About a year ago, I felt in my spirit that the Father was raising up prophets like Amos. I’ve pondered this much, but the message hit me again this week as Oliver Anthony broke the internet with his song Rich Men North of Richmond( Revelation 3:17). The music is raw, and Oliver added a few curse words to the lyrics to make his points. When he played at a farm venue, he read a chapter from Proverbs concerning rich men and what destruction is coming to them. What does this have to do with the prophet Amos? Quite a bit. Amos was one of the harshest voices on the scene. Amos told the people, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.”

Oliver Anthony said I’m no musician. I can’t play guitar well. I sing okay. I’m a factory worker who has struggled with addiction. But when he said he wished politicians would look after minors and not just some minors on an island somewhere, he called out Jeffrey Epstein and a whole host of men in government who got on Jeff’s private jet to visit the island. Bill Clinton went 26 times, and many men in positions of authority had their time cuddling up with this snake. Oliver, like Amos, called these men out!

When Oliver stated that the government of America wants to know what we think and what we do, again, Amos. Of course, as believers, we seek a higher court and our Messiah’s return, but we still need men like Amos and Elijah to call out the corruption for the sake of the people and give them a voice—men at the gate. Lot was a man at the gate in Sodom. Boaz was a man at the gate. You don’t have to have an unhealthy pride in patriotism to call out corruption. If we act like we are so holy, we won’t dare listen to secular music by a guy who used his grandfather’s name Oliver., We should double-check our heart condition.

My point in all this is that men like Amos will not look like the prophets on the scene today that boast and offer itching ear words and stand behind pulpits and make money off widows and the poor and ignorantly use the Bible as a weapon. Men who say, “Plant a seed here and reap a harvest—blah blah blah.” Or those who have silenced the Body by making them feel inadequate.

The new prophets will be crude. Harsh. And I’m reminded of Jeremiah, who tells the leaders and people that their garments are stained with the blood of the poor and that they are like donkeys:

You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there, a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season, they will find her.

The new voice of the prophets will be from all walks of life. Men and women who wear rough garments and boom with the voice of mad men calling out evils in governments just as Elijah confronted Ahab and Jezebel.

Where are the men and women who have been in the desert preparing like John to announce the coming of the Messiah.

Unlearned men, despised men, men who the world takes no thought of, but they will confound the wise and expose the corruption.

Today The news has become a joke. No one is shocked to learn of pedophiles in Hollywood or Washington or the church. No one is shocked to learn that the person they thought was a man was actually a woman. The murders and serial killings don’t shock us. We are no longer shocked that purchasing a container of coffee is close to twenty dollars or drag queens doing library hour at our children’s schools.

The mark of the beasts is becoming fashionable. Do we buy from those who support beastly things? Do we support them by purchasing their food, clothing, designer labels, vehicles, and so forth?

Look at this differently: No man will be able to buy or sell without the mark. Does Target have the mark? I could name many companies that do. You can look up companies now and see who they support, what they use their money for, and how they treat the earth and the animals. Buying and selling is getting more difficult.

There’s been an underlying theme of just stay silent.

Don’t talk about the issues. It just causes things to heat up. Don’t discuss witchcraft in religious communities or governments. Just keep your eyes on Him. Well, you can keep your eyes on Him and still have a VOICE.

Have we lost our voices? Tiptoeing around, afraid we will upset someone? Yeshua didn’t do that. Amos didn’t do that. Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and Isaiah did not do that.

And the amount of pride in our so-called communities is off the charts.

Are we supposed to sit in rooms with our flashlights far away from the spiritually sick who need doctors—away from the eyes of the world and compare how big our lamp is to someone else’s . Pick each other apart . Judge people for how they look, dress, whether they have their headscarf on, the shape of the earth, the correct calendar and pronounce the name of Jesus or the Father correctly. Or act holier than thou over how well we know the Torah portions while leaving the suffering Servant Yeshua far behind.

Have we forgotten that Jacob’s son, Judah, went looking for a Harlot to comfort him after the death of his wife, and Tamar dressed like a Harlot had covered her face in order to bring forth seed. Things in the Bible are real and raw.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”

“What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired.  “I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered.

But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.” “What pledge should I give you?” he asked.She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

Genesis 38:15-18.

The Messiah told the people that if they did not humble themselves, the prostitutes and sinners would be coming into the kingdom first.

Jason Aldean came under fire for singing a song he did not write Titled “Try that in a small town.”

You can easily change the words to try that in a Torah town. He says, “Around here, we take care of our own.” That’s a community, but if it’s full of backbiting and gossip and the whole strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, what good is it—what good are we? How salty is our salt?

So back to my point, the voice of Elijah/Amos will come before the return of the Messiah, and these voices that boom are not going to look like the religious people think or the world thinks. Kingdoms are falling.

May we become more humble and less pompous in our walk. We might actually learn something from a man who didn’t accept an 8 million dollar record deal. We might learn something from someone we think knows less than us or is less holy or educated in 1st-century biblical studies. In the words of Oliver Anthony, “It’s a damn shame.”