Amos 4:4-5. God says to the wicked women of Bashan who oppress the poor and crush the needy (who I blogged about in It's Time to Notice the Needs of Others) Come to Bethel and Gilgal, then, with your sacrifices and your offerings - it just multiplies your sin and your transgression. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leavened bread and publish your free will offerings, as you people of Israel so love to do.

I am smiling at God's tone here - it is kind of passive aggressive - "Go ahead, then, do all the stuff that you've been doing, I'm sure it will be fine (NOT!)). What he's saying, though, is what he knows they will continue to do, despite Amos' warnings. These rich women truly seem to think they are being good by offering their sacrifices, tithing every three days, etc., while turning a blind eye to the poor and the oppressed. They do not see their own hypocrisy. They publish their good deeds to impress their peers, or at least to fit in with them. Whatever sacrifices they are offering, they're often doing wrong (like using leavened instead of unleavened bread), and they are always doing them for the wrong reasons. Thus they are multiplying their sin by hypocritically and ostentatiously acting like they are such good and holy people.

Ugh! There are so many people like this and they are so hard to deal with. And they give people who are trying to offer right sacrifice and be better people a bad name. When the prominent faithful are blatant hypocrites like this, the rest of the world understandably thinks that the faith is all really for show and power. It makes it so much more difficult to be a follower and it brings scorn to the rest of the faithful.

But God sees these people. He will speak to them as he is to the women of Bashan and hopefully they will listen and repent. Meanwhile, the rest of us must love them, pray for them, and hope for their salvation. This goes a long way, and is one of the reasons that Jesus told us to pray for our enemies.