Yesterday we finished considering the Book of Joel. Today we are moving on to another so-called “minor” prophet, Amos. Pastor Chuck Swindoll in his book Searching the Scriptures introduces Amos this way:
Who wrote the book?
The prophet Amos lived among a group of shepherds in Tekoa, a small town approximately ten miles south of Jerusalem. Amos made clear in his writings that he did not come from a family of prophets, nor did he even consider himself one. Rather, he was “a grower of sycamore figs” as well as a shepherd (Amos 7:14–15). Amos’s connection to the simple life of the people made its way into the center of his prophecies, as he showed a heart for the oppressed and the voiceless in the world.
Where are we?
Amos prophesied “two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1; see also Zechariah 14:5), just before the halfway point of the eighth century BC, during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, king of Israel. Their reigns overlapped for fifteen years, from 767 BC to 753 BC.
Though he came from the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos delivered his prophecy against the northern kingdom of Israel and the surrounding nations, leading to some resistance from the prideful Israelites (Amos 7:12). Jeroboam’s reign had been quite profitable for the northern kingdom, at least in a material sense. However, the moral decay that also occurred at that time counteracted any positives from the material growth.
Why is Amos so important?
Amos was fed up. While most of the prophets interspersed redemption and restoration in their prophecies against Israel and Judah, Amos devoted only the final five verses of his prophecy for such consolation. Prior to that, God’s word through Amos was directed against the privileged people of Israel, a people who had no love for their neighbor, who took advantage of others, and who only looked out for their own concerns.
More than almost any other book of Scripture, the book of Amos holds God’s people accountable for their ill-treatment of others. It repeatedly points out the failure of the people to fully embrace God’s idea of justice. They were selling off needy people for goods, taking advantage of the helpless, oppressing the poor, and the men were using women immorally (Amos 2:6–8; 3:10; 4:1; 5:11–12; 8:4–6). Drunk on their own economic success and intent on strengthening their financial position, the people had lost the concept of caring for one another; Amos rebuked them because he saw in that lifestyle evidence that Israel had forgotten God.
What’s the big idea?
With the people of Israel in the north enjoying an almost unparalleled time of success, God decided to call a quiet shepherd and farmer to travel from his home in the less sinful south and carry a message of judgment to the Israelites. The people in the north used Amos’s status as a foreigner as an excuse to ignore his message of judgment for a multiplicity of sins.
However, while their outer lives gleamed with the rays of success, their inner lives sank into a pit of moral decay. Rather than seeking out opportunities to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly, they embraced their arrogance, idolatry, self-righteousness, and materialism. Amos communicated God’s utter disdain for the hypocritical lives of His people (Amos 5:21–24). His prophecy concludes with only a brief glimpse of restoration, and even that is directed to Judah, rather than the northern kingdom of Israel (9:11–15).
APPLICATION: The description of Israel in Amos’ time sounds eerily similar to our world today. While many people are enjoying economic success, COVID restrictions and other disasters have reduced others to poverty. Morals are deteriorating. Sexual traffickers track children through social media accounts, plotting ways and means of abducting them. I used to enjoy the photos of my friends’ kids; now I pray for protection for them every time I see another photo. Women and children must take defensive measures in stores and parking lots, lest they be kidnapped. Perveyors of pornography are raking in huge profits. Politicians are manipulating immigration crises in a lust for power. Having declared the unborn and newly-born not to be human beings worth saving, abortionists are pushing their evil agendas throughout the world. Where are the prophets when we need them? But if a true prophet speaks, will anybody listen?
In 2017 B.K. Dell published a book of fiction entitled Mead Mountain, In that story, a pastor felt the Lord calling him to speak to the huge mountain behind his church, Mead Mountain, and command it to crumble. Naturally, this prophecy received national attention along with corrosive ridicule, particularly when the mountain failed to crumble on the exact day the pastor had indicated. But a few days later, the mountain crumbled and fell! The pastor looked out one morning and there was no mountain! Did the disappearance of this enormous monolith bring people to their knees in praise and worship of God? Are you kidding! The very individual for whom the mountain had been named came up with all kinds of theories about water entering cracks and erosion and a host of other reasons to give “natural explanations” as to why the mountain suddenly fell apart.
The obvious moral of the story told in Mead Mountain is this: people see what they want to see and believe what they choose to believe. The mountain vanished; if God chose to use several different kinds of erosion, etc., so that millions of tons of rock disappeared suddenly, why not? For those with faith, God did a miracle. For those without faith, “natural” explanations bolstered their rejection of the very God who had created them as well as the mountain.
Elizabeth Barret Browning once wrote, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”
In Amos’ day there were those who listened and repented. But there were probably far more people who took one look at this sheep herder cum fig tree dresser and turned up their noses because he didn’t smell very good and he was obviously a poor working man. Such people deluded themselves to believe that if God were to send a nicely – dressed prophet speaking in glowing phrases, they would listen.
Reality was far different: God chose Amos precisely because he did NOT fit the mold of a prophet. God is pesty that way; He refuses to obey rules we make up for Him. As we study Amos, let’s remember that God is far more concerned about our availability than He is about our ability. Whenever I speak before a congregation, I always remind myself that God spoke through Balaam’s donkey. It’s God who is important and not the messenger. Let’s open our hearts and minds to receive what God might teach us through the Book of Amos.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to get rid of our goofy preconceived notions about You and about how You might speak to us. Help us to be willing to listen to those whom You send to us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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