Background:
1. Amos dates his ministry during the reigns of Jeroboam II, king of Israel who reigned from 793-753 BC; and Uzziah, king of Judah, who reigned from 790-737 BC. He also says that he received this message in visions two years before the earthquake (1:1). Seismic events are not uncommon in that region so this must have been a significant event and there is archeological and historical evidence of an earthquake sometime around 760 to 755 BC. So his ministry is dated between 760-750 BC.
2. Amos ministered in the north, in Israel, though his home was in the south, in Judah. He was from the village of Tekoa (1:1), about ten miles south of Jerusalem. Priestly families lived close to Jerusalem but Amos was not from a family of priests nor was he trained in a prophetic school. He was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit (1:1, 7:14). This was marginal land and what meager living the people derived from their sheep was supplemented with the fruit of the sycamore, which was a staple in the diet of the poor.
3. Amos ministered in a time of national power and prosperity both in the north where he prophesied and in the south where he lived. Military conquest had resulted in expansion of the nation’s borders and the acquisition of important trade routes. This led to prosperity and luxury for some, economic injustice and oppression for many.
The worship of false gods had deeply corrupted the nation and had broken any sense of accountability to the holy God. This resulted in a pervasive spiritual and moral decay. Bribery was common and justice was perverted. A large gap had developed between rich and poor, with the poor being sold as slaves over trivial debts (2:6). We must remember that in God’s eyes, greed — the worship of money — is considered to be idolatry (Col. 3:5). This was a very materialistic, self indulgent society with a false sense of security.
Even those who worshipped the true God with outward observance of the proper ritual were often guilty of lives inconsistent with true, inner righteousness. Jesus condemned His own generation for this outward profession and inner corruption, quoting the prophet Isaiah, This people honors Me with their lips but their heart is far from Me (Mark 7:6).
The Lord wanted His covenant people to understand that right relationship with Him is far more than merely ritual observance. It is lived in loving obedience to the Lord and compassion and justice to other people. If we truly love God, we will express that love to those around us. Economic injustice reveals broken relationship with people and with God. When sin permeates our lives and our interaction with others, God does not receive our songs or rituals of worship.
However, in their prosperity, the wealthy and the powerful assumed the blessing of God was upon them and tended to identify God’s purposes with the purposes of the nation. They equated material prosperity with the favor of God. The people, especially the wealthy and the powerful, were at ease in Zion (6:1), complacent, rather than repentant. In reality, they had broken covenant with God and the Lord’s response was to warn them that He will overthrow the purpose and prosperity of any nation that sinfully separates itself from Him, even the covenant nation.
Amos the Man
1. The name Amos means burden-bearer. As we said, he was born in the south, in Tekoa.
2. He emphasizes that he was not a professional prophet (trained in a prophetic school) nor was he from a priestly family. He was an ordinary working man called into prophetic service (7:14,15).
3. Character:
a. Amos must have been a man of spiritual integrity. God passed over full time prophets and priests to call him. God saw him as a choice vessel, holy, prepared for service.
1) We see his integrity in his willingness to prophesy judgment in a time of prosperity.
2) We see his integrity in his willingness to proclaim the word of the living God in the midst of a multitude of false priests, lying prophets and and false gods.
b. He was a hard working man who made his living by the sweat of his brow. He was a blue collar worker, a shepherd and farmer.
c. He was courageous, going to another country, standing before a powerful, successful king and delivering a hard message in a time of prosperity and success.
d. He was knowledgeable. He understood the world of his day.
1) He understood secular political reality: his prophecies include Damascus (1:3-5), Philistia (1:6-8), Tyre (1:9,10), Edom 1:11,12), Ammon 1:13-15) and Moab 2:1-3)
2) He understood spiritual reality. He had a good knowledge of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and was able to relate the word of God to the reality of his generation. He discerned clearly the spiritual condition of the people, understood that relationship with a righteous God required righteous living. He understood that material prosperity is not necessarily synonymous with the blessing and favor of God.
e. He was dedicated to God, willing to go wherever God sent him. This enabled God to choose him for service in Israel.
f. Amos understood that he was not speaking his own thoughts or ideas nor was he prophesying in his own authority. Five times in chapter one and three times in chapter two he says, Thus says the Lord (1:3,6,9,11,13 2:1,4,6). In chapter three, Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you (3:1) and Therefore, thus says the Lord God (3:11). He continually uses the pronoun I in reference to the Lord, signifying that God was speaking through Him (example: Thus says the Lord, ‘I will…’ (1:3).
He attributes his visions to the Lord, Thus the Lord God showed me (7:1). Amos was confident that the living God was the source of his message.
Work and Message:
God called Amos to the northern kingdom to warn the people concerning the consequences of their sin. He also spoke prophetic warnings to the nations around Israel. The message was simple and direct:
1. Forsake your sin, turn from sin through sincere repentance.
2. Seek the Lord, heed His commands.
3. There is a day of judgment coming for all who will not turn and repent.
Amos was a contemporary of Hosea, a man of Israel who ministered powerfully in Israel. God called Amos, a man from the south to speak to the people of the north which gave him a different perspective — looking at the spiritual and moral values of the culture from outside. Amos was sent to Bethel, a spiritual center of the northern kingdom. It should also be noted that in prophesying to Gentile nations, Amos revealed that God is sovereign over all people groups and kingdoms, that His compassion extends to everyone as does His justice.
Exposition:
1:1 “The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa, which he envisioned in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Amos establishes his ministry in the historical context of time and place. He was a shepherd from Tekoa ministering during the reigns of Uzziah king of Judah, and … Jeroboam … king of Israel. Two years before the earthquake adds historical authenticity to his ministry.
Note the words, The words of Amos … which he envisioned in visions (which he saw in visions). He was given visionary insight into the mind and message of God for his generation. His prophetic ministry was not based on opinions or theories but on the word of God which he saw in visions. He sees the truthful reality of the word which he hears from God, the word which he is commanded to speak to his generation.
1:2 “He said, ‘The Lord roars from Zion and from Jerusalem He utters His voice; and the shepherds’ pasture grounds mourn, and the summit of Carmel dries up.’”
The Lord roars — the God of Israel speaks with unmistakeable clarity. He is not hiding truth. It is not impossible to hear Him or to know His truth. The problem, as Paul reveals in Romans 1:18, is that people suppress the truth and invent false gods whose message they can control.
Who is this roaring God? The God who is known and worshipped in Zion, Jerusalem. This is Yahweh, the mighty God of the covenant people. Though He was worshipped in Jerusalem, His voice thunders all the way to Carmel to the north. Indeed, as we will see in the following verses, His voice thunders to the surrounding nations. He is God of all the earth, even if the nations do not honor Him as God.
The name Carmel means orchard planted with vine and fruit trees / orchard of God. But even the fertile vineyards of the Promised Land wither when the judgment of God is poured out. Creation responds to the voice of Creator God: The shepherd's pasture grounds mourn. The prophet announces that the present season of drought is nothing other than the judgment of God.
In the following prophecies of judgement, notice the repetition, like the tolling of a bell: for three transgressions ... and for four. This may be a poetic device — three representing the fulness of divine wrath and four representing the overflowing of wrath. This also speaks of the continuous, unending nature of the transgression. It is unceasing. The word transgressions — pesa — refers not merely to sin but to revolt, rebellion against authority.
1:3 “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they threshed Gilead with implements of sharp iron.’
Yahweh speaks a Word against Damascus. This city was the capital of Aram, present day Syria. Though this was a foreign people, nevertheless, they existed as a people by God’s sovereign will and purpose. Though the Arameans were generational enemies of Israel and were not in covenant with Yahweh and worshipped false gods, they were still accountable to the true God. God judges the nations whether or not they know and recognize His authority. But God also warns them, calls them to repent, because He is a God of mercy and prefers grace to judgment.
I will not revoke (or turn back) its punishment: judgment seems inevitable, as if it is already released. However, if the people of Damascus had heard the Word and truly repented, would not God have forgiven, restrained His judgement? Certainly He would and He does. But God knew their hearts, knew they would not repent, so now judgement is inevitable.
Why? They had threshed Gilead with implements of sharp iron. Gilead was the territory east of the Jordan, occupied by the Israelite tribes of Manasseh and Gad. There had been constant wars between Israel and Aram over the years and evidently, the Arameans had not only defeated Israel but had also carried out atrocities on a conquered people. God had allowed their victory as a judgement against His wayward covenant people but the Syrians had exceeded what God purposed and committed abominations. In doing so, they had expanded beyond the boundaries God had set for them and God, under whose sovereign rule they existed, will judge them.
1:4 “So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael and it will consume the citadels of Ben-hadad.”
Ben-hadad may have been a royal title, meaning son of Hadad (Hadad was an Aramean god.) However, there is also evidence that a king of Aram named Ben-hadad had been murdered by a man named Hazael who then seized the throne. But whoever is sitting on the throne and how he got there is not relevant. Yahweh says, I will send fire... I will consume. The sovereign God takes responsibility for exercising judgment over the Arameans.
1:5 “‘I will also break the gate bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter, from Beth-eden; so the people of Aram will go exiled to Kir,’ Says the Lord.”
I will break the gate bar — the defenses in which they trusted are powerless before God. God will cut off the inhabitant, which speaks of death and exile. They are not owners of the land, only stewards. It is God’s land. The Lord will cut off him who holds the scepter — the king. Whoever sits on the throne is not sovereign. God is. God is sovereign over all nations, governments and people. Though the nations worship other gods, the true and living God will still hold them accountable.
Paul speaks to this in Acts 17:26, reminding us that God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.
This prophecy of judgment on Damascus was accomplished in 732 BC by the Assyrian army, only a few years after the ministry of Amos. But it is worth noting that an interval of 20 years or more between the prophetic warning and final destruction demonstrates the grace and mercy of God. Yahweh announced judgment but gave the people time to respond.
1:6-8 “This is what the Lord says: ‘For three offenses of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke its punishment, because they led into exile an entire population to turn them over to Edom. So I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza and it will consume her citadels. I will also cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter, from Ashkelon; I will even unleash My power upon Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,’ says the Lord God.”
The Lord pronounces judgment over the Philistines living in Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron. They had acted cruelly in selling people into slavery. They may have been an instrument of God’s judgement but exceeded God’s purpose or they may have acted entirely outside the will of God. But again, God says I will not revoke its punishment (1:6). Judgment is certain because the people have sinned and evidently, are unwilling to repent.
I will send fire on the wall .. consume her citadels, speaks of the destruction of the defenses in which they trusted, their military power and strength. Nothing is sufficient to withstand the judgment of God, other than sincere, humble repentance.
I will cut off the inhabitant speaks of the death and deportation of the inhabitants. The entire nation shared in sin, sin rooted in the worship of false gods, which idolatry always results in corruption. The entire nation will share in the judgment of God.
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I will unleash My power (hand) speaks of God’s personal involvement in the process of judgement. History will record this as a military defeat, a chapter in the history of nations. But it is the hand of God moving in human history.
The remnant … will perish. God establishes the times and seasons of nations. God lifts up one and pulls down another.
1:9,10 “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of Tyre and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they delivered up an entire population to Edom and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. So I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre and it will consume her citadels.’”
Yahweh pronounces judgment over the people of Tyre (a city still existing in modern day Lebanon, just to the north of Israel). They sold people into slavery, probably including Israelites. They may or may not have been instruments of judgement but they exceeded the bounds of God’s judgement and violated the covenant of brotherhood. This covenant is probably a reference to the long standing relationship between Tyre and Israel, going back to the time of King David and King Hiram, who supplied building material for the Jerusalem temple.
God will destroy their wall, their citadels — their defenses. This did not happen until 330 BC, when Alexander the Great destroyed the city. Nevertheless, judgment was pronounced and eventually carried out, though centuries later.
1:11,12 “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword, while he stifled his compassion; his anger also tore continually, and he maintained his fury forever. So I will send fire upon Teman and it will consume the citadels of Bozrah.’”
The Edomites were descended from Esau, brother of Jacob and grandson of Abraham. For centuries there had been war between Edom and Israel but at some point, the Edomites had acted with a fury that violated God's boundary for them. They acted without any compassion, evidently against their brother nation. God has not only sets physical and historical (time) boundaries but also moral boundaries for nations. Though nations and people violate the moral will of God, God is still Lord of history and Judge of the nations.
The Edomite defenses will be consumed. Teman was the chief city in the south of Edom, Bozrah in the north. Judgment will be poured out on the entire nation from south to north. Again, there is only one defense against the judgment of God and that is repentance. Notice that God is speaking to people who are not in covenant with Him. Whether they recognize His Lordship or not, God is still Lord, Sovereign and Judge of all people groups and nations.
1:13-15 “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their borders. So I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah and it will consume her citadels amid war cries on the day of battle, and a storm on the day of tempest. Their king will go into exile, he and his princes together,’ says the Lord.”
The Ammonites were a people group who lived east of the Jordan, in proximity to the tribes of Gad and Reuben (the area known as Gilead). Over the centuries there had been constant warfare between the Israelites and the Ammonites. At some point, the Ammonites committed atrocities against the Israelites. As a result, the Lord promises to destroy her defenses and abolish the government in a storm of judgment. The leadership of the nation, though ungodly idol worshippers, will be held accountable to the moral law of God.
The king and his princes will go into exile — they will lose the privilege of government. All authority is from God and God can remove a king's authority at any time. As Daniel said in reference to the Lord, It is He who changes the times and the epochs (seasons); He removes kings and establishes kings (Daniel 2:21).
For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation; But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another (Psalm 75:6,7).
An angel proclaimed to King Nebuchadnezzar, that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world. He gives them to anyone he chooses— even to the lowliest of people (Dan. 4:17).
The Lord destroyed the defenses of the Ammonites, removed the king and his princes from the land. It is not their land. It is God's land and God sets the time of their habitation.
This is still true in our day. God is Lord over nations, governments, presidents and prime ministers. God is still calling to nations and to the men and women who comprise the nations. We may wonder at the patience of God but He is still sovereign and almighty, Lord of all lords and King of all kings. In the fullness of His timing, He will fulfill His purpose.
Study Questions:
1. How would you describe the character of Amos’?
2. Amos has a word of judgment even for nations that do not know or worship the Lord. What does this tell us about God and the world we are living in ?
2:1-3 “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of Moab and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime. So I will send fire upon Moab and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth; and Moab will die amid tumult, with war cries and the sound of a trumpet. I will also cut off the judge from her midst and slay all her princes with him’ says the Lord.”
Amos continues to speak the Lord’s pronouncement of judgment against the surrounding nations. Notice again his confidence that this is God’s word, it is God speaking through him, as the Apostle Peter reminds us, Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God (2 Peter 1:20,21, NLT).
The words, For three transgressions of Moab and for four, is a way of representing a continuing action, the fulness of transgression, not only a lack of repentance but an obstinate, stubborn willful attitude of defiance against God’s moral law. God is patient, merciful, ordaining seasons of grace. He gives people and nations time to turn from their sin and embrace mercy. But there is a time when people and societies have become so hardened in their sin and rebellion that they not only will not turn to the Lord, they cannot. The Lord then gives them over to their choices and He pours out His judgment (see for instance Romans 1:18-32. Three times Paul says, God gave them over).
In fact, Paul says, regarding those who did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved, that God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, (2 Thes. 2:10,11). It is dangerous to reject truth.
Notice again that the Lord is addressing a pagan nation. The Moabites, descended from Lot and his eldest daughter, lived in the region east of the Dead Sea and worshipped false gods. But that is not to say that they were entirely ignorant of God’s moral law. As Paul reveals in Romans 1:18-32, the knowledge of God as Creator and Moral Judge is available to all people and therefore, God holds all people accountable for their choices. In desecrating the bones of the king of Edom, the Moabites were committing a moral abomination and the Lord held them accountable. God upholds His moral law even among idolatrous, godless people.
The word judge probably refers to the king and in saying that He will cut off the judge from her midst and slay all her princes with him, the Lord is saying that He will put an end to the laws of a lawless nation and pull down the government of a nation which would not submit to the governance of the Lord. Daniel says of the Lord, He controls the course of world events; He removes kings and sets up other kings (Daniel 2:21). Isaiah reminds us, He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless (Isa. 40:23).
Through Amos the Lord reveals Himself as Lord of all nations. He is not just the Lord of His covenant people. He is Lord over all people, whether they worship Him or not. He upholds His moral law among all nations, for all people are accountable to know Him and obey Him.
2:4 “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His statutes; their lies also have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.’”
Amos was a citizen of the southern kingdom, Judah, though most of his ministry was in the northern kingdom of Israel. However, he has a word from the Lord for Judah. Again the phrase, for three transgressions of Judah and for four, reveals a history of willful disregard for the commandments of God. But this is not a pagan nation. This is Judah, a nation in covenant with Yahweh, a nation entrusted with holy Scripture, divine revelation.
The foreign nations were judged because they sinned against the law of God written in creation and in their conscience. But Judah had far more that that — the holy Scriptures and generations of prophetic revelation and exhortation. Therefore Judah comes under judgement because the covenant people of God have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His statutes. The word reject means to despise, refuse, to regard as worthless. It is not that they are ignorant — they were given the Law through Moses. They are a spiritually rebellious people by willful choice. They have willfully rejected the Law of God and in so doing have broken covenant relationship with God.
What caused them to reject the word of the Lord? Their lies have led them astray. The Word of God leads us in a straight path. Lies lead us astray. When the truth is available and known, and people knowingly reject the truth while embracing lies, deception is inevitable and then come judgment and destruction. In fact, judgment is greater when revelation is greater — we are accountable for the light we have been given.
Jesus said, in addressing a town in which most of the people had rejected Him, And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that occurred in you had occurred in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you (Matt. 11:23,24). Judgment is greater when revelation is greater.
There is a terrible cost when truth is despised. Again, in Romans chapter one the Apostle Paul reminds us that the truth of God’s existence and His moral law is evident, available, but people suppress the truth in unrighteousness (1:18). The result is a downward spiral into spiritual darkness and moral corruption which Paul then outlines (see Romans 1:18-32),
In Amos’ generation, it is obvious that the priests and Levites had failed to adequately teach the word of God to the people of God. It is obvious that the judges and governmental leaders had failed to enforce the law. It is obvious that false prophets had misled the people and perverted the word of God. What is the cost when men and women of leadership, authority and influence lead a nation astray? Isaiah reminds us, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest (4:6). But it is not only the priests who will be judged. Judgment was coming on the entire nation. However, judgment would be greater for those who had led the nation into darkness.
2:5 “So I will send fire upon Judah and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.”
The military defenses of Judah will provide no security against the judgment of God. Yahweh will consume their citadels and palaces of power the same as any Gentile nation. In fact, judgement is greater if light is greater. So it was that in 586 BC the nation of Judah was completely destroyed by the Babylonians. The temple was desecrated and torn down, Jerusalem reduced to rubble.
2:6 “Thus says the Lord, ‘For three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals.’”
Amos now addresses the northern kingdom of Israel. Again, the pattern of sin is long standing and willful, For three transgressions of Israel and for four. The promised judgement is not only because of disobedience to God. It is also because of the result of disobedience. Amos links spiritual sin with social sin, because they sell the righteous for money and the needy for a pair of sandals.
The righteous — those who were blameless, innocent, upright, were being sold into slavery because of debt, which was a violation of the Law of Moses. There is a strong hint here of the corruption of justice — if the righteous are being sold into slavery then justice is being sold to the highest bidder and justice decays.
The needy for a pair of sandals may be a figure of speech referring to trivial debt or may be literally true — the owner of the debt was selling fellow Israelites into slavery even for so little as the price of a pair of sandals. Loss of relationship with the God of the covenant led these men to dishonor the poor of the covenant.
Sin against the poor is cause for the judgement of God. Economic oppression involves the devaluing of life, treating people as though they were a commodity, a means for acquiring greater wealth. There were those in Israel at this time who had become quite wealthy but prosperity was purchased at a terrible cost: the compromise of justice and the impoverishment of many for the benefit of the few. When an economy falls to this level, God will judge.
It is not that God is opposed to wealth. But wealth gained through unjust, oppressive practices will invoke the judgment of God. The law of Moses contained clear commands regarding treatment of the poor. If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks … You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings (Deut. 15:7,8,10)
You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry and My anger will be kindled (Ex. 22:22,23)
Do not move the ancient boundary or go into the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you (Prov. 23:10,11)
One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed (Prov. 19:17).
Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts (James 5:4)
God judges the wealthy when wealth is gained unjustly. Also, prosperity can dull spiritual sensibility. Jesus spoke of the deceitfulness of riches (Mark 4:19). Wealth can deceive us that we are autonomous beings, that we have no need of God, that we can make our own laws, that we can treat others any way we choose. Preoccupation with wealth can choke out the word of God, diminish its impact in our soul (Luke 8:14). Wealth is not evil but as Paul reminded Timothy, the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil (I Tim.6:10). So it was for that generation of Israelites.
2:7 “These who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the helpless (trample helpless people in the dust) also turn aside the way of the humble (shove the oppressed out of the way); and a man and his father resort to the same girl in order to profane My holy name.”
When wealth becomes an idol, all manner of evil will follow. They trample on the heads of the poor and the humble and a man and his father resort to the same girl. This last phrase may refer to the use of temple prostitutes in the fertility worship which dominated the northern kingdom. Or this may refer to the shameful abuse of female servants by fathers and sons. But notice that these sins of immorality are listed alongside the trampling of the poor. Both profane God’s holy name. Having turned from God, they fail to recognize the value of the poor and the value and sacredness of their own sexuality. In their arrogant greed and lust, they devalue all of life, their own being and others.
2:8 “On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.”
On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar could be translated, At their religious festivals, they lounge in clothing their debtors put up as security. It was common to take someone’s garment as a pledge on a debt but the Law of Moses required that they be returned before sunset (Ex. 22:26,27). The poor may only have had one robe with which to stay warm but so great was the greed of the wealthy oppressors, they were violating the law and keeping the garments of their debtors.
They stretch out beside every altar refers to the worship of false gods. They were laying before the altars of their false gods on robes obtained unjustly from the poor. Notice that the worship of false gods leads to the sin of greed as Paul reminds us, Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry (Col. 3:5). The worship of wealth is just another expression of idol worship and always leads to social expressions of sin including the oppression of the poor.
This phrase, in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined, refers to the fact that this was an agrarian society and temple fines were paid with grain or wine or other agricultural products. But these flagrant sinners were taking that which should have been devoted to the Lord and consuming it on their own appetites, plundering the temple treasury.
We see here a complete loss of reverence for the holy. Is it any coincidence that they were losing respect for human life as they lost reverence for the holiness of God? The more callous people are to God, the more callous they are to other people.
2:9,10 “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, though his height was like the height of cedars and he was strong as the oaks; I even destroyed his fruit above and his root below. It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, and I led you in the wilderness forty years that you might take possession of the land of the Amorite.”
The Lord reminds them that He delivered them from Egyptian slavery, led them through the wilderness and brought them into the land of promise, dispossessing the Amorites (who represent all the Canaanite tribes). It is good to remember our journey with the Lord. Who God has been and what He has done predicts who He will be and what He will do. He is unchanging in His faithful, covenant love. He is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebr. 13:8).
Implied in this remembrance of covenant faithfulness is the question, “Considering who I have been and all that I have done for you, how can you be unfaithful to Me?
2:11, 12 “Then I raised up some of your sons to be prophets and some of your young men to be Nazirites. Is this not so, O sons of Israel?” declares the Lord. But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and you commanded the prophets saying, ‘You shall not prophesy!’”
Nazrites were men consecrated wholly unto the Lord. One aspect of their consecration was abstinence from all wine. Prophets were consecrated truth speakers. Consecrated people and truth speakers are God’s gift to a nation, an expression of His love and grace. Yet in spite of God’s faithful, covenant love to Israel, they have been busy corrupting consecrated people and commanding the prophets not to prophesy. Their life as the covenant people is characterized by corruption and intimidation of holy people rather than submission. Rather than submit to a holy God, they seek to corrupt holy people. Rather than submit to the Word of God, they seek to silence those who speak that Word.
It is grace that motivates God to confront us with truth. His desire is to deliver us from the catastrophe of our self-destructive choices and from His judgment. But when we silence truth speakers and seek to corrupt holy people, what is left but the fulfillment of self-destructive choices leading to social chaos and God’s judgment?
2:13-16 “Behold, I am weighted down beneath you as a wagon is weighted down when filled with sheaves. Flight will perish from the swift, and the stalwart will not strengthen his power, nor the mighty man save his life. He who grasps the bow will not stand his ground, the swift of foot will not escape, nor will he who rides the horse save his life. Even the bravest among the warriors will flee naked in that day, declares the Lord.”
Their sins were so great, God compares Himself to a wagon weighted down when filled with sheaves. Their sins were so weighty it was as though they were pressing down on God. In committing these sins, the nation has separated itself from the Lord, their source of protection. Their strength is not in themselves, not in their military power but in God. Separated from God, the warrior has no strength nor will the mighty man save his life. They will flee from the oncoming terrors of God’s judgment. It is a matter of historical fact that in 722 the Assyrian army completely destroyed Israel.
Study Questions
1. Is there a connection between idol worship and oppression of the poor?
2. What is the cost when men and women in positions of leadership violate the moral law of God?
3:1,2 “Hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt: ‘You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.’”
Although this word is primarily for the northern kingdom, Israel, it includes the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt. This includes Judah. The Lord had chosen the Hebrew people from all the people groups of the world — You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth. The word chosen is yada, often translated know. It is the same word as in Genesis 4:1, Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived. Yada means far more than possessing information about someone. Yada denotes intimate relationship resulting in fruitfulness.
God had intimately communicated His life to His covenant people in a unique relationship. Of course God knows all people and all nations, but His relationship with Israel was and is unique. They alone had been chosen for covenant relationship with God. They alone had seen the wonders of God in delivering them from slavery and leading them through a hostile wilderness. They alone had been given the holy Scriptures. They alone had witnessed the divine intervention of God in the affairs of their history.
This covenant choosing involved unmeasured blessing but also included the obligation of righteous obedience. In worshipping pagan idols, in their greed, lust, oppression of the poor, injustice and immorality, they had brought God, their covenant partner, into intimate contact with sin, corruption and most terribly, with demonically infused false gods.
Covenant relationship with God involves privilege but also responsibility and did not exclude the people from the Lord's judgement. To the contrary, such an deliberate profaning of intimate covenant life made judgement inevitable.
3:3 “Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment (or unless they have agreed to meet)?”
The word agreed — yaad — means to make an appointment, to gather together. In Exodus 21:8,9 it means betrothed (though not the same word as in Hosea 2:19,20 which is aras — a pledge to marry.) God is saying that though Israel has been chosen by God for a special purpose in history, though they have entered into covenant relationship with God, they are not in agreement with God, they are not gathered to Him, not living in the reality of betrothal to God.
There is a cost to this disobedience, this rebellion. If they are not walking in agreement with God then they cannot walk in the fulfilling of His purpose. We cannot fulfill the purpose of God if we are not walking in agreement with the God who has purposed our lives. We cannot enjoy His blessing or experience His resources if we are separated from Him by willful sin.
3:4,5 “Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion growl from his den unless he has captured something? Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground when there is no bait in it? Does a trap spring up from the earth when it captures nothing at all?”
In these verses we hear something of the backdrop of Amos’ life. As a shepherd, he had heard the lions roar in the night watches. He had trapped birds to feed his family. The Lord now applies these lessons to his prophetic ministry.
Why is the Lord calling to the nation? Because Israel is as vulnerable as a lamb in a pasture in which prowling lions roar over their prey. They are like a bird stumbling into a baited trap. This is a dangerous, fallen world in violent rebellion against its Creator. Demonically empowered social institutions, and entire nations, false religions and false philosophies are mobilized for the destruction of God’s purposes and God’s covenant people. When covenant people move out from under the covenant covering of God, they open themselves up, make themselves vulnerable to the destructive purposes of demonic strategies and powers.
Because the Lord loves Israel, He calls to the nation.
3:6-8 “If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it? Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?
The Lord does nothing unless He reveals it to His servants the prophets and when the Lord speaks, the prophet must speak. Amos was under divine compulsion, A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?
Jeremiah also was driven by the Spirit of truth to prophesy to his generation. He declared, But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it (Jere. 20:9).
The Apostle Paul knew this same holy fire: For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel (I Cor. 9:16). When the Jewish governing body demanded that Peter and John cease proclaiming Jesus, they responded, Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard (Acts 4:19,20).
In every generation the Spirit of Truth rises up in men and women and demands utterance.
Just as the lion roars for a reason, so God speaks for a reason and when God speaks through His prophets, we do well to listen with reverence and humility. This is the expression of grace — God warns of judgment before He judges because this is the heart of God, as He said through the prophet Ezekiel, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezek. 33:11).
It is to the shame of the covenant people that they would not listen, tried instead to silence the prophets (see Amos 2:12 7:12,13). This was a fatal error.
3:9,10 “Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod and on the citadels in the land of Egypt and say, ‘Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria and see the great tumults within her and the oppressions in her midst (or the oppressed within her). But they do not know how to do what is right,’ declares the Lord, ‘these who hoard up violence and devastation in their citadels.’”
The Lord not only summons the people of Israel. He summons the pagan Philistines of Ashdod and Egypt to witness the great tumults (chaos, panic, confusion) and oppression (or the oppressed ) within Israel. The power brokers of Israel thought they were storing up wealth and comfort and luxury in their palaces of power and their fortresses. Actually, they were storing up violence and devastation.
An alternate translation reads, Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence. Surely this will not lead to security but to judgment.
They thought they were free to live autonomous lives as a law unto themselves; thought they were free to silence the prophets and ignore the word of God. But they were only storing up violence (hamas, destruction, ruthlessness) and devastation (sod — destruction, desolation, oppression) unto themselves.
They did not understand that in a universe designed by a moral and just God, a universe governed not only by natural law but also by moral law, when we violate justice and morality, we are working against the grain of the universe, working against the Almighty, All-Wise Creator. Choices have consequences. We really do reap what we sow.
3:11 ‘Therefore, thus says the Lord God, an enemy, even one surrounding the land, will pull down your strength from you and your citadels will be looted.”
Amos correctly interprets the events of his day in theo-political terms. History is best understood from a God-centered (Theo-centric) perspective. It is God who oversees the events of history and the ultimate outcomes. An enemy (the Assyrians) will destroy the strength of Israel and loot the plunder which they themselves had stolen from the poor. But this is not a random act of military violence. The Assyrians are an instrument of God.
Amos preached a new kind of patriotism, valuing the claims of God over the claims of tribe or nation or political party. His loyalty is rooted in the Kingdom of God rather than in the petty fiefdoms and fragile estates of mortal kings and princes. He is not a left wing prophet or a right wing prophet. His is the grand middle way of covenant relationship with the living God.
Many Israelites identified their nation with the kingdom of God, assuming that because they were the covenant people, they were continually under the blessing and protection of God, no matter how they lived. Amos reveals that insofar as Israel, or any nation, walks in agreement with God and His purpose, they are part of God’s kingdom purpose. But when we separate ourselves from God, we separate ourselves from His purpose and His kingdom.
3:12 “Thus says the Lord, ‘Just as the shepherd snatches from the lion’s mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear, so will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away— with the corner of a bed and the cover of a couch!”
When the Assyrian army invades, only a remnant of the population will be salvaged from the coming destruction and nothing of value will be saved, just bits and pieces of former wealth.
3:13,14 “‘Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,’ declares the Lord God, the God of hosts. ‘For on the day that I punish Israel’s transgressions, I will also punish the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and they will fall to the ground.’”
Bethel was the primary location of idol worship in the northern kingdom, Israel. The Lord promises that those places where compromised religion was practiced will be destroyed. Religion that fails to reconcile people to God, indeed, that keeps them pacified and deceived in their separation from God, will be judged and destroyed by God. Though in every generation the strongholds of false religion seem so powerful, so popular, we can be assured of their ultimate destruction.
3:15 “I will also smite the winter house together with the summer house; the houses of ivory will also perish and the great houses will come to an end,’ declares the Lord.’”
An alternate translation reads, And I will destroy the beautiful homes of the wealthy— their winter mansions and their summer houses, too— all their palaces filled with ivory,’ says the Lord (NLT).
Not only will the altars of false worship be destroyed. So will the mansions of those who gained their wealth through injustice and oppression. The store houses, the bank accounts, the currency of wealth which was gained at the expense of the poor and which cost the powerbrokers friendship with the God of all justice and mercy — it will all be destroyed.
It is not that God is opposed to wealth. There is wealth that comes from God and is blessed by God. But when wealth is gathered through oppression, injustice and deceit, God does not bless this but He does judge it. Therefore Jesus warns us against the deceitfulness of riches (Mark 4:19). And the Apostle Paul warns us that the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil (I Tim. 6:10).
In overturning the altars of their temple and the houses of their luxury, God is smashing the oppressive economic system and the deceiving religious system that supported it. They build winter and summer houses to protect against the forces of nature. But the God who is Lord of nature and Lord of all will shatter both. And so He did when the Assyrians destroyed Israel in 722 BC.
President Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address, delivered on March 4,1865, said,
“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”
And so it was that when the Civil War ended, the economy of the slave-owning South was shattered.
Adolf Hitler boasted of a Thousand Year Reich while committing abominations against God and humanity. But when WW II ended, the economy of Germany was as the city of Berlin — dust and ashes.
So it will be at the end of this age. The wealth of this God rejecting, idolatrous world will lie in ruins and an angel will shout, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality (14:8).
But praise God, that is not the final word, for the fall of Babylon means that The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).
Study Questions
1. Amos has a Theo-centric view of history. What does that mean? (see v.11).
2. Israel, the northern kingdom, was eventually destroyed by God. Why?
4:1-3 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring now, that we may drink!’ The Lord God has sworn by His holiness, ‘Behold, the days are coming upon you when they will take you away with meat hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks. You will go out through breaches in the walls, each one straight before her, and you will be cast to Harmon,’ declares the Lord.”
Bashan was a region in Israel known for its fertile pasture lands. Amos addresses the women who were married to the wealthy power brokers of Israel, who lived in luxury due to their husband’s oppression of the poor, who benefited from economic injustice. He compares them to grazing cows and declares to them that the holy God has sworn that they will be judged because they are complicit in the sins of their husbands, no doubt urging them on in their sin.
They will be taken away in captivity, will lose their place of privilege, prosperity and pleasure. The walls of defense on which they had depended — economic and military power, will be breached, will be broken and they will be taken away as slaves.
There is a universal principle here. No economic system built on injustice, no military power designed to protect the unjust oppressor, can stand against the judgment of Almighty God.
4:4,5 “Enter Bethel and transgress; in Gilgal multiply transgression! Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, make them known. For so you love to do, you sons of Israel,” declares the Lord God
An alternate translation reads, “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel. Keep on disobeying at Gilgal. Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days.
Present your bread made with yeast as an offering of thanksgiving. Then give your extra voluntary offerings so you can brag about it everywhere! This is the kind of thing you Israelites love to do,” says the Sovereign Lord (NLT).
Bethel and Gilgal had once been sacred places in the history of the covenant nation. It was at Bethel that Jacob had seen, in a dream, angels ascending and descending a ladder and above the ladder stood the Lord who made promises to Jacob. In the morning, Jacob named the place Bethel which means, the house of God.
Gilgal was a place of rededication to the Lord, after Israel had crossed the Jordan River into the land of promise.
But now Bethel and Gilgal were centers for the worship of the fertility idols which had seduced Israel away from the worship of the true God. It is not that the Lord is inviting them to sin. Rather, He is mocking their desire to worship gods that are not gods, gods that are infused with demonic presence — Bring your sacrifices every morning … For so you love to do. They loved the exercise of religious ritual, though they were worshipping the powers of darkness.
There may also have been some worship of Yahweh. They were surely bringing their tithes, in obedience to the Mosaic Law. But worship of the true God in the context of unrepented sin, and worship of Yahweh along with the worship of demonically infused idols, is nothing more than multiplying sin. The Lord is saying, in effect, “Come to your holy place and widen the breach of separation between yourself and the God you profess to worship.”
Living unto themselves in willful disobedience of God's law, they then worshipped God along with their idols as if to draw God into comfortable fellowship with their sin and their false gods. Their religious ritual was an attempt to stay on the right side of the Almighty, to bribe Him and appropriate just enough of His power and blessing as would serve their self-centered purpose. How similar to the sympathetic magic of pagan religion, which attempts to satisfy the pagan gods, seduce them, impress them and obtain from them some favor. This is what the fertility religions involved — bring the gods sacrifices of the flock and the field, even sacrifice children, as a way of obtaining favor, fertility.
The goal of these religious but ungodly Israelites was to draw God into their social and religious circle, to seat the true and living God among their pantheon of false gods, to make God one of their own, to obtain favor from God while continuing to live lives which violated and offended God's character and covenant. Contrast this to the reality of the holy God, transcendent, wholly other, sovereign over all, who requires complete surrender to His righteous will.
4:6-8 “‘But I gave you also cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of bread in all your places, yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord. Furthermore, I withheld the rain from you while there were still three months until harvest. Then I would send rain on one city and on another city I would not send rain; one part would be rained on, while the part not rained on would dry up. So two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, but would not be satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord.”
Cleanness of teeth refers to famine brought about because of drought. God allowed a series of natural disasters to come upon the people for the purpose of bringing them back into covenant relationship. God allows the consequence of unfaithfulness to be experienced by unfaithful people. They have broken faith with the Lord, have come out from under His covenant blessings and protection, and are now experiencing the reality of living in a fallen world without God.
So in one sense this is an example of passive judgment — God allowing sinners to experience the real consequences of their sin. But this is also active judgement — I gave you also cleanness of teeth and I withheld the rain. “I did this”, the Lord says, demonstrating His superiority over the fertility gods. The people are experiencing drought and famine in spite of their worship of these gods who supposedly bring fruitfulness. In fact, these false gods do not exist and the demonic presence behind them is powerless in the face of the true and living God.
Harmful consequences of sin produce pressure. God brings the pressure of judgment on the nation to awaken the nation, to motivate people to repent and return. So this is also an act of mercy — God attempting to draw sinners back to Himself through the experience of the consequences of sin. But they would not return, evidenced by the recurring phrase, Yet you have not returned to me. To in the Hebrew is adh which speaks of arrival at one’s goal. The phrase could be translated, Yet you have not returned all the way to me.
4:9 “I smote you with scorching wind and mildew; and the caterpillar was devouring your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees; yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
The Lord allowed the burning desert wind to wither their crops, rotting mildew / mold to ruin their crops and caterpillars (possibly an immature locust) to devour what remained. Yet you have not returned to Me.
4:10 “I sent a plague among you after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men by the sword along with your captured horses, and I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” declares the Lord.
Even as the Lord had once poured out plagues upon idol worshipping Egypt to deliver the covenant people from slavery, so the Lord now pours out plagues upon idol worshiping Israel to deliver them from the enslavement of their idols, their injustice and their immorality. But Israel is more guilty than ancient Egypt, for Israel has had more light, more revelation. To whom much is given, much is required.
The Lord also breaks their military might on which they had trusted — their horses, their young soldiers. Plague, destruction, ‘Yet in all this, you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord.
4:11 “I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze; yet you have not returned to Me,’ declares the Lord.”
Overthrew is a word that speaks of the destruction inflicted by an invader. It carries a sense of being demolished.
A firebrand snatched from a blaze refers to God’s merciful preservation of a remnant of His people even as He judged them. He preserved the nation from complete extinction. Yet even in this experience of calamity and mercy, they would not return.
God had revealed Himself as the Lord who created and made covenant with people. He had demonstrated His patience, grace and mercy in calling to the people. He also reveals Himself as the God who overthrows and destroys. He reveals Himself as Lord of nature and history who uses the forces of nature, working in history, to establish His purpose. In so doing, God uses the events of nature and history to reveal a deeper knowledge of Himself.
Notice the gradual escalation of judgment, the purpose of which is not to destroy but to mercifully awaken the people to their sin, to their imminent danger of destruction and to draw them back into covenant relationship with Himself wherein they may be delivered from destruction. In these acts of mercy, judgement and revelation, God was seeking to confront the people with those aspects of His character which they denied in their living.
Judgement was a means of divine revelation, as if the Lord is saying,”This is what I am like and this is how you must live if you will live in covenant with Me.” The Lord requires holiness and faithfulness of those who are in covenant relation to Himself. He requires justice toward fellow citizens. Israel’s refusal to see God as God is, to know God as God is, to receive His revelation and submit to His will, brought them to final judgement and this ultimate revelation of God as holy Judge.
4:12 ““Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”
Prepare to meet your God, Amos warns. But this was God’s original purpose in leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself (Ex. 19:4). God brought the people out of Egypt, unto Himself so they could know Him and serve Him. He showed them signs and wonders in the wilderness, gave them His Law so they could know Him. It was always God’s purpose to reveal Himself to His covenant people — the Lord their Healer, the Lord their Provider, the Lord their Defender, the Lord their Shepherd.
But Israel continually rejected the Lord. Now Israel will encounter the terrible revelation of judgment. This is an inevitable truth of history. If we do not meet God in the reality of faithful covenant life, then we will meet Him in the reality of our dying. If we will not meet Him in His mercy, then we will meet Him in His justice.
4:13 “For behold, He who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are His thoughts, He who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, the Lord God of hosts is His name.”
Who is this God who judges Israel? He is the Almighty God, the Omnipotent One who creates, who forms mountains and creates the wind (and in the previous verses, the God who destroys). The powers of nature which work to destroy also work to reveal the majesty of God who is sovereign over all creation.
This is the Self-revealing God who continually unveils His heart, His thoughts, His truth. He wants us to know Him, to know His ways, to understand how we can live in covenant relationship with Him. This is the Omniscient God who also declares to man what are His thoughts, who knows the secrets of our hearts. God's knowledge of man and revelation of Himself is central to this passage. God knows the truth about our sin and is righteous in His judgement. We cannot escape judgement by claiming ignorance of God, for He reveals Himself through His prophets, His written Word, through creation and in these last days, through His Son.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 1:20, For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us, In these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebr. 1:2,3).
Just as God revealed Himself clearly to Israel, so may He also be known in our day. It is His will that we know Him as Savior / Redeemer, that we enter into covenant with Him through faith in His Son our Lord. But if we will not know Him as Savior, we will know Him as judge.
Study Questions
1. It appears that Israel was mixing Yahweh worship with idol worship. What is God’s response to this?
2. God warns Israel of judgment because He is merciful. Are the judgment of God and the mercy of God contradictory or inconsistent?
5:1-3 “Hear this word which I take up for you as a dirge, O house of Israel: She has fallen, she will not rise again— the virgin Israel. She lies neglected on her land; there is none to raise her up. For thus says the Lord God, ‘The city which goes forth a thousand strong will have a hundred left, and the one which goes forth a hundred strong will have ten left to the house of Israel.’”
For thus says the Lord God — Amos knows he is speaking a message from God. Amos is the bearer of the message, not its author. He speaks with authority, commanding Israel to listen: Hear this Word.
This message is a dirge, a funeral lamentation, words of grief, not a joyful message. It will not be popular. The prophet overcame any temptation to proclaim the message in non-offensive, culturally correct, socially acceptable ways. The people wanted a prophet who would soothe them by speaking lies in the name of God. They wanted a messenger like the lying prophets and priests of Jeremiah’s day, whom the Lord described in this way, They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace (Jere. 6:14).
Amos will not compromise with popular demand. In fact, he may have delivered this message dressed in the garments of a mourner, bringing a visual, multi-media reality to the prophetic word. When prophetic word and prophetic deed are joined in a consecrated life, there is the possibility of transformative impact.
But no, the Lord is speaking to Israel as if the nation has already fallen. It is a funeral dirge, as if the nation is already dead. She has fallen, the Lord says, though not yet. She lies neglected on her land, though not yet. The population is diminished catastrophically, though not yet. The God who sees the future with perfect clarity has warned the nation of coming judgment and disaster, has called the nation to repent and return to covenant relationship but the nation has refused. The consequence of Israel’s immorality, injustice and idolatry will be the death of the nation — its government, its economy, its military, its culture, its false religion — everything destroyed.
Ezekiel prophesied many years after the fall of the northern kingdom, Israel. In fact, he was living in exile due to Babylon’s initial victory over Judah, the southern kingdom. There was still govenment in Judah, and in Jerusalem the temple still stood but final destruction was drawing near. So God anointed Ezekiel to speak prophetic words of warning to what remained of Judah. Incredibly, this is God’s description of the way people were hearing him, Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them (Ezkl. 33:32).
What unbelievable hardness of heart! God in His mercy called to the people but the prophetic word was nothing more than a pretty song. They would not hear. As a result, shortly after, Judah was entirely destroyed — the temple, the city of Jerusalem, all reduced to rubble.
So it was that God, in His kindness and patience, continued to call out to Israel through Amos — calling for repentance, promising forgiveness and restoration to all who would return, warning of judgment to all who would not return. But the people would not listen. It is not that God had run out of mercy or patience but the people have passed the point of hearing, as Jesus said to His generation, (in quoting Isaiah), Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them (Matt. 13:13-15).
God in His fathomless love for Israel has called and warned through Amos but the people would not respond. So now, Amos sings a funeral dirge.
5:4 “For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, ‘Seek Me that you may live.’”
Having prophesied the coming destruction of the nation, the Lord again calls to Israel. He simply cannot restrain His compassion. Seek Me the Lord implores. They were seeking wisdom, fertility, protection through their idols but these were altars of demonic presence, darkness and death. How ignorant and dangerous! They were seeking deliverance through the powers of darkness which only intended Israel’s destruction, as if praying to a storm as the storm draws near. The Lord in His mercy calls the nation to Himself — only in the Lord would they find refuge.
Seek Me that you may live is a cry from the very heart of God. This word seek means to search for God, long for God and turn to God with all our heart. The word carries a sense of desire for God Himself rather than merely desiring the blessings which God might bestow. The life which God intends for us is more than mere existence. It is life lived richly in right relationship with Him, life shared with God. It is the good life defined by more than bread but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
God is not hiding. He is the Self-revealing God who delights in drawing us to Himself. He promises through Jeremiah, You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart (Jere. 29:13). It is not that God cannot be found. It is that people suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). And having hidden truth from their souls, people then give their souls to false gods, leading to an inevitable slide into darkness.
Seek Me that you may live. Rejected by His covenant people, yet the Lord still calls, such is the unfathomable depth of the riches of His loving covenant faithfulness, His grace and mercy. If we would speak a prophetic word to our generation, we must hate sin but love the sinner, speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We must sing the Lord’s song but more, we must sing the Lord’s song with the Lord’s heart.
5:5-7 “But do not resort to Bethel and do not come to Gilgal, nor cross over to Beersheba; For Gilgal will certainly go into captivity and Bethel will come to trouble. Seek the Lord that you may live, or He will break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph, and it will consume with none to quench it for Bethel, for those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness down to the earth.”
Bethel and Gilgal were places where false gods were worshipped, where demonically anointed rituals were practiced under the leadership of false priests and false prophets. Beersheba was a holy place, located in the south, in Judah. It was there that Abraham had worshipped the Lord. Jacob had offered sacrifices to the Lord there and the Lord spoke to him in a vision. Evidently, some Israelites were making pilgrimage to Beersheba, worshipping the true God along with their idols at Bethel and Gilgal. The Lord confronts this mixing of darkness and light, warns them that this will only lead them to captivity.
The phrase will come to trouble may be translated, will be reduced to nothing. False gods which do not exist will eventually be revealed as nothing and those who have joined themselves to nothing will come to nothing.
The people of Israel were seeking wisdom, prosperity, fertility from their false gods while also offering the occasional sacrifice to the true God. They were seeking pleasure through immorality and seeking wealth through unjust, oppressive business practices — looking for blessing in all the wrong places. They were turning justice into wormwood (a bitter herb), casting righteousness down to the earth. God, in His limitless love, again calls them to Himself. Seek the Lord that you may live — this is the heart of God.
Today as much as ever, people seek security from their idols. Even those who worship the true God sometimes place their faith more in the ritual of God-worship than in God Himself. The living God wants us to learn to seek the reality of Himself. When we do not seek the true God, when we place our faith in gods that are not real or true, when we worship the right God in the wrong way, our sin offends God’s holiness, moves us out from His protection and blessing and calls forth His judgement.
But again, because God is so perfectly merciful, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Ptr. 3:9), He calls, He warns. The places of false worship will be consumed by the fire of judgment, those who pervert justice and righteousness will be cast down.
Judgment is an expression of holy justice but also mercy. In the destruction of their idolatrous altars, some of the people may see the vanity, the emptiness, the powerlessness of their false gods. In this loss of trust in that which is false, they might return to the God who is true.
5:8,9 ‘He who made the Pleiades and Orion and changes deep darkness into morning, who also darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is His name. It is He who flashes forth with destruction upon the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.”
Many false religions worship nature. Amos proclaims the God who creates nature, who rules over nature, who sustains all He created.
It is as if Amos is saying, “You who pervert justice, who worship gods that are not gods, who practice immorality, I call you now to hear the word of the God who is truly God: He is Creator of the heavens and earth, Creator of light and darkness, turning darkness into light and light into darkness. He creates but also destroys; gives light, truth, revelation, but also removes these gifts when people will not listen or see. He is our stronghold and refuge but also a destroyer of fortresses built on anything other than the power and truth of the living God.”
The Lord is His name — Yahweh, the God who has made covenant with you, the God who is faithful, the God who redeems and restores, the God who spoke a universe into being, the Uncreated Cause of all that exists — this is your God O Israel. Why would you strive against Him? He cannot be overcome. Considering the unfathomable wisdom and power of this mighty Creator-Redeemer, it is surely true that there is in the grain of things a seed which will create and recreate and cannot be overcome by the destroying powers of darkness.
This mighty Creator is also He who flashes forth with destruction upon the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress. When people have trusted in their fortresses, their strongholds — whether these fortresses are economic power or military or political power or false religion — God will break down these idols. But the destroying display of His justice is also an act of mercy. In this revelation of the weakness and inadequacy of their idols, it may be that people will be driven to find refuge in the strong shelter of the living God.
5:10 “They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks with integrity.”
Amos has called Israel to hear the word of God but they hate the truth speakers, the prophets, those who speak with integrity. They want the sweet lie, the self-justifying lie. They do not want prophets who will reprove their sin, rather, prophets who will approve their sin. They want a God who will bless their rebellion.
The Lord said to Isaiah, regarding the people of his day, For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, ‘You must not see visions’; and to the prophets, ‘You must not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions (Isa. 30:9,10).
The Apostle Paul said, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires (2 Tim. 4:3)
What terrible judgment awaits those who reject truth and demand lies. But what unspeakable judgment awaits those who speak lies in God’s name. Through Isaiah, God pronounces a curse over false teachers and lying prophets, Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isa. 5:20).
Jesus said, Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Matt. 7:15). Beware because they are cursed and will draw you into their curse. Their words arise from the domain of darkness and will draw you into their darkness.
5:11 “Therefore because you impose heavy rent on the poor and exact a tribute of grain from them, though you have built houses of well-hewn stone, yet you will not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, yet you will not drink their wine.”
Houses of well-hewn stone were the habitation of the extravagantly wealthy. But they gained their wealth through oppression of the poor which violates the law of Moses. The Mosaic Law was an expression of the moral nature of God. In violating the law through injustice to the poor, they were violating the very heart of God.
The Lord warns that those who build their wealth by oppressing the poor will not live to enjoy their wealth. They planted pleasant vineyards but they will not drink their wine. They cannot see the future but God can. They do not see the violent invasion of the Assyrian army nor the destruction of their nation. But God sees. Their economy, their political and religious institutions, their military power, will be destroyed. God cannot bless those who invite judgment and curse. God cannot protect those who reject light and embrace darkness.
5:12 “For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great, you who distress the righteous and accept bribes and turn aside the poor in the gate.”
Those who distress the righteous and accept bribes and turn aside the poor in the gate refers to the corruption of justice. Bribery reflects the sad reality that justice was bought and sold, like cheese in the market place. The bribes may have been passed from hand to hand covertly, plots discussed secretly. But God knows their sins against the righteous and the poor. Their wealth and power may protect them from human justice but will not save them in God’s court of law.
5:13 “Therefore at such a time the prudent person keeps silent, for it is an evil time.”
Prudence refers to wisdom and the wise have been silenced through intimidation and threats. It is dangerous to speak truth in an evil day. Very few have the courage of an Amos, an Isaiah, a Jeremiah. Jesus rebuked the religious hypocrites of His day, calling them sons of those who murdered the prophets (Matt.23:31). They proved this when the murdered the greatest truth speaker of all time, Jesus, who was and is truth incarnate.
5:14,15 “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and thus may the Lord God of hosts be with you, just as you have said! Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate! Perhaps the Lord God of hosts may be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
They hypocritically assume that the Lord God of hosts was with them while they continued to do evil. But the Lord was present, not to bless but to confront with truth and the reality of judgment. However, God loves them enough to withhold judgment while confronting their sin.
He also presents them with righteous correction. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate! The Lord’s desire is to be gracious but they must choose to turn from their hypocrisy and repent of their evil. They must choose to hate that which is evil, love that which is good and establish justice where injustice and corruption presently rule the day.
5:16,17 “Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, ‘There is wailing in all the plazas, and in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They also call the farmer to mourning and professional mourners to lamentation. And in all the vineyards there is wailing, because I will pass through the midst of you,’ says the Lord.”
The Lord knows the future and announces it in advance. If they will not return to the Lord, then
there will be wailing, not rejoicing. God would prefer to visit them with blessing but if they will not have it, then God will visit them with judgment. The day of the manifestation of God is presented as a funeral. They will mourn the loss of harvest, the destruction of abundance.
Notice also the powerlessness of the fertility gods to protect the vineyards. False gods do not exist, though the religious undergirding of idolatry is infused with demonic power and presence. But neither the false god nor the demons behind it can stand against the power of the true and living God.
5:18-20 “Alas, you who are longing for the day of the Lord, for what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you? It will be darkness and not light; as when a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him, or goes home, leans his hand against the wall and a snake bites him. Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?”
In their delusion and self-righteousness, they long for the day of the Lord but it will be a day of judgement for the sinner, not blessing. They look forward to the day of the Lord as a day of the manifestation of God’s glory, which it will be, but He will manifest His glory in establishing justice; a day of darkness and not light. It will be the day of God’s victory over the forces of evil, injustice and oppression. Insofar as Israel was given over to evil, injustice and oppression, then the coming day of the Lord would mean their overthrow. The victory of the Lord would mean their defeat and the manifestation of God’s judgement would be in their destruction.
In this prophetic rebuke, the prophet stuck a knife in the popular expectation with its shallow, naive, self-righteous optimism and misunderstanding of God’s character.
5:21-24 “I hate, I reject your festivals, nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
How could the Lord hate their festivals, their solemn assemblies, their burnt offerings and grain offerings, their peace offerings and fatlings? God instituted the sacrificial system. How could He reject it? Why would He ask them to take away from Me the noise of your songs? Why would He say, I will not even listen to the sound of your harps? He inspired the songs of the Psalmists.
Why does the Lord reject this? Because religious ritual in a context of unrepented sin is abhorrent to God. “I hate this”, God says. Jesus said to the religious hypocrites of His day, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness (Matt. 23:27). Outwardly they prayed the right prayers, sang the right hymns but their outward religion masked their inward corruption. God abhors this.
Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah to the false religious folk of His day, This people honors Me with their lips but their heart is far from Me (Matt. 15:8). The Psalmist is correct in reminding us, If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear (Ps. 66:18). Will not hear what? Will not hear my prayers or my praise.
Yes, the Lord desires that the Israelites bring sacrifices to cover their sin but they continue to sin. Yes, He desires their songs of praise but only as they praise Him in the beauty of holiness (Psalm. 96:9). Singing the right song and bringing the right sacrifice while worshipping idols, oppressing the poor and committing immorality is religious profanity to God.
They are reducing God to their own level of corruption, assuming God to be as insincere and compromised as they are, treating God as he were a member of their congregation. They are sinning and singing, grieving God and throwing their religious rituals in His face.
But the Lord loves them enough to confront them and provide the remedy — let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. When they put away injustice and corruption and idolatry, when their lives are in harmony with God’s standards, when they live their love for God and their neighbor, then He will receive their sacrifices. Then He will receive their songs of praise. As they truly worship the Lord in a fitting way, they will mature in their capacity to do justice and righteousness.
5:25-27 “‘Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,’ says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.”
Even as far back as the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites were worshipping God while carrying their idols. Sikkuth (or possibly Sakkuth) and Kiyyun were gods associated with the worship of Saturn. Even during Israel’s forty years in the wilderness, there was a mixing of Yahweh worship and idolatry. This history of religious hypocrisy began generations before.
Now the Lord is removing them from the land of promise: I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,’ says the Lord. It is as if the Lord is saying, “You have rejected Me and embraced gods that are not gods. Then pick up your powerless idols and go away.”
In 722 BC, Assyria conquered Israel. The northern kingdom ceased to exist.
Yahweh is not a lifeless idol. He is Creator of all life and Lord of all history.
Study Questions
1. Why did the Lord hate their festivals, their sacrifices and their songs?
2. Why was God confronting Israel?
6:1,2 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure in the mountain of Samaria, the distinguished men of the foremost of nations, to whom the house of Israel comes. Go over to Calneh and look, and go from there to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than yours?”
This was a time of prosperity for some of the people of the southern kingdom (represented as Zion) and for some of the people of the northern kingdom (Samaria). They assumed that their wealth was a sign of the blessing of God on their lives but this is not necessarily the case. Wealth may also by gained through injustice and oppression. Such was the case for many of the wealthy people of Israel and Judah.
Therefore, Amos does not say, “Blessed are those.” He says, Woe to those who are at ease. The word ease may be translated complacent, proud. It’s as though Amos is saying, “Woe to those who have become proud and complacent in your wealth. You believe the blessing of God is upon you. But it is not.”
Amos advises them to look at the kingdoms around them that have already been conquered — Calneh, Hamath, Gath. The prophet asks, “Are you better than they?” In breaking covenant with God, the people of Israel were just as sinful and just as vulnerable to attack.
Jesus does not say that wealth is evil but He does warn us against the deceitfulness of riches (Mark 4:19). Riches can deceive us into thinking that we do not need God, that we are righteous and blessed when in fact we may be unrighteous and under judgment. Riches can deceive us into believing that we are a fortress unto ourself, when in fact we may be weak and vulnerable. Wealth can lull us into complacency.
We need resources in order to live and to accomplish the purposes for which God designed us. But Paul warns us that, The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (I Tim. 6:10). Money is not evil but the love of money can lead to all sorts of evil. We are to love the God who blesses us with resources but not love the resources themselves.
6:3 “Do you put off the day of calamity, and would you bring near the seat of violence?”
The people deny the possibility of an evil day (day of judgement, also known as the Day of the Lord). In fact, they thought they were preventing judgment because of their external religiousness. But in fact they were bringing it closer with their continued idolatry, violence, injustice and oppression of the poor. Religious ritual in a context of unrepented sin only increases the inevitability of the judgment of God.
6:4 “Those who recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall”
They are at ease, denying the coming day of judgement while sprawling on their luxurious ivory beds and couches, feasting in abundance. Their wealth is spent on extravagance, self-indulgence, not on works of mercy or the restoring of justice.
6:5 “who improvise to the sound of the harp, and like David have composed songs for themselves,”
We read nothing of gratitude to God, songs of thanksgiving, worship and praise to God. Instead they sing songs for themselves. Their musical talent is spent in self indulgence and self glory, as is all of their wealth. Not just their musicians, but no doubt all their artisans used their creative giftings for the purpose of self glory and idol worship, drawing applause to themselves. So it is in every generation. The artisan, the musician, those who have been given creative giftings by God, are seduced into self indulgence, self glory, the creation and worship of idols.
Artistic giftings, as with all gifts from God, are given so we may give thanks to God and give creative expression to His truth and His beauty. The failure to give thanks to God — ingratitude — reveals self-glorying pride. It is rooted in the lie that it is not God who blesses us but our own wisdom, talent and strength.
Improvise to the sound of the harp could be translated, sing idle songs, trivial songs or even babble to the sound of the harp. How insignificant, shallow and trivial our music can become when emptied of all Godly content and focus. So it is with all artistic expression that loses its God-focus. It becomes nothing more than skillful babble.
6:6 “Who drink wine from sacrificial bowls while they anoint themselves with the finest of oils, yet they have not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.
Drinking wine from sacrificial bowls could refer to the sacrilegious use of holy things in the mind-numbing pursuit of pleasure or merely refer to the loss of spiritual sensitivity and direction while consuming bowl after bowl of whatever fires their gusto and feeds their passion. We are reminded of the self indulgent excess of those whom Paul described, whose god is their appetite (belly) (Phlpns. 3:19).
How ironic that they anoint themselves with the finest of oils. Anointing, the setting apart or consecrating of priest or prophet for holy service, was a familiar tradition to the Hebrew people. Indeed, the Lord desired that all of Israel would be His anointed servant. But we do not read of a holy anointing on the lives of these to whom Amos prophesies. Rather, they pour oil upon themselves in a lavish display of disposable wealth and self-indulgence.
Christ or Messiah means the Anointed One. Christian means little anointed one. John reminds us that there is an anointing that abides in all of God's people, (I Jn 2:27). How God yearns to manifest His anointing in all who name the name of Jesus, to consecrate us, set us apart for holy service. But how easy it is to bury the true anointing beneath the worldly oils of self indulgence.
Amos laments that they should be grieving the ruin of the people of God, turning to God in humble repentance, but they cannot for they are caught up in the pursuit of pleasure, vain entertainment and extravagance. They had been blessed with abundant resources — some of which was gained through injustice, but some of which may have been the blessing of God. But they were lavishing their wealth on themselves. Jesus said, To whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). But how great the temptation, to lavish blessing, talent and resources on self indulgence. And how that self-centered lifestyle numbs us to holy grief and the grand possibilities of repentance and trust in God.
As we have said before, wealth is not inherently evil. But riches can deceive us into a false sense of security, of independence. Riches can corrupt our love for God, can harden our heart to the gentle voice of God and can compromise our ability to abide by the word of God.
6:7 “Therefore, they will now go into exile at the head of the exiles, and the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away.”
These leaders — the powerbrokers, the wealthy — have compromised their leadership, their power and their wealth and now will only lead the nation into defeat and exile. These are the men who were entrusted with governmental, judicial, spiritual and economic responsibility. But they were only leading the nation into the further breaking of covenant with God. And far more grievous and dangerous, they were blissfully unaware of their precarious position — unaware of their separation from God, unaware of approaching disaster.
They have been numbed by their feasting, their pleasure parties and their endless entertainment. They are at ease in Zion when they should be repenting, calling on God for deliverance. They recline on beds of ivory and sprawl on their couches when they should be prostrate before the altar of God.
Surely this is true of much political and economic leadership in our day — compromised, undiscerning, banqueting on profits and power, self indulgent, oblivious to approaching storms. They should fall on their faces before God but instead recline in their false security.
Is this not also the picture of some bishops, pastors and priests in our day, heirs of churches once mighty in spiritual gifts, Holy Spirit power and anointing but now compromised, conformed to the corrupt, idolatrous culture and reduced to nothing more than Masters of National Museums, preserving worn out creeds, traditions and methods, relics of a holy past while nurturing apostasy, heresy and blasphemy. They are confident in prosperity, lavish in dead ritual, lacking in all spiritual resources which God pours out on all who humbly devote themselves to His service; destined for destruction.
6:8 “The Lord God has sworn by Himself, the Lord God of hosts has declared: ‘I loathe the arrogance (pride) of Jacob, and detest his citadels; therefore I will deliver up the city and all it contains.’”
Arrogant people misplace their trust. It is not that wealth and power are wrong. God provides resources of wealth and power. He gives us the opportunity to generate resources. He appoints men and women to positions where they can exercise power for the good of the people. But wealth and power can be gained through injustice and violence, as was the case in Amos’ day. And even when wealth and power are gained through just and fair processes, they can corrupt and deceive a man or woman into pride, which then may lead to a multitude of sins.
Now the Lord God — Yahweh Elohim — Yahweh the eternal, gracious Redeemer and Elohim the might Creator, vows that this corrupt nation will be delivered over to judgment. The people will not be saved by their citadels — their fortresses — whether those strongholds are military or economic or false religion or the superficial exercise of true religion. It is not the true and living God whom they trust but their own fortresses and this will not save them.
6:9-11 “And it will be, if ten men are left in one house, they will die. Then one’s uncle, or his undertaker, will lift him up to carry out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, ‘Is anyone else with you?’ And that one will say, ‘No one.’ Then he will answer, ‘Keep quiet. For the name of the Lord is not to be mentioned. For behold, the Lord is going to command that the great house be smashed to pieces and the small house to fragments.’”
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling (Proverbs 16:18). So it was that Israel, blinded by pride, did not know the time. Therefore Amos prophesies the future destruction of the Northern Kingdom, describing a siege with its slow death and total destruction of the great house and small. The survivors will be so awed by the judgment of God that they will fear to even mention His name.
6:12 “Do horses run on rocks? Or does one plow them with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood,”
This may also be translated, Does one plow the sea with oxen. It is as unnatural for justice to be perverted among God's people as it is to plow rocks or water with oxen. Yet this is the state of God’s covenant people. Justice has been turned into nothing more than poison and bitterness.
6:13 “You who rejoice in Lodebar, and say, “Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?”
Lo-debar is the name of a town. It was not a town of any particular size or significance and it's consonants are the same as the Hebrew words a thing of nothing. Karnaim was a small town near Lo-debar and is related to the word horn — in this case not a musical instrument but the horns of an ox or bull — representing strength. Both towns had been captured by the Israelites around that time. It may have been that the nation was proud of itself for the capture of these insignificant places but in God's sight, Israel rejoices in a thing of nothing.
6:14 “‘For behold, I am going to raise up a nation against you, O house of Israel,’ declares the Lord God of hosts, ‘And they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.’”
God is Lord of hosts and those hosts include nations that do not know Him. He is Lord over the forces of nature and sovereign over the events of history. God announces that He will release His judgment from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah which is from the north to the south of Israel. And so it was in 622 B.C. that the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom and its capital city, Samaria, was reduced to rubble.
Study Questions:
1. Wealth is not evil but what did Jesus mean when He referred to the deceitfulness of riches (Mark 4:19)?
2. Why does God hate personal and national arrogance?
7:1 “Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing.”
Thus the Lord God showed me. Amos is confident of his prophetic calling, that he is a messenger of the revelation of God. In a time of national crisis, the man of God sees what God wants him to see. He is not so captivated by current events that he cannot see into heavenly things through and beyond those events. He is not allowing his mind to be so indoctrinated by the lies and propaganda of apostate government and apostate religion that he cannot hear heaven’s truth for his generation. He has set his mind on the things above, as Paul directs the church to do (Col. 3:2).
God wants a church in every generation that will speak prophetic truth into the distortion of truth, a church that will shine prophetic light into the darkness and deception. We are not called to be right wing or left wing. We are called to be truth speakers, drawing truth and insight from the fathomless reservoir of God’s wisdom revealed in His word, the holy Bible.
In Proverbs 29:18 we read, Where there is no vision, the people perish (cast off restraint). When the church looses its prophetic calling, the result is social chaos. Families are destroyed, neighborhoods fall into ruin, political, religious and cultural structures disintegrate.
Isaiah reminds us, Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge (Isa. 5:13). When knowledge of the holy God is not taught, when the eternal wisdom of God is forgotten, or worse, when true wisdom is twisted, perverted to fit the prevailing cultural distortions of truth, when light is mutated into darkness, people are carried off into all manner of captivity, exiled from their true personhood. Alienated people build alienated communities.
Hosea warned his generation and ours, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). When true wisdom is replaced by misinformation, when knowledge of the holy is replaced by knowledge of the profane, the result is the destruction, the breaking down of civilization. Broken people build broken cities, giving birth to broken generations.
The vision which God gives to Amos is of a locust-swarm. It is God who is forming it for His own purpose of judgment. The timing is intentional — when the spring crop began to sprout. It is unclear if this is a grain crop or pasture for the flocks but both were crucial to the livelihood of the people. This is after the king’s mowing — after the king had taken his share of the crop — after his tax had been collected. What remains is for the sustenance of the people.
7:2 “And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, ‘Lord God, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?’”
Amos sees the locust swarm consuming the crop. The result will be famine so the prophet intercedes for his people. Amos not only hears from God and speaks for God, he represents God to the people and he represents the people before God. Amos sees Israel with absolute clarity, not through the veils of deception and pride. Whereas many of the people see themselves as prosperous and powerful, the man of God sees their reality, that Jacob is small, weak, sinful and cannot stand before the judgement of God.
It is important to understand that prophetic revelation is not always a forecast of unchangeable events. There are times when the Lord reveals something that will be a great blessing but reveals it so that we may pray in union with God’s good purpose, calling it into being with God. For instance, in Daniel 9, Daniel, who was living in exile in Persia after Jerusalem and the nation had been destroyed, realized as he read from the prophet Jeremiah that the Lord would end His judgment of the nation and allow Israel to return to their land after 70 years.
Daniel’s response was to fast and pray that the Lord would bring about that which He purposed. And so it was — Israel returned to their land after 70 years of exile. Daniel partnered with God in the release of God’s purpose into history.
Sometimes the Lord reveals a future event which will be harmful, such as this plague of locusts, but allows intercession for the purpose of turning the event away. For instance, God revealed to Abraham that He intended to judge Sodom and Gomorrah but allowed Abraham to intercede for the righteous of the city. The Lord would have relented if even ten righteous had been found.
Sometimes, the Lord reveals a harmful event that is not His will, it is a demonic strategy to do evil. The Lord calls the righteous to pray and the prayers of the saints releases the power of God to prevent that which the powers of darkness intended.
In this case, the Lord intends to judge sinful Israel, after many years of calling and pleading with the nation. Due to Israel’s willful refusal to repent, God will now release judgment, yet He allows Amos to intercede.
7:3 “The Lord changed His mind about this. ‘It shall not be,’ said the Lord.”
We want to be careful with the phrase, The Lord changed His mind. The Hebrew word is naham (or nacham) and though the old King James translates this word repent, newer translations (including the new KJ) use relent or changed His mind.
The Bible clearly states, God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19). This is not the same word which Ezekiel used when calling Israel to repent and turn from their idols (Ezekiel 14:6). That word is shuwb and means to turn back, to return to the starting point, to convert. God does not ever need to turn back, to start over or convert to another way of thinking.
Even the phrase changed His mind seems weak. It implies imperfect wisdom. But God will relent when fervent intercession rises from a pure heart. God is moved by the prayer of Amos and withholds His judgement.
Four important principles here:
1. Though Amos was called by God to prophesy to the people, and though he had deep insight into the flagrant sins of the people and though he was often ignored, ridiculed and even threatened, he never lost his heart of love for the covenant people. He prayed for them.
2. A vision from God or word from God does not necessarily mean, “This is the way life will be.” It is a call to prayer. A vision or word from God reveals the way life might be if we will not turn from our sin but if we will pray, history may turn out differently. Who knows how many plans and strategies of darkness were turned away through faithful intercession? Who knows how much of the purpose of God has been released into history through faithful prayer? The great evangelist, John Wesley said, “It appears that God does not move in human history except in response to prayer.”
3. The heart of God can be moved by humble, fervent prayer, as James reminds us, The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results (James 5:16).
4. In the heart of God, mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). God is just and must judge sin but it is His heart to forgive, to show mercy. This is why the Second Person of the Trinity was born in human form, to bear our sins and God’s judgment against our sin so we could experience God’s grace and mercy. As we pray in alignment with the heart of God, we can see mercy triumphing over judgment.
7:4-6 “Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land. Then I said, ‘Lord God, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?’ The Lord changed His mind about this. ‘This too shall not be,’ said the Lord God.”
Again, God shows Amos coming judgement, contending with the people by fire. This is probably a reference to drought, the absence of rain, which would dry up the underground springs which fed the wells and streams, consuming the crops.
God is not being unfair in this. Under the Mosaic Covenant, the Lord had clearly promised blessing for obedience and curse for disobedience. The people understood and had agreed. Now God is bringing to them the judgment which they had brought upon themselves through unrepented sin.
But again, intercession changes the future, shapes history. This is a marvelous truth, that Almighty God, sovereign ruler of the nations, Lord of history, is moved by human prayer. Faithful prayer does cause God to become less than the sovereign God that He is or less than Almighty. Yet it is also true that there are times when God limits His sovereignty and allows His church to engage Him in intercession. The result can be that the purposes of darkness are defeated and even the judgment of God can be turned back and instead, the blessing of God is released.
We are reminded of the occasion in Numbers 16 when Israel rebelled against God and Moses and the Lord intended to consume the sinful nation. But Moses commanded Aaron, ‘Take your censer and put in it fire from the altar, and lay incense on it; then bring it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone forth from the Lord, the plague has begun!’ Then Aaron took it as Moses had spoken, and ran into the midst of the assembly, for behold, the plague had begun among the people. So he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. He took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was checked (Num. 16:46-48).
Aaron stood between the plague and the people. This is the intercessor. This is Amos.
7:7-9 “Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. The Lord said to me, What do you see, Amos?’ And I said, ‘A plumb line.’ Then the Lord said, ‘Behold I am about to put a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. The high places of Isaac will be desolated and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste. Then I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’”
The Lord will not relent in measuring Israel, that is, holding the nation accountable to His standards of truth, justice and righteousness. That standard, that plumb line, was readily available through the holy Scriptures and the words of the prophets. Israel was responsible to obey God’s word because they had entered into a holy covenant with God and the Lord had revealed Himself to the nation. Israel will be held accountable according to the light they had been given as God’s covenant people.
The high places and sanctuaries refer to shrines dedicated to idols, false gods. These will be torn down, made desolate. I will spare them no longer means that Israel has passed through the season of grace and had now entered the season of judgment. The Lord had called the nation to repentance but grace had been refused. Nothing remains now but judgment. Notice that Amos is no longer interceding. That season is over — the judgment of God will not be withheld.
The house of Jeroboam refers to Israel as a nation but also to the royal house and the government. God is no longer their protector but their destroyer. The sword refers to God’s employment of the military power of Assyria to accomplish His judgement.
There is also a plumb line for our lives and it is God’s holy word. By this standard of truth we can measure our lives and God also will measure our lives.
7:10,11 “Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words. For thus Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”
Here is the essential lie of false religion — the land cannot endure the Word of the Lord. The truth is, the land cannot endure without the Word of God. It was Amaziah, the priest of Bethel who said this, a false priest bringing a false word.
The Lord warned through Jeremiah, Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; they speak a vision of their own imagination, not from the mouth of the Lord (Jere. 23:16)
Jesus warned, Beware of the false prophets (Matt. 7:15) and Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many (Matt. 24:11). He said, For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect (Matt. 24:14). In the Revelation, we see Jesus contending with false teachers and false prophets in the church. So it has always been — Satan plants deceivers and deception within the covenant people.
The charge against Amos is treason. This is always the accusation when corrupt govenment is married to corrupt religion. For three centuries the Roman government executed Christians on the charge of atheism because Christians would not worship the emperor as a god.
Sometimes governors and governments fall to such arrogance that they demand not only obedience but reverence, as if their decisions are infallible and their laws, flawless. Therefore if you speak a word against the national interests then you must not be a patriot. You must be a traitor, subversive. But in fact it is the true patriot who desires to save his nation from destruction. He is not seeking to subvert the national interest but preserve it. Therefore the true prophet speaks truth to power.
Yes, there are times when God commanded prophets to say, Comfort, comfort My people (Isa. 40:1). But there were also many times when prophets confronted kings and priests and the wealthy and the powerful, confronted them with the word of God. It is good to comfort people but if they are in danger of destruction, it is better to warn them, to call them to repentance. In fact, comforting people in a time of divine judgment is a grave sin. Comforting people on their way to everlasting destruction is a sin worthy of condemnation.
7:12,13 “Then Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Go, you seer, flee away to the land of Judah and there eat bread and there do your prophesying! But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.’”
Amaziah is the priest in charge of the royal shrine at Bethel, which was a center for demonically inspired idol worship (though this may also have been mixed with some worship of Yahweh). So Bethel represents prostituted, polluted, culture bound religion — worship of the true God adulterated with whatever gods are currently dominant / popular in the surrounding culture.
With arrogance and hypocrisy he reveals that he is a false priest. He says, “Don’t speak the Word of the Lord here — it is a sanctuary.” The Hebrew word for sanctuary is miqdas — a shrine, a holy place. It is the same word the Lord spoke in Exodus 25:8, Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.
But the false priest says, “Don’t bring God’s word into this holy place!” How often wicked people hide from the truth of God in religious places, in religious disguises. How sad that the cathedral, with its candles and incense, its chants and rituals, has too often been a sanctuary where the unrepentant power brokers hide, where the word of God is banned, lest anyone hear the prophet shouting, “Hear the word of the living God.” How tragic that generations of false priests have opposed truth and persecuted truth speakers.
Amaziah says, “Don’t prophesy here because it is one of the royal residences, a place where the king is enthroned.” But where is the word of the living God more needed, than in the throne rooms of kings and the halls of parliaments and senates? When God's Word is excluded from the palaces of power and from the holy places, then there is nothing left for a nation but destruction.
The priest insults Amos, implying that he earns his bread by his word of prophecy, that he’s nothing more than a religious hireling, in it for the money and nothing more — “So go preach your sermons and earn your bread somewhere else.” Obviously Amaziah is motivated by lust for wealth and assumes it must be so for others. And he tries to intimidate Amos, commanding him to flee. But Amos is built of sterner metal than that.
7:14,15 “Then Amos replied to Amaziah, ‘I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.’”
Amos replies that her’s not a professional prophet nor descended from a prophet. He’s an ordinary blue collar laborer, called by God to speak the word of God to the people of God. He is not prophesying in Israel because of personal choice. He is there because God commanded him to go and prophesy there.
It is not uncommon for the professional religious establishment to feel threatened by the untrained, rough-edged preacher of truth who bears nothing other than the anointing of God, who speaks nothing other than the uncompromised word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit of God. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong (I Cor. 1:27).
We are reminded of the time when Peter and John were preaching in the temple and a lame man was healed in the name of Jesus by the power of the Lord (Acts 3). The two apostles were arrested but on the following day were brought forth to stand before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body. As Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit (4:8), testified, we read of the leaders, Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). Uneducated and untrained but anointed and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit — such were Peter and John, such was Amos and so are many of the men and women whom the Lord uses in every generation to proclaim truth.
7:16,17 “Now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘Your wife will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled up by a measuring line and you yourself will die upon unclean soil. Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.’”
Amos refuses to back down, refuses to be intimidated. He courageously stands before Amaziah and the royal court and declares, Now hear the word of the Lord. He has no doubt that he is not bringing personal opinions or theories. He has heard from God and it is not a pleasing message.
Though God has offered grace to Israel, grace has been refused. The nation has broken covenant with God, has come out from under His covering and protection. The mighty Assyrian army is coming against them and the nation will be defeated, destroyed, carried into captivity. Amaziah’s wife will be reduced to prostitution in order to provide for herself; his children will be killed, the nation will be carried away into captivity and Amaziah himself will die upon unclean soil — he will be carried away and come to the end of his days in a foreign land.
This was never God’s will for Israel nor for Amaziah nor for his family. God’s desire was to restore and to bless. But the nation had separated itself from the Lord. They will now be separated from their land. They had worshipped false gods. They will now live among people who worship only false gods. They made the land unclean with their injustice, immorality and worship of false gods. They will now live in an unclean land.
Study Questions
1. Amos interceded and God withheld, for a season, His judgment of Israel. Can righteous prayer have an impact on history?
2. Why does God warn people and nations?