The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
He said:
“The Lord roars from Zion
and thunders from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds dry up,
and the top of Carmel withers.”
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Damascus,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because she threshed Gilead
with sledges having iron teeth,
I will send fire on the house of Hazael
that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.
I will break down the gate of Damascus;
I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven
and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden.
The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir,”
says the Lord.
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Gaza,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because she took captive whole communities
and sold them to Edom,
I will send fire on the walls of Gaza
that will consume her fortresses.
I will destroy the king of Ashdod
and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon.
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
till the last of the Philistines are dead,”
says the Sovereign Lord.
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Tyre,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom,
disregarding a treaty of brotherhood,
I will send fire on the walls of Tyre
that will consume her fortresses.”
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Edom,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because he pursued his brother with a sword
and slaughtered the women of the land,
because his anger raged continually
and his fury flamed unchecked,
I will send fire on Teman
that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah.”
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Ammon,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead
in order to extend his borders,
I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah
that will consume her fortresses
amid war cries on the day of battle,
amid violent winds on a stormy day.
Her king will go into exile,
he and his officials together,”
says the Lord.
- Amos 1:1-15
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Moab,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because he burned to ashes
the bones of Edom’s king,
I will send fire on Moab
that will consume the fortresses of Kerioth.
Moab will go down in great tumult
amid war cries and the blast of the trumpet.
I will destroy her ruler
and kill all her officials with him,”
says the Lord.
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Judah,
even for four, I will not relent.
Because they have rejected the law of the Lord
and have not kept his decrees,
because they have been led astray by false gods,
the gods their ancestors followed,
I will send fire on Judah
that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.”
This is what the Lord says:
“For three sins of Israel,
even for four, I will not relent.
They sell the innocent for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
They trample on the heads of the poor
as on the dust of the ground
and deny justice to the oppressed.
Father and son use the same girl
and so profane my holy name.
They lie down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge.
In the house of their god
they drink wine taken as fines.
“Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them,
though they were tall as the cedars
and strong as the oaks.
I destroyed their fruit above
and their roots below.
I brought you up out of Egypt
and led you forty years in the wilderness
to give you the land of the Amorites.
“I also raised up prophets from among your children
and Nazirites from among your youths.
Is this not true, people of Israel?”
declares the Lord.
“But you made the Nazirites drink wine
and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.
“Now then, I will crush you
as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.
The swift will not escape,
the strong will not muster their strength,
and the warrior will not save his life.
The archer will not stand his ground,
the fleet-footed soldier will not get away,
and the horseman will not save his life.
Even the bravest warriors
will flee naked on that day,”
declares the Lord.
- Amos 2:1-16
Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments
Amos 1:1 ‘The Book of Amos’: “Two of the minor prophets, Amos and Hosea, spoke to the northern kingdom of Israel during the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Both took the Assyrian threat very seriously, but their messages were unheard. Comparative prosperity in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 B.C.) had fed complacency.
“Amos spoke harshly about this complacency. Although he himself was from Tekoa in the land of Judah (Amos 1:1), Amos was sent by God to prophesy to Israel (see 7:10–17), and he brought with him a deep intolerance for oppression. He raged against the lavish lives of the rich (4:1–3), the oppression of the poor (5:11–15), and the ostentatious religious ceremony of the oppressors (5:21–24).”
- Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible
Amos 1:1 ‘a cowboy preacher’: ”One unique feature of the book of Amos is that it was written by a man who was not a trained prophet. He was an ordinary person. He was, you might say, a ‘cowboy preacher.’“
- Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible
Amos 1:1 ‘a sheep breeder’: “Here we are introduced to Amos as one of the sheep breeders from Tekoa. God called him to a prophetic ministry (7:14-15). Amos (1:1) tells what he saw regarding Israel in the days of … Jeroboam … two years before the earthquake. While most of the prophets date their ministries relative to the reigns of kings, as Amos does, he provides further historical context. Apparently, this particular earthquake was so significant that people knew exactly what he was referring to.”
- Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Amos 1:2 ‘a message of doom’: “Sharing a message of doom during a time of plenty is not the way to inspire people and win friends, yet this is what Amos was to do. A kingdom man can speak with boldness when he knows the source of his message. He said: The LORD roars from Zion and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem. When you have a roaring lion backing you up, you have no need to fear either. God’s voice can make the land mourn and a mountain wither. And two years before an earthquake shook the land (1:1), God shook things up with the pow-er of his word.”
- Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Amos 1:3 ‘for three sins, even for four’: “A specific pattern is generally repeated with each announcement of judgment on a nation. ‘For three sins … even for four’ begins each oracle (vv. 3, 6, 9, 11, 13; Am 2:1, 4, 6). The phrase ‘three sins’ indicates that the Lord has had enough of the people’s sin. ‘Sins’ often refers to rebellion or deliberate revolt (see Ps 32:1–2, note). ‘Four’ represents the fact that their sin is overflowing and intolerable. Damascus had sinned again and again. They had reached the limit, and God’s judgment upon them was now certain. Most mothers have felt frustration similar to this when a child disobeys again and again and correction is made with boundaries clearly defined. Finally, punishment comes swiftly and effectively.”
- Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)
Amos 1:4-5 ‘Damascus’: “Their days were numbered. Though defeated in several battles by the Hebrews, Syria ultimately fell to the Assyrians. Later, the land came under the dominion of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires.”
- Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets
Amos 1:4 ‘Ben-Hadad’: “Apparently a throne name, meaning ‘son of (the god) Hadad.’ Ben-Hadad II was a son of Syrian king Hazael (841–801 B.C.).”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Amos 1:6-8 ‘From a Capital to a Vassal City’: “During a period from about 1550 to 1150 B.C., Egypt ruled over Canaan, with Gaza serving as the capital city of the Egyptian province. The earliest inscriptional evidence of Gaza shows that it was a well-fortified town as far back as the reign of Seti I of Egypt (1294–1279 B.C.).
“During the time of Pharaoh Ramesses III (1184–1153 B.C.), the Sea Peoples invaded Canaan. Although Ramesses stopped their further advance in 1175 B.C., he allowed them to settle in southern Palestine. One group of the Sea Peoples, the Philistines, formed a confederation of five city-states, and Gaza, which had been Canaan’s capital under Egypt, continued as the foremost Philistine city.
“During the 8th century B.C., when the Neo-Assyrian Empire was threatening nations to the west, the prophet Amos pronounced various judgments on Gaza and on other Philistine cities (Amos 1:6–8). Amos had foreboding news for Gaza: both its walls and palaces would be destroyed by fire (1:7).
“The troubles started for Gaza when Tiglath-Pileser was king of Assyria (744–727 B.C.) and a certain Hanno was king of Gaza. Hanno is mentioned in an Assyrian tribute list from 738 B.C. as one king who paid tribute to Assyria. The Assyrian annals note Tiglath-Pileser’s campaign in 734 B.C. in which he marched through Syria and Palestine, conquering the city of Gaza. Gaza’s royal family was captured and a large tribute imposed. Hanno apparently fled at this time, although he was reinstated later during Tiglath-Pileser’s reign.
“During the reign of Sargon II of Assyria (721–705 B.C.), Hanno again rebelled and was subsequently led in chains to Assyria. Amos’s prophecy (1:7) probably points toward either Gaza’s fall in 734 B.C. or to the later campaign by Sargon II. The city that had been a capital of Canaan and a leading Philistine city was now merely a vassal of Assyria.”
- Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible
Amos 1:6-8 ‘Gaza of Philistia’: “Gaza was the chief Philistine city during the time of Amos and one of a league of five Philistine cities located southwest of Israel. The Philistines were indicted for slave trade with Edom. Their sin was compounded by the fact that they carried an entire people into captivity (v. 6), leaving no hope for repopulation.”
- Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)
Amos 1:6 ‘human trafficking’: “The Philistines traded in human lives. They raided Jewish villages and captured people to be sold as slaves. The Law of Moses allowed slavery as a type of ‘lifeline’ for a person in desperate circumstances. It also provided for the release of slaves.
“The Philistines captured people against their will and sold them like cattle. To make matters worse, the Philistines sold these slaves to Israel’s ancient enemy, the Edomites. They were descendants of Esau. It was a case of brother enslaving brother.”
- Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets
Amos 1:8 ‘Philistines’: “ Again, God’s judgment was intense like fire. While weakened by the rise of the Assyrian Empire, the Philistines were defeated and exiled under Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. Afterwards, the Philistines disappear from the written records of history.”
- Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets
Amos 1:9 ‘covenant of brotherhood’: “A longstanding brotherly relationship existed between Phoenicia and Israel, beginning with King Hiram’s assistance to David in building his house and Solomon in the building of the temple (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kin. 5:1–12; 9:11–14), and later cemented through the marriage of Jezebel to Ahab (1 Kin. 16:31). No king of Israel ever made war against Phoenicia, especially the two major cities, Tyre and Sidon.”
- John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Amos 1:10 ‘Tyre’: “Like the Philistines in the previous verses, Tyre sold Jewish captives to the Edomites as slaves. Adding to their sin was Tyre’s betrayal of an agreement between them and the Hebrews.
“Ultimately, Tyre fell to the forces of Alexander the Great in 322 BC. The Greeks built a causeway over 700 meters long to gain access to the city.”
- Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets
Amos 1:11 ‘Edom’: “These judgments moved southeast of Israel to the nation of Edom. Amos already referred to Edom as recipients of the Hebrew slaves sold by the people of Tyre and Phoenicia. Remember, the Edomites were long-time cousins of the Hebrews through their common ancestors Isaac and Rebecca. They also shared a long, hostile past with the Hebrews.
“Amos condemned the Edomites for their persistent hatred of the Jews. Rather than helping their brothers, they cast off all pity. The mention of violence against women testified to the affront of their brutality.”
- Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets
Amos 1:12 ‘Edom eventually destroyed’: “Temen and Bozrah were strong cities which no longer exist. Rather than standing impregnable, they fell severely. Edom fell to the Babylonians and later was destroyed by the Hebrew leader Judas Maccabees.”
- Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets
Amos 1:13 ‘Ammon’: “The Ammonites were located over on the east bank of the Jordan, and they joined with the Syrians in fighting against the two and one-half tribes of Israel which were in the land of Gilead. They did it ‘that they might enlarge their border.’”
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi
Amos 1:14-15 ‘Ammon’s punishment’: “’But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.’ This is God’s judgment against the Ammonites. Rabbah was a great city and the capital city of the Ammonites. Later on it was called Philadelphia by the Greeks. It was named after Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt. We know it today as Amman, the capital of the nation of Jordan. You can see ruins there of the great civilization of the past which was totally destroyed. Modern Jordan has been built upon the ruins of the nation of the Ammonites.
“We can turn to 2 Kings 8 to see the sin that had prompted God’s judgment against them. ‘And Hazael said [to Elisha], Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria’ (2 Kings 8:12–13). In other words, Elisha said to Hazael, ‘You say that only a dog would do such a thing, but you are going to do it.’ Whether Hazael was a dog or not, he did the very thing he said only a dog would do. We read in these verses of the violent things he would do to the children of Israel. He was going to dash their children and rip up their women with child. It was a horrible, awful thing, and it was for this crime that God would judge the Ammonites.”
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi
Amos 2:1 ‘Moab’: “There are some things universally considered sacred and respected. Among these are burial sites and human remains. The high regard for a deceased body especially was true in the ancient Middle East. While we do not know the identity of this king of Edom referenced here, his human remains were humiliated.
“This episode reminds me of a chapter in church history regarding the remains of John Wycliffe. Wycliffe was a reformer of the Christian faith who died in 1384. Frankly, he was fortunate to die a natural death and not be burned as a heretic in his lifetime. Thirty-one years after he died, Wycliffe was condemned as a heretic at the ecclesiastical Council of Constance. Thirteen years later, in the spring of 1428 (44 years after his death), Wycliffe’s bones were dug up and burned at the instruction of Pope Martin V. Today we consider Wycliffe a hero of the faith.”
- Jay McCluskey, A Long Walk with the Minor Prophets
Amos 2:4-5 ‘Judah’: “In response to Amos’s condemnations of the nations around them (1:3-2:3), God’s people may have been feeling self-assured and thinking, ‘They deserve it. Bring it on!’ But then Amos turned his prophetic arsenal in Judah’s direction; God does not show partiality toward them because of their position of privilege. Because they have rejected the instruction of the LORD and have not kept his statutes, God’s fire will be unleashed on Judah too.”
- Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Amos 2:5 ‘Judgment Against Israel for Immorality and Blasphemy’: “Remember that Amos is delivering these messages in Bethel of the northern kingdom. He is speaking in the king’s chapel. I think that every time he got up to speak, he would take as his subject one of these nations, and he would pronounce God’s judgment upon it. Now he has even talked about Judah, and that’s getting pretty close to home. It may be that a few people squirmed in their pews when he mentioned Judah. However, the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes were at war with one another a great deal of the time. There were several occasions when they made alliances, but that was only because of fear and of the necessity to stand together against a common enemy. Most of the time they were enemies. Therefore, when Amos gave his message of judgment against the southern kingdom, everyone was present and ‘amened’ him. They agreed that God should judge Jerusalem and Judah. But what about the northern kingdom? Beginning with verse 6, he will speak to the northern kingdom. Bethel is the city where the king worshiped, and this man was speaking in the king’s chapel. Amos is getting closer to home. He’s going to start meddling.
“The story is told of the preacher who one Sunday morning was preaching against various sins. He preached about the sin of drunkenness, and a woman sitting in the congregation loudly ‘amened’ him. He preached against the sin of smoking, and she ‘amened’ him for that. Then when he started preaching against the sin of chewing tobacco, she shifted her wad to the other cheek and grumbled, ‘Now he’s quit preachin’ and has gone to meddlin’!’
“Amos is starting to meddle now. He is going to talk about the sin of the congregation which was before him. No longer will his message be about the sins of the ‘Moabites’ but the sins of the northern kingdom. They, too, had God’s law, and they were schooled in the commandments of God. Listen to Amos as he speaks—”
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi
Amos 2:6-16 ‘finally Israel’: “And because Israel wanted to act like those who don’t know God, they would be treated like those who don’t know God. Amos’s prophecy against Israel is longer than any that came before. If anyone should have known better than to do the kind of things listed here, it was those who had received God’s Holy Word. However, Israel was selling people into slavery (2:6), just as the surrounding nations had done (1:6, 9). The poor and needy were being trampled, and sexual immorality infected homes (2:7). They had forgotten what God did for them when they were slaves in Egypt (2:10). There was no gratitude toward the One who had redeemed them. Therefore, God says, I am about to crush you (2:13). The strong, the swift, and the courageous will not be strong, swift, or courageous enough when the wrath of God comes to town (2:14-16).”
- Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)
Amos 2:7-8 ‘immoral practices of Israel’: “Both son and father consorted sexually with the same maiden, a practice forbidden in Israel (Lev 18:8,15; 20:11; Dt 22:30; 23:17–18). They compounded their sin of sensual indulgence with idolatry, perhaps the practice of cultic prostitution associated with the worship of Baal. Here the worshipers lay down by the altars for luxurious religious feasts on garments taken in pledge, in order to keep their own clothing clean. The borrowed clothes were to have been returned before sundown so that the owners would not be deprived of their coverings (Ex 22:26–27). The idol worshipers indulged themselves at the expense of the poor. They went to the place of worship but defied God’s law and brought more misery to the least of his people.”
- Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)
Amos 2:8 ‘Trade and Economics’: “In the ancient world, fibers were prepared and woven into fabrics by hand. The complexities of keeping sheep for wool or growing flax for linen only added to the value of cloth. For the poor, the outer garment doubled as a blanket. It could be offered as security for a loan (Amos 2:8), but the law required lenders not to keep this essential item overnight (Ex. 22:26, 27).”
- Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible
Amos 2:9-12 ‘Israel rejected the prophet and Nazirite’: “The Lord rehearsed his mighty acts on behalf of his people accompanied by a note of his exasperation with their disobedience (vv. 13-16). God raised up prophets to instruct his people in righteousness and Nazirites to be an example of devotion to the Lord by separating themselves from wine or strong drink, the razor and dead bodies (v. 12; Nu 6:1–8). The Israelites rejected the message of the prophets and ridiculed the Nazirite vow (Am 2:12). Amos had experienced firsthand Israel’s sin of commanding the prophets not to prophesy (v. 12, see Am 7:12–13, 16).”
- Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)
Amos 2:12 ‘giving the Nazarite wine’: “A Nazarite was an Israelite who took a vow voluntarily to dedicate himself to God. There were three things that a Nazarite did not do. First, he did not cut his hair. Why? Because for a man to have long hair, Paul says, is a shame to him (see 1 Cor. 11:14). When I look around me today and see some fellows, I agree with Paul that it is sort of a shame for a man to have long hair. But I will simply say that the Nazarites let their hair grow because they were willing to bear shame.
“The second thing was that a Nazarite was not permitted to drink wine or touch any fruit of the vine. They were not to eat grapes or even raisins. The Israelites were causing a Nazarite to break his vow when they gave him wine.
“The Nazarite also was not to touch a dead body or come near to one. When a loved one died, he did not even attend the funeral. This was done as an evidence of the fact that he had put God first in his life.
“’And commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.’ The people said to the prophets, ‘We don’t want to hear you. We don’t want to have any messages from you at all.’ They refused to listen to God’s prophets.
“Let me again make an analogy to our own nation today. We are following the same pattern that Rome followed when she went down. Rome was not destroyed from the outside, and I do not believe that there will come a missile over the North Pole which will destroy America. I think the missile which will destroy us is the propaganda that is abroad today. Through it we have become convinced that we are a sophisticated, very progressive nation and that nothing can happen to us. The truth is that we are probably going down as fast as any nation in history. A leading statesman has said, ‘This nation has gone down faster in the past ten years than it did in its entire history from its inception.’ How true that is!
“There are two things which are bringing us down as a nation. One of them is drunkenness. There are a shocking number of alcoholics in this country. A majority of the fatal accidents that take place on our highways involve drunk drivers. Yet we are criticized if we speak out about this. We make laws concerning the use and abuse of drugs, and I agree with those laws; but what about liquor, my friend? Liquor is one of the things that is destroying us as a nation.
“The other thing that characterizes us today is that we are not hearing the Word of God. The liberal preacher is the popular preacher. If we are going to hear the opinion of a minister on television, it will be the liberal preacher. The other day there was a panel discussion on television about abortion. They included a minister on the panel. You guessed it—he was a liberal. Recently I also viewed a discussion about women’s rights. Again, the minister who spoke was a liberal. They do not ask a Bible-teaching preacher to tell what God has said on the subject. And yet we talk about religious liberty! My friend, the voice of God is not being heard in this land except for a few of us weak fellows who are trying to declare the Word of God.
“The same thing was happening in Israel. Amos said, ‘You are giving the Nazarite wine, causing him to break his vow and turning him from God. And you say to the prophets, ‘Prophesy not.’ You say to me, ‘Don’t talk like that. We want to hear something that will butter us up and make us feel good.’”
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi
Amos 2:13-16 ‘Israel same as Amorites’: “The Lord’s judgment on Israel was inevitable and inescapable. A cart loaded with grain would have been a common sight and illustrated graphically how God was burdened with the sins of his people (v. 13). The tragic irony lay in the fact that the Lord had used Israel to destroy the sinful Amorites who previously occupied the land (v. 10). Now Israel had fallen into the same sins as the Amorites. They, too, would face God’s judgment at the hands of an invading nation.”
- Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)
Amos 2:13 ‘God cannot ignore their sins’: “There are different ways of interpreting this verse, even different ways of translating it. It is the belief of some that it is rather degrading to think of God as being pressed down like a cart. I do not feel that way about it. God is saying here, ‘You have put Me in a difficult situation. You are My people, I put you in the land, and I put the Amorite out. Now here you are committing the same sins they commit! Do you expect Me to shut My eyes to your sin because you are My people? I’m being pressed down `as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.’”
- J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi
My Thoughts
Consider the overall structure of these two chapters. I can remember teaching the class on these chapters in Sunday school. It would get an award for public speaking or rhetoric.
Let’s set the scene. The king was an evil king. He was king. He took no lip from anyone. They were doing well. Israel was cheating their neighbors, but that did not matter. They themselves were getting rich. Now a prophet shows up. He is not a prophet from a northern tribe. He comes from those upstarts in Judah who think they are better than the folks in Israel. Judah has a temple, so they think they are better. The king leans forward, ready to pounce. The guards have itchy bowstring fingers (or some equivalent to itchy trigger fingers).
And then this guy from a nothing town in Judah prophesies against the Arameans and Ben-Hadad. Oh, that’s different. We don’t like them anyway. Then Gaza and the Philistines are next. What a pain they are! Then Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. This guy is telling us that God is going to punish all their neighbors. Many of these neighbors have been at war with Israel. This is great news!
Then, there is a pause. And the prophet from Judah prophesies against Judah. By now, the king is leaning back in his chair, laughing. His guards have set their weapons aside. They might have their spears, leaning on them to keep from falling over laughing. All their neighbors have angered God so much that they are going to be punished. That leaves the entire region for Israel to occupy and rule.
But while their guard was down, Amos lists Israel’s sins. God sent them into the Promised Land to wipe out the evil Amorites and now Israel is worse than the Amorites ever were – worse if only because they knew better.
Amos, not a professional prophet at all. He tended sheep and as we will find out later, he tended sycamore figs also. Yet, his prophecy in these first two chapters is pure gold. He got the audience to relax and then he hit them with the curse on them. Perfectly designed. Perfectly executed. And all given to Amos from the Holy Spirit. The outline of a perfect delivery of bad news. The king will later accuse him of being a professional prophet, the son of a great line of prophets. The king had to because Amos caught him off guard with his organization and delivery.
Of course, Jesus told His disciples, and by extension us too. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words to say.
In small ways, I have had that experience, going toe to toe with someone who was artful in misquoting the Bible, and I kept coming up with answers. But forty-five minutes later, as we left the man’s home, I had no idea what I had said. Yet, the witnesses with me were calling me a rock star. They had never seen a person in heated battle with the enemy pull out so many Bible verses that trashed every argument the man came up with. And I still do not remember what I said, other than my emotions were a mix of calm and terror at the same time. Calm in that God was in control. Terror in that I had no idea where the last Bible verse came from in my memory banks and what was this guy going to throw at me next? If you have been there, you understand.
Amos had never been there before, but with the Holy Spirit in charge, he sailed through brilliantly.
I do not suggest going in cold. When this happened, I was part of a group that was memorizing Bible verses. But 12-16 random Bible verses each month with no context is not really preparing you for battle, but God knew what He was doing. And if I could recite any of them now, they would all be in the KJV.
Some Serendipitous Reflections
Amos 1:1-2:5 Judgment of Israel’s Neighbors 1. When have you felt unqualified to do something for God (e.g., give an extemporaneous speech or teach a class of Junior High kids), but did it anyway? How did you get past the fear? What challenge is facing you now that you can’t handle alone?
“2. Speaking for God instead of shepherding sheep, Amos levelled his guns at enemies of Israel and Israel itself. How do you respond when enemies are criticized: (a) If I’m honest, I enjoy it? (b) I add more? (c) I secretly set myself above them? (d) I’m convicted of my own sin?
“3. How do you respond when friends are criticized: (a) Sit in silence? (b) Jump to their rescue? (c) I try to be objective? (d) Express friend’s perspective? (e) Agree that friend is wrong?
“4. How do you feel when you are criticized: (a) Defensive? (b) Embarrassed? (c) Accepting? (d) Smug?
“5. What sort of issues do you sense God is pointing out as wrong today? Are they mostly personal, individual sins? Or do they delve mostly into the way our society treats people and other nations?
“6. Can a whole country or political system be sinful? How so?
“7. What issue could you ‘roar’ against today? Other than ‘roar’, what else could you do to facilitate change: (a) Pray? (b) Organize a group? (c) Organize a boycott? (d) Work within the system? (e) Contact the right people in the right places? (f) Gather ideas from others?
Amos 2:6-16 Judgment of Israel 1. If you were given the task of judging Israel’s sins listed here, which one(s) would you go easiest on? Which ones would you judge more harshly? Why?
“2. Which of those sins is your nation guilty of? How so?
“3. How would you know that a nation was repenting of its sins? What may God be calling you to do about these sins? What person or group is addressing the sins that concern you?
“4. What will happen without repentance in Israel’s case? In your case?”
- Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups
Amos 1 and 2 have two sets of questions as noted.
Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.
If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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