AMOS

Amos is a shepherd and agricultural worker from a rather poor area of Judah. He is familiar with the plight of the poor, and God’s anger at the oppression of the poor is one of his main messages. Amos doesn’t describe his call in detail and he barely counts himself among the prophets (Am 7:14-15). Yet when God commands him to speak he obeys, goes to the northern neighbor Israel and speaks a searing prophecy of judgment in Bethel, probably at the time of the annual feasts (Am 7:13). To do so would take unbelievable courage, for Bethel is Israel’s national sanctuary, an idolatrous and syncretistic shrine, where a calf as well as the God of Israel were worshiped together, totally contrary God’s law (1 Kin 14:21-14). The counterfeit high priest of Bethel threatens Amos and king Jeroboam II is swiftly informed of Amos’ prediction of Israel’s imminent doom (Am 7:10).
King Jeroboam II (782-753 BC) is a strong ruler and under him deteriorating Israel once more gains strength, reclaims land and dominates trade (2 Kin 14:23-27). But the apparent boom cheats the eye. It has created a false sense of security, a false religiosity even. People are religious, they sacrifice to God, yet at the same time oppress the poor. God will have none of it, but the people, fooled by the apparent prosperity and success, are not willing to listen.
Amos starts his speech at the sanctuary in Bethel by announcing the sins of the surrounding nations and God’s judgment on them: Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab and Judah. His hearers would have been listening with excitement and glee for Israel had suffered by the hand of all these nations at one time or another. But then Amos turns the spear around an equally denounces Israel: their oppression of the poor, their false religiosity, their pride and false security fueled by the boom under Jeroboam.
Amos doesn’t mince words: ‘they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals – they trample the head of the poor into the dust… Ah, you, that turn justice to wormwood, and bring righteousness to the ground… they hate the one who reproves in the gate (the gate being the place where cases were judged), they abhor the one who speaks the truth… Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches… but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph’ (Am 1:6-7, 5:7,11, 6:4-6).
Especially his attack on hollow religiosity is searing: ‘I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies… I will not accept the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen… But let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like and ever-flowing stream’ (Am 5:18-24).
By shaming words and dripping irony he tries to shake up Israel’s false sense of security: ‘Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel?… Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod (Philistia) and… Egypt, ‘Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria (Israel’s capital), and see what great tumults… what oppression are in its midst’ (Am 9:7, 3:9).
He predicts the total destruction of Israel and issues a final call to Israel. Every prophecy of disaster is at the same time an invitation to repent, for if there was no hope anymore, God would not speak. So Amos invites: ‘For thus says the LORD; seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel … Seek the LORD and live, or he will break out against the house of Israel like fire’ (Am 5:4-6).
Amos ends his book with a prophecy of hope: God will grant a restoration beyond the judgment: ‘I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them…’ but it is not the idolatrous Bethel or Samaria that God will build back up: ‘On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen’ (Am 9:11). It is with Judah and David’s line that the hope lies.
Maybe there were people in Israel who took Amos’ words seriously and escaped the announced judgment (722 BC) by moving to Judah. Judah in time is judged and exiled as well (586 BC), but God restores the willing Jews to their land (536 BC onward). From these Jews Jesus is descended, who is the fulfillment of ‘David’s booth’ being raised up. And it is these very verses of Amos that help the apostles understand that God will include the Gentiles in his plan of salvation (Acts 15:16-17).

The author
The author describes himself as Amos, one among the shepherds of Tekoa (Am 1:1). A bit of further autobiographical information can be gleaned from Am 7:14, where he calls himself “no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but a herdsman, a dresser of sycamore trees”. The word “shepherd” or “herdsman” can mean both one who owns a flock or a simple worker who takes care of flocks. Sycamore trees bear a fruit only poor people ate. Also sycamore trees did not grow in Tekoa, a little fortified city South of Jerusalem with little rainfall, but in the lower western hills of Judah. Amos therefore probably was a rather poor agricultural worker, keeping sheep and migrating to pursue seasonal work. He also deliberately disassociates himself from prophets who earn a living by prophesying (Am 7:12-14) and gives no father’s name or ancestry. He rather describes himself as prophesying by compulsion, or by logic consequence: “The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Am 3:8). He seems to have a good understanding of the Law of Moses, for when he sees several smaller natural disasters coming on Israel (Am 4:6-12) he rightly interprets them as God trying to bring Israel to repentance, though without success: “yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. Therefore … prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” The painter Gustave Dore captured this observing, reflective and discerning mind of Amos (see picture right).

Date and Historical situation
Amos addresses Israel during the time of king Jeroboam II of Israel (782 – 753 BC). He also references King Uzziah of Judah (767 – 750 BC, Am 1:1). There is a possible reference to a plague (Am 4:9-10, dated by Assyrian inscriptions to 765 BC) and a possible reference to a solar eclipse (Am 8:9, dated to 763 BC) as well as a reference to an earthquake (Am 1:1), which is also mentioned in Zech 14:5 and in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, but no exact date is available. So it can be deduced that Amos spoke roughly between 767 and 753 BC.
Amos addresses Israel during the strong and successful king Jeroboam II’s reign. In order to understand the historical situation of his time, some earlier events in Israel’s history need to be understood:
931 BC            King Jeroboam I          evil
Israel separates from Judah, rejects the son of David and in his place chooses Jeroboam I to reign. Jeroboam I – in spite of a promise of God – installs a syncretistic worship of calves at Bethel and Dan, in intentional competition to Jerusalem. He establishes a worship, an altar, a high priest, sacrifices and feasts at exactly the same time as they are held in Jerusalem. He discourages Israel from attending the temple, makes Bethel the national sanctuary and the calf worship the official religion of Israel (1 Kin 12).
841-814 BC   King Jehu             partially evil
Army general Jehu rebels against Israel’s current king, kills off the kingly family and proclaims himself as the new king. He tries to eradicate Baal worship from Israel and is rewarded by God with a prophecy, that four generations of his sons will sit on the throne of Israel. Jehu’s family becomes the most long lasting dynasty of Israel (2 Kin 10:30).
814-798 BC   King Jehoahaz    evil       1st generation from Jehu
When oppressed by Syria, this evil king entreats God, and God promises him a ‘savior’ (2 Kin 13:1-6). ‘Savior’ probably refers to Adad-Nirari of Assyria who defeats Israel’s arch enemy Syria and so gives some respite to Israel.
798-782 BC   King Joash           evil       2nd generation from Jehu
782-753 BC   King Jeroboam II  evil   3rd generation from Jehu
2 Kin 14:25-27 says that since Israel was oppressed, God gave them a strong ruler, Jeroboam II. Though he is evil, Jeroboam manages to re-capture lost lands, to re-establish peace and to control important trade routes. Israel starts thriving economically. But the apparent boom cheats the eye, only a very limited number of people are getting rich, often on the back of the poor. The new-found prosperity has also created a false sense of security, a false religiosity even. People are idolatrous (Am 8:14) or syncretistic (they sacrifice to God, and to the calf at Bethel, Am 7:10), but definitely religious (Am 6:21-23). Yet at the same time they oppress the poor and tolerate injustice. Israel’s political stability and apparent prosperity is really a living off the ‘left-over blessing’ of God’s grace to Jehu, but it will not be sustainable. (It is very interesting to note that many modern western nations find themselves in a very similar situation: living off left-over blessing).
God will have none of this false religiosity combined with oppression, and says so by the mouth of Amos. He will have to address these self-pleased, newly-rich, pseudo-religious people with a very unpopular message. He will have to pop their religious bubble, shake up their sense of security, convict them of their wrongdoing – and all while things seem to be going just fine.
Amos may be a simple no-nonsense agricultural worker, but he is courageous and obedient. He sets out by God’s command from Tekoa and goes straight to Bethel, Israel’s syncretistic national sanctuary, and starts speaking his unpopular message there, probably at the time of the feasts, when many people are present.

Preaching at Bethel

Imagine you are a religious newly rich, who has just come to Bethel for the big annual autumn festival. You are making all the right sacrifices, even more than are required. You can afford to do so, having gained lots of money, lately. You also meet the ‘who is who’ of Israel’s upper class and are looking forward to meeting more important people. The economic thriving of Israel under Jeroboam II, the winning back of the original-sized kingdom has convinced you, that Yahweh is very pleased with Israel. Why needing to bother with Judah, who finally plays the second fiddle to Israel? Why worry about the temple in Jerusalem? God has obviously blessed Israel. So much so, that you again start hoping for the day, when God will exalt Israel over all the other nations, when he will get rid of all Israel’s enemies, when he will establish his rule and glorify Israel: the long-awaited day of the Lord. The ambiance is right, everything is rich and elaborate and impressive.
And then a man gets up and starts speaking, starts pronouncing judgment on the surrounding nations, all of them Israel’s enemies. He uses clear strong words and powerful pictures. He is denouncing Syria, he is denouncing Philistia, He is denouncing Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab (Am 1:3-2:3). All of these are nations nearby that have time and again attacked and raided Israel. The man not only is pronouncing judgment, he is also giving the reasons for that judgment: Syria has threshed Israel’s lands with sledges of iron (Am 1:3), Philistia and Tyre have captured Israelites and sold them into slavery (Am 1:6, 1:9), Edom has pursued his brother Israel with the sword without pity or restraint (Am 1:11), Ammon has ripped open pregnant women in Israel’s Transjordan area (Am 1:13), Moab has desecrated the king of Edom’s bones (Am 2:1). Your heart leaps with joy and excitement, maybe this is the day, maybe God will take revenge for Israel now, maybe he will bring on the “day of the LORD”. The whole crowd around you is as spellbound as you are and carried by the excitement of the moment.
Then the voice goes on to pronounce judgment on Judah. On Judah? You are a little confused, wasn’t Judah the one with the supposed more direct link to God? But then again they are just plain arrogant and you are quite happy to see them scolded and shamed (Am 2:4-5).
But before you can finish your thoughts on Judah the voice has gone on to do … what? He is denouncing Israel! “Thus says the LORD: for three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals – they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way” (Am 2:-7).
You are so in shock, that you cannot move. The voice goes on, pronouncing the un-pronouncable, a long monologue of judgment against Israel, longer than against any other nation before. Then anger rises, not only in you, but in the whole crowd. Who is this man? And who does he think he is? Why isn’t somebody stopping him?

Judgment on the nations

Amos starts his prophecy by announcing God’s judgment on eight nations and the reasons for that judgment. He uses a repetitive formula:
“Thus say the Lord...(stating God’s authority)...for three transgressions and for four, I will not revoke the punishment (the certainty of judgment coming) … because they (reasons for judgment) … So I will (description of judgment) …, says the LORD”.
Who is being judged? It’s six enemy nations around Israel, then Judah (the sister nation), then Israel itself. This progression is surely intentional, Amos ‘sweeps around’ and then ‘zeroes in’ on Israel, his intended audience. Amos catches them in their wrong attitude: the hearers would be rejoicing to hear the judgments aimed against these enemy nations. But then Amos continues and they realize the weapon is aimed at them primarily. This is an approach not unlike Jesus’ parables, that catch the hearers in a wrong reaction.
But what exactly are the nations judged for? This is worth looking at in detail:

SYRIA
Reasons: Am 1:3 “they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron”
Interpretation: commit extreme cruelty against Israel (2 Ki 8:12)
PHILISTIA
Reasons: Am 1:6 “they carried into exile entire communities, to hand them over to Edom”
Interpretation: conscience-less slave trade (in times of peace), against Israel and others
PHOENICIA
Reasons: “delivered entire communities to Edom, did not remember covenant of kinship”
Interpretation: conscience-less slave trade (in times of peace), covenant of kinship broken
EDOM
Reasons: “he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity; he maintained his anger perpetually, and kept his wrath forever”
Interpretation: merciless to a brother-people (Israel), revenge exceeding injury (not: eye for eye but excess), slave trade with Philistia and Phoenicia
AMMON
Reasons: “they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead to enlarge their territory”
Interpretation: commit extreme cruelty to enlarge borders, killing of non-combatants, genocide
MOAB
Reasons; “he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom”
Interpretation: desecration of dead bodies or tombs was abhorrent. Humiliation of the weak or the dead.
JUDAH
Reasons: “they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but they have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked”
Interpretation: judged according to what revelation they had (law)
ISRAEL
Reasons: remainder of the book of Amos: oppression of poor, false judgment, greed, etc.
Interpretation: judged according to the revelation they had (law)

In summary, the nations are judged for the breaking of covenants, for trafficking, for extreme violence in warfare, for excess revenge, for genocide, for desecration. These are all things that all nations would agree that nobody should do, things that all nations would call unjust if somebody committed something like that against them. For judging these nations (which did not have any special revelation of God) God uses the general standard of conscience, the same as when Jesus says: ‘do not do to others what you don’t want them to do to you’ or what Paul describes in Rom 1:20 as “they have no excuse”. The standard is a generally accepted basic moral code, the golden rule. They will be judged by the measure they are judging (Mth 7:1-2).
Judah and Israel are judged for not worshiping God, though they knew him, and for not following the Law, though they had it. The principle is: The higher the degree of revelation, the higher the degree of accountability. God is just in his judgment. This also shows that though Israel and Judah were chosen, God is involved with all nations:

• he calls all nations into existence Gen, Acts 17:26
• he knows the history of each nation Exo 9:24
• he allots land to nations, gives borders Deu 2, Am 9:7, Acts 17:26
• God has agreements with nations Acts 17:26
• God holds nations accountable Lev 18
• God measures the sin of nations Gen 15:16
• God judges nations various
• God cancels nations’ right of existence in the case of persistent and major sin Lev 18

This nations theme would humble Israel (and Judah), who think themselves favorite. This would also prepare the ground for Amos’ actual message: Israel has sinned, it has ceased to be godly or different from other nations, God is pronouncing impending judgment and a stern call to repent.
This theme is also comforting: God does see every sin, every injustice committed. He ultimately holds every nation accountable. We are not judged for what we didn’t know but for what we knew. God is absolutely just, principled and reasonable in his judgment.
On a side note: the modern day Geneva conventions (1949 AD) that regulates what nations should and shouldn’t do during warfare are based on Biblical principles (Deu 19-21, Amos 1-2, etc.)

Amos’ convicting message to Israel
To shake up their false security and to open Israel’s eyes to their sin Amos relentlessly forces Israel to look in the mirror. Following are some of the big issues he bites their conscience with:

Social injustice
Amos mentions immorality, syncretism and idolatry, but overwhelmingly he denounces Israel’s social injustice. Here some examples:
Am 2:6ff “because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals – they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way”
Am 5:10-12 ”They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them… For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins – you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate”
Am 5:23-24 “Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”
Am 8:4 “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat”
It is important to notice that Amos is not denouncing being rich as such (neither does the Law), he is also not denouncing it with the jealous eyes of one who is poor. Actually in his very own hope prophesy at the end of his book (Am 9:11-15) he beautifully describes God’s material blessing on the remnant of Israel.
What he denounces is prosperity when most are poor and vulnerable. He denounces injustice, unrighteous gain, the twisting of laws, the mercilessness, carelessness, indulgence, luxury and excess in the face of abject poverty. He denounces the having the power to do something and not doing it. If somebody – on top of all this sin – is proudly displaying his religiosity, then it becomes like spitting into the face of the poor, and spitting into the face of God, which is the same.

Immorality
Amos 2:7-8 “Father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge”.
How does immorality, though not mentioned often in Amos, fit into the picture? Immorality can easily be one from the mistreatment of the poor and vulnerable can take. Immorality can be linked to abuse of power, to idolatry (promiscuous fertility cults with sexual slaves) and even to empty religiosity, – for religion does not address the sinful tendency of the human heart.

Misinterpreting God and his Law or False Religiosity
Am 5:21-24 “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.”
Am 4:4-5 “Come to Bethel and transgress, to Gilgal – and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; bring a thank offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
Amos speaks very strong words against fake religiosity, against forms without content, against the outward rituals without inward conviction, against combining things that never belonged together: the name of God and careless injustice.

Self-sufficiency and False security
Am 6:13 “Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?”
Am 6:8 “I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds”
Am 9:10 “All the sinners of my people shall die… who say, evil shall not overtake or meet us.”
With political success and economic boom so often comes pride, self-sufficiency, independence of God and a false security.

Loss of distinctiveness
Maybe the most biting of all of Amos’ denunciations is the theme that Israel is no longer any different from the surrounding nations: they have forfeited their chosenness, their calling to be a model nation.
Amos 3:9 “Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod, and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria, and see what great tumults are within it, and what oppressions are in its midst.”
Amos calls on the Philistines and the Egyptians to be appalled at the evil in Israel. Not a compliment.
Amos 9:7 “Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the LORD. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? The eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom”
God here taunts Israel, its baseless pride, its chosenness and false superiority. God basically says: What I did for you I did for others also. Chosenness should lead to a humble gratitude for God’s favor and a seriousness about fulfilling that calling. Israel is far from it.

Amos’ visions and intercession

Amos sees five visions (Am 7:1-9, 8:1-9:4): God making locusts, a great fire, a plumb line, a basket with summer fruit and the altar and the temple being shaken. There is an interesting progression in these visions:
God making locusts is a classic partial judgment according to Deu 28:38, meant to bring Israel to repentance. Amos intercedes: “O Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” and God relents (Am 7:3). Israel in its current prosperity bubble would not like to hear the ‘He is so small’, but Amos sees Israel’s weakness and asks for mercy.
The second vision is exactly parallel: God calls for a fire, Amos intercedes and God relents. The third vision is a plumb line and God’s words “I will never again pass them by”. When Amos sees the plumb line, an instrument of evaluation (is the wall truly vertical?), he is silenced. He knows what the reality of Israel is, he knows that there is a level of evil and injustice, where to let things continue is no longer mercy. The remaining two visions, the basket of fruit and the shaking altar and temple, are simply announcements of the inevitable and justified judgment on Israel.
Some would argue that Amos should have kept interceding. But maybe to keep interceding blindly ‘why don’t you do anything for us poor humans?’ is not true intercession at all, for that is to not understand God, or even to blame him. God doesn’t need to be convinced to be merciful; if there is any inch of rightness or legitimacy, he will be merciful. Amos understands God, and whether he likes it or not, he cannot but agree with God for the need for judgment. Therefore:

Amos’ prediction of Israel’s doom

Amos 9:1-4 “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away… escape. Though they hide… and though they go into captivity in front of their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good”.
Amos’ prediction of destruction, though unthinkable in the days of Jeroboam II, fulfills quickly. After Jeroboam’s death, there is a series of weak kings, assassinating one another in quick succession. A mere thirty years later (722 BC) king Shalmaneser of Assyria conquers Israel and besieges Samaria, king Sargon II finishes everything off. All surviving Israelite population is exiled, force-resettled and disappears from known history. No return occurs for the ten northern tribes, which made up Israel (2 Kin 17:5-6).

Amos’ message of hope

Immediate hope
Yet Amos, though relentless in his accusations against Israel and urgent in his call to repentance, still speaks of hope: “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel… Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” (Am 5:4, 5:6, 5:14). The fact that God still sends a prophet is in itself a sign of hope, for if repentance is no longer possible, there is no need for a prophet.
Amos clearly speaks of the inevitability of God’s judgment on Israel as a nation, but the repentance of individuals will still be honored by God. Since God’s judgment is announced to be inevitable, Amos (together with Hosea) are indirectly issuing a final call for God-fearing Israelites to escape the doomed northern Israel and move south into Judah.
In Israel’s history there has been at least two other times when godly people from the deteriorating northern kingdom moved south into Judah (see 2 Chr 11:13-17, 2 Chr 15:8). Later king Hezekiah (2 Chr 30:11) and king Josiah (2 Kin 23:15-20) reach out to any remaining population in that area. It also seems that Amos, who spoke to the northern Israel, wrote his prophecy down with the southern Judah in mind (Am 1:2, 3:1 6:1, 7:2, 7:9). This Judah will also undergo an exile later (586 BC), but a remnant of Jews will return (536 BC) and Amos’ prophecy is preserved by them, as were the other Scriptures.

Future hope
Amos at the very end gives a prophecy of hope, containing these important verses (Am 9:11-12): “On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; in order that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD who does this.”
These words are not a word of hope for Israel as a nation, for Amos predicts that “the booth of David” will be repaired and raised up, not an idolatrous northern kingdom of Israel. Again, some might have obeyed this ‘last call’ and left the doomed Israel and joined Judah, on which the messianic promise about David’s booth rested. Judah is itself exiled later (see above) but a return of a remnant of Jews occurs. It is from these returned Jews that Jesus is descended, who is the fulfillment of the prophecy of “David’s booth” being raised up.
It is this very verse of Amos (Am 9:12) that is quoted in the New Testament at a very pivotal time. It helps the apostles at their council in Jerusalem (49 AD) understand, that God always meant to include the Gentiles in his plan of salvation (Acts 15:16-17). Good news indeed.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Who wrote?

• Amos is the speaker (Amo 1:1), and probably also the writer
• his character displays availability, obedience, courage, a disregard for opposition, fear of God

Profession and social status

• Amo 1:1 … “was among the shepherds of Tekoa”
• Amo 7:14 … “but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees”. The word used in Hebrew for herdsmen is “noqed” means simple shepherd, can mean owner of sheep, but “and the LORD took me from following the flock” (also Amo 7:14) sounds like him doing the work himself, not him being the rich owner of flocks.
• Also: the absence of his family tree speaks of him being of no significant or famous family line.
• Tekoa is a little fortified city some 16 km South of Jerusalem, east of the main mountain backbone of the country with its North-South road.
• It is situated on a detached hill about 900 m high, which falls of steeply towards the Dead sea (1300 m). This area is in the “rain shadow” of the central range and very dry and inhospitable.
• Sycamore trees only grow in the lower western hills. Amos must have, in the search for water and pasture, descended there regularly, hiring himself out in a side job as a sycamore tree dresser. Sycamore trees are a type of fig, both fruit and wood were used of it. The fruit was popular among the poor.
• Some suggest that Amos was a wealthy farmer who was producing food for the poor by his sycamore trees, but I personally think that the person who actually follows the sheep and actually dresses the trees doesn’t sound like the owner of much land. He seems to have known both the wilderness and the city-life (Tekoa and wool-trading).
• Also Tekoa was close enough to the country’s highway for news to travel there.

Amos’ call

• Amo 7:14 “and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” … There seems to be a clear call, even if not a spectacular one.
• Amos seems to refer to himself prophesying more as a compulsion, a logic consequence … “The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?” Amo 3:8
• Amo 7:14  Yet there is a deliberate dissociation from the “prophets and sons of prophets” … “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son” … He definitely doesn’t want to be associated with prophesying for money or with prophets sponsored by rulers, as seem to have been somewhat common. He also is not a prophet that prophesies over a lifetime like Samuel, Elijah or Elisha before him or Isaiah and Jeremiah after him. It seems he went back to Tekoa and never prophesied again (a short term missionary!). He is indignantly outside of traditional religion and challenges traditional religion.

Amos’ life

• There is an interesting passage in Amos that seems to speak of his life before the actual trip to Israel and the prophesying:
• Amo 4:6-13. It is in past tense, a list of partial judgments of God, ordained to get Israel’s attention, without success
• It seems Amos, even though only a shepherd, is sitting in Judah, watching and discerning what is going on.
• He sees the sister-nation Israel boom under Jeroboam II. He also seems to realize that the appearance is better than the reality.
• Then he sees a series of things happening over a short period of time, that he associates with Gods judgment – rightfully so according to Deu 28.
• He interprets it as God trying to get Israel’s attention through partial judgments, but there is no response.
  • Amo 4:6         famine, lack of bread …                        yet you did not return to me
  • Amo 4:7-8     I also withheld the rain from you …   yet you did not return to me
  • Amo 4:9        blight, mildew, locusts …                      yet you did not return to me
  • Amo 4:10      pestilence …                                            yet you did not return to me
  • Amo 4:11       military set-backs                                  yet you did not return to me
• When was that? It must have happened before Amos’ prophecy. Assyrian inscriptions mention a plague ravaging the Near East in 765 BC.
• Also there was an eclipse of the sun in 763 BC, another sign associated with judgment. Maybe Amo 8:9 refer to this event: … “On that day, says the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight”. Either way, Amos seems to have been alarmed – Israel wasn’t.
• It is not explicitly stated but it seems that also the 5 visions of judgment in ch 7-9 were part of his call, part of his formation as a prophet.

When written?

• Amo 1:1 … “in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam … of Israel” … 793 BC Jeroboam starts co-reigning with Joash, 782 BC he reigns alone till 753 BC. Uzziah starts co-reigning in 790 BC, reigning alone in 767-750 BC, then co-reigning with his son till 739 BC > Overlap time 767-753 BC.
• Amo 1:1 … “two years before the earthquake.” This earthquake was so strong that the prophet Zechariah refers to it 250 years later in Zec 14:5 … you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. No exact date is known for it, roughly 760 BC.
• This earthquake is also mentioned by Jewish historian Josephus Flavius in his “Antiquities of the Jews”, Book IX, Ch.10, who writes later, but uses earlier records
• Amos prophesies an earthquake in Amo 8:8 … Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? … Amo 9:5 …”He who touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn”
• Maybe the earthquake 2 years after the prophecy confirmed Amos as a prophet of God and made people take his message more serious. Maybe it also lead to a demand for having his words in written form. Maybe Amos chose to record the earthquake to give authority to his writing.
• Also remember, that the past-tense passage in chapter Amo 4:6-11 most likely refers to a plague recorded to be in 765 BC, which would put the writing of “Amos” slightly later than 765 BC.
• Most likely Amos was written prior to the coming true of the judgment in 722 BC, where Israel is deported by the Assyrians. If written later, the message could not achieve any repentance any more, things already happened.
• So probably 765-753 BC … or simply: around 760 BC

To whom?

• Am 1:1 … “The words of Amos … concerning Israel”. The audience is clearly the northern kingdom, not his native Judah. Yet his prophecy against Judah dissolves any suspicions of him being partial.
  • Amo 2:4     to Judah
    
  • Amo 6:1     to Zion
  • Amo 3:1      to whole family brought up from Egypt
  • Amo 7:2      to Jacob (same)
  • Amo 7:9      to Isaac (same)
• Amo 7:10 … “Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.”
• This passage tells us where Amos spoke his message: at Bethel, the “very center of the house of Israel”, at the “king’s sanctuary”, at the “temple of the kingdom”. Why not at Samaria, the capital? Why Bethel as center?
• It is likely that Amos spoke at Bethel purposefully at the time of the great autumn festival. .
• 1 Kin 12:32 … “Jeroboam appointed a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the festival that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made.”
• This festival lasted 8 days, attracted many people and gave ample time for Amos to preach his message. Amos message is even more radical – and courageous – if seen against a background of a great annual feast where much of Israel was gathered, celebrating and affirming Yahweh’s lordship, hoping for his revenge on his enemies, that is Israel’s enemies, the ushering in of the long-awaited day of the Lord. What an audience! What a timing!

Where from?

• Written most likely from Tekoa (Amo 1:1), after returning from his prophesying trip, maybe somewhat later (the earth quake happened since)

Literary Kind

• Mostly poetry … messages from God (> figurative interpretation)
• Some prose … story line (> literal interpretation) in Amo 1:1-2a (intro), 5:25-26 (?), 6:9-10 (scary death story), 7:1-2 (intro to vision), 7:7-8 (intro to vision), 7:10-15 (happening at Bethel), 8:1-2 (intro to vision).

Structure

• prophecy, chiastic structure over the whole book (?)

Composition

• a lament                  Am 5:1-17
• 3 woe oracles         Am 5:18-6:14
• 5 visions                 Am 7:1-9:10
• a salvation oracle Am 9:11-15
• repetition in ch 1-2 judgment on nations … and in ch 7 visions
• irony Amo 4:4-5 “Come to Bethel and transgress!”
• emphatic statements / emotion in Amo 5:21-23 “I hate, I despise your festivals”

Historical Background – Political situation

• Amo 1:1 … “The words of Amos, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel” So: king Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam II of Israel.

King Jehu of Israel                  841-814 BC                partially obedient                           promise of 4 generations

• 2 Kin 9 Around 840 BC Jehu is anointed king over Israel as God’s instrument to wipe out Ahab and his family, to kill Jezebel and to kill off the priests and the worship of Baal in Israel. He does not do away with the calves at Bethel and Dan, though.
• For this he is promised in 2 Kin 10:30 “Because you have done well in carrying out what I consider right, and in accordance with all that was in my heart have dealt with the house of Ahab, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.”
• So Jehu is promised 4 generations, a prophecy fulfilled with his son Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam II and Zechariah

King Jehoahaz of Israel        814-798 BC                evil                                                        1st generation from Jehu

• 2 Kin 13:1-6 … “In the twenty-third year of King Joash son of Ahaziah of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned seventeen years. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he caused Israel to sin; he did not depart from them. The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that he gave them repeatedly into the hand of King Hazael of Aram, then into the hand of Ben-hadad son of Hazael. But Jehoahaz entreated the LORD, and the LORD heeded him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Aram oppressed them. Therefore the LORD gave Israel a savior, so that they escaped from the hand of the Arameans; and the people lived in their homes as formerly.”
• Around 815 BC Syria grows strong and oppressive under Hazael.
• The “savior” promised probably refers to King Adad-Nirari of Assyria who defeats Hazael’s son Ben-Hadad II.
• Assyria becomes the strongest power of the day, Syria is weakened and Syria’s grip on Israel loosens.

King Joash of Israel                798-782 BC              evil                    2nd generation from Jehu
King Jeroboam II                     782-753 BC               evil                    3rd generation from Jehu

• 2 Kin 14:23-29 … “In the fifteenth year of King Amaziah son of Joash of Judah, King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel began to reign in Samaria; he reigned forty-one years. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he caused Israel to sin. He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. For the LORD saw that the distress of Israel was very bitter; there was no one left, bond of free and no one to help Israel. But the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Joash. Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered for Israel Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? Jeroboam slept with his ancestors, the kings of Israel; his son Zechariah succeeded him.”
• Mixed picture: a king who does evil in the sight of the Lord, yet under him Israel manages to recover land, enlarges its borders almost back to Davidic size, recovers some economically.
• Jeroboam II has a long and successful reign. This time is also referred to as Israel’s “second golden age”.
• But there seems to be no “spiritual recovery” with it. The relative peace is basically a left-over blessing from past (Jehu’s obedience, Jehoahaz’ prayer) plus God’s amazing grace. Israel’s “doing well” on the surface probably blinded people’s view of their state in the eyes of God.
• Yahweh-religiosity (Israel’s own brand thereof) seemed to work just fine and is adhered to faithfully.
• The fact that not everybody is doing well in Israel doesn’t seem to bother the ruling class too much.
• Example: Western affluent nations, temptation of affluence, self-reliance, cutting corners, …
• Example: churches, some revivals, starting well but with increasing affluence things start deteriorating
• Do not be fooled, do not be envious.

Historical Background – Spiritual situation

• Jeroboam himself is not God-fearing, he is into the calf-worship at Bethel and Dan, instituted at the very beginning.
• The calf-worship is clearly syncretistic and professes to be to the God of Israel. Amos repeatedly refers to this > they desire ‘the day of the LORD’ for example.
• Amos also mentions other “imported” idolatry Amos 5:25 … “ You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves”. Kaiwan and Sakkuth are names found in Assyrian inscriptions to refer to the planet-god Saturn. Amos 8:14 mentions ‘Ashima of Samaria’, ‘god of Dan’ and ‘the way of Beer-sheba’, further idols and places of worship.
• Amos 5:21-23 mentions festivals, offerings, songs. Israel seems to be very religious but not God-fearing, which is most clearly expressed in their rejection of Amos’ message and the threats on his life.
• With religiosity comes false security and self-sufficiency … and rejection of God’s conviction, a theme all throughout
• With the spiritual corruption comes moral corruption. Religiosity asks only for outward obedience to rituals, not for the state of the heart. Idols are corrupt and can be bribed, if they are not straight out immoral.
• So religiosity separates confessed religion and practice in daily life, it dissociates worship and a moral lifestyle. One can rip off a poor and with the money buy sacrifices for worship – or things for private pleasure …no contradiction!
• This is what Amos speaks out against radically. Note that he doesn’t argue theology with Israel so much (“you should come and worship at Jerusalem”), but he puts flaming judgment on their behavior towards the poor and needy.

Reigning Kings

• Jeroboam II    in Israel      co-reign with father 793-782 BC        single reign 782-753 BC
• Uzziah              in Judah     co-reign with father 790-767 BC        single reign 767-750 BC     co-reign with son 750-739 BC

Contemporary Prophets

• Jonah around 795-775 BC to Nineveh, Israel
• Hosea around 755-722 BC to Israel
• Micah around 730-700 BC to Israel and Judah

Main Ideas

• Judgment on all nations for sin, Israel and Judah’s chosenness does not protect them
• Warning to repent of injustice, self-sufficiency, false religiosity, false security, immorality
• God’s heart for the poor / needy / weak
• God’s unlimited power to create / to judge
• Emphasis on personal responsibility / hope for the repentant

Main Reasons

• Final call to Israel to repent from the sins mentioned before destruction & exile hits: Repent! Seek God! Live!
• To shake & convict Israel, to pop the bubble of false religiosity and false security
• to warn Judah not to fall into the same trap
• to reveal God’s heart: his power, his Godhood, his justice & love for the poor, his heart of grace to take back all

Amos’ setting

• Imagine you are a religious newly rich, who has just come to Bethel for the big annual autum festival. You are making all the right sacrifices, even more than are required. You can afford doing so, having gained lots of money, lately. You also meet the “who is who” of Israel’s upper class and are looking forward to meeting more important people. Also the blossoming of Israel under Jeroboam II, the winning back of the original-sized kingdom has convinced you, that Yahweh is very pleased with Israel … why needing to bother with Judah, who finally plays the second fiddle to Israel and worry about the temple in Jerusalem. God has obviously blessed Israel. So much so, that you again start hoping for the day, when God will exalt Israel over all the other nations, when he will get rid of all Israel’s enemies, when he will establish his rule and glorify Israel … the long-awaited day of the Lord.
• All the ambiance is right, the right people, the right place, the right sacrifices, the right music, everything rich and elaborate and impressive …
• And then a man gets up and starts speaking, starts pronouncing judgment on the surrounding nations, all of them Israel’s enemies, clear strong words and powerful pictures, … Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. Your heart leaps with joy and excitement … maybe this is the day … maybe God will do his thing now … the whole crowd around you is spellbound and carried by excitement
• Then the voice goes on to pronounce judgment on Judah … on Judah? You are a little confused … wasn’t Judah the one with the supposed more direct ink to Yahweh? But then again they are just plain arrogant and you are not too unhappy about seeing them humiliated some.
• Before you can finish your thoughts on Judah the voice has gone on to do … What? … he is denouncing Israel!!
• “Thus says the LORD: for three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals – they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way” … You are so in shock, that you can’t move, the voice goes on, pronouncing the un-pronouncable, a long monologue of judgment … then anger rises, not only in you, but in the whole crowd, who is this man? who does he think he is? Why isn’t somebody stopping him?

Amos’ judgment on the nations chapter 1-2 see handout

• Note the structure he is using, the repeated phrases … “Thus say the Lord: (authority) … for three transgressions of XXX and for four, I will not revoke the punishment (the extent of sin) … because (reason for judgment) … So I will (judgment) … more details … says the LORD.”

SYRIA / ARAM

• Geography    Damascus, Valley of Aven, Beth-eden King Hazael, King Ben-Hadad
• Reasons            Amo 1:3   “they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron”
• Interpretation    commit extreme cruelty against Israel (2 Kin 8:12)
• Fulfillment        732 BC Assyria (Tiglath-Pileser) conquers Damascus, exiles Syria

PHILISTIA

• Geography       Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron
• Reasons           Amo 1:6 they carried into exile entire communities, to hand them over to Edom
• Interpretation conscience-less slave trade (in times of peace)
• Fulfillment
  • Gaza          734 BC burned by Assyria (Tiglath-Pileser), later destroyed
  • Ashdod      711 BC conquered by Assyria (Sargon II)
  • Ashkelon  734/33 and 701 BC conquered by Assyria
  • Ekron conquered by the Seleucians (Greek), later by Maccabeans

PHOENICIA

• Geography          Tyre
• Reasons                they delivered entire communities over to Edom and did not remember the covenant of kinship
• Interpretation  conscience-less slave trade (in times of peace), covenant of kinship (David-Hiram of Tyre) broken
• Fulfillment      
  • 701 BC overwhelmed by Assyria (Sennacherib), later smoked out by Assyria (Ashurbanipal)
  • 322 BC conquered by Greece (Alexander)

EDOM

• Geography          Teman, Bozrah
• Reasons             he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity; he maintained his anger perpetually, and kept his wrath forever
• Interpretation    merciless to a brother-people (Israel), revenge exceeding injury (not: eye for eye … but excess), slave trade with Philistia & Phoenicia
• Fulfillment    711 and 701 BC conquered by Assyria (Sargon II / Sennacherib)

AMMON

• Geography          Rabbah
• Reasons               they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead to enlarge their territory
• Interpretation    commit extreme cruelty to enlarge borders, killing of non-combatants, genocide
• Fulfillment         586 BC conquered by Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar)

MOAB

• Geography            Kerioth
• Reasons                 he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom
• Interpretation   desecration of dead bodies / tombs was regarded with abhorrence
• Fulfillment          715 BC conquered by Assyria (Sargon II)

JUDAH

• Geography            Jerusalem
• Reasons                “they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but they have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked”
• Interpretation judged according to what revelation they had (law)
• Fulfillment           586 BC conquered, destroyed and exiled by Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar)

ISRAEL

• Geography             Samaria, Bethel, Gilgal, …
• Reasons                   remainder of the book of Amos
• Interpretation     remainder of the book of Amos
• Fulfillment          722 BC conquered, destroyed and exiled by Assyria (Shalmaneser V / Sargon II)

What are the other nations really judged for?

• breaking of covenants, selling humans into slavery (in peace time / as business), trafficking, extreme violence in warfare, excess revenge, genocide, desecration, …
• These are all things that all nations would agree that nobody should do, that all nations would call unjust if somebody committed it against them … this is a general standard of conscience, sort of like Paul describes in Rom 1:20 they have no excuse … or Jesus when saying: do not do to others what you don’t want them to do to you … a generally accepted basic moral code, the golden rule
• They are held accountable to the law of agreement, of conscience … held accountable for what they would have held others accountable for … you will be judged by the measure you judge by

Nations judges according to what standard / measure?

• Note that the judgments respond to the degree of knowledge.
• Judah is judged for not following the law of God it knew. They had a higher degree of revelation, they are therefore accountable to a higher standard.
• Judah and Israel are judged for idolatry. Idolatry is not held as a sin for the other nations (they know no better), but idolatry is the sin of those who know God.
• God’s relationship with other nations?
• All these judgments declared God as the sovereign Lord of history, Lord of all nations, Judge of all nations
• It also shows that each nation has an accountability to God, a covenant with God.
• In summary Bible says that
  • God calls nations into existence … Gen, Acts 17:26
  • God knows the history of each nation … Exo 9:24
  • God gives land to nations … Deu 2, Amo 9:7
  • God defines the borders and times of nations … Acts 17:26
  • God has agreements with nations … Acts 17:26
  • God holds nations accountable … Lev 18
  • God measures the sin of nations … Gen 15:16
  • God judges nations … various
  • God uses nations to judge nations … various, Hab 1
  • and if a nation persists in extreme sin he cancels its right of existence > they disappear Lev 18
• This nations-theme … would humble Israel (and Judah), who think themselves on a different plain
• This nations-theme … would also prepare the ground for Amos’ actual message to his hearers:
  • Israel has sinned, it has ceased to be godly or different from other nations,
  • God is pronouncing impending judgment and a stern call to repent.
• This is what the rest of the book of Amos will do: Amos sets the stage and then zeroes in on Israel, on his audience …
• Application: God does see sin, injustice … he holds all people / nations accountable …we are judged by known revelation … nobody will escape by being chosen / favorite (neither Israel nor church) …God is absolutely just, principled, reasoned in his judgment
• Geneva convention … based on christian principles from Bible (Deu 19-21, Amos 1-2, …)

Amos’ structure overview / Hymns

• Amos’ first big speech is chapter 1-2, this progression of nations and the climax in the judgment of Israel
• In a further speech, starting with chapter 3, he calls 3x for the attention of his listeners with the words: “Hear this word”
• In these passages Amos appeals to his listeners’ conscience, he gives reasons why Israel truly deserves judgment, he warns, he shakes people out of their false faith in religiosity and rituals, he reveals the character of God, the holy God, the consistent God, the God who fights for the poor and needy.
• He threatens with God’s judgment and crushes the false security in the chosenness of Israel. He pleads he explains, he argues, he threatens …
• Then in a further part or speech, starting with chapter 7 > 5 visions he had of God getting ready to judge Israel.
• This speech is interrupted by the priest Amaziah’s threats. Probably the priest is simply the head of a more and more hostile crowd.
• He reports to Jeroboam and threatens Amos to leave Israel immediately.
• Amos responds with a personal judgment on the priest and with continuation of his message.
• At the very end the tone of Amos’ message changes considerably, he prophecies that there will be a restoration of David’s kingdom, a remnant that will again be blessed … after the judgment.
• Maybe this restoration passage was spoken at Bethel, to give a hope with the challenge, not just condemnation.
• Maybe this concluding passage was not spoken by Amos in Bethel, but is a further prophesy added while writing down the book. A hope beyond judgment. A God who will not be provoked by men to cease to write history.
• Interjected there are some passages that sound like hymns, descriptions of God and of his sovereignty:
  • Amos 1:2 “the LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice in Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds wither, and the top of Carmel dries up” …
  • Amos 4:13 “For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth – the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!”
  • Amos 5:8-9 “The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into morning, and darkens the 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, who makes destruction flash out against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress” …
  • Amos 9:5-6 ... “The Lord, GOD of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt; who builds his upper chambers in the heavens, and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the surface of the earth – the LORD is his name.”
• God is described as powerful, sovereign, Creator, sustainer of the universe, the one who knows everything, intervenes in the earth, watches, judges if need be, nobody can prevent his hand …
• Why these hymns? They are beautiful, but what do they do here?
  • I would suggest that they are an integral part of Amos’ message.
  • Religiosity can only bloom on wrong concepts of God. The stress on rituals, sacrifices, feasts that breeds false security, self-sufficiency and more brownie-points for the rich could never grow as easily on a true understanding of God’s character.
  • If God is sovereign, entirely holy, gracious on the upright, knowing the heart of man … then why do I try to impress him with sacrifices?
  • Or: The dissociation of religion and what I practice in daily life could only grow on wrong God concepts. If he is Lord of all things, Lord of every part of my life, always wanting justice for all, always on the side of the weak, those without voice, the God of kept covenants, the God of never-changing character, the God of great faithfulness and consistency … why would I think I can get away with sin toward my fellow-creature?
• I believe Amos is aware that only a returning to the living God can truly reform this society. If he argues theology with them, they’ll pervert it into yet one more form of religiosity.
• Only the encounter with God himself will rip apart our escapes into religiosity.

Amos’ message

Social injustice

• Amos mentions immorality, he mentions misled Yahweh-worship and idolatry, but overwhelmingly powerful is the theme of social injustice.
• Amos 2:6ff “because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals – they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way …|
• Amos 2:8    “and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed …”
• Amos 3:9-11 “Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria, and see what great tumults are within it, and what oppressions are in its midst. They do not know how to do right, says the LORD, those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds…”
• Amos 4:1 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, bring something to drink!”
• Amos 5:10-12 “They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them … For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins – you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate …”
• Amos 5:23-24 “Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream …”
• Amos 6:1       “Alas for those who are at ease in Zion, and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria …”
• Amos 6:4-6    “Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp … who drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! …”
• Amos 8:4      “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
• Marx and Engels could have learned something from Amos! He is very specific, very emotional, very involved, very powerful in denouncing social injustice.
• Note that he is not denouncing “being rich” as such, neither does the Law, he is also not denouncing it with the jealous eyes of a have-not … his very own prophesy at the end of the book describes God’s material blessing on the remnant of Israel (Amo 9:11-15).
• What he denounces is prosperity against the poverty of the majority, he denounces injustice, unrighteous gain, the twisting of laws, the mercilessness and the couldn’t care less attitude, the luxury and excess in the face of abject poverty, the having the power to do something and not doing it.
• If one – on top of all this sin – is proudly pursuing his religious duties, it becomes like spitting into the face of the poor – and spitting into the face of God … which is the same, as Jesus tells us.
• Is Amos alone with this focus on social injustice? Not at all. It is at the very heart of God and therefore to be found all throughout the Bible.

Similar passages in other Bible books

• Eze 16:49 … description of Sodom = Israel having pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
• Isa 5:8 speaks of a similar development in Judah some 25 years later … “Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one gut your, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land” …
• In Micah we find another vivid description Mic 3:1-3 … “Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Should you not know justice? – you who hate the food and love the evil, who tear the skin off my people, and the flesh off their bones; who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a cauldron” …
• Also in Matthew 25 tells the parable of the sheep and the goats, where the decisive evidence for being godly is the way we treat the poor, the sick, the needy, the prisoners …
• This focus on social justice has an edge about it, that makes us nervous, too, doesn’t it?
• We live in a peaceful country and are fairly well-off by most nations of this world’s standards. We also know about poverty, the one here, the more overwhelming one elsewhere, we are informed … and in a sense we are able to do things. Somewhat unsettling, isn’t it? Fewest of us will have been ourselves the origin of major social injustice … but maybe the bystanders? Or the ones who helplessly stood there when it happened … the confused ones … what can one do? What should one do? What help really helps? Where am I in indirect relationship to unrighteous or unjust things? How about my role and responsibility as a consumer? How about the way I handle my money? – You can see, we get into very touchy issues very quickly, and that’s what they also were in Amos’ time.
• Application: not religion but transformation … no culture-excuses … do not separate spiritual & physical… salvation must lead to just behavior… convert the wallet … God = Developer
• Modern forms of economic injustice? … hoarding, high interest, cheating, loans, money printing, extreme taxing, underpay, unjust trade agreements, cheap clothes, …
• God is not ‘appeased’ by worship … Jesus says: first make your relationship with your neighbors right, then offer sacrifice … prideful worship leaders … you cannot bargain with God

Immorality

• There is a theme of immorality in Amos’ message, though it is significantly less stressed than the social justice theme.
  Amos 2:7-8 “Father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge” …
• How does immorality fit into the picture? …
• How is immorality linked to idolatrous worship? … often nature / fertility / life worship, associated with prostitution
• How is immorality linked to power / dominion / mistreating the weak? … I have the right to use other to fulfill my will
• How is immorality linked to empty religiosity? … religion doesn’t speak into my sinful heart, separation of issues

Profaning / Misinterpreting God and his Law / False Religiosity

• Amos 2:8 “They lay themselves down beside every altar” implies immorality, looseness, idolatry
• Amos 2:12 “But you made the nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, you shall not prophesy” … the opposing of any true faith that could threat the complacent religiosity of the ruling class
• Amos 4:4-5 “Come to Bethel and transgress, to Gilgal – and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; bring a thank offering of leavened bread, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” The very place of relationship with God, of repentance, of atonement has become the place of self-sufficient religiosity, of condoning the status quo, of sin.
• Amos 5:5 “Do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beer-sheba”
• Amos 5:21-24… “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.”
• A very strong word against everything fake, against forms without content, against the outward without inward conviction, against pleasing without pure motives, against the combining of things that never belong together: the name of God and careless injustice.
• Application: watch the weeds … high personal integrity … do not allow discouragement to derail you
• Modern forms of syncretism? … religion but really rather worshiping the good life, use of money? Use of time?
• Modern forms of religiosity cum injustice? … church finances, NGO jobs, nepotism among Christians, in-grown…

Self-sufficiency / false security

• Amos 2:13-16,6:13 “Have we not by our own strength taken Karnaim for ourselves?” …
• Amos 6:8 “I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds”
• Amos 9:10 “All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, Evil shall not overtake of meet us.” … which is so opposite to fear of God, to walking in relationship with a holy God, open to his correction.
• Linked to the “borders bulging” political situation most likely
• trust in talents / giftings is a tricky business … false security in family, reputation, money, performance, degrees…
• We worship the wrong things, we take identify from the wrong things, we find security in the wrong things

Loss of distinctiveness

• Amos 3:9 “Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod, and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria, and see what great tumults are within it, and what oppressions are in its midst.” …
• Amos 9:7 “Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O people of Israel? says the LORD. Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? The eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth – except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.”
• Israel’s election was a grace of God, a favor that they are in the process of shaking off here.
• Application? There is a seriousness that comes with these theme. I don’t think fear is what God intends, but a humble awareness of God’s favor. There is nothing triumphant nor proud about favor.

Prediction of exile

• Amos 4:2-3 “God has sworn: … the time is surely coming upon you, when they shall be take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks. Through breaches in the wall you shall leave, each one straight ahead; and you shall be flung out into Harmon.”
• Amos 5:5 “for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing”
• Amos 5:6 “the LORD … will break out against the Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it”
• Amos 5:16-17 “in all squares there shall be wailing … they shall call the farmers to mourning … in all the vineyards there shall we wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you” … economic hardship
• Amos 5:27 “I will take you to exile beyond Damascus”
• Amos 6:7 (the rich) “shall now be the first to go into exile, and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.”
• Amos 6:9-10 scary death story … almost complete wipe out of the population, ghost towns
• Amos 6:14 “I am raising up against you a nation … they shall oppress you from Lebo-Hamath to the Wadi Arabah.”
• Amos 9:1-4 “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left I will kill with the sward; not one of them shall flee away … escape. Though they hide … and though they go into captivity in front of their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.”

Fulfillment?

• 740-732 BC “In the days of Pekah” Assyria (Tiglath Pileser) captures many cities in Galilee, all Naphtali and exiles their population (2 Ki 15:29-31)
• 725 BC Assyria (Shalmaneser) besieges Samaria, captures & destroys it, exiles all remaining Israel (2 Ki 17:5-6)

Call for repentance / there still is hope

• Amos calls with great urgency and great seriousness for repentance. Only a fool or a prophet would have dared to speak out like this … and a both were esteemed about the same in the mind of the ruling class …
• Amos 5:4 “Seek me and live; but to not seek Bethel …”
• Amos 5:6 “Seek the LORD and live, or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.” …
• Amos 5:14 “Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” …
• Amos 5:24 “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” … God is still calling out, still wanting to forgive, still wanting to change his mind on the basis of repentance. We don’t know whether and how many repented. 30-40 years after Amos’ message, the northern kingdom is conquered and deported.
• A call to repentance = repentance is still possible … if they had repented as a nation, maybe exile still averted
• Option of personal repentance: personal protection within greater disaster > move South and join Judah, find God’s calling in a foreign land
• Amos 9:9-10 “I will shake Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, “Evil shall not overtake of meet us.”
• There seems to be a specificity even within the general judgment. Even when it looks hopeless, repentance helps you!
• God’s heart is always repentance, not judgment! … God has no pride, he will always take us back, if only we are wise enough to be willing. Again the all Bible principle: God is not the problem, we are!

The Day of the Lord

• Amos 5:18-20 probably viewed positive, God finally wiping out Israel’s enemies, Israel with deserved prominence
• Amos gives a very different perspective: any one who sins, who commits injustice, who is flippant should fear!

Prophet and Intercession

• Amos 7:1-9 Amos’s intercession 2x (locusts, fire visions) “O Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” … proud Israel would not have liked this view of Israel.
• asking for mercy for the people, but also agreeing with God
• Careful with blaming God in intercession: ‘why don’t you do anything for us poor humans?’ is neither true intercession nor did you understand God. He doesn’t need to be convinced to be merciful, He IS merciful, if at all he can find half and inch of legal grounds to grant it. No self-pity, but pity on God

Repeated Theme – Hating Truth

• Amos 5:10 “They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth …”
• Amos 2:12 “But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, “You shall not prophesy”
• Amos 7:12-13 And Amaziah (‘High priest’) said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it it a temple of the kingdom.”
• Spiritual leaders rejecting the truth of the message, protecting corrupt and the idolatrous status quo, threatening, despising (he is a bit patronizing)
• Amos 8:11-14 “famine for hearing the words of the LORD … they shall run to and fro, seeking the world of the LORD, but they shall not find it” … now proud rejection, but later a famine … continual rejection turns irreversible (Pharaoh, Prv 1:20-31 Wisdom’s call) …
• Example: current post-christian West. Most of the population’s quite militant anti-God stance

The future salvation

• Amos pronounces … or later writes … a prophecy of hope, not so much for Israel as a nation, but for those individuals, that remnant who is going to have faith, who will return from exile, who will – some hundred years later – understand the messianic dimension of this restoration.
• Amos 9:11 … it is the booth of David that will be repaired and raised up, not a divided kingdom at war with each other (Israel-Judah). Messianic, a son of David will be raised up / reign again, after a low time (> repair)
• Amos 9:12 … the purpose is to possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, says the LORD who does this.
• How do we understand this? … does is refer to a later political dominion of the Jews over Edom and other nations? (that’s how Jesus’ contemporaries probably saw it) … but that never happened. Some say: it will come. Maybe not.
• This implies that there will be a remnant of Edom and of all nations will be called by God’s name … so it is not a total rejection of non-Jews, neither a total exclusion … some of the non-Jews will be called by God’s name, the remnant. This means God’s initiative of grace now extends to other peoples, the gospel will spread, salvation will be to all who call on God.
• This interpretation is confirmed by the way this passage is quoted in Acts 15:16-17 during the Jerusalem council. So here the NT gives us the interpretation of a OT passage. Interpretation principle: the NT interprets the OT … and we don’t interpret better than Jesus, Paul or the apostles!
• Acts 15:16-17 … Looking at this Amos passage told James and the church, that the Gentiles were meant to be part of the restoration, part of the messianic kingdom, co-inheritors of God’s salvation … non-Jews would be also called by God’s name. Do not interpret otherwise!
• Amos 9:13-15 … a physical, agricultural, economic restoration is prophesied by Amos.
• This seems to be a stark contrast to all the anti-prosperity stuff he passionately preached before!?
• Well it never really was anti-prosperity, it was anti-injustice. Spiritual well being is invariably linked with physical well-being throughout the Bible, or: back to the if-then statements of the Law.
• False religiosity, false security, condoned selfishness … will lead to social injustice … which will lead to poverty, inequality, lack, envy, strife, instability …
• well-being is a true fruit of godliness … it’s fake imitation is: riches through injustice
• This should challenge us to think some more about the relationship between God, men, sin, injustice and poverty.
• Also please note that the people also in this overflowing age are still plowing, reaping, treading, working …
• So it’s not a picture like Amos 6:1-6 of laziness, extreme luxury and oppression … it’s picture of a society working, producing, protected by justice, at peace and fruitful.