Amos was a layman, a shepherd and dresser of fig-trees. His home was in Tekoa, about 12 miles south of Jerusalem, on the edge of the Judean desert. But God sent him as His prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. His home base was the religious center of Bethel, when Jeroboam I had set up a calf-image when the nation had first split into two rival kingdoms.
Amos lived during the reign of Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.), Israel’s waning moments of prosperity and influence. But beneath the affluence, the nation was rotten. Amos was sent to speak out against the social and religious corruption and warn of God’s impending judgement. But the people (then as now), turned a deaf ear. And the King’s Chaplain told him to get back to Judah! (Then as now, people do not always want to hear what God has to say.)
Thirty years after Jeroboam’s death, the Assyrians destroyed Samaria and took the people into exile. Israel ceased to exist. But the prophet has a word for any nation (America included) in Israel’s condition. Put his descriptions in 21st – century dress and they still strike home. The other prophets make it plain that Israel’s basic sin was in turning away from God to worship idols.
Now hear this America:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12).
Amos emphasized the moral and social decline of Israel as a result of her turning from Almighty God. They have grown hard and callous in their dealings with others; young and old make use of temple prostitutes; and they have gagged God’s spokesmen. None will escape God’s punishment. Israel has broken the covenant-agreement with God and must suffer punishment. It is simple cause and effect (it is still cause and effect). Israel’s offences are many (the formula “For three…for four’ indicates an indefinite number). Our Father is plenteous of Mercy, therefore, He says, “For thus saith the Lord unto the children of Israel, seek ye me, and ye shall live” (Amos 5:4). And this means, not yet more sacrifices at the nation’s corrupt sanctuaries, but reformed living – a return to God’s standards of justice and right conduct in public as well as private life.
So let it be!
Pastor J. Amos Jones
