Amos: Burden Bearer

Amos’s message to Israel:

Repent of your idolatry, self-sufficiency, and exploitation of the poor and seek the Lord God of Hosts and live!

782BC

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Amos 9:11-15 describes the restoration of Israel and the royal house of David. They will be planted again in the land.

Setting: The Book of Amos was written by a rancher/farmer and by his own confession— “was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet” (7:14). Sent from Judah (Tekoa, 1:1), Amos was called by God to confront Israel during one of its most prosperous and self- sufficient times. Uzziah and Jeroboam had formed an alliance and ruled an areas as large as the empires of David and Solomon. The Jehu dynast was one of the longest dynasties of the North and Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon were relatively weak at this time. Amos probably prophesied from 767-753 BC (40 years prior to the exile of Israel [the northern kingdom] by the Assyrians).

Structure of the Book of Amos

Chapters 1-2 Judgment oracles....

Chapters 3-6 God’s rebuke of Israel....

Chapters 7-9 5 Visions...

Oracles against Israel’s enemies: Damascus Gaza Tyre Edom Ammon Moab

Destruction of Israel (3) Israel’s sin (4)

God’s solution: “Seek Me and Live” and “Hate evil, love good!” (5)

Visions of the Locusts, Fire, Plumb Line + Amos’s encounter with Amaziah (7)

Vision of the basket of fruit (8)

Oracles against: Judah Israel

God’s condemnation of self-sufficiency and injustice (6)

Vision of Destruction and God’s Restoration (9). Restitution of the Davidic monarchy and covenant prosperity.

Jeroboam II began his reign in Israel (north)

Uzziah begin his reign in Judah (south). Amos ministry begins

Amos ministry ends

Samaria falls; Shal- maneser of Assyria dies and Sargon II reigns. Israel exiled by Assyria.

Fall of Nineveh (Assyria)

Nebuchadnezzar defeats Egypt at Carchemish; First deportation of Jews to Babylon (Daniel taken)

Second deportation of the Jews to Babylon (Ezekiel taken)

Jerusalem falls to Nebu- chadnezzar; 3rd deporta- tion. Judean refugees flee to Egypt—take Jeremiah

Cyrus of Persia issues His decree allowing Jews to return to Palestine. First return with Zerubba- bel (70 years from first exile Jer.29:10; 2 Chro.36:21).

Temple completed 70 years after destruc- tion Jer. 29:10).

2nd return under Ezra (Revival of the People)

3rd return under Nehemiah (The Wall)

Themes & Message of Amos

Remember, after Solomon, the kingdom was divided in 930BC into Israel (northern 10 tribes) and Judah (southern 2 tribes [Judah and Benjamin] + the Levites). There were some good kings in Judah, but all the kings of the north were wicked and it was a period of idolatry and defiance. During Amos’s ministry, in 767BC (roughly 40 years before Israel’s deportation), it was no different. Israel was strong militarily and economically, but was bankrupt spiritually. God says that He is “weighed down by” (2:13) by their iniquity, perversity, and idolatry. God describes Israel as His chosen people, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (3:2) but clearly defines her sin, “for they do not know to do right” (3:10) and “the Lord God has sworn by His holiness” (4:2).

Deuteronomy 12 explicitly states that God would choose one place to dwell (Deut. 12:5), and all of Israel was to bring her sacrifice and offerings to this one place (Deut. 12:5-7), and all other shrines, sanctuaries, and high places were to be destroyed (Deut. 12:1-4). Jeroboam (150 years prior to Amos) erected altars in Bethel, Gilgal and Dan that became sanctuaries of idolatry and false worship (3:14, 4:4, 5:5, 6:1, 7:9-13). Also in Amos’ day, the Israelites would wor- ship the stars, in particular a star-god identified with Saturn called Chiun (5:26) and put their hope in Pleiades and Orion (5:8).

Their sins were rooted in their self-sufficiency, “strength,” and pride (3:11, 6:8,13, 8:7) and God is absolutely brilliant to rebuke them with Amos who is not a sophisticated man, but a commoner who had no training as a prophet (1:1, 7:14). God abhors their pride and self-sufficiency—”The Lord is His name. He rains ruin upon the strong” (5:8-9), “He shall sap your strength from you” (3:11), and “the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: ‘Surely I will never forget any of their works’” (8:7). Two calamities are stopped by Amos through intercessory prayer and his appeal to God is that Jacob (Israel) in fact is “not strong” (as they think they are) but “very small” (7:2, 5) and in need of rescue. More than any of the other prophets, the setting of Amos mirrors the current cul- ture of the U.S. He was writing to a prideful, “secure,” “self-sufficient” and economically prosperous people.

The people were exploiting the poor (2:6-7, 4:1, 5:11-12, 8:4-6) in order to build elaborate homes (3:10-11,15, 5:11, 6:4, 8). They sold “the poor for a pair of sandals” (2:6), “oppress the poor and crush the needy” (4:1), and “tread down the poor” (5:11). God is furious with the treatment of the poor, the judicial corruption and the legal system. The decadent lifestyle (6:1-6) and fractured relationship with Yahweh caused a breakdown in their treatment of the poor. James points out that the natural working of our relationship with Christ will be an impartial treatment of the poor (James 2:1-13) and Paul adds, Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains. (1Tim. 6:9-10).

In chapter 4, God says five times, “Yet you have not returned to Me!” and everything culminates with the phrase, “prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (4:12). Amos is very passionate as he describes the Lord God of hosts (9 times God is described this way). The Lord God of hosts is the One Who:

Amos declares, “Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob” says the Lord (9:8). Amos’s final vision involves the destruction of Israel (realized in 722 by Assyria), but also the resti- tution of the Davidic monarchy and covenant prosperity. God says “Seek Me and live” (5:4, 6, 14), “Hate evil, love good” (5:15) and “the Lord God of hosts will be with you” (5:14). God’s heart for His people to seek Him is similar to what is described in Psalm78:34-35, When he struck them down, they sought his favor; they turned back and longed for God. They remembered that God was their protector, and that the sovereign God was their de- liverer. The “live” in “seek Me and live” is the restoration of blessings that Yahweh longs for His people (3:2, Deut. 30:6). Jesus says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly (John 10:10). Our Lord has come to give us life but abundant life—Life that is full, that is real and can only be experienced in union with Christ and His dreams for us.

God sees the injustices, the sin, and violations among the people and His desire is to “let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (5:24).

Forms mountains and creates wind (4:13)

Who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness (4:13)

Who treads the high places of the earth (4:13)

He turns the shadow of death into morn- ing and makes the day dark as night (5:8)

He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth (5:8, 9:6)

He who touches the earth and it melts. (9:5)

He who builds His layers in the sky, and has founded His strata in the earth (9:6)