August 27, Amos 1
The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
- Amos 1:1
In the opening line of Joel, we learned that Joel was the son of Pethuel, and that was all we learned about the life of that prophet. But in the opening lines of Amos, we have a lot more personal information about the prophet whose name is on this book.
Joel wrote about the Lord roaring like a lion and so did Amos. The big difference between the two is that the Lord (the lion) in Joel was roaring to the enemies of Israel. But in Amos, the Lord (the lion) is roaring not only at Israel’s enemies, but at the nation of Israel as well.
Amos was a shepherd (or cowboy) and a farmer when God called him to leave his home in the southern kingdom and go to the capital city of Samaria in the northern kingdom to prophesy against it. He was not a formally trained prophet. He was not from a prophet's family or from any school of the prophets. He was like John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles in that their enemies criticized their lack of credentials. But Amos had the same credentials as John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles, too — he did not speak his own words, but the words the Lord gave him to deliver to the people. Amos's prophecy is stamped with the phrase "Thus says the LORD" many times in the nine chapters of this book.
In Chapter 1, Amos began with prophecies of coming punishment to four enemies of Israel and one group of distant cousins. The nation of Syria was identified by its capital city, Damascus. The Philistines were identified by several important cities among them. The land of Tyre was identified by name. Edom and the Ammonites were distant relatives of Israel. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. The Ammonites were descendants of Lot, from his incestuous relationship with his own daughter after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
God told those five nations they were slated for punishment and told them why. They were each guilty of many sins, but the Lord specified one in each case. The sins he named (cruelty, covenant breaking, anger, hatred, greed and slavery) sound like the same sins still practiced by people today. Folks haven't changed much through the centuries and God does not change at all. The same sins that brought judgment to these ancient nations will bring punishment to people today who do not respect God's laws and will about such matters.
The phrase "for three transgressions and for four" is a figurative way of saying that their sins were numerous. They earned the punishment that was coming their way.
I suspect that Amos's first audience must have liked what Amos said about the coming doom of their enemies. They probably liked it a lot less when Amos got around to Israel’s own sins. It's very easy to hear God's judgment and decree of accountability when it's an enemy on trial. But it's far less comfortable when God's word confronts us about our own sins.
The sins God condemned in these ancient nations are still present in our world today. Oppression, materialism and idolatry are still as wrong today as they were in Amos's day. God's people still displease him when their worship is vain and they forget God. If we profane things that are holy and refuse to listen to God, he is still displeased with us. God does not play favorites. He will not compromise his righteousness and holiness. But he is also patient, loving and merciful. The universal problem of sin would never have been resolved unless God made a way for sins to be forgiven. That way is through Christ.
Jesus died to redeem us from the curse of the law and cleanse us from the sins that separated us from God. We can't really appreciate what good news the gospel is until we are confronted by the bad news that sin has ruined us, and we are helpless to do anything about it. When we grasp the bad news and know it applies to us, we're far more eager to hear and ready to believe and obey the gospel and be saved from our sins.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—August 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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