Bro. Lowell F. Johnson

AMOS

Amos: A Country Boy Who Came to Town to Preach Amos 1 – 4
Indictments Against Eight Nations Amos 1 – 2 5 – 10
The Sermons of Amos Amos 3 – 6 11 – 17
Five Visions of Amos Amos 7 – 9 18– 22

AMOS:

A COUNTRY BOY

WHO CAME TO TOWN TO PREACH

The Period of Amos

The name Amos means “to lift a burden” or “to carry a burden;” so he was a Burden-Bearer, and Amos lived up to the meaning of his name by bearing up under his divinely given burden of declaring judgment to rebellious Israel.

The time of the prophecy was 760 B.C., two years before the great earthquake (Amos 1:1), evidently a well-known earthquake. Over two hundred years later Zechariah referred to this earthquake in Uzziah's reign (Zechariah 14:5).

Amos prophesied when Uzziah was king of the Southern Kingdom in Judah and Jeroboam II was king of the ten tribes in the North. Jeroboam ruled the kingdom for 40 years with great success.

Both the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms were strong and stable, outwardly prosperous and politically confident. Both Israel and Judah were at peace with their neighbors, which meant that their wealth and energy could be used for developing their nations instead of fighting their enemies. Both Kingdoms were prosperous; their cities were expanding rapidly; and a new wealthy merchant class was developing in society.

The two Kingdoms were moving from an agricultural to a commercial society and experiencing both the benefits and problems that come with that change.

But all that was outward and deceptive. The heart of the Northern Kingdom was rotten to the core. The nation had set aside the Bible as the standard for faith and morals.

Jeroboam II had set up a place at Bethel where the people could worship a golden calf. Vast numbers of people worshiping, in the Name of Jehovah, a god shaped like an ox.

Only 30 or 40 years before the people were content with a simple way of life. They were content with basic things: with hard work, working the soil, with strong family ties, with morality, integrity, and the Bible.

Now, however, there had been a shift from the country to the city. Society had become urbanized, sophisticated, worldly-wise, and proud. The people were preoccupied with getting rich. Mammon was supreme.

The rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. Luxury was everywhere, riding hand-in- hand with social injustice and oppression of the poor.

Amos saw the vilest immoralities, drunkenness, and idolatry. While the rich and upper class thrived and enjoyed expensive homes and an indulgent lifestyle, the poor became targets for legal and

economic exploitation. Slavery for debt was easily accepted, standards of morality had sunk to a new low.

Meanwhile religion flourished. The people thronged to the shrines for the yearly festivals, enthusiastically offering their sacrifices, and maintaining that their God was with them, and considered themselves immune to disaster.

The Prophet: Amos

Amos was one of a kind. The Book of Amos gives us a remarkable insight into his personal life. Amos chapter seven, for example, shows us two remarkable things about Amos:

•His Praying affected God.

•His Preaching angered men.

A. His Contemporaries

Southern Kingdom: Isaiah and Micah

Northern Kingdom: Hosea and Amos

B. His City

Tekoa was about ten miles south of Jerusalem. In other words, Amos was from Judah, but his ministry would be to the ten Northern tribes in Israel.

If that were not enough, Tekoa was the quintessential “hick town.” Yet, God would send him to Bethel the place where the king hangs out and where the intellectual, religious meetings were held.

C. His Career

He was a Herdsman Amos 1:1

The word used for shepherd (Amos 1:1) is not the usual Hebrew word for shepherd (roeh), but the rare word, “noqed,” suggesting that he was not really a shepherd, but a sheep-breeder.

The only other Old Testament occurrence of “noqed” is in 2 Kings 3:4 where Mesha, King of Moab, is said to have engaged in sheep-breeding on such a scale that he was able to supply the King of Israel with 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.

A Gatherer of Sycamore Fruit (Fig)

Sycamore fruit was the fruit of the poor. It was a hard fruit, so it had to be pinched or split so that some of the juice runs out, allowing the rest of the fig-like fruit to ripen into a sweeter, more edible fruit. The juices would stain and discolor the hands and was a sign of a low-class worker – a hill-billy, migrant worker.

D. His Call Amos 7:10-17

Notice Amos 7:14-15.

“I was no prophet.” He had not graduated from the school of prophets. He had no professional training.

“I was not the son of a prophet.” He did not come from a long line of prophets.

“But the Lord took me.” Literally, “the Lord took me from behind.” “I was there minding my own business, and the Lord took me; He grabbed me from behind; He snatched me up; grabbed hold of me”

God put His hand on Amos and called him to be a prophet. I still believe in God called preachers; those who are anointed by God.

E. His Courage Amos 7:10-17

Keep in mind that Amos was a country boy. If he lived today, when he sat down at the table, he would want cornbread, black-eyed peas, fried okra, and sliced tomatoes.

God sent this country boy to the city to preach in the King's chapel, in the King's court.

He didn't have a lot of education. He wasn't sophisticated. He was rather blunt at times. He was a little uncouth. One time when he was talking to the snobbish, polished, cultured, well-groomed women of Jeroboam's court, he addressed the women as fat, sleek, prosperous cows – and they took offense to that (Amos 4:1).

Remember that Amos was from the Southern Kingdom and God called him to prophecy in the Northern Kingdom; that within itself was a strike against Amos. Amos was preaching at Bethel in the “Kings chapel.” Amaziah was the priest up there. He was just as godless and wicked as he could be. He was in cahoots with Jeroboam who had taught Israel to sin, so Amaziah sent word to Jeroboam, King of Israel, saying Amos had “conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel and the land is not able to bear all of his words.”

Here is this red-neck country preacher with rough hands, stained with the juice from sycamore fruit, standing in the chapel of the King telling him to repent and to get right with God.

Amaziah said to Amos, “O thou seerer, go, flee back to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, prophesy there. Don't come back here any more. You don't belong here.” That was quite a reception for Amos. I'm sure he felt welcome!

The word “go” that he spoke to Amos is literally, “get!” It is as if you and I would stomp our foot and say, “Scat cat!” or “Get out of here, dog!”

In Amos 7:5 Amos responds, “God said to me, 'go.' You told me 'to go' or 'to get,' but God's 'go' and God's 'get' is much more powerful than your 'go' or 'get.' God appointed me to be here. Now, if anybody is going to 'get,' it's going to be you!”

I thought about those folks in some churches known for running their pastors off. What if some spirit-filled pastor met one of those guys known for running the church and running pastors off, and he told the pastor to “get,” that the pastors turned to him like Amos did and said, “I'm not going to 'get;' if you want somebody to 'get,' you 'get!'”

Now I know there are times when a pastor does need to leave because of some misconduct, but it's hard for me to believe that three or four pastors in a row is the real problem. The pastor may be the problem sometimes, but the problem may be that man or that group who think it's their mission to accuse every pastor of “something” and get rid of him.

Look at the boldness of Amos in Amos 7:16-17. Amos told him four things:

Amaziah, your wife will become a common street prostitute.
Your sons and daughters will die by the sword.
Your land and possessions will be divided up and given to another.
You will die as a captive in a heathen land.

There is the man, Amos. We will look next time at his message.

INDICTMENTS AGAINST EIGHT NATIONS

Amos 1 – 2

The Book of Amos can be divided into four parts:

A. The Eight Prophetic Indictments Amos 1:1 – 2:16

B. The Three Sermons Amos 3:1 – 6:14

Each sermon beginning with the phrase, “Hear this word,” (Amos 3:1; 4:1; 5:1)

C. The Five Visions Amos 7:1 – 9:10

D. The Five Promises Amos 9:11-15

The Eight Prophetic Indictments follow a four-fold formula:

The Authority “Thus saith the Lord” (Amos 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2:1, 4, 9)
The Announcement “For three transgressions and for four”

a. Thecup of their iniquity was full and running over.

b. God had enough of their sinning. He would not allow them to sin more without judgment.

A farmer was riding in a buggy with his wife. The mule that was pulling the buggy balked. “That's one,” said the farmer to the mule. Not long after that, the mule balked a second time. “That's two,” said the farmer to the mule. They went a little further and the mule balked a third time. The farmer got a two-by-four from the back of the buggy, went to the front of the mule, and said, “That's three,” and busted the mule between the eyes with the two-by-four.

When the farmer got back into the buggy, his wife said to him, “That was cruel. You shouldn't have done that. Aren't you ashamed?” The farmer looked at his wife and said, “Woman, that's one.”

God is telling us that folks can go too far in their sinning!

The Accusation “Because,” and he would name their sin.
The Action “I will send a fire” (Amos 1:4, 7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5)

“Fire” is a symbol of war. The action against Israel will be the invasion from Assyria and no one will escape. See Amos 2:14-16.

There were eight nations that had indictments against them. Picture Israel a dot in the middle of a map. Amos would start with nations in the North and go counter-clock-wise around Israel with each nation getting closer to Israel. Each time Amos would name a Gentile nation that would experience judgment from God, Israel would applaud and cheer Amos on; not realizing he would zero in on Israel.

They were experiencing peace, prosperity, and possessions and Israel thought that was a sign of God's approval of them. But it was all surface; and God saw their sinful hearts.

Listen as Amos names the nations and the sin of each:

A. Damascus Amos 1:3-5

Damascus was the capital of Syria, one of the Jew's persistent enemies. The hostility we see between Israel and Syria today is the same hostility that has existed between these two nations from the remotest time. Some forty or fifty years before Amos prophesied, the Syrians had invaded Israel and had massacred the population – just as they would today if they could.

Amos said “they threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron” (verse 3). These were large iron threshing sleds, studded with sharp dark volcanic rock, which were drawn over the heaped corn by horses and used not only to thresh the wheat, but to chop the straw into little pieces.

Part of their inhuman treatment of the Israelites was to run those sleds over Israel's soldiers as though they were nothing but stalks of grain. Not only would they run those sleds over soldiers, but pregnant women were treated with horrifying cruelty and little children were dashed in pieces, tearing their flesh from the bone.

God had not forgotten. Time had passed but judgment would come.

B. Gaza Amos 1:6-8

The formula is the same, but this time it is Gaza and the whole country of the Philistines. The Gaza strip is one of the political flashpoints of Israel to this day. Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron were the five key Philistine cities and Amos denounced all of them for trading in human lives.

They raided Jewish villages and captured people to sell them as slaves. To add insult to injury, the Philistines sold these slaves to Israel's ancient enemy, the Edomites. Since Edom was a descendant from Esau, Jacob's brother, it was a case of brother enslaving brother.

Throughout the history of ancient Israel, slavery was practiced, but the Law of Moses clearly governed how the slaves were to be treated. The Law that permitted slavery at the same time protected the slave. It was one thing to put a prisoner of war to work and quite something else to kidnap innocent people and sell them like cattle.

C. Tyre Amos 1:9-10

Tyre was the major city of Phoenicia. There had been treaty obligation between Israel and Tyre for over 200 years, dating back to the reigns of David and Solomon. Amos called it “the brotherly covenant” or “the treaty of brotherhood,” suggesting that the “covenant” was more than a treaty, but involved a friendly partnership that went deeper than politics. Even though they didn't agree on religion or political structures, they agreed to treat one another like fellow human beings.

Although they were selling Jewish captives to the Edomites as slaves like the Philistines, their sin was worse because Tyre was violating a long-standing compact that was based on friendship and mutual respect for humanity. Tyre was selling its friends as slaves!

Judgment came in 332 B.C. when Alexander the Great wiped Tyre off the face of the earth and left it a place for drying nets.

D. Edom Amos 1:11-12

The Edomites nursed a long-standing grudge against the Jews because of the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, which began before the twin boys were born (Genesis 25:21-26). Esau vowed to kill Jacob, but later they were briefly reconciled, but the enmity continued. Their final meeting was at the funeral of their father, Isaac, where they buried their father but did not bury their bitterness.

The Edomites would not allow their Jewish cousins to pass through their land during Israel's march to Canaan (Numbers 20). King Saul suppressed the Edomite army and King David conquered them, but in the days of Jehoram, Edom revolted against Judah and won their freedom.

Amos condemned the Edomites for their persistent hatred of the Jews, but when the Babylonians attacked and captured Jerusalem, the Edomites assisted the enemy and gave vent to their anger.

You would think that brother would help brother in a time of need, but the Edomites “cast off all pity” and acted like beast against humans.

E. Ammon Amos 1:13-15

The Ammonites and Moabites (Amos 2:1-3) were the descendants of Lot through his incestuous union with his daughters (Genesis 19:30-38). They were a ruthless people who were the avowed enemies of the Jews.

They ripped open the women with child. They showed no mercy to the helpless pregnant women, ripping them open and watching them die. All of this was only for the purpose of gaining more territory from their neighbors.

Before we point a finger too quickly at the Ammonites, we would do well to look at our own society. We rip open women and destroy the children within because we want our own occupational, financial, and relational borders to expand. “I just can't afford this baby,” our society says. “It will put a strain on my resources and cramp my style. I don't have room in my life for a baby right now.”

I see no difference in the sin of abortion and the sin for which Ammon was judged.

F. Moab Amos 2:1-3

Again, Moab and the Moabites were the descendants of Lot and his elder daughter. The animosity between Moab and Israel is seen when they refused to give the Jews passage into Canaan on the major highway and when the king of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel by getting the Moabite women to seduce the Jewish men to commit fornication and idolatry (Numbers 25).

What was the sin of Moab? Disrespect and desecration of the dead by burning the bones of their enemy, the King of Edom. They subjected the King's remains to this humiliation and disgraced the memory of the King and humiliated the people of Edom.

How would Americans feel if someone of another nation dug up the remains of Abe Lincoln or Reagan and burned their bones? We are to have respect for the dead.

Amos announced that the King of Moab and his officials were all guilty and would be destroyed, along with their cities. Moab was taken by the Assyrians.