Day 192 – Reading – Amos 1 – 5

Read today’s Scriptures.  Do you see connections?

Amos 1.

Amos was a contemporary of Jonah, Isaiah, and Hosea.  Even though he was from the southern kingdom of Judah, he mainly prophesied to the dying northern kingdom of Israel and a few surrounding peoples. (He was a shepherd and an orchard keeper (figs). He prophesied two years before “a memorable earthquake!” Whoa! One did happen in 755 B.C.

Amos’s two main “prophecy arrows” were against Israel’s hypocrisy in worship and their lack of justice toward the most vulnerable (the poor, widows, orphans) because of greed.  He aimed them at the wicked Jeroboam II.

Amos begins by prophesying against the surrounding nations.

• Damascus (capital of Syria).  Because of their cruel advances on the northern parts of Israel, he sends destruction on King Hazael and Ben-Hadad. 
• Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron (Philistia).  Because they delivered the people up to Edom.
• Tyre (north of Israel). Because they also delivered the people up to Edom.
• Edom (south and east of the Dead Sea). He warred against and betrayed “his brother,” Israel.
• Ammonites (east of Jericho and the Jordan River). They brutally attacked  Israel at Gilead.
• (And in Amos, chapter 2). Moab (east of the Dead Sea, bordering Edom). They were extremely brutal in war.

(Notice that Assyria is not mentioned.  They are the people who will eventually come, brutally attack, destroy, and carry captive the northern kingdom of Israel.  They seem subdued at this time of Amos.  Perhaps because of their repentance after the preaching of Jonah!)  WOW!

.

Amos 2.

And then Amos aims his scathing prophecy at JUDAH!  God has four things against them, and “will not revoke the punishment!”

• They have rejected the law of the LORD.
• They have not kept His statutes.
• Their lies led them astray.
• They walked in the evil ways in which their fathers walked.

And so FIRE will come on them as well and shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

And finally, to ISRAEL, in the center of the Bull’s Eye, is judged. 

(NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A MAP of the area at that time, mark the countries and cities mentioned in these chapters. See how they spiral in and end, right smack dab on Israel in the center.)

• They sell righteous people for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the afflicted.
• They engage in uncontrolled sexual passion; a man and his father with the same girl … so that God’s Holy Name is profaned.
• They take the pledges and fines from the poor and use them for themselves…even in God’s house.

Amos reminds them how God fought for them, protected them, brought them out of Egypt to possess the “promised” land, and raised up some of them to be prophets and Nazirites.

• But they made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

And so god will weaken them and press them down so they cannot fight or escape “in that day” of judgment.

.

Amos 3.

“Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel….”  

Whoa!  Can you just hear that echoing voice of God? I would be terrified!!

“YOU ONLY have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Then in verses 3-8, God gives a series of questions to show that – as some things are certain in nature – surely NOTHING happens in Israel that is outside God’s sovereignty.  And God makes it VERY CLEAR what is going to happen.

“An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”

And then God gives a vivid and horrible description of the small remnant left in Israel after the Assyrian invasion.  “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion… two legs or a piece of an ear… so shall the people of Samaria be rescued….”  YIKES!

And on to the details!  “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord God, the God of hosts, ON THE DAY that I punish Israel for his transgressions… I will punish the altars of Bethel…  I will strike the winter house (Jezreel) along with the summer house (Samaria), and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses … shall come to an end.”

NOTE that verse 7 of that chapter says, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”  Even in His wrath, God is merciful; He warns, warns, and warns again.  PEOPLE!!! Hear and repent!

.

Amos 4.

See how the LORD speaks to the women of Samaria who lived luxuriously. “You cows of Bashan, who oppress the poor and crush the needy; who say to your husbands, ‘Bring me something to drink.'”

“The LORD has sworn by His holiness that they shall take you away … with hooks, even the last of you with fish hooks!”  Yikes.

Then God condemns them for their hypocrisy in worship – doing it all “just to be seen,” as the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. 

Then God lists all the things He did to WARN THEM and bring them back to Himself.

• I gave you a lack of bread, YET you did not return to me.
• I withheld the rain … YET you did not return to me.
• I struck your gardens, vineyards, and orchards with blight and mildew and locusts, YET you did not return to me.
• I sent pestilence among you, and killed your young men with the sword, YET you did not return to me.
• I overthrew some of you, and I plucked you out of the burning fire, YET you did not return to me.

“THEREFORE, thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you … PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD, O ISRAEL!”

WOW.

.

Amos 5.

This chapter is a LAMENTATION for Israel, as if she were a virgin who just died, and this is the funeral procession.   And His sorrowful Call to them, over and over…

• Seek me and live…
• Seek the LORD and live…
• Seek good, and not evil, that you may live…
• Hate evil, and love good…
• Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

“Take up the images you have made for yourselves… and I will send you into exile BEYOND Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.”

.

God judges the heathen nations, but the greater judgment is for His own people – those he loved and rescued, and taught, and helped. 

It reminds me of 1 Peter 4:17-18 – “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God. ‘If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?'”

**** O LORD, may I always hear and yield to your call!  Please soften my heart to love and obey you supremely. Thank You for all the good and merciful ways you love me.