The Run Down
Read Amos 7-9
Amos is not a prophet nor the son of a prophet…
But God has called this common man… and He is showing him things.
He has called him to prophesy.
7:1, 4, 7, 8, 17; 8:1, 4, 9, God will show… God will reveal…. God calls them to hear… God will declare.
God is a revealing God.
Like with Pharaoh… Exodus 3:19.
19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.[c] 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
Exodus 5:2.
2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
As God reveals His will … do people respond… do they really want Him… His ways… His will… what about you.
7:1-3
3 Visions.
A vision of a plague of locusts is shown Amos… before the second harvest before the dry season… the King gets first harvest… he has troops to feed… and the people get the second.
Jacob (Israel). Small compared to locusts… to God’s judgment.
Amos prays…. Then God relented. (Changed His mind.)
7:4-6
Vision of Fire… prays again…. God relents.
7:7-9
Vision.. Lord standing… wall… plumb line (standard for vertical trueness).
“Amos, what do you see?”
Gods is measuring them according to His standard of vertical trueness.
Idolatry… greed… social injustice.
High places of syncretistic worship and idolatry will be destroyed.
The house of Jeroboam… the King of Israel… will fall.
Ex. 19:6… they had been called to be a holy people.
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
And holy they were not.
7:10-17
So Amos is in town.
The sanctuary at Bethel had been set up by great great great granddaddy Jeroboam I… Amaziah the priest of the idolatrous northern kingdom will rebuke Amos.
He will tell the King of Amos’ dire prophesy.
Yet twisting it as conspiring.
The implication being… as with many throughout the ages… as ministers you must bless the Authoritative Ruler without question… or find yourself in trouble.
Truth didn’t matter…. Those who are unrebukeable… or think they are… usually find themselves in moral trouble.
Who is close to you that can speak into your life without candy coating everything from God into nothing but “blessings”?
7:12-15
Amaziah comes back to instruct Amos to flee back home and earn his keep as a prophet there… (eat your bread)…
Amos answers… I’m not a professional prophet for a living…
Herdsman and Sycamore figs, in Israel (different tree from N. America, produced figs year round… peaking July to December.
But God called me… and unlike Jonah… Amos just obeyed.
7:16-17
Don’t prophesy and don’t preach huh?
Your wife will have to become a prostitute at your death for subsistence…
Your sons and daughters will die… and your land will be taken….
And you will die in another nation…
And Israel will follow you from this land.
Will you say and do as man instructs you?
Or will you say and do as God instructs you?
8:1-14
A vision of fruit. Like figs.
The end has come.
Hyperbolic language… “I will never pass by them again.”
Worship songs will become wailing.
They will be defeated… killed… death.
Seek Him and Live… seek sin and find death.
8:4-6
Trample the needy and the poor.
You want the new moon to end… and the Sabbath…. So you can make more money… money money money.
Not only that… but you shrink the ephah and make more money dishonestly with false balances.
Buying the poor… and needy for costs of sandals….
You mix chaff in the wheat that you sell.
What about you… do you fudge… and cheat… are you honest as you sell… and charge… are you upfront on your costs…. ? Are you sneaky?
Would you be ashamed if others saw on the front page of the Charlotte Observer tomorrow how you make your money? Do your business?
8:7-10
Pride of Jacob… analogous to The Glory of Jacob… or Himself.
God will not forget these sins. We can’t hide our sin from God.
Land trembles… people mourn… rise and sink…
“And on that day”… day of judgment… day of the Lord like… one of the days…
Sun go down at noon… darken the earth… feasts into mourning…songs into lamentations…
Sackcloth… baldness…death of only son… bitter.
8:11-14
The days are indeed coming… your will reap what you have sown…
Famine… for the word of the Lord… but you will not find it.
Swear by the Guilt… or shame… of Samaria’s false worship… Dan was where Jeroboam I set up the golden calf for false worship and the “way of Beersheba” “god of Beersheba” both stood for the guilt and shame of false worship.
Let’s stop for a moment… and consider… some of the sinful philosophies… or lifestyles… or beliefs… that some of our ancestors/relatives… might have passed on to us.
Superstitions. Bad theologies within Christianity. Pluralistic thought. Fortune tellers. False gods. Practical false gods.
Let’s renounce those… with humility… and live for God.
This nation will fall. We will see though… that a remnant will be saved and restored. But we are not there yet.
9:1-4
The next vision will come to fulfillment, prophesying about 750BC and Assyrian attacks to deportations occurring from 740-720BC, within about 10 years.
He sees the Lord standing by the alter… northern temple.
He will use hyperbolic exaggeration…
Dig to Sheol… climb to heaven… top of Carmel…bottom of the sea…. Captivity w enemies….
God will repay them for their idolatry… greed… and social injustice.
9:5-6
The Lord will do this.
Touches the earth… melts…
The Nile… his heavenly chambers… calls for the sea…
9:7-8
Cush was like the farthest important territory they knew about (Ethiopia and Nubia)… that Israel not even as important as the Cushites would have shocked them.
The Philistines and Arameans (Syrians)… and the Israelites.. God is sovereign over all the people group migrations… and Israel not with a license since He brought them up out of Egypt.
God see’s there sinfulness… and they have actually more responsibility to the Covenant… and will pay for their rebellion.
Yet …
The first sign of hope in Amos…. That there will be left this remnant… not all of the house of Jacob will be destroyed.
9:9-10
The sifting process… the shaking… will produce a remnant… but the rebellious ones will be punished.
Shakes with a sieve… no pebble shall fall.
All the sinners of my people shall die.
9:11-15
In that day… the time of the Exile into Assyria… and then Babylon.
The booth… or tent… of David… not the House… implying disrepair…
God will raise it up… repair it himself.
To possess the remnant… of Edom… or Essau. Edom almost identical to Hebrew word Man…
Acts 15:12-21 this passage is quoted from the LXX that has Man and not Edom.
The idea of inclusion of the Gentiles…
“That the remnant of man may seek the Lord”.
Then this glorious time will appear.
When there is so much bounty… and produce… restored fortunes of Israel… vineyards… wine… fruit…
God will plant them in their land… and never be uprooted again.
So… in the Messiah… this is done in a “figurative” manner.. .in which Amos might not have been aware of… and then possibly depending on your Eschatology, end times view… could be still in the future for us literally.