Amos

What This Book Is

A farmer from the south sent north during a boom, telling a comfortable and religious nation that God despises its festivals while it crushes the needy.

Overview

Amos was not a professional prophet, and he says so. He was a herdsman and a fig farmer from a village in Judah, sent north to a wealthier kingdom at the height of its prosperity.

He opens shrewdly. He announces judgment on the surrounding nations one at a time, for atrocities in war and for selling people into slavery. His audience would have agreed enthusiastically with each one. Then he turns to Judah. Then he turns to Israel, and the same formula lands on them, and the list of crimes is domestic: selling the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, trampling the poor, pushing the afflicted out of the way.

What makes the book sting is that this is a religious society. The sanctuaries are busy. The festivals are well attended. The offerings are generous. And God says he hates their festivals, takes no delight in their assemblies, will not accept their offerings, and wants the noise of their songs taken away. What he wants instead is justice rolling down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

Amos is confronted by the priest at Bethel and told to go home and prophesy somewhere else, which is exactly the reaction his message would produce in any age.

The visions near the end are grim, though the final verses turn toward restoration and rebuilding.

Structure

• Chapters 1 to 2: The oraclesJudgment announced on neighbouring nations, then on Judah, then on Israel.
• Chapters 3 to 6: The indictmentLuxury, complacency, and worship God refuses to accept.
• Chapters 7 to 9:10: The visionsLocusts, fire, a plumb line, and a confrontation at Bethel.
• Chapter 9:11-15: RestorationA fallen shelter raised, and a promise of planting and return.

Themes

Why It Matters

Amos is the sharpest statement in Scripture that God takes economic injustice personally. It disallows the separation of worship from ethics, and it does so without softening. Martin Luther King Jr quoted its central line often, and it has driven reform movements for centuries. It is also a reminder that God can send an unqualified outsider to say what professionals will not.

How to Read It

• Notice how the opening oracles set a trap for the audience before turning on them.
• Read chapter 5:21-24 and let it be uncomfortable.
• Ask what the equivalent of selling the needy for a pair of sandals looks like now.
• Read chapter 7:10-17, where Amos is told to take his message elsewhere.

Key Verse

Did You Know?

• Amos was a farmer, not a trained prophet, and he makes a point of saying so.
• Let justice roll down like waters was quoted by Martin Luther King Jr in his I Have a Dream speech.
• James quotes the closing verses of Amos at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15.

Where to Start Reading