AMOS: Prophet of Justice and Righteousness - Chapter 1/23

                                                                   

AMOS:  PROPHET OF JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS                      
                                                               
                                                                    AMOS 1

“It was a time of peace and prosperity.”  Does that sound like our time?  That was the description of the period recorded in Amos, which is the book we will read and discuss through these blogs. Why read and study Amos?  Don't we focus on what Jesus taught, as recorded in the New Testament?   What does Amos have to do with Jesus, let alone us?  Don’t we live in a “time of relative peace and prosperity?”  True 2023 hasn't been a great year.  Return of investments are down.  There have been horrific killings all over the world.  Fires, record heat, drought and hurricanes are occurring all over the world. There is the ongoing war in Ukraine. All these remind us we live a volatile world.  Not everyone in the USA is prosperous.  Yet, overall, we are doing OK.  So, why study a book addressing events about 750 years before Jesus Christ?  That question will be answered as we study this prophetic book. 

To find Amos in the Bible, look in the front of your Bible for Contents.  Likely near the top of the third column you find Amos and the number of the parge.  Turn there and read Amos chapter 1.  

Notice Amos was a shepherd and fig grower, not religiously trained.  He was going about his business, when God broke into his life with messages delivered through visions.  Verse 2 gives a warning message. Verse 1 sets the historical context, placing the events in time and space:  Two years before the earthquake when Uzziah was King of Judah (792-742 B.C.) and Jeroboam II (793-753 B.C.) ... was king of Israel.  (The United Nation under King David and King Solmon had splintered approximately 200 years earlier.) 

Although Amos lived in a picturesque hill town* in the Southern Kingdom, Judah, he was called to speak to the Northern Kingdom, Israel, which was at the height of its political power and prosperous economy.  The message: (Remember, we are in a time of drought.)  The lush pastures of the shepherds will dry up; the grass on Mount Carmel will wither and die.  Why the warning?  We will learn that Israel was spiritually corrupt, and idols were worshiped.  God sent Amos to denounce social and religious corruption.

The overall message of Amos is: “Unless a Nation is built and lives by God’s law, plumbline, it will collapse.” What’s a plumbline and what's its use?  Today we may use a level when framing the structure of a building.  A plumbline is a cord with a heavy weight attached.  Gravity pulls the weight straight down.  A line can be drawn following the cord, It will be plumb/straight. ensuring walls, doorjambs, windows are straight.     

As you read Amos notice how God measures his people.  How is your life reflecting God’s law illustrated through The Teachings of Jesus?   

PRAYER:

Prayer is conversation with God.  In light of Amos 1, what do want to say to God?                               What is God saying to you? 

* "Tekoa was Amos' hometown, in the rugged sheep country of Judah (Southern Kingdom) about 10 miles south of Jerusalem. (Life Application Bible, p. 1536)