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Introduction
The book of Amos is the third of what are called “the twelve minor prophets” (Major and Minor Prophets).
Amos was a shepherd in the southern kingdom who prophesied mainly in the northern kingdom (The Divided Kingdom) during roughly the same time period as the prophet Hosea. Both men were warning of the day of the Lord to come for Samaria – which ended up being 722 BC (Key Dates for Ancient Israel).
Ancient tradition says that Amos was clubbed to death by priests who tired of his prophecies of doom. As our Lord and Stephen both testified, harsh treatment for prophets was typical. (And those two suffered the same fate.) The two quotes immediately below are of Jesus first and then Stephen.
Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!
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Acts 7:52 “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;
There is a thread of red that runs from one end of the Bible to the other – beginning with Abel and ending with the apostles. It is the red of their blood, shed out of obedience to God and for the benefit of sinners…like us.
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Amos 1
Judgment on Neighbor Nations
Amos 1:1 – Tekoa was situated in Judah, south of both Jerusalem and Bethlehem. ***** Compare this verse to Hosea 1:1 and see that Amos and Hosea lived in the same general time period.
Amos 1:3 – Amos uses the idiomatic expression “For three transgressions and for four” as a refrain to frame his indictments. Israel’s prophets often spoke lyrically as a way to make their messages memorable in an oral culture. This particular idiom conveys that God was not judging people because of some isolated or trivial infraction of His law but for their flagrant and repeated violations of it. He sounds this refrain eight times.
Amos 1:6 – “For three transgressions and for four” – (see note on Amos 1:3 above; this is 2 of 8)
Amos 1:9 – “For three transgressions and for four” – (see note on Amos 1:3 above; this is 3 of 8)
Amos 1:11 – “For three transgressions and for four” – (see note on Amos 1:3 above; this is 4 of 8)
Amos 1:13 – “For three transgressions and for four” – (see note on Amos 1:3 above; this is 5 of 8)
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Amos 2
Judgment on Judah and Israel
Amos 2:1 – “For three transgressions and for four” – (see note on Amos 1:3 above; this is 6 of 8)
Amos 2:4 – “For three transgressions and for four” – (see note on Amos 1:3 above; this is 7 of 8) ***** Of all the sins Amos catalogs, this one goes to the heart of the problem. Rejecting the Lord’s law sets the people up to do almost everything sinfully since the law of the Lord provides the knowledge of good and evil necessary to keep conscience on track. Adam and Eve had only the single commandment to not eat from the forbidden tree. Israel in Amos’ day had most of the Old Testament. But whether we have a little of the Lord’s law or a lot of it, rejecting it invites disaster. Modern America has turned its back on the Bible that its first president swore by; we will no more escape judgment than Judah or Adam and Eve did.
Amos 2:6 – “For three transgressions and for four” – (see note on Amos 1:3 above; this is 8 of 8)
Amos 2:11-12 – “prophet“ ***** “Nazirite“
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Amos 3
All the Tribes Are Guilty
Amos 3:3-6 – This list of adages is to remind us that we live in a cause-and-effect world. Just because we do not always know the cause does not mean that an event does not have one. The universe is not random, even though there are plenty of things we don’t understand. And just because we don’t understand something now doesn’t mean that we will never understand it.
Mark 4:22 “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.
Amos 3:3 – No one walks with Jesus by accident. There must be intention and there must be discipline.
Amos 3:6 – “If a trumpet is blown…” – Ancient cultures used a trumpet the way we use air raid sirens. ***** “If a calamity occurs…” Does anyone think the destruction of Sodom was an accident or coincidence?
Amos 3:7-8 – God used the prophets to document His messianic plan – which is what the Old Testament is. It’s the first human biography ever written before the subject was born. After Jesus had lived for 33 years, was crucified, and raised from the dead, He asked His disciples this question:
Luke 24:25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Luke 24:26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
Luke 24:27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
The prophets each prophesied a part, and all the pieces came together in Jesus.
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Amos 4
“Yet You Have Not Returned to Me”
Amos 4:1-3 – Amos is warning the people about the day of the Lord that was approaching for the northern kingdom – their fall that would come in 722 BC. Does anyone think that the God who has judged all nations in the past for their sins is going to give America a pass?
Amos 4:4-13 – The day of judgment in ancient Egypt was the loss of their firstborn in the tenth plague. The first nine plagues were warnings. This demonstrates that in the run-up to a day of judgment, there are warning signs along the way. Societies ignore such warnings to their peril. In this passage, Israel is ignoring the warning signs that God has been sending them. We see the same obtuseness in the book of Revelation. Alas, it is proverbial that mankind tends to the warning signs that God gives.
Eccl 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.
Yet He will always spare any remnant that turns to Him.
Rom 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
Rom 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
Rom 2:6 who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:
Rom 2:7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;
Rom 2:8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.
Rom 2:9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,
Rom 2:10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Rom 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.
Even when things got so bad that God destroyed the whole world, He still preserved a family through it. Men, determine that if ever every other family in the world were to fall away from the Lord, yours will not. To achieve this, keep your love warm.
Matt 24:12 “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.
We are in a run-up to judgment in America. Keep your eyes, and the eyes of your family, on the prize.
Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Amos 5
“Seek Me that You May Live”
Amos 5:14-15 – These are life-giving exhortations that will bear good fruit for those in any age who take heed to them.
Amos 5:18-20 – “the day of the Lord“– God postpones judgment so that we can repent and He can withhold judgment, but when we don’t repent, wrath comes. And when it does come, no one who deserves it can escape it. Escape is only for those who have repented and sought refuge in Him. Everyone does not have to repent for you to repent. If you wait for others to repent before you repent, you may get caught in their judgment.
Amos 5:25-27 – Stephen did not mention Amos by name, but he did quote this passage when he was giving testimony at his trial.
Acts 7:42 “But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?
Acts 7:43 ‘YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’
Stephen was reminding the Jewish rulers that Israel’s history was not such they should trust in their own righteousness to save them. If Messiah was offering a salvation based on His righteousness and generosity, then they should grab it! At least, that was Stephen’s point. Alas, his judges hardened their hearts…and stoned him to death. Neverthless, the word of the Lord kept spreading.
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Amos 6
“Those at Ease in Zion”
Just as there were those in time of Amos who thought calamity could not touch them, there are those in America today who think calamity cannot touch them either. But there is no such thing as escaping calamity if our unrepentant sins are calling for it. Repent and take refuge in the Lord. He will show you how to survive what’s coming in America. Everyone is going to heaven, but there’s plenty of hell on earth so seek the Lord while He may be found.
Is 33:14 Sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless.
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with continual burning?”
Is 33:15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,
He who rejects unjust gain
And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;
He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;
Is 33:16 He will dwell on the heights,
His refuge will be the impregnable rock;
His bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.
On the other hand, if we do not lead lives of repentance, there is no place on earth that is so safe that our sin cannot find us out.
Num 32:23 “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.
Therefore, let us live lives of repentance, walking with the Lord – which is walking in the spirit.
Luke 5:31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.
Luke 5:32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
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Amos 7
Warning Through Visions
Amos 7:7-9 – In the time of Amos, Israel’s plumb line was the law of Moses. In our time, however, the plumb line is Jesus – the life He lived and the word He spoke. These are not two things but rather one, for He practiced what He preached. Types and Shadows of Christ (the plumb line is a figure of speech that foreshadowed Messiah – #FJOT)
Amos Accused, Answers
When Amos was denounced by a religious professional (“the priest of Bethel”), Amos’ defense was that he claimed no expertise in prophecy; rather, he was just a shepherd and farmer saying what the Lord told him to say. Peter could similarly say, “I’m just a fisherman saying what Messiah taught me.” Matthew could likewise say, “I’m just a tax-collector…” Our Lord Himself was “just a carpenter.” What matters is not one’s job classification, but rather what the Lord has said. As Amos himself said earlier in this book…
Amos 3:8 …The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy?
That the Lord God had spoken was all the credentials Amos needed.
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Amos 8
Basket of Fruit and Israel’s Captivity
Amos 8:11-12 – Throughout the Bible, it is common for “bread” to be used as a metaphor for the word of God. This makes sense because our souls need nourishment just as our bodies do.
Deut 8:3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
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Matt 4:3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
Matt 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”
In this passage, Amos is also using “water” as a metaphor for the word of God. This is appropriate, too.
Prov 18:4 The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters;
The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
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John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
John 4:11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
John 4:12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
John 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
God’s point through Amos is that having to do without the word of God is as bad for the soul as having to do without both bread and water for the body.
Another way of making this point would be to say that this is God talking about our behavior getting so bad that He feels compelled to give us the silent treatment. Obviously, the point of such silent treatment is that we will come to our senses before we let our souls starve to death. But sometimes we are excessively foolish. For example, God gave King Saul the silent treatment, but the man never repented and ended up losing his mind and dying in battle (1 Sam 14:37; 28:6; 31:1-6). If God won’t speak to us, let us go straight to the Bible and our knees until He does.
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Amos 9
God’s Judgment Unavoidable
Amos 9:2 – “Sheol“
Amos 9:8 – The Lord was not going to destroy the house of Jacob no matter how sinful it became…until His promise of Messiah was fulfilled…and then the end would come. This is why Jesus could address the issue with His disciples during the week before His death and resurrection.
Matt 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
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Matt 24:34 “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
Amos lived about eight centuries before Christ, which is why the Lord was not completely destroying Israel at that time. Yes, Babylon, through its King Nebuchadnezzar, would destroy Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 AD, but God would leave Israel a stump…from which the shoot of Messiah could sprout. Isaiah prophesied both the stump and the shoot.
Is 6:9 He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
Is 6:10 “Render the hearts of this people insensitive,
Their ears dull,
And their eyes dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”
Is 6:11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,
“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,Is 6:12 “The LORD has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
Is 6:13 “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump.”
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Is 53:2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Is 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Is 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Is 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
Is 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
Can’t you picture the bleached stump of a tree with a green shoot of growth coming up from it? That shoot became a mighty tree, and the birds of the air now nest in its branches. This is the kingdom of God which we have received through Messiah.
Mark 4:30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?
Mark 4:31 “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil,
Mark 4:32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.”
The Restoration of Israel
Amos 9:11-15 – As you’ll see below, James quotes Amos 9:11-12 in Acts 15:15-18. This means that the apostles and elders meeting in Jerusalem, and therefore probably the apostles more broadly, saw the entire prophecy of this passage (Amos 9:11-15) being fulfilled in New Testament times. This is similar to the way Paul’s quotation of Zech 8:16 in Eph 4:25 signals to us that the apostles saw the entire prophecy of Zech 8 being fulfilled in New Testament times. (See BSN notes on Zech 8.)
Amos 9:11-12 – James, the brother of Jesus, quotes this passage from Amos at a meeting being held with the apostles and other church leaders in Jerusalem. They had gathered to resolve the question of whether Gentiles who believed in Jesus needed to get circumcised and follow the Law of Moses – in other words, become Jews. At the meeting, Peter explained how he had been the first to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (in Acts 10) and that he had received no instruction from the Lord about converting the Gentiles into Jews. Then Paul and Barnabas described how their widespread and successful ministry among Gentiles involved no conversion to Jewish practice. At this point in the meeting, James, who seems to be presiding, uses the testimony of Amos to, as it were, confirm the point Peter, Paul, and Barnabas had been making – that the Gentiles could remain Gentiles in their following of Jesus.
Acts 15:13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, “Brethren, listen to me.
Acts 15:14 “Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.
Acts 15:15 “With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written,
Acts 15:16 ‘AFTER THESE THINGS I will return,
AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN,
AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS,
AND I WILL RESTORE IT,
Acts 15:17 SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD,
AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’
Acts 15:18 SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.
Acts 15:19 “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,
Acts 15:20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.
The tabernacle – that is, house – of David was being rebuilt in heaven. That is, this administration of David’s descendant would be administered from the Zion above – not the Zion on earth.
Amos 9 began with a reference to Sheol; it ends with a reference to Zion. Sheol was the place below where, before Jesus, every human being used to go at death; Zion is the place above where, ever since Jesus, every human being now goes at death.
In New Testament times, the churches were deemed to be “going up to Jerusalem” whenever they met. That is, they were worshiping in a heavenly temple – preparing for the kingdom of heaven.
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