(We are repeating our studies in Amos as part of the current series on the Minor Prophets. In our studies of
Amos references to Charles Lee Feinberg [1909-1995]
come from The Minor Prophets,
Moody Press: Chicago, 1976.)
In our prophecy blogs we are going to study
Amos because I believe it to be especially pertinent to the United States, the
Western world, and the world at large. Amos
world is quite like the world today. Let
me explain.
Amos was among the sheepbreeders of Tekoa (1:1) who
tended the sheep and additionally cared for an orchard of sycamore trees. He was a hard working man who likely also
owned his sheep as well as having responsibility for their care.
What he was not
by birth was a prophet (7:14). He
apparently spoke for God at a particular time and for a brief time, taking His
message to the people of Israel. Which
is interesting because he was from Tekoa, a city of Judah about 12 miles SE of
Jerusalem. He was sent to Bethel, about
20 miles N of Jerusalem (7:10,13).
Bethel was the primary place of idolatrous worship in the Northern
Kingdom (there were two locations, Bethel and Dan).
The prophetic
ministry of Amos took place during a time of great prosperity in both Judah and
Israel. Uzziah (also known as Azariah)
had become king in Judah in the fourteenth of forty-one years of Jeroboam’s reign
in Israel. It was a time when
agriculture was booming, the housing market was on an upswing, and many people
lived in luxury with an excess of discretionary funds.
My observation of my
own country (the USA) is that we are just like this. And I say this as a political conservative
who doesn’t like the way the current president (Obama) has managed the
economy. And yet I will say that, for me
and for the people I know, we seem to have no shortage of ability to own and
maintain a lot of things that we could get along without if we needed to. This is not a complaint about how people have
and use money. It is just an
observation.
What we know from
Israel is that when they prospered they became lukewarm in their religion and
then tended to turn to idols. They had
no time for God and His word. And that
is how it is in Amos’ days as well as in my day (now!).
Further, Amos
prophesied two years before the
earthquake, a natural catastrophe of such magnitude that over 200 years
later Zechariah was talking about it (Zech. 14:4-5; Feinberg p87). In their prosperity, no one thought to see
this event as God’s call to turn to Him.
And that also reminds me of my country.
So let us hear the word
of the Lord through this businessman/laborer/part-time-prophet. Through him the Lord roars from Zion.
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