Having presented His indictment of Israel’s neighbors, the Lord now turns His attention toward the two Jewish Kingdoms, the Southern Kingdom of Judah first. We ended part one in verse 3 of chapter 2, so we’ll pick up the narrative in verse 4.

Amos 2

This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back {my wrath}. Because they have rejected the law of the LORD and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed, I will send fire upon Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.”(Amos 2:4-5)

The Lord called Amos to prophesy primarily to the Northern Kingdom, during the same time that Isaiah was His spokesman to the South. Even so, He had Amos give this short message to Judah before launching into a full scale rant against the North.

Although it was nearly 150 years away, judgment of the South was coming. The warning provided by the imminent destruction of the North by the Assyrians would be ignored and so the Lord would send Babylon against the South. In the process the City of Jerusalem including the magnificent Temple of Solomon would be put to the torch and exist no more. (2 Chron. 36:19)

Before they were taken captive to Babylon, the Lord had Jeremiah tell the people not to resist this, but to go to Babylon and settle there because after 70 years He would bring them back.

He told them, “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:10-11)

As we’ll see now, He made no such promise to the Northern Kingdom.

Judgment on Israel

This is what the LORD says:

“For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back {my wrath}. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines (Amos 2:6-8).

Someone has said, “When the bonds between God and man are broken, the bonds between man and man can fare no better.” This picture of the oppression of the lower class by people of privilege is only the beginning of the Lord’s indictment against Israel but it proves the point and provides a good lesson for us.

The Northern Kingdom split from the South over idolatry. Having freed themselves from the restraints provided by God’s Law, they yielded to man’s natural inclination to mistreat the less fortunate. This was a violation of the Law. The Lord had laid down very clear and strict laws to protect servants and the poor, but these laws were being scandalously ignored. Household servants were bought and sold for a pittance. Female servants were turned into family prostitutes. Garments taken in pledge (as security for a loan) were illegally kept over night, and the practice of levying exorbitant fines to settle trumped up charges was common. Often it literally took the clothes off the backs of the poor and food off their tables.

Today even in developed countries the injustices suffered by the poor are different but just as abhorrent. But, to follow up on a couple of the examples above, women and girls of all races are still sold as slaves in the sex trade, as trafficking in humans continues worldwide. Some nations still maintain low age of consent laws to encourage sex tourism with the lure of young girls.

In the US and Europe , years of easy credit followed by declining economies has had the effect of placing millions of people in life long financial servitude.  The reduced purchasing power of their currencies further compounds the problem, and leaves untold numbers of hard working people with no hope of ever being free.  In the meantime the gap between the rich and the poor grows ever wider.

Where is the moral restraint that used to prevent mercenary lenders from exposing vulnerable consumers to temptations they aren’t savvy enough to resist? Where is the public outcry that just a few decades ago would have demanded that the human traffickers be prosecuted under the same laws that put an end to slave trading a few hundred years ago? It disappeared when God was drummed out of our society.

“I destroyed the Amorite before them, though he was tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below. “I brought you up out of Egypt, and I led you forty years in the desert to give you the land of the Amorites. I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this not true, people of Israel?” declares the LORD. “But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

“Now then, I will crush you as a cart crushes when loaded with grain. The swift will not escape, the strong will not muster their strength, and the warrior will not save his life. The archer will not stand his ground, the fleet-footed soldier will not get away, and the horseman will not save his life. Even the bravest warriors will flee naked on that day,” declares the LORD.(Amos 2:9-16)

When God promised the land of the Amorites  to Abraham, He said the transaction wouldn’t take place for 400 years “because the sin of the Amorites has not reached its full measure.”(Genesis 15:16) Knowing the end from the beginning, God knew that the Amorites wouldn’t repent of their evil ways. But He was going to give them the time anyway,  so they couldn’t say He hadn’t warned them.

Though the Bible doesn’t speak of it, the character of God would have demanded that He tell them their time was running out. (In a few verses we’ll see Him implying just that in respect to Israel.) Remember, for a time after the flood all the people of the Earth worshiped God.  By Abraham’s time most had fallen away, discarding the truth of their origins in favor of outrageous lies that became the basis for their false religions.

But certainly the knowledge of their past still existed somewhere in their memories.  And at least one of Noah’s sons, Shem, was still alive and living in the region of the Amorites during the time that Abraham traveled the length and breadth of their territories (Genesis 13:17)  and could have borne witness to them.  These circumstances tell us it wasn’t that God hadn’t warned them to change their ways, but that they hadn’t listened.  So, when the time was up He brought the Israelites under the command of Joshua as His agents of judgment and the Amorites were dispossessed.

Now the very nation who saw first hand how God feels about false religion was indulging in the same behavior they had judged in the Amorites. What’s more, they too had ignored the warnings of the prophets and even undermined the efforts of those who tried to remain holy.  How could they think that God would not judge them?

The South didn’t learn the lesson of the North, so they were judged as well.  And the world today hasn’t learned the lesson of either.  God is the same, yesterday, today and forever. (Hebr. 13:8) How can we think that He won’t judge us?

Amos 3

Witnesses Summoned Against Israel

Hear this word the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins.”

Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey? Does he growl in his den when he has caught nothing? Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set? Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch? When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it? Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:1-7)

These examples show that while God’s promises to Abraham were unconditional, His relationship with Israel was based on cause and effect. Obedience brought blessing and disobedience brought judgment. In fact the entire Old Testament can be boiled down to just one question. “Israel, are you going to obey me or not?”

Just as Israel was warned by the prophets, so too is the world of today.  We should take comfort from the promise that God will never do anything without informing us first.  No surprises, except to those who refuse to believe the warnings.  Paul wrote that the judgments that came upon Israel were also meant to warn us, upon whom the fulfillment of the ages has come (1 Cor. 10:11).  He distinguished the believers from the unbelievers at the end of the age by saying that the former would not be taken by surprise, while the latter would (1 Thes. 5:3-4).  It turns out that even though His promises to the Church are unconditional, mankind’s relationship with God is still based on cause and effect.  Belief brings blessings while unbelief brings judgment.  Like the Old, the New Testament can be boiled down to one question as well. Mankind, are you going to believe me or not?

The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken— who can but prophesy? Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt: “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her and the oppression among her people.” (Amos 3:8-9)

Even the pagan leaders of Philistia and Egypt would agree that God’s judgment upon the Northern Kingdom is just and well deserved.

“They do not know how to do right,” declares the LORD, “who hoard plunder and loot in their fortresses.”

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“An enemy will overrun the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses.”

This is what the LORD says:

“As a shepherd saves from the lion’s mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved, those who sit in Samaria on the edge of their beds and in Damascus on their couches.” (Amos 3:10-12)

Having severed their connection with their Creator, they no longer had the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Therefore the Lord was sending Assyria to judge them. On their way the Assyrians would conquer Damascus as well.

Because of their numerous conquests, the Assyrian Empire was growing. Without a strategy to prevent it, they’d soon spend all their time keeping the peace, as conquered nations mounted efforts to regain their independence. So when the Assyrians conquered an enemy, they took all those among the survivors who looked like potential leaders and scattered them around the Empire, leaving in place only those who posed no threat.

The Lord had Amos use a shepherd’s analogy to describe this. When a wild animal devoured a sheep, the shepherd would save the discarded parts of the animal for the owner’s inspection to prove that it was eaten and not lost or stolen.  Just so, the Lord would preserve only a remnant of Israel as proof that a judgment had taken place.  When the Assyrians led the captives of the Northern Kingdom away, they left only a few survivors behind to protect the harvest.

“Hear this and testify against the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the LORD God Almighty. “On the day I punish Israel for her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground. I will tear down the winter house along with the summer house; the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the mansions will be demolished,” declares the LORD. (Amos 3:10-15)

Shortly after the civil war, a golden calf had been set up in Bethel near the site where Jacob had seen the ladder ascending into heaven. (Genesis 28:10-19) Bethel soon became a center of pagan worship that the Lord sometimes called Beth Aven, or House of Evil. Their religion disgusted Him and its centers would be destroyed. Likewise the fine houses of the wealthy, bought with the money they extorted from the poor, would be leveled to the ground.

The lesson here is clear. The Lord is patient, allowing ample time for His disobedient children to return to the righteous way. But there comes a time when His patience runs out and His justice demands accountability. We are on the cusp of that time today, and the prophecies tell us that since we haven’t learned the lessons of history, we’re doomed to repeat them.  Stay tuned.

Tucked away among over 8,000 posts currently available on the website is a series of articles in a category called “The Prophets Speak Again”.  This category contains commentaries on the so-called minor prophets.  (The major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The minor prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. They’re not called minor because they’re less important, but because their books are shorter.)

I’ve tried to relate the writings of these prophets to our times and that’s why the category is called “The Prophets Speak Again”. So far I’ve posted commentaries on  Joel, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Habakkuk.  You can access these commentaries by selecting “Articles” on the menu bar at the top of the home page, and then scrolling down the Browse by Category list on the left until you reach “The Prophets Speak Again”.  It’s the second from the bottom.   Click on it to access a directory of all the commentaries in the category.  Select the one you want and start reading.

I say all this to announce the beginning of a series on the book of Amos, which will become part of this category.  Let’s begin with a little background.

Introducing Amos
Although Amos lived in a small town just south of Bethlehem and about eleven miles from Jerusalem, the Lord called him to be a prophet to the Northern Kingdom. His term of office, so to speak, lasted from 760 to 750 BC.  This made him a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, and probably Jonah.

The division of Israel into two kingdoms had taken place nearly two hundred years earlier, but both the north and south were enjoying great prosperity.  In the Northern Kingdom, it was a time of idolatry,  luxurious living, personal extravagance, and immorality.  The justice system had become corrupt and the poor were being oppressed.  Having abandoned their commitment to God’s law, the people no longer had any basis for standards of conduct.

As their prosperity increased, the ruling class had become politically secure and spiritually smug, thinking it was a sign of God’s favor. They had ignored His warnings and His patience was at an end.  He was sending Amos to announce that the coming judgment wouldn’t just be another warning.  This time it would bring the end of the kingdom.

This similarity with our times is why I believe the message Amos brought to the Northern Kingdom will have relevance to America, and indeed the whole world, today. Let’s begin.

Amos 1
The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

He said:

“The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up,
and the top of Carmel withers.” (Amos 1:1-2)

Amos worked as a shepherd in his home town of Tekoa and saw a vision of the coming judgment.  From the driest part of the land to the greenest, the Lord’s judgment would be as severe as if a drought had afflicted them.

Judgment on Israel’s Neighbors
This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath.  Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth, I will send fire upon the house of Hazael that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.  I will break down the gate of Damascus; I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden. The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord. (Amos 1:3-5)

The Lord had Amos begin with a series of pronouncements upon Israel’s traditional enemies that will take us through chapter 1 and into chapter 2, when He will inform Israel that they will not escape His anger.

Damascus was the capital of Aram. The Arameans had brutally mistreated the people of Gilead, Israel’s territory east of the Sea of Galilee. A number of years earlier the Lord had sent Elijah to anoint Hazael king over Aram (1 Kings 19:15).  Ben-Hadad was his son and successor.  Aven can mean wickedness or emptiness and Eden means pleasure or delight.  These are most likely references to Damascus.  The Lord is promising to destroy the king who rules from there and send the people into exile. This prophecy was fulfilled in 732 BC by the Assyrians.  (Note: Damascus was not destroyed at the time so this cannot be seen as a fulfillment of Isaiah 17:1.)

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. I will destroy the king of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon.  I will turn my hand against Ekron, till the last of the Philistines is dead,” says the Sovereign Lord. (Amos 1:6-9)

Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Ekron were four of the five major cities of the Philistines.  The fifth one was Gath, where Goliath had lived, and had already been conquered.  The Land of Edom is in southern Jordan today. The Philistines had apparently overrun entire villages on the trade route between Gaza and Edom and sold the inhabitants to the Edomites as if they were livestock. The Philistines were finally wiped out to the last person by the Babylonians in 604 BC.

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood, I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses” (Amos 1:7-10)

Tyre, a Phoenician city that still exists in modern Lebanon, was also engaged in the wholesale trade of Jewish captives. Tyre had enjoyed friendly relations with Israel since the days of David, and when Solomon began construction on the Temple he made a treaty with Hiram, the King of Tyre, to provide  wheat and olive oil in exchange for the famous cedars of Lebanon. This friendship ended when Hiram’s grandson became king and began his slave trading enterprise.

Tyre was a city built partly on the mainland and partly on an island off shore. In Ezekiel 26:3 the Lord promised to bring many nations against Tyre, like the sea casting its waves. Assyria had been the first, but it was Nebuchadnezzar who demolished the mainland portion of Tyre during a 15 year seige (586-571 BC).  Alexander the Great completed the conquest of Tyre by using the ruins of the mainland portion to build a causeway to the remaining island fortress and destroying it in 332 BC.

Much of modern Lebanon was originally part of the Promised Land.  In the Millennium it will once again belong to Israel.

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath.  Because he pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion, because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked, I will send fire upon Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah” (Amos 1:11-12).

Edom was another name for Esau, the brother of Jacob.  The strife created by Jacob’s trickery in stealing Esau’s birthright festered through the generations.  Finally King David subdued the Edomites and after that Edom was under Israel’s control, although not happily.

When the Edomites heard of Nebuchednezzar’s intention to conquer Judah, they colluded with the Babylonians to help make Judah’s defeat certain and made plans to steal their land. God was not pleased by this and promised to make Edom a desolate waste (Ezekiel 35:1-15).  After defeating Judah the Babylonians turned on the Edomites and slaughtered them.   Teman and Bosrah were major cities of Edom, near Petra in today’s southern Jordan.  In Jeremiah 49:18 God swore that Edom would be overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown and no one will live there.

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath.  Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah that will consume her fortresses amid war cries on the day of battle, amid violent winds on a stormy day. Her king will go into exile, he and his officials together,” says the Lord (Amos 1:13-15).

Ammon’s greed for land led to a program of genocide against the Gideonites.  Rabbah was the name for the city now known as Ahman, the capital of Jordan.  This prophecy was fulfilled by the Assyrians, but did not result in the disappearance of the Ammonites.  Later, like their cousins the Moabites, the Ammonites assisted in Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah, for which the Lord promised to exterminate them (Ezekiel 25:7). But in Jeremiah 49:6 He said the Ammonites will be restored in the latter days.

Amos 2
This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because he burned, as if to lime,
the bones of Edom’s king, I will send fire upon Moab that will consume the fortresses of Kerioth. Moab will go down in great tumult amid war cries and the blast of the trumpet. I will destroy her ruler and kill all her officials with him,” says the Lord.(Amos 2:1-3)

There are two possibilities here. This passage apparently refers to the only time when Edom and Moab were not on the same side against Israel.  2 Kings 3:9 says the kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom were united against the king of Moab who had refused to pay the tribute he owed to the King of Israel.  When it became obvious that he was losing the ensuing battle, the King of Moab became so enraged that he took 700 swordsmen and went after the King of Edom.  Failing to capture him, the King of Moab either captured the King of Edom’s son and heir to the throne and offered him as a burnt offering to his god, or else he dug up the remains of a past king of Edom and burned them instead.  Either way it was a great offense against the Lord and the Moabites were utterly defeated.  Later they were taken captive by the Babylonians and soon disappeared from the world scene.  But Jeremiah 48:47 tells us the fortunes of Moab will also be restored in the latter days.

Along with Edom and Ammon, Moab has reappeared as the kingdom of Jordan, the only nation in the Middle East that will escape the clutches of the anti-Christ in the end times (Daniel 11:41).

A Reasonable Faith
It was learning about the unfailing fulfillment of prophecies like these that brought me to the foot of the cross.  I reasoned that a God who could predict and then perform like this has to be who He claims to be and it was safe to put my trust in Him.

In Isaiah 46:9-10 He said,  “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.  I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.”

And from Isaiah 48:3,6, “I foretold the former things long ago,my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them?

Later I would learn that no other so-called holy book offers this kind of proof. And if so many prophecies He foretold about our past have come to pass, doesn’t it make sense that those He foretold  about our future will come to pass as well? Think about it.

From our study of Psalm 83 you can recognize several familiar names. But remember, the prophecies of Amos 1 were fulfilled at various times over a period of 400 years, not in a single battle. Therefore we can’t see them as a fulfillment of Psalm 83.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel also prophesied the conquest of these next door enemies of Israel, but none of their prophecies match with Psalm 83 either. Damascus was not destroyed as Isaiah 17requires, and both Jeremiah and Daniel speak of the re-emergence of Edom, Moab and Ammon in the last days.  Clearly the Battle of Psalm 83 is yet to come.

Next time we’ll begin looking at what the Lord had Amos say to Israel, and it won’t be pretty.  See you then.