For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Amos 4:1-8

1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria,
    you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy
    and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”
2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness:
    “The time will surely come
when you will be taken away with hooks,
    the last of you with fishhooks.
3 You will each go straight out
    through breaches in the wall,
    and you will be cast out toward Harmon,”
declares the Lord.
4 “Go to Bethel and sin;
    go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
    your tithes every three years.
5 Burn leavened bread as a thank offering
    and brag about your freewill offerings—
boast about them, you Israelites,
    for this is what you love to do,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.

6 “I gave you empty stomachs in every city
    and lack of bread in every town,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

7 “I also withheld rain from you
    when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
    but withheld it from another.
One field had rain;
    another had none and dried up.
8 People staggered from town to town for water
    but did not get enough to drink,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

A. Find Out

1. Who does the Lord focus on next in Samaria? v.1
2. What does He warn them will happen? v.2,3
3. What does He tell them to do? v.4,5
4. What had they failed to heed? v.6
5. What had the Lord done? v.7
6. So what had followed? v.8

B. Think:

1. What has the Lord got against these women?
2. What does He clearly think about their worship and offerings?
3. How had He already sought to warn them in various ways?

C. Comment:

Affluence in a society is often seen most clearly in the antics of the women and this is who now comes under God’s spotlight.  Bashan was to the east of what we know of as the Sea of Galilee as part of the northern kingdom and was known for its well-fed cattle, hence Amos aligns these affluent women with them (v.1), somewhat sarcastically.

Amos is not gentle in his words about them and the picture he gives of impending judgment is unpleasant – being dragged away by hooks rather like fish (v.2) and they will be taken in exile (v.3 – Harmon’s location is unknown).

But then he scathingly tells them to go and offer their offerings at the two altars that had been used for idol worship (v.4) implying it is pointless, i.e. nothing will stave off this judgment. They can boast about how spiritual they are (v.5) but it is meaningless.

And them he starts a series of things that had happened at His hand, that are always associated with things being wrong with the nation – but they failed to take any notice.

The first of these was famine (v.6) and the second was drought, (v.7) which creates the famine by poor harvests. The third was the consequence all this had on the people (v.8), staggering weakly from town to town looking for water. They should have understood!

D. Application:

1. Do we watch the state of the nation and understand these things?
2. The quality of the life of a nation indicates so often, its righteousness or otherwise!

Amos 4:9-13

9 “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
    destroying them with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

10 “I sent plagues among you
    as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
    along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

11 “I overthrew some of you
    as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

12 “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
    and because I will do this to you, Israel,
    prepare to meet your God.”

13 He who forms the mountains,
    who creates the wind,
    and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth—
    the Lord God Almighty is his name.

A. Find Out

1. What was the fourth ‘sign’ they had ignored? v.9
2. What was the fifth? v.10a
3. What was the sixth? v.10b
4. What was the seventh v.11
5. What should they now be doing? v.12
6. How does the Lord describe Himself? v.13

B. Think:

1. Recap in your mind all the (seven) ‘signs’ the Lord had given them which they had failed to heed.
2. What, in your own words, was their state at the end of this?
3. What is the significance of v,12 & 13?

C. Comment:

The second half of the chapter continues a denunciation that Amos (the Lord) has started in the first half, a series of examples of how the Lord had been blighting their land and nation in order to bring them to their senses so they would cry out to Him – but they had not done that.

So there has followed a blight on their land together with destruction by locusts (v.9), then illnesses (v.10a) and stresss that caused death by fighting (v.10b), and some of them had just been struck down by the Lord (v.11) and again and again comes the denunciation, “yet you have not returned to me”. One cannot help thinking of similar denunciations in the book of Revelation (Rev 9:20,21, 16:9,11) The truth is that Lord either brings such judgments or simply allows them to be the outworking of sinful mankind, in order to bring about repentance and a returning to Him, yet the records show that so often, sin blinds and especially when there is occult involvement, that blindness leads to a hardness of heart that refuses to heed all the God is saying.

His warning in v.12 is only detailed in the following chapter (although also note 4:2,3). For now He simply warns them to get ready to meet Him (v.12) and to remember who He is, the Creator and upholder of all things, the Mighty One before whom they should quake (implied).  Their failure to listen has been categorized, now He will go on to lay out what is coming.

D. Application:

1. Mankind shows Sin revealed in obstinacy, a refusal to listen.
2. Realise that God is not put off by this but will still act.