The Chapters – Quick Access
Basics
BOOK: Amos
Description: Mostly announcements of God’s judgment on the northern kingdom
Author: Amos a ‘farm worker’
Date written: probably about 750BC
Chapters: 9
Brief Synopsis
- Amos the shepherd-vinedresser brings words of rebuke and judgment on neighboring nations AND Judah and Israel.
- He focuses on Israel spelling out their sins, what the Lord has done to try to get them to repent, and what the Lord will now do because they have not repented.
- Finally he spells out the hope of God’s restoration of His people.
Outline
- 1:1,2 Introduction
- Ch.1-2 Judgments on the Nations
- Ch.1. Judgment on Aram, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom & Ammon
- Ch.2. Judgment on Moab, Judah & Israel
- Ch.3-5 Oracles against Israel
- Ch.3 Judgment on the Chosen People
- Ch.4 Judgment on an Unrepentant People
- Ch.5 Judgment on an Unjust People
- Ch.5-6 Announcements of Exile
- Ch.7-9 Visions of Divine Retribution
- 7:1-6 Judgment Relented – A swarm of locusts & a consuming fire
- 7:7- 9:10 Judgment Unrelented
- Ch.7 The plumb line
- Ch.8 The basket of ripe fruit
- Ch.9 The Lord by the altar
- 9:11-15 Restored Israel’s Blessed Future
Why Read Amos
Amos is a relatively short book of prophecies, delivered at roughly the same period as Hosea. To understand its significance, note the following:
- Ch.1 & 2 A Broader Accounting to seven other people groups before
- Ch.3-9 Against Israel.
Amos himself was “a shepherd, and … took care of sycamore-fig trees”, but who “the Lord took … from tending the flock and said …., “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.” [7:14,15]
Cause of disaster: God! see 3:3-8 etc.
Israel’s failures
- 3:10 they have greedily plundered others
- 3:14, 5:5,26 idolatry
- 5:7,10, 6:12 thrown aside righteousness and justice
- 5:11,12, 8:4,6 oppressed the poor
- 5:21-23 godless religiosity
- 6:4-16 slothful lives of wealth and privilege but not caring for the nation
- 6:13 unwarranted pride
- 8:5 disdaining the sabbath
The Judgments experienced by them [past] or declared on them [future]r:
- 3:11 They will be plundered by others
- 4:2,3 They will be hauled out of the land
- 4:6 famine
- 4:7,8 drought
- 4:9 blight, mildew, locusts
- 4:10 plagues
- 5:5,27, 6:7 exile
- 5:16,17, 6:8-10, 8:14, 9:1,8 destruction & death in city and country
- 6:11 destruction of their big houses
- 6:14 invasion
- 7:9 destruction of their places of worship
- 8:2,3 impending attack and death
- 8:8-10, 9:5,6 upheaval, darkness, and mourning
Note in some of the above, e.g.4:6-10, these seem to be disciplinary judgments Israel had already experienced and should have responded to. Most of the others are various aspects of the coming judgment that will involve destruction, death, and exile. The warnings are vivid and accurate in the light of what followed. Repentance is mostly implied as the requirement to avoid this destruction.
A Future Hope? The fact that there are relatively frequent references to exile suggests the possibility of restoration which is not spelt out until the end of the last chapter, 9:11-15, i.e. although being sent into exile that does not mean the extinction of Israel.
Historical Context
As 1:1 shows us, these prophecies come in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah [767-740/39] and Jeroboam II [782/81-753] i.e. sometime in these timeframes.
Concluding Comments
- Amos is remarkable in its clarity – the simplicity may go with the nature of the man, a shepherd / vinedresser.
- In chapters 1 & 2 he spells out the sins of each nation and brings the warning of a judgment.
- Thereafter he focuses mostly on Israel, the northern kingdom and again spells out
- Their sins
- What the Lord has done to discipline and warn them, and
- What the Lord will do in terms of judgment.
- At the end we find that judgment is not all there is on God’s heart for His people – He always desires to restore them and bring them back into a living relationship with Himself.