Bible Overview: Amos

Author: Amos

According to Amos 7:14-15, Amos was not a professional prophet, but had served as a shepherd and a farmer in the southern kingdom of Judah.

He was from the town of Tekoa in the southern kingdom (Judah), but God sent him to prophesy to the northern kingdom.

Amos 7:14–15 ESV

Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

Date: 760 B.C.

During the reigns of Uzziah in Judah (787-735 B.C.) and Jeroboam II in the north (790-749 B.C.)

Amos 1:1 ESV

The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Key Words: Righteousness and Justice

Summary:

Messages of judgment against the sins of Israel’s neighbors (Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab & Judah): 1:1-2:5

Messages of judgment against Israel and its leaders: 2:6-6:14

Visions of judgment and future restoration: 7:1-9:15

Key Passages:

Amos 3:2 ESV

“You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

Amos 3:10 ESV

“They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”

Amos 4:4–5 ESV

“Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” declares the Lord God.

“Yet you did not return to me.” Amos 4:6-12

Amos 4:6–12 ESV

“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord. “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

Amos 5:6 ESV

Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

Amos 5:14–15 ESV

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Amos 5:21–24 ESV

“I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amos 9:7–8 ESV

“Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.

Amos 9:13–15 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

Application:

God cares deeply about how we treat those around us, especially those less fortunate. True, biblical love for our neighbor demonstrates our love for God.