Amos

Kings of Israel

Jehoram: Continued the offenses of King Ahab

Jehu: The only semi-obedient King in Israel. Erased the line of Ahab and abolished the worship of Baal but did not get rid of the gold calf cult.

Jehoahaz: Continued Calf Cult

Joash: same

Jeroboam 2: same—Jonah

Kings of Judah

Jehoram:

Murdered his six brothers, sponsored idol worship and sin.

Ahaziah:

Great-grandson of Omri.

Grandson of Ahab and Jezebel.

Did the evil that followed with his mother from Israel and his father Jehoram.

Athaliah:

Mother of Ahaziah who died at the sword of Jehu, King of Israel who purged the line of Omri in Israel.

Seized the throne and killed all claimants to the throne. Except one.

Ahaziah's sister, managed to rescue an infant from the purge:

Joash, the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, who was only one year old. Jehoash was raised in secret by Jehosheba's husband, a priest named Jehoiada.

Joash:

Did right in young age but then did evil after Jehoiada died.

Murdered the son of Jehoiada.

Amaziah:

Started out well but soon fell into idol worship.

Uzziah:

Energetically and faithfully pursued the welfare of his people, being especially active in the military and in agriculture. His administration was marked by revival and restoration of the military and internal security that had been lost in recent generations.

2 Kings 14:23–29 ESV

23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. 26 For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. 27 But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. 28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Judah in Israel, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 29 And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, the kings of Israel, and Zechariah his son reigned in his place.

Amos: Shepherd and fig tree farmer. He did not have any qualifications or training to do what he did. God called and he went.

God was angry with Israel.

Amos 5:18–19 ESV

18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.

Amos 5:20–24 ESV

20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? 21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 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. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Terrible worship? Poor worship order/planning? Singing off key? Maybe is they had a few more hymns or if John who sings off would stop singing that would be great. Right?

Why is God so angry with the Israelites? Why does God hate their worship?

Well lets start at the beginning because Amos isn’t coming for just Israel. He has a message from God for everyone!

Damascus: Capital or Aram—Bitter enemies with the people of Israel. Constant border wars.

Gaza—Recognize that name?

Edom—Who are the Edomites?

Then we get to Judah. The nation that had followed God the best out of the two nations of Israel and Judah. Mad at them for abandoning their worship of God.

Amos 2:4–5 ESV

4 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked. 5 So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

Amos 2:6–8 ESV

6 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— 7 those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned; 8 they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.

Sins Against Israel:

Abuse of the innocent and the poor.

Sexual immorality

Economic abuse and exploitation.

Amos then spends several chapters describing the justice that God desires against Israel and about the punishments he had given to the nation in hopes that they would turn back to him.

Just laying it into them and so this is their response. I love Amos’s response...

Amos 7:10–17 ESV

10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said, “ ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’ ” 12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” 14 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. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ 17 Therefore thus says the Lord: “ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ”

Good news....

Amos 9:11–15 ESV

11 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this. 13 “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. 14 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. 15 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.

Amos, Obadiah, Jonah The Lord’s Promise of Security (9:15)

It will not be by political coup, social revolution, or military maneuvers that Israel will regain its ascendancy. It will be by the coming of the Lord, who will heal his people and their land.