Amos.student
The Theological Message of Amos
THEME: The Lion has Roared: Divine judgment upon prosperous Israel for its social and religious sins
I. God pronounces judgment upon a prosperous and secure people
A. It was a time of unparalleled .
1. God sent Amos during the latter years of the reign of Jeroboam II.
The Samaritan ostraca (63 potsherds) found in 1910 in Samaria date to the time of Jeroboam II. They authenticate the pictures of prosperity mentioned by Amos.[1]
2. Amos provides descriptions of Israel’s prosperity (3:15; 4:1; 5:11; 6:4-6)
B. It was a time of unprecedented national security and strength (2:14-16; 6:1-2, 13).
Because of the military strength of Israel under Jeroboam II, there was a feeling of protection from any military threat (6:1). In fact, they boasted over victories won against Lo Debar and Karnaim (6:13).[2]
II. Sins of and religious hypocrisy are the causes of Israel’s impending judgment.[3]
A. Israel is primarily condemned for its sins.
Another writing prophet raised up by God to announce judgment upon the Northern Kingdom (Hosea) focused on the religious sins of Israel. Amos, however, primarily exposes the social sins of the people.
1. The nations are singled out for their sins of violence and social injustice (1:2-2:3).
2. Israel is also singled out for its sins of social injustice in 2:6-16.
If the pagan nations would be judged for their sins of social injustice, surely God’s chosen people did not think they could get away with such!
3. Repeatedly, God condemns Israel for her social injustice (4:1; 5:7, 10-13, 24; 6:12; 8:4-6).
Our treatment of is a good spiritual thermometer!
B. Israel’s social sins invalidated their performances.
One might think that Israel, so devoid of social justice, was irreligious. The fact is that they were very religious—excessively zealous in their performance of religious sacrifices and religious duties. In fact, Amos 4:5 says they love (“liketh,” KJV) to offer even voluntary offerings! They made pilgrimages to “holy shrines” like Beersheba (5:5) and celebrated festivals (5:21). But alas! Religious, but not right with God. Their social injustice—their sins against their fellow man—invalidated their religious performances (making them just that—religious performances!; 5:22-24). God calls their religion at Bethel transgression (4:4).
You cannot be right with God if you are wrong with your fellow man (Matt. 5:23-24).
C. Israel is also condemned for their rejection of true religion (2:11-12; 5:5, 26; 7:10-17; 8:14).
This includes the idolatrous worship established at Dan and Bethel by Jeroboam I (I Ki. 12:28-33).
III. Israel’s impending judgment is certain and
A. Neither the mighty, the prosperous, nor the “religious” would find escape in that day.
1. The mighty (2:14-16)
2. The prosperous (3:15; 4:1-3; 5:11; 6:1-7)
3. The “religious” (4:4; 5:5, 18-27)
B. Their judgment would include the tearing down of both the religious and political structures.
1. The religious worship at Bethel and Dan (3:14; 5:5; 7:9a, 17a; 8:10, 14; 9:1)
2. The “mighty” house of Jeroboam (7:9b)
C. Their judgment would include exile in a foreign country (5:27; 7:17).
D. Their judgment would correspond to their prosperity (6:14).
E. Their judgment would include a “spiritual famine” (8:11-14).
IV. is the source of Israel’s impending judgment
A. The sovereign Yahweh,[4] God of Hosts, has roared against Israel.
Amos contains some very striking and beautiful descriptions of Yahweh (4:13; 5:8-9; 9:5-6). Throughout, Amos stresses the sovereignty of God.[5] This suggests that at the heart of Israel’s problems was a need to have their Theology Proper adjusted. Despite economic prosperity and military strength, they were still under the dominion of the sovereign Creator of the Universe. Also, it suggests that a people characterized by social injustice are a people who have forgotten the character of God.
B. The ministry of was proof that God had pronounced their doom (3:3-8; 7:14-15).
C. Their relationship to God did not bring ; it brought .
1. Amos 3:2—“privilege brings peril” (Motyer, 17)
2. Amos 5:18-27
D. God was the source behind previous they had experienced (3:6b; 4:6-11).
“Every disaster is but a new call to repentance” (Robinson, p. 57).
V. God’s purposes in judgment also encompass future
A. God pleads for repentance even in the midst of declarations of judgment (5:4-6, 14-15).
B. One of God’s purposes in judgment is to purify and to reveal a righteous remnant (9:9).
C. God must destroy the sinners before He can bring in the promised blessing (9:8, 10).
D. God’s promises of future hope are centered in the revival of the Davidic Covenant and the millennial blessings that will accompany this “resurrection” of the kingdom of David (9:11-15).
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[1] See “Amos,” Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, 1:144.
[2] “These were evidently the sites of recent victories in Jeroboam’s incursion into Aramean territory.” McComiskey, 320. In the KJV, Lo Debar is translated “a thing of nought.” Amos refers derisively to their recent conquest of this place as a “thing of nothing.”
[3] “The causes for such judgment were patent: wealth and luxury, frivolity and corruption, opulence and oppression, summer and winter palaces, ivory couches, songs of revelry and wine…there were specific crimes still more culpable and worthy of censure: namely, victimizing the poor, confiscating their garments for debt, unbridled licentiousness even under the cloak of religion, hypocritical tithing, and hollow Sabbath-observance, even pilgrimages to far distant shrines.” Robinson, 52.
[4] The phrase ’Adonai Yahweh (“Lord GOD,” KJV) occurs 20 times in the eight chapters of Amos (e.g., 1:8; 3:7, 8, 11, 13).
[5] “Central in Amos’s teaching about God is his divine sovereignty.” McComiskey in EBC, 7:276.
