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The prophet ponders God’s Word

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these studies were first written as brief studies only in 2008, and are now being completed and updated (Summer 2010)

Bible study for Amos 5:18-27

Amos 5:18-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Here are three prophecies that counter false religiosity at every level.  Amos warns that God’s coming will be a surprise, then he dismisses worship that does not come from the heart, and lastly, he ridicules those who practice idolatry.

When we read Amos prophecies, it is easy to forget that they must have been given at some specific time and place.  Clearly, Amos was called to deliver God’s message of judgement to the people of Israel, but in real life, Amos must have delivered this message in different ways according to the circumstances in which he found himself.  For example, we can imagine Amos speaking in the open air when beginning his prophecies with the short sharp sayings found in chapter 1.  But here, Amos seems to be addressing people who have gathered for worship, which is a theme that runs throughout the passage.

The first paragraph (5:18-20) is about the ‘Day of the Lord’, and like many other features of Amos’ prophecies this is the first time that this phrase appears in Scripture.  In his day, the people of Israel longed for the time that God would come and help them, and they called this the ‘Day of the Lord’.  The term summed up their hope that God would vindicate them as His people and conquer all their enemies.  ‘Not so!’ said Amos (5:18), and prophesied that this ‘Day of the Lord’ would be far from what they imagined.  With graphic imagery, Amos pointed out that God would come to judge them, and they would feel the pain of His coming, just like a man falling into the arms of a bear or being unexpectedly bitten by a snake (5:19).  Amos had turned the idea of the ‘Day of the Lord’ completely on its head! 

The second paragraph is a stunning attack on all that the Israelites did to worship God.  Today, we find it hard to work out how people could have worshipped God by sacrificing animals, but this is what they did.  It represented the giving of their lives and their livelihoods to the Lord, and although this is not mentioned here, they also valued the fellowship of the shared meals that accompanied official sacrifices.  Whatever pleasure they gained from this worship, Amos said pointedly that God no longer took pleasure in it (5:21f.), and this would have been profoundly shocking to those who heard it.

Yet God had never been interested in ritual of acts of worship.  As we are reminded by Moses in the books of the Law (Deut 30:6f.), God looks on the heart not acts of worship.  So when Amos dismisses sacrificial worship he is only speaking out an ancient Biblical truth about the heart of a worshipper, which is just as much God’s Word for His own day as it is for ours.

The climax of this second paragraph comes towards its end, where God dismisses the rituals of Israelite worship as like ‘noisy songs’, and says He will no longer listen to the music accompanying their worship (5:23).  Instead of false worship He wants justice to ‘surge down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (5:24)!  This powerful prophecy is both utterly dismissive of sacrificial worship and powerfully evocative of the moral obedience that God looks for in the heart of a believer.  It is a passage like none other and is a clarion call for all who would offer God the true worship of the sacrifice of their lives.

The last paragraph adds a further surprise, for Amos castigates those who come to worship for their idolatry.  Not only did the Israelites worship their God with unacceptable sacrifices, they also held on to various cultural beliefs about the gods, including a certain amount of astrology (5:26)!  Amos exposes the duplicity of those who think they can worship God and practise idolatry at the same time, and this is enough to move God to final judgement.  For these sins, the Lord will send His own people into Exile!

This passage helps us see that Amos was as much concerned about the right worship of God as he was about moral judgement and ‘doing good’.  Many say that Amos’ primary concern was social justice, but this is not the case.  He regarded social justice and the worship of God as inseparable, and he would not have been able to understand why anyone should think them different!

Going Deeper

The Bible study goes deeper to look at these issues:

• The ‘Day of the Lord’   (5:18-20)
• False worship and right religion   (5:21-25)
• Idolatry   (5:26-28)

Amos 5:18-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Translation Notes

(consult Dictionaries)

V18 ‘how desperate for you who ...’

Other translations:

‘Woe to you ...’   (NIV)

‘Alas for you ...’   (New AV)

It is always difficult to translate the Hebrew ‘Ho’, which is an expression of despair.  The old English words ‘woe’, or ‘alas’ come close, but they are not words used in normal English.  So I have attempted to translate the word by conveying a general sense of desperation.  Here, Amos addresses people to tell them about the awfulness to come.

V22 ‘for your specially fattened fellowship offerings’

Other translations:

‘you bring choice fellowship offerings’   (NIV)

‘nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings’   (New AV)

The phrase in Hebrew here is ‘peace offerings’ using the Hebrew word ‘shalom’.  This word has a wide range of meaning, but here it carries the idea of an offering that re-establishes ‘peace’ between God and the one bringing the sacrifice.  The peace offering as described in Leviticus 3 is only partly burnt before God on the altar.  Most of it is shared amongst  those who brought the sacrifice.

V24 ‘and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’

Other translations:

‘And righteousness like a never-failing stream‘   (NIV)

The Hebrew words used before ‘stream’ denotes constancy, which means that the concept here is that of permanence.  Streams in Israel and many parched regions of the world are seasonal, and rivers or streams that run all the time are highly valued.

V26 ‘But you honour deities and planets as your kings and idols, your “star gods”’

Other translations:

‘You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god’   (NIV)

‘You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images’   (NRSV)

This sentence is extremely difficult to translate because it contains what appears to be the names of various gods worshipped in Amos’ day.  This is reflected in the NRSV translation.  However, the first names ‘sakkuth’ is used generally to refer to deities, and the second name ‘kaiwan’ is used outside the Bible to refer to the planet Saturn, though it is not known whether the ancients knew the planets as well as we do today.  This translation here uses the general sense of the names to make a reasonably understandable sentence, which fits the general picture of Amos’ complaint at that time in Israel’s history.

Amos 5:18-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Going Deeper

(consult Dictionaries)

Unfortunately not available at this time

Amos 5:18-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Application

Unfortunately not available at this time

Amos 5:18-27 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Notes / Going Deeper / Application / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Do you look forward to the ‘Day of the Lord’, or do you dread it?  What should a Christian expect?
2. In your opinion, is there any worship of God that is unacceptable today?  What should be done about this?
3. If the Lord were to come through His people ‘like a flood’, what would be washed away?

Personal comments by author

Amos is a challenging prophet.  He forces us back to the basics of our faith and appeals to all God’s people of every age to remember that God does not tolerate either injustice in our dealings with others or false worship that is not exclusive to Him.  In our world full of complexities and compromise, justice can be a hard thing to find, and exclusive allegiance to the living God is a rare personal quality.  Nevertheless, we aspire to these things not out of blind faith, but out of realistic hope and expectation.  For by following Christ and always being ready to confess our sin, we may follow this path even in this corrupt world.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Try writing down a list of those wrongs and sins which seem still prevalent amongst God’s people today, and which create injustice within the church and in society as well.  Pray about how sin is dealt with in the fellowship of the church today.
• Pray for the Lord to raise up prophets who will reveal the Word of the Lord today, and show us the sins of our age that we so easily fail to see.

Final Prayer

Dearest Lord, You have seen and heard Your people commit sin, struggle with sin and confess sin over centuries; come rushing through us now like a great torrent of water, and by the power of Your Holy Spirit cleanse us anew and make us victorious.  Thank You Lord: AMEN

Bible study for Amos 6:1-8

Amos 6:1-8 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Amos speaks out against the covetous, rich and corrupt leadership of Israel, and places the blame for God’s punishment squarely at their door.  His prophecy begs the question whether something similar may be said today!

Of all the prophets in the Old Testament, Amos was one of the boldest in speaking out God’s Word.  Commissioned by God to prophesy against Israel, he did not hold back when describing their sins.  His bravery is shown most clearly here, as he exposes the life of the rich ruling elite who had brought Israel to its moral and spiritual knees.  He condemns their luxurious lifestyle as an offense against both God and humanity, knowing that because the rich held power in Israel, it would not be long before they reacted against him and his words.

In the first three verses of our passage, Amos delivers a warning not just to Israel but also to the surrounding nations, saying that they will all be caught up in God’s judgement;

‘How terrible it will be for those who are complacent in Zion, and those who feel secure on Mount Samaria, and the leaders of important nations who are consulted by the house of Israel!   (6:1)

Here, ‘those who are complacent in Zion’ are the leaders of Judah, those who ‘feel secure on Mount Samaria’ are the leaders of Israel, and ‘the leaders of important nations who are consulted by Israel’ are the leaders of nearby nation states.  Now we should not be surprised by this list of nations, because it is not the first time that Amos has prophesied against not only Israel but also Judah and other nations.  The first two chapters of Amos contains a series of short sharp prophecies against each of them in turn; Damascus (Syria), Gaza (Philistia), Tyre, Edom, Amon and Moab (see 1:3-2:3).   

Reading on in verses 2 and 3, Amos paints a picture of the way that sin was at work amongst these leaders.  For although many of these nations were in a state of war with each other, their leaders lost no opportunity to better themselves by consulting each other and having a look at the good things to be found in each kingdom (6:2,3).  They were playing a dangerous game of ‘I’m better than you’, and indulging a consuming spirit of covetousness!  Such self seeking leadership was ripe for judgement, and in the fullness of time, none of these nations stood a chance when Assyria invaded the region a few years after Amos spoke.  Only Jerusalem and Judah were spared, after Assyria sieged Jerusalem and King Hezekiah prayed for deliverance, urged on by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 36-39).

So if Judah was eventually saved after the repentance of a King, what does this say about the rest of Amos’ prophecies against the arrogance and luxurious living of rich leaders in Israel?  Amos spoke out with astonishing clarity against the excesses of these people, and his warning was intended to turn them back to God.  Now, the evidence of history is that these Israelites did not repent and the land of Israel was consequently invaded and destroyed by Assyria, in contrast to the salvation found by Jerusalem and Judah.

History shows Amos to be right, of course, and we can read about these events in 1 Kings 17 to 19.  But we are left with Amos remarkable prophecies and his unique description of the luxuries of the day that led to Israel’s downfall.  He mentions comfortable furniture and fine meals (6:4), and entertainment including music and wine (6:5), as well as body pampering with oils (6:6).  But however fascinating it is to know such things and compare them with the luxuries of today, this is only the evidence of all that distracts the soul from godliness and righteousness, as is clear from Amos’ cutting comment about the blindness of those who live in luxury and ‘are not sickened because of the collapse of Joseph!’ (6:6).

In the last two verses, Amos prophesies God’s solemn oath deploring all that was going on in Israel and declaring that enough was enough.  His punishment for Israel’s’ sin and rejection would be to bring an end to the nation and send its people into exile in a foreign land (6:7,8)!  Now, if we are more interested in Amos’ description of luxuries or the antics of Israel’s leaders, then we have lost sight of his message: the rejection of God’s justice and righteousness brings catastrophe on His people.

Amos 6:1-8 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In what ways do the rich ruling elite of your own country behave as Amos describes here, and does it make sense to say that they will suffer the same consequences?
2. Why does God bring judgement on the sins of His people, and how does He do this today?
3. How can the church best handle the wealth that it possesses?  What principles should guide our judgements about what we do with money in the church?

Personal comments by author

This passage of scripture is profoundly disturbing particularly for those who have relative wealth.  Even as a westerner, though not wealthy by western standards, I feel somewhat condemned by Amos’ extraordinary description of callous wealthy indifference.  I do not enjoy the extravagant wealth of many people, but I know that I have so much more than many in the world.  I recognise, however, that my primary call is to be obedient to the Lord in using everything He has given to me, and I know that God is my judge.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• How does this passage make you feel?  Each of us must accept that the first step towards a godly understanding of wealth is to admit that we are answerable to God for how we use everything we have been given.  This is our awesome responsibility
• Pray about the gap between the rich and the poor in your country.  Pray that God will work through His people to bring a responsible and practical balance of wealth to your country and the world.

Final Prayer

Praise You, Lord God, for Your Light is life to me, and by Your Light in Christ Jesus, I am saved and delivered from sin.  Fill me even now with Your Light, so that I may live for You and help to bring Light into this world of darkness.  I ask this in the Name of Jesus, the Light of the World.  AMEN

Bible study for Amos 6:9-14

Amos 6:9-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Here, Amos prophesies that the consequence of Israel’s sin against God is her death, and his words shock us even now.  But perhaps we need to be shocked in order to realise the eternal truth, which is that un-repented sin separates people from God.

As we have read the prophecy of Amos, we have been amazed by his skill in delivering God’s Word, challenged by his message about justice and righteousness, intrigued by his subtle prophecies of hope for the individual, and appalled by his exposure of the sins of God’s own people.  In all of this, Amos has prophesied a firm and dreadful message for the state of Israel; because of her sins, she will be destroyed (3:12, 4:2, 5:6,16).   So now, lest we think that this message is just for effect, or an empty threat designed to scare Israel into repentance, Amos reinforces his message with a dramatic vision of death and destruction to come.

Each sentence of this passage captures some aspect of the tragedy of God’s punishment of Israel by war.  In numb horror, relatives will return to retrieve bodies from homes devastated by war (6:9,10), and will gaze on the symbols of state such as Samaria’s Great Palace that has been torn down and reduced to rubble (6:11).  Then, in verses 12 and 13, Amos ridicules those whose actions have poisoned Israel and made her believe in her own strength.  In truth, Israel has lost the power to control her destiny and faces disaster; she cannot escape the Lord’s wrath (6:14).

Is this all too much for us today?  Do we prefer to believe that because we have a Saviour, we trust that God now works for salvation rather than destruction?  We must be careful not to allow our natural distaste of death to prevent us from following exactly what Amos says about the punishment of sin.  For today, just as in Old Testament times, those who rebel against God and against the moral order of His world will reap the consequences of their sins, which lead to death.  It is only when people realise the dire state of humanity without God that they can appreciate the true value of Christ’s work on the Cross, which offers humanity ‘peace with God’ (Romans 5:1f.).  Too often, God’s people want Him on their own convenient terms rather than His, and the prophecies of Amos challenge everyone to listen carefully to what God says.

So here in verses 9 and 10, we read about the dread experience of people returning after battle to discover the awful truth; who is alive and who is dead?  With extraordinary delicacy, Amos reports one who comes out of a house in which there has been a massacre, and conveys the news; ‘no-one is alive’; and everyone is struck with horror (6:10).  Amos wrote this to oblige the Israelites to face the consequences of their actions, and it brings home to us the grim reality of the path of sin that leads to death.

Then, in verse 11, Amos faces us with a further uncomfortable truth; what is built will one day be rubble.  Of course, this is warning to Israel that her splendour cannot last, but the same point is made to us today by every building in our countryside that has fallen into ruin because of some past act of violence; the apparent glories of this world will never last.  In this way, Amos forces us to accept something we do not like to think about today, destruction awaits our highest endeavours, from tall building to the technology by which we define ourselves, for this is the end result of all godlessness.

We can almost hear the complaints shouted out at Amos; all this is scare-mongering!  Look at the facts, says the prophet, ‘do horses run on rocks?’ (5:12,13).  The point he makes here is this, there is clear evidence that good things have turned sour, the things of God have been exchanged for evil, and people rely on their own strength (5:13).  What possible consequence can there be for this other than judgement, and why do those who ignore God hope against hope, and think otherwise?  God has decided upon the judgement of Israel (5:14), and it will happen.

And in the same way, we can read this passage of Scripture and turn away if we will, but we do so at our peril.  Perhaps when we realise the full horror of the death and destruction that awaits those who rebel against God, we will then accept the need for full repentance and complete faith in the God of our Salvation.

Amos 6:9-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. What do you feel when the Bible speaks about God bringing death to His people?  Does God work like this today?
2. What lies and deception are current in the world today, which fly in the face of the evidence of what is wrong in the world?
3. How may we preach the Gospel so that nations will take notice of what we say?

Personal comments by author

I have struggled with explaining these things ever since I was asked to teach the Old Testament at Bible College.  I have known for a long time that good Christian people will often ignore the Old Testament because they dislike the idea of God dispensing punishment in the form of death.  Now, there are many ways to try and explain this, including the fact that in Christ, God overcomes death.  But one thing bothers me about people’s negative attitudes towards God’s judgement in the Old Testament.  God is both loving and just, and if we are selective in our appreciation of God’s character, then the Old Testament has more to teach us than we think.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• If you have an opportunity today, ask someone else at church or in your family about some of the issues raised by this study.  Discuss how God judges the nations today and how the Gospel can save nations as well as individuals.
• Pray that God will bless His people today, and make them an example of what is good and right within the world.  Pray that the Holy Spirit will move in power to bless and transform the church.

Final Prayer

Lord God, You sent Your Son into the world to live a human life with all its frailties and joys, and His life is a perfect example of the best of humanity.  May we follow His example and seek every opportunity to do what is right, good and perfect in the world, not just for ourselves and those we love, but for all people and for You. AMEN

Bible study for Amos 7:1-9

Amos Amos 7:1-9 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Amos’ series of damning prophecies against Israel suddenly comes to a stop, and he reports three visions in which the Lord sets out His complaint against Israel

Throughout Amos we read a consistent message about the sins of Israel and her coming judgment by war, and Amos uses a series of different methods to open our eyes to its details.  The first two chapters are a round of evocative prophecies that focus eventually on Israel’s sins.  Chapter three pronounces God’s judgement and sets out some evidence, and chapter four continues with a series of pronouncements revealing God’s unrequited love for Israel.  Chapter five contains a dramatic lament bewailing Israel’s death, and chapter six follows with a tragic description of the dying nation.  The prophecy now reaches its climax in chapter seven with this series of summary visions.

Today’s reading contains three visions, with the first two leading up to the third.  This is interesting because Amos clearly uses numbers in a special way, for example, in chapters 1 and 2, he takes a ‘perfect’ number (3 or 7), and adds one more; he gives seven prophecies against the nations before rounding on Israel in the eighth (2:6-16), and he says in each ‘for three sins ... and for four ...’ (1:3,6,9 etc.).  In general, this suggests that we need to look beyond a perfect number of prophecies if we want to know Amos’ full message, and here in chapter seven, we have three visions, so is there a fourth?  Astonishingly, if we read ahead in Amos, we will find a fourth vision of identical structure at the beginning of chapter 8!

All this means that although each of the visions in today’s reading are important, the third is not the true climax of the sequence.  It is a stunning vision, but it is an important ‘lead-in’ to the fourth vision found in chapter 8, which we will study in a few day’s time.

The first vision describes a swarm of locusts coming after the first cutting of feed for the King’s cattle in early summer, stripping the land (7:2) and leaving no grazing for cattle.  Amos then takes the role of a prophet or priest who intercedes for the people in their peril (7:2), and God answers by averting the plague.  This vision reflects accurately what people of the day would have expected of their relationship with God and of their priests and prophets.

The second vision is similar, except that the catastrophe is judgement by fire.  It describes a cataclysmic drying up of sea (the ‘deep’) and land (7:4), which may be a poetic picture of Israel’s piercing hot south wind that could create havoc with crops.  Amos intercedes for the people again and emphases Jacob’s inability to handle such catastrophes, ‘he is so small’ (7:5), and the Lord accepts Amos’ pleas yet again (7:6) and holds back the judgement.

The third vision is different.  Amos sees a plumb line, used then as now to measure a straight vertical line.  The Lord then announces that He will use the plumb line against Israel as a measure of justice and righteousness.  But Israel no longer measures up to God’s standards, and will therefore be destroyed by invasion (7:8). 

Together, these three visions reveal Amos’ message about God’s absolute justice and His consequent condemnation of Israel.  Together with his famous word-picture, ‘let justice surge down like water, and righteousness like a never-failing stream’ (5:24), this third vision is often presented as the heart of Amos’ message.  But although this is undoubtedly a climax, we should be careful.  As a whole, Amos’ prophecy bemoans every aspect of a broken relationship with God, from injustice to religious deviance.  We must also bear in mind that after the third prophecy there is a fourth, and we should hold on our opinion of the third until we have read it.

Lastly, it is worth thinking about when Amos had these visions.  Did he see them in the middle of his stressful visit to Bethel, or had they been seen earlier?  We cannot know for sure, but it is unlikely that God would give these visions merely to reinforce a message Amos already knew.  It is far more likely that these visions were God’s way of impressing his Word on Amos before he arrived at Bethel, perhaps when he was working as a shepherd, back home in Tekoa.

Amos Amos 7:1-9 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. How does God judge His people today, and how do we know what He is doing?  Have you ever heard a prophet announce what God will do to judge His people?
2. Discuss whether God speaks to us today through natural disasters, and why people find it difficult to think that God might be speaking to us through natural disasters.
3. In what ways do God’s people commit the twin sins of injustice and irreligion to which Amos objects in his prophecies?

Personal comments by author

Amos was very concerned to deliver his prophesy although his words were undoubtedly unpopular in his day.  He delivered his visions and prophecies in difficult circumstances, risking ridicule and a considerable amount of misunderstanding.  I wonder whether he felt uncertain at times?  I, like many other preachers, can feel uncertain especially when I have preached what I sincerely believe to be the truth, and it has not been received.  It is important to remember that no one who preaches the Word of God or delivers a prophetic word can have the luxury of confidence in anything other than God, and if we look to our own feelings or the response of others, we are lost.  The Lord will reveal the truth.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Have you ever felt that the Lord has given you a special message about something, and you have thought about it but not actually told anyone?  I am aware that this is a rather sharp question, but we will each be held accountable for the message He has put on our hearts.  It is always best to talk about such things with a close friend, so that important things like this do not go by default.
• Ask the Lord to raise up prophets today who will reveal the truth of Your Word to us in our sceptical world, and pray that God’s people will affirm the word and take it to heart.

Final Prayer

Let me hear Your voice tonight, faithful God and Lord of all.  Speak to me so that I may know Your will, whether it be hard or easy, comforting or challenging, exciting or mundane; and let me value each and every word of the instruction You give for Your servant’s life.  Thank You Lord; AMEN

Bible study for Amos 7:10-17

Amos 7:10-17 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

This is an extraordinary piece of Scripture!  Amos defends his call to prophesy against the accusations of the priest at Bethel, and lets fly!

For the first time, this passage of Amos contains a report of something other than his written prophecies.  Throughout, Amos has given an uncompromising message of judgement on Israel, and this clearly raised something of a storm.  He was not going to get away with saying that God had rejected Israel without direct opposition, and the man who dramatically interrupted Amos was the priest Amaziah (7:10f.). 

We read that Amaziah had written to the King (in Samaria) to report what Amos was saying at Bethel, and he clearly regarded the prophet as a threat.  As the ‘the priest of Bethel’ (7:10), he had the authority to act against unruly elements and preserve the dignity of the sanctuary.  Amaziah summarised Amos’ message as a threat to the kings life as well as a threat against national security (7:10,11), which is interesting because it is not obvious to us that Amos has made a direct threat against the kings life.  Perhaps this was part of his preaching that is not included in the Bible!  Nevertheless, Amos’s words were tantamount to treason, and Amaziah aptly summed it up with these words (7:10); ‘the country cannot endure all his words!’

We do not know the King’s response to this, but at some point, Amaziah decided to face Amos personally and a tempestuous head to head confrontation took place between the two (7:12-17).  Amaziah’s approach was to stand on his authority, and tell this upstart prophet to go home (7:12).  In those days, a sanctuary such as Bethel employed prophets who had specific duties, and would not have spoken against the king!  For this reason, Amaziah did not call Amos a ‘prophet’, and instead, a ‘seer’.  This was an old Hebrew term used in the same way we would say ‘religious freak’.

Amos’ reply is remarkable, and in two parts.  Firstly, Amos defends himself and his calling (7:14,15), and secondly, he directly insults Amaziah by turning all his prophecies on him, personally(7:16,17)!  He delivers a devastating prophecy saying that the priest’s wife would desert him just as the people of Israel had deserted God, and his children would die in war just as God’s people Israel would perish!  In addition, his land would be passed to pagans, symbolising the loss of the Promised Land (5:5, 5:27, 6:7 etc)!

One interesting feature of this passage is Amos’ defence of his own prophecy.  There is something powerful about the way Amos declares shamelessly that God has called him and given him a word to speak (7:14,15).  He was not a specialist prophet paid by the state (7:14), but a working man called to do something special for God. Such an idea was unheard of in Israel, yet Amos was utterly confident.  He knew that God had called him to ‘go, prophesy to my people Israel’ (7:15), and he had been faithful to this call.  The passage may not stand out to us, but it is a remarkable insight into God’s evolving work through the Old Testament prophets.

Throughout the centuries, when the Church has become staid and set in its ways, God has called men and women to take a stand and declare His Word.  What God has said through his servants has never been ‘new’, but He has used people like Luther, Wesley, Edwards and many others to call His people back to the truth of His Word and news of His Gospel.  They stand in the tradition of people like Amos, who was courageous enough do what God required of him and stand against injustice and irreligion.  Amos and many others have been obedient to God’s call and they are an inspiration to us now.  Throughout the centuries, God’s church has always had to listen to people like Amos and those who have come after him, who have challenged God’s people to reject wrong faith or clear injustice, and turn again to their God to rediscover the joy, love, energy and fruitfulness by which the Kingdom grows.

You can find people like Amos within the world today.  Let us pray for them, that they will courageously continue to hear God’s call and act on it, and for the church, that it will be willing to hear and receive the sharp challenges they bring.

Amos 7:10-17 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. How would you summarise the prophesies of Amos you have read up to this point of the book?
2. How can we recognise the calling of a prophet today?  Where should we look to find the prophets of God today, and how should we support them?
3. Why does the church of God need to be challenged constantly to return to the truths of the Gospel?

Personal comments by author

Have you ever felt that the Lord is calling you to say something and you have agonised over whether it is right to speak?  Of course, other people will quickly tell us that we should say what is on our minds, but we must be careful.  We must wait on the Lord to make it clear whether it is His will that we should speak, not just the result of a human passion?  In my experience, most Christians have felt something of the call of Amos, which is to leave everything and go to declare God’s Word, but few have concluded that it is right to act on the call.  It leaves me wondering why it is that some do not follow through on their convictions, and wondering what would happen in my own country if people did!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Reflect on those occasions in your own life when you have made a stand against someone, and you have felt that it is a matter of justice and truth.  What has the Lord done through such instances, and how have you been affected, in the long run?  If this exercise raises emotions in you, pray about what happened, and ask the Lord to help you gain a good perspective on everything that happened.
• Pray for the people God uses in your own church to challenge the status quo.  They may be unpopular and yet they may have an important part to play in God’s will for His people.  Ask the Lord to help you discern the truth about this.

Final Prayer

Lead us Lord God; guide us in our pathways, tell us when to speak Your Word, lighten the darkness of this world, and ease the heavy loads we bear.  We do not ask for an easy life, but for Your presence by which we know we are not alone, but loved and helped along our way.  Thank You Lord God: AMEN

Bible study for Amos 8:1-8

Amos 8:1-8 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Amos prophesies the final destruction of Israel because of her sins.  This is an awesome and dreadful prophesy, but we must always remember that Amos was not shouting in the wind.  He was right, as history readily shows.

Amos’ confrontation with Amaziah (7:10-17) seems to have wound Amos up to more heights of prophecy!  Here, he delivers a merciless and damning prophecy proclaiming the death of Israel (8:1-3) followed by a strongly worded portrayal of the dishonest mal-practice that had corrupted the life of Israel (8:4-8).  These prophecies are passionate, but as we read them, our first reaction may be to say that we have heard it all before.

How impatient we are with God’s Word!  For if we study Amos’ work, then we will perceive far more.  The destruction of Israel is no casual thing, and the prophesy is not to be glossed over as if merely repetitive.  Certainly, the theme here is the same as elsewhere in Amos, but he uses different prophetic methods and each one reveals more.  We should therefore look carefully for what this one has to say.

The vision in 8:1-3 is the fourth of a series, with the first three found in chapter 7.  The first two of these describe natural disasters averted after intercession by Amos.  They are followed by a third that says God will no longer be blindly generous to Israel because she no longer measures up to the ‘plumb line’ of right and godly living, and it ends by declaring that God will destroy His own nation (7:7-9)!  This is a highly evocative prophecy and the plumb line illustration is useful even to this day, but it is still only the third vision of the series.  The fourth (8:1-3) dramatically urges listeners to accept that Amos’ prophecy is not just words; God will no longer wait for His people to turn to Him.  The ‘the time is ripe’ for judgement!

Amos says more, later on in chapters 8 and 9, but the arrangement of these visions suggests they were written like this for dramatic effect.  After the three visions, the story of Amos’ meeting with Amaziah is like a dramatic break before Amos’ final word of judgement.

The vision in today’s reading is shocking.  Amos starts with a homey rural picture of a basket of ripe summer fruit.  Then, using the natural word play of two Hebrew words that sound virtually the same, ‘ripe fruit’ and ‘the end’, he declares that God has finished with Israel; ‘I will not spare them any longer’ (8:2).  He then announces the awful consequences of God’s destruction, which are the replacement of Temple songs with funeral laments for the death of Israel and the awful horror of handling dead bodies.  Then in a clever twist, Amos goes on (8:4-8) to bewail the reasons for this destruction.  Yes, people would die because they were more concerned with themselves and their profits than with others or God’s Sabbath (8:4,5), and they cheated in the market place and swindled the poor (8:5,6).  Such sins bring down God’s wrath.  Also, to signify the end of Israel, God had decided to return the Promised Land to its natural state, rising and falling ‘like the Nile’ (8:8).

Amos’ prophecies strike at the heart of humanities fickle nature, including our own.  We listen to people who say ‘such and such will happen’, but think, ‘Oh yes, let’s wait and see, at least until we hear someone else say the same’.  If we hear something we do not like, as the Israelites did when they heard Amos, then we tend to ignore it and carry on with life.  This prophecy is therefore Amos’ final appeal to God’s people to hear his word; it was not an opinion.  Everything he said was about to happen.

If we think that apart from its literary qualities, this prophecy adds little to what we know of Amos’ message, then we miss the point.  Each time God’s Word is spoken it strikes home.  Perhaps this final warning was enough to persuade more Israelites to believe Amos and repent.  Certainly, in later centuries after the wipe out of Israel as prophesied by Amos, the Jews attempted to gather as many people as possible from the old Israelites tribes obliterated by the Assyrians.  Remarkably, they succeeded, and it is possible that these Israelites were descended from those who heard Amos’ message and repented from the sins of the nation.

Amos 8:1-8 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Debate this subject; does God destroy those who knowingly go against His will?
2. What can you find within this passage that hints at injustices and illegal practices found within our world today, and why are they so wrong?
3. How does God intervene in the world today to bring about justice, and should we pray that He does this Himself, or that He should empower us to do it on His behalf?

Personal comments by author

It is awful to read in Scripture about the dreadful death sentence God placed on His own people, but it is an important part of the history of God’s Old Testament people.  The complete annihilation of a portion of God’s people is rather like the extermination of a branch of the church today; and it has been known to happen, both in small localities and also in large regional communities.  Even today, though the church as a whole is growing other churches are still being closed and a witness to God’s love is lost when a church dies.  What does God teach us by these difficult things?  Surely at least, we must consider Amos’ message and redouble our efforts to live a life based on Christ.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• The passage we have read asks us to look very carefully at the nature of our world, the societies in which we live and our church life as God’s people.  Pray and ask the Lord to help you discern the nature of His judgement on your nation, society or your church, and resolve to talk about this to others.
• Pray for those who are bewitched by the sins of the world and do not perceive the judgement of God on all sin and wrongdoing.  Pray that they will be led to hear the truth and be saved.

Final Prayer

Keep me in Your presence this day, Lord Jesus; keep me close to Your side as I walk the path before me.  Then, when difficulty comes, may I have confidence to deal with everything in the way You would wish of me. Thank You, Lord Jesus; AMEN

Bible study for Amos 8:9-14

Amos 8:9-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Amos warns Israel of a coming day when God will judge them, and they cannot escape.  His words speak prophetically of the end times, and God’s ‘Last Judgement’.

It is not easy to come to terms with the prophecy of Amos. We would like to be able to take some of its great themes such as justice or righteousness and apply them, but this is only one aspect of a bigger message.  The book is the record of a man called by God to tell the people of Israel that they had wandered away from their God and would bear the consequences.  Amos describes God’s repeated attempts to draw His people back, but his prophecies are full of gloom, because Israel was unrepentant, and heading for destruction.  Frankly, it is hard to draw spiritual lessons for today from such a scenario!  Yet despite the problems, this passage reaches out beyond the confines of Amos’ day to connect strongly with the New Testament, and as we will see, it gives us some helpful background to some of Jesus’ own sayings.

Today’s reading contains no more information about God’s judgement of Israel; it focuses on His punishment.  Israel has been judged, and Amos has already said in various ways that Israel would be overcome by an enemy (2:14-16, 3:12, 4:2,3), so Amos now gives further details about the punishment of war yet to come.  Each feature of this prophecy can be readily understood as something that happens at a time of war, smoke and darkness over the land due to fire (8:9), death and funerals (8:10), famine (8:11), lack of freedom and mobility (8:12), panic and confusion (8:13,14), but the passage says much more than this.  We might have expected Amos to tell us who would invade Israel or when it would happen, but he does not; instead, he paints a picture of Israel’s defeat that hints at something far more important. 

Here in this passage, Amos does not use the phrase ‘the Day of the Lord’, although he has already used it earlier (5:18-20), yet as soon as he begins by saying ‘on that day ...’ (8:9), the idea of a day of God’s judgement dominates the passage.  His prophecy speaks about the turning around of day and night, but he does not appear to be describing merely the confusion of war, for his words capture the awesome majesty of the God who made time and controls it (8:9).  This shift in emphasis is important, because ever since Amos’ day, the phrase ‘the day of the Lord’ has been used both in Scripture and in common language to describe God’s coming to judge the earth at the end of time.  So Amos’ vision is in truth an apocalyptic vision of God’s wrath and is one of the first glimpses within Scripture of what today we call the ‘Last Judgement’.

One remarkable feature of this passage is that each picture painted by Amos appears in Jesus’ own words about the End Times (see Matt. 24).  But more than this, they also crop up in His teaching about the Kingdom of God.  Amos paints a picture of darkness, funerals, famine, wandering, panic and confusion.  Now, the turning of light into darkness (8:9) is similar to Jesus’ teaching about the values of the Kingdom of God, which are opposite to those of earthly life.  The picture of mourning (8:10) is a reminder that true repentance is required of anyone who would seek God’s forgiveness.  Amos himself says that the famine at these end times will be a ‘famine of hearing the words of the Lord’ (8:11), a phrase that highlights the need for spiritual nourishment.  Then, the picture of restless wandering (8:12) is the remarkable background to Jesus’ well-known words ‘seek, and you will find ...’ (Matt 6:33), and lastly, the fruitless worship of idols (8:13,14) is something Jesus warns us against, as well.

Amos’ awful prophecy does not serve merely to rub salt into Israel’ wounds.  Here, Amos is truly led to declare words that God has used over the centuries to draw people’s eyes towards His judgement, and ultimately, His Last Judgement.  We should therefore study the text as a passage that reaches beyond the circumstances of Amos’ own life and times to speak to generations yet to come.  This was the first such prophecy in Israel.

Amos 8:9-14 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In your group, discuss the ways in which this prophecy by Amos offers warnings to God’s people today.
2. Is it correct to say that God has created a famine of His Word today, and if so, what does this might mean?
3. Discuss verses 13 and 14, and how they might be interpreted.  What do these verses mean?

Personal comments by author

It is hard to read these words and not think about Jesus’ own words about the coming ‘day of the Lord’ in Matthew 24 (and other Gospels).  Every text in the Bible that alludes to the final judgement of God are both terrifying and also extraordinarily comforting.  It is terrifying because none of us can be entirely sure what will happen; and it is comforting because we know that in Christ, we may be sure that God, through Christ, will help us and save us.  All this is very important for our faith.  Some people try to ignore it all, but if you read the Bible, the subject never goes away!

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• How can you respond to the interesting and special challenge of this passage of Scripture?  Which part of this passage speaks to you?  Do your best to discuss this passage with others so that you do not become isolated in your understanding of it.
• Pray for the world in which we live, and the debates that take place almost constantly about whether it can continue to sustain life given the pollution of the world.  Pray that God’s people will make sense of what Scripture says about the end of the world, and not be ashamed of it.

Final Prayer

Give us humility, Almighty Father, in the face of the great truths of the Gospel.  May we handle them with dignity and care, and always remember that we are dependent upon You for everything, including our wisdom and understanding.  Guide us in all truth, Almighty Father; AMEN

Bible study for Amos 9:1-10

Amos 9:1-10 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Amos’ message of judgement comes to a conclusion, so we must consider carefully whether his message challenges God’s people today, just as it did Israel in Old Testament times.

This is a rather long passage, but it is the last prophecy of unrelenting gloom to be found in the prophecy of Amos.  Throughout this book, each chapter and verse has driven home the dire message of God’s unrelenting judgement of sin amongst His own people.  Nevertheless, each passage we have studied has yielded some important insights.  For example, we have found out about God’s intent to reveal everything he does through the prophets (3:1-8) and we have also discovered that Amos’ prophecies contain possibly the first Biblical description of God’s ‘Last Judgement’ and the ‘Day of the Lord’ (8:9-14).

What therefore are the true characteristics of this passage?  Like all others in Amos, it speaks throughout of the terrible destruction of Israel, and each of its five small paragraphs is a prophecy in its own right with a theme worth exploring.  Verse 1 is a graphic picture of the destruction of a religious sanctuary, used by Amos to describe the annihilation of Israel.  Verses 2 to 4 describe people running as far away from the Lord as possible, but failing, because God’s punishment will find them out wherever they are.  Verses 5 and 6 confirm the Lord’s authority to both bless and punish, and his picture of the rise and fall of the Nile illustrates God’s power over the fertility of the land and consequently over all life and death.  Lastly, Israel’s rejection is complete when in verses 9 and 10, Amos prophesies that the Lord will look on Israel as no different from other nations!  The relationship between God and Israel is dead!

This last prophecy in verse 10 must surely make us stop and think.  Amos was not the last prophet in Israel, but one of the first whose words have been written down as Scripture!  Throughout his prophecy he has said that because of their sin, God’s people of Israel (i.e. the northern nation of Israel, not Jerusalem and Judah) have been rejected by God completely.  Moreover, the sacred covenant between them has been withdrawn, and they can no longer rely upon God’s protection in the world.

We must now look carefully at what happened to Israel, because there are parallels between the nation of Israel and the church today.  Israel assumed that she was always safe because God had made an eternal covenant with her that he would never break, and she would always be able to rely upon Him to save her.  However she, not God, had broken this covenant.  She had rejected God by going her own way and living as she pleased, eventually accepting the world’s corruption and malice, as exposed by Amos.  As a result, God’s people would reap the consequences of their sin in the form of God’s judgement.

We must now ask whether this bears any lessons for today, and the answer is surely ‘Yes’!  For just like Israel, God’s people today too often assume that their Lord will always protect them, whatever happens, because he is love and does not go back on His Word.  Unfortunately, this is to exaggerate the Gospel.  Yes, the Lord is faithful to His own, but if they wander from Him and amend the teachings of Christ, speak religion but practice domination, compromise the high standards of love, prefer the world’s wisdom to God’s revelation, or simply refuse to repent, then they stand judged before God together with Israel.  Christ longs to forgive but His people do not repent, He longs to show love but His people have chosen the good things of life, and He longs to save from the wrath of judgement, but His people have committed themselves to their own plans!

How shallow we are if we cannot perceive that Amos’ message was given for our warning as well as for Israel’s, and there are spiritual lessons for us all in Amos’ message that we are foolish to ignore.  The time is coming when God will shake His church with a sieve, just as He did with Israel centuries ago (9:9); but will any ‘pebble’ of evidence remain to prove that anyone is truly committed to the Lord?  In Israel’s day, no pebble was found (9:9), but what of our own day?

Amos 9:1-10 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. Discuss in your group the meaning of Amos 9:1-4.  What can Amos’ message of the destruction of Israel say to us today?
2. How do you imagine that the people of Israel reacted to Amos’ prophecy?
3. What are the sins that destroy the relationship between God and His people today, and how may they be addressed and overcome.

Personal comments by author

This passage of Scripture seems to offer us little hope; but perhaps we need to face the reality of the consequences of sin before we will ever find it.  I find it hard to write strongly about the sins of the church, and to make a direct connection between the people of Israel and the church today.  However, I feel quite strongly that some within the church have wandered so far from the true faith, the judgement Amos speaks of is as applicable today as it ever was.  Unfortunately, it is precisely those who do not read God’s Word, who so need to hear what Amos has to say.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Imagine what Amos would say to the church today.  Write down in your own words a summary of what He might say to God’s people today, and then pray for  repentance and reform amongst God’s people, the church.
• Speak to at least one other person about the things you have learned from this text today.  Share your thoughts about how God will both judge His people and bring hope to them, even now.

Final Prayer

As we worship you today, Lord God, lead us to appreciate love.  Help us to see love in the kindness of the people that we meet and the fellowship we enjoy; and may the experience of their friendship be for us the evidence we need today of Your love for us, Lord God, and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus.  AMEN

Bible study for Amos 9:11-15

Amos 9:11-15 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Review

(consult Dictionaries)

Amos finishes his prophecy with a powerful vision of hope, quite unlike anything else found in all his prophecies.  It is a vision of God’s restoration

This is a remarkable conclusion to the book of Amos.  Having prophesied throughout about the destruction of Israel due to her rebellion against her God, Amos now writes warmly about a future in which God will restore Judah (9:11) and also Israel (9:14)!  Indeed, his brief picture of hope is overflowing and generous, but it is also utterly contrary to everything else Amos has prophesied.  It is entirely at odds with his devastating declarations about the downfall of Israel (2:6-16) and his earlier warnings of ‘no escape’ from God’s judgement (8:1-4).  This reading comes as a great surprise to us.

We will surely welcome this dramatic change in Amos’ attitude towards Israel because it confirms Christian belief that God is ultimately generous, even to sinners.  This last part of Amos certainly seems like an addition to the earlier prophecies, for not only is its theme unlike what goes before, its style and manner of speech is also quite different.  But before we jump to conclusions about what this means, we must look carefully at the passage to find out more about what it has to say. 

It begins with a forthright prophecy of restoration, and Amos declares that God will firstly ‘raise up the battered tent of Judah’ (9:11) and restore that nation to its former glory.  Amos confirms the historic bias of God towards Judah (because of David – see 2 Samuel 7), and says that Judah will become strong enough to achieve the aim for controlling the nation of Edom, the war-like nation of nomadic people descended from Esau, Jacob’s brother (Gen 25:30 etc.).

Amos also anticipates that Judah will also control ‘all the nations who are called by my name’ (9:12), but what does Amos mean by this?  Other than Judah, the only other nation called by God is Israel!  Altogether, this prophecy suggests that after the cataclysmic invasion of Israel already prophesied, remnants of Israel would one day come under the governance of Judah.  Of course, we now know that this is exactly what happened in later history.  Certainly, after Judah had herself been judged by God through exile in Babylon, strong attempts were made to bring all Israel together in unity (Ezra 2:70, Zech 1:19 etc.).  God’s intent to restore Israel under Judah is confirmed by Amos’ brief comment, later on in verse 14, ‘I will bring about the restoration of my people Israel’.

The rest of today’s passage (9:13-15) is a grand vision of God’s restoration given to those of His people who survive His punishment.  Though Israel and Judah were restored generations later, the individuals who heard Amos had to accept his harsh word of judgement and hold on to this hope, not for themselves, but for the people of later generations who would begin to see this restoration.  Perhaps this is why Amos gave such a memorable and glowing picture of hope.

With marvellous breadth of insight, Amos describes a harvest so rich, crops are produced as they are sown, and the hillside slopes literally ooze the produce of a fertile land, including wine (9:13).  It is a memorable picture!  What is even more interesting is that this verse is remarkably similar to that found in Joel 3:18, which says; ‘the mountains will drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah will flow with water ...’  Now either Joel has influenced Amos, or Amos has developed Joel’s prophecy!  Still, this is a powerful picture of the blessings of God’s provision, and as much as it helped Israel and Judah in Old Testament times, it is used today as a picture of God’s provision and restoration both for now, and also for the time of God’s Last Judgement’, when He will restore His world in glory!

Amos concludes his work with a more intimate picture of a peaceful agricultural life blessed by the Lord (9:15).  Now it may be that after all the controversy of his prophetic ministry, Amos went home to Tekoa and pondered over the extraordinary message God had given him.  Surely, after all the judgement, he thought, what more could God do for His people than make them secure in His presence!  We who read his words today will certainly agree!

Amos 9:11-15 (get text)   Study links:  / Review / Discipleship /

Discipleship

Questions (for use in groups)

1. In your group, discuss verses 11 and 12, and consider what they might have meant for Amos as well as for us today.
2. Read the prophecy of Joel mentioned in this study (Joel 3:15 to the end) and see how many connections you can find with this passage.  What do these connections mean?
3. What does this prophecy say about God and His intentions both for the world and for those who love Him?

Personal comments by author

The whole book of Amos challenges us to consider how and why God’s own people sin against Him.  Some stand back from Amos’ work and treat it as something that had a meaning for ancient times and not for today, but this is surely to stand against what God does through his prophets.  The dreadful things prophesied by Amos are indeed a reflection of God’s wrath and they are as true today as they ever were. Personally, I feel that it is utterly essential that we take on board this message for those of God’s people who sin and go their own way.  If we assume that God’s people do not do this then we are amazingly blind if not stupid.

Ideas for exploring discipleship

• Reflect upon what the prophecies of Amos can say to the church today about the purity of its worship and service and the consequences of sin.  Write down a list of those prophecies of Amos you think will be important for God’s people today.?
• Pray for those who struggle with sin and know that it compromises them both as individuals and within the life of the church.  There are many who feel convicted of sin, so pray that they will be blessed by God’s people, and helped to deal with this guilt before God.

Final Prayer

You have shown us glimpses of our future, Lord Jesus, and promised that we will have a place in Your Kingdom.  Give us the grace to live by the light of this promise, with holiness and godliness all our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  AMEN