Amos, the third Minor Prophet, was a sheepherder and a grower of sycamore figs in Judah, and then the Lord called him to go to the Israel and prophecy their destruction. This era can be found in 2 Kings 14:15-29 & 2 Chronicles 26. The land was prosperous, and the people had become prideful. Their religion had become syncretistic, meaning they mixed their worship of the Lord God, with other gods, and it became all intertwined. The book begins with prophecy toward the surrounding nations as well as for Judah and Israel. The Lord kept trying to get their attention, but they would not return to the Lord. Chapter 5 is a funeral dirge, or a song of lament about the destruction of Israel. The Lord talks of their worship, and he wants nothing to do with it because what he really wants is, "But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Then Amos received visions of the Israel's destruction, in the form of swarming locust and then fire, but Amos cried out for mercy, so the Lord gave it. Then the Lord said, "Behold days are coming when there will be a famine, but not a famine of food, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." The last vision was the Lord standing by the altar, and judgment is coming and the people cannot escape it, NEVERTHELESS, He will not totally destroy the house of Jacob. There are a few who will remain faithful, and those few are called a remnant. The book ends with the restoration of Israel. He will raise up the fallen booth of David, and they will come back to the land He had promised them way back with Abraham in Genesis 12.
