For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
(7:1-9) Locust, fire, and plumb
- Locust and fire
- These are the worst enemies of agriculture!
- Some in Jerusalem still remember the locust plagues of 1865 and 1915.
- After the king’s mowing (v.1), then locust decimation, there would be nothing left!
- Fire: 1:4,7,10,12,14; 2:2,5; 5:6; also Hosea 8:14.
- Amos' reaction
- Moved, the prophet tries to prevent the visions of locusts and fire from coming true.
- Parallels in Numbers 14:11-23, 16:43-50 (see also Exodus 32:7-14,32).
- Yet the threat of the next vision cannot be thwarted.
- Israel has been measured and found wanting, or out of kilter. "The wall of Israel’s political and spiritual life is tilted beyond repair!"
- High places/sanctuaries were being used for idolatry.
- "Pass by" (v.7) recalls the forgiveness of Passover.
- Nevertheless, though the vision is correct -- and will certainly come true -- it is politically unpopular. Official opposition comes from the priest of Bethel, Amaziah.
Official opposition (7:10-17)
- Those who speak the truth will be opposed, and this is all the more true of those who speak truth to power (2 Timothy 3:12 [Luke 6:22-23,26].)
- 7:13 – Amaziah (high priest of Bethel) claims authority to dismiss Amos. Amaziah implies Amos has threatened the king.
- 7:14 – Amos is not a professional prophet.
- Prophets were paid for their work.
- Amos insists that he'd had a perfectly good living without having to moonlight as a prophet.
- He was not in it for the money!
- Parallels
- Conflict between prophet and priest || Jeremiah 26, 28.
- Opposition from the establishment, and from the high priest in particular, similar to what happened to Jesus.
- In his challenge to priestly, royal authority, Amos stands in the tradition of such other bold prophets as Nathan (2 Samuel 12), Elijah (1 Kings 21), Micaiah (1 Kings 22), and Elisha (2 Kings 9).
- Amaziah is only proving the truth of Amos’ words in 2:11-12. This false priest will suffer a fitting triple punishment:
- His wife will become a prostitute in the city (Deuteronomy 22:23-24, Leviticus 21:7) -- no other means of support. And thus Amaziah could not serve as a priest.
- His offspring will be slain; this means both his family and his office would perish.
- Death in an unclean, non-kosher, land would be an insult to all his priestly instincts.
- Exile cannot be warded off!
Advanced
- In Amos 7:1-8:3 are multiple reversals of expectation (as before in 1:2, 2:9, 3:2,12, 4:1-3, 5:3,13,18-23). E.g., what should have been ample crops are decimated and water is vaporized. Pore over the text and see which others you can locate.
- 7:4 -- The great deep likely refers to the waters beneath the earth (in ancient cosmology), or else to the ocean itself.
- 7:7-8 -- The object may be either a plumb-line (the most common view) or else tin (based on cognates).
- 7:9,16 -- This is the only chapter in the OT where Isaac stands for the nation. (Of course Isaac's son Esau was not included, only descendants through Jacob [covenant name: Israel].)