For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
So far:
- Amos preached a message of divine judgment, demanding repentance.
- Religion without righteousness is worthless.
- Economic and political prosperity are not necessarily a sign of divine approval.
- Opulent, self-directed living plus lack of concern for the needy is reprehensible.
- Yahweh's reign is over all the earth, not just over Israel.
- Since the law demands covenant faithfulness, without which the ultimate penalty of exile will be exacted, and since Israel has refused to listen to her prophets, she will surely go into captivity.
- Amos encountered official opposition.
- Religion in Israel was closely allied with the state. Power appears to have intoxicated the priests of the corrupt system of Jeroboam.
- Amaziah, priest at Bethel, commands Amos to return to Judah. "Southerner, go home!"
- The prophet remains undaunted.
Light-hearted harvest is to become heavy-hearted judgment (8:1-3)
- Songs of joy in the season of plenty will become dirges and laments in time of judgment.
- The summer fruit (in August or September) would have been figs or pomegranates.
- Word-play: qayits means summer fruit (2 Samuel 16:1-2); qets means end. It's the end of Israel; the time is ripe!
- In these verses the message is no longer “Seek the Lord and live” (5:6). Now it has become: “It’s too late; you must die” (like a physician telling patient his disease is terminal).
- That day (v.3) is none other than the day of 5:18-20. The Assyrians will surely come, though this is still a couple of decades off.
Love of money at any cost (8:4-7)
- 8:4-7 echoes 2:6-8. The entrepreneurs are running roughshod over the poor.
- The rapacity of the leaders reached criminal proportions. For an illustration of how the powerful seized whatever they desired, read 1 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 9 (the incident with Naboth's vineyard).
- They are impatient for the Sabbath to be over, so that they can get back to business (exploiting the poor). Israel was, as it were, eager to get out of church as quickly as possible in order to return to their favorite activity: making more money.
God will bring an earthquake! (8:8)
- The earthquake (judgment) motif is also found in 2:13, 3:14-15, 9:1, and of course 1:1. Amos' prophecies would have grown greatly in credibility after the quake (see Zechariah 14:5).
- “… Amos perceives [the foundations of materialistic greed] to be so firm that only an earthquake can shatter its proud structures.” Craigie 185
- Then the prophet's imagery moves from the common to the metaphorical.
Darkness, baldness, death
- 8:9-10 – eclipse.
- Interestingly, there were two total eclipses in Amos’ lifetime (9 February 784 BC, 15 June 763 BC). These would not have failed to impress the Israelites!
- Isaiah 30:26 and many other metaphorical passages describe blessing/punishment in terms of amplification/reduction of various natural phenomena.
- V.10 -- baldness refers to heads shaved in mourning (Jeremiah 16:6).
- The loss of an only son = goodbye to continued existence, personhood or progeny. See Jeremiah 6:26, Zechariah 12:10 (also Luke 7 – the widow of Nain).
Spiritual famine
- The famine has been caused by godless leaders, and failure on both their part and the people's to heed the word of God.
- This is not like Matthew 5:6. For these persons will stumble in their seeking, yet not find (as they refuse to repent).
- See 2 Chronicles 15:2-4.
- Word of God as bread: Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4 (Luke 4:4), Isaiah 55:1-3.
- V.13 -- When the young men/women (youth) are gone, there’s no hope for the future. It's the end of the nation.
- Israel will fall, never to rise again. (Read about how Israel was dismantled and destroyed in 2 Kings 17-25).
Conclusion
- Is there any hope for Israel? Perhaps a better question, is there any hope for us?
- Will we escape if we continue to ignore the word of the Lord?
- Am I giving my heart to something bigger than myself, to the message of Christ, to the cross of Christ, to the body of Christ and being transformed into the character of Christ?
- How many church members fail to read Amos, supposing it has nothing to say to them, no vital message? May it never be so.
- And last, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
Advanced
- On their cheating in business, the ephah = 22 liters, the shekel 11g. Merchants would line the basket to make it heavier, or use a larger counterweight than legal in the scales (Proverbs 11:1, 16:11, 20:10,23).
- Re: v.9: This is apocalyptic language, not literal. Like Isaiah 30:26, Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2, and the book of Revelation. How many passages with apocalyptic language can you locate in the Bible?
- Re: v.12 – sea to sea = S to W; N to E (Dead Sea to Great Sea [Mediterranean], North to West: all four cardinal directions. The famine -- the judgment -- is national.
- V.14 -- "from Dan to Beersheba" means from one end of the land to another (see Judges 20:1).