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Amos 1 - First Five Judgments

Amos – Introduction

The book of Amos is one of the earliest written of the twelve minor prophet books. Amos wrote in the mid-8^th century BC to the northern kingdom of Israel. It was at least a few decades before the fall of Israel to Assyria. At that time the divided kingdoms were enjoying relative stability and prosperity. Hebrew society at the time, though divided, was doing relatively well. Israel was in the best position to take advantage of prosperity due to a combination of better overall agricultural conditions and greater openness to trade. They had relatively good trade relationships with Egypt to the southwest, Moab and Edom to the southeast, Phoenicia along the coast, and the less civilized peoples to the east and north such as the Aram, Babylon, and Assyria. The loosely affiliated city-states of Greece farther to the north also traded with Israel.

Neighboring cultures sometimes alternated between trade partners and enemies. Philistines and Canaanites of various subcultures displaced by the previous exploits of Joshua and the judges still occupied lower coastal areas from Gaza in the south to Phoenicia on the coast of what is now Lebanon. Agriculture, grazing land, and homesteading drove competition for control of territory.

Civilization, like peace, was relative. For centuries there were all sorts of skirmishes where surrounding cultures would attack people of one or more of the Hebrew tribes. God stored up wrath against those who battered his people. Meanwhile, the Hebrews themselves were abusing their God. After all the blessings poured out on the house of Jacob they were generally only as faithful to their religion as was convenient. As time progressed, so did the sin of Israel as they grew colder and colder to the Lord. By the time of Amos society was becoming decadent, forgetting from whence came their prosperity and security. Local “temples” throughout Israel hosted gods who condoned all manor of evil behavior. For example, it was common for such temples to really be brothels with priestesses who served as prostitutes. The offered plenty of wine and other hedonistic pleasures.

Then God sent a wake-up call. Amos was one of the prophets in that era God used to deliver warnings, to preach the good news of salvation by faith and hope for a land of eternal peace and joy. Unfortunately prophets who provided messages from God that the kings (or high priests) didn’t want to hear were subject to censorship or death. Amos mentions this. He himself is not appreciated by the king of Israel and is sent to Judah to “bother them.”

Amos himself was a farmer by trade, called by God into the role of prophet. He speaks of this in his opening remarks and again later when he is explaining himself. His message certainly included elements that would not have been well liked by the leaders of Judah and certainly not by the leaders of Israel. The fact he was not from the religious class only added to their dislike.

The book of Amos is comprised of a lengthy and detailed series of judgments. The first section (1:2-2:5) lays out pronouncements against Israel’s neighbors. The next section (2:6-6:14) contains extensive judgments against the target audience, Israel. The final chapters relate a series of visions of impending judgment. Most of the visions are filled with doom and gloom, though the visions end on a brighter note with the restoration of the branch of David. We can gather many practical lessons and learn a great deal about the character of God through the writings of Amos. Although most of Amos found fulfillment in the decades after it was written, the book also contains clear messianic and apocalyptic elements. Like much Old Testament prophecy, the prophet does not identify the relative chronology of most events. Instead, we glimpse snapshots of the future in what sometimes appears as random order.

It must be noted that Amos uses satire and sarcasm heavily throughout. His finely crafted rhetorical skills demonstrate a special gift for communicating shock and awe to a jaded audience.

Authorship

Amos 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. We do know the date of the earthquake, but we do know Jeroboam II (son of Joash) became king in 793 BC and Uzziah died in 739. This requires a date at least 17 years prior to the Assyria’s conquest of Israel and perhaps a decade or two before that. Amos was not a professional prophet. He was a common man filled by the Holy Spirit and he did not mince words. Amos was from Tekoa, a village several miles south of Jerusalem in Judea. He not only brought an unpopular message to Israel, he was a shepherd from the religiously pompous southern kingdom.

Series of Judgments

Amos 1:2 And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.” The first two thirds of Amos contain oracles of judgment. An oracle is a supernaturally revealed message. Each judgment contains similar idioms which in modern English might mean something along the lines of, “Not just one or two things you did, but for several sins…” The first six are against neighbors of the Hebrews. The seventh is against Judah and the eighth is an extensive judgment against the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The judgments are an expression of the wrath God will soon carry out. It is up to the hearers to either repent or face the full brunt of the prophecy.

Damascus

Amos 1:3-5 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord. At that time Damascus was loosely affiliated with Assyria. It was roughly 40 miles northeast of Dan, the northernmost major village of Israel. Gilead was a town of Gad east of the Jordan. It was on the key trade route between Assyria and Egypt and most of Israel’s other neighbors in between. The threshing reference essentially means Damascus trampled on the Israelites of Gilead without a care. Hazael then his son Ben-hadad ruled over Damascus in the early Eighth century. The city gate was critical to defense. Through Amos, God said their defenses (gate) would be broken and their wickedness (Valley of Aven) ended. The ruling family would be destroyed and its people dispersed. Their end would be more pitiful than their humble start in long lost Kir. This prophecy found ultimate fulfillment when Babylon destroyed Assyria. When Isaac blessed Jacob, the blessing included the prophecy that whoever blesses Israel is blessed and whoever curses Israel is cursed (Gen 27:29). For its treatment of Israel’s people the city of Damascus faced God’s wrath.

Gaza

Amos 1:6-8 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom. So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour her strongholds. I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord God. These Philistines are descendents of the same group who brought Goliath out to battle young David. Long before the Europeans captured Africans and sold them into slavery in lands far away, the Philistines captured people from neighboring areas, including Israel and Judah, and sold them to the wealthy slave traders in places like Edom. It was a dirty business. The reference here indicates the Philistines of Gaza captured a whole group if Israelites, perhaps a whole town. For Israelites to be sold to their nearest kin, the Edomites, added insult to injury. Like Damascus, Gaza and its sister cities are judged for their treatment of Israel generally. In this case, however, the specific sin is capturing and subjecting God’s people slavery. The prophecy was fulfilled primarily by a series of attacks by Assyria in the seventh century BC.

Tyre

Amos 1:9-10 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood. So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour her strongholds.” Tyre was one of two major Phoenician seacoast cities (the other was Sidon). These cities were located north of Israel in the area of modern Lebanon. The Phoenician sin of capturing Israelites and selling them to Edom was essentially the same as with the Philistines. In this case, however, there is the added sin of treachery for breaking a treaty. Solomon made a treaty with Hiram of Tyre to supply cedar for construction of the first temple. The men called each other brothers as a sign of that covenant relationship (1 Ki 9:11-13). Tyre was a city built on an island a short distance off the coast. Its walls and water barrier made it virtually impregnable. It took Alexander’s army’s to build a causeway from the mainland in order to storm and conquer this city.

Edom

Amos 1:11-12 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever. So I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.” Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother. After Cain murdered his brother Abel the Lord confronted Cain. In Cain’s defense he asked the Lord, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God looks at nations much as He looks at individuals. The attitude of Edom was adversarial at best toward their cultural brother, Israel. In addition to the many skirmishes, Edom effectively placed a bounty on Israel by purchasing whole groups of Israelites as slaves from other groups like the Philistines and Phoenicians. Edom was merciless. God would repay their wrath with His own. In time Edom’s cities would fall and they would be utterly displaced by Babylon.

Ammon

Amos 1:13-15 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds, with shouting on the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind; and their king shall go into exile, he and his princes together,” says the Lord. When Lot ran from Sodom to the hills, only his daughters survived with him. They got him drunk and had sex with him. One their children was Ben-ammi. He became the father of the Ammonites. By the time of Amos the Ammonite were settled in the area east of the Dead Sea between the regions of Moab and Aram. Rabbah is believed to be the site of modern Ammon, Jordan. This location meant they were just south of the region occupied by Gad. Gilead was within easy reach. It was common practice for leaders to raid neighbors in order to make bold claims about expanding their territories. The practice of murdering pregnant women and cutting out their unborn babies was particularly brutal. In addition to invoking terror, it prevented the next generation from exacting revenge. For this exceptionally horrible sin God promised to bring swift destruction with fire, battle, and exile. Assyria conquered Ammon and took its king and other officials into exile. Jeremiah (Jer 49:1-6) and Ezekiel (Ez 25:1-7) also pronounced prophetic judgments against Ammon for its violence against Judah during the Babylonian exile. Babylonian records indicate Nebuchadnezzar decimated Ammon and Moab in 582 BC, less than a decade after destroying Solomon’s temple.

Majoring in the Minors

Amos Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

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