Amos

 

Divided Kingdom Period

Writing Prophets – Obadiah to edom, Joel Amos appears this time, Jonah, triad Isaiah, Micah, Josea

Speeching – Elijah, Elishah, Nathan

7 prophets for divided kingdom period 3 prophets Judah (Habakkuk, Zephaniah, naptha)

Prophecy of Amos 3 boxes (3 sections)

Chapters 1-2 – Indictments – 8 indictments to kingdoms around Israel zeroing in to israel. Damascaus, gaza, tyre, edomites, ammon, moav, Judah, end up on Israel cyclical way

Chapters 3-6 – Oracles

Visions Chapter 7-9 

Broken down by types of prophecies

Aiming at Judah and Israel, predominantly Israel. Israel in North, Judah in South After Solomon, before fall to Assyreans

Judgements get to number 6 without getting to Jews, 6/8 indictments found in chapter 1 and 2 not about jewish people, people that affect people of God. Don’t get to Jewsih people until 7 and 8

Take a look of the book, zeroing in about understanding the national shame. The world around us and to be condemned, instead of us being condemned they have made us like them we have been pressed into the mold of the world and because we have we will bare the shame.

3 oracles, the oracular visions or pronouncements. 

Thre are 8 indictments, people of God are pressed into the mold of the world rather than affecting world.

3 oracular, chastised, ignored warning, 3rd lamentations with three great woes

Revelation – woe these are specific sermons that have been pasted into the sermon of the book

Three sermons rather than 3 oracles

At the end see 5 visions these include 5 visions 7-9 seeing a series of locusts. Followed by 7:4-6 Fire, third vision after interlude 7:10-17 

Plumbline 7:7-9

Locusts, fire, plumbline, summer fruit, lord before the altar

5 different visions

By the time 8:1 -14 see summer fruit

Embracing of what is happening. Chapter 9 picture of the Lord before the altar 9:1-10

Have those in the notes, walk through quickly what is Amos trying to do. Light brush of the narrative. Doesn’t help discuss what God will do to the edomites, Obadiah good stomping of the edomites.

Amos – one who’s name is burden, sheep herder of Takoa, near Bethlehem, southeast of Bethlehem

Modern city, today it is under construction

Starts off with a simple vision – judgement of all nations that begins in verse 3, verse 2 sets up tenor of argument.

From zion and from Jerusalem he utters his voice and the shepherds pasture grounds mourn and the summit of carmel dries up 

From out of the city of the great temple of God, God is speaking and two things happen one is from the south and one from the north. South and east where the shepherds pasture their grounds mourn, two years before the earthquake lessening of what is necessary for sheep to drink, there is a famine in the southeast, down here, shepherds are groaning because not enough for sheep. Summit of carmel dries up there are two rules of rainfall north and west is wet, south and east is dry

Closer to Mediterranean sea more green, south and east more brown. High in elevation is wet and low in elevation is dry. The north and west. Wet the highest point of the northwest point that is the most natural rainful. South and east is the dry, the dead sea lowest point south and east is dry less than 7 inches of rainfall dry like Arizona desert in the small 50 miles across go from green rain to brown and dry. What is important in verse 2, south and east Judah. 

Shepherd Judah, mount carmel Israel. Tell you where I went will be jewish people. What God’s effect, Zion you have gotten me upset. In verse 2 sets up the narrative, Amos’s burden is not how bad ungodly people in the nations but how bad it is to be for God’s people to emulate them. Quickly pick up judgement of Damascus and Aram. Three transgression of Damascus and for four I will not revoke punishment.

Amos 1

Amos is a shepherd

Learning point: prophets can come from anywhere they don’t have to be teachers of the law.

Israel – Jeroboam son of Jehoash

Judah – Uzziah

Seek God by seeking good.

This is the command the book  of Amos begs be understood.

And that is because God is good.

This is how the Bible opens its very first book with a King who has all power and provision under his foot.  

Yet, he opens streams of blessing like an ever-flowing brook to show all nations below that he is God and he is good.

Pharaoh

But while God used his power for good,  not every king that came after him would.

For Pharaoh, the king of Egypt did not use his power to let provision flow like a brook  

but hoarded the stream from Israel below, becoming an oppressor and a crook.

He sold them into slavery, forced them to labor by whip and by hook,

and even murdered their children in the very waters he wickedly took.

So, God sent Moses to stand against him and to show that

part of God being good means he crushes oppressors under his foot.

Pharaoh died in the waters he refused to provide.

But to those below who were oppressed and abused, the punishment of the oppressors came as good news.

God let justice flow like a stream, and it flowed with the punishment against evil his goodness must bring.

God freed this people. He made them his own.

He brought them to a land to rule like him from a throne, letting streams of blessing  

burst like an ever-flowing brook, blessing all nations as they should.

They would remain in power and bless the world as long as they continued to seek God by seeking good.

And yet, Israel’s kings became like the nation from which they were freed.

They hoarded God’s provision, stopped up the flowing stream, not only oppressing their own  

people into poverty but depriving neighboring nations of the blessing their rule should bring.

Israel did not seek God because they did not seek good.

Israel

So, God sent Amos to Israel to call out their oppression and injustice,  

to shine a light on the evil in their establishments.

Amos would confront the rulers of Israel with the news of their coming punishment.

But surprisingly, Amos doesn’t begin with a chastisement

against Israel and her oppressive government.  

Instead, Amos takes prophetic aim at other nations in the distance.

Amos lists instance after horrific instance of slavery and human trafficking,

of attacking pregnant women with violence and ravaging.

Amos says all of these nations will be punished because

the powerful in them treated those below with oppression and abuse. 

And surely, the punishment of these nations  would have come to Israel as good news.

But Amos was using these nations as proof of how much worse Israel was 

than all the wicked nations they wanted to accuse.

For, they have sold the needy into slavery, forced their own families into poverty,  

they traded people like they were property and valued them less than the most basic commodities.

Israel was built on the backs of robbery, stealing labor by force to build up temples of idolatry.

The people once freed from Pharaoh’s ferocity enslaved those God emancipated to increase their own economy.

They even committed the worst possible atrocity that God calls an abomination and monstrosity.

They sacrificed children to fake gods with no sovereignty  

in hopes of gaining more provision and power through their twisted theology.

And yet, in response to all of Amos’ accusations against their evil and inequality,  

Israel simply answered with religiosity.

Their sacrifices to God had never been more extraordinary.

They had multiplied their gifts, amplified their offerings.

The temple had never seen so much sacrifice. The altar had never received so much slaughtering.

How could God be angry with Israel

when they were bringing their gifts of thanksgiving every evening and morning?

But God was not receiving  their gifts with pleasure.

He was rejecting them with mourning.

God did not care about their religion  though Israel thought he would. 

All he wanted was for them  to seek God by seeking good.

And since they didn’t, since their kings did not use their power and provision

to open streams of blessings like an ever-flowing brook,

since they became like the wicked nations by whom they had been abused, God would punish Israel.

And this punishment would be good news. God would let justice flow like a stream.

It would flow with the punishment against evil his goodness must bring.

God enslaved his own people, disowned his own,

flushed them from their land, took away their rule and their throne.

How could they let streams of blessing burst like an ever-flowing brook

when their power was squandered and their blessing forsook?

And all of this for not seeking God by not seeking good.

Israel was punished like the oppressor from whom she was freed.

Now, how could she rule like God when she was in slavery?

Jesus

[music]

Israel would need a new king, a king who could hold all power and provision  

under his foot and still use that power to open streams of blessings like an ever-flowing brook.

And that king would be Jesus, for Jesus is God and Jesus is good.

Like Amos, Jesus would side with those oppressed and, in poverty, Jesus would comfort those on the losing side of the economy, Jesus would have compassion on those with no power or property.

But also, like Amos, Jesus would call out the oppression and injustice

that had intermingled with Israel’s religiosity.

Their sacrifices were extraordinary, as were their gifts and offerings.

Their temple was full of sacrifices. Their altar full of slaughtering.

But they could bring blood to the temple every evening and every morning,   

and it would never cover up the cries of the oppressed.

So, Jesus himself would respond to the sounds of their mourning.

Jesus sold himself over to death’s slavery, for he is the king who is with those in poverty.

Jesus placed himself under the rulers’ ferocity, for he is the king  

who bears the burdens of our labor and drudgery.

Jesus laid down his life as a sacrifice under their oppression and monstrosity,  

for he is the king who dies underfoot though he has all sovereignty.

Jesus let justice flow like a stream,  

and it flowed against him to tell of the punishment he would bring.

Conclusion

Jesus’ death proves his solidarity with those the world has refused.

But it’s also a sign of the punishment that comes to all who oppress and abuse.

That is how Jesus is the good God who brings this good news,  

for Jesus will let justice flow like a stream.

And it will flow with the punishment against evil his goodness must bring.

And that’s why the book of Amos ends with a picture of a land where there’s not one  

oppressor you can find but provision for the poor from a mountain that drips with sweet wine,  

a place where justice flows so freely that the streams of God’s blessings can’t be confined.

Jesus will free his people. He will make us his own. He will bring us into this kingdom where  we will rule like him from our thrones,  where the only streams left burst  blessings in their ever-flowing brooks.

And this kingdom has come.

All power is under Jesus’ foot.

And he calls us to bless all nations by seeking their good and telling them of the punishment  

against oppressors Jesus will bring and the punishment for the oppressed he already took.

So, live in this kingdom now.

Seek God by seeking good.

Hey everyone, I’m David with Spoken Gospel.

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