©2002 Pastor Thomas Miles

Amos 1--2

Visualize this scene: It is the middle of the 8th century B.C.  People are gathering at Bethel to worship.  This is a beautiful temple and the speakers are well versed.  You can enter this temple bringing your sacrifices to reconcile your sins.  This is not your average temple though; this is a temple for the upper crust of society.  You will not find any of the low-life hanging around this place of worship.  And surely you would never hear any one speaking in this temple that wasn't one of the elite, but to your surprise one morning stands a lowly shepherd!  His clothing tells you he is a shepherd.  His voice tells you he is a shepherd but something is different about the words he speaks.  They do not sound like the thoughts of a shepherd.  And to this shepherd came perhaps many similar thoughts such as  why am I here?  Why did God call me to deliver His message?

To Amos I'm sure he felt that nothing like this would ever happen to him.  After all he is a shepherd not a priest or upper class citizen.  Think about how Amos must have felt!  Have you ever had something happen that you thought would never happen?  How did it make you feel?  Something was happening to Amos that had never happened before and Amos was obedient to that voice of instruction!  Amos means “a burden” and this shepherd from Judah a man of lowly birth, neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but instead a herdsman and a tender of sycamore trees was about to deliver the Word of God to Israel.

Read Amos chapter one and two before continuing please!

Beginning in the first verse of chapter 1 Amos tells us that he is simply a shepherd and not a head shepherd or anything like that.  He is just one of many shepherds in that area.  Amos comes with a message to the people.  This is a message that would not be easy even for an important person to deliver let alone a lowly shepherd.  Amos begins in verse 2 saying that God will come against Israel.  This is something Israel would not be expecting.  God generally ‘roars’ in favor of Israel not against! Something devastating was about to take place and the Israelites were not going to like it.

In the next verses beginning with verse 3 and going through to chapter 2 and verse 3 we find Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab are all represented as enemies of Israel. It seems though that Israel has done all the things that these nations have done.  It seems that Israel may be facing punishment for their wrongs.  Israel was God's chosen people how could this be?  God is such a loving God so full of patience that He continued to give warning after warning to the Israelites to stop sinning.  God was showing them the similar nature of their sins with the sins of the pagan nations in chapter 1 and the first couple verses of chapter 2.

Beginning with verse 4 of chapter 2 we see that the idolatry of the people had blinded them from the true nature of their sin.  It seems from generation to generation idolatry ran rampant and was directly against God.  Amos lists a number of things in verses 6-8 and 12 in which Israel was guilty of having done. The people were stealing, raping, killing and defiling the name of God. After all God had done for them they acted as if He didn't even exist.

Think about the things we do in our every day life--do we sin against our neighbor?  Do we sin against our self?  If we do either we have sinned against God.  As believers we need to stop sinning and turn to God.  The warnings that God gave to Amos for Israel apply to us today as well.  There is no place of escape from God's judgment.  We can have forgiveness through Jesus Christ or we can turn our backs and suffer eternal damnation.  When people throw away God's Word and become blind to sin they break the heart of God.  They become boastful and feel as if they are all powerful and nothing can harm them.  Israel so quickly forgot the One that brought them out of bondage.  How many of us today forget the One that brought us out of bondage.  Let us remember to humble ourselves before the Father daily.

Our next lesson will be on Amos 3 and 4.

http://www.livingvine.org
Where Jesus is Lord!

For instructions on being Born Again click on banner at top of page.
Thank you for reading.