Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we come to the book of Amos.
Author
Amos was from Tekoa (1:1) a small town about 6 miles south of Bethlehem and 12 miles from Jerusalem. He was not a man of the court like Isaiah, nor was he a priest like Jeremiah. Amos cared for sheep and a sycamore-fig grove (1:1; 7:14-15). We do not know if he owned the flock or the grove or whether he simply worked as a hired hand. His skill with words and the range of his knowledge of history and the world suggest that he was a literate, educated man, despite being a person of the land. Though Amos made his home in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, he acted as a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
The book of Amos consists of a collection of the words of and traditions concerning the prophet. The material is, at times, organized carefully, but at other points the logic is difficult to discern. Most of the book consists of speeches attributed to the prophet. Although it is possible that Amos dictated these speeches to a secretary who wrote them down, or even that Amos wrote these speeches himself, it seems more likely that these speeches were collected and recorded by others. In addition to the speeches, there are reports about the prophet’s activities (1:1; 7:10-17) and three fragments of hymns (4:13; 5:8-9; 9:5-6). The prophecy against Judah (2:4-5), the hymnic passages, and the concluding prophecies of hope (9:8-15), seem to reflect a later time.
Date
According to Amos 1:1, the prophet ministered during the reigns of Uzziah over Judah (792-740 BCE) and Jeroboam II over Israel (793-753). The main part of his ministry was probably conducted between 760 and 750 BCE. Both kingdoms were enjoying great prosperity and had reached new political and military heights. But it was also a time of idolatry, extravagant indulgence in luxurious living, immorality, corruption of judicial procedures and oppression of the poor.
Amos was the first of the four great 8th century prophets, the other three being Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. Amos was also, most likely, the first of the literary prophets whose prophecies were written down for posterity in a book, unlike Elijah and Elisha before him. J. B. Phillips puts these 8th century prophets in their historical context when he writes: “I am amazed that these bold men were declaring such vital truth in the days of Homer, long before the hey-day of Athens, and when Rome, the so-called ‘eternal city’, was little more than a village.”
Opinion is divided about when the book of Amos was written. Some scholars believe it was written in the 8th century. Others believe the book is the result of lengthy editorial work that spanned centuries. Still others believe that the book must have been written in the post-monarchic period since it implies the fall of the monarchy (9:11-15).
Themes
What themes do we find in this book and how does Amos compare to the other prophets? First, Amos was a vigorous spokesperson for God’s justice and righteousness, whereas Hosea emphasized God’s love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Second, Amos addresses social and political ills, whereas Hosea speaks to the religious ills of his time.
A third interesting thing to note is that Amos speaks in such general terms about the social and political ills of his time that his words have found broad applicability through the ages. At the time of the founding of the modern state of Israel, David Ben Gurion considered Amos a source of inspiration. More recently, advocates of liberation theology in Latin America have seen the book of Amos as a source of support for their theological and social positions. And most famously, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used Amos 5:24 in his I Have a Dream speech. Indeed, Amos addresses not only Israel and Judah but many people groups. As J. B. Phillips has noted, “To the prophet’s eyes God’s chosen people do not have a monopoly, so to speak, of the one true God. It is true that God has established a special relationship with them, but on this account he will judge them the more strictly.”
The message of Amos is direct and uncompromising. He announces to the people of Israel that, because of their social injustice and religious arrogance the Lord will punish them by means of a total military disaster. This prophecy was fulfilled forty years after Amos spoke it when the Assyrian army of Sargon destroyed the kingdom of Israel in 722-721 BCE.
Though Amos’s message is largely one of condemnation, the prophet does offer a glimmer of hope toward the end of his text where he predicts the future restoration and glory of Israel within a friendly, renewed physical world.
Structure
- Superscription (1:1)
- Introduction to Amos’s Message (1:2)
- Judgments on the Nations (1:3-2:16)
- Oracles against Israel (3:1-5:17)
- Announcements of Exile (5:18-6:14)
- Visions of Divine Retribution (7:1-9:10)
- Restored Israel’s Blessed Future (9:11-15)
Key Concept—Let Justice Roll Down
In many ways, Amos 5:18-27 summarizes the message of the prophet. Therefore, I would like to read and focus on these verses for the rest of our time together. Listen for God’s word to you…
Woe to you who long
for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
That day will be darkness, not light.
It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
“I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
“Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
You have lifted up the shrine of your king,
the pedestal of your idols,
the star of your god—
which you made for yourselves.
Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,”
says the Lord, whose name is God Almighty.
The Day of the Lord
This section of the book of Amos divides nicely into three parts. First, Amos speaks about “The Day of the Lord”, a subject we touched on in the book of Joel. The Jewish people conceived of life dividing into two ages: this present age of human history as we know it, and then the age to come. The two ages would be divided by the day of the Lord which would include final judgment. Apparently, Amos’s audience in the northern kingdom of Israel conceived of the day of the Lord as a day of judgment for all the other nations and a day of vindication for themselves. Amos issues a warning to Israel as if to say, “Not so fast! Why are you thinking that you will escape judgment?” Amos warns Israel that the day of the Lord will be a day of darkness for them, not light.
You might wonder how anyone could desire the day of judgment. Think about it this way… How do you feel when someone cuts you off in traffic and zooms along ahead of you at the speed of light? Haven’t we all wished for a police officer to show up at just such a moment and ticket such an offender? At the same time, how do we feel when we are driving down the road and suddenly hear a siren, then see the flashing lights of a police car right behind us? Of course, we pull over, thinking, “He must be trying to get by me.” Then to our astonishment, we realize we are the one the officer is trying to pull over. How do we feel then about the police officer showing up on the scene?
Our feelings about the final judgment really depend upon whether we view ourselves as the defendant or the plaintiff in the divine court room. Israel viewed herself as the plaintiff. They believed God would render judgment against all their enemies in that final and great day of the Lord. It never occurred to Israel that she might find herself in the position of defendant, on trial for her own crimes. Amos sought to startle Israel, to awaken her to the reality of her position.
I Despise Your Religious Festivals
So, what exactly is the problem with Israel? The Lord, speaking through Amos, says: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals.” Imagine God showing up in our church and telling us he despises our worship. If nothing else, such a statement would get our attention.
The Lord goes on to tell Israel that their assemblies are a stench to him. The ancient Israelites tended to think of the incense they used in worship as ascending to God with their prayers and presenting a sweet-smelling savor in the nostrils of the Almighty. By contrast God says, “You stink!”
The Lord goes on to tell the Israelites that he will not accept their offerings. He mentions three types of offerings in particular: burnt offerings, grain offerings, and fellowship offerings. God will not accept or even regard any of them.
The more the prophet speaks in God’s behalf, the gloomier the message gets. Some people, when they hear bad news, try to put a good face on it, a good spin. Maybe the Israelites were tempted to think, “OK, God doesn’t like our offerings, but maybe he likes some other parts of our services.”
No such luck. Nothing doing. God says, “Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.” God doesn’t like the musical part of their services either.
Isn’t that striking? In our time, we tend to think about what we like in our worship services. Some people are drawn to the music. Others to the message, others to fellowship. But do we ever think about what God wants? After all, we are supposed to be gathering Sunday by Sunday to worship the Lord. What he thinks of our worship is infinitely more important than what we think of it.
Well, in Israel’s case, the Lord rejects all of it. He isn’t happy with any of their services. Why? We get the answer in verse 24…
Let Justice Roll Down
Here we have the verse that I suspect we cannot hear apart from the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
It is important to see this verse in its original context. The reason God is not pleased with Israel’s worship is because they have neglected justice. In other words, it is no use going to a worship service on Sunday and saying with our lips, “I love God,” when we spend the rest of the week failing to demonstrate with our lives the love we ought to have for other human beings.
A literal rendering of Amos 5:24 runs like this: “But let run down like water justice, and righteousness like a stream enduring.” Parallelism is one of the most common characteristics of Hebrew poetry. We have seen how the prophets often used poetic speech. So, I have no doubt that what we have in Amos 5:24 is another example of parallelism where the second phrase mirrors the first. And yet, I also wonder whether Amos might have had in his mind a very distinct picture. I wonder whether the prophet might have been thinking of a waterfall and a stream flowing on from a waterfall.
You see, the words translated as “justice” and “righteousness” are not identical in Hebrew, nor is their meaning identical. The Hebrew word for just is mishpat and literally means judgment. God is the only perfect judge of every person and situation. Proper judgment flows down from God like the water in a waterfall. The Hebrew word for righteousness is tsedaqah and it means justice or right living. Justice or right living flows out of God’s judgment, his perfect righteousness and justice, just as a river flows forth from the bottom of a waterfall. Our problem, as human beings is that we are not just or righteous in and of ourselves. All injustice in the world flows forth from our unrighteous hearts.
In his book, Simply Christian, N. T. Wright begins his chapter entitled “Putting the World to Rights” with the following personal story:
I had a dream the other night, a powerful and interesting dream. And the really frustrating thing is that I can’t remember what it was about. I had a flash of it as I woke up, enough to make me think how extraordinary and meaningful it was; and then it was gone… Our passion for justice often seems like that. We dream the dream of justice. We glimpse, for a moment, a world at one, a world put to rights, a world where things work out, where societies function fairly and efficiently… and then we wake up and come back to reality.
According to Wright, our longing for justice “comes with the kit of being human.” Unfortunately, although we may strive for justice, we often fail to achieve it.[1]
Why is that? Why do we fail so miserably at being just? Paul spells out the answer in his letter to the Church at Rome… Paul says in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The reason we are so bad at doing justice is the sin nature we all have. And then in Romans 6:23 Paul spells out the consequences. He says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus, the only eternally righteous one, paid our debt, he died our death on the cross, the death that was due to us for our unrighteousness. And then Jesus rose again from the dead to give us new life. And if we ask the Holy Spirit of Jesus to come into our lives then he plants his righteousness in our hearts. And once his righteousness is planted in our hearts, then there can flow forth from our hearts righteous acts, a life of justice.
It amazes me how often it is forgotten, in all that is said about Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., that King was a minister of the Gospel. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Christian, from a Christian home and a Christian church, a man trained in the truths of the Bible, a man, yes imperfect, but infused with the Spirit of Christ. That’s what motivated Martin Luther King’s work for racial and social justice. Without that inner presence of Christ in his like, I doubt that King’s work for justice ever would have come to be, or if it did come to be, that it would have been as successful, as motivating, as it has been. Even in King’s speeches given in the public square, listen to how much Bible there was. Take a few moments to listen to his seventeen-minute I Have a Dream speech and notice how often the Bible is quoted or alluded to. As Desmond Tutu once said,
There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible. If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible.
I would suggest to you that if we are ever going to see racial justice in this world of ours, or justice of any kind, the only way it will happen will be through the positive influence of the only truly just person who ever lived, Jesus Christ. What I am suggesting to you is that we need both inflow and outflow in our lives. We need the inflow of the righteousness of Jesus in us if there is going to be the outflow of justice in the world. It’s like the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Glailee has water flowing into it from the waterfalls in the mountains of northern Israel, and the Sea of Galilee has water flowing out of it into the Jordan River. Because of this, the Sea of Galilee is filled with life and abundant fish. The Dead Sea on the other hand only has water flowing into it from the Jordan and none flowing out. That’s why it is dead. The Dead Sea is so filled with minerals that one can literally float on top of the water. But if you have a cut anywhere on your body, as I did when I went into the Dead Sea, that cut will sting because of all the minerals. The choice is ours. We can be like the Dead Sea, only taking in nutrients all the time and giving out a sting. Or we can be like the Sea of Galilee, taking in the ever-flowing stream of Jesus’ righteousness and giving out the goodness of his justice.
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