What kind of worship does amos criticize

The problem was a disjunction between their worship and their treatment of the less fortunate. If there is no social justice, there is no acceptable worship to God. God will not tolerate comfortable worship and social and political isolation. God will not tolerate a full church and a vacuum of justice. There is no form of worship, however devout or rightly observed or full of praise and prayer, that is invulnerable to the judgment of God.

Worship will be evaluated at least as much by what happens outside the sanctuary as by what happens within. If worship fosters a disunity of faith and responsibilities toward the neighbor or considers that relationship immaterial, it deserves the prophetic critique. The objects of the prophetic indictments are not simply isolated individuals, but the religious communities and institutions of their day.

Neither the prophets nor the Bible generally prescribe a specific social plan or economic system. But whatever strategy we do pursue, we will be judged by this basic criterion: how well are the less fortunate members of your society being cared for?

Think about it: how well are they being cared for? And what about the children? November 9, Nov 9, Amos was a shepherd and a grower of sycamore figs. Amos himself explains he is not a prophet by vocation and is proud of his lack of credentials. He instead was allowing and encouraging economic exploitation and legal injustice and was also perpetuating the sin of King Jeroboam I — BCE.

In BCE he erected golden calves at sanctuaries in Bethel and Dan which, it will be argued, at first represented Yahweh but then quickly developed into idolatry, syncretism, and a false view of Yahweh. Amos —5 is a sarcastic rendition of a traditional priestly call to worship.

If Amos was publicly prophesying at the sanctuaries of either Bethel or Gilgal during a pilgrimage festival, the Israelites may likely have cheered as they heard judgment being declared on their enemies. Shockingly, in Amos , he then focuses his attention on Israel herself.

Her condemnation is the strongest and longest of those preceding it. He names specific rebellions primarily in the realm of economic exploitation and legal injustice as Israel was enslaving people, abusing widows and orphans, gaining their wealth at the expense of the poor, and living an easy life while others suffered. Amos makes the case that Israel, who has an exclusive relationship with Yahweh, is not on the same immoral level as her pagan neighbors, rather she is worse than them and Yahweh will bring judgement against her too.

It is verses 4—5 that focus on ecclesiastical concerns related to the people of Israel at their cultic sanctuaries. Its use again in the indictment against Israel signals that Yahweh regards her as being no better than the pagan nations around her.

Worship in and of itself can replace neither morality nor ethical behavior. There are also several options proposed by scholars of what the nature of this rebellion cannot be. Some scholars argue the rituals in and of themselves cannot be the problem since the people were in fact bringing the correct prescribed sacrifices, offerings, and tithes. They could commend or condemn as occasion required. When Jeroboam I became king of Israel, he had a political problem: how could the Northern Kingdom remain faithful in their covenant with Yahweh when his presence and temple was technically in the Southern Kingdom in Jerusalem?

Jeroboam I risked losing control of his own subjects and kingdom if he allowed them to travel to Jerusalem for worship. Jeroboam decided to make a strategic political and religious move, he established two shrines in the already sacred sites of Bethel and Dan at the opposite ends of his kingdom.

Jeroboam I had effectively made a new alternative religion and dubbed it the official state religion of the Northern Kingdom. He even declares that in the future Israel will go into exile because of this new religion and for taking part in fertility cults. Every king of Israel continues the sin of Jeroboam. His religion affects others adversely. His sin becomes their sin, and his cult leads to an easy acceptance of Baalism. This move meant that full-blown fertility rites had come into Israel.

There is no record of Elijah or Elisha explicitly attacking or condemning the cult established by Jeroboam I, rather they are described as fighting against Baalism only. King Jehu of Israel later purged out Baalism, but rather than leading the people into a separatist Yahwism he still committed the sin of Jeroboam which 2 Kgs clarifies as the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.

The defeat of Damascus and Aram by Assyria in BCE did usher in a golden age of economic and military success for Israel, but the nation was the most religiously corrupt it had ever been. Scholars question why Amos, who prophesied at Bethel, never mentioned the golden calf likely hovering right above him. Simply because Amos is silent on the calf-worship and cult of Jeroboam I does not mean he approved of it.

His failure to explicitly mention the calves could have been because they were simply one feature of a completely corrupt system, this is likely the same reason he did not mention the non-Levitical priests or the specific rituals of their sacrifices.

Hosea mentions the calves only three times, they are not a main point in his prophecies; rather, like Amos his main thought is that Israel is not worshipping Yahweh. One might search the writings of the Protestant Reformers without finding any special polemic against the worship of the Virgin as the Mother of Sorrows with seven swords in her heart; but that would not show that they approved of this cult, but simply that they rejected Mariolatry in its entirety, and that, therefore, they did not trouble themselves to antagonize one particular phase of this debased form of Christianity.

Amos reveals a people who, though they may have nominally called themselves Yahwists, did not truly know the character of Yahweh. These apparent blessings motivated the people to keep up their religious rites in abundance to manipulate their deity to keep the blessings coming.

God does, however, some things without giving a special revelation to His people that He will do them. The message of judgment coming from the Lord that Amos now brought the Israelites was like the roaring of "a lion. Indeed, how could the mouthpiece of the Lion not prophesy, since Yahweh had spoken?

Here those witnesses were Ashdod and Egypt. Amos may have chosen these nations because they had previously oppressed the Israelites.

People who lived in "citadels" were for the most part the wealthy, and the leaders of their local cities, towns, or districts. A "citadel" Heb. These structures became part of a city's defense system because they were high and easier to defend than ordinary houses. Usually important people lived in these larger buildings, and they were often attachments of the palaces of kings cf.

Here, because of the military terminology in the passage, their function as fortresses is particularly in view. These witnesses should come and stand on the mountains surrounding Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. There they would see great tumults, not the peace and order that should have prevailed, and oppressions within Samaria.

The Israelites were assaulting and robbing one another; the rich were taking advantage of the poor. The Israelites were different from their aggressors because they plundered and looted their own fortresses rather than those of a foreign enemy.

It was as though the Israelites hoarded up "violence and devastation" while others, and they themselves, hoarded material wealth. Now the wealthy foreigners, infamous for similar sins, would see that the Israelites behaved even worse in their own citadels.

Amos' announcement of Israel's coming judgment came in three waves vv. That enemy proved to be Assyria, which besieged and destroyed Samaria and overran all Israel in B. The situation would be similar to when a shepherd snatched a remaining fragment of a sheep, a couple of leg bones or a small piece of an ear, from the mouth of an attacking wild animal. It would be like when someone stole everything in a house and the owner could only hold onto a piece of his bed or a bedspread.

Similarly, an overpowering enemy would steal away the people of Samaria, and only a few would escape. Evidently about 27, Israelites from Samaria suffered captivity.

The figure of a shepherd represented Yahweh in Israel's literature e. The people would have seen Him as the One who would rescue the remnant, as well as the One who would allow the enemy to overpower them. It also recalls God's gracious promises to Jacob. It emphasizes in a special way the omnipotence of God for the purpose of magnifying the effect of the predicted judgment. This altar, and the one at Dan, had taken the place of the one in Jerusalem for most of the Israelites. The one in Bethel was the most popular religious center in Israel.

There the Israelites practiced apostate worship. The horns of an altar were also places of asylum in the ancient Near East 1 Kings , so their cutting off pictures no asylum for the Israelites when God's judgment came.

The fact that many Israelite families could afford two houses, and yet were oppressing their poorer brethren, proved that they lived in selfish luxury. They had embellished their great houses with expensive ivory decorations cf. The two great sins of the Israelites, false religion v. Even some ancient kings did not possess two houses. The eternal loss for a Christian will not be loss of salvation, but loss of reward, at the judgment seat of Christ cf.

The message in chapter 4 consists of seven prophetic announcements, each of which concludes: "declares the L ORD " vv. Verse 12 is a final conclusion, and verse 13 is a doxology. These women, along with their men, were oppressing threatening the poor and crushing harassing the needy.

These women were even ordering their own husbands to wait on them and bring them drinks! The Hebrew word 'adonim , translated "husbands," means "lords" or "masters. The picture is of spoiled, lazy women ordering their husbands to provide them with luxuries, which the men had to oppress the poor in order to obtain cf.

When women are well dressed and bejeweled, it denotes a time of affluence in the nation. So Amos could be referring to the women of Bashan. He [Amos] addresses these kine in both sexes, both male and female "Hear ye , your Lord, upon you , they shall take you ," are masculine; " that oppress, that crush, that say, your posterity, ye shall go out, each before her , and ye shall be cast forth," feminine.

The reproachful name was then probably intended to shame both; men, who laid aside their manliness in the delicacy of luxury; or ladies, who put off the tenderness of womanhood by oppression. The word 'luxury' comes from a Latin word that means 'excessive. Whenever you are offered 'deluxe service,' that's the same Latin word: service above and beyond what you really need. An oath was a means of committing oneself irrevocably to a certain course of action Gen.

He made this solemn declaration in harmony with His holiness. As surely as God is separate from humankind and cannot tolerate sin, these women would surely suffer His judgment one day. An enemy would cart them off, as butchers carry beef with large meat hooks, and as fishermen carry fish with hooks. This description may imply that the enemy would tie them in lines with ropes and lead them away, since this is how fishermen strung their fish on lines.

Carved reliefs that archaeologists have found show Assyrians leading people by a rope attached to a ring in the jaw or lip of their captives. Alternatively, it may mean that their dead bodies would be disposed of as so much meat. The women would be carried off without any complications; each one would go straight ahead to captivity or to burial through any one of the many passageways made through the broken walls.

Help and hope have vanished, and they hurry pell-mell after one another, reckless and desperate, as the animals whose life of sense they had chosen. The enemy would take them to Harmon, perhaps an alternative spelling of Mt.

Some scholars believe the meaning of "Harmon" is uncertain, though it appears to be the name of some site.

Hermon was to the north of Bashan, so these cows of Bashan would end up near Bashan. This is, in fact, the direction the Assyrians took the Israelite captives as they deported them to Assyria. Such a call parodied the summons of Israel's priests to come to the sanctuary to worship cf.

Bethel was the most popular religious site in the Northern Kingdom, but the Lord looked at what the people did there as transgressing His law, rather than worshipping Him.

Other references to "Gilgal" indicate that it was a place that pilgrims visited, and where they sacrificed in Amos' day cf. At Gilgal from Heb. God—hyperbolically and ironically—urged the people to bring their sacrifices every morning, and their tithes every three days rather than every three years as the Law required, cf.

Even if they sacrificed every morning and tithed every three days, they would only be rebelling against God. The people were careful to worship regularly, but it was a ritual contrary to God's will. Since it's all just playacting. The Devil goes to church, you know. I think that he gets up bright and early on a Sunday morning, and wherever there is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, he is there trying to wreck their work in any way he can. That is the reason we ought to pray for Bible-preaching and Bible-teaching pastors.

The Devil doesn't need to be busy in cults or in liberal churches which deny the Word of God. Those places are already in his domain. He must concentrate his efforts in those places where there is spiritual life and the Word of God is being given out. The Israelites made freewill offerings spontaneously out of gratitude to God Lev.

God permitted the people to present "leavened" bread in these offerings. The people loved to practice these acts of worship, but they did not love to obey sovereign Yahweh, or care for their poor, oppressed neighbors.

The Lord wanted their loving obedience, not their acts of worship. Loving religious activity is not the same as loving God. There are seven imperatives in verses 4 and 5 in the Hebrew text. One of Amos' favorite literary devices was the grouping of seven things.

They had made an idol of the sacrificial system. Famine was one of the curses that God said He might bring if His people proved unfaithful to His covenant Lev. A little earlier or a little later would not be so fatal, but drouth [ sic ] three months before harvest is entirely destructive. God had let rain fall on one town but not another, resulting in only spotty productivity cf. This too should have moved them to repent. Drought was also a punishment for covenant unfaithfulness Lev. These were also threatened judgments in the Mosaic Covenant Lev.

The plagues on the Israelites should have made them conclude that God was now judging them. God had plagued His people as He formerly had plagued the Egyptians.

The "stench" of dead bodies should have led the people to repent, but it did not cf. Comparing these overthrown cities to "Sodom and Gomorrah" indicates their proverbial complete destruction cf. God had rescued His people like burning sticks from a conflagration, as He had formerly extracted Lot and his daughters from Sodom Gen.

The Assyrian kings customarily sowed the ground of a conquered area with salt so nothing would grow there. In all, Amos mentioned seven disciplinary judgments that God had brought on the Israelites: famine v. God sometimes permits His people to suffer so they will turn back to Him cf. Not the least solemn thing noticed was the persistent efforts of the preachers of all denominations to quiet the fears of the populace by assuring them that God had no part in the calamitous events that had taken place.

Natural causes explained everything! This the Christless were only too ready to believe; and thus were their partially awakened consciences lulled to rest and their ears closed against the voice of Him who through Amos said, ' I have overthrown some of you! He would confront them with even greater punishments cf.

They should prepare to meet Him, not in a face-to-face sense, but as they would encounter a powerful enemy in battle cf. Some interpreters believe that the prophet's call was primarily a summons to judgment for covenant unfaithfulness, not a call to repentance or an invitation to covenant renewal.

They could not escape His judgment, so they better prepare for it cf. Every believer can take comfort in the fact that, while sometimes it seems that God does not interfere in human affairs, the world is never out of his control.

His sovereignty extends to every aspect of human experience. The description of God here and in and is a divine royal titulary. This is a genre that was common in the ancient Near East, and it appears occasionally in the writing prophets. This is one of three doxologies that critics have claimed are not original and integral portions of the book, the others being and The structure of this message is chiastic, which focuses attention and emphasis on the middle part.

Another structural feature stresses the solidarity between Yahweh and His prophet, namely: the alternation between of the words of Amos vv. This section is a "proleptic funerary lament" in which God announced, through Amos, the end of the Northern Kingdom. However here, Amos announced that what follows is "a dirge" Heb. A dirge was a lament that was sung at the funeral of a friend, relative, or prominent person e. The prophets used the dirge genre to prophesy the death of a city, people, or nation cf.

She would never rise to her former position again. No one came to her aid, even Yahweh cf. She lay forsaken in her land. No nation could survive such devastating defeat in war. Even though national judgment and death were inevitable, individuals could still live. Announcements of impending judgment almost always allow for the possibility of individual repentance cf.

More commonly, he prefers a more subtle approach by which he draws the listener into the message, as in the two woe oracles ; All these worship centers stood at sites that were important in Israel's earlier history, but God had commanded His people to worship Him at Jerusalem. There is a play on words regarding Bethel. I've met people at some of these conferences who actually thought that their physical presence by that lake, in that tent or tabernacle, or on that mountain would change their hearts.

They were depending on the 'atmosphere' of the conference and their memories of them, but they usually went home disappointed. Because they didn't seek God. The alternative would be God's judgment breaking forth and unquenchably consuming the whole house of Joseph i. The reason for Yahweh's consuming judgment of Israel was that the Israelites were turning sweet justice into something bitter, and were throwing righteousness to the ground with disrespect.

These figures picture their total contempt for what was right cf. Right conduct was the proper action, and justice was the result, but the Israelites had despised both in their courts.

Instead of the judicial system functioning like medicine, healing wrongs and soothing the oppressed, the Israelites had turned it into poison. Since Yahweh made the "Pleiades and Orion," two of the constellations of stars, here representing billions of galaxies, He could just as easily bring His will to pass on earth, too.

The rising of the Pleiades before daybreak heralded the arrival of spring, and the rising of Orion after sunset signaled the onset of winter. Since God also calls the "waters of the sea" to form clouds, and then in blessing empties them on the land "surface of the earth" , He can just as easily pour out judgment on the land as well. Israel's pagan neighbors attributed all these activities to their idols, and many of the Israelites worshipped them, but "Yahweh" was the only God who could do these things.

The One who would flash forth like lightning from heaven, striking the strong oppressors with destruction and bringing an end to their fortresses on earth, was "Yahweh.

This pericope is also chiastic. Intimidation and abusive treatment flank an announcement of covenant violation. The Israelites hated judges who reproved evildoers in the city gate, where the court convened, as well as witnesses who spoke the truth. When influential people in a society despise the truth, there is little hope that it will remain stable and secure. The oppressors used this illegally obtained income to build themselves luxurious homes.

The Lord promised that He would make it impossible for these evil people to live in their fancy houses and enjoy the fruits of their vineyards.

They had distressed the righteous by their unrighteous conduct, accepted bribes from the wealthy, and made it impossible for the poor to get fair treatment in the courts. God was looking for justice in their relationships to one another and for righteousness in their relationship to Him. This dual emphasis on justice and righteousness runs throughout the Book of Amos.

If a person spoke out against them, he could count on feeling the wrath of the powerful. A different interpretation, which I prefer, follows:. After all, he himself is speaking out very forcefully. He gives a description of the evil times, not a prescription for right behavior.

If a person wants to look out for his own interests, he keeps silent. Then the sovereign, Almighty Yahweh would truly be with them, as they professed He was even as they practiced their injustice cf. He would become their Defender rather than their Prosecutor cf. Perhaps then, sovereign, Almighty Yahweh would be gracious to the faithful remnant in the Northern Kingdom and deliver them. This message concludes by returning to a further description of conditions when Yahweh would judge Israel cf.

The sovereign Yahweh of armies, Israel's master, announced "wailing" in all the open "plazas" of the Israelite towns, and in all their "streets. Everyone would bewail the conditions of divine judgment, not just the "professional mourners," but even the poor "farmer[s]," who would have to bury their oppressors. The "vineyards," often places of joy and merriment, would be full of mourning, as would the streets.

Yahweh promised to pass through the midst of His people, not to bless them, but to blast them with punishment. Earlier, God had passed through Egypt with similar devastating results cf. This lament also has a chiastic structure. It centers on a call for individual repentance. A A description of inevitable judgment vv.

These verses, too, are chiastic. This word announced coming doom, and another funeral lament cf. Former prophets had spoken of a day in which Yahweh would conquer His enemies and the enemies of His people, and establish His sovereign rule over the world e.

The Israelites knew that this was going to be a time of great divine blessing, but Amos informed them that it would first be a time of divine chastisement. It would be a time of "darkness" rather than "light" cf. God would judge His people before He blessed them. It may be beautiful, it may appeal to your eyes and your ears, but does it change your life? Is it transforming? Is it something you can live by in the marketplace? The Israelites may have thought they had escaped one enemy, but they would have to face another.

They might think they were secure and safe in their homeland, but deadly judgment would overtake them in that comfortable environment. There would be no safe haven from God's coming judgment, even though they frequented the temple. They would not be safe outdoors or indoors. Joel , ; Zeph. A brighter day of the Lord was also coming cf.

The Israelites wanted to hasten the good day of the Lord, but they wanted to forget about the bad one. This prophecy found fulfillment when the Assyrians overran Israel and took most of the people into exile in B. The later Tribulation period for Israel, which will precede her millennial day of blessing, will be similar to what Amos predicted here, but I think it was not what God was foretelling here.

God had commanded the Israelites to observe several feasts and one fast each year, and these are probably the festivals in view. The fast was the Day of Atonement.

The first four feasts took place in the spring, and the last two and the Day of Atonement were fall festivals. It is not certain, however, how faithfully the apostate residents of the Northern Kingdom observed these special days.

Yahweh hated the Israelites' worship assemblies, however, because the people were not worshipping Him from their hearts cf. They were only going through the motions of worship. The repetition of "I hate," "I reject," and "Nor do I delight," stresses how much He detested this type of worship.

Notice also, "I will not accept," "I will not look," and "I will not listen," in verses 22 and The neglected widow and the poor child in dirty rags were theological statements condemning the attitudes of the oppressors.

Amos viewed the sacrifices as objects of God's hatred because they furthered the spiritual ignorance of the people by giving them a false sense of security.

All three of these offerings were sweet-smelling to the Lord, and were primarily offerings of worship, rather than offerings to secure atonement for sins committed. These three offerings also represent all the worship offerings in another sense. The burnt offering was totally consumed on the altar.

The grain offering was partly burned up and partly eaten by the offerer. And the offerer, the priest, and God all shared the peace offering.

God said that, because the worshipers did not offer with genuine worship, He would not "accept" lit. In verses 21 and 22 of the Hebrew text, the plural pronouns "you" and "your" indicate that God was addressing the whole nation. God told His people to take away the songs that they sang when they worshipped Him because they were only so much noise in His ears.

He would not even listen to the musical accompaniment. He would shut His ears as well as His nostrils v. Christian music is big business today, but we wonder how much of it really glorifies the Lord. What we think is music may be nothing but noise to the Lord. Instead of a constant stream of blood flowing from sacrifices, and an endless torrent of verbal and ritual praise from His people, He wanted these ethical qualities to flow without ceasing from them.

The Israelites were inundating Him with rivers of religiosity, but He wanted rivers of righteousness. A token practice of justice and righteousness will not do. For example, no one can say, 'I keep my marriage covenant; I commit adultery only every few days and the rest of the time am completely faithful to my spouse. I misuse and abuse others only some of the time and otherwise faithfully worship Yahweh.

Yahweh's covenant denied his people any such option cf. This is the key verse in the book, since it expresses so clearly what God wanted from His people. It is a clear statement of the importance of moral and ethical righteousness over mere ritual worship.

Amos' concerns boil down to justice toward man and righteousness toward God. God is not pleased by acts of pomp and grandeur but by wholehearted devotion and complete loyalty. With another rhetorical question cf. Animal sacrifices and grain offerings represent the totality of Israel's Levitical offerings. As He clarified in the next verse, they had not. Their hypocritical worship was not something new; it had marked them from the beginning of their nation e.

Can we imagine that the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever will wink at this misdirected love? Acts Amos evidently was ridiculing these gods by substituting the vowels of the Hebrew word for "abomination" shiqqus in their names. However, Keil gave evidence that the star-deity was Egyptian.

Stephen's quotation of this verse in Acts was from the Septuagint, which interpreted these names as references to pagan idols. The worshippers may have carried pedestals for their images of various idols, including astral deities.

Many scholars believe that the Israelites conceived of "the golden calf" as a representation of that on which Yahweh rode, a visible support for their invisible God. Another view is that the golden calf represented Yahweh Himself. The bull in Egyptian iconography was a symbol of strength and power. Jeroboam I had erected bulls at Dan and Bethel in Israel, and had revived this idolatrous form of worship.

Amos pointed out that Israel had always mixed idolatry with the worship of Yahweh, so Israel's worship of Him had been hypocritical throughout her history. Certainly, at times, the Israelites worshipped God exclusively and wholeheartedly, but throughout their history there had been these instances of syncretistic hypocrisy.

Do we still carry our idols around with us? Because of this hypocritical worship, Yahweh, the God of armies, promised that the Israelites would go into exile beyond Damascus.

They did go into exile in Assyria, to the northeast of Damascus, after B. In this lament, Amos announced again that Israel would fall under God's judgment. Garland called the subject of this chapter "the tragedy of wasted opportunity. The word woe is one that ought to draw our special attention to that which follows. Each statement of 'woe' with its accompanying challenge to reality [ and ] is followed by the Lord announcing His rejection of the nation and the judgment that will inevitably follow [ and ].

Those who felt "at ease in Zion" Jerusalem and "secure in … Samaria" were the subjects of his message. Those who felt comfortable in Samaria, partially because it stood on a high hill that was easily defensible, were the distinguished men. They regarded Israel, and Judah, as the foremost of the nations of their day. They were the men to whom the rest of the house of Israel the people of the Northern Kingdom came for advice and or justice. Luke ; God looks at the heart, and the heart of the two Jewish kingdoms was far from the Lord.

This is the last reference to the people of Zion in this message; from now on Amos spoke only of the Northern Kingdom. Perhaps he referred to the Judean leaders because they were also guilty of the same sins cf.

Presently Judah controlled Gath. Samaria was no "better" than those city-states, and their territories were larger "greater" than Samaria's. Yet they had fallen to foreign invaders. What had happened to them could happen to Samaria—even though the people of Israel believed that Yahweh would protect it.

But they were really hastening the day of terror or seat of violence by refusing to acknowledge and repent of their sins. Amos raised the possibilities as questions, but the answers were obvious. Six kings reigned, three of whom seized power by political coup and assassination. Fear and violence marked this period cf. They reclined on very expensive beds inlaid with "ivory.

They imitated great King David by composing and improvising songs and inventing musical instruments, but they entertained themselves rather than praising God.

They also spent much time and money anointing their bodies with oils and lotions to preserve and enhance their appearance. One of the benefits of anointing one's body with oil was that the oil killed lice. To summarize, the sins of the Israelites were excessive preoccupation with relaxation possibly sexual relaxation [] , food, music, drinking, and cosmetics.

Their banquets would cease, and they would lounge on their soft couches no longer. Money and material possessions are not wrong in themselves, but the love of them leads to all types of evil 1 Tim. This was a solemn warning, because God can swear by no one greater than Himself cf. He "loathed the pride arrogance of Jacob. The Lord also hated their fortified mansions from which they oppressed the poor and needy cf. Its security and power make God's protection and blessing irrelevant crutches in the real world of economic and political influence.

Therefore, Yahweh would fight against them, and deliver up Samaria and all it contained to an enemy. If the "uncle" of one of the dead rulers came to bury his nephew "carry out his bones" , or if a less interested "undertaker" did so, those still alive and hiding in the house would beg him not to reveal their presence. Or perhaps the idea is that there would be so many dead bodies that they had to be burned to prevent a plague from breaking out. Another view, which seems less likely, is that the burning of incense to honor the dead is in view cf.

As bad as the situation was, they could not bring themselves to seek the Lord for help. Not only would the people of the city die vv. Horses normally ran on rock-free ground, and oxen plowed fields from which farmers had removed the rocks. Yet these leaders had replaced justice with corrupt courtroom decisions that had killed the defendants—just as though they had taken "poison.

This included the town of Lo-debar in Transjordan cf. Amos, however, cleverly made light of this feat by mispronouncing the city "Lo-dabar," which means "not a thing. The people were also claiming that they had taken the town of "Karnaim" lit.

It was not they but Yahweh, however, who had strengthened them to achieve this victory over a symbolically strong town. Actually, Karnaim was quite insignificant. He was the really Strong One. Once again, God's people would fall under the control of a foreign oppressor, as they had done in the past cf.

This enemy would "afflict" the Israelites throughout the length and breadth of their nation, from "Hamath" in the north to "the brook or sea, cf. This nation, of course, proved to be Assyria. In summary, the reasons for Israel's coming judgment that Amos identified in these five messages, were: legal injustice, economic exploitation, religious hypocrisy, luxurious self-indulgence, and boastful complacency.

These sins involved unfaithfulness to Yahweh, the supreme, all-powerful Lord of Israel—with whom the Israelites lived in covenant relationship. Though national judgment was inevitable, individuals who repented could escape punishment.

Amos next recorded five visions that he received from the Lord that described the results of the coming judgment of Israel, plus one historical incident Throughout this section of the book, two phrases stand out: "sovereign Yahweh" , 4 [twice], ; , 3, 9, 11; and "My people" , 15; ; They are constant reminders that Yahweh has authority over all nations and individuals, and that He still recognized Israel's special covenant relationship with Himself.

The whole section builds to a terrifying climax of inevitable judgment for Israel. Some scholars believe these visions formed Amos' call. The three visions in this section are similar and may have followed one another in quick succession. The first two describe methods of divine judgment from which Amos persuaded God to turn aside, and the last one the method He would not abandon to judge Israel. Ideally, the very first crops harvested in the spring went to feed the king's household and animals cf.

The crops that the people harvested later in the spring fed their own animals and themselves. If anything happened to prevent that second harvesting, the people would have little to eat until the next harvest in the fall. The summer months were very dry and the Israelites had nothing to harvest during that season of the year. The swarming of locusts indicated that they were about to sweep through an area and destroy all the crops. There was no way to prevent this in Amos' day.

Locust invasions were a perennial threat, and they were a method of discipline that God had said He might use if His people proved unfaithful to His covenant with them Deut.

Joel ; Amos Then he prayed and asked the sovereign Lord to pardon Jacob Israel for its covenant unfaithfulness. Jacob was only a small nation, and could not survive such a devastating judgment—if the Lord allowed it to happen as Amos had seen in his vision. Keil interpreted this vision spiritually:.

The growing of the second crop is a figurative representation of the prosperity which flourished again after those judgments; in actual fact, therefore, it denotes the time when the dawn had risen again for Israel ch. Then the locusts came and devoured all the vegetables of the earth. Amos' view of Israel, as "small" and weak , stands in contrast to the opinion of Israel's leaders, who believed it was strong and invincible cf.

Israel occupied a large territory under Jeroboam II, second only in its history to what Solomon controlled, but it was still small in relation to the larger empires of the ancient Near East. Amos may have meant that Israel was "small" in the sense of helpless. God had promised to take care of Jacob when that patriarch encountered Yahweh at Bethel, now a center of apostate worship in Israel cf.

Perhaps that is why Amos appealed to God with the name of "Jacob" cf. He would be merciful and patient, and would grant Israel more grace cf. God loves to be entreated. He delights to answer when He hears the cry of such as bear His needy people on their heart. The prayers of righteous individuals, like Amos, can alter the events of history cf. James Some things that God intends to do are not firmly determined by Him; He is open to changing His mind about these things.

However, He has firmly decreed other things, and no amount of praying will change His mind about those things cf. It is important, therefore, that we understand, from Scripture, what aspects of His will are fixed, and which are negotiable.

The same distinction between determined choices and optional choices is observable in human interpersonal relations. Good parents, for example, will not permit their children to do certain things no matter how much the children may beg, but they do allow their children to influence their decisions in other matters.

Moreover, the reference is to a promise of God, whether to the entire people of Israel Num. When God promises something, He cannot change His mind because that would make the promise a lie.

However, He can relent of His wrath in response to prayer and repentance. Like a great drought, it consumed all the water and all the farmland or people in Israel cf.

What he saw may have been a scorching heat wave that resulted in a drought. The "great deep" is a phrase that refers to subterranean waters that feed springs cf. So intense was the fire that Amos saw that it dried up even these underground water reservoirs.

Great heat with consequent drought was another of the punishments that the Lord warned of for covenant unfaithfulness Deut. Israel, or the people of Jehovah; so tehom rabbah is not the ocean, but the heathen world, the great sea of nations, in their rebellion against the kingdom of God.

Again the Lord relented, and determined that it would not come then cf. He would not discipline Israel with a locust plague or with a raging "fire. There are two interpretations of it. The traditional interpretation translates the Hebrew word 'anak as "plumb line.

The wall was probably a city wall rather than the wall of a house. A better interpretation translates the Hebrew word, which appears only here in the Old Testament, as "tin.

This tin wall represented the military might of Assyria cf.