The books of Amos is written in the same period and speaks in a similar vein to the other Minor prophecies portraying the back sliding nature of Israel but, gives insight into Gods wonderful nature of forgiveness in promising great things for those who trust Him. In Amos 1 and Amos 2 - God through Amos sternly warns the towns and people of Israel of impending Judgement - I will set fire on the wall, I will destroy towns and people, I will consume their fortresses, why because they impoverish the poor and worship idols. God warns Israel that He will bring judgement on them and their land; they would be banished in exile to a foreign land Babylon.
In the first chapter Amos 1:1and 2 we read - The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa - what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
2:He said: "The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers."
In the next verses of Amos 1 and Amos 2 there is the often quoted comment: This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of (mentioning the various towns and cities and people) I will not relent. God issues His decree…I will set fire on the wall, I will destroy towns and people, I will consume their fortresses. Then He closes with His warning - The people of (mentioning the various towns and cities and people) will go into exile to (Babylon)….,” says the Lord.
Here in Amos 2:6 God highlights Israel’s behaviour, the way they oppress the poor and bring false justice-
6 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.
7 They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.
8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines.
God goes on to remind them how He has been so good to them, overcoming opposing nations delivering Israel from the grip of Egypt, leading them though the arid deserts for 40 years. In Amos 2:9 he says - 9 “Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them, though they were tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below. 10 I brought you up out of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness to give you the land of the Amorites.
In Amos 3:6 God gives them fair warning of pending judgement - When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?
7: Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.
8:The lion has roared - who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken - who can but prophesy?
9:Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of Egypt: "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; see the great unrest within her and the oppression among her people."
10:"They do not know how to do right," declares the LORD, "who hoard plunder and loot in their fortresses."
11:Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "An enemy will overrun the land; he will pull down your strongholds and plunder your fortresses."
God continues to reason with them in Amos 4:1, highlighting the disasters He had already brought on them, but in their stubbornness, God uses and utters an often quoted remark in this book” yet you have not returned to me," – God says - Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"
2:The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: "The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fish-hooks.
3:You will each go straight out through breaks in the wall, and you will be cast out towards Harmon," declares the LORD.
4:"Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years.
5:Burn leavened bread as a thank-offering and brag about your freewill offerings - boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do," declares the Sovereign LORD.
6:"I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
7:"I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up.
8:People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
9:"Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
10:"I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
11:"I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.
12:"Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel."
13:He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth - the LORD God Almighty is his name.
God pleads with Israel to turn their lives around in spite of their rebellion, He again highlights why He is bringing Judgement, He reminds them of what is going to happen to them, He says in Amos 5:4:This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek me and live;
5:do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing."
6:Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel will have no-one to quench it.
7:You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground
8:(he who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns blackness into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land - the LORD is his name -
9:he flashes destruction on the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin),
10:you hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the truth.
11:You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine.
12:For I know how many are your offences and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
13:Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil.
14:Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.
15:Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.
16:Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: "There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail.
17:There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD.
18: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.
19: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.
20:Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light - pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21:"I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
22: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.
23:Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24:But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
25:"Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
26:You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god - which you made for yourselves.
27:Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty.
In Amos 6:7 God continues to describe the type of Judgement He will bring upon them - 7:Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.
8:The Sovereign LORD has sworn by himself - the LORD God Almighty declares: "I abhor the pride of Jacob and detest his fortresses; I will deliver up the city and everything in it."
God continues in Amos 6: 11:For the LORD has given the command, and he will smash the great house into pieces and the small house into bits.
12:Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plough there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness -
God reminds them about their false worship and the consequences, we read in Amos 8: 10: I will turn your religious feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
But then He sees a change taking place in their hearts. We read in Amos 8: 11:"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
12:Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.
13:"In that day "the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst.
14:They who swear by the shame of Samaria, or say, `As surely as your god lives, O Dan', or, `As surely as the god of Beersheba lives' - they will fall, never to rise again." God continues in Amos 9: 8:"Surely the eyes of the Sovereign LORD are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth - yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," declares the LORD.
9:"For I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground.
10:All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, all those who say, `Disaster will not overtake or meet us.'
Then God shows His love and mercy to Israel in Amos 9:11 He says - "In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be,
12:so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name," declares the LORD, who will do these things.
13:"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills.
14:I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15:I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God.
How important for us to stay close to our God and seek His guidance, then we can be sure we will have peace in our hearts knowing God is for us and will guide and protect us every step of our life’s pathway. David reminds us on Psalm 91 - Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
In the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah we read how God did allow the repentant people of Israel to return to their beloved land, and be prosperous again. But there is another age, a land of peace and harmony which can be symbolically referred to in which for a little while Israel will live on this earth for a thousand years, before everything is finally completed and God’s chosen people Israel, and all the gentile people who fear the Lord including the church, will reign with God in heaven for eternity.
In Revelations 20:1 to 3 we read - And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. We also read in Revelations 21:1 to 5 - Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
