Harold Shank

Amos 1-2–yellow

Amos 2-3–green

Amos 3-4–red

Amos 4-5–purple

Outline of Amos

Amos 1-2, Seven International Reports
Amos 2, Seven problems, Seven gifts, Seven disciplines
Amos 3-5:17, Three “Hear This” Speeches 
Amos 5:18-6:14, Three Woes 
Amos 7-9, Five Visions
Amos 9, The Future in Fives

Relevance

• International Chaos
• Domestic violence & fraud
• Ignorance of the nature of God
• Two class society (affluence & poverty)
• Widespread denial about sin & oppression
• Ever present grace of God
• Hope for future

 

 

Amos 1-2, International news

Thought question [Small groups]: A speaker from another state comes to your city planning to tell you what you are doing wrong and how to correct it. What advice would you give him?

o People do not want to hear about their failures
o Giving bad news is never easy
o People may not see you are trying to help them, but will think you are degrading them
o Expect people to deny your accusations

Group discussion after the reading:
o Amos the farmer comes to North Israel to tell the people what they are doing wrong. What does he do to communicate his message?
o Describe the sins of the nations.
o What parallels are there between the sins of the nations in Amos and contemporary international behavior?

Interpretative Reading of Amos 1:1-2:16
o God is subject of 44 verbs in these verses including “thus says the Lord” and “says the Lord” (14 times)
o Passport information: Amos is from Tekoa (10 miles south of Bethlehem) where he is a shepherd, a naqid, which suggests something like a manager of shepherds. During his visit to North Israel he visits the Bethel temple, goes to a funeral, walks through the neighborhoods of the wealthy and the poor, stops by a market
o Earthquake (740 B.C.) was 2 years after Amos’ visit which may indicate his prediction of upheaval (2:13; 3:14-15; 4:12-13; 8:8; 9:1, 5, 9)
o Lions (Amos 3:4, 8, 12; 5:19), Zion (Amos 1:2; 2:5; 6:1), Control of nature (direct opposition to Baal religion

o Locate the Seven International Nations
 Syria—northeast of North Israel (NI), east of Sea of Galilee
 Philistia—southwest of NI, on Mediterranean coast
 Phoenicia—northwest of NI, on Mediterranean coast
 Edom—southeast of NI, southeast of Dead Sea (related)
 Ammon—east of NI, northeast of Dead Sea (related)
 Moab—southeast of NI, east of Dead Sea (related)
 Judah—south of NI, west of Dead Sea (related)

o Seven parts to oracles against nations (OAN)
 Thus says the LORD—messenger formula
 Numerical Accusation—three, four (seven offenses prompts response)
 Irrevocable Aspect—God’s anger not restrained here
 Sin—pesha
 Specific Crime
 Punishment (fire seven times)
 Says the LORD—messenger formula (5 times)

o Crimes
 Syria—war atrocities against Israelites

         Stop to visualize iron threshing machine: Syrians treated civilians like they were stalks of grain, an inhumane cruelty

 Philistia—peacetime enslavement of Israelites for profit disregarding human dignity
 Phoenicia—involved in peacetime transport (middleman) of civilians with whom they had treaties into slavery, i.e. betrayal of friends
 Edom—savage attacks on Israel
         Stop to visualize use of sword without pity and in constant anger
 Ammon—massacre of innocent women and children
 Moab—violated widespread cultural act of respect for the dead by burning the king’s bones to use as lime in construction
 Judah—rejected God’s law and denied doing it

Amos 2-3

General Background of Amos

• Internal political stability (Jeroboam II ruled 40 years; Uzziah ruled 41 years)
• International Power Shift (Assyrians and Egyptians in decline leading to conflict in smaller states, North Israel with significant military power)
• Economic Prosperity
  • Subsistence economy (each family/village produced what they used) to market economy with specialized industry, large estates owned by rich served by poor, foreclosures on land
    • Saul & David subsistent farmers
    • Gibeon wine production; weaving/dyeing Debir; olive oil Samaria; Copper Arabah; wool @ Bethel
    • International trade
    • Upper class had feasts with large amounts of food, imported drink
  • Housing (four room Israelite houses to multi storied houses on hill tops of stone, and mud houses with common walls in valleys; ivory inlays)
  • Sources: John Bright, History of Israel; D. N. Premnath, Eighth Century Prophets—A Social Analysis; Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Civil Institutions.   72-73

 

Amos accuses North Israel of 12 specific wrongs

• Enslaving others 2:6
• Denying fair access to courts 2:7, 5:10,12
• Abusing (sexually) poor women 2:7
• Keeping items taken in pledge 2:8
• Collecting unjust taxes/fines 2:8
• Extorting harvest of sharecroppers 5:11
• Taking bribes 5:12
• Defrauding poor in business transactions 8:5
• Tampering with weights/measures 8:5
• Using poor people as slave labor 8:6
• Selling inferior merchandize 8:6
• Charging unfair rents 3:15-4:1

 

Oppressors described in 10 ways

• Had winter/summer houses 3:15
• Lived in leisure 4:1
• Dwelt in stone mansions 5:11
• Complacent & secure lives 6:1
• Beds decorated with ivory 6:4
• Had time to lounge rather than work 6:4
• Ate choice cuts of meat 6:4
• At ease to enjoy arts 6:5
• Amble supply of alcoholic beverages 6:6
• Used fine lotions 6:6

 

Oppressors not condemned for wealth but for:

• Trample the heads of the poor 2:7
• Crush the needy 4;1
• Abused righteousness and justice 5:24
• Reign of terror 6:3 (NIV)
• Doing away with poor 8:4

 

General Principles from Amos 1-2

• Hurting other people offends God (OAN 1-6)
• God intercedes on behalf of the oppressed (OAN 1-6)
• Disapproval of leaders who lie to their people about how to live (OAN 7)
• Those who know what is right are judged by higher standards (Judah/Israel)
• God judges when the oppressed become the oppressors (Israel)
• Moral disruptions in the human community reflect negatively on God (Israel)
• Cultural influences can overshadow divine influence (post-Christian culture parallels Amos 1-2)
• God never gives up no matter how bad a society becomes (he sends Amos)
• Until the end, there is still time to repent
• Don’t miss the signs

 

What are the 7 major criticisms of American society?  What are the top seven areas of concern you have for the American culture?  List the 7 worst qualities of American society?  What are the top 7 sins of Americans?   See the lists from a recent class discussion:

7 sins of U.S.

• Disrespect for God
• Greed
• Lust
• Pride
• Immorality
• Materialism
• Lazy

7 criticisms of U.S.

• Materialism
• Political polarization
• Abuse of natural resources
• Conceited
• Low morality
• Anti-Christian
• Racism

Interpretative Reading of 2:16-3:15 

 2:6-7—Seven Sins of North Israel

2:6a—Cheering stops, no more Amens

2:6b-11—has Pentateuch in background

• Amos does not make laws, just calls attention to lawbreaking
• Pt of Pent laws: create an ideal human community where all live in harmony

2:6b—Sell righteous for silver, needy for pair of shoes

• Righteous—sadiq [06662] 2:6; 5:12
  • Innocent
  • Deuteronomy 15; 24:17, 18
• Needy–‘ebyon, [034] 2:6; 4:1; 5:12; 8:4, 6
  • Lack something
  • Choices
  • Deut. 14:28, 29
• JPS: “sold for silver those whose cause was just”
• Powerful people selling innocent into slavery
• Creditors sold those who owed them into slavery for a low price
• Taking advantage of poor in court
• Corrupt legal system manipulated by wealthy
• Poor were exploited and rights ignored
• Exodus 21:2-11; 22:25; Lev 27:1-8; Deut 15:12-18

2:7a—Trample poor into dust

• Poor–dal, [1800] 2:7; 4:1; 5:11; 8:6
  • Comparison
  • Vulnerability
• Trample—šā’aq [07602] 2:7; 8:4
  • Swallow up, devour, pant as animal in heat
  • Refers to eagerness, greed, selfishness, no regard for those they hurt
  • Bosas=trample in 5:11
• Physical abuse of helpless and weak
• Oppressors didn’t care
• Poor seen as insignificant, with no voice, no meeting of their needs
• Trample into ground: metaphor for power of one group and humiliation of another
• Lev 19:18 (whole chapter)

2:7a—Turn aside afflicted

• Afflicted/poor—‘anan, [06035] 2:7, 8:4
• Broken hearted, suffering
• Emotional aspect of poverty
• Turn Aside, Natah, 2:7, 8; 5:12
  • “lie down” in 2:8
  • Pitch a tent, stretch out
  • Action of taking one thing and using it for another
• Stuart “keep them from making progress or finding justice”
• Make the humble walk a twisted course
• Lev 25; Deut. 15

2:7b—Man and father have sex with same girl

• Lev 18:7-20; 20:11-12; Deut 22:30
• Profane God’s name Lev 20:2-3; 22:32
• Suggest sins against women offended God.

2:8a—Make personal use of articles taken in pledge

• Garments had to be returned at night
• Powerful wearing them to temple
• Exodus 22:26-27; Dt 24:12-13

2:8b—Use wine taken as fines for worship

• Judges used fines for sacrifices
• Rich used wine in worship which they obtained from fines on the poor

 

2:9-11—Seven cases of God’s past grace

2:9—God destroyed the Amorites

• The Amorites were large people Num 13:33
• Amorites as strong as trees, but God was stronger

2:9b—God destroyed them all

• Above and below—merism (high/low, morning/evening) (all of them)

2:10a—God rescued them from Egyptian oppression

• They had now become the oppressors
• NI success was not their own doing, but grace from God

2:10b—wilderness

2:10c—promised land

2:11—Nazarites/prophets

• Samson, Samuel
• Samuel, Nathan, Gad, Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, Amos 1:1; 3:7, 8; 7:14, 15
• Suggests social pressure

2:12—Opposition to prophets: 1 Kings 18:4; 19:2, 10; 22:26-27; 2 Kings 6:31

 

What are the striking features of this list?

• Social issues, about way people are treated, nothing about government, military, world
• Not about how they treat foreigners (OAN 1-6), but fellow citizens
• All involve taking advantage of others for personal benefit
• Common feature is fate of powerless

 

How is your list of complaints/problems/sin of American society different from this list?  Why is it different?

See the responses from a recent class discussion

Comparison with Amos:

• We’re not all that different – treatment of people
• We’re putting ourselves first before God and others
• We often turn aside from the afflicted
• We often tend to gather around people who are afflicted
• People were immoral then and now
• We are isolated in our communities: – we don’t deal with the down-trodden
• Not all of the people in our community are the same – some have different economic situations
• Denial – they didn’t think they were having a problem. Same with us.

2:13-16–Seven descriptions of the defeat of Israel’s army

• Military images
• Those who enjoyed God’s grace (2:9-11) will experience judgment (2:13-16)
• Nobody, not even the best soldiers, will escape

2:13—earthquake reference?

• North Israel will be crushed like grain under wheels of fully loaded wagon
• JPS “I will slow your movements as when a wagon is slowed when it is full of cut grain”
• Stuart “I will make you bog down”

2:15—JPS “a bowman shall not hold his ground”

2:16—JPS “the mighty shall flee away unarmed”

 

3:1-15—First “Hear This Speech”

3:1—recall of Exodus

3:2—summary of OAN

3:3-8—Laying a foundation

• 7 rhetorical questions ordered by cause and effect, but people in NI see cause, but not effect (denial)
• Lion from 1:2 appears in 3:4, 8

3:9-10– spectators of coming judgment

• RSV great tumults
• NIV great unrest
• Wolff boundless terror

3:11-15–invasion

• Not much left (leg or ear), corner, part
• JPS “As a shepherd rescue from the lion’s jaws/two shank bones or the tip of an ear”
• Just as 2 bones/part of ear are useless, so NI useless
• Destruction of religious buildings, and houses of wealthy

Amos 3-4

Amos 3-4

 

Elephant in the room—Amos is judgmental!

Assumed Context of “Hear This” speeches (3:1; 4:1; 5:1)

• Israelites agreed God could/should judge
  • Israel had no objection to the punishment of 7 nations in Amos 1-2
  • Sin/injustice leads to punishment
• Israelites object to Amos
  • Our actions are not as bad as you say
  • Everybody’s doing it
  • It’s unlikely that any enemy can overcome our military
  • A loving God would not punish us
  • Want to be soothed, not doomed
  • Don’t judge me

 

Two Discussion Questions

• Agreed: List some people God should judge & punish
  • People guilty of genocide: Hitler, Stalin, Rwanda
  • War criminals
  • Torturers
  • Organized crime
  • Legal system
  • Those who threaten personal safety
  • Child abusers
  • Judgmental people
  • Anybody but us
  • Self-righteous
• Disagreed: Give some examples of people who should not be judged
  • Mental health issues
  • Addiction
  • People in poverty
  • People who make mistakes
  • People who are different
  • Immigrants, another race
  • homeless
  • generally not allowed to judge people based on sexual orientation or views on abortio

 

3:1-8–Amos offers verification of his judgment

• Outcomes have causes
• God’s actions are reasonable
• Punishment is not by chance

Interpretative Reading

 

3:1—hear this word

• Formula: summons to listen; no paragraph markers in Hebrew so they repeat words (3:1; 4:1; 5:1)
• An important message is coming
• Israel has special status with God
• Recalls Gen 12:3
• Result: Israel thought their specialness protected them

3:2—you only have I known…I will punish you

• Israel thought God will not judge His special people
  • Contemporary versions
    • We are just doing what comes naturally
    • A good God won’t harm His people
    • God wants me to be happy
    • God will give me another chance
  • You Only Have I known implies certain response
    • Abraham was called, but “walk before me and be blameless” Gen 17:1
    • Israel was called, but “love me with all heart, soul, mind” Dt 6:5
    • Israel received God’s protection in wilderness, but “do all my commandments” Dt 8:1
  • Israel’s disasters are not an accident
  • Sarcasm: “you are so valuable to me that I’m going to destroy you”

 

3:3-8—7 rhetorical questions in midst of 11 cause/effect statements

• Point of 7 questions: God punishing His people… is as reasonable as these events
• Order (effect stated first, then cause, one exception)
  • #1—people
  • #2, 3—hunting lions
  • #4, 5—birds
  • #6, 7—city events
• 3:3—do two walk without plan? NO
  • No phones, calendars
  • Intercity travel rare, done with friends
• 3:4—do lions roar/cry out if no prey? NO
  • people thought lions hunted quietly, roared when successful
  • now thought that lions roar to communicate, mark territory
• 3:5—do birds get caught without a trap; does trap shut without being triggered—NO
• 3:6—does trumpet announcing enemy prompt fear (cause then effect)? YES. If city destroyed, was God involved?  YES

 

Amos 3:2-8—Series of 11 Cause and Effect Statements

• #1—3:2 “you only have I known (you experienced My grace and know my commands) so based on that covenant relationship, I must punish
• #2-8—3:3-6 Seven universally accepted causes and effects
• #9—3:7
  • Does God act without sending a prophet? NO
  • Based on being known by God, you know God sends messengers before any judgment, so you should recognize Amos as the current messenger
    • God told Noah about coming flood (Gen 6)
    • God told Abraham about destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18)
    • God revealed blessings and curses through Moses (Lev 26; Deut 27, 28)
    • God sent Samuel, Nathan & Gad to Saul, David, Solomon (1 Sam-1 Kings)
    • God sent Elijah and Elisha to Ahab (869-850) and Jehoram (849-842)
    • God sent Jonah to Nineveh (Jonah)
    • God sent Amos to Jeroboam (786-46)
  • #10—3:8a If God is roaring through Amos should you be afraid (rather than in denial)? -YES
  • #11—3:8b If God sends a prophet, must he speak? YES
    • people should not ignore God any more than they would ignore the presence of a lion;
    • rejecting Amos means rejecting God
    • lions: 3:4, 8, 12

 

Spiritual Discipline Implied in Amos

• God judges and punishes
• God warns people before He judges and punishes
• God calls people to change

 

Amos 3:9-10: Sarcastic proposal/Satire

• Satire
  • Calls representatives of world’s most powerful (strongholds) & brutal people to come to theater in Samaria
  • Actors/actresses are people of Samaria
  • You think you were brutal, watch this play
• Intensification in poetry
  • Great tumults—what are these great tumults
  • Oppressions in city—what are oppressions
  • they do not know how to do right—God is theatre critic
  • How do they not know right? Violence and robbery
• Point: All people believe some people must be judged. You fit that category.

 

Amos 3:11-15: Judgment

• Intensification in judgment
  • 3:11—adversary surround Samaria:
    • God’s judgment will come from an invasion
    • What will adversary do
  • 3:11—bring down defenses. How?
  • 3:11—plunder your strongholds. What will be the results
  • 3:12—God’s judgment will only leave a remnant
    • Simile: As 
      • Shepherd charged with protecting sheep, but one missing, finds only two lges or ear
      • Soldier charged with protecting Samaria, but after invasion, finds only pieces of furniture
    • 3:13-15—Why are we being judged?
      • 3:13—Judgment is God’s—3 names for God so they don’t miss the identification
      • 3:14-15 God’s judgment is coming for two reasons
        • Idolatry
        • oppression
      • 3:14—Judgment for wrong worship (idolatry)
        • Destruction will include end of Bethel (9:1)
        • Their religion did not challenge their oppression
        • Horns on alter cut off, no longer useful
      • 3:15—Judgment: assets you accumulated through your oppression will be destroyed
      • 3:15—Judgment will be extensive—summer and winter houses (merism)
    • 4:1-3 Cows of Bashan
    • Hear this (masculine plural)
    • Identification intensification
      • Who are the cows of Bashan? Cows if feminine plural: heifers; live in mountains of Samaria
      • Which women in mountains of Samaria? The ones who oppress the poor & crush the needy (cf. 2:6,7)
      • How do they oppress/crush? They push their husbands to bring them drinks.
        • Literally: “their lords” which could be husbands, or gods, or local officials
        • Women with husbands were considered better off
      • Judgment Intensification
        • Why is judgment coming? holiness of God (see holiness of God associated with woman in 2:7)
        • Day of judgment coming. What will it be like
        • Guilty taken away with fish hooks, like fisherman bringing home catch on stringer
        • All of us? “even the last of you”
        • Where will they take us? Out through holes in the wall, no need to detour to city gate
        • All of us? Everyone straight before her.  There will be line of you guilty ones
        • Where will we go? Harmon—nobody knows where

 

Cows of Bashan 

• Kenning: Kenning–using a metaphorical name for something. What do these kennings refer to?
  • Elephant in room
  • Bean counter
  • Brown noser
  • First Lady
  • Hot potato
  • Mind reader
  • Tree hugger
  • Mind-reader
  • Motor-mouth
  • Pencil pusher
  • Cows of Bashan?

 

• What are some ways in which we compare people to animals? [pigs, swine, apes, monkeys, dog, cow, sheep, rat, snake]
  • gentle as a lamb
  • wise as a serpent
  • sly as a fox
  • proud as a peacock

• How does the Bible compare people to animals?
  • Song of Solomon 4:1: woman compared to goats
  • Proverbs 6:6-8: industrial people compared to ants
  • Psa 42:1: like a deer panting for water is spiritual person
  • Mt 10:16: be as harmless as doves
  • brood of vipers
  • wolves in sheep’s clothing
  • dogs returning to vomit
  • sheep going astray

 

• Bashan
  • Golan Heights, north of Yarmouk & Gilead, east of Galilee & Jordan; often the object of regional wars
  • Known for rich vegetation and high-quality livestock, Amos dealt with animals professionally. Cows of Bashan were of the finest quality
  • Song of Solomon 7:2
• Interpretations
  • Oppressive Women: Refers to wealthy oppressing the poor who were as cows destined to slaughter
    • Amos not addressing the average person (woman), but a specific woman
    • Woman of means who represents all wealthy
      • Women were wealthy like cows of Bashan provided good milk, meat
      • Not likely since Amos not against wealthy, but against abuse
    • Woman of means who represents oppressors
      • Women were like wild & greedy cows of Bashan who ate what they wanted when they wanted it
      • Uncover those who want to remain above investigation, avoid exposure
      • Show how family members benefit from actions of others
      • People who do not realize their affluence comes at a cost to other people
    • Worship: Refers to worship of cows (1 Kings 12:28) and how cult ignored the poor OR to a baalistic festival with drinking. Cows were venerated in Egypt as gods (Hathor was a cow god called the “Lady of Byblos”)
    • Gender: Intends to insult the men by calling them women
    • Family:
      • 31 shows how woman had major role in community economy. Amos accusing the women of not fulfilling their role.  The women were telling their husbands serve them and ignore the poor.
      • Women brings up question of children (cows of Bashan who give birth to calves of Bashan)
        • Children not mentioned in book, but who more likely to be oppressed/trampled than little ones who have no protector and no voice.
        • Amos is distraught at abuse in NI and does not want to let mothers off the hook

Amos 4:4-5: Sarcastic Proposal

• These are not sincere commands to transgress
• Intensification
  • Go sin at Bethel/Gilgal. How should we sin there?
  • Daily sacrifice; regular tithes. What else?
  • Thank, freewill offerings. Why
  • Let people know you are at church. Why are you saying this?
  • Because you love to pretend to be religious

 

Amos 4:6-13: I gave you five chances/intensification

• 4:6—Chance #1—famine, how far did it go
• 4:7-8—Chance #2—it was selective, touched worst sinners most
• 4:9—Chance #3—not only famine, but destroyed food production
• 4:10—Chance #4—it was personal, affected your body
• 4:11—Chance #5—full scale invasion, threatened all you have
• 4:12—Out of Chances—prepare to meet God (His judgment? Death?)
• 4:14—Hymn—God is powerful enough to keep His promises

 

 

Amos 4-5

 

Amos confronted the 3 I’s.  International atrocity; Idolatry; Injustice.  All 3 covered in Dt. 

• Amos is the voice for the families of those
  • threshed with sledges of iron (1:3)
  • carried into exile (1:6, 9),
  • faced with the brutality of Edomites (1:11)
  • mothers whose babies ripped out of womb by Ammonites (1:13)
  • family of Edomite king whose body desecrated by Moabites (2:2)
• Amos is the voice for the
  • poor farmer who lost land in unfair judgment (2:6)
  • children who watched their destitute father humiliated by rich women in public square (4:1)
  • people who shivered all night because the wealthy did not return their garment (2:8)
  • girls who forced by father, then son (2:7)
  • Nazirites who gave their lives to God only to be defrauded by rich (2:12)
• That’s the voice we hear in Amos.

 

Beliefs of those who resisted Amos included

• We deserve to be happy no matter who it hurts
• We control our lives and have the military to back it up

 

Amos responds

• God judging is logical (Hear this: 3:1-8: 7 rhetorical questions; 11 cause and effect statements)
• God always sends a messenger (3:7) and Amos is the messenger (3:8)
• The world’s greatest oppressors will be appalled at the “great tumults” in Samaria (3:9, 10)
• God’s coming judgment (3:11-4:3)

 

Warnings (4:4-5:17)

• What are some common warnings we encounter in life?
  • Road signs (curves, intersections, wildlife crossing)
  • Traffic signals
  • Sirens
  • Horns
  • Smoke
  • Loud noises (gun shots, explosions)
  • Strange odors (gas leak, chemical fumes)
  • Security alarm (smoke, CO2)
  • Weather alerts
  • Conscience
  • Cigarette packages
  • beware of dog
  • disclaimers
  • unusual noises
• What are some humorous warnings we encounter?
  • Caution: hot beverage is hot
  • Warning on sleeping pills: may cause drowsiness
  • Swedish chainsaw: do not attempt to stop chain with your hands
  • Do not iron this shirt while wearing it
  • On drill: this tool is not intended for use as a dental drill
  • windshield sun shade–remove before driving
• What are some warnings in the Bible?
  • Pride comes before fall
  • beware of false teachers
  • Do not add or take away from the Bible
  • Ten Commandments (8 negative)
  • Do not worship idols
  • Do not sin
  • Do not be a lover of money (1 Tim 6:10)
  • Beware of false teachers (Matt 7:15)
  • Test the spirits to see if they are from God (1 John 4:1)
  • Be careful not to be conformed to this world (Rom 12:2)
  • Be aware of dangers of pride, lust, greed, pursuit of pleasure (1 John 2:15-17)
  • Do not neglect your salvation (Heb 2:1f)
  • Be aware of giving up (Heb. 12:1-3)
• What would you think if someone came and said God was going to destroy our congregation?

 

Interpretative Reading

 

General Comments on 4:4-13

• Lord speaks in all these verses (7 times)
• These lines are sarcastic, Amos is not encouraging them to sin
• Outline: sin (4-5), warning curses (6-11), judgment (12-13)
• Form: covenantal lawsuit: evidence (4-5), argument (6-11), sentence (12-13)
• Amos regularly reflects earlier Scripture
• Their practice of religion led them to sin

 

4:4 Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; 5 offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!” says the Lord GOD.  Amos may have stood along roads to Bethel and Gilgal saying this to pilgrims

• Other passages about how to go to worship
  • Psalm 15:1-5: O LORD, who shall sojourn in thy tent? Who shall dwell on thy holy hill?   He who walks blamelessly, and does what is right, and speaks truth from his heart;  who does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;  in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;  who does not put out his money at interest, and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
  • Psalm 100:2-4: Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!  Know that the LORD is God! It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.   Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name!
• Israel sought God in all the wrong ways at Bethel & Gilgal (4-5) and would soon encounter God in all the unwanted ways (12-13)
• People who oppressed the poor for their own benefit went to Bethel and Gilgal to focus more on themselves
• Three days
  • Pilgrimages lasted 3 days (4b).[Like saying, “don’t just come Wednesday night, but Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday as well”
  • More acts of worship do not make worship right
  • Refers to 3^rd day after arrival (Wolff)
• Sacrifices offered & then festive banquet (Dt 12:6-18; 14:23-26). Worship was a time to eat meat.
• Sin: rebellion, worship at wrong place (Dt 11) with wrong priests (Lev 1-7) without proper life (Dt 6:5; Lv19:18)
• “Publish them” suggests they were proud of going beyond minimum worship requirements
• They boasted about their gifts to God, more concerned with glorifying self than God

 

What was wrong with their worship?

• More worship is not necessarily better worship
• Worship is focusing on God, not self
• Knowing God means living His way
• All worship is a time to prepare to meet God

 

General Comments on 4:6-11

• Five times: “yet you did not return to me” Warning!
• Increasing severity: from sporadic famine to destruction, from limited to unlimited, from ground to their person
• Had no effect on Israel

 

6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD. 

• Lv 26:26, [“When I cut off your supply of bread”], 46; Dt 28:53-56 [Lists in Wolff, Stuart]
• Literally: shining teeth (kenning) (see SoS 4:12)
• Famine—frequent
• Israel faced hard times, but did not return to God
• “yet you did not return to me” anticipates “you can run but not hide” in Amos 9

 

4:7 “And I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain upon one city, and send no rain upon another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered;  8 so two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD.

• Lv26:19; Dt28:22-24
• City (4 times), field (2 times)
• Spring rains (Feb-Apr)
• Stuart (338) “erratically localized, and frustrating”

 

9 “I smote you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD.

• Lv 26:20; Dt 28:21, 22, 38 [locusts Dt28:38]
• Crop failure: Blight, mildew, pests
• Type of futility curse: you planted and nurtured but had no crops (Dt 28:30)

 

10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men with the sword; I carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD. 

• Pestilence and war Lv 26:25; Dt 28:21, 27, 35, 49-57
• Young men—elite combat troops
• Decomposing bodies, poor camp sanitation

 

11 “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” says the LORD. 

• Lv 26:30-33; Dt 29:23
• Sodom & Gomorrah was “most extreme historical destruction known to ancient Israelites” (Stuart 339), like saying Hiroshima

 

12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” 

• Recalls preparations to meet God at Sinai
  • Exodus 19:14-17  So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. 5 And he said to the people, “Be ready by the third day; do not go near a woman.”  On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.  Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.
• Isaiah 45:23 By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: `To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.’
• Romans 14:10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God;
• Mt 25:31-41
• No more important decision than to prepare to meet God
• Burma-Shave used it on roadside jingles

 

13 For lo, he who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth — the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name! 

• Part of hymn
• Verbs with God as subject: forms, creates, declares, makes, treads
• “treads on heights” reference to high place at Bethel (4:4) [Wolff]

 

How Does God Warn Us Today?

• Through the warnings in Scripture
• Through the movement of the Holy Spirit
• Through prayer
• Through fellow Christians
• In life experiences
• Through circumstances
• Conscience

 

What are some common funeral songs? Amazing Grace, Abide with Me, The Lord’s My Shepherd, Morning Has Broken, Paradise Valley, Because He Lives, When the Roll is Called Up Yonder, I’ll fly away, No Tears in Heaven, Sweet By and By, Does Jesus Care? Nearer my God to Thee, Heaven Holds All To Me

 

Introduction to 3^rd Hear This Speech—5:1-17

• Chiasm
  • Lament—5:1-3
    • Admonition—5:4-6
      • Accusation—5:7
        • Hymn to the Lord—5:8-9
      • Accusation—5:10-13
    • Admonition—5:14-15
  • Lament—5:16-17

 

• Other funerals/laments: Gen 23:2; 50:1-4; 2 Sam 1:19-27; Isa 14:4-21; Ezek 19:1-14; Jer 9:16-23; Lam. 1-4
• Mostly words from God: 3-6, 16-17
• Not just an elegy, but an elegy with a purpose, prompt reform
• Dramatic rhetorical attempt to reach the offenders

 

Lament

• Two kinds: Lament over death of loved one; lament over resistance to God’s way
  • Jesus laments death of Lazarus (Jn 11:33-35)
  • Jessu laments resistance of Jerusalem (Mt 23:37)
• Principles of lament
  • Builds bridge between the oppressed and oppressors
  • Brings wrong out in the open and acknowledges it

 

5:1-3—Lament.  Hear this word which I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:  2 “Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.”  3 For thus says the Lord GOD: “The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” 

• Dt28:26, 62
• Hush over the crowd, “who died?” Like reading your own obituary.  Israel is in the coffin.
• Israel compared to woman who dies young: cut off in one’s prime
• She is lonely, helpless, sad, no one to bury her
• Death count 90%, but 10% survive (the remnant)
• Smith: Like hearing news that 3 of your 4 children killed in car wreck
• Virgin dies with no children, army loses the battle, promised land is now a cemetery

 

5:4-6—Admonition.  4 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live;  5 but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nought.”  6 Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,

• Seek me and live (theme of Deuteronomy, Amos, and whole Bible)
• “Gilgal shall surely go into exile” Hebrew gilgal galoh yigleh
• Fire—see Amos 1-2; come home to find house burning, no fire trucks on the way

 

5:7—Accusation.   7 O you who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth! 

• Justice and Righteousness—appear together nearly 100 times in the OT to describe God’s ideal community
• Fairness & community are sweet, but you have made life bitter

 

5:8-9—Hymn.  8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name,  9 who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

• Amos is singing and perhaps crying as he preaches
• Includes words of familiar song
• Israel puts poor into ground, God puts light in the sky; God who controls nature will right the wrongs
• “water of the sea” may recall Noah’s flood

 

5:10-13–Accusation 10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.  11 Therefore because you trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.  12 For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins — you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.  13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time.

• Lament aimed at those who have oppressed; God speaks because He knows what happens at court
• Oppression: high taxes, bribes in court, targeting those who advocate for justice
• Him who reproves is jury foreman who announces verdict (Stuart) in unfair, unjust way
• Him who tells the truth is honest witness (didn’t take a bribe)
• In the gate is the courtroom
• 11b—Futility clauses (Dt 28:30, 39): the things you work for you never get
• 11b—Curses applied to people who got rich from oppressing the poor, now others will get rich on their account
• 12b—”great tumults” (3:6) now “great sins” (5:12)
• 13—”he who is prudent” could refer to those who allow injustice to continue or reference to the death of the unjust people in Israel (Smith); Message: “protest and rebuke are a useless waste of breath”

 

5:14-15—Admonition 14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.  15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

• What can Israel do: choose to go another direction
• Reform legal system
• The divine with: The Lord…will be with you”

 

5:16-17—Lament  16 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord: “In all the squares there shall be wailing; and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,  17 and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you,” says the LORD.

• “those who are skilled in lamentation” (Hebrew: “those who know how to mourn well”
• God’s wrath (17) will result in death and destruction
• Amount of death will overwhelm the professional mourners so farmers will be required to join funeral
• Describes the destruction of 722 BC

 

What reaction do you have to the “warnings” and the “lament” and “admonitions”?

• What do you take away from Amos so far?
• What would Amos say to us today?
• How might our contemporaries react if we said,
  • “prepare to meet your God”
  • “seek God and live”