Amos 7:7-17
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.
And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'"
And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom."
Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.' Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"
Today we've moved on from Elijah and Elisha to a new prophet, Amos. Remember that we are reading these stories because this is what Jesus knew, these are the tales, the prophecies, the preaching that shaped Jesus and made him who he was. Hopefully, this summer’s study will help us better understand not only ourselves, but where Jesus came from and what he so passionately believed and preached to his followers.
Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah, but was called to preach in the northern kingdom, Israel. He preached around the years from 760 to 750 BCE during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel.
Amos was one of the Twelve Minor Prophets – those were the ones, as you’ll recall with the shorter books. Not less important, just shorter. Though he is listed with the minors, Amos was an important and influential prophet. He was an older contemporary of Isaiah, who clearly read his work and was shaped by its linguistic eloquence and the passion of his preaching.
Amos also has the distinction of being the first prophet to write his words down. As we heard in today’s reading, he was thrown out of Israel and forbidden to preach there because he spoke against the king and the way the kingdom was being run. He had, however, no intention of being silenced and he returned to Judah and wrote out his prophetic words and sent them back into Israel to be read and shared. Most other prophets who came after him then also wrote down their prophesying.
Amos’ words still reach us today. In probably the best known and most passionate example of modern day prophesying, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, Dr. King quotes from Amos: "we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” This phrase, in turn, has become widely known and often quoted itself, part of our moral thinking today.
Israel, at the time of Amos’ prophesying, was enjoying a period of peace and prosperity. It was, however, also a time of very lax attention to God’s laws. It was the same old story. The region was prosperous because of increased interaction with neighboring, non-Hebrew nations. But with that prosperity came a relaxing of laws and attention to God’s ways. New people brought in their old gods.
And here we meet, once again, our old friends, the professional prophets – in this case, prophets attached to the shrine at Bethel, led by their high priest, Amaziah.
Amos, before being tossed out of Israel, spoke out very forcefully against Jeroboam and his failure to uphold God’s laws. Very forcefully. God was fed up with the Israelites and drawing a line in the sand – or in this case, a plumb line. Because of the Israelites easy acceptance of other gods, their God was fed up with them. Their shrines would be destroyed, Jeroboam himself would die by the sword, and the Israelites would be sent off into exile and slavery by a conquering people.
Amaziah, the professional priestly lackey of the king cast Amos out of Israel for prophesying against the king, making no secret at all about the role of the prophets of Bethel: never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom" – no pretense that this is God’s sanctuary, thereby proving the reason for God’s wrath.
It came to pass as Amos prophesied. Jeroboam and his family died by violence, the shrines were destroyed, and the people Israel were sent out into exile.
This is a very harsh God as we meet him through Amos’ words today. We prefer to think about all the loving aspects of God, but we fool ourselves when we begin to believe that’s all there is to God. When God says, “stop doing that or else,” there is going to be an “or else.” Not because God is a bully or because God wants to look important, but more in the line of a parent telling a child not to run out into the street without looking both ways or they will be hurt.
God designed this world to run by God’s laws. When we break or ignore those laws, bad things are going to happen. Israel grew arrogant and decided they didn’t need God or God’s laws – and Israel fell apart. It took a very long time for Israel to realize that, after all, they needed God and God’s rules. When they did so, they began to grow back together again.
Right now we have a whole lot of people who think they know what God wants better than God does. They claim to be following God and acting in his name but they also think they can do it all under their own reasoning.
I don’t think so. All those folks who arrogantly believe they know as much as God and think God automatically agrees with them are like children running wildly about in the streets, paying no attention at all to the traffic. They’re not listening to God; they’re only listening to the “god” they’ve created in their own minds – and it’s not going to end well for them.
Unfortunately, they are hurting a great many innocent people right now, and they will probably end by taking all the rest of us down with them when their fantasy world collapses – when the inevitable “or else” finally arrives.
Amos had no doubts how it would end for the Israelites if they continued to defy God. We can have few doubts about those who parade around speaking and acting for God today. It took losing everything and a couple of generations in exile before the exiled people of Israel figured it out and turned their hearts back to God.
May it not take so long for our broken world today.
Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah, but was called to preach in the northern kingdom, Israel. He preached around the years from 760 to 750 BCE during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel.
Amos was one of the Twelve Minor Prophets – those were the ones, as you’ll recall with the shorter books. Not less important, just shorter. Though he is listed with the minors, Amos was an important and influential prophet. He was an older contemporary of Isaiah, who clearly read his work and was shaped by its linguistic eloquence and the passion of his preaching.
Amos also has the distinction of being the first prophet to write his words down. As we heard in today’s reading, he was thrown out of Israel and forbidden to preach there because he spoke against the king and the way the kingdom was being run. He had, however, no intention of being silenced and he returned to Judah and wrote out his prophetic words and sent them back into Israel to be read and shared. Most other prophets who came after him then also wrote down their prophesying.
Amos’ words still reach us today. In probably the best known and most passionate example of modern day prophesying, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech, Dr. King quotes from Amos: "we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” This phrase, in turn, has become widely known and often quoted itself, part of our moral thinking today.
Israel, at the time of Amos’ prophesying, was enjoying a period of peace and prosperity. It was, however, also a time of very lax attention to God’s laws. It was the same old story. The region was prosperous because of increased interaction with neighboring, non-Hebrew nations. But with that prosperity came a relaxing of laws and attention to God’s ways. New people brought in their old gods.
And here we meet, once again, our old friends, the professional prophets – in this case, prophets attached to the shrine at Bethel, led by their high priest, Amaziah.
Amos, before being tossed out of Israel, spoke out very forcefully against Jeroboam and his failure to uphold God’s laws. Very forcefully. God was fed up with the Israelites and drawing a line in the sand – or in this case, a plumb line. Because of the Israelites easy acceptance of other gods, their God was fed up with them. Their shrines would be destroyed, Jeroboam himself would die by the sword, and the Israelites would be sent off into exile and slavery by a conquering people.
Amaziah, the professional priestly lackey of the king cast Amos out of Israel for prophesying against the king, making no secret at all about the role of the prophets of Bethel: never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom" – no pretense that this is God’s sanctuary, thereby proving the reason for God’s wrath.
It came to pass as Amos prophesied. Jeroboam and his family died by violence, the shrines were destroyed, and the people Israel were sent out into exile.
This is a very harsh God as we meet him through Amos’ words today. We prefer to think about all the loving aspects of God, but we fool ourselves when we begin to believe that’s all there is to God. When God says, “stop doing that or else,” there is going to be an “or else.” Not because God is a bully or because God wants to look important, but more in the line of a parent telling a child not to run out into the street without looking both ways or they will be hurt.
God designed this world to run by God’s laws. When we break or ignore those laws, bad things are going to happen. Israel grew arrogant and decided they didn’t need God or God’s laws – and Israel fell apart. It took a very long time for Israel to realize that, after all, they needed God and God’s rules. When they did so, they began to grow back together again.
Right now we have a whole lot of people who think they know what God wants better than God does. They claim to be following God and acting in his name but they also think they can do it all under their own reasoning.
I don’t think so. All those folks who arrogantly believe they know as much as God and think God automatically agrees with them are like children running wildly about in the streets, paying no attention at all to the traffic. They’re not listening to God; they’re only listening to the “god” they’ve created in their own minds – and it’s not going to end well for them.
Unfortunately, they are hurting a great many innocent people right now, and they will probably end by taking all the rest of us down with them when their fantasy world collapses – when the inevitable “or else” finally arrives.
Amos had no doubts how it would end for the Israelites if they continued to defy God. We can have few doubts about those who parade around speaking and acting for God today. It took losing everything and a couple of generations in exile before the exiled people of Israel figured it out and turned their hearts back to God.
May it not take so long for our broken world today.
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