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Amos – Chapter 4

And…the prophet of the Lord calls the ladies of Israel “cows of Bashan”. That’s, well, you know, not good. The animals in reference were likely plump, well-fed cows, a striking comparison to the “poor” and “needy” the ladies of Israel are oppressing. And they celebrate as they do so. The ladies share the punishment laid out previously, they will be taken from their land like a fish being lifted out of the water by hooks, led through their broken defenses out of their homes.
 
Then Amos becomes sarcastic – Go ahead and go to your false worship centers (Bethel and Gilgal), bring your worthless sacrifices and your tithes, bring your leavened bread, and make sure everyone sees what you’re doing. As will be stated further by guys like Malachai, God is not satisfied with your bogus offerings – he desires mercy not sacrifice. Your show, facade, of offerings doesn’t fly with the Lord.
 
Then Amos lays out all the times God has tried to get their attention and they have not paid attention. These examples are pretty poetic. “Cleanness of teeth” means you didn’t have any food to get them dirty. God withheld food from them to get their attention and they didn’t come back to him. He withheld rain, sent blight, mildew, and locusts to destroy their crops and still they ignored it. (This harkens back to the to the previous accusation of shutting up the prophets. God was talking, they didn’t want to listen.)
 
v.11 is interesting, I’m not sure why God refers to himself in the 3rd person (the Hebrew isn’t clear on this and I don’t know Hebrew anyway). v.12 is also interesting as the repetition of the phrase “I will do to you” reads a little funny. However, it makes way for one of the most powerful declarations in Scripture for v.13:
 

For behold, 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!

Dang! That last part is fierce. Amos is taking pains to remind the people exactly who they are dealing with.

 
 
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Amos – Chapter 3

Amos continues the judgment against Israel. They are reminded that of all the people in the earth, God has dwelled with and made covenant with them, and they have rejected it. Afterwards a series of examples that illustrate logical connections (two people walk together because they agreed to meet, lions roar because they have no prey…) and the Lord sends word that the fire is on the way because they deserve it.
 
The next section is fierce. Amos instructs Israel to call the Philistines over (Ashdod) and Egypt so they can come over to Samaria (Israel’s capital) and see how junky Israel is. (Hey there, call your friends over so they can see how crappy you are. Rough times.) But, when you store up violence and robbery and ignore the Lord, that kind of ends up being the deal.
 
And then the word from God comes on what will happen: An enemy will come and surround the land and Israel will not be able to defend themselves. In fact, the comparison of what will remain is basically what a shepherd is able to rescue from a lion that has gotten a sheep (a couple legs, maybe a piece of an ear, etc.) That said, I can’t quite discern the “…the corner of a couch and part of a bed”, unless it is highlight the places of comfort, their home, shall only remain in pieces.
 
The imagery to finish out the chapter is one of destruction. The Lord of Hosts (think armies) will punish Israel and cut off the horns of the altar of Bethel (these are the horns that someone would grab to proclaim sanctuary when there was trouble against them. God is removing all protections). And he targets the luxury that Israel has acquired (winter and summer houses, houses of ivory, great houses), which I think affirms the couch and bed imagery interpretation from earlier.
 
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Amos – Chapter 2

 
Continuing, Moab sucks because they have disrespected the bones of the King of Edom in a dastardly way (removing them from their resting place and burning them.) It’s a bit interesting that God is reinforcing respect for the bones of a nation He is also set to punish, although this is likely just presented as an example of how Moab behaves and thus what has caused their punishment. Again, fire to Moab, along with death. Sound of trumpet should likely be understood as heralds to battle. All said, strongholds are gone, ruler will be cut off and his sons will die.

 
Continuing…and this is the point that becomes much more difficult for Amos to say and for Judah to hear, Judah sucks because they have rejected the laws of God. The people who assumed their prosperity was at the hands of God are told that their unwillingness to follow God and the lies they tell themselves about how they are doing has led them astray and will bring punishment. God’s people get the same consequences as their enemies, judgment and the devouring of strongholds.
 
Then it is Israel’s turn (Northern Kingdom). They have traded good people out for riches. They have mistreated and ignored the poor and God will not stand for it. Father and son share women, they worship false idols, and get drunk in their false temples (they should be worshiping in Jerusalem but set up a couple other temples and thought that’d be fine. They were incorrect.)
 
God makes the case that there is no excuse for their foolishness. He destroyed the Amorites in front of them, brought the people out of Egypt to take the land from the Amorites, and brought up people within Israel to be prophets, to keep them on the straight and narrow. But they jacked it up. They had the priests drink booze and told the prophets not to speak. So, God will bring justice upon them. You will not be able to run or defend yourself and even the great among you will not be able to sustain.
 
Your horse will not help, your bow will not help, and your stout heart will not help.
 
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Amos – Chapter 1

Amos opens with an introduction of who he is. It’s interesting who he is not, which is a denoted prophet. In fact, he’s just a shepherd (Tekoa is a town just south of Jerusalem, so it’s in Judah. I remember Israel is in the north and Judah to the south by the order of the first letter of their names in the alphabet. “I” is first, it’s on top of “J”, which is on the bottom.) Either way, his target is Israel in the days of Uzziah (which makes him a bit of a contemporary of Isaiah, who has the famous scene in Isaiah 6 where he gets the vision in heaven in the year Uzziah dies.) 
 
Make no mistake, Amos brings the heavy. In the first chapter he’s basically going to lay out some consistently patterned judgment upon the nations that surround Israel. They suck, and God’s people will be glad to hear what Amos is saying here. (They shouldn’t get too comfortable, they don’t know it yet but their time has also come, God is sick of their stuff, too.) 
 
Amos establishes that it is God we’re hearing from by giving a picture of him “roaring from Zion”. The very earth weeps at this and the mountain where the gods of the world were defeated soundly (Mt. Carmel, it’s where God whooped upon Baal with Elijah calling the fire down). You know there’s going to be some business going down with this opening salvo.
 
Here we go: Syria sucks (north of Israel, and we know it’s them, Damascus is their capital) because they have ransacked and torn through Gilead, a part of Israel. So God will judge them and it will land on the King (Ben-Hedad) who has no means to protect himself from God’s wrath in this area. The towns referenced and people referenced here show that God intimately knows who he is dealing with and bringing judgment upon. They shall be sent back to Kir (their original land) and out of the lands where they have stuck their nose where it doesn’t belong. 
 
Next, Philistia sucks (on the Mediterranean coast, just west of Judah), because they were in cahoots with the Edomites and booted people out of their land. Again, God responds with judgment/fire and the breaking of any protections the Philistines believe they have, and their leaders will be dealt with harshly (again, they are called out by name).
 
Next, Tyre sucks (north of Philistia, west of Israel) for basically the same reason Philistia sucks, they were in cahoots with Edom. (The Edomites were Esau’s descendants, by the way.) In addition, Tyre seemed to have agreements with these people (close enough to be considered a “covenant of brotherhood”), that they ignored in this cahootery with Edom. Poor form. So, fire to the wall of Tyre and strongholds devoured. Pretty consistent here.  
 
Then there’s Edom, a merciless group of hooligans who openly treated their “brothers” (Israel), in anger and without pity. We don’t get kings named here, just cities (Teman and Bozrah), but the gist is the same, fire and devouring of strongholds. 
 
Finally for chapter 1, the Ammonites (just east of Israel). They suck because they have “ripped open pregnant women in Gilead” in an attempt to gain land. As expected, God responds with fire and devouring of strongholds. Kings are back in view here and they he will be exiled, along with his sons. 
 
The reason I opened with Assyria as a backdrop is because God will use the Assyrians, at a time when these nations believed Assyria was losing power, as the means to keep the promises our man Amos is making now. 
 
 
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