Amos 1:1 - Homiletics

A voice from the sheepcotes.

The Jewish nation is almost seven centuries old. A wayward nonage had passed into a maturity incorrigibly perverse. Alarmed by prophetic thunders, and riven by the lightning bolts of judgment ( Amos 4:6-11 ), Israel clung to its iniquities in spite of all ( Amos 2:4 ; Amos 5:11 ; Isaiah 1:5 ). Yet God had not cast off his people whom he foreknew. There were other arrows in his quiver still, and he would shoot them against national obduracy with a stronger bow. Amos shall take up his controversy against Israel where Moses, and Samuel, and Elijah, and Elisha had laid it down. Famine and the sword and captivity shall maintain and strengthen his expostulation ( Amos 2:14 16). The argument shall at length prevail, and, the irreconcilables destroyed, a remnant shall enjoy his grace and choose his way ( Amos 9:11-15 ). In this prefatory word consider—

I. THE SEER . An idol priest supplies the title ( Amos 7:12 ), but it is suitable and endures. A prophet sees, where other men are blind, the meaning of what is and the nature of what shall be .

1 . His name. Amos signifies "Bearer," or "Burden," or "Heavy." And it was prophetically significant of the owner's work. His words were weighty ( Amos 7:10 ), the burden of dram was weightier still ( Amos 6:1 ), and weightiest of all was the Divine authority with which they came (verse 3).

2 . His extraction. "From among the shepherds." These were probably small sheep owners, who tended their own flocks (Keil, Lange, etc.). They were in the lower ranks of life, the rank from which God has called, and calls the majority of his servants ( 1 Corinthians 1:27 , 1 Corinthians 1:28 ). The poor man depends for all his well being on spiritual good ( Luke 6:24 ). He therefore chooses it more readily ( Mark 12:37 ), advances in it more easily ( Matthew 13:22 ), rejoices in it more entirely ( Isaiah 29:19 ), and is chosen to it rather than the rich ( James 2:5 ). "Poverty is the sister of a sound mind," was a heathen maxim embodying a kindred truth.

3 . His calling. "A herdsman and gatherer of sycamores." This occupation would be no mean preparation for his prophetic office. A true prophet must be tender of human life, even when he denounces death; and if from the love of man we may rise to the love of God ( 1 John 4:20 ), why not from the love of plant and animal to the love of man?

"He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us

Hath made and loveth all."

4. His home. Tekoah, a city south of Bethlehem, in the land of Judah. Thence he went to Bethel, in the land of Israel, to prophesy. That he may not be "without honour," and corresponding influence, he goes from his own to a neighbouring country ( Matthew 13:57 ). Then, like Elijah and John the Baptist, he goes to the pampered and dissolute town dwellers, that with the healthy tastes and simple habits and strong pure life of a dweller in the fields, he might put their laxity and luxury to shame ( Amos 6:1-6 ).

II. THE VISION . The term does not occur in Amos, but the equivalent of it does, and it is common elsewhere in Scripture ( Isaiah 1:1 ; Habakkuk 2:2 ).

1 . It was what " he saw ." Of the way in which God revealed truth to inspired men we know nothing. It is above reason and outside revelation. It was not with the bodily eye, nor in the natural sense, that the vision was seen; but the revelation was adequate, and the result was knowledge ( Acts 4:20 ). Their cognizance of matters was at once sure and clear ( 1 John 1:1 ), and comparable in both respects to that of Christ himself ( John 3:11 ).

2 . It was " words ." A word is the body of a thought. A thought is the spirit of a word. It is only by words, or something answering to words, that thoughts can be conveyed from man to man. Analogy would suggest that the same method is employed by God. If, as some hold, we think in words, the hypothesis would be greatly strengthened. In any ease, what Amos got was not simply thoughts, but words, and the words of Scripture are, in some real and important sense, "words which the Holy Ghost teacheth" ( 1 Corinthians 2:13 ; 2 Samuel 23:2 ).

III. THE SPEAKING OF THE VISION . Coming from his simple shepherd life into a luxurious city, and with the burden of his heavy tidings on his heart, the prophet's speech is:

1 . Deeply serious. A grave character and a grave message make a prophetic utterance a solemn thing. Amos had to tell of a cup of iniquity full, of a Divine patience exhausted, of a dispensation of forbearance expired, and of a national ruin ready to fall; and he tells it as one weighted down with the piteous tiding, which yet he cannot choose but speak ( Amos 3:1 ; Amos 4:1 ; Amos 5:1 ; Amos 6:1 ).

2 . Blunt. Amos is outspoken and honest, names the condemned, and unequivocally denounces their impending doom. He may not mince his tidings who is the messenger of death ( Matthew 3:10 ; Luke 13:3 ; Romans 1:18 ). Suppression would be murder, and even euphemy would be cruel. Life and death hang on his lips, and all sentiment apart he must speak out.

"The power to bind and loose to truth is given;

The mouth that speaks it is the mouth of Heaven."

3. Characteristic. His style is bold and clear and tender, like his own nature ( Amos 4:4 , Amos 4:12 , Amos 4:13 ; Amos 9:5 , Amos 9:6 ; Amos 6:9 , Amos 6:10 ); and his imagery is racy of the mountains and fields in which his character was formed (verse 2; Amos 2:9 , Amos 2:13 ; Amos 3:4 , Amos 3:5 ; Amos 5:19 ). The word of God in one sense, it is in another, and no less really, the word of Amos. The Divine Spirit supplies the breath and the fingering, and determines and directs the time, but the human instrument gives forth its own characteristic sound.

IV. THE WRITING OF THE VISION . Scripture contains matters that were written at the Divine dictation, and first promulgated in their written form. But it also contains much that was spoken first and written afterwards, for preservation. Such is the Book of Amos. The writing of it was:

1 . Some years after the speaking. He spoke years before an earthquake, after which he wrote his book. This earthquake he had foretold in his oral prophecy ( Amos 8:8 ; Amos 9:5 ), and he thus puts on record the fulfilment of his own prediction. "After fulfilling his mission, he probably returned to Judah, his native land, where his prophecies were most likely first committed to writing" (Keil).

2 . In a different form from the speaking. Amaziah ( Amos 7:10 , Amos 7:11 ) refers to, and gives a summary of "words" that are not recorded. The book is a resume of the essential contents of the oral prophecies (Keil, Lange). Accordingly, it does not contain them in the very form, nor necessarily in the exact order, in which they were spoken.

3 . With a widened purpose. The oral prophecies were for those whom they directly concerned. The written prophecies were for the sages and the ages that were to follow. They were the flower of the prophecies that went before ( Joel 3:16 , Joel 3:18 ), and the bud of those that came after ( Hosea 8:14 ; Hosea 9:3 ; Jeremiah 49:3 , Jeremiah 49:13-27 ; Jeremiah 46:6 ; Jeremiah 25:30 ; see Lange). They also contain truths essentially important and requisite for the perfecting of the man of God in all ages ( Amos 3:3 , Amos 3:6 , Amos 3:7 ; Amos 5:4-6 , Amos 5:14 , Amos 5:15 ; Amos 7:2 , Amos 7:3 ).

4 . Under the same Divine guidance . The contents of the book lie between the expressions, "thus saith the Lord" ( Amos 1:3 ), and "saith the Lord thy God" ( Amos 9:15 ). These formulae cover both the oral and the written prophecy, each being the subject of a distinct inspiration for its own special purpose. So Paul takes an inspired utterance of David, and, under inspiration, charges it with a new lesson (comp. Psalms 40:6 with Hebrews 10:5 ; also Isaiah 60:1 with Ephesians 5:14 ).

V. THE SUBJECT OF THE VISION . It is brief, but it covers much ground.

1 . The Jews. Judah and Israel are mentioned separately, having been distinct kingdoms for above a century ( Amos 2:4 , Amos 2:6 ). The entire Hebrew people are also grouped together as forming the family of Israel which God redeemed from Egypt ( Amos 3:1 ). It is as earthly kingdoms that destruction is denounced on both ( Amos 2:4 , Amos 2:6 ), but it is as one covenant people that they survive in a remnant, and are restored ( Amos 9:11-15 ).

2 . Their oppressors. God had made the neighbouring nations "the rod of his anger" ( Amos 3:11 ; Amos 5:27 ; Isaiah 10:4 ) to smite Israel. They accomplished his purpose unconsciously, and impelled by evil motives of their own (verses 3, 6, 9, 13; Isaiah 10:7 ). Accordingly, their wars and oppressions, inflicted on Israel, were essentially wicked, and deserving punishment in turn. It is thus that the wrath of man, which he punishes at last, God makes meanwhile to praise him by the unwitting execution of his will.

3 . Those who resemble either . God acts on the same principles in all ages. He afflicts the Church for the sins of its members. To the insincere his judgments mean punishment only ( Romans 1:18 ). To the sincere but faulty they mean discipline also ( 2 Corinthians 4:17 ). To the Church as a whole they mean separation between tares and wheat ( Matthew 13:29 , Matthew 13:30 ). To the outside wicked, through whom they often come, they mean more sin now, and a heavier punishment at last ( Luke 18:7 ).

VI. THE TIME OF THE VISION . On this point we have information the most explicit.

1 . Generally it was in the days of Uzziah and Jeroboam. During those reigns Judah and Israel were in the zenith of their career. It was, therefore, a vision of adversity when prosperity was at its height, of disastrous war when peace by conquest had been obtained with neighbouring powers, of both these as punishment when idolatry and corruption were at their worst. This proves its genuineness, as it could not have been suggested by the observed shadows of coming events. At the same time, it accounts for its comparative failure as a warning, the future predicted being so utterly unlike the present.

2 . Specially it was " before the earthquake. " "The presumption is natural that these words indicate not only the period but the motive of the composition" (Lange). The approach of the earthquake was the occasion of the oral prophecy, and the occurrence of it the occasion of the written one. That the latter should contain a record of the fulfilment of the former ( Amos 8:8 ; Amos 9:5 ) is proof that in addition to being genuine the vision is authentic.