April 8, 2002
LifeWay Family Bible Series for April 21
Amos' visions confound Amaziah's loyalties
___Amos 7:1-17
___By Barbara Kent
___University Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___Amos preached to the people of Israel this message of God: Unless you turn from your sins, judgment will come. Israel continued to ignore that message. Beginning in chapter 7, the message from God is presented in the format of visions. In all, the book contains five visions. Three are in this chapter.
___Vision of locusts
___Amos took no credit for any of the visions. Rather, each time he said, "This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me." God took the initiative in his revelation. He caused the prophet to see.
___What did he see in this first vision? He saw the coming of a plague of locusts. This deadly, devastating occurrence would happen during April, after the latter rains, just as the second crop was coming up. The king's share had been harvested. The crop for the people would be utterly destroyed by the locusts (v.1).
___Amos reacted with anguish and grief. He cried out to the Lord on behalf of the sinful people whom he had warned over and over again (v. 2): "Lord, forgive! How can they survive?" Amos was no "hell-fire and brimstone" preacher who took delight in the damnation of the wicked. Rather, he was compassionate, and he grieved over promised judgment on his people. In his mercy, the Lord relented and said, "This will not happen" (v. 3).
___A vision of fire
___The second vision was to be a trial by fire. "Fire" may have referred to war, drought or a prairie fire. Whatever it was, it would be so destructive that even the waters of the deep (underground water) would be dried up and the land devoured (v. 4). We all have seen the devastation caused by fire. No one could wish for destruction by fire even of bitterest enemies, much less of family and friends, no matter how wicked they might be. Again, Amos begged the Lord to stay his judgment (v. 5). Again, the Lord listened to the prayer of the former shepherd and dresser of fig trees by saying, "This will not happen either" (v. 6). Notice that this time Amos did not ask the Lord to forgive them, only that judgment be stopped. Perhaps he still hoped Israel would repent.
___A vision of a plumb line
___This third vision showed the Lord with a plumb line, standing by a wall that had been built to plumb (v. 7). Not long ago, I helped my daughter put up wallpaper in her kitchen. She had chosen a pattern of large blue and white checks. The wall was not plumb. Without a plumb line, we would never have been able to put the wallpaper on. The plumb line showed clearly the flaws of the wall.
___The wall in these verses, probably the city wall built to protect the people, was symbolic of the people of Israel. God used a plumb line as a test to show how sinful the people were. They failed miserably. There was no hope for them to escape judgment. God said simply: "I will spare them no longer" (v. 8). The rural places of worship (high places) would be destroyed (v. 9). The sanctuaries, the temples in the cities would be destroyed (v. 9). Even the king and his dynasty would be destroyed (v. 9). Sadly, the people of Israel had waited too late to repent.
___Clash of loyalties
___Enter Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, who was loyal to King Jereboam. Amaziah apparently had heard or heard of Amos' prophecies and visions. He trotted up to the capital city of Samaria to tell the king that Amos was predicting dire consequences for Jereboam and the people of Israel (vv. 10-11). No report of how Jereboam received the report is recorded in these verses. Jereboam II probably had already heard about Amos, since all Amaziah had to do was mention his name. After Amaziah reported to the king, he confronted Amos and invited him to leave (v. 12). He said, "Do not say any more bad things at Bethel. This is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom" (v. 13). Amaziah forgot it all belonged to God.
___Amos answered Amaziah with the simple statement of his testimony (vv. 14-15). He said, "I prophesy to Israel because the Lord command me, so hear what the Lord says" (v. 15). Amos said Amaziah did not want any more of such preaching, but the Lord's answer to that was to confirm the utter destruction of Israel (v. 17). Amaziah had claimed that Amos had prophesied that Israel would be driven into exile, and the Lord confirmed this indeed would happen. Amaziah's loyalty was to King Jereboam II; Amos' loyalty was to the Lord who had called him from being a shepherd and a dresser of fig trees to being a prophet.
___Questions for discussion
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