1 Adam Behnke OT Literature and Interpretation Professor Michael Graves 7 December 2009 Theme Exposition Paper: Amos

The book of Amos is a record of the confrontational message from God to the disobedient

people of Israel, communicated through the shepherd-prophet Amos. His mention of an earthquake and Jeroboam II in chapter 1 narrows the timeframe of this book to between 760 and 750 BC (Hill and Walton 608). Amos audience enjoyed a time of peace and prosperity while their morality dipped lower and lower. The main theme of Amos is Israels continued social injustice and practice of shallow religion, which angers the Lord and causes Him to forecast (through His prophet Amos) punishment and judgement which will end Israels current economic bounty (Hill and Walton 605). God establishes the nature of judgment in chapters 1 and 2. From Amos 1:2, [Amos]

said: The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers. When the Lord is angry, repercussions will follow; disobedience and immorality stir the Lords anger and cause Him to punish the wicked. In chapters 1 and 2, the Lord recounts the evil deeds of Israels surrounding nations, followed by Israel itself, to show the close similarity between their behavior. Just as Ammon ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead (1:13) and Edom pursued his brother with a sword, stiing all compassion (1:11) and Gaza took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom (1:6), Israel sell[s] the righteous for silver, and trample[s] on the heads of the poor (1:6-7). Though Israel is a nation of Gods chosen people, they deserve judgment because they disobey

2 the Lord and perform the same severity of evil deeds as the pagan nations around them. This universal perspective of judgment sets the framework for the Lords punishment of Israel. Amos 3:2 adds another dimension to the framework. It says, You only have I chosen of

all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins. The chosen nature of the people Israel does not give them a get-out-of-jail-free-card, but conversely makes them more accountable to the Lord for their actions. By participating in the covenant of Abraham and of David, the people of Israel acquired responsibility that, if not fullled, warrants harsh penalty. Chapters 3 and 4 provide a couple examples of the wickedness Israel does to evoke the

anger of the Lord. The culture of the northern kingdom is characterized by oppression and excess material goods (3:9-10, 15). These two evils relate because one causes or results from the other. In 4:1, Amos describes some women who get their goods through their oppression of the underprivileged. Others hoard plunder and loot in their fortresses, replacing a love for people with an all-encompassing love for money and materials (4:10). The people of Israel believe as long as they follow the rules for sacrices and tithes and

offerings, than they may continue in their sin (4:4-5). Like their love for material goods, the appearance of their religion is more important to them than how the religion internally changes them. The Lord uses sarcasm to point out the uselessness of their religious works when He says to them Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more.brag about your freewill offerings --boast about them...for this is what you love to do (4:4-5). They do not acknowledge the Lord or follow His commands; they eliminated His presence from their lives. Therefore, the Lord says, prepare to meet your God, O Israel (4:12), a scary statement that means God in all His anger, power, and judgement will make Himself important in the Israelites lives once again.

3 While chapters 3 and 4 contained some examples of Israels wickedness, chapter 5 states

that the sinful nature of the Israelites consists primarily of social injustice and shallow religion. Even further, the opposite virtues, justice and righteousness, are commanded by God and presented as the only way to receive grace from God. The Lord describes the Israelites as abusers of the poor: you who turn justice into bitterness (5:7); you trample on the poor and force him to give you grain (5:11); you deprive the poor of justice in the courts (5:12). The Lord cares for the poor and needy, and He cannot stand by when they are mistreated. In 5:21-24, the Lord reiterates the sentiment of 4:4-5. He says, I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies (5:21), because the Israelites acts of worship are not genuine. They do not desire justice or righteousness, which the Lord requires in order to live (5:14-15). Chapter 6 is a focus transition --from the wicked people to the just God. The rst half of

this chapter deviates slightly from the main theme of Amos; the wealth and bounty of the Israelites is discussed again but not in correlation with social injustice, and only weakly in connection to their shallow religion (6:5). Rather, the Lord is decrying how the Israelites, in their wealth and fortune, are complacent, lazy, and uncaring about the consequences of disobedience to the Lord. The second half of chapter 6 shifts to the specics of the Lords judgment on Israel. The wording of the Lords commands classify the judgment as inevitable (For the LORD has given the command, and he will (6:11)), and holistic (I will deliver up the city and everything in it (6:8)). God is determined to punish the people of Israel in a denite and just way. The Lord teases out His desire for judgment through the use of metaphors and images in

chapters 7 and 8. They are all communicated through visions from the Lord to Amos. Each of the rst three visions is a plan of judgement on the people; the last vision is a metaphor for the

4 Lords nal decision to judge. In the rst, a swarm of locusts ruins the entire second harvest of the people, but the Lord relents after Amos disdainful cry (7:1-3). Amos reply makes the Lord relent on the second judgment as well, a re that dried up the deep and devoured the land (7:4; 7:4-6). The third is a metaphor for setting the people back towards upright living; He speaks of putting a plumb line among the people which will point out everything that needs to be destroyed and altered (7:7-9). Amos does not record a response from Amos to this vision. The nal vision is of a basket of ripe fruit (8:1-2). God uses this metaphor simply to explain that The time is ripeI will spare them no longerthe songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies --ung everywhere! Silence! (8:2-3). The visions in chapters 7 and 8 give more clarity to the Lords timeline of judgment. The rest of Amos can be summed up by 9:8: Surely the eyes of the Sovereign LORD are

on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth-- yet I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob. The sinful kingdom is Israel, which He details the punishment of in 8:7 9:10. The Assyrians do obliterate Israel and take away all its people, but a remnant remain and return to the land to start the nation again. This restoration is described in 9:11-15. Israel is to be sifted in judgement virtually to extinction; yet Israel will be redeemed and

restored (Wright 140). Christ illuminates Amos through promise/fulllment and the unfolding of theological themes. Both approaches deepen our understanding of restoration in Amos and

the New Testament. The theme of restoration is but a glimmer of hope at the end of the book of Amos. Only four verses out of nine chapters carry a promise of restoration, and it is easy to only dwell on the judgment in the almost-entirety of the rest of the book. But while restoration in Amos is an abstract promise that speaks of restor[ing] Davids fallen tent (9:11), that promise is completely fullled in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Greidanus agrees and claims The dynamic

5 reality of Jesus was plugged into the no less dynamic potential of the Old Testaments future hope (207). The theme of restoration grows, matures, and is fully realized in Jesus Christ, who gives the chance of life not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well. Jesus Christ restores souls and bodies; He is the restorer of life and He stems from David. Amos 9:12 carries a more specic promise, ...so that they may possess the remnant of

Edom and all the nations that bear my name. declares the LORD, who will do these things. Acts 15:12-18 gives account of this promises direct fulllment when James quotes Amos 9:12. The decision of the council to allow Gentiles into the church also highlighted again the restoration of Israel in Jesus Christs resurrection (Wright 169-70). Lastly, Jesus desired spiritual loyalty to God. His anger and passion in the Temple and

synagogue reects the sentiment in Amos 5:21-24. He hated religious hypocrisy and demonstrated how to live as if to let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5:24). His authenticity set the example on how to live with deep commitment and obedience to God the Father (Wright 224-25).

Works Cited: Greidanus, Sidney. Preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999, pp. 203-225.

Hill, Andre E., and John H. Walton. A Survey of the Old Testament. 2d ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.

Wright, Christopher J. H. Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1992.