Amos 3-4
Dear RTB’ers,
I hope you all read John’s comment yesterday pointing to a post from last year. He provides good background for our reading of the prophets, even clarifying some of what I wrote yesterday. Also, in reading his post I was reminded that Amos was the first of the prophets that we read in The Chronological Bible. Amos was sent to prophecy to the Northern Kingdom and it was the first to fall, in 722 BC. So in our chronological study we read Amos in the context of our historical readings of II Chronicles and II Kings.
After blasting neighboring nations in chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2, God (through Amos) now continues His judgment on Judah and Israel. We see that Judah is included in His judgments today as we see Him speaking to the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt… (v. 3:1) Much of what Amos writes includes God’s concerns for inequality, for greed, for the rich subjugating the poor: …the oppressed in her midst… (v. 3:9); …those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds… (v. 3:10); …you cows …on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy… (v. 4:1)
But God also has judgment against their “religion”. Here He is speaking sarcastically: Come to Bethel, and transgress… (continued in Amos 4:4-5). My Study Bible speaks well of the Northern Kingdom’s mix of religious ritual and human inequality: “They loved the forms and rituals of religion but did not love what God loves – goodness, mercy, kindness, justice.” We’ll see more of this mix as we continue in Amos.
Finally in Amos 4:6-13 God speaks of His “smaller” judgments against Israel – His goodness to them alongside difficulties that He has brought upon them. And His clear message to them is from His heart, His longing for them: “Yet you did not return to Me…”, spoken four times (Amos 4:6, 9, 10, 11). I think there’s a message there for us today – return to Him!
Blessings!