Amos lived and wrote in the first half of the eighth century during the reign of Jeroboam II of the Northern Kingdom. Perhaps 755 B.C. best fits the conditions which are reflected in the book. His teaching is of particular significance because it inaugurated a line of prophetic ministries through which the people of Israel were brought to a deeper insight concerning the character of Jehovah. Only the revelation of God in Jesus Christ goes beyond this understanding of the divine nature. It was through the teachings of Amos and the men who followed him that the Israelites were enabled “to survive the tragic ending of their career as a nation, and become the vehicle of God's distinctive revelation of himself to his world.”1
A. THE AUTHOR AND HIS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
A century ago, Amos was thought of as just one of the minor prophets; today because of exegetical and critical studies he is given an exalted position in biblical literature. His language is looked upon as one of the best examples of pure Hebrew style.
Amos was the first of the literary prophets who set themselves to eliminate those pagan elements which had crept into Israel's religious and social life. He, with others, was to revive the Mosaic ideal that God required holiness of life. These prophets “moralized” religion, and also universalized it. The God in whose name they spoke was not only their God, but the God of the whole world.
As in the case of Joel, we know very little about the man Amos except what can be gleaned from the internal evidence of his book. We know that he lived in the days of Jeroboam II (782-753 B.C..). Since a long period of prosperity seems to have preceded the prophet, we conclude that his ministry fell in the second half of Jeroboam's reign.
While Amos was a resident of Judah, his prophetic message was delivered in and to Israel. This fact raises an interesting question with reference to the relation of his message to Judah. Did Amos mean to except Judah from the doom pronounced on Israel and the neighboring peoples? Or did he mean to include Judah? The writer is inclined to believe the latter. Amos had no thought of sparing the Southern Kingdom. We must, therefore, hold that Amos meant to include Judah in the common doom that was to befall Israel and the surrounding nations. Why then did he choose Bethel instead of Jerusalem as the scene of his ministry? The probable answer is that he looked upon the two branches of the Israelitish people as essentially one and that, of the two, the Northern was the more important.
The center of national life was to be found in Bethel, the royal sanctuary of the northern realm, and it was the strategic place for a prophet to begin his ministry. His message would there produce the most immediate and powerful effect.
Amos disclaims the title of nabi (a professional prophet). By this he means that he did not belong to the prophetic order and had not received the training of a prophet. He designates himself as a man of lowly station who belonged to the poorer class. In view of this fact one naturally wonders how he acquired the degree of culture which he manifestly possessed. However, among the Hebrews, knowledge and culture were not peculiar to the wealthy and the professional classes. The early training of every Israelite equipped him religiously and culturally regardless of his social status.
Even so, Amos was a simple man, a herdsman who dressed sycomore fruit, the food of the poor. His father was not a prophet, nor did he possess a noble background as did Isaiah. His home was in Tekoa, twelve miles south of Jerusalem (see map 2), where genuine spiritual life and the pure worship of God survived in the rugged hill country.
His call was of God. Amos himself says that Jehovah “took” him from following the flock. This implies a sudden seizure by a power not of himself. Such is also the implication of 3:8, where the prophet says: “The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” There was a burning fire shut up in his bones which compelled him to speak. Amos was a man who had a message from Jehovah and he had to be delivered of his burden.
Since his was a divine call, Amos was frank, courageous, and dynamic. He had a deep resentment against the social evils of his day and burned at injustice and dishonesty. He had a keen insight into the deeper things of God as well as into national and international relations. His tongue was like a whip to the oppressor and honey to the oppressed.
B. AMOS AND HIS MESSAGE
The great fundamental conceptions underlying Amos' message of doom make him a significant figure in the history of religious faith. The people around him felt certain of the divine favor for two reasons: First, were they not the chosen of God? Second, they were attentive to all the details of worship. To Amos, however, these two pillars of popular confidence were broken reeds. Neither offered the slightest basis for any assurance of divine favor.
It was true that Jehovah had chosen Israel to be His peculiar people. He stood in an especially close relationship to the nation. But this did not mean, as they supposed, that they had a monopoly on divine favor or that Jehovah's protecting care was confined to Israel. His favor was universal, arising from a universal God who brooked no rivals.
Whatever preeminence Israel possessed was to be found in the special revelation which God had made to her of His character and will. This revelation, however, she had spurned. Israel, therefore, had no advantage over other nations. When she sinned she meant no more to Jehovah than the distant and despised Ethiopians. Such was the manner in which Amos dealt with the national pretension of his day.
With the popular trust in rites and ceremonies he was harsher still, but it is a mistake to suppose that Amos meant to condemn all rites and ceremonies as such. He was not so doctrinaire as to be blind to the fact that true piety needs its “days and seasons” and outward forms for its proper cultivation. What he objected to was the substitution of these external rites for the inner spirit of piety.
Against the popular trust in sacrifices, the unqualified election of a chosen people, and the special providence of God for the nation, Amos laid down the principle that the only hope of Israel was to be found in righteousness., And by righteousness he meant what was right in the absolute sense of the term, both objective and subjective: respect for personality in oneself and others.
Two evils which Amos expressly designated were the oppression of the poor by the rich, and the corruption of the judicial system in Israel. In these, human life was literally bartered away. To Amos this seemed the height of iniquity, and the very limit of folly. So he exhorted men: “Seek the Lord, and ye shall live”; and, “Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live” (5:6, 14). The prophet thus identified religion with the moral law. To seek Jehovah is to seek the good. There is no other way of entering into fellowship with Him. Religion then comes to be the chief conserving force in society and a most powerful stimulus to the development of man's highest faculties.
Our study of Amos' teachings can be completed however only with the addition of the words of hope found in 9:8-15. Evidently, in spite of all his dark forecasts, Amos was not without hope that Israel might be saved, and certainly was not without the conviction that some at least would “live.” The prophet was a man of intense passion who saw purpose everywhere. The teleological element permeates the whole of his book. That such a man as he should not have reflected on what would take place after the destruction of Israel is incredible.
While Amos thus had his hopeful outlook into the future, it was subordinate to the mainstream of his teaching. His primary task was to assert the claims of the moral law as over against the unspiritual formalism and the national pretension of his time. His chief significance lies in the thoroughness with which he moralized the conception of religion in his demand for national and personal righteousness.
Outline
I. The Approaching Judgment, 1:1—2:16
A. Superscription and Theme, 1:1-2
B. Oracles Against Neighboring Nations, 1:3—2:3
C. Oracle Against Judah, 2:4-5
D. Oracles Against Israel, 2:6-16
II. Sermons on Israel's Coming Judgment, 3:1—6:14
A. Israel's Relationship to God, 3:1-8
B. Samaria's Sinfulness, 3:9—4:3
C. The Depth of Israel's Guilt, 4:4—5:3
D. Exhortation and Condemnation, 5:4-15
E. The Appearance of Jehovah, 5:16-25
F. Invasion and Exile, 5:26—6:14
III. Visions and an Epilogue, 7:1—9:15