Ancient Prophets & Modern Problems
When they sell wheat, they rig the scales and the currency Amos 8: It is always poor people who are their victims. These ruthless exploiters are nameless, but they plainly have wealth and power. Their home is Samaria, the capital of the eighth-century B. Amos shows God demanding justice from them rather than worship: Other prophets, working in the sister kingdom of Judah, are indignant about similar things.
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Judgment awaits those who extend their land holdings at the expense of others Isa 5: So this is injustice: And justice means the opposite: The prophets do not question inequality as such. But the books of the prophets also contain visions of society without injustice. Instead of exploiting the poor himself, Josiah used his power to protect them from being exploited by other powerful people.
That idea of the just king becomes a vision of the future in Isa Look at the picture in Isa All that ruthless greed will be at an end: Can there realistically be power without oppression? But the prophets are relevant not because they are realistic but because they taught that the test of justice in a nation is how the weakest are treated.
This teaching repeatedly emerges in Jewish and Christian writing ever since. The rabbis could not think of a worse sin for the people of Sodom than to issue a decree that no one was to help the poor. Houston, "Social Justice and the Prophets", n. Houston has retired after many years of teaching Hebrew Bible in seminaries and universities in England, and he now holds an honorary research fellowship at the University of Manchester. He helps maintain the Society for Old Testament Study wiki. Israel had been given the law of God. Therefore, more was expected of them.
The idea is that the people longed to see the poor in such a state of misery that they threw dust on their heads a sign of mourning. Amos condemned Israel for polluting the Nazarites by giving them wine to drink. He also chastized them for commanding the prophets not to prophecy. Apparently, Israel would have liked to set these servants of the Lord aside so that they could live every man according to his own way and feel comfortable in doing so.
Amos spoke to the whole of Israel, all twelve families or tribes. Using the metaphor of a husband, the Lord reminded Israel that He had chosen no other see Amos 3: He spoke of Himself as a faithful husband and reminded Israel of her covenant relationship with Him see Jeremiah 3: It is necessary, if they are to walk together, for them to be in agreement.
The images are all chosen to express the same thing: God, has foreknowledge of all calamities see vv.
Ancient Prophets With a Series of Occasional Papers on Modern Problems
Prophecy comes by direct revelation. God has knowledge of all His children and their doings and justly warns and threatens with His judgments. The fact that the prophets prophesy correctly is an indication that they are in communion with God and that they do indeed walk together.
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If therefore such heathen as these are called to behold the unrighteous and dissolute conduct to be seen in the places, it must have been great indeed. Amos used vivid imagery to show that scarcely any would escape and those who did would do so with extreme difficulty.
It is like a shepherd who can recover no more of a sheep carried away by a lion than two of its legs or a piece of its ear, just enough to prove that they belonged to his sheep. This prophecy saw fulfillment when Sargon took Samaria, part of the Northern Kingdom, captive about B. In the East the corner is the most honorable place, and a couch in the corner of a room is the place of greatest distinction.
These words were used to mean that even in the cities which were in the most honorable part of the land, whether Samaria in Israel, or Damascus in Syria, none would escape the judgments. In that day the Lord would remove His power from among Israel, as symbolized by the cutting off of the horns of the altar see Old Testament Student Manual: The prophet was saying that not only the poor habitations of the villages and the country would be smitten but also those of the nobility, those who had summer and winter homes adorned with ivory vessels and carvings.
The quality of life in any community is largely what its women make it. If they are cruel and covetous, their children will likely be the same. Here Amos compared the women of Samaria with the cows kine which fed upon the rich pastures east of the Sea of Galilee, caring for little but eating and drinking. Their sin consisted of urging their husbands to bring them food bought with money squeezed from the poor. See Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, The sacrifices of Israel had degenerated into heartless ritual. It did no good to go to religious centers, to Bethel or Gilgal, and offer sacrifice in a sinful state.
The outward sacrifices should have symbolized repentance, an inward change; but outward sacrifice without inward change is a mockery, and God will not be mocked. In an endeavor to bring His people to their senses the Lord, said Amos, had sent upon them seven natural calamities. Cleanness of teeth [hunger], drought, blasting and mildew, insect pests, pestilence, death by the sword, and burning were brought in succession, but all to no avail.
He could do nothing but warn the nation of the final blow which God would send and for which the people must prepare themselves. The God of hosts see Amos 4: Here the Lord appealed to fallen Israel to repent and mend her evil ways: The Lord wants to be a personal God to His faithful, obedient children. It was not too late for Israel to repent. Failure to do so, however, would result in a situation like that of a man running from a lion only to meet a bear see v. Neither would various sacrificial offerings help unless true repentance followed: All of this outward display was unavailing, and Amos cries out for justice in two lines that have become famous: Moloch and Chiun were heathen gods that the Israelite women had adopted.
So grievously addicted to idolatry were those in Samaria that they carried miniature replicas of these gods everywhere they went.
Ancient Prophets and Modern Problems by Samuel Logan Brengle and Bob Hostetler (2016, Paperback)
The Lord enlarged here on the captivity that He foresaw for degenerate Israel. But first He invited them to visit other places of destruction—Calneh in Mesopotamia, Hamath in Syria, and Gath in Philistia—and observe what happened to the people there. Were the Israelites any better than they? They had been punished, and so would Israel. Moreover, the wealthy—those who lay on ivory beds and ate sumptuous food—would be the first to suffer see Amos 6: These persons are absolutely indifferent to the threatened ruin of their people. The prophet indicates 6: Horses cannot run on rocks without slipping, nor can a man plough rocks in order to plant see v.
By the same token, rebellious Israel could not expect to prosper in her state of evil. What Amos had predicted came to pass within thirty years. The last three chapters of Amos deal with five visions Amos had. The first four visions show the various judgments of the Lord upon Israel, while the fifth vision portends the overthrow of their apostate theocracy and the restoration of fallen Israel. The visions are 1 a swarm of locusts Amos 7: Each has a symbolic meaning that clearly shows that the Lord intended to bring the kingdom of Israel to an end if His people did not repent.
The meaning of each vision will be considered individually. A swarm of locusts Amos 7: The growing of the second crop is a figurative representation of the prosperity which flourished again after those judgments; in actual fact, therefore, it denotes the time when the dawn had risen again for Israel ch.
PROPHECY IS NOT NEW REVELATION ABOUT GOD
Devouring fire Amos 7: The fire that devoured the great deep presumably the ocean is symbolic of the partially destructive wars that Israel was later involved in. The master builder with the plumbline Amos 7: A plumbline is used to obtain exactness and accuracy in construction work.
All wickedness will be sought out, measured judged , and destroyed. The basket of summer fruit Amos 8: The harvest of summer fruit symbolized the ripening of Israel. Just as summer fruit must be eaten when picked or it will spoil, Israel was ripe for picking and spoiling by enemies. The sun going down at noon Amos 8: Indeed, it will be a sign for the wicked of the latter days that their sun is about to set at noon. The smitten sanctuary Amos 9: From His dwelling place, the Lord will smite the wicked. There is none to escape, hide where they may. Only the Second Coming of the Lord fulfills such a description, for when the Lord comes in His glory, the rewards of justice will be met.
No mountain is high enough, no sea so deep that the unrepentant sinner can hide from the judgments of a just God.