Amos 7
I. Outline of Amos
A. \\#1:1\\ The Time of Amos
B. \\#1:2-2:5\\ Judgment Against Israel’s Neighbors
C. \\#2:6-9:10\\ Judgment Against Israel
1. \\#2:6-6:14\\ Three Sermons
a. \\#2:6-3:15\\ Israel’s Past Sins
b. \\#4:1-13\\ Israel’s Present Sins
c. \\#5:1-6:14\\ Israel’s Future Sins
2. \\#7:1-8:14\\ Five Visions
a. \\#7:1-17\\ Accountability
(1) \\#7:1-9\\ Visions of Accountability
i. \\#7:1-3\\ Vision of Grasshoppers
ii. \\#7:4-6\\ Vision of Fire
iii \\#7:7-9\\ Vision of a Plumbline
(2) \\#7:10-17\\ Accountability of Amaziah
b. \\#8:1-14\\ Timing - Vision of the Summer Fruit
c. \\#9:1-10\\ Totality - Vision of the Altar Destroyed
D. \\#9:11-15\\ God’s Promise of A Future Restoration
I. Accountability \\#7:1-17\\
A. \\#7:1-9\\ Visions of Accountability - God, seeing Israel’s
sins and determining to destroy them, must select a means to
accomplish that. Amos will describe the selection process.
1. \\#7:1-3\\ Vision of Grasshoppers
a. \\#1\\ "the Lord God shewed unto me" - Amos sees a
vision of grasshoppers (locusts) coming in during the
latter growth.
(1) \\#1\\ "the beginning of the shooting up of the
latter growth"
(a) Israel typically had two harvests.
(b) One with the early rains and another with
the latter rains.
(c) This vision was set to be fulfilled in the
between time, as the second harvest began
"shooting up."
(d) A plague of locusts moving across a nation
has fragile and weak as Israel was would
mean a slow, harsh death of starvation for
the people.
(2) "king’s mowing" - It looks like the king may have
taken most of the first harvest in taxes.
(3) \\#2\\ "forgive" - Amos knew would the locusts
would do, so he pleads for mercy.
(4) God is gracious and determines not to allow the
locusts to destroy the land.
b. Some things to consider:
(1) God is not really looking for another judgment
to send upon Israel.
(a) He had already degreed the final judgment
was on the way \\#Amos 4:12\\.
(b) Of course that does not mean that God CAN
NOT send another judgment, just that it
doesn’t appear to be His desire.
(2) God is letting Amos have a part in His work.
(a) Because of Amos’ prayers, God will NOT
send the two additional judgments.
(b) In truth, God already knew what He was going
to do and He already knew what Amos was
going to do.
i. God always knows what He is going to
do. Nothing can take God by surprise.
ii. However, what God will do is normally
UNKNOWN to us and CAN BE
DEPENDENT upon what we do.
iii. So our role in God’s work is always the
same, that is, to pray and be obedient
to His will.
iv. But whether we are or aren’t, God’s
will is still going to be done.
(c) This type of statement always causes
questions about God’s sovereignty and man’s
freewill.
i. The bottom line is that God is always
going to do what God wants to do.
ii. However, God has stated and determined
that we are to participate in His work
by praying in His will.
iii. Here, God had selected three paths.
(aa) We know from other passages that
God had already pre-determined
to destroy Israel with Assyria
which is path #3.
(bb) It is obvious that God had also
predetermined to reveal these
visions to Amos.
(cc) God did this knowing that Amos
would pray for mercy at the
first two visions.
(dd) When Amos did what God knew He
would do, God did what He had
determined He would do. He
selected number three as the
means of Israel’s judgment.
(d) Somebody has to ask, "Suppose Amos did not
pray?"
i. God knew Amos would and He knew what
Amos would ask for.
(aa) Knowing that, God used Amos to
accomplish His will.
(bb) Then what was the point of Amos
praying then?
(i) By praying, Amos would have
the privilege to
participate in the work of
God.
(ii) And, by praying, Amos would
be rewarded.
ii. Suppose God knew that Amos would NOT
pray?
(aa) God might still have given Amos
the option to pray and
participate.
(bb) You and I are under such an
option in many matters.
(cc) If that option is given and we do
not pray, God’s purposes will
still be accomplished (for He
knew that was going to be our
action) but now we are
accountable for not praying and
for being disobedient.
2. \\#7:4-6\\ Vision of Fire
a. \\#4\\ "the Lord God shewed unto me… fire" - Amos
saw a fire which is able to "devour the great deep.
(1) The word "deep" means sea.
(2) It is hard to imagine what God might have done
if this had been the course of action He had
chosen, but it would likely entail a water
shortage such as Israel had never before seen.
b. \\#5-6\\ Again Amos prayed and the Lord rejected this
judgment.
3. \\#7-9\\ Vision of a Plumbline
a. \\#7\\ "the Lord stood upon a wall made by a
plumbline" - In the end, the Lord shows Amos a
plumbline.
(1) The plumbline was used to show the builders
whether a wall was straight or leaning.
(2) If the work were not proper, the wall would be
destroyed and build again.
(a) The plumbline was the standard by which
the work of the builder was measured.
(b) God’s Word is the plumbline.
(c) In this vision, God is telling Amos that He
will hold Israel accountable to HIS
WORD. All of the promises to bless and
curse are in effect. If Israel failed
when God judges Him by the Word, they will
be removed from the land by violence.
(3) The vision of the plumbline is not to say that
God was TO measure Israel for He already
had—He was standing on the wall!
(a) It is to say that, having checked the work,
it is time to tear the wall down!
(b) That will be done by the Assyrians.
b. \\#8\\ "I will not pass by them any more" - Sadly,
God has no plans to rebuild this crooked wall. He
will not pass by that way again. The northern
kingdom would be destroyed.
c. \\#9\\ - "the high places of Isaac… Israel shall be
laid waste"
(1) Whenever God mentions a place in Israel, He
seems to condemn it as a place of false
worship!
(2) Because of this, God will judge the present
king’s family, Jeroboam II. This is a
prophecy of God dealing with Jeroboam’s
son, Zechariah, who ruled for only six months
before being murdered \\#2Kings 15:8-12\\.
B. \\#7:10-17\\ Accountability of Amaziah
1. This section is a historical parenthesis. It is not a
vision but a record of what one man, Amaziah, attempted
to do to stop Amos and what God promised Amaziah as a
result.
2. \\#10-11\\ Amaziah’s Charge Against Amos
a. \\#10\\ "Amaziah the priest of Bethel" - Amaziah was
apparently a chief priest of the false worship in
Bethel. No doubt, Amos’ preaching was getting a
little too close to home.
b. "Jeroboam king of Israel" - Amaziah makes a charge
against Amos before the king of Israel, Jeroboam II.
c. The Charge - The charge contained both truth and
error.
(1) "Amos hath conspired against thee" - ERROR.
Speaking to King Jeroboam, Amaziah attempted to
make it appear that Amos had designed a plot
against him. While Amos may have spoken more
than we have recorded in the Bible, the only
record we have of Amos saying anything against
Jeroboam was actually against his family, not
Jeroboam. Jeroboam ruled 41 years
\\#2Kings 14:23\\ and apparently died of natural
causes \\#2Kings 14:29\\; his son, Zechariah,
was however murdered just six months after
taking the throne \\#2Kings 15:8-10\\.
(2) "the land is not able to bear all of his words"
TRUE - If Amos’ words were true, the land was
about to spew the people out of it.
(3) \\#11\\ "For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die"
ERROR - Amos never said that.
(4) "Israel shall… be…. captive" - TRUE.
3. \\#12-13\\ Amaziah’s Command to Amos
a. \\#12\\ "…go, flee… into… Judah"
Interestingly, Amaziah did not attempt to kill Amos.
He just told him to go home to Judah.
b. \\#13\\ "prophesy not again… at Bethel" - Obviously
Amos had taken his message directly to the source of
the problem, Bethel. Amaziah commanded (and perhaps
threatened) Amos not to speak against the false
altars for they belonged to the king.
4. \\#14-17\\ Amos’ Rely to Amaziah
a. \\#14-15\\ Concerning Amos’ Background
(1) \\#14\\ Amos declared that he was no prophet or
prophet’s son. Rather, he was a herdsman and
fruit picker.
(2) \\#1\\ "the Lord took me" - But God called him
and commanded him to prophesy to "my people
Israel."
(3) The implication is that Amos was not preaching
because it was his career; rather, he had been
called of God and it would take more than the
threats of a false prophet to stop him.
b. \\#16-17\\ Concerning Amaziah’s Future
(1) \\#16\\ Because Amaziah had tried to stop the
work of God, the following was pronounced
against him.
(a) \\#17\\ "Thy wife shall be an harlot" - God
begins with Amaziah’s wife. She would be
the spoils of the enemy soldiers who were
to attack Bethel.
(b) "thy sons and daughters shall fall by the
sword" - Their children would die.
(c) "thy land shall be divided" - As Israel was
to lose its land for sin, so would Amaziah.
(d) "and thou shalt die in a polluted land"
Amaziah himself would be taken prisoner
into the land of the enemy.
(2) "Israel shall surely go into captivity" - God
uses the occasion to restate the judgment that
was to come upon Israel.
(3) "in the city" - Notice that Amaziah’s wife is to
remain alive in the city. This fact indicates
the judgment that is to come upon Amaziah may
not be God’s final judgment on the land. While
\\#Amos 5:3\\ did indicate that 9/10’s of the
common people would perish, \\#Amos 6:9\\
stated that all of the wealthy and powerful
would die. Surely this would have included
Amaziah’s family.
(4) Assyria did not just come against the northern
kingdom once; but as with Babylon, it fought
against the nation repeatedly until finally
destroying it. We can read of at least some of
those battles. (The time we are affixing to
Amos is 765-755 BC.)
(a) \\#2Kings 15:17-20\\ tells of Assyria coming
against Israel during the reign of Menahem,
king of Israel, and in the 39th year of
Azariah (also called Uzziah), king of
Judah. This would put the year at 751 BC.
This is the first Biblical record of the
two nations in conflict. Menahem paid
Assyria and became a vassal to them. There
is no record of actual fighting between the
two nations but, if this is the fulfillment
of Amos’ prophecy, there likely was. This
attack came under Pul, the Assyrian king.
(b) \\#2Kings 15:27-29\\ Thirteen years later
(738 BC), in the 52nd year of Uzziah and
during the reign of Pekah in Israel,
Tiglath-pileser came, conquering and
carrying many into captivity.
(c) \\#2Ki 16:5-10\\ We are not given a specific
date but when Ahaz was king of Judah and
while Pekah was still king of Israel
(which would have been between 730-718 BC),
Tiglath-pileser was asked by Ahaz to come
against Israel and Syria as they were
attacking Judah. Again, Tiglath defeated
Israel and took some captive.
(d) \\#2Kings 17:1-3\\ During the reign of Ahaz
and Hoshea, king of Israel, Shalmaneser,
king of Assyria, came and made the northern
kingdom a vassal state. As Hoshea would
rebel, forcing a 3 year siege on Samaria
\\#2Kings 17:5\\, this would have happened
between 718-713 BC.
(e) \\#2Kings 17:4-6\\ (714-709* BC) Hoshea
rebelled against Assyria, made an alliance
with Egypt, for which Shalmaneser destroyed
Israel and took the nation captive.
* 709BC is NOT the typical date for fall of Israel. 722 BC is.
The difference comes in that some do not site Pekah ruling at the
same time as Menahem and Pekahiah. I have not studied to see the
arguments for each position, but 722 BC is the more accepted date
for the fall of Israel.
(5) While I can find no earlier Biblical reference to
conflict between Israel and Assyria, history
does afford one. In 1846, an archeologist
discovered what is called the Black Obelisk of
Shalmaneser III. The image on one of the
panels of the obelisk is that of King Jehu, king
of Israel from 841-814, bowing before
Shalmaneser III. In addition, the inscription
calls Jehu by name. This would indicate that
Israel and Assyria may have had battles which
are not detailed in the Bible.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/countries/israel/
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