Amos 1
McGeeCHAPTER 1THEME: Judgment on surrounding nationsAmos was a fearless man with a message from God. Not only was Amos an unknown when he arrived in Bethel of the northern kingdom of Israel, but he is still rather unknown today. In our country, Amos is a name that is associated with Andy because of the popular radio program of the past generation, “Amos and Andy.” Actually, we should associate the Amos of Bible times with Hosea. They were contemporary prophets, and I am sure they knew each other. Hosea’s message emphasized the love of God, but a God of love who also intends to judge. Amos spoke of the lofty justice and the inflexible righteousness of God which leads Him to judge. It is startling to see that Amos had a world view, a global conception. He spoke first to the nations which were contiguous to and surrounding the nation Israel. He spoke to the great world powers of that daythat in itself isn’t something unique. The later prophetsIsaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Danieldid it also. But the method of these other prophets was first to speak of God’s judgment of the nation Israel and then to take up the judgment of the other nations. Amos reverses that method. He spoke first of God’s judgment of the nations round about and then of Israel’s judgment. When Amos first spoke in Bethel, saying that God was going to judge Syria, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, everybody filled the king’s chapel. He really was drawing a crowd. They were very glad for him to preach on the sins of the Moabites, you see, but not on their sins. There are people even today who like the preacher to preach on the sins of the Moabites which were committed four thousand or more years ago, but any preacher who mentions the people’s own sins is in real trouble. Amos exercised a great deal of diplomacy, it seems to me, in speaking of the other nations first. He was an eloquent man. Although he was a country preacher from out yonder in the desert, he used the language of a Shakespeare. He was, in my judgment, a great preacher.
Amos 1:1
“In the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel"this is Jeroboam II, by the way. “Two years before the earthquake.” This earthquake is also mentioned by Zechariah nearly two hundred years later. According to the historian Josephus, it took place during the reign of Uzziah. The important thing is that this does help us to see that Amos was contemporary with Hosea, he was one of the first of the prophets, and he was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel.
Amos 1:2
“And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion.” This is very figurative and eloquent language in many ways. You may recall that Joel also used this expression. It suggests the roar of a lion as it pounces upon its prey. Believe me, this is an arresting way for Amos to begin his message! It speaks of the coming judgment of God upon the nations which were round about. “And the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.” Apparently, a drought and a famine would come upon that land, a famine that would extend throughout the entire land. When I was in Israel some time ago, I came over Carmel where Haifa is located, and I noticed how beautiful it is there. There are wonderful shrubbery and lovely flowers there today. It must have been that way in the day of Amos also, but now he says that there is coming a drought so severe that beautiful Carmel “shall wither.”
Amos 1:3
JUDGMENT AGAINST SYRIA FOR CRUELTYWe begin now a section of this prophecy which deals with the judgments of God upon the nations which were contiguous to the nation Israel, that is, those that surrounded that nation. This man Amos gives us a world view. The Word of God, even the Old Testament, shows that God is not only the God of the nation Israel, but He is also the God of the Gentiles. In the New Testament, Paul is the one who makes that abundantly clear. And God judges the nations. Although in this day of grace God has one great purpose, that of calling out a people to His name, that does not mean that He has taken His hands off the affairs of this worldHe has not. He still moves in judgment upon the nations of the world, and this Book of Amos has a tremendous message along that line. The first nation that is considered is Syria of which Damascus was the capital “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four.” Amos is not attempting to give us a list of their transgressions. He could have said, “Not for three, not for four, or five, or six, but for many transgressions.” In other words, the cup of iniquity was filled up, and nothing could now hold back the judgment of God that was coming upon Syria. “Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.” This is the atrocity which Syria had committed and for which they were to be judged. Those threshing instruments were sharp and were to be used to beat out the grain. It is believed that with them they had torn and mangled the bodies of the people of Gilead. In 2Ki_10:32-33, we read: “In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.” Syria came down against these tribes first and actually destroyed them. What does Amos mean by “Gilead”? Gilead was on the east bank of the Jordan River. It was the land which came up as far as the Sea of Galilee where the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh remained on the wrong side of the Jordan. Syria is located right to the north and came down against them. Even as I am writing this there is constantly a dogfight going on in the air between Syria and Israel around the Golan Heights, which would correspond to the ancient land of Gilead. In that day, Syria had come down against God’s people and simply threshed them, and He says He is going to judge them for their cruelty and for their brutality.
Amos 1:4
A fire is to come upon Hazael, the king, and upon the palaces of Ben-hadad. If you have ever been to Damascus, you know that you do not see there the original city or its original location. It claims to be the oldest city in the world, but it has actually shifted around in the area to several different locations. It has burned to the very ground a number of times, and this is one of the occasions when that took place. “And cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven.” If you travel from Beirut to Damascus, you go by a place known as Baalbek, and Baalbek is in the plain of Aven. The ruins there are spectacular. The Romans attempted to colonize it because it was such a lovely area. The temple ruins there testify to that. But Baalbek has been destroyed, and the great population is no longer in that area. “And the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir” means that they were to be taken captive by the Assyrians. Kir was a province in the Assyrian Empire. It is good to have a knowledge of the geography of this area as it makes all of this more understandable. You must remember that when you are reading the Bible, you are not reading about the never-never land and you are not reading about some place in outer space. It deals with reality; even when the Bible talks about heaven, it is talking about that which is real.
Amos 1:6
JUDGMENT AGAINST PHILISTIA FOR MAKING SLAVES"For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four.” As we said before, this is an idiomatic expression which means that there could be listed here quite a few transgressions. The cup of iniquity had been filled up. “Gaza” was in Philistia, or the Philistine Empire. The judgment against the Philistines was for making slaves. They took a certain number of Israelites, and they sold them into slavery to Edom and also to Phoenicia. The Phoenicians were great traders, and they in turn sold them as prisoners of war into slavery. They would send them all over the Mediterranean world. Because of this, God says that He intends to judge Philistia. It is quite interesting that as I am writing this the territory we know as the Gaza Strip is still an unknown quantity; that is, it is an Arab area which is now under the control of Israel. Israel is having a real problem with that territory, as you know. However, “Ashdod” and “Ashkelon” are still in Israel. Today you will find that in Ashdod there is a great refinery, and a new harbor has been constructed there. It will probably become a more important shipping place than even Haifa has become. I think it is probably better located than Haifa. Ashkelon is directly south of Ashdod. There you can still see the remains of the temple of Dagon where Samson was (see Jud. 16). All of these are very real places. The judgment of God came upon these places exactly as God said it would. He said, “I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof.” In the historical record of the reign of Hezekiah, we read: “He [Hezekiah] smote the Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city” (2Ki_18:8). The record goes on to say how Hezekiah destroyed all that particular area. Amos’ prophecy, you see, was literally fulfilled. This example of fulfilled prophecy makes this section particularly interesting. It also puts down a pattern for the way in which God will fulfill prophecy in the future.
Amos 1:9
JUDGMENT AGAINST PHOENICIA FOR BREAKING TREATYWe come now to the judgment against Phoenicia. The judgment against them is not only for selling slavesthe Philistines sold slaves to Phoenicia, and Phoenicia in turn sold them out in the worldbut the judgment is for breaking their treaty with Israel. Hiram, king of Tyre, had been a personal friend of David, and they had enjoyed many years of friendship. No king of Israel or Judah had ever made war upon Phoenicia. Now Phoenicia had broken the treaty. “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four.” He is not just giving them ad seriatim. He says, “I will not give one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten reasons.” He could have listed probably a hundred, but he will mention the main ones. “I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant.” In other words, they had broken a covenant that they had with Israel.
Amos 1:10
First the Assyrian came against Tyre, and he was not able to take the city. Then there has been some question whether the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar took the city or not. However, it is conceded that Nebuchadnezzar forced the Tyrians (Tyre was the great city of the Phoenicians) to retire to an island that was out to sea about one-half mile. The Tyrians built their city there, and Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the old city that was on the mainland. About 250 years later, Alexander the Great came along. He saw that very prosperous, very wealthy city out on the island, and he built a causeway out to it.
In doing so, he fulfilled Ezekiel’s prophecy in which God said that they would absolutely scrape the ground of old Tyre and throw it into the ocean (see Ezek. 26). Alexander made a causeway out to the island; he took it and destroyed it, bringing Tyre to an end. Amos’ prophecy concerning Tyre was literally fulfilled.
Amos 1:11
JUDGMENT AGAINST EDOM FOR REVENGEFUL SPIRITThe judgment against Edom is because of their revengeful spirit. Back of revenge one ordinarily finds jealously. The Edomites were jealous of their brothers. You see, Edom came from Esau, and Israel from Jacob; Jacob and Esau were twin brothers, the sons of Isaac. In the rock-hewn city of Petra, the capital of Edom, which is located in Teman, everything was destroyed that would burn. The palaces of Bozrah have been destroyed and have disappeared. This prophecy against Edom has been literally fulfilled. Judgment came upon them because of their revengeful spirit, because they were jealous of their brother, Israel.
Amos 1:13
JUDGMENT AGAINST AMMON FOR VIOLENT CRIMESWe come now to Ammon, the nation of the Ammonites. If you will notice, geographically, we are moving around almost in a circle. We began with Syria, came over to Phoenicia, down to Philistia, then over to Edom on the south, and now to Ammon. What was the cause of God’s judgment against the Ammonites? Theirs was a violent crime The Ammonites were located over on the east bank of the Jordan, and they joined with the Syrians in fighting against the two and one-half tribes of Israel which were in the land of Gilead. They did it “that they might enlarge their border.”
Amos 1:14
“But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” This is God’s judgment against the Ammonites. Rabbah was a great city and the capital city of the Ammonites. Later on it was called Philadelphia by the Greeks. It was named after Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt. We know it today as Amman, the capital of the nation of Jordan. You can see ruins there of the great civilization of the past which was totally destroyed. Modern Jordan has been built upon the ruins of the nation of the Ammonites. We can turn to 2 Kings 8 to see the sin that had prompted God’s judgment against them. “And Hazael said [to Elisha], Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The LORD hath shewed me that thou shalt be king over Syria” (2Ki_8:12-13). In other words, Elisha said to Hazael, “You say that only a dog would do such a thing, but you are going to do it.” Whether Hazael was a dog or not, he did the very thing he said only a dog would do. We read in these verses of the violent things he would do to the children of Israel.
He was going to dash their children and rip up their women with child. It was a horrible, awful thing, and it was for this crime that God would judge the Ammonites.