AS A FIREBRAND PLUCKED OUT OF THE BURNING

It is difficult to read the prophecy of Amos without feeling the weight of his message. The nation appeared to be enjoying a time of peace and prosperity, but the rulers and the more afflu­ent in society were behaving in a shameful way towards the disadvantaged. Amos challenged those ‘which oppress the poor, which crush the needy’, 4. 1, as, with undisguised scorn and irony, he brands them as ‘kine of Bashan’. It may well be he was suggesting that it was the prosperous women in society who were more culpable in this injustice.

Amos not only saw these things but he felt them and his whole prophecy, with the exception of the last five verses, is one of unmitigated reproof.

Religion still played a prominent part in the life of the nation. They brought their offerings and paid their tithes, vv. 4, 5; but there was no devotion of heart, no sense of guilt or repentance, nothing of value for God. It was little more than worthless idolatry.

In this chapter, Amos reminds the people of the many ways in which a loving God had spoken to them in order to bring them back to Himself. First, there was famine, v. 6, followed closely by drought, vv. 7, 8. Then, He brought about the failure of their crops and the incursion of their enemies, v. 9; finally, He shook them with an earthquake, v. 11.

After each attempt to regain their allegiance, He has to say with heavy heart, ‘Yet have ye not returned unto me’. No doubt there were those who responded to the overtures of divine mercy. Yet, in the estimation of God and in the mind of the prophet, the nation was likened to wood, already smouldering and scorched, yet snatched from the consuming flames by the hand of another, just before it was to be reduced to ashes.

However, their intransigence had brought them to a point where the divine patience was exhausted; warning and admoni­tion were at an end. Only justice remained and removal from the land had become inevitable. After all the evidences of His con­cern, they still failed to acknowledge Him; now the final word is given, ‘Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel’.