Amos 7

The prophecy of Amos concludes with the record of five special visions of judgment that God gave to

His servant: the locusts (7:1–3), the fire (vv. 4–6), the plumb line (vv. 7–9), the basket of fruit (8:1–14), and the ruined temple (9:1–10). However, the prophet closes his message on a positive note as he describes the future glorious kingdom that God has promised to His people (vv. 11–15).

But these visions center on three experiences of the prophet in which Amos struggles with God and man (chap. 7), declares that judgment is coming (chap. 8) and affirms that God is working out His perfect plan (chap. 9).

The life of a prophet wasn’t easy. On the one hand, he had to stay close to the Lord in order to hear His words and be able to share them with the people. But on the other hand, he also had to be with the people to whom he was ministering, and they didn’t always want to accept his ministry. It’s no wonder that some of the prophets wanted to resign, including Moses and Jeremiah. Amos had two struggles: one with the Lord and one with the authorities, especially the king and his priest. When you read the book of Acts, you see that the apostles also faced struggles with the religious establishment and with the government.

Struggling with the Lord (vv. 1–9). Amos was a true patriot who loved God and loved his nation, and it grieved him that he had to tell Israel and Judah that judgment was coming. No doubt there were times when he wished he was back at Tekoa caring for the sycamore trees and the sheep. But the Sovereign Lord (“Lord God,” used eleven times in these three chapters) was in control of history, and Amos knew that God’s will was best. The prophet saw three visions of judgment and responded to them.

First, Amos saw the vision of the locusts (vv. 1–3) as they were poised to attack the second crop late in the summer, after the king had taken his share (1 Kings 4:7). This was the farmers’ last chance for a harvest, and the harvest would be destroyed. The summer heat was on its way, and there would be no more chance for a crop. Being a man of the soil himself, Amos would sympathize with these farmers.

The strange thing is that it was God who prepared these insects and told them what to do! It was as though He turned against His own people and deliberately planned to strip their fields of food. But since the heart of Amos agonized for his people, he prayed that the Lord would call off the judgment; and He did. Amos joined that select group of intercessors, which includes Abraham (Gen. 18), Moses (Ex. 32; Num. 14), Samuel (1 Sam. 12), Elijah (1 Kings 18), and Paul (Rom. 9:1–3; 10:1–2).

Amos argued that the nation was so small that they could never survive the plague of locusts. Amos didn’t plead any of the covenant promises of God because he knew the people had violated God’s covenant and were deserving of a plague (Deut. 28:38–42). But God heard the prophet’s plea and relented (Joel 2:12–14).

The second vision was that of the devouring fire (Amos 7:4–6) in which the fire dried up the water and burned the land. The image is that of a great drought, and Amos had mentioned a drought earlier (4:7–8). God’s judgment so moved the prophet that he cried out to the Lord and begged Him to cease, and once more God relented.

The third vision was that of the plumb line (Amos 7:7–9), an instrument used to test whether a wall was straight and true. A man stood on top of the wall and dropped a line with a weight on it. By matching the line to the wall, the workers could tell if the wall was upright.

God’s law is His plumb line, and He measures His people to see how true they are to the pattern in His Word, and if they are of upright character and conduct. “Also I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet” (Isa. 28: nkjv) Alas, in Amos’s time, He found that Israel was “out of plumb” and therefore had to be destroyed. This would include Israel’s high places and sanctuaries, where they worshipped contrary to God’s law, for the only place the Jews were to bring their sacrifices was to the temple in Jerusalem (Lev. 17:1–7).

“I will spare them no longer” was certainly an ominous statement. The nation had gone too far, and now there was no hope. For this reason, Amos didn’t intercede for the land as he had done twice before. Like Jeremiah, he did not pray for the people (Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 14:11).

Struggling with the authorities (vv. 10–17). Israel’s main sanctuary was at Bethel; it was the king’s chapel. God had told Amos that the sanctuary would be destroyed and that King Jeroboam II would be slain. This wasn’t an easy message to proclaim, for Amos was attacking both the government and the religion of the nation. Yet he faithfully went to Bethel and preached the Word. Four different messages were involved in this event.

The first message was Amaziah’s report to the king (vv. 10–11). Since the king had appointed Amaziah, he had an obligation to tell the king what the farmer preacher was saying to the people. The king didn’t bother to go hear Amos himself, although it would have done him good to listen and obey. Jeroboam was very comfortable and complacent and wasn’t about to have some visiting farmer tell him what to do.

The second message was Amaziah’s message to Amos (vv. 12–13). Of course, Jeroboam II didn’t want to hear that his chapel and shrines would be destroyed, that he would die, and that the Assyrians would exile his people. Such a pessimistic message had to be silenced. Thus the king told his priest to tell Amos to go home where he belonged.

Amaziah’s words to Amos reveal the wicked attitudes in the priest’s heart. He called Amos a “seer,” which in this case means a “visionary.” He claimed that there was no validity to Amos’s message; he only dreamed it up. Then the priest suggested that Amos was also a coward, who would run away if the king began to deal with him. He hinted that Amos was interested only in earning bread. Finally, Amaziah told Amos to get out and stay out because the king’s chapel was for the elite, and he was a prophet. It was a bitter speech that might have cut the prophet deeply.

It’s not unusual to find conflicts between priests and prophets in the Old Testament. (Of course, Amaziah was a false priest and not a true servant of God.) Actually, both prophets and priests were needed in the land, because the priests “conserved” the ancient religious traditions, while the prophets applied the Word to the present situation and called people back to God. There were false prophets, who taught lies and sometimes worked with the priests to maintain the status quo, and the true prophets, who had to oppose both priests and false prophets. In Israel, there were false priests who had no valid connection with the Levitical priesthood (see Isa. 1:12–15; Jer. 7:1–11; Ezek. 34:1ff.; Hos. 4:4–9).

Now we listen to the prophet’s message to the priest (Amos 7:14–16). First, Amos revealed the kind of man he was by not being intimidated or running away. Like Nehemiah, he could say, “Should such a man as I flee?” (Neh. 6:11). To run away would be to agree with all the accusations and insinuations the false priest had made. Then Amos told Amaziah what he was: a prophet called by God. In his native Judah, he did not work as a prophet but as a herdsman and a tender of sycamore trees. He didn’t make himself a prophet, nor was he a “son of the prophets,” that is, a student in one of the prophetic schools (1 Kings 2:35; 2 Kings 2:3, 5, 7, 15). God had called him, and he obeyed the call.

Amos then proclaimed the Word of the Lord to Amaziah and informed him of the judgment that God would send on him and his family. Amaziah would lose all his property, go into exile, and die far from his native land. The Assyrian soldiers would slay his sons. His wife would be left destitute and would become a prostitute. The nation of Israel would go into exile and be no more. It would be quite a change from serving as the king’s chief religious leader at Bethel!

Amaziah had position, wealth, authority, and reputation, but Amos had the word of the Lord. Amaziah served the king of Israel and depended on him for support, but Amos served the King of Kings and had no fear of what men could do to him. Many times in the history of the church, God has called humble instruments like Amos to declare His Word; and we had better be prepared to listen and obey. It’s not the approval of the “religious establishment” that counts, but the calling and blessing of the Lord.