At this point, the people were probably saying, “Who is this rustic farmer that he should preach to us and claim to be God’s prophet? What kind of authority does he think he has?” Amos even dared to preach uninvited at the king’s chapel at Bethel, where King Jeroboam’s chaplain told Amos to go home and preach in Judah (7:10–16).
No doubt when D. L. Moody began to preach, some people said, “What can this uneducated shoe salesman say to us?” And when Billy Sunday began to hold evangelistic campaigns, it’s likely that the sophisticated religious crowd asked, “What can this former baseball player teach us?” But God used Moody and Sunday, not in spite of their humble background, but because of it; for He delights to bypass the “wise and prudent” and share His power with “babes” (Luke 10:21).
Amos replied to their ridicule by arguing from effect to cause. If two people want to walk together, they have to appoint a time and place to meet (Amos 3:3). If the lion roars, it’s because he’s caught his prey (v. 4). If a trap springs, it means the bird has been caught (v. 5); and if the people in a city are terrified, it’s because the trumpet has blown, warning them of danger (v. 6). These are obvious facts of life that any thinking person would acknowledge.
Now for the final thrust: if an untrained rustic farmer is preaching God’s Word, it means God has called him. This isn’t a vocation Amos would have chosen for himself; it was chosen for him by the Lord. Amos said, “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (7:14–15 niv).
When a prophet proclaims God’s Word, it’s because the Lord is about to do something important and wants to warn His people (3:7). Review the images Amos used in verses 3–6, and you will see what kind of work God called Amos to do. Because he was walking with God, he knew God’s secrets. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant” (Ps. 25:14). The lion was roaring. “A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3: nkjv) God was about to spring the trap: Israel would be wiped out by the Assyrians, and Judah would go into exile in Babylon. Amos was blowing the trumpet and preparing the people for the judgment to come.
Amos clearly made his point. It was no accident of vocational choice that he was proclaiming God’s message, for God had called him. And it was no accident of international diplomacy that Israel and Judah were facing judgment, for they had sinned against God. For every effect there is a cause. What caused Amos to preach God’s Word? The call of God on his life.
Bible history and church history both reveal that God can and does use a variety of people to minister to His people. He used an educated man like Moses, and a humble shepherd like David, a priest like Jeremiah, and common fishermen like Peter, James, and John. Both Charles Finney and C. I. Scofield were trained to be lawyers, while John Bunyan was a mender of pots and pans, and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a physician. Add to this the names of dedicated women God has greatly used—Catherine Booth, “mother” of the Salvation Army; Amy Carmichael, rescuer of abused children; Lina Sandell, Fanny Crosby, and Avis B. Christiansen, composers of beautiful hymns and gospel songs—and you can see that God calls, equips, and uses all who will surrender to Him and let Him have His way.
Amos is an encouragement to all believers who feel they are inadequate to do the work of the Lord. He was a layman, not a graduate of a prophetic school. He learned spiritual truth as he communed with God while caring for the flocks and orchards. Self-taught? Yes, but he was God-taught; and he was willing to share with others what God had said to him. Robert Murray M’Cheyne wrote, “It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.” This is not to minimize the importance of either talent or education, but to remind us that neither can be a substitute for heeding God’s call and walking in communion with Him. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15: niv).