Amos: Called by God

Amos was going about his business, running his farm and caring for his orchards, when God said, “Go preach to my people Israel.” Amos didn’t have an easy message, but he took his call from God seriously and preached with courage, power, and strength.

Speaking truth to power

When I was a young preacher, a mentor told me that the role of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

Speaking truth to power: that’s what God’s prophets do. They stand before the people and the leaders and speak the word of God. The problem is that it is usually not a word anyone wants to hear—especially the people in power. We don’t often hear from prophets when God’s people are in right relationship with God and with each other.

Their words aren’t necessary when kings and priests are following God’s laws, when they are doing their jobs with justice, integrity, and honesty. The word of the prophet is often unwelcome by the oppressors.

Throughout history God’s prophets have been persecuted, reviled, arrested, deported, exiled, and killed. Most biblical prophets didn’t jump at the chance to speak for God.

Amos was the earliest and first prophet to have an Old Testament book bear his name. His prophecy speaks most clearly in a society where there is great inequality between the rich and the poor. His words carry weight in times of great prosperity when oppression and exploitation run rampant. He came to disturb the oppressive complacency of God’s people who freely ignored God’s call to care for one another.

An unexpected call

We have no reason to believe that Amos was expecting his call from God. We can imagine that it must have been quite a surprise. Until this point, he wasn’t a prophet and he wasn’t from a family of prophets; he was a farmer in a small village in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

Scripture doesn’t tell us why God chose Amos. But his call affirms our belief in the priesthood of all believers—knowing that God calls each one of us to serve God’s purposes in a way that only we can. Throughout scripture, witnesses like Amos play a key role in the success of God’s plan and purpose. They are not perfect but are very real human beings. Witnesses respond to their relationship with God through faith and action. When we first meet Amos, he is speaking God’s word in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Some people hear God’s call as a quiet whisper. Not Amos. He reported that God roared like a lion with such strength and ferocity that the pastures withered and the mountaintop dried up (Amos 1:2). The divine voice blasted from the heavens.

The king forgets God

King Jeroboam was overseeing a time of great wealth and peace in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He built his empire on territorial expansion, aggressive militarism, and unprecedented economic prosperity for the wealthiest of his citizens.

Sometime during his 40-year reign, the king forgot that he was a servant of God. In the first two chapters, Amos lists the specific sins of different cities. These cities include enemies of Israel (Syrians and Philistines) as well as its neighbors (Edom, Ammon, and Moab). Also named is Judah, which shares a common history and common faith with Israel.

This list makes it clear that God is concerned about international politics and active in the histories of other nations, including Israel’s most despised enemies. Amos claims that God has worked for the good of those nations but will also punish them for their crimes. Amos was reminding the people of Israel that God didn’t belong solely to them but was the God of the universe, and so they belonged to God.

Collusion

Amaziah, a religious leader, supported the king’s desire for absolute power and gave his blessing to everything Jeroboam did. The king, of course, handsomely rewarded the priest of Bethel. There was no separation between church and state.

There was no time in biblical history when the collusion between corrupt religion and corrupt political power was celebrated by God or God’s prophets. Amos went to the temple at Bethel and confronted the high priest Amaziah. He delivered a word of warning to all religious leaders who bow down to the king instead of to God.

The intertwining of religious and political institutions is blatant when Amaziah says to Amos, “Bethel is the king’s sanctuary” (7:13). It was supposed to be God’s sanctuary. The priest reported Amos’ words of condemnation and warning to the king.

God’s message to Israel

The message Amos delivered was not a new one. It had been repeated to God’s people by numerous prophets throughout the generations since they were set free from slavery in Egypt.

God is angry because God’s people were no longer practicing justice and mercy. They were not taking care of the poor. They were cheating their neighbors. The religious leaders were corrupt. Evil had become acceptable.

Amos is very clear about what God does and does not want:

“I can’t stand your religious
meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences
and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your
religion projects, your pretentious
slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising
schemes, your public relations
and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your
noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you
sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want.
That’s all I want”
(5:21-24, The Message).

To carry a burden

The name Amos comes from a Hebrew verb that means “to carry a burden.” And that is what Amos did. He carried the burden of God’s disappointment, anger, and grief to the belligerent people of Israel. He carried words of disaster and failure. But he also carried the call to repentance and the promise of forgiveness. And in the end, he carried a word of hope as well.

Amaziah confronted Amos and said, in essence, “Get out of here, prophet! Go cause trouble in your hometown. You are not welcome here!” Amos stood up to the corrupt priest and claimed his identity and call by saying, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’” (7:12-15).

Amos makes it clear that he is not a religious professional like Amaziah who sold himself to the highest bidder. He speaks the word of God only through the power and presence of the Lord. Although that word is one of judgment and anger, like most prophets Amos also carried the call to repentance and the promise of forgiveness.

And in the end, he carried a word of hope as well.