Billy Chia

Here are my thoughts and highlights from Amos as I continue my journey through the Bible:

• Amos was from Tekoa, a small town in Judah south of bethlehem, but went north to preach
• Was a normal guy (a Shepherd) before God called him
• Wrote around 767-753 B.C. (Uzziah is King of Judah and Jerobaom II is King of Israel)
• God was angry at Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, AND Judah, AND Israel. God’s hold people were no different than their unholy neighbors. Am I any different?
• Amos uses the refrains: “God’s Message” and “God’s decree”
• God has spoken—
  what prophet can keep quiet?
• Amos used his experience as a shepherd in analogy:
  • In the same way that a shepherd
    trying to save a lamb from a lion
    Manages to recover
    just a pair of legs or the scrap of an ear,
    So will little be saved of the Israelites
    who live in Samaria
• God’s not a big fan of religious show. Raised hands on Sunday need to accompany holy living throughout the week.
• How often do I ignore God speaking through the circumstances of my life?
  • “I hit your crops with disease
    and withered your orchards and gardens.
    Locusts devoured your olive and fig trees,
    but you continued to ignore me.”
• A theme in this book is war
• God is called “יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי-צְבָאוֹת” “YHWH Elohiy Tsavote” “The LORD God of Armies”
• All God wants are oceans of Justice and Rivers of fairness
• Exploitation of other people, especially the poor, angers God
• God won’t destroy Jacob so even in his anger his is still gracious
• Amos and Joel both talk of God’s blessings in terms of “Wine pouring off the mountains”
• Another fire and brimstone God’s anger prophecy book ends on a hopeful note of promised redemption