Amos – A Prophet for his Times Series (1)

Judgments Against Damascus and Philistia

Reading – Amos - 1: 1 - 8

Have you ever seriously considered a career change? After years of a building or farming career, suddenly you are propelled into an international speaking tour! Plenty of wealthy people can afford to hear you speak – but you don’t even charge them for the privilege!
Only trouble is, no-one wants to hear what you have to say; in fact they bring in the heavies to get rid of you. Perhaps your name is Amos?

God sent Amos, (whose name means ‘burdensome’), north from Tekoa in Judah, into Israel/Samaria. Amos was obedient to God and he left behind his farming activities and headed off on his new, temporary, career. He was the first of the prophets whose words were recorded in written form, and is considered to be one of the greatest of prophets, even though the amount of written material was quite small.

¹:1
Amos has very helpfully told us that he commenced his prophetic activities when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel. He mentions a severe earthquake, and there is strong evidence supporting this fact just being uncovered. That puts his ministry at about 760 to 750 BC. He also informs us that his background was in shepherding near Tekoa, Judah.

2 He said:
"The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers." (Drought).

From the sentence structure, in the Hebrew, it is clear that Amos is using very emphatic words. It is God, Himself, who roars like a lion. (As an aside, isn’t it interesting that just 2700 years ago, the peoples of Israel had a personal knowledge of the natural behaviour of wild lions? They knew how vicious these animals could be, and not from visiting the zoo in Jerusalem!)
Further, the roar is understood as covering all of the area of Palestine.

That Amos used the dramatic picture of a lion roaring illustrates God’s power and His wrath when people persist in disobedience.
It is important to understand is where this roaring is coming from. The roar comes from Zion, a mountain of Jerusalem. This is a double emphatic statement. There can be absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that God is speaking out, one more time, from His ‘earthly home’ in Jerusalem.

It is a reminder that God is Holy and that a Holy God cannot condone sin, especially from those who have been called out from among the nations to be witnesses to a Holy God who desires to redeem His people. So the message of Amos, although, initially, to the people of his times, is also a timeless message that is still relevant today. It is the voice of conscience in a disturbed and greedy world.

^1. Motyer. ‘They [the other nations] were without special revelation but not without moral responsibility; they were without direct knowledge of God but not without accountability to God; they were without the law written on tablets of stone but not without the law written in the conscience.’ (See Romans for NT confirmation of this truth).
The focus of God’s accusations is not about the nations’ failure to observe the religious activities of Israel, (to whom they had been revealed), but, perhaps surprisingly, focuses on relationships between nations.

3. This is what the LORD says:
"For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth,

Damascus (Syrians) had a reputation for being cruel, but God points out that Damascus has cruelly treated people as ‘things.’ Not as human beings due respect, because we were created in the image of God. It is not certain whether this depiction of cruelty is an actual or a graphic word picture, but it does highlight the sort of wanton cruelty that today would justify an International War Crimes Tribunal.
The reference to ‘three sins, even for four,’ was a common literary device meaning, ‘very, very exceedingly – anything that goes towards excess.’

4. I will send fire upon the house of Hazael that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.

5. I will break down the gate of Damascus;
I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven and the one who holds the sceptre in Beth Eden. The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir," says the LORD.

In the time of Elisha (c800 BC), Hazael had been a high official in Syria under King Ben-Hadad. Elisha had told him that he would become the next king of Syria, so, Hazael went home and murdered Ben-Hadad to ensure fulfilment of the prophecy! He was a nasty piece of work and gave Israel much trouble over many decades, so that although Hazael had died about the time of Amos, the prophecy against Damascus would be clearly understood at that time. V 4 & 5 were fulfilled when Jeroboam II successfully attacked Damascus.

However, God is fully aware of all the evil that has taken place, with Amos prophesying dreadful penalties that will be brought upon them. Aram is another name for Syria, and God tells them that they will go into exile. The exile may have been to a particular place, or Kir may be just a general description for a walled enclosure. A prison complex.

Amos now turns his attention to Gaza, as representative of the nation of Philistia, who were accused of slave trading. Worse, some of the slaves were likely to have been Israelites, at that time in a relatively weak situation both militarily and economically. Note that after speaking against Damascus, in the Northeast, God now turns to Gaza in the Southwest.
The pattern of accusation is almost identical, but focuses on their failings as a nation. A parallel may be seen in Revelation when Jesus spoke against the seven churches in specific terms of failure.

6. This is what the LORD says:
"For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom,

7. I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses.

8. I will destroy the king of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, till the last of the Philistines is dead," says the Sovereign LORD.

In both Judgments God is speaking out against the way in which relationships are trampled on and people are treated as ‘things or commodities’ and not as ‘people’ created in God’s image.

After itemizing the sins of Philistia Amos then prophesies the penalty that God will impose on the offenders. In particular the King is singled out for special mention. Perhaps as a reminder to those who do exercise political power that they have a greater responsibility to behave in a civilized manner.

The five major cities of Philistia were singled out for punishment. Ashdod had resisted the entry of Israel into Canaan way back in the time of Joshua and the Judges, and had not been conquered, as directed. Perhaps we see this as a case of the sins of the fathers being visited upon the sons. Ashkelon was destroyed a number of times over the centuries. Ekron was the ‘home town’ of their god called Baal-Zebub, who needs no other comment!

It is clear from Scripture, that God not only holds individuals to account for their behaviour, but there is also what we can call ‘corporate’ judgment too. Perhaps we can now see why ‘innocent’ people, in various OT situations, also shared in the punishment that God meted out to the nation as an entity.

Do we have prophets such as Amos speaking out in today’s world? Who are they? What response is there from those who may be attacked in this way? Would attacks against big business, eg the WTO, or the way in which many smaller nations are treated, be considered as similar to Amos?
^1. J A Motyer. The Message of Amos. 37.

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