Amos: The Fruit Inspector

In this overview of Amos, part of his Sunday evening series through the Minor Prophets, Charles Sebold introduces the herdsman and dresser of sycamore figs from Tekoa as "the fruit inspector": a poor migrant laborer from Judah whom the LORD took and sent north to Bethel around 760 to 750 BC, just before Assyria swept the northern kingdom away. Picking up Joel's line, "The LORD roars from Zion," Amos asks whether Israel really wants the Day of the LORD. He springs a trap. Israel would gladly say amen as Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and even Judah are judged, but the longest charge lands on Israel, and it is not for war crimes. It is for everyday business: selling the needy for a pair of sandals, sleeping on garments taken in pledge, cheating with false weights. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you." With biting sarcasm Amos invites them to Bethel to transgress, and God declares that He hates their feasts and wants justice to roll down like waters. Five visions trace the end: Amos intercedes and God relents at the locusts and the fire, but at the plumb line he has nothing left to say. Then Amaziah the priest sends the praying prophet home, and Israel is left with a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Yet the book closes in hope, as God promises to raise up the fallen booth of David, a promise James cites in Acts 15 as Gentiles are gathered under David's greater Son. The God who judges His people more strictly also keeps His promises to them. What does it look like when a church keeps its worship careful and its weekday business careless?