Amaziah the Priest Persecutes Amos
10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’” 12Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 13but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!” 14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; 15and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16Now therefore listen to Yahweh’s word: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.’ 17Therefore Yahweh says: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”
Because human beings are made from the dust, they live by instinct. No one has to teach us: offered two apples, we reach for the bigger one without a thought, and we choose without hesitation the person who looks likely to be of use to us. But God has told us not to live by these human instincts. He tells us to have the wisdom to look past the outward appearance to what lies within, and he commands us to set our hope not on a world that is perishing but on the eternal Kingdom.
This is exactly what Amos has been proclaiming to Israel all along. God rebuked Israel for rejecting his law. He rebuked the wickedness that exploited the poor, the hypocrisy that made drinking and immorality a habit in the house of worship, and the luxury and self-indulgence in which they lived. Yet they would not listen, because they were content with the life they enjoyed as people of power, and though the hour of the nation’s fall was drawing near, they did not turn back. Even so, God offered corrupt Israel a chance of salvation, telling them that if they would seek him, and keep on seeking, they could live.
Amos labored to save even one person, describing to the people in detail what would follow once judgment came. He declared that God would destroy Israel completely, leaving nothing standing, and he set out plainly the visions God had shown him one after another.
Friends, once God has decided a thing he is able to accomplish whatever he wills, and for that reason you must return to him while he is giving you the chance. If pride makes you insist on your own will, great sorrow may follow. When God offers you that chance, then, you need to cast off your pride and your own righteousness and repent.
Amos 7:2-3
2When they finished eating the grass of the land, then I said, “Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” 3Yahweh relented concerning this. “It shall not be,” says Yahweh.
The people were going hungry with nothing to eat, while the powerful heaped up grain in their storehouses to fill their own bellies and would not share it. When fresh grass began to sprout where the rich had reaped their harvest, locusts came and devoured it all, and in the end it was the poor who suffered. Amos saw this in a vision. Seeing that the poor would suffer more than the powerful, he pleaded with God to withdraw the judgment for their sake.
When Amos prayed for the people, God withdrew the judgment. God had said he would never forgive, yet he heard Amos’s prayer and held back his hand, and it was because of the earnest faith of Amos, who loved life. Even one person who loves life like this can save many. The people, for their part, went on sinning, never knowing that the judgment had been lifted because Amos had prayed to save them. The poor, wanting to prosper as the rich did, broke God’s law out of greed. God saw the whole of Israel’s betrayal.
When rich and poor alike sin in this way, the nation can only grow more corrupt, and they will lose their chance to be forgiven. If we ever find ourselves envying worldly people who live well on wealth gained by evil, we must remember that this world is not eternal. Only with faith that hopes for God’s Kingdom can we gather wealth by honest means.
Everything in this world is only borrowed for a little while; nothing here lasts forever. If God’s people cast off their vain and empty desires for the world and never forget that they are pilgrims on the way to the eternal Kingdom, they will not fall into sin.
After the first vision, the plague of locusts, Amos saw a second: a great fire that swallowed up the sea and went on to consume the land. If, as with the locusts, a great drought struck the land and a great fire followed, the land would be laid even more desolate, and Amos knew that the weak among the people, with no food, would not survive. So he prayed once more. And once more God answered his prayer.
That God would hear the prayer of a frail human being and relent is a marvelous miracle. Yet the people of Israel were not grateful for all that Amos had given of himself, and they did not leave their sin. God relented because he knew Amos’s heart, a heart that loved life, just as he held back his wrath when Moses prayed to be blotted out of the book of life if only the people might be saved. When someone among us offers prayers that accord with God’s will, as Amos did, the brothers and sisters in the faith must never forget to be thankful, and they must hold to a true faith. I hope each of you will be as faithful as Amos, who feared God and loved life.
Amos 7:8-9
8Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 9The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
The third vision God showed him was a plumb line. A plumb line is a weight of lead hung from a cord; builders use it as they raise a wall, because a wall that is not built straight will collapse. When God holds a plumb line against the faith of the people of Israel to see whether it stands straight, those whose faith is straight and true do not fall. God set the plumb line in the middle of Israel and exposed the sin of a people whose faith had grown crooked, so that they could make no excuses. By doing so he showed his resolve to judge their sin.
After seeing the third vision Amos prayed earnestly, but this time God said firmly that he would not forgive their sin. When God held the plumb line against Israel, everything it had built, its politics, its religion, and its laws, was out of true, and it could only be torn down. Because of their sin the northern kingdom of Israel would be judged, and the sanctuaries where they offered sacrifices, such as Bethel and Gilgal, would all fall.
God, who had once withdrawn his judgment out of pity for what the people would suffer, now resolved to rise against the house of Jeroboam (Jeroboam II) with the sword. That warning was fulfilled when Jeroboam’s son Zechariah, who had become king in Samaria, was assassinated by Shallum, who rose in rebellion against him. Having seen the three visions, Amos pleaded with the people to repent. But when Israel heard the prophecy, their hearts grew harder still, and they threatened Amos instead, telling him to stop prophesying.
Yet Amos knew that God had decreed judgment, and his heart ached for an Israel that would not turn back. He knew how terrible a judgment God sends once he has resolved upon it, and because he knew it, he had no choice but to proclaim the word, even if it meant persecution at their hands.
Amos 7:12-13
12Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: 13but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”
Amaziah, the priest of Bethel and a false prophet, threatened Amos, the true prophet, and told him to stop prophesying. As a priest he ought to have stood beside Amos and brought the people to repentance, yet here he was obstructing the prophet’s ministry. What he meant was this: you are a man of Judah, so stay away from Bethel, go back to Judah, prophesy there, and beg your bread. Amaziah then went to King Jeroboam and drove a wedge between them, claiming that Amos was cursing the king, saying he would die by the sword and Israel would be led away captive. It seems his pride could not bear that Amos, who had no education and none of the close ties to the powerful that Amaziah enjoyed, should be the one speaking the word of God.
All this time he had watched the king and the people worship idols and said nothing, because he wanted an easy life; but when Amos called for repentance, he took offense. A priest who served God persecuting Amos as he spoke the word is like the heretical sects of today persecuting churches that proclaim the truth. But truth is not something people can silence simply by trying. Truth is the word of Jesus Christ, and because of that, neither the world nor any human being can ever stop it from being proclaimed. The truth must go out to Samaria and to the ends of the earth, and it must save souls.
Amos 7:14-15
14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; 15and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
With great boldness Amos told Amaziah that he was not a prophet by training but a herdsman and a farmer of sycamore figs, and that because he had received his calling apart from any will of his own, he had no choice but to declare the judgment. But even after hearing that God himself had called him and given him his charge, Amaziah despised Amos, who had none of the world’s power.
To stop a prophet God has called from speaking the word is not merely to hinder the prophet; it is to defy the authority of God. Because Amos the herdsman looked poor and powerless, Amaziah treated him with contempt, but he needs to understand how fearful a thing this is. If God himself called Amos, then whatever Amos’s circumstances, it is not for Amaziah to judge, and Amaziah’s opinion has no bearing on the work of God. Of course, had Amos been properly trained as a prophet, he would have won people’s recognition, but his lack of it is no obstacle at all to God working through him.
When Amaziah mocked Amos for his appearance, he was in effect mocking the God who called Amos and gave him his charge, and for that reason Amaziah cannot escape God’s judgment. He could sneer at the prophet because he proudly believed that he too was doing God’s work. Amaziah told King Jeroboam that Amos had prophesied the king’s death; he would have done so to keep his own position, but for the sin of opposing the man of God he came under an even heavier judgment.
Something like this happened in Moses’ day as well. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who had come to know God through Moses’ sacrifice and teaching, rebelled against him. Perhaps Korah could grow so proud because Moses was his uncle.
When Aaron’s first and second sons rebelled against Yahweh and died, and the third son became priest, Korah rose in revolt, demanding to know why he could not be a priest himself. Numbers tells us that his followers numbered 250; he seems to have had many supporters. When God in his anger said he would destroy all Israel for that sin, Moses pleaded that since one man had sinned, God must not pour out his wrath on the whole congregation.
Then God relented and told the people of Israel to get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And those men, with their wives and their little ones, met their death when the ground split open beneath them. If anyone stands in the way of the ministry of Moses, God’s chosen servant, God is bound to bring on them the same suffering Amaziah met.
Let none of us, judging by merely human standards, ever become a stumbling block to pastors who preach the truth or to fellow believers who are fulfilling the calling God has given them. To mock them and keep them from doing God’s work is to set ourselves against God himself. All of us are inadequate people who have been rescued from death. Bit by bit our rough edges are being worn away as we take our steps toward God, and that is why we can carry out our calling only by working together. Someone may seem lacking, or poor, or weak, yet they became one of God’s people because God called them; if we share the grace we have been given and help them through intercessory prayer, God will build us up together.
Amaziah, who held a priest’s power at the king’s side, and Amos, poor but called by God, plainly differed in rank. Yet if God himself has called someone, that person is far more precious than any formal rank the world’s systems can confer, and there is no reason for them to be mocked.
2 Chronicles 13:9
9Haven’t you driven out the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made priests for yourselves according to the ways of the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may be a priest of those who are no gods.
Jeroboam king of northern Israel went to war against Abijah king of Judah; Abijah took the field with an army of four hundred thousand, Jeroboam with eight hundred thousand. Abijah climbed into the hill country of Ephraim and told Israel that by founding a separate kingdom they had broken God’s covenant. He condemned Jeroboam for making golden calves and setting up altars when he founded the northern kingdom, calling it a perverse act of forsaking God.
Jeroboam had driven all the priests descended from Aaron, and the Levites with them, out of northern Israel. Then, since no priests were left to offer sacrifices, he declared that anyone at all could become a priest simply by going through a set ceremony. Following his own ideas, he made a priest of anyone who brought a young bull and seven rams. Rather than appointing prophets called directly by God or priests from the house of Aaron, he handed out sacred office as he pleased. Amaziah too was a priest appointed in this way. Since anyone who brought the required offering could become a priest without question, Israel felt no reluctance about accepting Amaziah as their priest.
Even a law that human beings have made wrongly becomes the accepted law once the powerful impose it. Now Amaziah, appointed by men, is threatening Amos, whom God himself called, and ordering him not to speak the word. Believing that his place as the king’s priest gave him authority, Amaziah commanded the prophet to leave Israel. But Amos told him plainly that the word he was proclaiming was purely what God had commanded, and that he could not do as he himself pleased.
Amos, who passed on exactly the word he had heard from God, is a true prophet. He added none of his own thoughts to the word, and he prophesied just as he was commanded. Amaziah, who fought Amos’s ministry to the last, suffered worse than Israel did. To keep his power from being taken from him he had obstructed the ministry of Amos, the servant of God, and his house was brought to miserable ruin. His wife became a prostitute in the city, his children fell by the sword, his many lands were seized, and he himself was put to death. Amaziah had likely seen that everything God had foretold through the prophets he called had come to pass, so it is heartbreaking to watch him step forward of his own accord to hinder Amos’s ministry.
Had he simply waited quietly to see whether these things came about, he could have learned whether Amos was truly a prophet called by God or a false one. If he had received Amos’s message of judgment as the word of God and obeyed it, or even if he had only kept still and not interfered, his house would not have fallen so wretchedly.
Through the misfortune of Amaziah’s family we can see how the proud receive the wrath of God. Wicked rulers could exploit the poor only because there was still a nation and a people. And it is because God waited patiently for Israel that even a wicked man like Amaziah can play at being a priest. But when Israel fell to Assyria and lost its land, the king died by the sword and the people were carried off captive, far from Israel. Those like Amaziah who had obstructed the prophet’s ministry were not even taken captive; their whole family was wiped out on the spot.
Friends, I hope you will never stand in the way of God’s work. When someone looks as insignificant in the world’s eyes as Amos did, but God has called them, may you be wise enough to trust that God will do what he intends, and to help them. If Amos declared God’s judgment and that judgment did not come, it would not mean that Amos had heard wrongly; it would plainly mean that Israel had repented, and we must be thankful for that.
To judge those who preach the word and cling to our own opinions, as Amaziah did, is foolish, and we must not do it. The apostle Paul, too, had been called by God, yet because some refused to recognize him as an apostle, in letter after letter we find him writing that he had become an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of Jesus. God works above human judgment, so we must not judge. There certainly are people who do evil with spiritual gifts and with the word. But that springs from their own warped faith; the existence of such people does not mean that the work of God has gone wrong.
Sadly, every one of the prophecies Amos delivered came true. Mighty Assyria conquered Israel, and all the women were left with no way to protect themselves; the children, too, could find no shelter, their fathers dead on the battlefield and their mothers turned prostitutes. If even a priestly house like Amaziah’s suffered such disgrace, there was probably not a single family in Israel left whole.
Amos strained every nerve to rescue Israel as it stood before a great judgment, but because he was a poor prophet the world did not recognize, he could not hold the judgment back. Because the world loves to judge by appearances, Amos, so humble in its eyes, perhaps thought at times how much better it would be if only he had some power.
Only Israel’s repentance could have averted the judgment, but they did not turn back, because when people harden their hearts they no longer fear even God. Because human zeal only breeds pride, God too abandoned them, rotten as they had become.
May you be like Amos, proclaiming the word honestly and proving yourselves dependable and steadfast. God protected Amos as he quietly gave himself to his work; may you, too, receive the blessing that same God gives, and become treasured workers who protect the church and the home.