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© Family Times | About Us | Donate | Contact Us
Search for sermons by: Commentaries | Scripture search | Topics
Visions of judgment
Amos 7:1–17
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
There is a Peanuts cartoon that shows Snoopy sitting outside in the middle of a snowstorm. He is shivering from the cold. Linus and Charlie Brown happen by and see Snoopy and his condition. They say, “There is Snoopy, let’s go cheer him up.” They go up to Snoopy and say … More
One of the secrets of being an effective communicator is to have compassion for those we hope to reach. We may not like everything that they do but we must care about them. The compassion Amos felt toward those to whom he had been sent permeates this passage. When the Lord showed him a series of visions foretelling the destruction of Israel, Amos pleaded with God on Israel’s behalf. In the first vision he saw a swarm of locusts ready to destroy the harvest (v. 1). Instead of rejoicing because God’s sinful people were getting what they deserved Amos cried out in anguish and begged God to forgive (v. 2). So, the Lord granted the prophet’s request (v. 3).
The next vision Amos saw was “judgment by fire” to destroy the crops and dry up the underground water supply (v. 4). Once again Amos pled with God to relent and judgment was delayed (vv. 5-6). After this Amos is given the vision of a straight wall where the Lord is standing by it with a plumb line (vv. 7-9). Because Israel’s conduct didn’t “square” with God’s laws, they experienced God’s wrath.
An encounter between Amos and Amaziah occured at Bethel, the king’s sanctuary (vv. 10-17). Amaziah, the priest who officiated at Bethel, wanted to please his leaders. In an effort to sabotage Amos’s ministry, Amaziah sent word to Jeroboam II accusing Amos of trying to overthrow him. He also warned Jeroboam that the things Amos prophesied was threatening to the king personally and put political stability of the northern kingdom at risk (v. 10). Amos, however, was not driven by a political agenda but by his calling as a prophet of God.
Application
As a follower of Jesus Christ I have a plumb line by which I can evaluate my life. It is the Word of God with its principles and commands.
Amos 7:1-17 (English Standard Version)
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, "O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" The LORD relented concerning this: "It shall not be," said the LORD. This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. Then I said, "O Lord GOD, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!" The LORD relented concerning this: "This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD. This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, "'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'" And Amaziah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom." Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' Now therefore hear the word of the LORD. "You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.' Therefore thus says the LORD: "'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 up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"
View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) »
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