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Hello and welcome to the Tyndale House
podcast.
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We're continuing our series,
looking at the prophets
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and thinking through how we can read them
and make sense of them.
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In our last two episodes,
we talked about the book of Micah.
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And we approached that
by looking at three things.
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We talked about the background of Micah.
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We then talked about the text
and what it actually says.
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And then we talked about,
applying the text.
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So for the initial hearers
and then also applying for us today.
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So I'm joined again by Tony Watkins,
who is the Fellow for Public Engagement
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here at Tyndale House, and Peter Williams
who is the Principal at Tyndale House.
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And we're going to do similar
to what we did with Micah,
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but we're going to look at the book
of Amos today.
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So let's dig in to the background of Amos.
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So what do we need to know
about the background of Amos?
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Who is he? Who prompted these messages?
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Well, when you
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start Amos, you think he's not giving us
a great deal of background.
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‘The words of Amos,
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who was among the shepherds of Tekoa’,
that's in the southern kingdom
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of Judah.
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The kingdom had divided into north
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and south about a couple of hundred years
before Amos’s time,
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‘—which he saw concerning Israel
in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah,
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and in the days of Jeroboam
the son of Jehoash, king of Israel,
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two years before the earthquake.’
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So he does give us a historical context.
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But he is a southerner from Tekoa.
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But it's things he saw concerning Israel,
which is the northern Kingdom.
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So actually he's crossed the border.
So it doesn't look like it gives us
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a lot of information.
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But actually
then when you get further into Amos,
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then there's a little encounter
between, Amos and the priest of
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Bethel called Amaziah, and we discover a
little bit more information about, about
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Amos then.
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but Uzziah became sole king
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767 [BC]?
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give or take a year
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in Judah.
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Jeroboam
the second died in 753 [BC] so,
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so that gives us a very clear window
for when Amos was around.
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I mean, there is a,
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Uzziah has this hugely long reign,
which you could start off
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in the 790s, but I mean, let's say
yes, this is all happening before 750.
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if we talk in in broad terms,
we don't need to be too precise
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about eight century BC.
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And then, of course,
this, earthquake is a fantastically big event.
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It leaves archaeological remains
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that are sort of widely agreed.
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We're not seismologists, but, you know,
people talk about that in the city
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of David and elsewhere and of course,
it gets picked up in, in the book of,
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Zechariah, where Zechariah 14 verse
5 talks about
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people fleeing, as they did
in the earthquake in the days
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of Uzziah, literally remembering
something from over 200 years ago
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before
so that that that that's around 520 [BC],
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remembering this, this event
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and then he seems to have a couple of jobs
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as well as being prophet
because it's herdsman in chapter one.
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But in chapter seven, he talks of himself
as someone who, who tends
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the sycamore
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figs, which seems to be
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well it’s widely thought this is a,
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there's a way of ripening them
by piercing them, and so on.
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Obviously that's not,
not something you do all year round.
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But a dresser of sycamore figs there
in chapter 7, verse
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14 and he's been taken by God, to,
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this role of prophecy and then,
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of course,
we're not given his father's name.
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Which is, sometimes you are,
sometimes you're not but
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it it's not necessary
for us to get the message.
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Yeah.
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And who's who's he speaking to?
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What's the what's the situation
he's trying to address?
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Yeah. So in the northern Kingdom, in
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around this time, was a time of,
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significant prosperity
for both Israel and Judah.
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So Shalmaneser, in Assyria, Shalmaneser
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the the third I always get
the Shalmanesers mixed up.
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Shalmaneser the third had had died.
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It was a time of weakness for Assyria, so
they weren't able to flex their muscles
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in the Levant, the eastern end of
the Mediterranean, as they had been doing.
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And so Israel, Judah, Syria
just to the north, and and
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other neighbours, they were able to
to relax a little bit and,
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and feel that that life was doing
pretty well.
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So it was a prosperous time,
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but it was a prosperous time
for the wealthy and for the elite.
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Clearly, when you read through Amos
and his contemporaries, Micah,
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Isaiah, Hosea, you see that
actually there's also a lot of injustice.
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So it wasn't a good time
for the poor people necessarily,
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but there would, one imagines
there were building projects and things.
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Amos talks about people
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having summer houses
and winter houses and houses dressed of,
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made of fine dressed stone and and inlaid
with ivory and these kinds of things.
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So clearly some people
are doing very, very well.
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But the
he's warning that trouble is to come.
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So there there is this kind of looming
threat of Assyria becoming strong again,
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as it does with, the rise of Tiglath-Pileser III in,
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just a little after the,
the middle of the eighth century.
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So that that's kind of a looming threat
in the background.
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But at the moment it feels stable.
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It feels it feels calm, but
it is a context of significant injustice.
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And also, clearly,
when you read Amos, it's a situation
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where there is very little
in terms of covenant faithfulness.
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The people are not following
the instruction that Moses has given them,
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except in,
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maybe at a ritual level,
but there's there's no heart meaning
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Okay.
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there so, so he's addressing those,
those kinds of things primarily.
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And it’d be fair to say that
justice is an emphasis in this book
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more than any other,
even more than Micah would, would you?
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P: Or...?
T: Yeah....
P: They’re big in both
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Yeah, yeah.
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P: but but really
T: There probably is a bit more. Yes.
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It’s certainly what, what comes out
to me is as extremely prominent
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justice and injustice language.
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And that's, that's his concern.
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And he has such evocative phrases
like selling the righteous for silver
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and the needy for a pair of sandals
in 2:6.
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I mean,
these kinds of phrases are so powerful.
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So it's a huge concern of of Amos.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Okay.
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Well, let's
actually dig into the text itself then.
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So what's
what's kind of the structure the text?
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when you read through Amos, there's
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some very obvious structure to start with.
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So after that initial verse of introduction,
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Amos 1:1 that I read just now,
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we go into to verse two, typically
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two coming after one.
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‘He said: “The Lord roars from Zion
and utters his voice from Jerusalem.
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The pastors of the shepherds mourn,
and the top of Carmel withers.”
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Thus says the Lord.’
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And then you see that phrase,
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‘Thus says the Lord’ coming up a few times in the next couple of chapters.
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But it's not just
thus says the Lord to Israel
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or to Judah, as, as you would
normally expect in the prophets. Here
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this is what the Lord says
concerning transgressions of neighbouring
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city states or nations, for three
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transgressions of Damascus and for four
I will not revoke the punishment,
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because they have in this case threshed
Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.
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Then look at verse six.
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Thus says the Lord, for three
transgressions of Gaza,
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and for four
I will not revoke the punishment,
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because in this case
they carried into exile a whole people.
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And so you see that phrase,
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‘Thus says the Lord for three transgressions
of [wherever] and for four
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I will not revoke the punishment.’
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And that comes up,
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well, seven
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times talking about neighbouring places.
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T: So he’s
F: and he's just in terms of what
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those things, what the they've been doing
is that against Israel specifically?
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Is Gilead Israel or is that just
these are just things they've been doing
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F: against people near them?
T: Well it's a bit of both, actually.
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So so Gilead is the is Transjordan area.
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So, possibly the
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that was under Israelite ownership
and then wasn't
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and then it was and then it wasn't.
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Whether it is at the particular time
that he has in mind,
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probably, but but but who knows.
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But then when you look at, verse
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six, the, the people from Gaza,
the Philistines
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carried into exile a whole people
to deliver them up to Edom.
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Who is that people?
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We we don't know.
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F: Okay
T: but he's dotting around, so he goes south to Damascus,
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which is in the north east,
and then he goes to Gaza,
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which is in the west, and then to Tyre,
which is north west, right up the coast,
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and then Edom down in the south, and then
the Ammonites and Moab on the east.
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Yes, on the east.
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And so, so seven neighbouring nations
and or rather six neighbouring nations.
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T: And then Judah.
F: Right. Okay.
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Those terrible people down in the
south, we don't want anything to do with.
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And you can imagine
all of the people in Israel
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that are listening to, to Amos thinking,
oh, yes, he's
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got to seven, seven, seven is the number
where we finish these things.
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And he's finishing
with a nasty message against Judah.
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That's great.
And then he adds in number eight.
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Thus says the Lord,
the three transgressions of Israel.
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And for four
I will not revoke the punishment.
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So you've got these two chapters of firstly
oracles, as they’re called
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against other nations, and then focusing
on the Lord's people at the end.
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T: And then you've—
P: And that’s quite climactic as well,
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because Israel then gets the longest blast
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T: Yes,
P: by some way.
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P: So it really it's delayed.
T: Yeah
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And it isn't just these other nations
have been doing things against Israel.
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I mean, chapter two, verse
one is very clear.
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Moab burned to lime
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the bones of the king of Edom.
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That's one of their crimes. So it's,
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just, yeah, crimes generally, but yeah,
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a wonderful climax.
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P: And I was, interrupted you in your flow, Tony.
T: That's fine.
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those, I guess in modern terms,
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we would say those first six
are guilty of human rights violations.
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But then when it focuses on Judah
and Israel,
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they are infringements of the covenant. They’re, they’re
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So all of the the nations are being called
to account at some level.
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But God's covenant
people are being held to a higher standard
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because they have the covenant.
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Yeah.
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Which I, just to, for anyone listening
who doesn't have the passage
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in front of them, chapter two, verse
four says,
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‘three transgressions of Judah.
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And for four
I will not revoke the punishment
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because they have rejected
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the law of the Lord,
and have not kept his statutes.’
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P: Yeah, just as an example
T: Yeah. Thank you.
F: of that.
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Then we have three sections
starting in 3:1
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that begin with ‘Hear
this word that the Lord has spoken...’
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So 3:1; 4:1 – ‘Hear, this word,
you cows of Bashan.
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And then 5:1 – ‘Hear,
this word that I take up over you
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T: in lamentation.’
P: And that said said, it's worth just commenting it there.
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The chapter divisions are in exactly
the right place.
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T: It is
P: You know, it's some people like to criticize chapters.
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Sometimes they are open to quibbling,
but sometimes they can get it right.
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These are good ones. Yeah.
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yeah, I might have put chapter two
in a slightly different place
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if I was doing it,
but, I'm happy with where it is.
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And then so after
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chapter 5:17, then we get
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very classic prophetic
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word ‘woe,’
‘Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord.’
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And we have two of those.
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We have one in chapter
5:18 and one in chapter 6 verse 1
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‘Woe to those who are at ease in Zion.’
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So two, what are called woe oracles
because of that first word.
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Then we we change
gear a little bit in chapter seven,
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because then we have a series of visions
that Amos recounts.
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‘This is what the Lord showed me’ in 7:1.
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And so you see that in 7:1. In 7:4
he has a second vision.
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‘This is what the Lord God showed me.’
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Verse 7 ‘this is what he showed me:
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Behold, the Lord was standing
beside a wall built with a plumb line.’
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Very famous image from Amos.
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Then we have a little bit of narrative
from 7:10
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to the end of that chapter, where Amos
encounters Amaziah, the priest of Bethel,
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who is not happy about Amos,
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speaking up in that northern kingdom.
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I think this probably implies
that Amos has been speaking
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in Bethel itself,
which was, a place of idolatry.
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So there were two calf idols
set up in the northern Kingdom, one at Dan
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and one at Bethel.
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And so this Amaziah,
the priest of Bethel, is
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probably a priest
in the worship of this calf idol.
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And Amos
almost certainly is going there to
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to attack, to condemn the
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the idolatry of this northern kingdom.
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And that's where he runs into the priest.
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So, yeah, probably at least some of
these messages are delivered there.
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Then we have another vision
in chapter 8 with that phrase
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again,
‘this is what the Lord God showed me:
00:13:19:17 - 00:13:21:00
a basket of summer fruit.’
00:13:22:14 - 00:13:24:04
And then
00:13:24:04 - 00:13:27:05
where do we pick up the next,
00:13:27:11 - 00:13:30:11
oh the next change is in ‘8:4’ we get another ‘hear’
00:13:30:11 - 00:13:31:21
It's not ‘hear this word’ this time.
00:13:31:21 - 00:13:33:06
But just, ‘Hear this,
00:13:33:06 - 00:13:35:15
you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end’
00:13:35:15 - 00:13:37:12
That's 8:4.
00:13:37:12 - 00:13:41:02
And then we have a final vision in
in chapter 9, verse 1,
00:13:41:02 - 00:13:44:02
‘I saw the Lord.’
00:13:44:02 - 00:13:47:02
And that that final vision
takes us through to the end.
00:13:47:17 - 00:13:50:17
Though it's worth saying that there's a
00:13:51:07 - 00:13:54:14
a division within chapter 9,
because when you get to verse 11,
00:13:54:22 - 00:13:59:15
we get the first beginnings of something
positive in the whole of the book of Amos.
00:13:59:22 - 00:14:03:07
Just the last five verses from 9:11 to 9:15 are
00:14:03:21 - 00:14:05:06
the only positive verses.
00:14:05:06 - 00:14:06:13
And that's a regular pattern.
00:14:06:13 - 00:14:08:05
I mean, we get it in Obadiah.
00:14:08:05 - 00:14:10:17
We get this in in Micah.
00:14:10:17 - 00:14:13:12
I mean, do you want to talk about
this sort of trend?
00:14:13:12 - 00:14:14:04
I'm trying to think,
00:14:15:12 - 00:14:18:04
you know,
how many how many of the prophets have it?
00:14:18:04 - 00:14:21:10
P: It's, something that
T: judgment and then hope?
00:14:21:13 - 00:14:23:15
Yeah.
And the judgment is the longer thing.
00:14:23:15 - 00:14:27:02
But then there is this restoration
for God's people
00:14:27:02 - 00:14:30:10
that's envisaged
towards the end of each
00:14:31:05 - 00:14:32:05
T: Yeah, that’s right
P: of these books
00:14:32:05 - 00:14:35:05
So in one of our Micah episodes, we,
we talked about how they
00:14:35:20 - 00:14:38:19
there are three main sections
and they all begin with judgment
00:14:38:19 - 00:14:41:19
and then pivot to hope.
00:14:42:16 - 00:14:45:08
One of them has got another little pivot
00:14:45:08 - 00:14:47:02
in the middle,
but they all begin with judgment.
00:14:47:02 - 00:14:49:15
They all end with hope so yeah
P: I mean Zephaniah’s another one as well.
00:14:49:15 - 00:14:49:24
Yeah.
00:14:49:24 - 00:14:52:24
T: Absolutely
P: again, it's got the same sort of pattern.
00:14:52:24 - 00:14:54:10
The vast majority
00:14:54:10 - 00:14:55:14
T: Yeah
P: is judgment.
00:14:55:14 - 00:14:58:12
P: But then this . . .
T: Yeah.
00:14:58:12 - 00:15:00:08
P: . . . promise at the end
T: That's right.
00:15:00:08 - 00:15:03:13
But it's a starker difference in Amos
than in any of the others,
00:15:03:13 - 00:15:07:12
because it is such a tiny little bit
at the end, to the extent that a famous
00:15:07:12 - 00:15:08:14
German commentator,
00:15:10:24 - 00:15:13:24
Westermann [Correction: Wellhausen].
00:15:13:24 - 00:15:14:17
Westermann [Correction: Wellhausen]. Yeah.
00:15:14:17 - 00:15:17:02
Yeah, he said that this is,
00:15:17:02 - 00:15:21:04
lavender and roses after blood and iron,
and therefore it couldn't be genuine
00:15:21:04 - 00:15:22:20
Amos.
00:15:22:20 - 00:15:23:21
Well it's a change of gear
00:15:23:21 - 00:15:26:20
but that does mean it's not genuine Amos.
00:15:27:11 - 00:15:28:24
It. Yeah. Lavender and roses.
00:15:28:24 - 00:15:31:12
But that's God's grace.
P: Yeah, sure
00:15:31:12 - 00:15:34:12
T: He is giving us lavender and roses after judgment
and blood and iron
00:15:36:01 - 00:15:36:19
Yeah.
00:15:36:19 - 00:15:39:19
So we we're going to focus in on just one,
one section,
00:15:40:11 - 00:15:42:23
which was chapter 5.
00:15:42:23 - 00:15:43:19
Yeah.
00:15:43:19 - 00:15:46:19
Verse 1-17.
00:15:47:15 - 00:15:48:11
Should I read that?
00:15:48:11 - 00:15:50:02
I think that's a very good idea.
00:15:50:02 - 00:15:53:02
Apologies in advance
for mispronouncing things.
00:15:54:10 - 00:15:58:13
So chapter 5, verse 1 ‘Hear this word
that I take up over you in lamentation.
00:15:58:13 - 00:16:01:06
Oh, House of Israel, fallen
no more to rise
00:16:01:06 - 00:16:03:16
Is the virgin Israel forsaken on her land.
00:16:03:16 - 00:16:05:08
With none to raise her up.
00:16:05:08 - 00:16:08:21
For thus says the Lord God, the city
that went out a thousand
00:16:09:00 - 00:16:10:11
shall have a hundred left,
00:16:10:11 - 00:16:14:05
and that which went out a hundred shall have ten
left to the house of Israel.
00:16:14:19 - 00:16:18:11
For thus says the Lord to the house
of Israel, seek me and live
00:16:18:17 - 00:16:23:13
but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter
into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba.
00:16:23:20 - 00:16:27:14
For Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nothing.
00:16:28:06 - 00:16:31:15
Seek the Lord and live, lest
he break out like fire
00:16:31:15 - 00:16:34:24
in the house of Joseph,
and it devour with none to quench it
00:16:34:24 - 00:16:36:08
for Bethel.
00:16:36:08 - 00:16:40:06
Oh, you who turn justice to wormwood,
and cast down righteousness to the earth.
00:16:41:01 - 00:16:43:07
He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
00:16:44:06 - 00:16:47:11
and turns deep darkness into the morning
and darkens the day
00:16:47:11 - 00:16:50:08
into night
who calls for the waters of the sea.
00:16:50:08 - 00:16:52:19
And pours them out
on the surface of the earth,
00:16:52:19 - 00:16:53:24
The Lord is his name.
00:16:53:24 - 00:16:56:22
Who makes destruction flash
forth against the strong.
00:16:56:22 - 00:16:59:22
So that destruction
comes upon the fortress.
00:16:59:22 - 00:17:03:24
They hate him who approves in the gate,
and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
00:17:04:12 - 00:17:08:23
Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and you exact taxes of grain from him,
00:17:09:07 - 00:17:12:19
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not dwell in them.
00:17:13:04 - 00:17:16:04
You have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
00:17:16:16 - 00:17:20:05
For I know how many are your
transgressions, and how great are your sins.
00:17:20:15 - 00:17:24:03
You who afflict the righteous,
who take a bribe and turn aside
00:17:24:03 - 00:17:25:13
the needy in the gate.
00:17:25:13 - 00:17:28:21
Therefore he who is
prudent will keep silent in such a time,
00:17:29:05 - 00:17:31:05
for it is an evil time.
00:17:31:05 - 00:17:34:05
Seek good and not evil, that you may live.
00:17:34:07 - 00:17:37:00
And so the Lord,
the God of hosts, will be with you,
00:17:37:00 - 00:17:42:03
as you have said, hate evil and love good,
and establish justice in the gate.
00:17:42:13 - 00:17:44:00
It may be that the Lord,
00:17:44:00 - 00:17:47:02
the God of hosts, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.
00:17:47:21 - 00:17:51:10
Therefore thus says the Lord,
the God of hosts, the Lord.
00:17:52:05 - 00:17:55:18
In all the squares there shall be wailing,
and in all the streets they shall say,
00:17:55:18 - 00:17:59:11
alas, alas, they shall call the farmers
to mourning and to wailing
00:17:59:11 - 00:18:03:18
those who are skilled in lamentation, and
in all vineyards there shall be wailing.
00:18:03:18 - 00:18:05:20
For I will pass through
your midst, says the Lord.’
00:18:06:22 - 00:18:09:22
So what's what's this section about?
00:18:10:03 - 00:18:12:17
Well, I think you could make a good case
00:18:12:17 - 00:18:15:21
for saying that this is the
the centre of Amos.
00:18:17:09 - 00:18:22:12
And it is a lament, a lamentation ‘Hear
this word that I take up over you
00:18:22:12 - 00:18:26:21
in lamentation, O House of Israel,’
and at least at the beginning
00:18:26:21 - 00:18:32:05
it follows, seems
to follow a kind of a rhythm or a pattern.
00:18:32:05 - 00:18:35:05
that’s sometimes called a ‘qinah’ or a,
00:18:36:04 - 00:18:39:24
a dirge rhythm,
sometimes called a limping rhythm.
00:18:39:24 - 00:18:43:04
It's got a, a long bit
and then a short bit.
00:18:43:13 - 00:18:46:10
So it seems to have that kind of pattern
at the beginning.
00:18:46:10 - 00:18:49:15
There's a, structurally,
it echoes other laments,
00:18:49:24 - 00:18:52:24
such as when,
00:18:53:08 - 00:18:56:08
Samuel, is is
00:18:58:00 - 00:18:59:13
P: David lamenting Jonathan?
00:18:59:13 - 00:19:00:15
T: David, yeah.
00:19:00:15 - 00:19:02:05
P: And Saul’s death, yeah.
T: Yeah, yeah.
00:19:02:05 - 00:19:03:21
in 2 Samuel 1
Yeah.
00:19:05:11 - 00:19:05:20
Thank you.
00:19:05:20 - 00:19:09:04
T: as I started . . .
P: and the same rhythm you sometimes get in the book
00:19:09:04 - 00:19:13:06
of Lamentations, it's
this idea that it's a little bit offset,
00:19:13:10 - 00:19:16:15
rather than just, pairs equal,
00:19:17:13 - 00:19:19:17
pairs that you often have.
00:19:19:17 - 00:19:22:06
But it's interesting when he says
at the beginning, ‘Hear this word that
00:19:22:06 - 00:19:25:12
I take up over you’
that that sounds quite, quite quiet.
00:19:25:24 - 00:19:30:10
or moderate in English,
but actually, it's it's
00:19:30:10 - 00:19:33:10
‘Hear this word that I, that I cry,
00:19:34:09 - 00:19:35:16
in, in lamentation.’
00:19:35:16 - 00:19:40:03
So I, I, I rather suspect
that Amos is performing this,
00:19:40:18 - 00:19:44:17
so he is
I suspect that he's out in the square
00:19:44:17 - 00:19:49:21
in Bethel or wherever it is,
and and weeping and mourning
00:19:49:21 - 00:19:54:13
over the state of the House of Israel,
because he's saying it's fallen.
00:19:54:18 - 00:19:57:21
And at the same time, there
is this invitation with this in verse
00:19:58:03 - 00:20:01:12
4 or verse 6, seek, seek me,
00:20:01:12 - 00:20:04:12
or, and live or seek the Lord and live.
00:20:04:15 - 00:20:07:24
So it is saying, it's the end.
00:20:07:24 - 00:20:13:06
But sometimes we would read that as
saying, therefore there is no coming back.
00:20:13:06 - 00:20:14:02
You missed a train.
00:20:14:02 - 00:20:20:14
And and yet there is this sense
that God's mercies never come to an end.
00:20:20:14 - 00:20:22:24
And and here he still is.
00:20:22:24 - 00:20:27:05
And there is always life in seek
seeking him and not seeking,
00:20:28:01 - 00:20:32:10
these bad things that they been seeking
in a whole list of places in, in, in
00:20:33:10 - 00:20:36:03
verse 5 with a bit of wordplay
00:20:36:03 - 00:20:40:05
in the original there, where all,
but these places that have sort
00:20:40:05 - 00:20:43:05
of typified their idolatry.
00:20:44:10 - 00:20:47:19
And yet have been associated
with such amazing things in, in history,
00:20:47:19 - 00:20:51:12
as you read through the prose books,
the historical books of the Bible,
00:20:51:12 - 00:20:54:20
and you can see, you know, Gilgal's the place
where the reproach was
00:20:54:20 - 00:20:57:22
rolled away; Beersheba,
a place associated with,
00:20:58:24 - 00:21:01:12
the covenant and Abraham and so on.
00:21:01:12 - 00:21:03:21
Bethel, where God appeared to Jacob.
00:21:03:21 - 00:21:07:14
And yet these places all become
corrupted.
00:21:07:21 - 00:21:11:17
And, you know, don't seek
those; seek God himself.
00:21:11:17 - 00:21:15:19
P: So . . .
T: yeah
P: . . . very powerful way of speaking when, when you
00:21:16:02 - 00:21:18:08
when particularly when you've been reading
00:21:18:08 - 00:21:21:17
the story of the rest of the Bible,
I think it it becomes very powerful.
00:21:21:17 - 00:21:22:18
Yeah.
00:21:22:18 - 00:21:24:20
There's a there's a general thing
for the prophets there
00:21:24:20 - 00:21:26:18
that sometimes their words can look,
00:21:28:02 - 00:21:28:12
on the
00:21:28:12 - 00:21:33:10
surface, so uncompromising and, well,
they are uncompromising, but so final.
00:21:33:21 - 00:21:37:05
And yet the
there is that possibility open.
00:21:37:05 - 00:21:40:05
So when Jonah goes to Nineveh,
he says 40 more days
00:21:40:05 - 00:21:41:17
and this city will be overthrown.
00:21:41:17 - 00:21:44:24
He doesn't say unless you repent,
but they do repent.
00:21:44:24 - 00:21:49:18
And the Lord, the Lord relents from
from his bringing judgment on them.
00:21:50:09 - 00:21:53:09
But actually,
this invitation here is the only
00:21:53:17 - 00:21:55:23
And it well, it comes twice.
00:21:55:23 - 00:21:58:23
So it's a, verses 4 to 6.
00:21:59:11 - 00:22:02:15
And then again in, in verse 14,
these are the only invitations
00:22:02:15 - 00:22:05:15
to repent in the book of Amos.
00:22:06:16 - 00:22:08:10
But but yes,
00:22:08:10 - 00:22:11:10
the city—, Israel appears to be finished,
00:22:11:24 - 00:22:14:24
but there is the possibility
still of life.
00:22:16:12 - 00:22:18:23
You and you mentioned,
00:22:18:23 - 00:22:22:00
before we started recording
that there's a chiastic structure.
00:22:22:21 - 00:22:24:18
What is a chiastic structure?
00:22:24:18 - 00:22:27:08
And, and how is it working
in this passage?
00:22:27:08 - 00:22:30:22
Yeah so a chiasm is, is a mirror image.
00:22:30:22 - 00:22:33:05
Mirror image is a much easier term to use.
00:22:34:22 - 00:22:37:22
But we like talking about chiasms
sometimes.
00:22:38:18 - 00:22:42:12
And they can be a bit controversial,
because sometimes people see chiasms
00:22:42:12 - 00:22:46:20
where there feels like a bit of a stretch,
and sometimes they feel very obvious.
00:22:47:00 - 00:22:49:13
I think this
this one has a very obvious one.
00:22:49:13 - 00:22:52:07
So we start with lamentation
00:22:52:07 - 00:22:55:07
in in verses 1 to 3,
00:22:55:15 - 00:22:59:08
say. We finish with lamentation
because we've got verses
00:22:59:08 - 00:23:03:17
16 and 17, we've got wailing
and people saying, alas and mourning and,
00:23:05:03 - 00:23:07:09
and and explicitly lamentation.
00:23:07:09 - 00:23:10:09
So we begin and end with lamentation.
00:23:10:13 - 00:23:12:23
We've, we've got,
00:23:12:23 - 00:23:16:13
as we were just saying, we've got this
invitation to, to seek the Lord and live.
00:23:16:13 - 00:23:17:10
Seek me and live.
00:23:17:10 - 00:23:20:02
Verse 4, but don't seek Bethel.
00:23:20:02 - 00:23:21:01
And these other places.
00:23:21:01 - 00:23:24:08
Seek the Lord and live repetition
there in verse 6.
00:23:24:22 - 00:23:30:08
And that that seeking one thing and not
another thing comes up in verse 14. Here
00:23:30:08 - 00:23:34:08
it's not ‘seek the Lord’,
but it’s ‘seek good and not evil’.
00:23:34:08 - 00:23:36:07
But it's a very clear parallel.
00:23:36:07 - 00:23:38:18
Hate evil, love good. Flipping it round.
00:23:38:18 - 00:23:41:13
So you've got those,
those two invitations,
00:23:41:13 - 00:23:44:13
just slightly in from the edges,
as it were.
00:23:44:24 - 00:23:47:11
Verse 7 is about the injustice
00:23:47:11 - 00:23:50:11
‘you who turn justice to wormwood
and cast righteousness to the ground.’
00:23:50:11 - 00:23:51:14
Just a single phrase
00:23:51:14 - 00:23:53:18
there, but that's unpacked a little bit
00:23:53:18 - 00:23:58:22
Then in verses 10 to 13. There
we see how they are unjust.
00:23:58:22 - 00:24:00:21
They hate him who reproves in the gate.
00:24:00:21 - 00:24:02:21
They abhor him who speaks the truth.
00:24:02:21 - 00:24:05:08
You trample on the poor, and so on.
00:24:05:08 - 00:24:08:16
And then at the very centre
we've got these two fabulous verses,
00:24:08:16 - 00:24:11:05
which feels like a gear change
when you first read through.
00:24:11:05 - 00:24:14:04
When you go from 7 to 8, it feels
00:24:15:19 - 00:24:17:20
a bit of a clunky gear change, almost.
00:24:17:20 - 00:24:18:08
You've got
00:24:18:08 - 00:24:21:16
you who turned justice to wormwood
and cast down righteousness to the earth.
00:24:22:06 - 00:24:24:17
He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
and turns deep
00:24:24:17 - 00:24:27:17
darkness into morning and darkens
the day into night.
00:24:28:18 - 00:24:30:00
But it's the Lord is his name.
00:24:30:00 - 00:24:33:02
So we've got these two verses
about the very character,
00:24:33:03 - 00:24:36:07
nature and power of of Yahweh,
00:24:36:16 - 00:24:41:12
who is who is sovereign over all of this,
despite the people's waywardness.
00:24:41:18 - 00:24:44:05
And that's the very centre of this mirror
image.
00:24:44:05 - 00:24:49:03
That's the focus,
and everything else revolves around that.
00:24:49:09 - 00:24:54:08
This is the God, says Amos, that you are offending
00:24:54:16 - 00:24:57:16
and letting down and,
00:24:58:10 - 00:25:01:04
turning your back on,
and you want to mess with him,
00:25:01:04 - 00:25:03:04
really?
00:25:03:04 - 00:25:04:21
You might want to think again about that.
00:25:05:23 - 00:25:09:08
So that's an A, B, C, D in the centre
00:25:09:08 - 00:25:10:12
Yeah.
00:25:10:12 - 00:25:13:06
CBA structure. I'd love to ask a little bit
00:25:13:06 - 00:25:16:06
about city imagery and geography.
00:25:16:06 - 00:25:19:12
So what we've got in verse 10
is they hate him
00:25:19:12 - 00:25:22:12
who reproves in the gate, they abhor him
who speaks the truth.
00:25:23:05 - 00:25:26:17
In verse 12,
turn aside the needy in the gate.
00:25:26:23 - 00:25:27:04
Yeah.
00:25:27:04 - 00:25:33:07
And then we've got, in, verse 16,
in all the squares there shall be wailing,
00:25:33:07 - 00:25:36:22
and all the streets, they shall say, alas
and we got,
00:25:37:22 - 00:25:40:22
you know, farmers wailing and so on.
00:25:41:05 - 00:25:45:10
Just talk us through, I mean, how
their cities differ from our cities
00:25:45:10 - 00:25:49:01
and what what happens in gates,
what happens in squares?
00:25:49:15 - 00:25:53:14
And, maybe a bit about farmers mourning
00:25:53:14 - 00:25:56:20
Well cities are not quite like our cities,
00:25:56:20 - 00:25:59:09
are they? They’re rather smaller but the there is,
00:26:00:14 - 00:26:01:06
I mean, we
00:26:01:06 - 00:26:05:00
we’re used to cities where the
the centre of the city is,
00:26:05:02 - 00:26:09:07
is where most of the life happens
and where the, the court is
00:26:09:07 - 00:26:10:22
and the government buildings and so on.
00:26:10:22 - 00:26:14:20
But it's, it's
actually the, the gateway of the city
00:26:14:20 - 00:26:18:21
T: that was the, the centre of life
P: And cities usually only have one gate.
00:26:18:21 - 00:26:20:12
So that's everyone has to go in and out there.
00:26:20:12 - 00:26:22:12
Yep.
00:26:22:12 - 00:26:24:24
And often
00:26:24:24 - 00:26:28:03
it seems covered
but but not always perhaps
00:26:28:06 - 00:26:31:09
but certainly some of them were covered
and, and it seems that the elders
00:26:31:18 - 00:26:35:16
of this of the town
or the city would, would sit in the gate.
00:26:35:16 - 00:26:38:05
People would come to do their business
there.
00:26:38:05 - 00:26:41:05
But the elders would sit there
in order to,
00:26:42:22 - 00:26:47:19
to judge, effectively.
I mean there was not necessarily
00:26:49:20 - 00:26:52:20
a formal legal system, but there would be
00:26:52:21 - 00:26:55:24
the senior people within the town
who would be
00:26:57:10 - 00:27:01:05
expected to arbitrate
between people who have a dispute.
00:27:01:05 - 00:27:02:22
So so you could come to the gates.
00:27:02:22 - 00:27:06:08
You could
you could meet with the, with the,
00:27:06:08 - 00:27:10:12
the senior people in the city and say,
my neighbour is
00:27:10:15 - 00:27:13:21
has moved my boundary post, my neighbour is, is doing this.
00:27:14:20 - 00:27:17:01
And and actually
00:27:17:01 - 00:27:20:14
what they're finding here
is that if you're,
00:27:20:15 - 00:27:23:20
if you're rich and powerful, you,
you can get what you want in the gate.
00:27:23:20 - 00:27:26:22
But if you're if you're poor and needy,
you're going to be turned aside
00:27:27:00 - 00:27:29:22
because you can't you can't bribe.
00:27:29:22 - 00:27:33:22
So the righteous and the needy
are being equated with each other
00:27:33:22 - 00:27:35:20
in verse 12,
you who afflict the righteous,
00:27:35:20 - 00:27:38:05
who take a bribe
and turn aside the needy in the gate.
00:27:38:05 - 00:27:40:22
It's not that the needy are in principle
righteous,
00:27:40:22 - 00:27:44:11
it's just that very often it's
the people at the bottom of society.
00:27:44:11 - 00:27:47:11
They have nobody they can trust
because they're being exploited
00:27:47:11 - 00:27:49:03
apart from the Lord.
00:27:49:03 - 00:27:50:13
And so it drives them
00:27:50:13 - 00:27:54:16
towards a faithfulness that you don't see
among the more powerful people.
00:27:54:21 - 00:27:57:05
So the powerful, the rich can bribe.
00:27:57:05 - 00:27:58:12
They get their way.
00:27:58:12 - 00:28:01:18
The needy who are the righteous they are
00:28:01:19 - 00:28:05:20
they're just given a hard time.
The people that try to speak the truth
00:28:05:20 - 00:28:06:10
are hated,
00:28:07:18 - 00:28:10:18
the poor are trampled on,
00:28:11:01 - 00:28:12:15
yeah. It's miserable.
00:28:12:15 - 00:28:14:24
And then squares and and streets,
you were asking about?
00:28:14:24 - 00:28:18:20
So I guess the thing is
usually the main square
00:28:18:20 - 00:28:21:24
might be
as you just come in from the gates.
00:28:21:24 - 00:28:24:22
Yeah. That's where people can gather.
00:28:24:22 - 00:28:27:18
And I guess if people are oppressing
people in the gate
00:28:27:18 - 00:28:31:07
and that's going under the eyes
of the elders of the city,
00:28:31:07 - 00:28:35:01
therefore everyone's complicit
in some sense of that.
00:28:35:01 - 00:28:38:05
I mean, you do see legal stuff
going on in the gate, whether it's,
00:28:39:04 - 00:28:41:23
Ruth chapter 4 with Boaz
doing a transaction there.
00:28:41:23 - 00:28:45:01
I love the bit at the end of Psalm 127
00:28:45:01 - 00:28:48:05
about, you know, behold, children,
a heritage from the Lord.
00:28:48:05 - 00:28:51:17
And there's, talks about them like, arrows
in the hand of a warrior are
00:28:52:03 - 00:28:55:03
children of one's youth. Blessed is the man
who has his quiver full of them.
00:28:55:03 - 00:28:59:04
He shall not be put to shame when
he speaks with his enemies in the gates.
00:28:59:08 - 00:29:02:09
And its this sort of sense of, you know,
he's got all these strapping lads
00:29:02:09 - 00:29:06:16
or whatever, coming along and yes,
he's he's going to be just fine.
00:29:07:09 - 00:29:10:19
But but, the, the
00:29:10:19 - 00:29:14:14
yes, that that sense of the gate
and I guess with the farmers,
00:29:15:16 - 00:29:18:16
I mean, there's so much capital at stake,
00:29:19:03 - 00:29:21:19
when you have a bad harvest, that you know
00:29:21:19 - 00:29:25:09
the whole mood, you have, about this.
00:29:25:09 - 00:29:28:05
And so if the vineyards are wrecked
00:29:28:05 - 00:29:29:07
they are,
00:29:29:07 - 00:29:33:01
they're mourning, they're wailing, and that's all part of the imagery.
00:29:33:01 - 00:29:35:11
And it's not difficult imagery.
00:29:35:11 - 00:29:39:05
It just there's a slightly sort
of training as you read the Bible
00:29:39:07 - 00:29:45:01
to start thinking about the geography,
the layout of their cities
00:29:45:01 - 00:29:48:06
and what that means,
because I think it's easy for your eyes
00:29:48:06 - 00:29:51:09
just to glaze over these particular
details.
00:29:51:09 - 00:29:54:13
Streets, gates, who cares
you know, it's just a bit of poetry.
00:29:54:13 - 00:29:58:06
No, it's actually, there's actually
a social reality behind that.
00:29:58:06 - 00:30:01:02
You need to, to think about that.
00:30:01:02 - 00:30:03:23
And there's a there's a connection
within the passage as well.
00:30:03:23 - 00:30:09:13
So, the vineyards are
a scene of wailing in verse 17.
00:30:09:13 - 00:30:10:15
But vineyards have been mentioned
00:30:10:15 - 00:30:13:10
back in verse 11,
in the middle of this section of injustice
00:30:13:10 - 00:30:14:10
that we were just looking at,
00:30:15:13 - 00:30:16:04
the people who are
00:30:16:04 - 00:30:19:06
trampling on the poor
and exacting grain taxes from them.
00:30:20:10 - 00:30:21:03
Where are you living?
00:30:21:03 - 00:30:25:08
Your, you've built houses of hewn stone,
but you will not dwell in them.
00:30:25:08 - 00:30:29:01
These are the houses
in the streets and around the squares.
00:30:29:22 - 00:30:32:22
You've planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
00:30:33:01 - 00:30:35:18
T: And it's in the vineyards where there's
going to be wailing and so on
P: and again,
00:30:35:18 - 00:30:38:18
there's just a little cultural thing
to think about there that,
00:30:39:04 - 00:30:41:19
you could make a house literally
of putting whatever
00:30:41:19 - 00:30:44:19
stones you happen to find together
and there might be some gaps between them.
00:30:44:24 - 00:30:47:24
Or you can have that really expensive sort
where,
00:30:48:14 - 00:30:51:08
someone has somehow managed
to cut off the edges
00:30:51:08 - 00:30:52:14
and make everything fit together.
00:30:52:14 - 00:30:54:16
And that's really, very fine.
00:30:54:16 - 00:30:55:18
And for us,
00:30:55:18 - 00:30:56:18
you know,
00:30:56:18 - 00:30:58:00
look at houses all the time and the bricks
00:30:58:00 - 00:30:59:20
basically fit and they’re joined with cement.
00:30:59:20 - 00:31:01:15
But this this is a key thing.
00:31:01:15 - 00:31:05:10
So it's, part of it is having the habit
of thinking yourself
00:31:05:10 - 00:31:10:21
into the cultural realities there
that houses of hewn stone are
00:31:11:20 - 00:31:12:23
definitely at
00:31:12:23 - 00:31:15:23
the upper end of, of affordability.
00:31:16:00 - 00:31:19:00
And so, and these people are oppressing,
00:31:20:02 - 00:31:22:24
others who might well just have,
00:31:22:24 - 00:31:25:06
rough stone houses or,
00:31:25:06 - 00:31:28:15
I mean, and they it does seem generally
that houses have this lower,
00:31:28:15 - 00:31:32:10
at least in cities have this lower basis of stone, whatever they put above it,
00:31:33:04 - 00:31:34:21
P: perishable material.
T: Yeah.
00:31:34:21 - 00:31:37:11
But that, that, that's
00:31:37:11 - 00:31:40:09
P: that's common
T: There's other references to luxurious houses
00:31:40:09 - 00:31:41:11
at the end of chapter three,
00:31:41:11 - 00:31:44:00
I will strike the winter house
along with the summer house,
00:31:44:00 - 00:31:46:08
which kind of, you know,
these people have got somewhere
00:31:46:08 - 00:31:48:04
to live in the winter
and somewhere to live
00:31:48:04 - 00:31:49:04
when it's a bit warmer.
00:31:49:04 - 00:31:51:09
That's, that's that's pretty cushy.
00:31:51:09 - 00:31:53:22
And the houses of ivory and great houses.
00:31:53:22 - 00:31:54:12
T: So, yeah.
P: Yeah.
00:31:54:12 - 00:31:58:06
And the house of ivory, again, it's not that
the whole thing is made of ivory, it's
00:31:58:06 - 00:31:59:17
that they've got ivory inlays.
00:31:59:17 - 00:32:02:14
This is a big thing. Samaria,
00:32:02:14 - 00:32:06:19
lots of ivory is found there, quite
a number of Phoenician sort of things.
00:32:06:19 - 00:32:07:24
Even in our local
00:32:09:10 - 00:32:12:09
Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge,
00:32:12:09 - 00:32:17:12
you can see some of these sort of,
eighth century pieces of ivory.
00:32:17:12 - 00:32:20:12
But just to again, think about,
00:32:20:17 - 00:32:24:04
the sort of realities of, of their world, what they were
00:32:24:04 - 00:32:27:19
physically that can really help
you just appreciating,
00:32:29:06 - 00:32:31:20
the, the prophets and understand
what's going on.
00:32:31:20 - 00:32:32:21
Yeah. Okay.
00:32:32:21 - 00:32:37:12
So if we then just move on to the,
the last thing which is hearing the text.
00:32:37:13 - 00:32:41:20
So there's the audience
that Amos is speaking to, there’s us today,
00:32:42:04 - 00:32:45:04
there's also people in between.
00:32:45:07 - 00:32:45:17
Yeah.
00:32:45:17 - 00:32:48:15
What, how were the people
00:32:48:15 - 00:32:52:10
first hearing it supposed to respond and kind of,
00:32:53:02 - 00:32:54:13
F: yeah, hear it, I guess.
T: Yeah
00:32:54:13 - 00:32:58:11
So Amos is is delivering
this verbally in the northern kingdom.
00:32:59:10 - 00:33:01:15
And we know from history
00:33:01:15 - 00:33:05:19
that the Assyrians came in 722 [BC]
and destroyed the northern kingdom.
00:33:05:19 - 00:33:08:16
We talk about the lost
tribes of, of Israel because
00:33:09:20 - 00:33:12:10
it was
that was the end of it as as a kingdom.
00:33:12:10 - 00:33:15:11
Those, many of those people
were taken into, into exile.
00:33:15:11 - 00:33:16:17
And, and,
00:33:16:17 - 00:33:20:11
other the people were settled in that northern
kingdom; their intermarried descendants
00:33:20:11 - 00:33:25:08
became the Samaritans who were so hated
by the, in the time of Jesus and and so on.
00:33:25:08 - 00:33:27:12
So that was the end
of the northern kingdom.
00:33:27:12 - 00:33:31:18
So you could say,
and there's a very famous article,
00:33:32:02 - 00:33:35:15
about the prophets being failures
because they,
00:33:36:23 - 00:33:39:23
Amos speaks and nothing happens.
00:33:39:23 - 00:33:43:02
I just don't think that's that's fair
at all,
00:33:43:03 - 00:33:46:23
because,
yes, destruction did come at one level.
00:33:47:10 - 00:33:49:03
He is absolutely right.
00:33:49:03 - 00:33:50:12
Fallen no more to rise.
00:33:50:12 - 00:33:53:12
Is the virgin Israel forsaken
on her own land with none to raise her up.
00:33:53:17 - 00:33:56:04
Yep, in just a couple of decades,
00:33:56:04 - 00:33:59:20
three decades, say,
after Amos's time, that becomes a reality.
00:34:00:18 - 00:34:05:11
But that doesn't mean Amos is a failure,
because he's not just
00:34:05:11 - 00:34:08:20
speaking to a, a monolithic nation.
00:34:08:20 - 00:34:10:17
He's speaking to individuals, too.
00:34:10:17 - 00:34:17:10
And and clearly, some people respond
to Amos’s words in repentance of faith.
00:34:17:10 - 00:34:21:15
They take his injunction to ‘seek me
and live’, and they take that seriously.
00:34:22:03 - 00:34:25:15
And so when when the Assyrian threat comes
00:34:25:19 - 00:34:31:09
or when destruction happens,
they have by that point,
00:34:32:12 - 00:34:35:11
whether whether Amos himself
has been involved in this or not,
00:34:35:11 - 00:34:35:24
we don't know.
00:34:35:24 - 00:34:40:12
But those people take Amos’s words,
they flee over the border
00:34:40:12 - 00:34:43:03
to their southern neighbour,
and they take refuge.
00:34:43:03 - 00:34:47:02
They become refugees in the southern
kingdom, and they they settle there.
00:34:47:12 - 00:34:51:10
And so then these words, these written
words, now, as a as a whole book,
00:34:51:16 - 00:34:54:16
have a have
a second lease of life, addressing,
00:34:54:22 - 00:34:57:14
not the unfaithful people
of the northern Kingdom of Israel,
00:34:57:14 - 00:35:00:24
but now addressing the unfaithful people
of the southern kingdom of Judah,
00:35:00:24 - 00:35:03:24
because Amos becomes
part of The Book of the Twelve.
00:35:04:13 - 00:35:08:03
So we have these, these 12 prophets
in one scroll,
00:35:08:08 - 00:35:13:03
and they, they continue to challenge
God's covenant people in, in Judah.
00:35:13:15 - 00:35:16:05
Oh, and we know the descendants
of the northern Kingdom
00:35:16:05 - 00:35:19:17
were still around in Jesus’s time
because he's welcomed at the temple
00:35:19:17 - 00:35:22:17
by Simeon, which sounds a very southern
name to me, and Anna,
00:35:22:19 - 00:35:25:09
the daughter of Phanuel,
of the tribe of Asher.
00:35:25:09 - 00:35:28:23
So there she is, hundreds of years
later, still knowing her ancestry.
00:35:29:05 - 00:35:32:05
So. And then, of course,
because of their efforts
00:35:32:05 - 00:35:35:05
in, in in preserving
these words for Judah,
00:35:35:17 - 00:35:38:23
we still have them now 2700 years
00:35:38:23 - 00:35:42:24
later on, because the Lord is at work
in this, er,I think that’s remarkable.
00:35:43:07 - 00:35:44:19
So would you say, so
00:35:44:19 - 00:35:47:19
the preservation of the book
00:35:48:00 - 00:35:51:12
is your kind of evidence for there were
people who responded to these words.
00:35:52:05 - 00:35:53:12
Well, it's one piece of evidence.
00:35:53:12 - 00:35:55:06
It's a very significant piece of evidence.
00:35:56:15 - 00:35:59:15
But yeah, we can we can read in the,
00:35:59:15 - 00:36:02:15
in Kings that there were,
there were some people,
00:36:02:19 - 00:36:04:23
some of the Levites went down
00:36:04:23 - 00:36:07:15
before this time because,
00:36:07:15 - 00:36:10:24
when,
when Jeroboam set up the calf idol worship
00:36:10:24 - 00:36:14:08
in the northern Kingdom,
he set up his own priesthood.
00:36:14:08 - 00:36:18:05
So, so some of the, the Levitical people
certainly had already gone.
00:36:18:13 - 00:36:20:08
Yeah.
00:36:20:08 - 00:36:23:14
I also like the fact that in Acts
chapter 15, when the
00:36:23:21 - 00:36:28:22
the early church is debating
what to do with Gentiles and, you know,
00:36:28:23 - 00:36:32:23
and so on, which is really something that affects an awful lot of us,
00:36:34:07 - 00:36:36:13
that this is, you know,
00:36:36:13 - 00:36:40:09
James, quotes from Amos
00:36:40:18 - 00:36:44:23
and says specifically from chapter 9,
after this, return, I'll rebuild
00:36:44:23 - 00:36:48:16
the tent of David that’s fallen and I will
rebuild its ruins, and I will restore
00:36:48:16 - 00:36:50:06
And the remnant of mankind may,
00:36:50:06 - 00:36:52:03
that the remnant of mankind
may seek the Lord.
00:36:52:03 - 00:36:54:02
And all the Gentiles who are called by my
name,
00:36:54:02 - 00:36:57:02
says the Lord,
who makes these things known from of old.
00:36:57:06 - 00:36:58:12
And there's some wonderful,
00:36:59:14 - 00:37:01:03
subtle differences
00:37:01:03 - 00:37:05:14
between that and Amos,
that we can maybe explore another time.
00:37:05:23 - 00:37:08:08
But the fact is this
00:37:08:08 - 00:37:10:09
vision of what God's doing
00:37:10:09 - 00:37:13:09
internationally absolutely picked up,
00:37:13:23 - 00:37:16:07
in the New Testament and pivotal,
00:37:16:07 - 00:37:20:24
and the church goes, goes forward,
including, Gentiles,
00:37:20:24 - 00:37:23:24
which is, again,
very good news for a lot of people.
00:37:25:16 - 00:37:28:16
So just final question, really, how
00:37:28:18 - 00:37:32:06
how should we read the passage,
a passage like this in today's world?
00:37:33:12 - 00:37:36:01
You know, as you said,
there's a lot of judgment in it.
00:37:36:01 - 00:37:38:23
There is there is some hope at the end.
00:37:38:23 - 00:37:39:16
Yeah.
00:37:39:16 - 00:37:42:10
How should we respond to it?
00:37:42:10 - 00:37:44:17
I think the power of lament is,
00:37:44:17 - 00:37:47:17
is something that we need to reflect on.
00:37:48:20 - 00:37:52:06
I know for myself, I've been knocking
around churches my whole life.
00:37:52:06 - 00:37:54:10
You know, I was brought up in
a in a Christian family,
00:37:55:12 - 00:37:58:12
I've been a Christian since my childhood.
00:38:00:02 - 00:38:02:02
And the the the
00:38:02:02 - 00:38:05:23
the challenge of of God's
disapproval of sin
00:38:05:23 - 00:38:09:18
is something that I can become
00:38:10:12 - 00:38:14:12
indifferent to over time,
because I've heard it so many times.
00:38:14:12 - 00:38:16:00
And yes, I,
00:38:16:00 - 00:38:18:11
you know, we
we make some kind of accommodation
00:38:18:11 - 00:38:21:24
with, with our failures
to, to live as God's people don’t we
00:38:22:06 - 00:38:26:03
you know, that's it's this is just
the weakness that I have and or whatever.
00:38:26:13 - 00:38:30:14
And we find excuses
and then we get such powerful words
00:38:30:14 - 00:38:33:20
that Amos is expressing this utter
00:38:33:20 - 00:38:36:20
grief because he's expressing God's grief.
00:38:36:22 - 00:38:39:08
And this
this heartfelt invitation from the Lord.
00:38:39:08 - 00:38:41:04
Seek me and live.
00:38:41:04 - 00:38:42:15
Seek the Lord and live.
00:38:42:15 - 00:38:45:15
Seek good and not evil, that you may live,
00:38:46:00 - 00:38:50:15
and the power of those words,
framed in the context of a lament,
00:38:52:18 - 00:38:53:14
it just
00:38:53:14 - 00:38:57:13
it begins to open up God's heart about
sin it’s not just
00:38:57:13 - 00:39:00:24
I'm not, I'm not ticking the boxes,
but I am
00:39:01:24 - 00:39:04:24
I am letting down,
00:39:05:05 - 00:39:08:08
the God who made me and, my father,
00:39:09:18 - 00:39:13:01
and my my covenant Lord
and my my redeemer.
00:39:13:01 - 00:39:16:01
It's it's so it becomes
a relational thing, not simply a
00:39:16:09 - 00:39:17:15
a tick box thing.
00:39:17:15 - 00:39:21:08
And so we need to
we need to feel this more.
00:39:21:08 - 00:39:23:20
And I think that's one of the things
that the prophets do so well.
00:39:23:20 - 00:39:26:20
They at least for me, they make
they make me feel it.
00:39:27:14 - 00:39:28:05
Great.
00:39:28:05 - 00:39:31:05
Well we'll leave it there then with Amos,
00:39:31:18 - 00:39:35:14
in our next episode we'll be looking
at Jonah, and doing a similar thing,
00:39:35:14 - 00:39:38:18
working through the background, the text
and then the audience.
00:39:39:05 - 00:39:40:17
So thanks very much for listening.
00:39:40:17 - 00:39:42:07
Thank you both for joining me.
00:39:42:07 - 00:39:46:03
And yeah, please do rate and review
and subscribe to the podcast.
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tyndalehouse.com.
00:39:49:10 - 00:39:52:10
You'll find, lots of articles
there under the explore tab.
00:39:53:01 - 00:39:56:08
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