From Fig Picker to Fearless Prophet (Amos 1–2)

A Shakespeare line about “greatness thrust upon them” turns out to be the perfect doorway into Amos. He is not polished, powerful, or credentialed. He is a shepherd from Tekoa and a fig picker, yet God makes him fearless, clear, and impossible to ignore. We slow down to place Amos in biblical history under Jeroboam II around 760 BC, a prosperous era that masks deep moral decay in the northern kingdom of Israel.

From there, the prophecy of judgment arrives fast. Amos starts with the surrounding nations so nobody can claim God is singling Israel out. Syria’s violence, Philistia’s slave trade, Tyre’s broken covenant of brotherhood, Edom’s hatred, Ammon’s atrocities, and Moab’s desecration all come under the same divine standard. Along the way we unpack the repeated phrase “for three transgressions and for four,” not as a number game, but as a warning that the evidence has piled up and refusal has consequences.

Then Amos brings the message home: Judah rejects God’s law, and Israel’s sins stack up in a grim list of greed and oppression. People are treated as disposable, the poor are crushed, and comfort becomes a cover for injustice. We close by drawing the line from Amos’s warning to our own day, where delayed judgment can feel like safety until it suddenly is not. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what part of Amos challenges you most.

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Transcript

A Reluctant Prophet Introduced

SPEAKER_00 0:54

In his romantic comedy called The Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare wrote these words: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Well, in the context of that play, those words were actually a part of a joke. Yet in many ways, those words tell the truth. It's truth that we often see played out in life. Some have greatness thrust upon them. And let me tell you, that describes the prophet Amos. Today we find ourselves in his little book as we continue sailing through the minor prophets. Amos certainly was not born into greatness. He was a simple, humble man. He lacked any what we would call professional training to be a prophet. He never tried to be great in the eyes of the world either. In fact, if we met Amos on the street or in the grocery store, we'd probably be surprised that he was the man that God made so powerful and fearless as a prophet, a great man in the eyes of God. Now the first verse in the book of Amos gives us a lot of information. The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tokoah, which he saw concerning Israel, in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Now the earthquake here is also mentioned in Zechariah chapter 14, but we still can't pinpoint the exact date when it occurred. We do know that Amos ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II. So he's preaching for the Lord around 760 BC. And that's the same time, by the way, as the prophet Hosea. In fact, they they probably knew each other. They might have even shared some sermon outlines together over lunch. Well, Amos is from the village of Tokoah. That's about 11 miles south of Jerusalem. And there he's working, we're told, as a rather humble shepherd. Now later on in chapter 7, we learn that he also had become a dresser of sycamore figs. That's verse 14, and that indicates that Amos, well, he was a fig picker. He took care of fig trees as a young man. And I gotta tell you, that's not a very impressive resume at all. But God had some impressive things in mind for Amos. Now following verse 1, Amos immediately launches into his prophecy. He just kind of gets right down to business, and you won't be surprised to learn that it's primarily a prophecy of judgment. Amos's prophecy is directed first against all the nations surrounding Israel. Yes, God is going to make an airtight case for his judgment of Israel. But Israel is not going to be able to claim that God is singling them out, picking on them while letting all those other nations out there get off the hook. Oh no, they're going to be judged as well. Now you'll find in these first two chapters a phrase that is repeated before each pronouncement of divine judgment. The phrase is, for three transgressions and for four, I will not revoke the punishment. This is a this is a Hebrew expression. It's a way of saying certain things. We've already run across it in our journey through Proverbs where we're told things like, well, God hates six things, yes, even seven, in Proverbs chapter six. It means you can't calculate the total number. It's just it's too long of a list. One commentator puts it, Amos is basically saying here that this long list of transgressions means that, well, God's wrath isn't going to be turned away because the list is so long. Now, the prophecies begin here in verse 3 with Damascus, this is the capital city of Syria, and it's going to represent the entire nation of Syria. The primary sin mentioned here is that Syria threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. Now we know that Gilead lived over there on the east side of the Jordan River, but they had suffered greatly at the hands of the Syrians. Well, now God promises to bring destruction. In fact, it's fire here upon Syria. The Lord says in verse 5, they will go into exile to curr. Now that's an area in Assyria. What this means is Syria is going to fall to the Assyrian army and be taken into exile or captivity. Now beginning here in verse 6, Philistia is told of coming judgment. The Philistine cities of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, they're singled out because they captured and sold Israelites into slavery. The Lord says here in verse 8, the remnant of the Philistines shall perish. Next, Phoenicia is represented by Tyre, that's the great coastal city to the north of Israel. That's next in line for judgment. Verse 9 tells us the Venetians also sold Israelites into slavery. They violated, Amos says, the covenant of brotherhood. That's a peace treaty that they had made with Israel, and they too are going to be judged by God. Well, next in line is the nation Edom. They're located there on the south of the Dead Sea. Edom was a persistent enemy of God's chosen people. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob's older brother, Esau, or Edom, was still fighting Jacob, that is Israel. And verse 11 tells us that Edom pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity. They're going to be judged for their hatred and their hateful treatment of Israel. Now we have the people of Ammon, east of the Jordan River. They're also marked out by God for judgment. The Ammonites, if you go back into Israelite history, had committed cruel, brutal atrocities against the Israelites of Gilead. Verse 13 here says that they even ripped open pregnant women. Well, God's judgment is coming against them as well. Now, as we move here into chapter two, the pronouncements of judgment continue, and Moab is singled out. Verse 1 specifically mentions that Moab burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom. In other words, they desecrated the body of their dead enemy. And this reveals their vengeful, their cruel attitude toward the Israelites. And God's judgment, again, is going to settle the score. Now, with that, the prophecies of Amos draw a little closer now to Israel. Here in verse 4, Judah is condemned for rejecting God's law and being led astray by their own deceived hearts. Here in verse 6, we're told that the kingdom of Israel finally comes into the spotlight, and rather than just give us one sinful deed or act, as God does for most of those other nations, the Lord actually gives us a list of Israel's sins. Keep in mind, this is a prosperous time in Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II, but it's also a time characterized by greed and oppression. Verse six says they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. Imagine people are being sold for the price of a pair of shoes. Human life has little value in these days. The wealthy, the powerful, we're told here, in fact, in verse 7, trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth and ignore the afflicted. Well, here in verse 13, the Lord promises, Behold, I will press you down in your place as a cart full of sheaves presses down. In other words, God's judgment is going to crush them for their evil, brutal, unkind actions. Now, this crushing judgment is pictured in the following verses as a defeat in war. The prophet foresees the coming Assyrian conquest of Israel, the fall of its capital city, Samaria. Now, this is going to occur about forty years after Amos delivers this prophecy. But it's going to spell an end to the northern kingdom. There isn't going to be any escape. Divine judgment might not arrive for another forty years, but it's on the way. In fact, verse 14 says, The strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life. He who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift afoot shall not save himself. They're not going to be able to shoot it down or run away from it. Well, these opening chapters now of Amos give us a tragic list of sins and the consequences of them for all those nations, but including Judah and Israel. One of my favorite authors said essentially that if the prophecies of Amos reveal anything, they show very clearly that the central message is there's no turning back of the judgment of God after his repeated offers of grace and blessing and forgiveness are refused, spurned. And let me tell you, this is true today. Let me tell you, beloved, you might not be surrounded today by Syrians or Philistines, but the principle of God's judgment for them is the same. Yet God is very gracious in warning your world through you, through his word, of the devastation of his coming judgment. Let's not soften our warning. In fact, let's invite the world to heed this warning and decide to walk with God. And for believers, well, let's show them what it's like to walk with God in obedience to his word and with a heart of thanksgiving. Well, until our next session, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.