Amos · chapter 7 of 9
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Amos 7 reports three visions from the Lord: a locust swarm, a fire and a plumb line beside a wall. Amos pleads for Israel in the first two and the Lord relents, but the third announces that he will no longer pass them by. Then the priest Amaziah orders Amos to leave Bethel, and Amos answers that God took him from following the flock.
Chapter 7 begins the second half of the book, made up of five visions. The first three show the prophet as an intercessor and then as a witness that God's patience has a limit. Between the third and fourth visions comes the only narrative passage in Amos: his confrontation with the religious authority of the northern kingdom.
The Lord shows Amos a first vision: locusts forming when the second crop begins to sprout, just after the king's mowing. When they had finished eating the grass of the land, Amos pleads that the Lord forgive, because Jacob is small and could not stand. The Lord relents and says it will not happen. The second vision is a fire that was drying up the great deep and consuming the land. Amos again pleads that it stop, because Jacob is small, and the Lord relents of this too.
In the third vision the Lord stands beside a wall built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. He asks Amos what he sees and he answers: a plumb line. The Lord says he is setting it in the midst of his people and will no longer pass them by: the high places of Isaac will be made desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste, and he will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
Amaziah, priest of Bethel, sends word to King Jeroboam: Amos is conspiring against him, and the land cannot bear his words, for he says Jeroboam will die by the sword and Israel will go into exile. Amaziah tells Amos to flee to Judah, eat his bread there and prophesy there, but never prophesy again at Bethel, because it is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.
Amos answers that he was no prophet nor a prophet's son, but a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs, and that the Lord took him from following the flock and told him to go and prophesy to his people Israel. Now hear the word of the Lord: you say do not prophesy, but your wife will be a prostitute in the city, your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be divided, you yourself will die in an unclean land and Israel will go into exile away from its land.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
When the locusts devour the grass, Amos asks the Lord to forgive because Jacob is small. The prophet does not only announce judgment; he pleads for the people and stands with them before God.
The Lord sets a plumb line in the midst of his people and says he will no longer pass them by. A plumb line tests whether a wall is straight, and so the Lord measures Israel against a standard it does not meet.
Amaziah tells Amos to prophesy in Judah and not at Bethel, the king's sanctuary. Official religion tries to silence a voice that troubles power.
Amos answers that he was no professional prophet but a herdsman and dresser of sycamore figs, and that the Lord took him from following the flock. His authority comes not from an office but from God's call.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: A swarm of locusts devouring the grass of the land. — Amos 7:1-2
Answer: To forgive and stop the punishment, because Jacob is small. — Amos 7:2-5
Answer: A plumb line. — Amos 7:7-8
Answer: He was the priest of Bethel and ordered Amos to flee to Judah and not prophesy again at Bethel. — Amos 7:10-13
Answer: As no prophet nor a prophet's son, but a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. — Amos 7:14
Answer: His wife will be a prostitute in the city, his sons will fall by the sword, and he will die in an unclean land. — Amos 7:17
Amos 7 shows two sides of serving God: intercession and courage. The prophet prays for the people before announcing judgment. Anyone who teaches or leads in the church must learn to plead for those they need to correct, and not only point out their faults.
It also teaches us to stand firm when an authority tries to silence the truth for comfort or convenience. Amos does not appeal to an office but to God's call. In a Sunday school class you can reflect on how to respond when social or institutional pressure invites us to be silent about what God has shown in his word, without losing humility or respect.
Amos 7 shows that God's patience has a limit and that the message of his servant cannot be silenced by power. In chapter 8, a basket of ripe fruit will be the picture that the end has come for Israel.
The text uses the word relent in the sense of changing course in response to prayer, not of having made a mistake. The Bible presents a God who answers intercession and still carries out his purpose of justice. In the third vision he no longer changes course.
It is a cord with a weight that builders use to check that a wall is vertical. In Amos it symbolizes the standard by which the Lord measures his people: those who do not match it will be torn down.
It means he did not belong to a prophetic guild or train for that office. He was a man with another occupation whom God called directly, which underlines that his message was not self-interest but the word of the Lord.