Thursday, September 10, 2020
![sycamore_ashkelon-66-t[1]](https://thenoontimes.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/sycamore_ashkelon-66-t1.jpg?w=508&h=269)
A Sycamore Tree Bearing Fruit
Investigating Amos
What do we know about the prophet Amos? When we seek we will find that . . .
- He described himself as a shepherd and farmer who tended to sycamore trees;
- His strong verbal skills imply that he was more than an ignorant peasant;
- He did not consider himself to be a professional prophet; he did not make a living proclaiming oracles to a patron who paid to hear what he wanted to hear;
- He lived in Tekoa, a town about 11 miles south of Jerusalem;
- He centered his ministry around Bethel, a major city in the north of Israel where many of the upper classes of the northern kingdom worshiped;
- He lived during the reigns of Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah, 760-750 B.C.E., an era of unusual prosperity;
- He brought a message of warning to the wealthy and powerful that they must come to see that their wealth had lured them into spiritual complacency and ethical laxity;
- He warned his audience that judgment would be exacted for the actions of the strong against the weak. (Zondervan 1444-1445)
There is heavy emphasis on social justice in this prophecy and those of us today who live in first-world cultures do well to spend time contemplating the words and thoughts of Amos. What do we who are comfortable do for those who are not? How do we have much enact God’s Word for those who have little? Who are the peasants among us who ask for our introspection, our witness, our voices, and our action? In the time of pandemic and social unrest, how do we reflect the God who created us?
If we spend time today with the words of Amos and a solid commentary or other resource, we will hear God speak to us in our innermost refuge where we go to forget the woes of the world. If we spend time with the poetry of Amos today, we will experience the message of healing and restoration this prophet still brings to the faithful who seek God’s wisdom, to the faithful who yearn to bear fruit.
Tomorrow, an exhortation to return to God.
Adapted from a post written on September 14, 2013.
Image from: http://ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/zaccheus-climbed-up-into-a-sycamore-tree/
ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY BIBLE (NIV). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005. 1444-1445. Print.
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