Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center 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, earn your 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 Amaziah, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, and 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 become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”
If I can say I have a favorite prophet, Amos might be it, or high on the list. His humility, honesty, and not flinching from speaking God’s word is so much needed at every time, certainly today. Not the babbling of the many false prophets who are speaking what “the king,” what those in power, even what the people might want to hear. No. But telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Amos says the most difficult things. We do no one any favor by sugar coating what needs to be said, so that the hard truth is possibly lost. No. We need to say it plainly, clearly like Amos. Only when the truth of God’s needed judgment is absorbed and accepted can the truth of God’s forgiveness and restoration come forth and be received.
Jesus community 