Day 196

Amos 1:1-2:16, Romans 2:17-3:8, Proverbs 17:5-14

As we move into the book of Amos there are a number of practical things for us to look at as we piece the Bible together. For one, we have jumped a long way into the Old Testament as the book of Amos actually sits towards the end. In terms of time though he is somewhere back around 2 Kings 14:23ff when Jeroboam II was on the throne so he’s one of the first prophets to have a book. He lived around the the time of both Hosea and Isaiah, although age wise he would have been the daddy of the group.

Amos as a person was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees. Importantly he was not born of prophetic blood or schooled in the prophetic cliques, God called him out of something else to speak His word.

Turning to the text we are straight in with the doom and gloom and take note that Israel gets the worst of it. The neighbours of Israel aren’t let off, God is not too happy with any of them, but then Amos gets to Israel and they really get it in the neck. Note the timing though – if Amos is speaking about the time of 2 Kings 14 then the exile and destruction of the temple have not yet happened, this is where all the doom and gloom is leading. He certainly wouldn’t have been a popular chap with this message.

Paul too would not have been that popular, offering a real challenge to the people in Rome. By the time that Paul is writing his letters he is actually writing to churches, and yet at that early stage, it was not quite so clear cut as “Christian” and “Jew”. There would have been a lot of people in the church at Rome who would have still seen themselves as Jews and Paul is really challenging them that the difference Christ makes is in the heart, it is there that you have to be a Christian. The message is the same for us, it is no good having “Christian” tattooed across your forehead and then hating everyone and not living the life of Christ. The term today would be “Sunday Christian”, those who come to church because it is the thing to do but you can’t see the difference during the week. Paul’s challenge is that we are Christians the whole week through and just as importantly, we help others to be week long followers of Christ.

God wants us to be his prophets on various levels, and the message that He wants us to speak can be difficult or it can be easy. We need to keep listening though as, like Amos, we never know when He might call us or what He will want us to say.