Although Amos was a farmer from a small town near Bethlehem and only 11 miles from Jerusalem, he was called as a prophet at about the same time as Isaiah, Hosea and Micah were also active. The civil war after Solomon's death had split the nation into two Kingdoms and these four prophets all warned God's people of the dangers of falling away into idolatry. Amos, Hosea, and Micah directed their prophecies more toward the North, whose fall was imminent while Isaiah focused on the South.
It was about the middle of the 8th Century BC and both Kingdoms were enjoying a period of financial prosperity, combined with political and military might unparalleled since the times of David and Solomon. These conditions were thought to be a sign of God's favor.
Someone once said that religion gives birth to prosperity and the child consumes the mother. And so it was with God's people. The more secure the two kingdoms became the more they descended into moral and religious corruption. Their prosperity caused them to ignore the warnings of the prophets and forget past judgments. With Amos God began to send the message that His patience had run out. Tired of the "form without substance" nature of their worship and their periodic ventures into idolatry, He was about to raise up two pagan nations to judge them. First Assyria would all but obliterate the Northern Kingdom, called Israel, and then Babylon would take the South, Judah, into captivity. Far from being simply a disciplinary act as in the past, this judgment would actually make Israel cease to exist as a nation, at least temporarily.
(It's hard to over look the parallels between Biblical Israel and the USA. Like ancient Israel, the USA has enjoyed God's favor and achieved previously unheard of levels of prosperity. Our political and military might have made us the undisputed leaders of the free world. And like Israel, as our levels of blessing have ratcheted steadily upward, the sincerity and intensity of our faith has gone in the opposite direction.
Worse than the form without substance religion of Biblical times, we've kicked God completely out of our schools and public places and are well on the way toward excluding Him from our churches. In the name of tolerance, we encourage every religion except Christianity, every lifestyle except the traditional family, and every morality except the Judeo-Christian. Don't be surprised to learn that God's patience with us has run out as well. The pagan nations He's sending to judge the US are already on their way, and they're from the same place as the ones He used against Israel.)
Just as it was in Biblical times God again has a score to settle with Israel's neighbors, and again the resemblance to our time is striking. Let's take heed as Amos speaks again.
Amos 1
The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. He said: "The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers." (Amos 1:1-2)
Uzziah reigned in Judah from 792-740 BC and Jeroboam in Israel from 793-753.
Judgment on Israel's Neighbors
This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath . Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth, I will send fire upon the house of Hazael that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad. I will break down the gate of Damascus; I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden. The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir," says the LORD. (Amos 1:3-5)
We would call the Lord's complaints against these nations indictments of war crimes. Hazael was the King of Damascus from 842-796 BC and Ben-Hadad was his son. Valley of Aven means valley of wickedness and Beth Eden means house of gardens. Both refer to Damascus, the garden spot of the Abana River valley (2 Kings 5:12). It was a wicked place in a beautiful setting. In going after the lands of Gilead, south of the Golan and east of the Jordan, they showed no restraint. Sending the people of Aram to Kir implies sending them back where they came from. (Amos 9:7)
Damascus, although conquered by the Assyrians in about 732 BC, was never totally destroyed. Isaiah spoke of a yet future destruction of Damascus so complete that no one will ever live there again. (Isaiah 17:1) The world's oldest continuously inhabited city will finally come to its end. If the predictions of intelligence experts from Russia, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and others are accurate, we could see the prophecy of Isaiah 17 fulfilled very soon, perhaps even this year.
This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. I will destroy the king of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, till the last of the Philistines is dead," says the Sovereign LORD. (Amos 1:6-8)
The text mentions 4 of the 5 cities of Philistia. The other was Gath from which Goliath came and which was part of Israel at the time. The Assyrians conquered the Philistines at the same time as the Arameans and later Nebuchadnezzar destroyed them completely, leaving no trace.
When the Romans conquered Israel, they re-named the land Palestine. It means Land of the Philistines and was meant as an insult to the Jews, since the Promised Land had never been known by that name. Even if today's Palestinians were descended from the Philistines, which they aren't, their claims to the Land of Israel on the basis of historical precedent are baseless.
But Gaza is once again in the news. When Israel abandoned the so-called Gaza Strip, terrorists groups of both local and foreign origin made it their home and began smuggling arms into the area in previously unheard of amounts. Today it's under the nominal control of Hamas, which is armed and trained by Iran. Having denied it for over a year, Israel is finally beginning to publicly admit that abandoning Gaza was a mistake that will have to be corrected soon, or else it'll be too late. As you read this, Israeli troops are making their first limited incursions into the territory they abandoned in an attempt to curtail the almost daily rocket attacks. But this won't be enough, and plans for a major invasion are on the table, awaiting the cabinet's approval.
This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath . Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood, I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses." (Amos 1:9-11)
Ancient Tyre was considered to be impregnable. The Assyrians laid siege to it for 5 years before giving up and Nebuchadnezzer tried for 13 years without success. When these armies came the residents of the mainland portion of the city simply packed up and moved into the heavily fortified portion on an island off the coast. From there they could be provisioned from the sea and carry on trade indefinitely. Finally Alexander the Great dismantled the deserted mainland buildings and used the rubble to build a causeway out to the island. He conquered the city in 7 months, 400 years after Amos pronounced the Lord's judgment.
Today, Tyre is Lebanon's fourth largest city. Hizbollah has positioned rocket launchers there and in neighboring Sidon (Isaiah called Tyre the daughter of Sidon, indicating its status as a former suburb.) Russian military intelligence and its infantry support have all but taken over Sidon. They feed real time intelligence on Israeli troop movements to Syria and Hizbollah.
This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath . Because he pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion, because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked, I will send fire upon Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah." (Amos 1:11-12)
The people of Edom were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. When the Babylonians finally overran the Southern Kingdom in 586 BC, burning Jerusalem and destroying the Temple, the descendants of Esau helped Nebuchannezzar's troops find and capture the fleeing Israelites. It angered the Lord that they would betray their cousins, so he had Nebuchadnezzar conquer them, too. The remnant of Edom fled to Petra, a mountain hideout in the region of Bozrah. The Lord sent the Nabateans to rout them out and destroy them, vowing that there would be no survivors (Obadiah 1:10). Today, Jordan occupies the lands of Edom.
This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not turn back {my wrath}. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah that will consume her fortresses amid war cries on the day of battle, amid violent winds on a stormy day. Her king will go into exile, he and his officials together," says the LORD. (Amos 1:13-15)
Today we would call the lands of Gilead the East bank of the Jordan River. It was originally given to the half tribe of Manasseh, but was contended for on a regular basis. The Ammonites, descendants of one of Lot's daughters, had neighboring land and wanted the Land of Gilead, just as Aram had earlier. Their war of conquest was especially brutal even compared to the accusations we've seen levied toward Israel's other neighbors.
Rabbah was the ancient name for Amman, the capital of modern Jordan, but it's not the Ammonites who inhabit Jordan today. They were wiped out for helping the Babylonians overpower Israel.
According to UN documents the Kingdom of Jordan is the official Palestinian homeland, having been created by the same stroke of the pen that created modern Israel. (Funny that no one wants to admit that.) Its population is 70% Palestinian and is governed by the Hashemite family, descendants of Ishmael and Mohammed, not Ammon.
Amos 2
This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not turn back {my wrath}. Because he burned, as if to lime, the bones of Edom's king, I will send fire upon Moab that will consume the fortresses of Kerioth. Moab will go down in great tumult amid war cries and the blast of the trumpet. I will destroy her ruler and kill all her officials with him," says the LORD. (Amos 2:1-3)
The people of Moab were descendants of the other son of Lot's daughters. When Lot and his daughters fled Sodom, they remained separate from the surrounding people because Lot was afraid to dwell among them. This left his two daughters with no way to find husbands, since the ones they had been promised to had refused to leave with them and had perished. The older daughter devised a nefarious scheme to get her father drunk and have sex with him to become pregnant. If she couldn't have a husband, at least she would get herself a son. Having succeeded, she convinced her sister to do the same. Their two sons were named ben Ammi, from whom the Ammonites came, and Moab, father of the Moabites. (Genesis 19:30-36)
Like their cousins the Ammonites, the Moabites also turned against Israel and suffered the same fate. They were conquered by the Assyrians in 715 BC and are no more. Today their lands belong to Jordan.
But that's not the last mention of Edom, Moab and Ammon. Having all but disappeared from the pages of history, they suddenly show up at the end of the age. At the outset of the Great Tribulation, believing Jews will heed the Lord's warning (Matt. 24:15-16) and flee into southern Jordan (Edom and Moab), holing up in the fortress City of Petra according to most scholars. The leaders of Jordan, the Hashemite family, will escape the clutches of the anti-Christ and give refuge to the remnant of Israel. There, the Lord Himself will defend them against their enemy. (Daniel 11:41, Rev. 12:14, Isaiah 63:1-6)
And so in the first portion of our study in Amos we see that history has come full circle and the Lord is once again aroused in anger against those who persecute His people. More than ever, war in the Middle East is not a matter of if, but when. More next time. 04-14-07
