The Historical Context of Amos
The biblical book of Amos is written by the prophet, Amos. Though it is speculated that there may have been more than one author, it is most likely that there was only one author, judging from how well the book of Amos is structured. The prophet Amos is not actually a professional prophet but a shepherd boy that also tended sycamore-fig-trees. (Archaeological Study Bible. NIV Amos 7:14) Even though he was just a shepherd boy, he was still intelligent judging from his speaking abilities. He was originally from the town of Tekoa in Judah but his target audience for his prophecies was Israel. The main time frame of his prophesying was around 760 B.C. to 750 B.C., around 230 years after the kingdom split. Around that time, Israel was having a time of prosperity: “...the houses adorned with ivory...” (Amos 3:15) and he also talked about the mansions and the summer and winter houses. Israel during this time was also haughty and arrogant because of the wealth and because they exploited their wealth, making them the main subject of the prophesies in Amos.
Amos, in his prophesies, focused on the northern kingdom of Israel. During this time, Israel was having a time of wealth and because of this, they had become arrogant and turned from God. His prophesies directly threatened Israel and commanded them to turn back to the Lord. The prophesies told of Israel’s coming doom and of the complete and utter destruction of their kingdom. There were threats of fire and drought and the killing of the Israelites’ sons and daughters. The Lord does not threaten them without telling them what they did wrong, though, He told them many times what they did wrong. He tells them that “They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed.” (Amos 2:6b-7) He goes on to describe their sexual immorality and the drunkenness in the temples. The Israelites had degraded themselves to the level of their neighboring nations that had also been destroyed. They were even warned not to do the things that the other nations did or they would be destroyed like them and they still keep on sinning and rejecting God. Through all that though, the Lord still promises them that He will someday re-build their nation and let it remain forever.
An ongoing theme in the book of Amos is the social injustice that the lower class of Israel had been given. Israel was in a time of wealth and the money had corrupted their image of the poor and made them, in their eyes, look like nothing and so they treated them like nothing.In their world during this time, money was everything. Even though the Lord, many times, had said that the least will be the greatest, they degraded them and, without knowing it, degraded themselves in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord repeatedly said; “You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain.” (Amos 5: 11a) The Lord has illustrated many times that he loves the poor and hates the haughty and Israel knows this but they still insist on degrading the poor and being arrogant. Their actions is like a slap in the face to the Lord and on top of that they refuse to repent and turn to him. The Lord also made examples of the other nations that had done the same thing and yet they still exhibited social injustice to the poor. In the end, it was Israel’s arrogance over the poor that brought on the destruction of Israel.
Works Cited
1. NIV Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History and Culture. Grand Rapids, Michigan : Zondervan, 2005.
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