Amos the Herdsman

1. A Voice from Zion

He was born and brought up a simple peasant, earning his bread by the tending of cattle belonging to one of the wealthy farmers of Judah. He supplemented his meagre wages by gathering wild figs as he followed his charges over the rough hillside country of Tekoa, a few miles to the south of Bethlehem. He was probably of the royal tribe, the tribe of Judah, maybe even distantly related to the royal family, the house of David, but, if so, a very humble and undistinguished member of that house. In outward appearance no different from his fellow workers, he was an ordinary labouring man having no access to the privileges of the wealthy and the powerful. At the end of the day, he returned to his primitive cottage in the village and emerged again in the morning to take up his task as he had done all his life and his father had before him.

In one respect Amos was different. Outwardly a labouring peasant, inwardly he burned with zeal for the laws and the ways of God. Judah and Israel had relapsed into almost complete idolatry and Amos was one of the few far‑sighted men who realised that the consequence could not fail to be utter disaster. Under the terms of the Mosaic Covenant Israel was guaranteed security and prosperity all the time that they adhered to the Covenant and loyalty to God. Failure so to do, apostasy from the true faith, the going after false gods, would, conversely, bring invasion, adversity and disaster. Israel in general in the days of Amos did not really believe that disaster would come. They were prosperous and for the time being had the whip‑hand over their enemies. Even though their own histories told them of past times when the penalty of the broken Covenant had been exacted from their forefathers they did not believe that it would happen to them. They were prosperous; they had been prosperous for a long time. They worshipped false gods; they had worshipped false gods for a long time. Nothing adverse had happened; nothing adverse would happen. So, they continued in their way, confident.

But Amos knew that disaster would come; moreover, that it was imminent. He knew that God was long‑suffering towards His errant people and would wait a long time before inflicting judgment. But that judgment would eventually come he was certain. In his fervent zeal and burning desire, not only for the honour of God’s Name, but also for the welfare and happiness of his nation, he had to speak out. The inspiration of the prophet came upon him and he left his cattle and his country home and made his way to the cities where his voice could be heard.

The king of Judah, the two‑tribe nation, was Uzziah. The ten‑tribe kingdom of Israel was ruled by Jeroboam II, who was probably the most able king the northern kingdom ever had. In the first place he had cultivated friendly relations with Uzziah of Judah and so made himself safe from attack from that quarter. He conquered his eastern neighbours, Moab and Ammon, making them subject to Israel, under native rulers appointed by him. Edom was a friendly ally. The traditional enemy of Israel, Syria, was invaded by Jeroboam and conquered. His sway extended from the borders of Edom in the south to Hamath in the north of Syria virtually as far as the original empire of Solomon. Concurrently with this, the greatest foe of all the middle Eastern countries, Assyria, was experiencing serious internal trouble under a succession of undistinguished kings, and had no time or resources for foreign conquest. The Assyrian armies were needed at Nineveh. A generation or so ago the prophet Jonah had foretold the coming destruction of Nineveh, and since the same prophet had also foretold the career of conquest of King Jeroboam before it happened (2 Kings 14:25) his stock was high in Israel and the general feeling was that Assyria need not be feared again. Few in Israel stopped to reflect that perhaps the Lord was giving them this time of freedom from enemies that they might return in faith and loyalty before He invoked the penalty of continued unbelief, just as He so recently had done with the Ninevites who had repented at the preaching of Jonah so that the Lord in His turn "repented of the evil, that he said he would do unto them; and he did it not." (Jonah 3:10) A parenthesis in the history of Jeroboam’s predecessors who were in subjection to Syria confirms that the Lord did do just this in the days of Jeroboam: "(And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents (houses), as beforetime. Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam...and there remained the grove (idol shrine [Asherah poles]) also in Samaria.)" (2 Kings 13:5‑6) That saviour was Jeroboam, who despite that the hand of the Lord was with him to deliver Israel from Syria as He had been besought by King Jehoahaz his grandfather, continued still to do "evil in the sight of the LORD." (2 Kings 14:24) The goodness of the Lord brought no response.

The consequence of this period of peace was material prosperity. The ten‑tribe kingdom of Israel was more wealthy than it had ever been before or was again. Spoil taken from their vanquished enemies and the profits from commerce and trade created a class of rich Israelites who lived in magnificent houses lined inside with paintings and frescoes, and in some cases panels of ivory brought from Africa. (Amos 3:15) The interiors boasted elaborate and artistic furniture. Gardens and vineyards, summerhouses and shady courts, surrounded them. The occupants gave themselves over to feasting and luxurious living, with no thought for the morrow and no care for the needs of the poor. For there were poor as well. In every such society, as the rich grow richer, so the poor become poorer. Outside the cities of grand houses were the mean dwellings of the peasantry. But all, rich and poor alike, had forsaken God and turned to the false gods of Canaan. In the capital of Samaria, and at the tribal centre of Gilgal where the Tabernacle had rested awhile when Joshua and his hosts invaded the land, there stood images of the bull‑god for worship. (Hos.8:5 10:5) The original place of idolatrous worship set up at Dan in the days of the judges (Judg.18:30‑31) was still there, served by an apostate priesthood. At Bethel there was a great temple, where the king and his court came to worship Baal. (Amos 7:13) Altars to false gods abounded all over the country. (Amos 2:8) The shrine sacred to the idol goddess which Jehu had built in Samaria remained and was still a centre of worship. (2 Kings 13:6) The time had come which is spoken of in 2 Chron.36:15‑16 where it is recorded that "the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

There was less than half a century to go before the judgment came, and the end of the Kingdom of Israel. Within that half century king and people had one last chance, the final opportunity of deliverance. God sent them the prophet Amos.

Amos was probably a young man when the Lord called him. There is an impetuous ring about his repeated expression "Thus hath the Lord God showed me" which breathes a spirit of haste and urgency more in keeping with the impatience of youth than the calm mellowness of middle age. Peasant though he was, he was well informed both as to Israel’s own corruption and decadence, and that of the surrounding nations with whom Israel had so much to do and from whom she had drawn so much of that corruption. His prophecy commences, not with the declaration of imminent judgment upon Israel which would normally be expected, and which in any case does form the main burden of his prophecy, but with the Lord’s condemnation of those same surrounding nations for their oppression of Israel. Maybe there was good psychology here, a mode of approach dictated by the indwelling Spirit of God by which he was inspired. Maybe his hearers would listen more intently if the message of judgment related to peoples other than themselves, peoples for whom in the main they harboured thoughts of enmity. It is significant that after the judgments upon the six alien nations his next message is directed against Judah, the southern kingdom. Only after that does he turn his attention to Israel, but when he does so it is evident who is the real object of his denunciation.

Amos received his call to the service of God, according to his own statement "in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam…king of Israel, two years before the earthquake." (Amos 1:1) This precision avails little since we do not know the date of the earthquake. It is established that Uzziah reigned from 791 to 739 BC, and Jeroboam II from 793 to 753, so that it was between 791 and 753 when Amos executed his mission. A closer approximation may be possible; Uzziah’s leprosy was the result of his presumption in attempting to usurp the priest’s prerogatives in the Temple. (2 Chron.26:16‑21) In consequence he was barred from contact with his fellows and Jotham his son acted as regent until his death. The most likely reconciliation of the chronology of the period shows that this regency commenced in the 41st year of Uzziah’s reign.751 BC so that this was probably the time of Uzziah’s sin. Now Josephus in his history of Israel says that at the moment of Uzziah’s refusal to heed the High Priest a great earthquake shook the city and rent the Temple roof so that the sunlight streamed through and fell upon the king’s face, revealing the sudden infliction of leprosy. (Jos. Ant.9‑10:4) The source from which Josephus took this is not known; it may be from the variant Hebrew version of the Old Testament which he is known to have had, but if there is any substance in this, the mission of Amos would have been in 753 BC, the year of Jeroboam’s death.

So, the fervent voice of the youthful prophet burst upon the complacency of King Jeroboam and his court as they paid their devotions to the idol god of Bethel. "The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem." (Amos 1:2) That, for a start, was an unwelcome reminder to the hearers that the true sovereignty of Israel was at Jerusalem, kings of the line of David, sitting upon the throne of the Lord, and that there was the Temple of the true God of Israel where men ought to worship. "The pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers." (Amos 1:2 RSV) Northern Israel was pre‑eminently the land of lush pastures, suitable for many flocks, and well furnished with trees—trees of the forest and fruit trees. "The top of Carmel" is equally accurately translated "the trees of the fruitful places" and this is more likely to be Amos’ meaning. Compared with the more arid highlands of Judah, the pastures and forests of the northern kingdom, in which they took such pride and from which they drew much of their wealth, were to wither and be destroyed. But having attracted the attention of the people to whom he had been sent—and from chap.7 it is evident that he had made his way from Tekoa straight to the pagan sanctuary at Bethel and there announced his mission in the hearing at least of the idolatrous High Priest if not of the king himself. Having thus attracted the attention of the people, he turns aside from the real subjects of his condemnation and commences by declaring what the Lord is shortly going to do to the nations round about; Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab; all incurred the Divine wrath and must enter into judgment. These have first to be considered and after this the guilty nation must listen to the declaration of its own faithlessness to God and the judgment that must inevitably follow, except they repent.

In point of fact, they did not repent. And not many decades later the Assyrians came and destroyed their cities and their land and took them all away to die as captives in a strange land. The final penalty of the broken covenant had been exacted.

So, Amos, the herdsman, stood there in the sanctuary of the idol, facing an apostate king and an apostate priesthood, telling them of the doom that must surely come. In a very real sense Amos was the Herald of the Captivity.

(To be continued)
AOH