Allegedly, when my children were small and struggled to eat vegetables, I would set a timer for them and walk out of the room. If they weren’t finished when the timer went off, consequences followed. For 14 of the next 15 minutes, they would busily stare at the wall before trying to cram everything in their mouth when I re-entered the room.
Although the veracity of this account is highly questionable, we all have encountered situations when a deadline seemed to come too soon. We had every reason to be ready but were not. Amos describes a similar, yet far more grave, situation in Amos 8–9. His vision of summer fruit indicates that the harvest had arrived, and the results were not good (Amos 8:1–2).
What did the harvest reveal? The Lord condemned the Israelites for using people as means to their own ends. Those who were unfortunate were simply a way for the wealthy to make money. They saw, therefore, the poor as expendable (Amos 8:4–8). God’s sabbath and new moon commands were simply hindrances to their ability to make a profit. Therefore, God promised, as in Genesis 3, to curse the land because of sin (8:8–10). He would quit speaking to them, and they would not be able to escape His punishment (8:11–9:4). The sovereign God, moreover, who supervises all things would be sure to judge them (9:9–10).
The passage ends on a bright note. God will bring back the tent of David to save His people (Amos 9:11–12). All creation would abound and satisfy the needs of God’s people as Eden should have done (Amos 9:13–15).
What can Christians today learn from these prophecies?
A passage like Amos 8:7 may seem initially to teach salvation by works: “Surely,” the Lord says, “I will never forget any of their deeds” (ESV). Amos, however, affirms salvation by grace. The Lord will save a remnant only through the tent of David, which is a reference to Christ (Amos 9:11). God takes the initiative in raising up Christ.
Amos is simply using different words to say what James would say many years later: Works are evidence of faith (James 2:14–26). Works demonstrate faith. Some questions are appropriate: “How do we treat those who cannot pay us back? Do we see people as a means to profit? Is the bottom line more important than those God made in His image?” Trampling the poor can be evidence that a lack of genuine faith exists.
A second lesson is that we must ensure that, as unpopular as it may be, God’s judgment is something that we Christians emphasize. Amos forcefully shows that God’s judgment is both inevitable and inescapable, and, like Amos, early Christians spoke of God’s coming judgment (Acts 24:25). A strong belief in judgment makes Amos’s teaching of eternal salvation through David’s tent (or Christ alone) that much sweeter. Those who follow the rebuilt tent of David will live in houses and eat fruit from their gardens (Amos 9:14–15).
The last words of the book are, “Says the Lord your God.” Here’s our choice: listen to the Lion roaring and entire into His eternal joy or ignore Him and face eternal wrath. Amos gives us no third way and the timer is ticking.
— Russell Freeman is dean of Curriculum and Instruction and Bible teacher at Greenville Classical Academy, a Christian school in Simpsonville.