Posted by Chester Morton / Monday, 18 July 2016 / No comments
Amos prophesies to Israel
In his prophecies, Amos described the wives of the oppressors
as "cows of Bashan in the mountains of Samaria" who encourage their husbands to
bring more booty home for them to enjoy. He prophesied that they would be taken
away into exile by hooks.
Amos ironically encouraged Israel to go to Bethel and sin, and go to Gilgal and increase their sins. Offer sacrifices; pay their tithe and free
will offering.
Amos explained that even though God had visited them with all
kinds of punishments, they refused to come back to him.
He said, for example, that God gave cleanness of teeth in their cities and lack of bread in their land but they did not return to him.
He said, for example, that God gave cleanness of teeth in their cities and lack of bread in their land but they did not return to him.
He said God withheld the rains from their crops three months before
the harvest. He allowed rain to fall in one city leaving the other. He made one
city to chase water to another city but never finding enough to satisfy them
but they never returned to him.
God allowed blight and mildew to destroy their gardens and
vineyards. He allowed locust to devour their fig trees and vineyards but they
did not return to him.
He visited them with pestilence similar to those he had sent
to the Egyptian. He made their men die by the sword and the carcass to fill
their nostrils but they never returned to him. He destroyed some of them like
he did to Sodom and Gomorrah. He plucked them like firebrands from fire but
they never returned.
Amos declared to them that God would punish them for their
transgressions and edged them to prepare to meet the Lord.
