There are always people who are happy to hear bad news about people they don’t like. Amos begins his message with bad news for Israel’s neighbors and relatives: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Judah. Can you see the smiles on the Israelites faces until Amos said, “The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished”? Amos 2:6 NLT.
Amos, a breeder of sheep from the town of Tekoa in Judah, was told by God to go preach a message of doom and gloom to the people of Israel. Israel is reminded of how God took care of them and led them out of Egypt. In the 500-600 years God led and protected them, the people failed to learn any lessons about God’s requirements and their sins.
In Chapter 5, God calls them to repentance because He wants to bless rather than punish them. In Chapter 7, God changes His mind about forms of punishment because Amos intercedes for them. And in Chapter 9, God promises blessing to those who love Him.
Key verse: “I, the Sovereign Lord, am watching this sinful nation of Israel. I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,” says the Lord. Amos 9:8