If you’ve joined me in my recent Study Notes section, my goal is to help you take each Sunday’s message a bit deeper. I never have time enough to share all I learn in the study. I’ll visit commentaries, word study tools, biblical background texts, languages, and several translations in preparation each week. These are my notes:

Study Notes on Amos 9:11-15

vv. 11-12 – The Greek translation of this passage echoes Acts 15:16-17. While this is written in Hebrew, the OT Greek version says this: …from the ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory, so that the rest of humanity including the Gentiles, all those I’ve called to be mine might seek me.

James quoted 11-12 in Acts when Paul and others stood before him Acts. 15

v. 11 “house” is literally “tent” or tabernacle; but in context of David, it can mean Kingdom.

Amos was one of 12 minor prophets. He, in fact, claimed to be “neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet.” He was a shepherd and a worked with fruit-bearing trees.

Most timelines of the 16 different prophets who make up the prophetic books of the OT have Amos as the first who spoke to the divided nation of Israel and Judah. He was unique and his book is the first of its kind.

Before Amos, there were “prophetic schools” of individual prophets for hire. He made it clear he was not of this. And when he got the call to prophesy, he went to the center of idolatry that Israel had set up in Bethel in place of the covenant worship of the Lord God. “It’s all coming down” he said. If you turn back and worship me, you’ll bring it down. If you don’t, watch how I bring it down. His message was so clear and powerful that the chief priest in Bethel sent word to the King that his words were too many for their land. And he sent Amos away. Amos wasn’t done yet.

He was an enigma. He grew up in Judah but went to Israel to prophesy. He declared himself not a prophet, but God called him to prophesy. He kept sheep but he worked with fruit trees. He was extraordinary in his quotability:

“prepare to meet your God.”

“let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like a stream”

“I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet.”

Amos was the first of these prophets. For Him, The Lord God was ruler over all. He was not provincial and only ruled over the bit of land called Israel and Judah. He was Lord of all. There is no God but the Lord God. His both The Lord who is Near and The Lord God of the Angel Armies.

His purpose in writing and speaking this prophecy is:

• To reveal God’s mercy to His people
  • God is their intimate deliverer who has come near – and they have ignored His nearness. He has not moved and He calls his people back from the edge where they’ve gone too far.
• To bring warning and a call to repent and reengage with God’s covenant
  • He speaks, gives nudges, show signs, and uses those who hear from God to bring God’s people back from the edge of forgetting His covenant.

3Can two people walk together

without agreeing on the direction?

4Does a lion ever roar in a thicket

without first finding a victim?

Does a young lion growl in its den

without first catching its prey?

5Does a bird ever get caught in a trap

that has no bait?

Does a trap spring shut

when there’s nothing to catch?

6When the ram’s horn blows a warning,

shouldn’t the people be alarmed?

Does disaster come to a city

unless the Lord has planned it?

7Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything

until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.

And at the edge of completely leaving the covenant God, Amos says that they will experience a famine and a drought, not for food but for the Word of God, not a thirst for water but a quenching from God’s truth. They will run from border to border, from sea to sea, looking for His Word. And they will not find it.

• To challenge the leaders and the people to reflect God’s right ways and His kindness to those who are beaten down and disenfranchised.
  • He spoke out against human trafficking.
  • Against the abuse and manipulation of those less powerful.
  • Against dishonesty and
  • They have forgotten how to do right.
  • They had chosen to trust in the prosperity and the military, but not in the covenant with their God who rescues.

And unless they turn from evil and turn back to the covenant, the repercussion of their sin will be their end. No matter where they run from destruction, it will find them.

• To declare God’s plan for restoration to His people.

5:4 – “Come back to me and live.” I know the vast number of your sins and the depths of your rebellion. Come back to me and live.

On that terrible day of destruction, when it is darkest, when hope runs thin, God’s plan for restoration becomes a reality. And that brings us to our passage.

He spoke to both Israel and Judah and called the people of God away from superficial religion to a real relationship with the Lord God. No leaves would do; he wanted fruit.

Fig trees found their way into vineyards. The fig has more seeds in its fruit than any other fruit Potential.

Workers with sycamore fig trees knew that the fig ripens faster if bruised while on the tree. The bruising makes the fig sweeter.

Juxtapose Amos with the Parable of the Fruitless Fig Tree.

He preached in a time when both nations had stable political and economic infrastructures. Jereboam was king in Israel; Uzziah was king in Judah.

The problems were: 1) prosperity had blinded eyes to the needs of the poor and hurting, 2) political security had replaced their dependence on the Lord’s security, 3) a relax view of the covenant had redefined what obedience and faith was.

Religion was divorced from the compassionate character of God; worship was void of relationship and covenant.

Amos and Amaziah the priest square off 7:1.

Justice like water; righteousness like a flood – 5:24

Fruitful life maintains nearness to covenant, dependence on God’s provision, and compassion toward those in need.