BibleProject | One Story That Leads to Jesusનમૂનો

By the time Amos is prophesying, Israel’s leaders have built a small empire by cheating and taking advantage of their community’s vulnerable people. The religious elite lounge easily and guzzle wine by the bowl. They splurge on elaborate skincare routines, all of it funded with fraud. The leaders steal land from powerless widows and neglect hurting and hungry people to hoard money and food for themselves.

Injustice has become the average, expected norm. But Amos says God will act, a time or era often referred to in Scripture as the Day of the Lord.

Yahweh is about to shut this garish party down.

Amos experiences a series of visions from Yahweh that help him see what’s coming. A swarm of locusts wipes out every green thing in sight. A monstrous fire licks the rivers dry and devours the land. A plumb line hangs straight and true, revealing how crooked Israel’s sense of right and wrong has become.

Finally, a basket of overripe fruit appears to signal Israel’s imminent end—a clever play on the similar-sounding Hebrew words qayits and qets, which in English are translated “ripe fruit” and “end.” Yikes.

With a message like that, it’s not surprising that a local priest asks Amos to go prophesy somewhere else.

But right at the end of the book, Amos offers a hint of hope. Yahweh will one day send a king from the line of David to restore his people.

In today’s video, we learn how this king fulfills the vision God gave Amos. Jesus brings the kind of kingdom Amos longed to see: a kingdom where the poor and powerless are first in line and where justice and right relationships rule the day. Watch the video to learn more about the surprising, upside-down rule of King Jesus.

Reflection Questions

• Meditate on James’ quotation of Amos 9:11-12 in Acts 15. How does the early church’s mission to non-Israelites help you understand the shape of God’s promised restoration in Amos?
• As you walk through the Beatitudes, imagine how Jesus’ words might have sounded to a poor Israelite in the time of Amos: struggling to feed your family, cheated out of your wages in a rigged court, trapped in a smothering cycle of debt. What would it have felt like to hear a new king promise that you get to enjoy the good life?