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Bible - OT - Amos: Amos

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Donald Gowan’s The Theology of the Prophetic Books is one of the best books on the prophets around. He argues that the message of the prophets, rooted in warnings like Deuteronomy 5:25-31 and 8:19-20, is that Israel will die for her sins. It’s not just that her circumstances are going to get worse – she’s actually facing death. The prophetic hope is a hope for restoration from death, for resurrection. The death and resurrection of Israel is the theme of all the prophetic books.

Here’s how Gowan sees this working for Amos:

1) The prophet sings a dirge over fallen Israel, a funeral lament, 5:1-2. This is preceded by a series of statements of what Yahweh has done in the past, all of which are followed by ?yet you did not return.?ENothing else got Israel?s attention, so they will perish as a nation.

2) The dirge is taken up by the whole people, 8:16-17. And this is because Yahweh has ?passed through?EIsrael as He did Egypt at the Passover, 8:9-10.

3) Thus, Israel is facing an ?end,?E8:2, not merely an interruption of normal life. She is going to cease to exist as a nation.

4) The reason given for Israel’s death is that she is the chosen people, 3:1-2, and therefore accountable before Yahweh in a way that other nations are not.

5) Specifically, Israel is accountable for her treatment of the poor and weak, 2:6-15; 8:1-7; 8:4-6; 5:10ff.

6) As the Preacher says, oppression of the poor is common. But Israel is supposed to be different at this point. Gowan points out that the only threat in the motive clauses of the law is a threat against those who oppress the poor, Ex 22:21-24.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 at 7:41 am

Bible - OT - Amos: Revealed to Prophets

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In Amos 3:7, the prophet says “Yahweh God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets.” This is a fairly obvious allusion back to Genesis 18:17-18, where Yahweh says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?” And Yahweh goes on to inform Abraham, the prophet (Gen 20:7) about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Amos 3 begins with a reminder of the exodus, and a threat that Yahweh is going to “punish [Israel] for all your iniquities” (v 2). The animal symbols in vv 4-5 describe the threat to the Northern kingdom, and in verse 6 Amos explicitly refers to a trumpet announcing a calamity in a city. Verses 11 make it clear that Israel and Samaria are the targets of wrath: “An enemy, even one surrounding your land, will pull down your strength from you and your citadels will be looted” (v 11) and “just as the shepherd snatches from the lion’s mouth a couple of legs or a piece of an ear, so will the sons of Israel dwelling in Samaria be snatched away” (v 12). The predators will attack and kill, and only a few bits and pieces of the body that was Israel will be saved.

The allusion in Amos 3:7 brings the Sodom situation to bear on Amos’s day. Amos the prophet is like Abraham the prophet. And both have been informed by Yahweh that a city is going to be destroyed. Thus, Amos 3:7 is a subtle hint that Samaria has become a Sodom, and will be destroyed in a similar fashion, with only a handful of survivors. This hint of Amos, of course, is made explicit elsewhere in the propetic literature, where Jerusalem and Samaria are explicitly compared to Sodom and Gomorrah.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, May 3, 2004 at 9:05 am

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