Amos 1:1-15
In order to deny the Bible’s inspiration, unbelievers quote the number and diversity of the writers. But this is precisely what confirms it. The perfect agreement between the testimonies of the 40 writers stretching over 1,500 years, is an indisputable miracle. To construct an important building, an architect will call together a team including engineers, draughtsmen, technicians . . ., each member contributing his particular aptitude and expertise. This will not prevent the scheme being conceived by the architect and executed in accordance with his plan; it will bear his name. Similarly God has used a diversity of servants to give us His Word. Daniel was a prince, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were priests, Amos himself a simple herdsman (v. 1), but the divine call has placed him among the "holy men of God" who "spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (Amos 7:14-15; 2 Peter 1:21). His book therefore can but confirm the perfect harmony between all the parts of Scripture.
Amos begins where Joel’s prophecy leaves off (cf. v. 2 and Joel 3:16). The latter spoke of the nations in their entirety; Amos names in succession Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon (and Moab in Amos 2:1-16), so as to declare that each of those nations has now filled up the measure of its sins.