Study Desk

"Didn't you, dear family of Israel, worship me faithfully for forty years in the wilderness, bringing the sacrifices and offerings I commanded? How is it you've stooped to dragging gimcrack statues of your so-called rulers around, hauling the cheap images of all your star-gods here and there? Since you like them so much, you can take them with you when I drive you into exile beyond Damascus." God 's Message, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

God , the Master, has sworn, and solemnly stands by his Word. The God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks: "I hate the arrogance of Jacob. I have nothing but contempt for his forts. I'm about to hand over the city and everyone in it."

Ten men are in a house, all dead. A relative comes and gets the bodies to prepare them for a decent burial. He discovers a survivor huddled in a closet and asks, "Are there any more?" The answer: "Not a soul. But hush! God must not be mentioned in this desecrated place."

Note well: God issues the orders. He'll knock large houses to smithereens. He'll smash little houses to bits.

"Enjoy it while you can, you Israelites. I've got a pagan army on the move against you" —this is your God speaking, God-of-the-Angel-Armies— "And they'll make hash of you, from one end of the country to the other."

God , my Master, showed me this vision: He was preparing a locust swarm. The first cutting, which went to the king, was complete, and the second crop was just sprouting. The locusts ate everything green. Not even a blade of grass was left. I called out, " God , my Master! Excuse me, but what's going to come of Jacob? He's so small."

God gave in. "It won't happen," he said.

God showed me this vision: Oh! God , my Master God was calling up a firestorm. It burned up the ocean. Then it burned up the Promised Land.

I said, " God , my Master! Hold it—please! What's going to come of Jacob? He's so small."

God gave in. "All right, this won't happen either," God , my Master, said.

God showed me this vision: My Master was standing beside a wall. In his hand he held a plumb line.

God said to me, "What do you see, Amos?" I said, "A plumb line." Then my Master said, "Look what I've done. I've hung a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I've spared them for the last time. This is it! "Isaac's sex-and-religion shrines will be smashed, Israel's unholy shrines will be knocked to pieces. I'm raising my sword against the royal family of Jeroboam."

But Amos stood up to Amaziah: "I never set up to be a preacher, never had plans to be a preacher. I raised cattle and I pruned trees. Then God took me off the farm and said, ‘Go preach to my people Israel.'

"So listen to God 's Word. You tell me, ‘Don't preach to Israel. Don't say anything against the family of Isaac.' But here's what God is telling you: Your wife will become a whore in town. Your children will get killed. Your land will be auctioned off. You will die homeless and friendless. And Israel will be hauled off to exile, far from home."

My Master God showed me this vision: A bowl of fresh fruit.

He said, "What do you see, Amos?" I said, "A bowl of fresh, ripe fruit." God said, "Right. So, I'm calling it quits with my people Israel. I'm no longer acting as if everything is just fine."

"The royal singers will wail when it happens." My Master God said so. "Corpses will be strewn here, there, and everywhere. Hush!"

God swears against the arrogance of Jacob: "I'm keeping track of their every last sin." God's oath will shake earth's foundations, dissolve the whole world into tears. God's oath will sweep in like a river that rises, flooding houses and lands, And then recedes, leaving behind a sea of mud.

"On Judgment Day, watch out!" These are the words of God , my Master. "I'll turn off the sun at noon. In the middle of the day the earth will go black. I'll turn your parties into funerals and make every song you sing a dirge. Everyone will walk around in rags, with sunken eyes and bald heads. Think of the worst that could happen —your only son, say, murdered. That's a hint of Judgment Day —that and much more.

"Oh yes, Judgment Day is coming!" These are the words of my Master God . "I'll send a famine through the whole country. It won't be food or water that's lacking, but my Word. People will drift from one end of the country to the other, roam to the north, wander to the east. They'll go anywhere, listen to anyone, hoping to hear God 's Word—but they won't hear it.