Poll: Favorite Old Testament Prophet?

It seems a bit odd choosing a favourite from the long list of seers and revelators that inhabit the Old Testament, but it might seem even odder that I have had a favourite one for some years.

He was not from a family that had a tradition of prophets, but was the owner of the finest sheep in Palestine and also owned a fig plantation, both endeavours brought peace and happiness to him.

And then, out of the blue, the call came to him. Although he excuses himself at first, like many others who having been called feel that they do not measure up to the responsibility concomitant to the high calling of being God’s oracle to the inhabitants of the earth.

Although he lived in Judea, he was commissioned to preach to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, a duty that he undertook with the attention and care that were his hallmarks and that he applied to his commercial businesses.

Apart from those circumstances, what I find remarkable is that his message was a departure from the ritualism of Israelite religion – almost mirroring a similar change in Isaiah’s later message – and it is evident that Amos was inspired to tell Israel that going through the rituals mechanically was not pleasing to El Shaddai.

What God wanted from his people was internal religion, so that whatever they did in obedience to the Mosaic Law, they also did from the bottom of their hearts, and the internalising of their faith was the authenticator of their love of and commitment to the God of Israel.

The second reason this prophet is my best favourite is because he introduced a new understanding of the social responsibilities that were placed on they as the Community of Israel and the People of God.

He speaks in a refreshingly straightforward manner of the need for social and commercial justice: a model that is as relevant today as it was six centuries before the birth of the Saviour Jesus Christ.

His was no simple reminder of the duty they owed to the God that had released them from bondage and settled them on land that he gave unto them in perpetuity provided that they obeyed his Word and kept his commandments. Unfortunately, they failed to live up to the standard that God determined were appropriate for ‘a peculiar people, a royal priesthood,’ and they were stolen from off the land and subsumed into Assyria, whither they were led naked as slaves.

That’s what happens when God’s People cease from hearkening to his message as delivered by his divinely appointed prophets.

The name of this prophetis itself a prophecy, for it is Hebrew for “to bear,” “to place a load upon,” “burdened”, or “burden-bearer”.

The prophet’s name is Amos, and he was chosen by God to prophecy, [7:14-15], possibly because he was of the common people and not of the school of the prophets, who by this time were prone to speak what the people wanted to hear rather than speaking God’s message.

Amos prophesied during the reign of Uzziah, King of Judah (787-735 B.C.), and Jeroboam II, king of Israel (790-749 B.C.), 1:1.

It is thought by some that Amos had probably known both Jonah and Elisha, and that his work may have briefly overlapped the work of both.. Isaiah and Micah are also thought to have begun their work about the time Amos was closing his work.

During the reign of Jeroboam, Israel enjoyed the greatest period of prosperity enjoyed during its 200 year history. 2. Israel was, however, obsessed with brazen idolatry, gross immorality, swearing, stealing, injustice, oppression, robbery, adultery, and murder.

Amos held them to account for their wickedness and spiritual poverty “but unfortunately, though there was much wealth in the nation, there was little wisdom. Feasting and banquets took the place of religious endeavor. A spirit of greed ruled society. Corruption of justice was a common sin. Might became right. Land seizure was an everyday crime. The landlords had all the legal machinery at their command to oppress. The result was that the rich became richer and the poor became poorer.

With scornful indifference men lived “at ease in Zion” (6:1). Love of luxury prevailed, as prior to the downfall of Rome, and the breaking out of the French Revolution. Religion lost all its vitality, and morals were completely ignored.

Insincerity and dishonesty, corruption and licentiousness, criminal extravagance and blind assurance took such a firm hold of the wealthy, arrogant voluptuaries, that they became heathen in everything but name.

Central messages of the prophecy of Amos included:

1. Israel’s apostasy and wickedness would bring certain destruction. 5:2
a. Amos was most probably the first of the prophets to declare the certain destruction of Israel.

2. The throne of David would be restored in a later time over a world on Nations. 9:8-15
a. This was fulfilled when Christ was raised up to sit on David’s Throne. Acts 2:29-37
b. David’s literal throne was typical of the spiritual throne where Christ would rule and reign at God’s right hand over a spiritual kingdom. John 18:36; Luke 17:20-21
c. Christ would sit and rule on his throne at the time he was to be a priest on the throne. Zechariah 6:12-13

Amos’ writing is pure, classical, vivid, rhetorical, grave, original, picturesque, simple, striking, rustic, bold, lyrical, and rhythmical. There are elements of repetition, questions and exclamations, but his sentences are short, uninvolved, and always regular, well–balanced, and flowing.

His writing shows him to have been a man of affairs [not an untutored rustic], being full of first person accounts of his messages and visions (5:1; 7:1-9; 8:1; 9:1).

He marked a departure in spiritual attitudes that seem to put him on the road to the kind of religion that was to expected when the Messiah would come in person to reastore what was going to be lost, and to prepare Israel for life outside the physical restrains imposed by the Mosaic Code, when having fulfilled its purpose, it would be laid aside in favour of the New and Everlasting Covenant as contained in the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ronnie Bray