Amos 7:10 - Meaning and Application

People might have expected two things after the earlier part of this chapter. First, they would have expected the people to repent, since they had been spared so they could still turn back to God. Second, they might have expected them to grow fond of Amos, because he had prayed for them and had helped turn away judgment. But the result was the opposite. They stayed stubborn, and the next thing we hear is that Amos is being attacked. It is a mark of true saints that they pray for those who oppose them, as David did, but it is a disgrace when sinners hate those who pray for them (Psalm 35:13, Psalm 35:15; Psalm 109:4).

Here we see the harmful report brought to the king against Amos (Amos 7:10, Amos 7:11). The one who reported him was Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, the main priest serving the golden calf there. He was, in effect, the head of the idolatrous worship at Bethel, and he also had a leading place in the town’s public life. He complained about Amos not only because Amos preached without asking his permission, but because Amos spoke against the altars. If Amos was believed, those altars would soon be abandoned and torn down. In that way, Amaziah was like the shrine makers at Ephesus who hated Paul because his message threatened their trade.

People who pretend to be very holy are often the bitterest enemies of those who are truly holy. Priests have often been among the harshest persecutors. Amaziah brought a charge to Jeroboam against Amos. The charge was no less than treason. He claimed, “Amos has conspired against you,” meaning that Amos was trying to stir up revolt, weaken the king, and prepare the way to replace him. He also claimed that Amos was poisoning the minds of the people and making them disloyal, so the land could not endure his words. In this way, he hinted to the king that the whole country was offended, as if Amos’ preaching was unbearable to everyone.

This is a common trick of those who accuse God’s servants. They paint them as enemies of the king and the nation, as though they were traitors and troublemakers, when in fact they are the best friends both can have. It is also common for schemers to pretend that their own opinion is the voice of the whole country. Though in this case, I fear the people really were not able to bear plain speaking any more than the priests were. Amaziah supported his charge with the words he claimed Amos had spoken, “Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall go into captivity” (Amos 7:11). From this he argued that Amos was an enemy to king and country and should not be tolerated.

Amaziah’s malice shows in what he left out. He did not tell Jeroboam that Amos had pleaded for Israel and had helped turn away one judgment after another. He did not say that Amos had warned them these threats depended on whether they repented. He also made the prophecy sound worse than it was. Amos had not said, “Jeroboam shall die by the sword,” and in fact Jeroboam did not die that way (2 Kings 14:28). Amos had said that God would rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword (Amos 7:9). God’s prophets and ministers have often had reason to complain, as David did, that their words are twisted (Psalm 56:5).

Should it be treated as a crime for a watchman to warn people when he sees danger coming? Or for a doctor to tell a patient that his disease is serious, so he can seek a cure? How foolish people are when they turn their best friends into enemies, and their own peace into a target! Jeroboam seems not to have paid much attention to this report. Perhaps he had more respect for a prophet, and more fear of divine authority, than Amaziah did.

When he could not get Amos imprisoned, driven out, or killed, Amaziah tried a softer approach. He tried to persuade Amos to leave the country and prophesy in Judah instead (Amos 7:12, Amos 7:13). He came to Amos as if he were friendly, and with flattering words tried to move him along. He admitted Amos was a seer, a prophet, but urged him to stop speaking at Bethel.

He argued that Bethel was not the right place for Amos to minister. It was the king’s chapel, the king’s sanctuary, where the idols, altars, and priests were. It was also the royal court, the house of the kingdom, where the king’s family lived and where judgment was administered. So, he said, Amos should not prophesy there anymore. In effect, Amaziah was saying that Amos was too blunt for court life, that his messages would only disturb him, and that he should go where nobody would mind what he said.

Amaziah also suggested that Amos could not expect support there. He would be mocked by some, threatened by others, and likely win no converts because the king’s authority backed the idolatry. To preach there, he implied, was to waste his breath and bang his head against a wall. So he urged him to flee to Judah, where he could eat bread and prophesy in safety.

There you will be safe, there you will be welcome. The king’s court and chapel will be on your side, and the prophets there will support you. The priests and princes there will notice you and give you an honorable living. Here we can see, first, how willing wicked people are to get rid of faithful people who correct them. They are quick to say to the seers, “Do not see,” or, in other words, “Do not speak to us from God.” The two witnesses were a torment to those who lived on the earth (Revelation 11:10), and it would indeed be a pity for people to be tormented before the time, except that this is meant to keep them from eternal torment.

We also see how ready worldly people are to judge others by themselves. Amaziah, as a priest, cared only about the profit of his position, and he thought Amos, as a prophet, had the same aim. So he told Amos to prophesy where he could earn bread, where he would be sure to get as much as he wanted. But Amos was to prophesy where God placed him, and where he was most needed, not where he would make the most money. Those who make gain their godliness, and who are ruled by wealth and promotion, are quick to think those same motives drive everyone else too.

Amos’s reply to Amaziah’s suggestion shows his faithfulness. He did not think about pleasing people or making himself rich. His concern was to carry out his ministry fully and to be found faithful in it, not to save his own skin at any cost, but to keep a clear conscience. So he chose to stay at his post. In answer to Amaziah, he first defended his steady commitment to his work and place (Amos 7:14, 15). What made that commitment firm was this: he had a divine warrant, a direct commission from God.

He said, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son.” He was not born or trained for this office. He had not been set apart for it from the start, like Samuel and Jeremiah, and he had not been educated in the schools of the prophets, like many others. He was a herdsman, a keeper of cattle, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Their sycamores produced fruit, and Amos gathered it, either for his animals, for his family, or to sell. He was a plain country man, raised and employed in country work, and used to simple living.

He followed the flocks as well as the herds, and from there God called him. God told him to go and prophesy to Israel, and to deliver whatever messages he received from the Lord. God made him a prophet, and a prophet to them. God gave him both his work and his place. So he should not be silenced.

He could point to a divine commission for what he was doing. He did not run before God sent him. Like Paul, he could say that he was called to his work. People are in danger when they oppose those who come in God’s name, when they tell God’s seers not to speak. That kind of resistance is a fight against God. An insult to an ambassador is an insult to the prince who sent him. Those who have a warrant from God should not fear human faces.

His lowly background before that call actually strengthened his case. It did not weaken it. He had never expected to be a prophet, so his preaching could not be blamed on ambition or a heated imagination. It came from God’s impulse alone. He had not been trained in the art or skill of prophesying, so his ability had to come directly from God. That made his mission clear.

The apostles were also untrained and ordinary men at first, and that showed their knowledge came from being with Jesus (Acts 4:13). When treasure is placed in weak, earthen jars, it becomes clear that the power belongs to God and not to people (2 Corinthians 4:7). Amos also had an honest trade, so he did not need to prophesy for bread, as Amaziah claimed (Amos 7:12). He did not take up prophecy as a way to earn a living, but as a trust from God, meant to honor Him and help others.

He had always lived a simple life among poor farmers. He never cared for luxuries or fine things. For that reason, he would not have come so near the king’s court and chapel unless God’s work had called him there. And since he had been brought up so humbly, he could not have dared to speak to kings and great men, especially with such bold and troubling words, unless a stronger spirit had carried him. If God, who sent him, had not strengthened him, he could not have set his face like flint (Isaiah 50:7). God often chooses the weak and foolish things of the world to shame the wise and powerful, and a herdsman from Tekoa puts a priest from Bethel to shame when God gives him authority and power to speak.

Amos then condemns Amaziah for opposing him and declares God’s judgments against him (Amos 7:16, 17). He does this not from personal anger or revenge, but in the name of the Lord and by His authority. Amaziah would not allow Amos to preach at all, so he is told especially to preach against Amaziah. “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord,” he says, “and tremble.” Those who cannot bear general warnings should expect warnings aimed at themselves.

Amaziah’s sin was forbidding Amos to prophesy. We do not read that he beat him or threw him in prison. He only ordered him to be silent: “Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not speak against the house of Isaac.” He wanted Amos not only to stop crying out against them, but to stop even the gentlest warning. He could not bear even a small drop of that message. So let him hear his sentence.

Because he opposed Amos, God would bring ruin on him and his family. This sin filled up the measure of his guilt. He would have no comfort in his closest relationships, but would suffer through them. His wife would become a prostitute, either because soldiers would force themselves on her, as happened to the Levite’s concubine by the men of Gibeah, or because she would herself fall into that sin. Though it would be her own sin, it would still be his grief, shame, and punishment, because he had encouraged spiritual unfaithfulness. Sometimes the sins of our relatives are God’s judgment on us.

His children, though they may remain outwardly honest, will not live. His sons and daughters will fall by the sword in war, and he himself will live to see it. He has trained them in sin, and so God will cut them off in it. He will also lose all his property. It will pass into the hands of the enemy and be divided by line and by lot among the soldiers. What is gained in a bad way will not stay long.

He himself will die in a foreign land, not in Israel. Israel had been set apart for the Lord, but he will end in a polluted, heathen land. That is fitting for a man like him, since he hated and silenced God’s prophets and helped fill his own land with idolatry.

Even so, his resistance to Amos will not change what God has said. He was accused because he said, “Israel will be led away captive” (Amos 7:11), but he keeps saying it. Human unbelief cannot cancel the word of God. People may argue against God’s message, but they cannot shake it off.

Let Amaziah be angry and object as much as he wants. Israel will surely go into exile from its land. It is useless to fight against God’s judgments, because when God judges, he will prevail. Shutting the mouths of God’s messengers will not stop God’s word from moving forward, for it will not return empty.