Morning light on a newly built plain stone wall; beside it a cord with a lead weight hangs dead straight and still, and a calm pale sky fills the upper half.

Five visions

Amos 7

Everyone measures their life against something. What is your straight line?

17 verses≈ 3 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–2The nations judgedEight oracles, closing on Israel
3–5:17Hear this wordThree messages to Samaria
5:18–6Woe to those at easeThe Day of the LORD, and Zion’s comfort
7–9:10Five visionsLocusts, fire, plumb line, fruit, the altarChapter 7
9:11–15The fallen tent raisedRuins rebuilt, vineyards planted

The Locusts, Fire, and Plumb Line

Amos

Late spring in the hill country: a vast brown cloud of locusts sweeps low over terraced fields of ripening barley, the near stalks already stripped, while a farmer and his wife stand at the edge of their field watching, hands at their heads.

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts just after the king’s harvest, as the late spring crop was coming up.

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Amos

And when the locusts had eaten every green plant in the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

God

So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen,” He said.

Amos

At dusk a wildfire races in a long low line over dry hills; behind it the ground is black and smoking, and below lies the dried, cracked bed of a spring.

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land.

0:07

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Amos

Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?”

God

So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen either,” said the Lord GOD.

Reflect

Pray for them

Twice Amos saw judgment coming and twice he cried, “How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?” He prayed for the very people who would soon tell him to go home. Who could you pray for like that? Write down one name, and what you will ask God for them.

Amos

This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.

God

“Amos, what do you see?” asked the LORD.

Amos

“A plumb line,” I replied.

God

“Behold,” said the Lord, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them:

The high places of Isaac will be deserted,

and the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste;

and I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam

with My sword.”

Amaziah Accuses Amos

Amaziah

Amaziah

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words, for this is what Amos has said:

‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,

and Israel will surely go into exile,

away from their homeland.’”

Amaziah

An empty stony road runs south from Bethel’s hill through terraced olive slopes toward the far blue hills of Judah in the afternoon.

And Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah; earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. But never prophesy at Bethel again, because it is the sanctuary of the king and the temple of the kingdom.”

Amos

Amos

“I was not a prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.

Amos

But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’

Amos 7:15

Question

Quick question

Amaziah told Amos to go back to Judah and prophesy there.

Why did Amaziah say Amos must never prophesy at Bethel again?

Amos

Now, therefore, hear the word of the LORD. You say:

‘Do not prophesy against Israel;

do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

Amos

Therefore this is what the LORD says:

‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city,

and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword.

Your land will be divided by a measuring line,

and you yourself will die on pagan soil.

And Israel will surely go into exile,

away from their homeland.’”

You’ve experienced

Amos 7

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A verse to carry with you

But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’

Amos 7:15

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