Project 119: Amos 7
| Project 119
Today's devotion is written by Tyler Kerley, who serves in our Christian Life Center. Tyler is a student at Beeson Divinity School.
“Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, ‘I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”’” –Amos 7:14-15, ESV
I am mediocre. I grew up in the middle of rural southern Illinois. I graduated 25th in my below-average public high school class of 125. I got a 23 on my ACT. I finished my junior college and NAIA tennis career with a .500 winning percentage. I am mediocre.
Amos was mediocre. Amos grew up on the farm. Amos bred livestock. Amos worked long days in the field. Had he gone to my high school, Amos would have grown up in 4H and joined the FFA. Amos was a shepherd from Tekoa in the northern kingdom of Israel and a dresser of sycamore figs (Amos 1:1; 7:14-15). Amos—like Moses (Exodus 4:10), Gideon (Judges 6), and David (1 Samuel 16) before him, and like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-7) and Paul (2 Corinthians 10:10) after him—was mediocre.
But Amos was also a man without a home. Imagine if I had made a visit to Washington, D.C. when I had lived up north. A country boy from southern Illinois arrives at the Oval Office. He says that the local factory workers labor in dangerous conditions for inadequate wages. He says that the farmers receive insufficient government aid. But he goes one step further: the President or King must change his ways, or else God is going to judge him (Amos 7:9).
In many ways, this was Amos’ message (Amos 2:6-16). And, just as I would understandably be thrown out of the White House for saying these sort of things, Amos was run out his own country in the northern kingdom. Amaziah, King Jeroboam II’s heretical pastor, tells him to leave the country and go to the southern kingdom of Judah (Amos 7:12-13).
Amos was a mediocre man without a home. I can relate so much to Amos. Like Amos, I moved from Illinois in the north to Birmingham in the south three years ago to begin divinity school. So much of this time has been spent trying to do distinguished scholarly and pastoral work, so that I can be a strong candidate for either PhD programs or ministry positions.
And the same is true for all of us, but especially in Mountain Brook. Youth and college students feel the pressure of the highest academic and athletic standards. Young professionals know the stress of seeking corporate advancement. Middle-aged adults feel the need to work more and more in order to earn enough money for not only their children, but also for their newborn grandchildren and aging parents. Elderly people reflect on their lives and wonder if they have achieved anything significant. Pastors worry about the size and upward trajectory of their congregations. We all despair of our mediocrity and do not feel quite at home in the world.
Although he was never at home in the world, and although he was from a mediocre upbringing, Amos’ ministry shows us a truth that Paul would later express: God chooses the weak things of the world like you, like me, and like a simple shepherd such as Amos to show His wisdom (1 Cor. 1:26-29). Amos was a simple shepherd from Tekoa, who continued faithfully to preach both the judgment (Amos 7:6, 17) and the mercy (Amos 9:11-15) of God, even though it brought him great personal discomfort and injury.
Like Amos, consider today how God loves you and can use you despite your background, despite your personal talents, and despite whatever personal failings you may have committed. Consider today how God loves you not for any good that you can do for Him—or because of any iniquity you may have abstained from—your mediocrity included (Deuteronomy 7:6-8; Romans 9:16).
Amos 7 (ESV):
Warning Visions
1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings. 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,
“O Lord GOD, please forgive!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
3 The LORD relented concerning this:
“It shall not be,” said the LORD.
4 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said,
“O Lord GOD, please cease!
How can Jacob stand?
He is so small!”
6 The LORD relented concerning this:
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord GOD.
7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them;
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Amos Accused
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,
“‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.’”
12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was[fn] no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ 16 Now therefore hear the word of the LORD.
“You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17 Therefore thus says the LORD:
“‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”