Thru the Bible Vol. 28: The Prophets (Amos/Obadiah)

By J. Vernon McGee

Radio messages from J. Vernon McGee delighted and enthralled listeners for years with simple, straightforward language and clear understanding of the Scripture. Now enjoy his personable, yet scholarly, style in a 60-volume set of commentaries that takes you from Genesis to Revelation with new understanding and insight. Each volume includes introductory sections, detailed outlines and a thorough, paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of the text. A great choice for pastors - and even better choice for the average Bible reader and student! Very affordable in a size that can go anywhere, it's available as a complete 60-volume series, in Old Testament or New Testament sets, or individually.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Oct 24, 1995
• ISBN: 9781418586362

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

THEME: Judgment on surrounding nations

Amos was a fearless man with a message from God. Not only was Amos an unknown when he arrived in Bethel of the northern kingdom of Israel, but he is still rather unknown today. In our country, Amos is a name that is associated with Andy because of the popular radio program of the past generation, Amos and Andy. Actually, we should associate the Amos of Bible times with Hosea. They were contemporary prophets, and I am sure they knew each other. Hosea’s message emphasized the love of God, but a God of love who also intends to judge. Amos spoke of the lofty justice and the inflexible righteousness of God which leads Him to judge.

It is startling to see that Amos had a world view, a global conception. He spoke first to the nations which were contiguous to and surrounding the nation Israel. He spoke to the great world powers of that day—that in itself isn’t something unique. The later prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel—did it also. But the method of these other prophets was first to speak of God’s judgment of the nation Israel and then to take up the judgment of the other nations. Amos reverses that method. He spoke first of God’s judgment of the nations round about and then of Israel’s judgment.

When Amos first spoke in Bethel, saying that God was going to judge Syria, Philistia, Phoenicia, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, everybody filled the king’s chapel. He really was drawing a crowd. They were very glad for him to preach on the sins of the Moabites, you see, but not on their sins. There are people even today who like the preacher to preach on the sins of the Moabites which were committed four thousand or more years ago, but any preacher who mentions the people’s own sins is in real trouble. Amos exercised a great deal of diplomacy, it seems to me, in speaking of the other nations first. He was an eloquent man. Although he was a country preacher from out yonder in the desert, he used the language of a Shakespeare. He was, in my judgment, a great preacher.

The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake [Amos 1:1].

In the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel—this is Jeroboam II, by the way.

Two years before the earthquake. This earthquake is also mentioned by Zechariah nearly two hundred years later. According to the historian Josephus, it took place during the reign of Uzziah. The important thing is that this does help us to see that Amos was contemporary with Hosea, he was one of the first of the prophets, and he was a prophet to the northern kingdom of