Study From The Book of Amos

Amos, (as in Ch. 7:14) was not a prophet but he was a Judean sheep-breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit (similar to fig fruit but to reap it, should be pierced by hand, the task was a time consuming and tedious).   Amos used to go to the landlords of these trees to do the job and in return they let him feed his sheep by the grass grown in between). From this we can see that he was not a rich shepherd.

The time of writing his book was at time of Uzziah the king of Judah (southern kingdom) and Jeroboam the second, the king of   Israel (the northern kingdom), sometime between 790 to 740, B.C.

The place: he lived in Tekoa at the border between Judah and Israel, five miles from the temple of Bethel, (the pagan temple that Jeroboam built). He went there and delivered his message and it appeared that he did not stay long, before he returned back to his town. 

The purpose of his message was to warn the Israelites against the injustice they did against the poor and commanded them to repent, otherwise they will receive punishment from God. The Israelites did not repent. Two years later, they were struck by an Earthquake (Ch. One, when Jeroboam II died) and thirty years later, they were taken captive by the Assyrians, who came in and took the land of Israel.

As in all the prophets’ books, it ends with the victory of God over evil, when Jesus will resign in the millennium with eventual restoration of Judah and Israel by the power and grace of God.