Reflections on Amos 3

 Amos 03  (Contemporary English Version)

1. People of Israel, I rescued you from Egypt. Now listen to my judgment against you.
   
2. Of all nations on earth, you are the only one I have chosen. That's why I will punish you because of your sins.
   
3. Can two people walk together without agreeing to meet?
   
4. Does a lion roar in the forest unless it has caught a victim? Does it growl in its den unless it is eating?
   
5. How can anyone catch a bird without using a net? Does a trap spring shut unless something is caught?
   
6. Isn't the whole city frightened when the trumpet signals an attack? Isn't it the LORD who brings disaster on a city?
   
7. Whatever the LORD God plans to do, he tells his servants, the prophets.
   
8. Everyone is terrified when a lion roars-- and ordinary people become prophets when the LORD God speaks.
   
9. Here is a message for the leaders of Philistia and Egypt-- tell everyone to come together on the hills of Samaria. Let them see the injustice and the lawlessness in that city.
   
10. The LORD has said that they don't even know how to do right. They have become rich from violence and robbery.
    
11. And so the LORD God has sworn that they will be surrounded. Enemies will break through their defenses and steal their treasures.
    
12. The LORD has promised that only a few from Samaria will escape with their lives and with some broken pieces of their beds and couches. It will be like when a shepherd rescues two leg bones and part of a sheep's ear from the jaws of a lion.
    
13. The LORD God All-Powerful told me to speak this message against Jacob's descendants:
    
14. When I, the LORD, punish Israel for their sins, I will destroy the altars at Bethel. Even the corners of the altar will be left in the dirt.
    
15. I will tear down winter homes and summer homes. Houses decorated with ivory and all other mansions will be gone forever. I, the LORD, have spoken!

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Amos had already announced Israel's judgment in chapter 2, now, in chapter 3, he says that it is certain, it is not without cause, and it will be the more severe because of Israel's special relationship with God.
God had chosen no other people of the earth besides Israel with whom to have a special relationship. Because of this relationship Israel would not go unpunished because of her iniquities. But also because of this relationship, God would not bring judgment without revealing it through the prophets, and thus this prophesy through Amos.

As a piece of music begins softly and builds in volume, a series of cause and effect statements are given which begin innocently: "Can two walk together without agreeing to meet?" From this statement they build in intensity to this:  "If a disaster occurs in a city, hasn't the LORD done it?"  (3:3, 6) As a lion roars just before it charges its prey, so God had "roared," and "who will not fear?" (3:8)

The chapter began with the cause and effect statements concluding with the effect that disaster was coming to Israel. Now, beginning with verse 9, we are given the cause, "The people are incapable of doing right." (3:10) Israel had become so violent and destructive that even the neighboring pagan nations did not match it. The were called to come and observe the extent to which Israel had arrived.

An enemy was going to surround the nation and destroy it. If Israel thought she would be saved from the coming destruction, she needed to rethink that. Any salvation would be like that of a shepherd who came to the rescue of a sheep caught in a lion's mouth. All he could save were a leg and piece of an ear. This was all that was left. So it would be for Israel. There would be nothing left of the nation to "save" except for pieces.

A special target of the Lord's destruction would be "the altars of Bethel," which were the places of pagan worship Israel had engaged in, and the opulence of those who had built elaborate houses off of ill-gotten gain. All of this would come to an end, so declared the Lord.