What warnings were given? What judgments were promised?
What can we further learn about God from this passage?
What is implied about Amos? Explain.
FIND GOD’S WAY FOR YOU
What similarities do you see, if any, between the behavior listed in the following passage and what is going on in our nation? our churches? our homes?
Get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation . . . now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.
1 PETER 2:1-3
What are we told to get rid of?
What are we told to do?
What do you need to get rid of?
STOP AND PONDER
Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.
1 PETER 2:11-12
A Prophet’s Plea
SEEK GOD’S WORD FOR TRUTH
Read the following passage:
The Sovereign LORD showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land. . . . In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
So the LORD relented from this plan. “I will not do it,” he said.
Then the Sovereign LORD showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land. Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
Then the LORD relented from this plan, too. “I will not do that either,” said the Sovereign LORD.
Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. And the LORD said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
I answered, “A plumb line.”
And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. The pagan shrines of your ancestors will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”
AMOS 7:1-9
In what ways were the first two visions similar? How were they different?
How did Amos respond to what the Lord had planned in these two visions? What did he ask? What was God’s response?
How was the third vision different, and what was Amos’s response? What significance do you see, if any, to the third vision and this response?
What can we learn about God from these visions?
What is implied about Amos? Explain.
FIND GOD’S WAYS FOR YOU
Try to recall a time when you pleaded with God on behalf of someone else.
Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
JAMES 5:14-16
What instructions are given in this passage? What conditions are specified?
What results are we to expect? Why?
STOP AND PONDER
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
ROMANS 8:26-27
Message of Restoration
SEEK GOD’S WORD FOR TRUTH
Read the following passage:
“I, the Sovereign LORD,
am watching this sinful nation of Israel.
I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,”
says the LORD.
“For I will give the command
and will shake Israel along with the other nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
yet not one true kernel will be lost. . . .
“In that day I will restore the fallen house of David.
I will repair its damaged walls.
From the ruins I will rebuild it
and restore its former glory.
And Israel will possess what is left of Edom
and all the nations I have called to be mine.”
The LORD has spoken,
and he will do these things.
“The time will come,” says the LORD,
“when the grain and grapes will grow faster
than they can be harvested.
Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel
will drip with sweet wine!
I will bring my exiled people of Israel
back from distant lands,
and they will rebuild their ruined cities
and live in them again.
They will plant vineyards and gardens;
they will eat their crops and drink their wine.
I will firmly plant them there
in their own land.
They will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them,”
says the LORD your God.
AMOS 9:8-9, 11-15
Along with God’s judgment to uproot and sift Israel, what did God promise never to do?
Whose kingdom was to be restored? In what ways?
What further promise did God make to His exiled people?
What phrases are used that offered Israel hope?
What permanency did God promise Israel?
What can we learn about God from these promises?
SEEK GOD’S WAYS FOR YOU
Which of the promises of restoration listed in Amos 9 took place for Israel? Explain.
Humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. . . . In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.
1 PETER 5:6, 10
What has God promised those whom He has called? What is our part?
In what ways has God restored, supported, or strengthened you?
STOP AND PONDER
Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
ROMANS 11:33
The Prophet’s Promise
AMOS AS PROPHET
The LORD sent prophets to bring them back to him. The prophets warned them, but still the people would not listen.
2 CHRONICLES 24:19
According to this verse, why did God send prophets to his people?
Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.”
MATTHEW 13:57
How were prophets generally treated?
Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.
2 PETER 1:20-21
Who is the source of true prophecy?
AMOS AS SHEPHERD
Amos was a shepherd by profession. Read what Jesus said about shepherds in the following passage:
The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. . . . The sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. . . .
The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. . . . I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me.
JOHN 10:2-3, 11-12, 14
How might Amos’s experience as a shepherd have prepared him to be one of God’s prophets? How would his shepherding knowledge have helped him respond to God’s call?
AMOS AS GARDENER
In addition to his work as a shepherd, Amos also tended fig trees. Read what Jesus said about gardeners in the following passage:
[The gardener] cuts off every branch . . . that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. . . . A branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine.
JOHN 15:2, 4
How might caring for trees have helped Amos understand the need for God’s judgment?
How would it have prepared him to obey God regardless of what others thought?
AMOS AND JESUS
Amos was an obedient man. His shepherding prepared him to prod people in a caring way. His gardening skills allowed him to see that people, like plants, need to have the wild, unproductive growth removed in order to produce fruit. His obedience—along with his training—foreshadows another prophet, Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:14) and “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener” (John 15:1).
In Revelation we find Jesus’ prophetic warning and promise to the churches:
Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book. . . . Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. . . . I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star. . . . Yes, I am coming soon!
REVELATION 22:7, 12, 16, 20
May Jesus be heard in our world, our nation, our churches, our homes. May we each hear and heed His call before He comes!
About the Author
New York Times best-selling author Francine Rivers began her literary career at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English and journalism. From 1976 to 1985, she had a successful writing career in the general market, and her books were highly acclaimed by readers and reviewers. Although raised in a religious home, Francine did not truly encounter Christ until later in life, when she was already a wife, a mother of three, and an established romance novelist.
Shortly after becoming a born-again Christian in 1986, Francine wrote Redeeming Love as her statement of faith. First published by Bantam Books, and then rereleased by Multnomah Publishers in the mid-1990s, this retelling of the biblical story of Gomer and Hosea, set during the time of the California Gold Rush, is now considered by many to be a classic work of Christian fiction. Redeeming Love continues to be one of the Christian Booksellers Association’s top-selling titles, and it has held a spot on the Christian best-seller list for nearly a decade.
Since Redeeming Love, Francine has published numerous novels with Christian themes—all best sellers—and she has continued to win both industry acclaim and reader loyalty around the globe. Her Christian novels have been awarded or nominated for numerous honors, including the RITA Award, the Christy Award, the ECPA Gold Medallion, and the Holt Medallion in Honor of Outstanding Literary Talent. In 1997, after winning her third RITA Award for inspirational fiction, Francine was inducted into the Romance Writers of America’s Hall of Fame. Francine’s novels have been translated into more than twenty different languages, and she enjoys best-seller status in many foreign countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa.
Francine and her husband, Rick, live in northern California and enjoy time spent with their three grown children and taking every opportunity to spoil their grandchildren. Francine uses her writing to draw closer to the Lord, and she desires that through her work she might worship and praise Jesus for all He has done and is doing in her life.
Visit her Web site at www.francinerivers.com.
Francine Rivers, The Prophet: Amos
(Series: Sons of Encouragement # 4)
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