Amos: Seek The Lord and LiveНамуна

If you go to a modern zoo, lions are one of the most impressive creatures to see. Normally they’re lying around in the sun, not doing a lot. Yet if you get to see them tearing away at some raw meat with their enormous teeth, it’s a magnificent sight. 

However, if you somehow found yourself inside the enclosure with nothing between you and a hungry lion, then ‘magnificent’ might not be the thought running through your head. If an adult male lion shook its mane and let out a full-throated roar, then more likely it would be ‘Uh-oh’ or some more terrified equivalent that you would utter. 

The book of Amos reveals the Living God as a roaring lion (v. 2), a picture that sets the tone of the book (also see 3:8). It’s an uncomfortable image because He is roaring against His own people. Amos is a book designed to shake believers out of their moral complacency. Amos reminds us that the Lord is not a domestic cat who purrs when we bother to meet with Him; He is a lion who roars. 

Even though it is placed third in the ‘minor prophets’, Amos was the first prophet of Israel who had his words written down in a book. 1:1 reveals that he was preaching around 760 bc to the northern kingdom of Israel. You can read what was going on at the time in 2 Kings 14:25–28. The headlines were that Israel had a popular monarch, Jeroboam II, who had ruled for nearly 40 years and brought great prosperity to them. They were wealthy and also one of the strongest military powers of the day. The people had every reason to feel comfortable with life. But they therefore neglected the Lord. 

Reflection

Do you find that it's easy, when things are going well, to shrink God down to a convenient size for you?