B1 Q1 a11 2. Signification. Deprecated.
c1 3. Judgment averted.
Q2 a2 4. Symbol. Fire.
b2 5. Signification. Deprecated.
c2 6. Judgment averted.
Q3 a3 7. Symbol. Plummet.
b3 8-. Signification. Deprecated.
c3 -8,9. Judgment averted.
689-687 B.C.
Amos 7)
1 Thus has the Lord GOD showed to me; and, behold, He was forming locusts (cp. Nah. 3:17) in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth (Joel. Rev. 9); and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. (Exacted by the king from the People [1 Kings 4:7; 18:5]. These are the symbols of the army of 6:14. "Latter growth" is the end generation and the grasshoppers will take what ever is left after taxes. Does today's society live in debt? Do you throw much money away in interest?)
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, "O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech You: by whom shall Jacob arise? (put for the whole nation) for he is small." (Answer - God will!)
3 The LORD repented for this (Ref. Deut. 32:36. Cp. Jonah 3:10): "It shall not be," says the LORD. (The Lord saved the remnant.)
4 Thus has the Lord GOD showed to me: and, behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend [with Israel], and it devoured the great deep, and would have eaten the the very portion [of the earth given to Israel].
5 Then said I, "O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech You: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small."
6 The LORD repented for this: "This also shall not be," says the Lord GOD. (God is showing Amos what would happen to His people in the end. Amos begged for God's mercy on them and God changed His mind.)
7 Thus He shewed me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plummet (i.e. made perpendicular by a plummet), with a plummet in his hand. (True line, the truth.)
8 And the LORD said to me, "Amos (note this personnel touch), what do you see? And I said, "A plummet."
Then said the LORD, "Behold, I will set a plummet in the midst of My People Israel (i.e. measure [the doings of Israel] with the plummet of righteousness and judgment. Cp. 2 Kings 21:12. Isa. 28:17; 34:11. Lam. 2:8,&c.): I will not forgive them any more: (In Zechariah there is a plummet with seven eyes. The seven eyes are God's elect and the plummet which holds the truth of God's Word is the weight on the end of the plumb-line. It marks the straight course which is Christ and His Word which releases that truth to you whereby the Holy Spirit can work through you and accomplish the will of our Father.)
9 And the high places (used for idolatrous altars, &c.) of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel (used only by Amos in this sense. Put for the nation of Israel. Cp. Ps. 105:9,10. Jer. 33:26) shall be laid waste; and I will rise against (fulfilled in 2 Kings 15:10) the house of Jeroboam (cp Hos. 1:4. put for the 10 northern tribes) with the sword."
A2 R 10,11. Threatening. Captivity.
S d 12. Rejection by Amaziah.
e 13. Prophecy rejected.
S d 14,15. Justification by Amos.
e 16,17-. Prophecy repeated.
R -17. Threatening. Captivity.
10 Then Amaziah the priest (the idolatrous priest. A Kenite, see v.14) of Beth-el (cp. 3:14; 4:4; 5:5,6) sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has formed a conspiracy (the calves being connected with Israel's state policy [1 Kings 12:26-33]) against you in the midst of the house of Israel (i.e. openly. Cp. v.8. This house had gone bad): the land is not able to endure all his words. (character means everything. Amaziah means "strength of Yahaveh." He had powerful "credentials" and he was sure upset with Amos. Amos was prophesying things that Amaziah couldn't explain and the people were asking too many questions.)
11 For thus Amos says, 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword (false prophecy, he is lying. This charge was not true. Cp. Acts 17:6,7; 24:5. Note what Amaziah omitted to repeat), and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.' "
12 Also Amaziah said to Amos, "O you seer, go, flee you away into the land of Judah (even though belonging to Juah [1:1] Amos was a prophet to Israel), and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
13 But prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the king's court." (God sends people but they won't listen. Beth-el is the "house of God." Amaziah told Amos to go speak God's truth somewhere else but not in their "house of God." It was the king's house. There is a false king coming beloved, but there is only one Beth-el. Be sure you are in the house of the King of kings and Lord of lords.)
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son (prophets were not hereditay as priests were. Cp. Heb. 1:1); but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit (wild fig):
15 And the LORD took me (i.e. called me. Prophets were called by Yahaveh; not born prophets, or made prophets by man. See 1 Sam. 10:5. Heb. 1:1) as I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.' (Amos wasn't raised as a priest, he was a working man who didn't make his living from teaching or prophesying God's words. He's saying, "I didn't ask to bring you this message and I'm not profiting by it". "Sycamore fruit" is really "wild figs." Are you familiar with the parable of the fig tree which Christ commanded you to know?)
16 Now therefore hear you the word of the LORD: You say, 'Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not your word against the house of Isaac.' (ref. Deut. 32:2. Cp. Ezek. 20:46; 21:2. Mic. 2:6.)
17 Therefore thus say the LORD; 'Your wife shall be an harlot (i.e. become a victim to the lust of the invader) in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your soil shall be divided by line (i.e. partitioned); and you shall die on polluted (i.e. heathen) soil:
and Israel shall surely go into captivity from upon his land.' " (Consequence of the lie, Babylon. The city is Babylon, the state of confusion or "babel" that is come upon the world in the end. Many shall fall on either side of that plumb-line as it divides through those who are lazy and those deceived. Jeroboam was the last king of Israel before it went into the Assyrian captivity. The remaining people scattered and lost their heritage to the point that they don't even know who they are today. It was an awful war waged on Jeroboam, but nothing compared to the famine for God's truth, spiritual food.)