The prophet Amos prophesied during a time when God’s people were stronger than their enemies, and had plenty of food and money, but their hearts were sick. They did not love God like they should so even through things seemed to be going well, God was angry with them and was going to punish them.

God’s people had been worshipping idols and were mean to one another. God told them that He was tired of them coming to worship Him when they did not live like they should the rest of the time. Through Amos, He told the people that they would be punished, their money and houses would be taken away, and they would be taken from their land by another nation.

Amos was a shepherd and also took care of sycamore trees. God talked to Amos and told him to tell the
people to repent of their sins. God does not call men to speak His message today like He called the prophets in the Old Testament. The prophets were specially chosen to warn the people.

Amos told the people that God was not pleased with their worship. Some had set up idols and worshiped them in God’s name. God hated this because He had already told the people how to worship Him. In His Law He told them not to worship Him with idols. They had also set up idols to pretend gods. God hated this also.

He not only wanted them to worship Him like they should, He also wanted them to treat one another right. They were not being fair with one another. Some were trying to make money by cheating their fellow Jews. Amos told them to practice justice and righteousness. Even if they worshipped correctly, if they did not treat their brethren right, God would not be pleased. We must always remember that God wants us to treat our family members, people at church, and other people fairly and to be kind to them.

God punished His people with famine, locusts, diseases, and even allowed other nations to fight against them and win, but the people would not repent. Therefore, Amos told them “Prepare to meet your God, O’ Israel!”  God was going to judge them and punish them if they would not repent. If they did repent, not only saying they were sorry but changing their lives to do what God wanted them to do, God would not punish them.

We can learn much from Amos’ prophecy. We must worship God as He commanded us to do, treat Christians fairly, and repent when we do things that are wrong.

Lessons From Amos

  • God wants us to worship Him in the way that He commanded
  • God wants us to worship with our whole heart and mind.
  • God wants us to be fair with Christians as He wanted the Jews to be fair to one another
  • We must always be  prepared to meet God