Why Study Amos?
April 08, 2025
Amos was an ordinary guy from a small town outside of Jerusalem. He wasn’t famous or well-spoken; he tended sheep and picked figs. But God used him because he was willing to do what He asked.
Amos was a country preacher marching into a sophisticated, suave culture at the height of its prosperity to warn them that unless they turn back to God, they’re going to lose it all. But no one wanted to listen to his doom and gloom. (Sound familiar?)
“We need ministers like Amos today. Too many pastors only give nice messages on how to solve personal problems. Somebody needs to say something very strong about sin in our hearts. Sin in our lives is our biggest problem.” –Dr. J. Vernon McGee
We learn from Amos to fear God so much that we fear no one else.
Fast facts about Amos:
- His message was a lot like Elijah and John the Baptist—“judgment is coming if you don’t turn back to God today.”
- He lived at the same time as Hosea. There’s a good chance that as a boy, Amos knew the prophets Jonah and Elisha. And when Amos’ ministry was coming to an end, Isaiah and Micah arrived on the scene.
- Amos was a nobody who spoke for God in the palaces of kings. He wasn’t afraid to say that God was bigger and more powerful than they were.
- Even as a country preacher, Amos had a global view of God. He saw God as the ruler of the world and declared that all nations were responsible to Him.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” -Amos 8:11
