Lessons for life: Amos

Graham Romp | Amos 7:1-9, Amos 9:11-15 

On the face of it, things are looking great for Israel: the economy doing well, military success, new temples being built - and best of all, they know they are God's chosen people. Then Amos arrives from a rival nation to speak some hard truths about injustice, exploitation and corruption... and to tell his unwilling audience that judgement is coming. If you think your job is tough, if you're feeling complacent, if you think God isn't interested in the real world, listen to what Graham has to say about Amos and how he went about his task.

Discussion questions can be downloaded here.

This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb-line in his hand. And the Lord asked me, 'What do you see, Amos?' 'A plumb-line,' I replied. Then the Lord said, 'Look, I am setting a plumb-line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
    The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
    and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
    with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.'

'In that day
    I will restore David's fallen shelter -
    I will repair its broken walls
    and restore its ruins -
    and will rebuild it as it used to be...
    I will plant Israel in their own land,
    never again to be uprooted
    from the land I have given them,'
    says the Lord your God.