THE FIRST THREE VISIONS AND THE OPPOSITION OF THE PRIEST OF BETHEL In this chapter, the prophet presents to us the three visions shown to him by the Lord, for the sake of warning Israel against their transgressions. And he ends the chapter by the complaint of Amaziah the priest of Bethel to the king against Amos, and the prophet’s response to his provocation . 1- The vision of the locusts 1 – 3 2- The vision of the destructive fire 4 – 6 3- The vision of the plumb line 7 – 9 4- The provocation of Amaziah the priest 10 – 11 5- Expelling Amos from Samaria 12 – 13 6- The response of Amos 14 – 17 1- THE VISION OF THE LOCUSTS: God had previously threatened Israel by the prophet Amos, that He will send locusts to devour their vineyards, their fig trees, and their olive trees (Amos 4: 9). Now He shows his prophet His plan, in which justice and mercy are mixed together; While chastening, He shows compassion; And while planning, He was anticipating a word of intercession from the prophet to cease his chastisement (3). The Lord sends locusts, He sets by Himself (1); As whether using locusts or enemies, He does nor entrust anyone to chasten His children; But His hand would remain the one acting, while His eyes would stay concentrated on them, the way a Potter cares for the object he puts in the furnace for a certain time. He sets swarms of locusts, yet in their early stages as worms, to appear at the beginning of the late crop, after the king’s mowings; namely, after the first crop which was to be given as a tax to the king. He did not allow the locusts to devour the plant before the first crop, to let the people live on what they have already gathered as a tax for the king, and not to die of hunger. While chastening, He does not allow for perdition; according to the words of the Psalmist: “Oh, do not forsake me utterly” (Psalm 119: 8). In His chastisement, God may seem as though He has forsaken us, Yet that would only be for some time, until we return to Him, then He would return to us. The prophet Amos humbly interceded on behalf of Israel, saying: “O Lord God, forgive, I pray! Oh, that Jacob may stand, for he is small!” (Amos 7: 2) That was Jacob about whom God said: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his palaces” (Amos 6: 8). Once the prophet interceded on his behalf, and said that he is too small to endure the chastisement, the Lord relented and ceased. That does not imply a change of thought, but rather a change of position. God, even in the most bitter moments of our chastisement, longs to hear the voice of Amos in us, humbly interceding on our behalf, proclaiming that we are small and in need of Him; He would then lift up His chastisement, and embrace us. Some scholars believe that the attacks of locusts refer to the attacks by Aram, Assyria, or others, against Israel. 70 2- THE VISION OF THE DESTRUCTIVE FIRE: In the first time, God chastened with great compassion; But because Israel did not repent their transgression, He came back to chasten more cruelly; no more in secret, but in a public way: “The Lord God called for judgment by fire” (Amos 7: 4). And is said by the prophet Isaiah: “For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and His sword, the Lord will judge all flesh; And the slain of the Lord shall be many” (Isaiah 66: 15, 16); Who also said: “The Lord stands up to plead, And stands to judge the people” (Isaiah 3: 13); And as said by Jeremiah: “Therefore I will yet bring charges against you, says the Lord; And against your children’s children I will bring charges” (Jeremiah 2: 9); And by Hosea: “The Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land” (Hosea 4: 1). God calls for a public judgment, not to avenge, according to our human concept; But that, through the fire of chastisement, He would bring the wicked back from his evil ways; and burn his transgressions, to make him return to Him and to enjoy His love. In the first chastisement, only a part of the crop was destroyed; but this time, Chastening more firmly; God deprives them of water and food; His fire would consume the great deep and devour the territory; to make them feel the need for someone to satisfy their need of water and food, and to find them both in God. T his time as well, God would anticipate an intercession from His prophet to forgive His people! 3- THE VISION OF THE PLUMB LINE: The Lord stood on the wall with a plumb line in His hand (a tool to examine the straightness of a wall). Measuring the kingdom of Israel with His divine plumb line, He said: “I will not pass by them anymore” (8); namely, (I will no longer spare them). It was befitting of the Jewish church to become a wall of faith in the Messiah; But having rejected that mission, and having denied her Savior, as revealed by God’s plumb line; She deserved to be destroyed. … This applies to those who are entrusted for a mission of spiritual leadership, if they are found unfaithful in being like a wall to support others in their spiritual strife, they become worthy of destruction. The Lord says through Isaiah: “I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet” (Isaiah 28: 17). … When the prophet David defeated Moab, he forced them to the ground, with two lines he measured off, with one line those to be put to death, and with another those to be kept alive (2 Samuel 8: 2); … And when Manesseh king of Judah did evil, God said: “I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 kings 21: 13). Using a plumb line probably means that God presents His divine chastisements, elaborately, and within certain measures, according to how far we endure, and how much edification we need; although it must be preceded by the destruction of what has gone astray inside us. Then the prophet goes on to say: “The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam” (Amos 7: 9) What does he mean by all these forms of destruction? … Having been used to find refuge in the high places, to count the sanctuaries as their strongholds, and their present 71 king as their support; Their high places would become desolate, the sanctuaries shall be laid waste, and their king Jeroboam, together with all his household, will be slain by the sword! In the days of the early Patriarch fathers, the high places were considered most convenient to build altars, to offer sacrifices to the Lord; probably for their high elevation, in man’s attempt, in his relationship with God, to raise him above the earthly and temporal things. … But through mixing with the Gentiles, as the Jews set their heathen altars on the high places; The prophets of God started to fight against the use of high places for worship, on account of that they were symbols of idolatry; And because there was already a temple in Jerusalem, to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Mentioning “the high places of Isaac” (9), was probably on account of that the word “Isaac” means (laughing); As though they would be a laughing stock and a mockery of the Gentiles, because of the destruction that would befall them. As to the sword that is risen against the house of Jeroboam, It was that of Assyria. 4- THE PROVOCATION OF AMAZIAH THE PRIEST: Israel with their king, leaderships, priests, and people, Instead of offering repentance, the way the people of Nineveh did when they heard the rebuke of the prophet Jonah; Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, provoked Jeroboam king of Israel, against the prophet Amos, saying: “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to hear all his words. For thus Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive from their own land” (Amos 7: 10, 11) As the heart of Amaziah the priest of Bethel has gone astray from the ministry to temporal positions, to earthly glories, and to the love of the world; There is no wonder that, instead of carrying out his mission as a priest, he turned the truth into wormwood; and the prophesies of Amos into a conspiracy against the king. He counted the words of the prophet, not as a message for repentance and edification, but as a provocation of the people against the king and his men; as a national treason! He says to the king: “The land is not able to hear his words”, in an attempt to convince the king that the people are all against the prophet, and that his mission is no more endured by anyone. That was always the way of the devil in every era, to convince man that the words of God are unacceptable, and the preaching of the gospel is unendurable, nor practical, in an attempt to lead them astray from the work of God, and to bring them out of the circle of the cross! He says: “The land is not able to hear all his words” Yes indeed, having been, himself, land and not heaven, Amaziah the priest could not bear the words of the prophet; A carnal man of dust, walking with an earthly mind, cannot receive what is God’s, and cannot endure the heavenly life! When the Lord Christ talked about His holy body and blood, presented as the secret of eternal life, Many of His disciples said: “This is a hard saying, who can understand it,… And from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (John 6: 60, 66). 5- EXPELLING AMOS FROM SAMARIA: 72 “Then Amaziah said to Amos: ‘Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah, There eat bread, and there prophesy. But never again prophesy at Bethel, For it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the royal residence” (Amos 7: 12, 13) Amaziah thought that Amos is a prophet to earn bread; But Amos was not such a prophet; Prophecy for him was not a job for a living; but he was a tool in the hand of God, his Creator. No wonder that the priest expelled the prophet, who by his simplicity, faithfulness, and courage, revealed his secret and exposed his life. St. Jerome says: [Why was Amos expelled from Samaria? Surely, as it is in many other cases, on account of being a spiritual surgeon who amputates the members corrupt with sin, and provokes men to repentance. For the same reason the apostle Paul says to the Galatians: “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4: 16)1]. Although Amos was not officially a prophet, taught in the school of prophets, or through inheritance; … Yet, in the eyes of God, he was more faithful, and far better than the one with official authority – the priest of Bethel. That is why St. Jerome, in one of his messages, says: [Not all bishops are truly bishops. If you look at Peter, Consider as well Judas; And if you look at Stephen, Consider as well Nicodemos, the angel of the church of Ephesus, who was judged by the Lord Himself in the Book of Revelation (2: 6), because of his fantasies. Therefore, “Let a man examine himself” (1 Corinthians 11: 28); As the clerical rank does not make a Christian out of you2!]. 6- THE RESPONSE OF AMOS: In humility, yet with courage, Amos said to Amazia: “I am no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, But I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock. And the Lord said to me, ‘Go prophesy to my people Israel’” (Amos 7: 14, 15) Humbly, Amos did not deny his lowly old job as a herdsman and a tender of sycamore fruit; And bravely proclaimed that it is the Lord who called him as he followed the flock to prophesy to His people Israel … To some, he might not be a prophet, having not been taught in the school of prophets, Nor being the son of a prophet; But he responded to a divine call from God; and was committed to work according to it St. John Chrysostom says: [He did not say that, to boast that he is called to prophesy by God Himself, But to mute those who accused him of being a false prophet, and to confirm that he says nothing on his own3]. And St. Gregory the Nezianzen, speaking about the Holy Spirit who worked in Amos to set him a prophet, says: [This Spirit, being the whole wisdom and love, made out of David, a herdsman a Psalmist who, by his psalms, could drive away the evil spirits (1 Samuel 16: 23); and made out of Amos, also a herdsman and a tender of sycamore fruit, a prophet pf God4]. Finally, the prophet Amos, could not keep silent, but daringly proclaimed to Amaziah the priest: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city; Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword; Your land shall be divided by survey line; 1 Ep. 40: 1. 2 Ep. 14: 9. 3 In 2 Cor. Hom. 24:3. 4 On Pentecost 14. 73 You shall die in a defiled land; And Israel shall surely be led away captive from his own land’” (Amos 7: 17) All of which have been literally realized, with the captivation of Israel by Assyria. How bitter it would be when a priest is forsaken by the Lord; … When his body is corrupted like Amaziah’s woman who became a harlot; … When his talents and energies are scattered, like Amaziah’s sons and daughters, who fell by the sword; … When, instead of inheriting, he would lose what he already has, and strangers would divide his land, to become in disgrace; … And when, because of him, the church would be captivated, and many of its members would fall and be offended!
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