Amos’ Message. 

        It will be no coincidence that Abraham, Moses and David all knew the wilderness, all had worked as shepherds, for under God this was a life that could teach a true scale of values. This was Amos’ school in which he came to realize one of the foundation stones of true religion, that God was not merely just Himself, but demanded justice from men, and especially from those that worshipped Him. As preached by Amos it is over-simplified and gives a one-sided picture of God, but it was a foundation stone on which others could build. Until He could reveal Himself perfectly in His Son, God’s self-revelation had to be “in sundry ways and divers manners.”

        There was nothing intrinsically new in Amos’ message. It breathes in the stories of Genesis, in the judgment of the Flood and of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Abraham’s plea, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” and in God’s com­mendation of him (Gen. 18:19). It is made clear in the Book of the Covenant (Exod. 20-23, cf. 24:4, 7), the fundamental law code of the people. The judge stands in the place of God, and to go to the judge is to go to God (Exod. 21:6; 22:8, 9, 28 — cf. R.V. text and mg.). No distinction is made between civil and religious law, but the former is embedded in the latter. It is a leading feature in the teaching of the early prophets, e.g. ISam. 15:33, IISam. 12:1-15, IKings 21 (note that Ahab’s and Jezebel’s judicial murder of Naboth was a greater sin than all the Baal worship). Nothing alienated the affections of the people more readily from David than the suggestion, true or false, that he, God’s representative, was not caring for the administration of justice (IISam. 15:1-6).

        Amos does not analyse the reasons why this fundamental concept had been so largely ignored — that he was not ex­aggerating is shown by his later contemporaries Hosea, Isaiah and Micah — nor does he suggest reformations in religious and civil life which might result in increasing social justice. He demands the doing of justice as the only way of averting the otherwise inevitable judgment of God.