Bible Study Notes 8/19/2025
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The Prophet Amos
Amos is also an 8th C BC northern prophet like Hosea.
Amos receives visions from God “in the days of Jeroboam” II (Amos 1:1), which places his ministry somewhere between 793-753 BC.
This is a time of great prosperity in Israel.
Amos addresses the issue of wealth, describing in detail the indulgent living of the north.
- Israel’s material prosperity only indulges their spiritual poverty.
Also a problem for Amos is that this period is characterized by injustice.
- Through the prophet Amos the LORD “roars like a lion” in righteous fury against the behavior of his people (Amos 1:2; 3:4, 8; 5:19).
Amos announces God’s judgment against a number of nations in close proximity to Israel, including Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab (Amos 1:3-2:3); He announces judgment against Judah (Amos 2:4-5).
Amos’s message ends with God’s indictment against Israel for oppressing the poor and needy, and for using them for unjust gain (Amos 2:6-16).
- He announces God’s judgment against his people, which will include the “whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt” (Amos 3:1).
- The LORD declares to Israel: “you only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2).
Amos recalls that God has already sent various preliminary judgments against Israel, including famine, withholding of rain, mildew, and the sword (Amos 4:6-11), yet, regardless of all these calamities, Israel has not returned to the LORD.
Amos addresses the poor and needy:
- He implores God’s people to seek God that they might live, but their sins remain many:
- They sell the righteous for money
- They impose heavy rent and fines of the poor
- They turn aside the poor and the needy
- They distress the righteous and accept bribes, and
- They lavish themselves with expensive food, wine, oil, and fine houses, while the needy are in their midst.
- Recall that the Mosaic law emphasized the importance of just balances and justice (Lev. 19:35-36; Deut. 25:13-16).
- God does not take such injustice and abuse of the poor lightly (Deut. 27:19, 25).
- This is a materially prosperous period in Israel, but the book of Amos indicates that Israel’s wealth has been gained while neglecting the poor and the needy in their midst.
Amos also addresses Israel’s worship:
- The golden calves that Jeroboam I had set up at the two cult centers at Dan and Bethel are still being worshiped during the time of Amos.
- God’s people also sacrifice to the LORD, Amos addresses what we call “syncretism,” which entails the worship of God and the worship of idols.
- Amos announces that God detests Israel’s worship (Amos 5:21-24), recalling that when the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, they had carried their idols with them (Amos 5:25-26).
- In view of their ongoing idolatry, God’s judgment is coming, and Israel will be sent into exile (Amos 3; 5:27; 6:7; 7:11, 17: 9:1-10).
- The LORD says through the prophet: READ Amos 6:7-8.
- God’s coming judgment will be in 722 BC, when God raises up the Assyrian Empire to defeat the northern kingdom, at which time, Israel will be removed from the land and scattered afar (2 Kgs 17).
Amos tells us that this terrifying judgment happens in reversals: the sun will go down at noon; the earth will be dark in broad daylight; festivals will turn to mourning; songs will become laments, like the mourning for an only son; it will be a bitter day (Amos 8:9-10).
As with other prophets, Amos sees that God’s righteous judgment of exile will not be his final word.
- Amos announces hope for a future restoration, stating that God “will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob” (Amos 9:8).
- The final “word of the LORD” through Amos raises the expectation of what God will do in the days ahead: READ Amos 9:11-12.
- So the “days are coming” when God will restore the captivity of his people and plant them on their own land.
- Amos leaves us with the full measure of God’s judgment before us, yet with the hope of restoration beyond it.
The Prophet Jonah
Jonah is an 8th C BC northern prophet during the days of Jeroboam II (Jonah 1:1; cf. 2 Kgs 14:25), which places his message somewhere between 793-753 BC.
- Nineveh was a flourishing city of Assyria at this time, gaining significant power throughout the ancient Near East.
- The rise of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 BC) marks the height of the empire, which continues to dominate this region until it is defeated by the Babylonians in 612 BC at the fall of Nineveh.
Jonah is Sent to Nineveh
God sends Jonah to the city of Nineveh, “an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breadth” (Jonah 1:2; 3:3), to preach a message of repentance to the Assyrians – the very people who will defeat the northern kingdom a few years later in 722 BC.
God tells Jonah to preach a message of repentance to the Assyrians – the very people who will defeat the northern kingdom a few years later in 722 BC.
- God tells Jonah to warn the Ninevites that their city will be overthrown in 40 days if they do not turn from their evil ways.
- Jonah does not go to Nineveh! But instead flees to the port city of Joppa, not obeying God’s command.
- This is where he purchases a ride on a boat going to Tarshish (which is in the opposite direction of Nineveh!)
- The boat leaves port and Jonah falls asleep in the lower deck, but God appoints a storm that causes great fear among the sailors.
- The men cry out to their gods, and in sheer desperation, the captain finally wakes up Jonah and tells him to call upon his god.
- The captain hopes that Jonah’s god “will give a thought to us, that we may not perish” (Jonah 1:6).
- Yet Jonah offers no prayer for these foreigners, so lots are cast and the sailors discover that Jonah is the reason for their calamity.
- They question Jonah so he confesses: “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9).
- So now these foreigners call upon the LORD, earnestly praying that he might not let them perish (Jonah 1:14).
- The sailors eventually throw Jonah overboard at his own request, though they do so reluctantly.
- God does, indeed, care for those in the boat who are perishing, and the sea stops raging.
- The sailors then offer sacrifices and make vows to the LORD, for He has heard their cry for help.
- Now that Jonah is in the sea, God shows him mercy by appointing a great fish to swallow up the prophet, so that his life is preserved, and he stays there three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17; cf. Matt. 12:38; Luke 11:30).
- Jonah prays to God while in the belly of the fish (Jonah 2), and God commands the fish, and it spits Jonah out onto dry land.
Now the word comes to Jonah a second time, with God telling him to go to Nineveh and proclaim against it the message the LORD would give him (Jonah 3:1-4).
Jonah obeys and the people of Nineveh “believed God” (Jonah 3:5).
- This is the same language used of Abraham in Gen 15:6.
- The people of Nineveh (foreigners!) humble themselves before God and turn from their wicked ways, so God in turn relents and does not send the disaster to them that he intended to bring upon the city (Jonah 3:6-10).
Jonah is angry about God not destroying the Ninevites – this is why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh, as he knew that the LORD was “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2; cf. Ex. 34:6-7).
Jonah is angry that God relented from sending judgment against the Assyrians, yet, there is even more to this story.
Jonah’s Misplaced Compassion
At the end of the book of Jonah, we are given a glimpse into the inner world of the prophet (Jonah 4:5-11).
These verses are not placed in chronological order but depict what takes place as Jonah waits to see what will happen to the city.
Their literary placement at the end of the book highlights their significance.
We see Jonah sitting east of the city in the scorching heat, while he is waiting to see what will happen to Nineveh.
- God appoints a plant to shade Jonah from the sun, which evidently delights the prophet, who “rejoiced over the plant with a great rejoicing” (Jonah 4:6) – the first time in the story Jonah is happy!
- BUT! The next morning God appoints a worm to eat the plant so that it withers and dies; he also appoints a “scorching east wind” (Jonah 4:7-8).
- Jonah becomes angry again, so God dialogues with him, asking: “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?”
- Jonah says, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die” (4:9).
- God presses the point further: “You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons?” (4:10-11)
- The exchange exposes the fact that Jonah is more concerned about his plant that has perished than human beings, God’s creation, who are perishing (3:9).
Even though Jonah FINALLY obeyed God’s command, God is concerned about exposing his HEART, which is not characterized by God’s compassion.
- Jonah was not concerned about the sailors in the boat;
- Jonah did not have a heart for those in Nineveh, on their way to perishing.
- God wants Jonah to understand his heart.
God’s purpose in blessing Abraham was that he might be a blessing to the nations (Gen. 12:3; 22:18).
- As children of Abraham, this ought to be our concern – the lost world - , yet, the reality is that we often care more about the things that affect us – like Jonah and his shade-giving tree) than we care for the nations, or even our neighbors, who are perishing.
The God-appointed great fish and the storm brought about Jonah’s obedience, but the God-appointed worm exposes Jonah’s values and priorities.
God calls Abraham for the sake of the world; He has concern for those who are perishing, which will be demonstrated most profoundly at the cross, for Jesus comes to seek and save those who are lost.
We are reminded that God cares deeply for those who are perishing; so should we care for those who are perishing.
The conversation God has with Jonah compels us to examine our own heart, and consider whether or not we share God’s compassion for a lost world.
(Much gratitude is given to Dr. Carol Kaminski for her Old Testament Survey course at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the study materials that accompany and inform this teaching.)