Join us as we reflect on the impact of Amos, the prophet sent from the wilderness to the city, tasked with a divine mission that challenged norms and confronted systemic corruption. With insights from Dr. J. Vernon McGee, we unravel Amos’s profound perspectives on life, prophecy, and his formidable stance against false worship. Listeners share their touching stories of coming to faith through the broadcasts, reminding us all of the enduring power of God’s word and how, even today, it speaks across generations and cultures.
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellence.
SPEAKER 03 :
If God wanted to send a message to the intellectual and cultural elite today in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, what kind of person do you think he would choose? Maybe a talented actor, a popular politician, a wealthy socialite maybe, or maybe a well-known business magnate. Well, if you haven’t heard the story of the prophet Amos before, you might be surprised to find out what kind of man God sent to the big city of his time with a message for the king and high society. I’m Steve Schwetz, and this, of course, is Through the Bible with our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee. And it’s our first day in the Old Testament prophetic book of Amos. So if you’ve not read the book of Amos lately, to find it, go to the big book of Daniel and then turn a few pages forward to find Amos’ story. We’ll begin in chapter 1. And just in case you’re wondering, God is sending a message today to New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles through the ministry of Through the Bible. And not only there, but also to London, Beijing, Delhi, Moscow, Sydney, Dubai, and almost every other major city in the world. This simple five-year journey through the whole Word of God is available to almost everyone who wants to listen, and often in their own heart language. And you know, God is so faithful to get His Word out, and we are so grateful to be a tool in His hand. Now before we dive into Amos, let’s hear a few of our fellow passengers on the Bible bus. Here’s an email from one in Ontario, Canada. Thank you for your ministry. I feel so encouraged to be able to support you. So many people are coming to Jesus. The other day I talked to my half-brother in Uruguay, and he told me that by listening to the broadcast in Spanish, he got saved. He is 60 years old, and I would have never thought that he would give his life to the Lord by listening to Dr. McGee. Praise the Lord Jesus. Wow, don’t you want a second that praise the Lord, knowing that people are coming to Jesus Christ through the teaching of God’s word? Our next letter is from a listener in Albany, Oregon, who says this. My husband and I are in our 80s now, and we wonder if we’re doing one thing for the Lord’s work of spreading the gospel. We know that we are to go and teach or preach, but we cannot even leave our home and small surrounding towns. So when you tell us about reaching people in India and many other places, we sincerely hope that our small offering helps make this possible. We can’t go, but maybe we can send. Keep up the good work in telling all who will listen about the gospel. Dr. McGee has been gone for more than 30 years, but his sermons are just as good as they always were, and we know why. It’s because they are always about Jesus. That’s a story that we’ll sing about into eternity. You know, you’re right. And thank you for partnering with us and for encouraging us all through your note. And your prayer support is more valuable than anything else you can do. We want you to know that God is using you to stir his family to love and good works, as Hebrews 10 tells us to do. Let’s pray for one another as we study God’s word. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and your promise that it will not return without accomplishing your purpose. In Jesus’ name we pray. Now here’s our study with Dr. J. Vernon McGeehan, Amos chapter 1, as we go through the Bible together.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now friends, as we come to the little prophecy of Amos, I think first of all that we ought to try to locate him in prophecy. We are going to find that he was born down in Judah, the southern kingdom, but he was the prophet in the northern kingdom. His message was delivered in Samaria at the king’s chapel, as we shall see, and it’s a most unusual message. for a man to have come from such a country, out-of-the-way place. And he has the message of judgment against all the surrounding nations. And he had a global view of life and of God’s program for the entire world, not only for the present then, but for the future. It makes this man a most remarkable prophet, as we shall see. He was contemporary with Jonah and with Hosea. They were prophets in the northern kingdom. He was also contemporary with Isaiah and Micah in the southern kingdom. And let me now read the first verse of the first chapter. The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel and In the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash. Now, this is the one that’s labeled Jeroboam II, by the way, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Now, I want to approach this prophet a little bit different than we’ve approached any other prophet before. I want us to get acquainted with him personally, because to get acquainted with this man, to me, is to love him and to understand his prophecy better. Now, I want to turn to the seventh chapter and get a personal insight into this man and his ministry yonder in Samaria in the northern kingdom. I’m turning to chapter 7, verse 10. Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, said to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.” For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the king’s court. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I’m no prophet, neither am I a prophet’s son, but I’m an herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, And the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. And then you have the message. But this now brings the man before us. Now, I want us to look at him. And I have labeled him the country preacher who came to town. And you find, first of all, his birthplace, where he was raised, his hometown. Six miles south of Jerusalem, there is the familiar place of little Bethlehem. The prophet had said, Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth. Bethlehem has become famous. But there was another little place that was six miles southeast of Bethlehem called Tekoa. And it is not so well known In fact, Amos is not even mentioned anywhere else in the Old Testament. There is an Amos in Mary’s genealogy that’s given in Luke, but no relation to this Amos at all. And the little town of Tekoa that he came from is practically an unknown place. It was a place where a prophetess came and gave David a message. And David was familiar with that area because that is the area he’d gone in to hide from King Saul. And let me tell you, that’s a real wilderness down there. The nation Israel today is made along by the side of the Dead Sea. Nice highway that leads to Masada. And then you can come back around through Arad and back down up through Hebron and through Bethlehem. But you don’t get near Tekoa because it is over in that wilderness. And I’m sure that most of you have never heard of it. And little wonder, it’s no reflection at all. It’s a ghost town today. And it never was, even in its heyday, more than a wide place in the road. It was a whistle stop. It was just a jumping off place. It was a camping ground. It was really a country crossroads. And it was on the frontier. It’s one of those places that we used to have in Texas where they said to get to the place, you had to go as far as you can in a buggy and then get off and walk another couple of miles. Well, Toccoa was that kind of a place. Twelve miles. southeast of Jerusalem, in that frightful wilderness, by the way. Tekoa is in that spot. And it’s the birthplace of Amos. And the only claim that it ever had to greatness is the fact that Amos came from there. Now, Tekoa is on the edge of that frightful wilderness, which goes down to the very edge of the Dead Sea. It’s on that ridge overlooking the Dead Sea. It’s a desert wilderness where wild animals howl by night, and by day, You can see spots here and there where there was the remains of the camps of the Bedouins as they moved through that area. They did not stay. There’s the blackened ground there for the nomad and the vagabond of the desert. The Bedouins lived there. It was a desert jungle. Adam Smith says this, the men of Tekoa, looked out upon a desolate and haggard world. And this is the area in which Bishop Pike should not have gone, for this is where he died. And strange things happen in that area. There are those that even today say that it’s the place of demons. Now, this was the hometown of Amos. He was a herdman. That is an unusual word that’s used here. And it means that he was the herdman of a peculiar breed of desert sheep. They were a scrub stop, but they grew long wool because it gets cold there in the wintertime, you know. And he also says that he was a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Well, what do you mean by that? Well, the literal is a pincher of sycamores. That is, this was a fruit like a small fig. that grew on these scrub trees down there in the desert. And they grew at a lower level than the sycamore that we think of today. And Amos actually then had to travel to his job. He was a migrant worker, if you please. His sheep and his sycamores pushed Amos far out into that desert. He was truly a farmer. He was a country rube. He was a rustic. He was a yokel. He was a hayseed. He was a country preacher. He was a clumsy bumquin and all thumbs among the ecumenical preachers up yonder in Bethel, where one of the golden calves was. He was that kind of a man. Now, before you laugh at him, May I say this? He was one of God’s greatest men. He was a remarkable individual. Listen to what he said. Verse 15 of chapter 7. And the Lord took me as I followed the flock. And the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel. And so God sent him all the way from way down there in the country, in the desert, in the wilderness, all the way up to the northern kingdom, to Bethel, one of the capital cities where you find the city folk living, where it was altogether different than where he came from. God called him to preach. God gave him a message. And God sent him to Bethel. And he came there. Now, it was really, at first, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. And it was the place where there was one of the golden calves. It was the center of culture and also cults. It was where the sophisticated and the suave folk moved. The jet set lived there. It was the place that was blasé and brazen. It defied God. It was also the intellectual center. They had a school of the prophets there. The seminaries taught liberalism there. They taught about the Graf Welthausen hypothesis that denied the inspiration of the Pentateuch and the German theologian Bultmann. They went in for all the latest down there, you see. Now, what Bethel did was the thing to do. When they first introduced filter-tipped cigarettes, why, Bethel was the first place that they were advertised and were used. Then it spread out everywhere. And it also was the place where they worshipped a golden calf, and they’d turn their backs upon Almighty God. And it was the place where you could go to see the style show, the styles that would be popular the next year. Are we going to wear the wide lapel next year? Will there be two or three buttons on the coat should you leave the last button unbuttoned to be in style? Well, you’d go to Bethel to find that out. Well, Here comes to town this country preacher, this prophet of God, with a message, most unusual message. He’s different from any other prophet. You’re going to find out his prophecy is different, friends. And actually, the suit of Amos was not cut to the style of Bethel, and neither was his message cut to the style of Bethel. You didn’t hear this man giving the type of messages they gave there. In the king’s chapel, there was always a mild-mannered preacher, very sophisticated, well-educated, but a rank unbeliever who stood in the pulpit and gave little comforting words to the people. He gave them pablum and saccharine sweetness in the message. But now here’s a different man. And when Amos arrived, they stared at him at first. But they were very indulgent, of course, that they were broad minded, you know. So they smiled at him. I think he had on high button yellow shoes. That, of course, is coming back today. And I don’t know whether it was ever in style and Bethel or not, but at least it was not in style when Amos arrived and his suit didn’t fit him. He unfortunately had the bottom button, which he should not have done. And he had on his first necktie and it looked like it had been tied by a whirlwind or something like that. And everyone was embarrassed but Amos. Amos was not embarrassed at all. And he created quite a stir. Here he has left the backwoods. He’s arrived on the boulevard. He’s left the desert. Now he enters the drawing room. He had been with these long-haired sheep out on the desert all of his life. Now he’s with the well-groomed goats up yonder in Bethel. And he has left the place of agriculture and he’s come to the place of cultured. Now, I think most everyone came to hear him at first. They said, we don’t believe he can preach. They came out of curiosity. We don’t think this man has any message. They came in amusement, but they left in anger. He was a sensational preacher. His sermons, you see, weren’t cut to the style of Bethel. And today, we just don’t have any of those liberal sermons from that day. But you sure have Amos. And you have his prophecy. And we’re going to be looking at it. Now, Amos preached the word of God. And many people were moved. And some turned to God. But you know what happened. organized religion there, the worship of Baal and the golden calf. They got together. They had the ecumenical movement going there so that they had the same program. If you don’t believe anything, then there’s nothing to keep you apart. If I don’t believe anything, you don’t believe anything, we can get together. And that’s the ecumenical movement, by the way. And it was going great guns even in that day. Now, you have this man. We find him in the midst of all of organized religion, and they try to silence him. They try to run him out of town. And some of the leading ecumenical leaders called a meeting, and they wanted to remove him. They wanted to withdraw support from him. They told him he’d lose his pension if he didn’t change. And there were some fundamental leaders called evangelicals in Bethel. They began to criticize him because he was getting the crowds. They tried to undermine his ministry. But God blessed him. Amos would not compromise. Amos continued to preach the Word of God. We’re going to see his message in this book. But I want you to meet him today. And they had a mass meeting called of all the religions. And the inevitable happened. It was really the first meeting of the World Council of Churches. And the motto of this first meeting was, Away with Amos. Away with Amos. And now, Amaziah, he was appointed as a committed chairman to go see Amos. Now, Amaziah was a priest who went into idolatry. Does all of this sound modern to you folk? It’s the same old story. We think it’s modern. It’s not. It’s been happening ever since man got out of the Garden of Eden. Amaziah was the hired hand of religion. He was polished. He was educated. He was proud. He was scholarly. He was pious. He was a classic example of a pseudo-saint. Cleverly and subtly, he worked a master stroke. He got the king to support him because he believed that the church and state and religion and politics should be combined. And so the thing that happened was this, verse 10, back of chapter 7 now, “…then Amasai the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel, the land’s not able to bear all of his words.” For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their land. Now, he had said some strange things. It is true. But what he said was true. And it should have been heeded by Jeroboam. Now, he had on his committee, you see there, he had the chief calf caller in the worship of the cow that was set up to worship there. And as you can see on his committee, I think he had Dr. Sounding Brass. He was the president of the School of the Prophets, proud and pompous, and he was a politician par excellence. And also there was Reverend Tinkling Symbol. He was the pastor of the wealthiest and most influential church in town. He was the yes man to the rich. He couldn’t preach, but he was a great little mixer. And it’s amazing the things he could mix, by the way. He didn’t pound the pulpit because he didn’t want to wake his congregation up. But he could sure slap their backs during the week. Now, this committee waited on Amos. And Amaziah, with biting sarcasm, with a rapy of ridicule, with a condescending attitude, he assumed a superior manner. And he says, O thou seer. In other words, he’s calling him parson. And what he’s saying to him here in verse 12, by the way, Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there. He says to him, Who told you that you are a preacher? Where’s your degree? What school did you go to? Who ordained you? Where did you preach before you came up here? Go, flee away. In other words, he’s saying to him, get out of town, get lost. Then he tells them hereabout, and there eat bread. He insinuates that he’s preaching for money. And then, my friend, he’s not through. But we’re going to have to wait till next time, and then we’re going to see the remarkable answer that Amos received. gave to this committee in that day. Say this man Amos was a great preacher. We could use a few Amoses around in this day in which we live. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, there aren’t too many men like Amos around these days. But he is so important to us that I want to tell you about a great sermon that Dr. McGee delivered on the life and message of Amos. It’s called The Country Preacher Who Came to Town. You can find it in our app or download it at ttb.org. And while you’re there, be sure to check out the many other excellent Bible study materials that will deepen your study of God’s Word. Or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find it. And when you’re in touch, why don’t you sign up to get our monthly ministry newsletter? I think that you’re really going to benefit from it. Each issue has got more teaching by Dr. McGee as well as application tips to help you make these truths your own and inside information on our partners and listening family around the world. Again, to sign up, visit ttb.org or call 1-865-BIBLE. There’s more in this fascinating study of Amos, so join us next time as we make our way through the Bible.
SPEAKER 02 :
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today’s study is always available, free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we’d love to know what’s God teaching you.
Listeners from Tanzania share transformative experiences of faith, highlighting the real-world impact of biblical teachings in diverse cultural contexts….
