Welcome to Bible Books of Amos & Jonah

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Understand the Context (Amos 5:1-6:14)

The opening context of Chapters 5 and 6 is also Amos’ third message as found in verses 5:1-17. (Our focal verses for the Sunday Bible Study are Amos 5:4-15’ i.e., a subset of the contextual verses.) We studied the first message in Chapters 1 and 2 where Amos had provided prophetic messages to Israel, Judah and all the nations surrounding them regarding their severe sin and God’s promised punishment for it. The second message was Chapters 3-4 as addressed to the “fat cows of Israel” as they overly-indulging in God’s blessings yet complained about all they had but continued to worship false gods. In today’s message from Amos, he was lamenting because of the deaths of nonbelievers while believers not only continued living but lived a life of extravagance while ignoring death all around them. It was heartless overindulgence at its worse.

Here Amos uses a classic Hebrew form of literature to communicate this story called the Chiastic form. As shown on the slide, the first and the last lines had to match, the second and next to last verses support each other and so on until verses 8-9 provide the focal message. The message here is simply, “the Creator of all, Jehovah is His name, and He is coming after Israel with lightening speed” (Amos 5:8-9, author’s paraphrase). Today’s Bible study explores that truth.

Amos 5:18-6:14 is the remainder of the context for this study and contains a focused, three-point sermon for Israel and all who will listen. First, Israel’s belief that the Day of the Lord was their salvation was almost completely opposite from the truth! The Day of the Lord was not a time of saving the lost; to the contrary, the Day of the Lord was to rescue those already saved by God – the born-again. The NLT translates it very well, “18 What sorrow awaits you who say, ‘If only the day of the LORD were here!’ You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light. 19 In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion--only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house--and he's bitten by a snake. 20 Yes, the day of the LORD will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope” (Amos 5:18-20, .NLT). Amos clearly dashes any false hope or ill-placed security Israel might be having. In today’s vernacular, He might have said, “Israel, in the Day of the Lord, You are burnt toast!”

God (through Amos) continues that He has sees the open hypocrisy in their religious festivals and solemn assemblies and will not accept their burnt offerings, grain offerings nor peace offerings and will not listen to their noisy praise hymns or the music of their harps (vss, 21-23). God says He prefers to see a flood of justice and an endless flow of righteous living, instead (vs. 24). He provides an example of how long their current attitude is displayed through their way of living in verses 25-27. He went all the way back to Israel’s 40-year punishment in the wilderness. He says they served pagan gods like Sakkuth as their king god and Kaiwan as their star god. They even made images of these false deities after God had already revealed Himself to them at Mount Sinai. Amos finishes by delivering a prophesy that Israel would not want to hear, “So, I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies” (vs. 27).

Chapter 6 offers examples to Israel of other great countries and cities which taken a path away from the Lord and paid greatly. Amos reminds Israel of the specific ways in which they have turned from God especially in their worship of false gods. Amos sums that Israel is destined to meet their just due, “13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? 14 But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness” (Amos 6:13-14).

The Choice (Amos 5:4-9)  

The Lord offers a quick and simple choice of behaviors to determine the nation’s future. He says succinctly to the house of Israel, “Seek me, and ye shall live” (Amos 5:4).  Recall the many times in the last few chapters God had listed behaviors and stated that Israel still did not return.

This time He wants to make it clear that none of their previous behaviors will suffice to delay His judgment upon them. He says, “But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Beth-el shall come to nought” (vs. 5). He is very clear in His offer to follow Him and live or reject Him and face immediate judgment.  He states that this time, they will not find relief in Bethel, Gilgal or Beersheba as they have in the past. Rather, they must repent of their choice to follow other gods or face judgment in the form of captivity by Assyria or utter nothingness (destruction). This is God’s simple consistency with His Word and His character.  The warning from the time He saved them from Egypt until now was that they must keep the Law given them through Moses at the beginning of the release from Egypt. The very first of these Commandments was that they shall “Have no other gods before them” (Ex 20:1-6). God is always consistent and is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8). 

He repeats, “Seek the Lord, and ye shall live” in verse 6 (recall the Chiastic literary form and its repetition of ideas between verses). Here He adds, “Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.” Again, God warns of immediate judgment on them if they do not turn, and He repeats His warning that there will be no help for them coming from Betrh-el. It seems that God wants them to focus directly on dealing with Him rather than any substitute deities as in the past. His message is that He is finished with that. He says in verse 7 that He is finished with those who wish to turn God’s judgment into a bitter pill for the oppressed or cast righteousness into the dirt of the ground. No, this time, they will have to look toward the One who made the seven stars of Orion, turns the shadow of death into the brightness of morning and morning back into the dark, who draws up the waters from the oceans and turns it into rain for the land – The LORD is His name!! He is the One who builds up the worthless for victory against the strong so they can come against impossible odds (vss. 6-9).

The Reality (Amos 5:10-13)

God starts in verse 10 by speaking clearly with Israel about how things are now – the reality of it all. He says that these people are those who hate or detest those who are in authority at the front gate to the city. For that matter, He sees them as hating anyone who speaks in righteousness. We recognize these behaviors as common to nearly all people who have been overcome by the sin in their lives. The guilt and shame of it make it impossible for them to hear righteous teaching or even prayer. Satan has so miserably twisted their senses of right and wrong that they believe anyone speaking in sound spiritual language is in total opposition to them. They have truly lost fellowship with God and all who are His. God says through Amos that these people are the ones who steal from the poor by taking their grain (wheat) in excessive taxes and/or unfair rents (vs 11a). Or they build extravagant homes but never plan live in them, or plant lush vineyards but never plan drink the fruit of them (vs. 11b). 

God provides more on the kinds of people He is talking about in verse 12. He says He knows their numerous sins and how terrible they are.  These people press or afflict the people who are trying to live righteously. They take bribes of the dishonest among them in order to make their personal plight more tolerable while everyone else suffers. They even turn away the poor at the gate as they just want a place to beg for their existence. Yes, He says in verse 13, in that time the wise ones will live in silence because they know anything they say will be used to further persecute or force them to even a lower existence. 

Understand the Context (Amos 7:1-9:15)

Setting the context for these final chapters in the Book of Amos can be done with a series of bullets summarizing the important words of the Prophet. The first starts with Amos, himself. The bullet is that God sometimes uses unlikely people to do His work. Amos was an ordinary shepherd who also planted and maintained a vineyard. It was this routine kind of a man whom God chose to deliver words to kings and leaders all across Israel and Judah, and the nations surrounding them. 

Second, Amos provided the teaching that all nations are under the authority of God and subject to His holding them accountable to Himself. Sometimes Amos had to remind Israel that they were accountable, as well. 

Third, Israel (including Judah) was held to a higher standard because she had the greater blessing from God. But with those blessings came an accountability for those higher standards.

Fourth, God expects Israel’s worship to be a direct expression of their sincere devotion to Him and his Word. Worship has to show the relationship between the worshipper and the worshipped.  When that relationship is left out, or not made obvious, then the purpose of worship is missing.

Fifth, Israel had developed a warped sense of the Day of the Lord. Somehow, they began to see it as a day of blessing or salvation for Israel. In fact, it was neither a blessing nor salvation; it was a day of judgment for the sins of Israel and any others who did not honor God. Israel knew God but did not honor Him.

Sixth, there was a direct link between knowing God and how they treated the people of His creation. One cannot offer acceptable worship to the Lord while they are taking advantage of others and abusing the poor. God is directly opposed to such behavior.

Seventh, when God’s people are unfaithful to Him and mistreat those around them, God’s judgment upon them should be understood as immanent. Further, the consequences for those who know God but fail to honor His wishes will be severe.

Eight, God’s messages of impending judgment through His prophets should be understood as consistent demonstrations of His mercy and grace. The warnings should be unnecessary for those who have the Law of Moses. 

Ninth but certainly not last in importance, God will someday restore and bless all Israel. He will restore their lands and return to His position of actively being their God over them as His people. Restoration includes forgiveness of sin remembering His promises.  

The Introduction (Amos 9:5-6)

The first two verses of the focal passage establish about whom it is that we are talking. The leading word “and” in verse 5 forces a look back to the earlier verses of the chapter to catch that contribution of knowledge. In verse 1, Amos sees a vision of God demonstrating His awesome power and authority. He sees God standing next to the Temple’s altar saying, “Strike the tops of these Temple columns, so the foundation will shake. Bring down the roof on the heads of the people below. I will kill with the sword those who survive. No one will escape!” (vs 9:1). Verses 2 thru 4 talk about how thorough His sentence upon them will be. No matter how deep they dig, or high a mountain they climb, even if their enemies drive them into exile, they cannot escape.

It is this God who can simply touch the ground and cause it to melt, and because of that intense heat, all the people in the land will mourn with sorrow (vs. 5).  By His command, the ground will either swell upward or contract downward. It will behave like Egypt’s Nile River and flood at His season or shrink back to normal again.

The Lord declares that His home is everywhere (vs. 6). It reaches higher than the heavens while its foundations are found in the earth. When God decides to water the lands, He simply extracts the waters from across the oceans of the entire Earth, distills it fresh and pours it out across the land as He desires. You see, it is THIS LORD being described here and none other. He is far too powerful for words. His domain is never ending. His existence is from eternity into eternity. 

So, as we look at His message through Amos as to how He will shake this people and their lands, and how He will totally and completely restore this people to the land promised them in antiquity and see that it is never again taken, we can rest in the knowledge that God is sufficient to accomplish all He sets His mind to do. Amos finishes verse 9:6 with the words, “The Lord is His name” and rightfully so (Amos 9:6, NLT).

The Shaking (Amos 9:7-10)

The Lord gives Amos several illustrations to provide for the readers of verse 9:7a. He starts with a question, “Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? Saith the Lord.” Here, it serves best to go back in the Hebrew language for understanding the illustration. The “Ethiopians” comes from the Hebrew “Cushiims.” Recall that the Cushiims were the descendants of Ham and under the curse of God.

Genesis 9:20-27 tells the story of how Noah and his three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth and their wives started lives anew after the waters of the flood settled. Noah had become a vineyard keeper and drank too much of the fruit he grew. He evidently passed out and Ham came to check on him. He found him naked on his bed and joked with his brothers about it rather than honoring his father by simply covering him up (as Shem and Japheth did) and not telling anyone of the story. Ham was cursed and became the nation of Cush (also referred to as Canaan in the text, Genesis 9:22). The children of Ham (the Cushims) are called Ethiopians by Amos in 9:7. He is saying that the children of Israel are acting like the children of Cush (bene Cushiims) to Me, or becoming like the children of the cursed.  

Amos continues the words of the Lord with, “Have I not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Phistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? In each case, the children of the brought out became distant enemies of God, growing farther away with each new generation (Barnes Commentary). God is asking if the same thing is happening in all the children of each nation, and if that includes Israel. In verse 8, the Lord says His eyes are on this sinful nation, and that, if this is the case, He will destroy it from off the face of the Earth. God edits His comment in verse 8, and says, “Saving that I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob.” This edit is fully consistent with God’s promise that there will always be a righteous or believing remnant of Israel (2 Kings 19:30-31, Isa 10:20-22, Rom 9:27, 11:5). Verse 8 catches that salvation of a remnant of Israel whom God will not destroy.

Verses 9 and 10 both support the idea of the righteous remnant and add an illustration. Amos 9:9 shows an illustration of sifting Israel like sifting grain (corn) from the chaff. The sifting process will allow all the chaff to fall through the sieve while not one kernel of corn will be lost. Amos reports God’s words as saying, “I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth” (Amos 9:9). The Lord does set aside one group who will be totally destroyed. He says, “All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us” (Amos 9:10). In other words, those people who say they cannot be hurt because God will save them no matter what, will die. Just being a member of a group will not, in itself, save anyone. The saved are those who have “believe in their hearts the Lord Jesus and confess with their mouths that God has raised Him from the dead, those shall be saved” (Rom 10:9). 

Understand the Context (Jonah 1:1-2:10)

The minor prophet’s Book of Jonah is just four chapters long. The first two of those chapters are the focal passages for this study. Jonah served as prophet between 782 and 741 BC during the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel. Jeroboam II was an evil king in the eyes of the Lord, but Jonah’s work deals with Nineveh, the capital City of Assyria, Israel’s worse enemy.  Assyria would take Israel captive in 722 BC. 

Jonah 1:1-2 documents God’s specific call of him to go to that pagan city of Nineveh and make a stand against their idolatrous worship of foreign gods. Israel was resting in comfort after recent victories to save their country. It was only God’s mercy that allowed them any victories at all. Nevertheless, Jonah was called by God to demonstrate His mercy and compassion despite their lack of repentance. So, we have here a faithful God blessing a rebellious nation by sending a rebellious prophet. Nineveh would not repent of their rejection of God and Jonah would not repent of his hate for Assyria. 

 Nineveh was one of the three administrative cities of Assyria.  They held many of the captives of Israel and other countries while they studied and interrogated them for information, they might use to improve Assyria.  They proved their reputation for being vicious task masters as they treated all their captive harshly. God called Jonah to preach there in hope of getting their repentance; the direct opposite of what they deserved after their brutal treatment of God’s people.   

 So, Jonah decided that he would go to the city of Tarshish instead. Nineveh was due east of Israel and about 550 miles northeast of Joppa. Tarshish was about 2,500 miles almost due west. Not only was Jonah committed to travel in the opposite direct God tasked him to go, he was going over 2,500 miles opposite Nineveh.  

 As Jonah traveled toward Tarshish, the waters became rough, and a storm threatened the safety of all aboard. The sailors began throwing cargo overboard to lighten the ship and possibly save the travelers. When that failed, they decided to cast lots to discover who might be responsible for God’s obvious anger at them. The lot fell on Jonah, and he confessed he was a man running from God. But in the end, the sailors threw Jonah overboard to save the ship and its people. The concern the sailors showed for Jonah was certainly greater than Jonah had for Nineveh or God’s command for him to go there. 

God Calms (Jonah 1:15-17)

Verse 1:15 affirms the wisdom of the sailors in throwing Jonah overboard. The sea ceased its raging soon after Jonah’s body hit the waves. After seeing how quickly God calmed the seas, the men began to worship God out of their great respect and honor for Him accepting the sacrifice of Jonah in exchange for their lives. Of course, they renewed their vows to the Lord in light of the recent experiences. It seems we always choose to renew our vows when God shows His awesome power and authority. We are reminded of how active He is in current events of the Earth. We understand anew that God is present with us in the here and now.

But Jonah is having a new experience, as well. Verse 17 tells us that God had already prepared to receive Jonah as he was thrown of the Tarshish-bound vessel. ”The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah (Jonah 1:17). Dr Harry Rimmer tells of a man in 1926 who was swallowed by a fish and survived after being there two fays (A Man's Skin Changes After Being Swallowed By ... - Shared by Sermon Central - Sermon Illustrations - SermonCentral.com). The Bible shares that Jonah would stay in the great fish for three days and nights. As we question whether Jonah’s event was possible, keep in mind that Jesus referenced the truth of Jonah’s story as an illustration of His being in the belly of the earth for three days and nights (Matt 12:40). We should always be careful questioning the words of Christ, but this quotations tells me that Jesus was quoting the words of Jonah’s story as reference for His resurrection. Important! 

God Hears (Jonah 2:1-4) 

Notice that Jonah’s response to opening his eyes in the belly of the fish was to enter prayer with his Lord (Jonah 2:1). I suppose that seems almost natural to me. Whenever we find ourselves in situations we do not recognize or understand, it is time to talk to the One who knows all, sees all and understands all. Verse 2:2 explains exactly what Jonah was saying to the Lord in his prayer from the fish’s belly. Jonah almost sounds surprised as he says he called out of the belly of the fish because of his affliction and God heard his voice. That would not have surprised me in the least. First of all, God’s ear is always tuned to the voice of His chosen. If Jonah was called as a prophet of Israel, then certainly, he is one of God’s chosen. Jonah’s reference to calling out from the belly of hell uses the Hebrew word Sheol which is exactly the land of the dead. Second, verse three shows something of Jonah’s relationship with and personal understanding of the Lord. He shows that he is aware that God is the One who cast him into the deep, in the very midst of the seas as the floods of water compassed him and all the billows of the waves passed over him. All of Jonah’s language set the truth that he knew God was fully aware of and responsible for what was happening to him.  

Verse 4 expresses the depth of his understanding of what has happened and where he is. First, he says, “I am cast out of your sight.” Just like the ignorant ostrich, Jonah feels like because he cannot see anything with his head in the great fish, God cannot see him, and therefore, he is outside of God’s presence. The great and wonderful truth for all of us is that we do not ever have to see God to have full knowledge of His presence. Even in the darkest hours, we can see our presence with Him and hear His words, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb 13:5). Jonah finishes verse 4 with, “Yet, I will look again toward thy holy temple.” He could have been saying, “Nevertheless, I know You are in Your temple and pray toward you” or “Nevertheless, I know that I will live to see You in Your temple again because I know you.” Either speaks to the awesome relationship between the prophet and his God and promises the same for each of us!

Understand the Context (Jonah 3:1-4:11)

At the end of our previous study, we saw Jonah repenting to the Lord over his sin for not going to Nineveh as he was commissioned. Next, God had the fish discharge Jonah. We begin this study at the point of God recommissioning Jonah to go preach to Nineveh (Jonah 3). Jonah’s still fresh trauma of the storm while on the ship, the decision of the sailors to throw him in the ocean, his finding himself inside a fish, his sincere repentance for refusing to respond to God’s call and now finding himself on the seashore after being regurgitated by the fish was far too real and recent for Jonah to overcome. Nevertheless, God chose to confront him at that time and place. Jonah is highly motivated to respond positively to God’s call this time and immediately went to deliver God’s message to Nineveh. He went to them with what appears to be a very short warning of their predicament and cried as he said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4).  

The responses of the people to this short message are the envy of every evangelist in God’s Kingdom. Jonah 3:5-9 reports that the people immediately entered a national fast while wearing sackcloth from the greatest to the least in the land. (These were traditional signs of sorrow, repentance and humility for sin.) Even the king laid aside his robes and adorned himself in sackcloth and sat in ashes. He and his nobles decreed that the fast would include everyone in the land, even the animals. Further, the fast would be a deep fast which means it included fasting from water as well as food. The king reasoned that there might be some chance that God would turn from His fierce anger (vs. 9). The king was correct and when God saw these results, He repented of the evil He had planned for Nineveh. 

Chapter 4 documents Jonah’s reaction to God’s change in plans. It is the focus of the study for this week, so the details will be addressed below. In the background, however, Nineveh’s change of heart did not pass the test of time. The writing of this account was during Jeroboam II’s reign or between 793 and 758 BC. The final fall of Nineveh came in 612 BC, which exposes the obvious error of those who say Jonah was written between 500 and 200 BC.  By those dates, Nineveh and the entire nation of Assyria had fallen. It is truly amazing how some scholars document statements as truth when they can be so easily proven false. Paul’s admonition to Timothy is once again proven valuable: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15).  

Contempt (Jonah 4:1-4)

These four verses reveal more about the character of the man, Jonah, than anything else that could have been written. Verse 1 summarizes his feelings as “exceedingly displeased and very angry.” These feelings were in response to God’s decision to  change his mind regarding the destruction  He had planned for Nineveh (Jonah 3:10). These emotions of displeasure and anger would reveal a lot about Jonah if he felt them about another person; perhaps then, some might feel they could be acceptable. But here, Jonah was clearly out of line as he expressed these feeling toward God. While there might be something positive about one expressing the feelings of his or her heart, there are also decorum and respect issues associated with our discussions with the Creator. Nevertheless, Jonah digs his hole of failure even deeper as he tells God that he expected this kind of behavior of the Lord, and it was precisely why he ran to Tarshish in the beginning. Jonah lists several elements of God’s character as gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness and One who repents of evil (vs. 2). It would seem to me that these would be very positive traits in a person I was attacking.  Does Jonah not understand that God could end his existent with a single thought? 

But consider the context of Jonah’s displeasure and anger. He is upset with the Lord because He has decided not to destroy the entire city of Nineveh with its population of more than 120,000 people. Certainly, a man of God with any compassion at all would consider that level of human loss and be grateful that God found a better way to deal with them other than destruction. God told Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there were even ten righteous people there (Gen 18:32). If our God would repent of destroying those evil cities if there were only ten righteous people there, would He not have pity on Nineveh for the sake of the whole city repenting and crying out for mercy? When Jesus spoke of the Pharisee and the publican entering the Temple, He was not impressed with the self-righteousness of the Pharisee saying, “11 … God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men [are], extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess” (Luke 18:11-12, KJV). No, Jesus was impressed by the publican, standing afar off, who would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but rather smote upon his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). Jonah was so angry he asked God to take his life from him in that very moment. But even these accusations and terrible displays of poor judgment did not change the even-handed response of the Father as He asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?” (Jonah 4:4, NLT).

Anger (Jonah 4:5-9)

One could almost see Jonah turning on his heels and stomping off like the spoiled little child in verse 5. He goes to the eastern edge of the city and erects a shelter from the hot sun. He wants to see exactly what happens to this city. Verse 6 adds that God prepared a leafy plant to be there to provide more shade for Jonah. The Bible reports that Jonah was very grateful for the plant and the shade it provided. But, in addition to the leafy plant, God prepares a worm to be in the same area. The next morning the worm eats the bottom of the leafy plant and destroys the shade Jonah was enjoying from it (vs. 7). So, the sun rises and the heat was intense. God added a mercilessly scorching wind to multiply the heat to the point that Jonah fainted and again wished himself to be dead (vs. 8). He said it was better for him to be dead than to live like this. It seemed to Jonah that everything in his life was going in a bad way. The sun was always hot in this land, but the plant and the shelter provided relief from that. But when the worm came and cut down the plant, it was just too much for him to handle.

God, of course, was right there to have Jonah reflect on his situation. He asked Jonah, “Is right for you to be angry because the plant died?” (Jonah 4:9). Jonah replied, “Yes, even angry enough to die.” (Jonah 4:9, NLT). Jonah began this whole conversation with the Lord by asking Him to take his life rather than letting him see Him repent of destroying Nineveh. Then he voluntarily stayed in the desert because he was curious as to what the Lord was going to do with the city. Jonah built a shelter, but God sent a leafy plant to provide better shade him from the hot sun. Then God sent a worm to bring the plant down and Jonah was angry to the point of wishing for death because of the plant. When God questioned his wisdom in this case, Jonah multiplied his lack of wisdom by telling the Lord he was right in his actions.