The Bible Year

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 22, 1916

Assignment for June 25 to July 1

June 25: Amos 1 to 5. June 26: Amos 6 to 9. June 27: Hosea 1 to 7. June 28: Hosea 8 to 14. June 29: Isaiah 1 to 3. June 30: Isaiah 4 to 6. July 1: Isaiah 7 to 9.

Amos—the Man and His Message

Amos, a herdsman and fruit gardener of Tekoa, a small Judean town about twelve miles south of Jerusalem, was called to prophesy to the northern kingdom. In answer to the call he went to Bethel, where the heathen sanctuary was, and to Samaria, and fearlessly lifted up his voice against the idolatry and depravity of the chosen people as well as of the surrounding nations. On the complaint of Amaziah, the priest, Amos was expelled from the kingdom, and it is supposed that he returned to his home village and there wrote out his prophecy.

The book of Amos stands third in the list of the minor prophets, but in point of time it precedes that of Hosea. The prophecy was “delivered during the reign of Jeroboam II and just after his great successes. Prosperity brought grave evils in its train. The rich lived in great luxury; their houses were built of hewn stone and paneled with ivory, ‘where they drank and feasted to excess amid delicate perfumes and soft strains of varied music.’ But all this was obtained through violence and robbery. The poor and needy were sold as slaves, and false weights and measures used. The judges were notoriously corrupt. To be upright was to be hated and unpopular. Such in brief was the state of society in Israel when Amos went on his mission. He taught the truths that justice between man and man is one of the divine foundations of society; that privilege implies responsibility, and that failure to recognize responsibility will surely bring punishment; that nations, and by analogy, individuals, are bound to live up to the measure of light and knowledge which has been granted them; that the most elaborate worship is but an insult to God when offered by those who have no mind to conform in will and conduct to his requirements.”

Hosea

The prophetic career of Hosea, the first of the minor prophets, began about 784 B. C., and covered a period of about sixty years, the reigns of the last six of the kings of Israel. Hosea was a prophet of the northern kingdom. He was a contemporary of Isaiah, Joel, and Amos, and, like the latter prophet, was sent to the Israelites. It was a time of great spiritual darkness. Vice and iniquity flourished; the kings were dissolute and profligate; and the priests, lost to all sense of the sacredness of their office, introduced shameful heathen rites into God’s worship.

In the vivid pages of Hosea’s prophecy we are given some glimpses of the conditions prevailing at that day, against which his voice was uplifted in fearless and faithful warning. Of the style of the book, Eichhorn says, “His discourse is like a garland, woven of a multiplicity of flowers; images are woven upon images, metaphors strung upon metaphors.” Jesus, Matthew, Peter, and Paul quoted from this book.