Amos 7:2
And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
Amos was a shepherd of Tekoa in Judea whose name means burdened, who prophesied at Bethel in the reigns of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam II king of Israel, who was accused of treason by the priests and expelled from the northern kingdom to which many of his prophecies referred. This belongs to Amos 7-9 and is delivered in simple, straightforward speech rich in rural figures and striking illustrations from shepherd life, presented as what the Lord showed him.
The verse asks by whom shall Jacob arise for he is small, voicing concern and human doubt that a people so few, weak and poor can recover, live and succeed without help. It bears a decided message to both houses of Israel and Judah, faithfully warning the wicked kingdoms to turn from sins, put away idols and worship God, telling of pestilence and sure destruction to follow their offensive course. It foretells the corruption, decay and ruin and downfall of apostasy, and points forward to the last days when there shall be a famine of the Word, a warning that applies to commercialism in politics.
It expresses the helpless smallness of God's people when brought to extremity by enemies with no sustenance left and facing a multitude, and when the appointed deliverer himself is poor and least with only three hundred men with lamps and pitchers, yet by making God their strength the small gain a mighty victory. It is applied to the early believers, whose small numbers and limited means seemed inadequate to spread their message, though they trusted that with divine blessing it would reach the world. It fits the small 1846 beginnings when Joseph Bates had only twelve and one-half cents to start the first Sabbath book and James White paid for Present Truth by mowing hay and sent it out free while declaring it a message to go to the ends of the earth. Its question is answered by growth by 1905 to twenty publishing houses in various parts of the world, often pressed to utmost capacity to supply demand for reading matter, showing God had set before His people an open door that no man as yet has shut.
It presents Jacob as unable to rise without God's help and gives voice to a plea for God to forgive and restore His weakened people. Applied to the Laodicean church it calls believers to recognize their poor condition, trust Christ to save and deliver them, and respond with humility, self-examination, repentance, wholehearted obedience and renewed consecration.