Amos is a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel, as Jonah was; Joel was a prophet from the southern kingdom of Judah. We don't know the former occupations of Jonah and Joel before the Lord called them to speak His message but the introduction to the book of Amos tells us what his line of work was before the Lord called him. "The words of Amos---one of the shepherds of Tekoa---the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel." (Amos 1:1)
Amos was a shepherd, or "herdsman" in the original language. The word "herdsman" can refer to a cattle rancher or to a man who raises goats but we know Amos kept the sheep because in Chapter 7 he will say, "I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.'" (Amos 7:14-15) He refers to the animals he watched over as a "flock" and that is how we know they were sheep. A group of cows or goats is almost always called a "herd".
Amos was not brought up to be a prophet. He grew up taking care of sheep and fruit trees, likely because that was his father's occupation and his grandfather's occupation---possibly the occupation of all of his ancestors going all the way back to the beginning of his family tree. He had no formal training for teaching the word of God. But as the saying goes, "God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called." To the human way of thinking, nothing about Amos' past qualified him to be a prophet to the nation of Israel. Nothing about his education or work experience qualified him to tell kings, priests, government officials, or average citizens how to get their hearts right with the Lord and how to live in a way that honors Him. But to God's way of thinking, Amos' background in leading a flock of sheep and in making trees produce fruit qualified him to lead people to the Lord and had prepared him to tell them how to live fruitful lives for the Lord.
Amos isn't the first shepherd in the Bible to be called to lead people instead of sheep. Moses was working as a shepherd for his father-in-law when the Lord called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. David was tending his father's sheep when the Lord commanded the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the future king of Israel. In the Lord's opinion, being a shepherd of sheep eminently qualified these men to lead human beings who (let's face it) can be as stubborn and as wayward as sheep.
Amos doesn't provide us with any details about how the Lord called him to be a prophet. The Lord usually starts working on us ahead of time to prepare us for a big move, so it may be that something had been stirring in Amos' heart for quite some time before the Lord told him what he wanted him to do. Amos may not have known the exact nature of what the Lord intended him to do, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had been experiencing a restlessness of the spirit for a while before the Lord revealed His plans to him. I think we can be certain that Amos was already a man who loved the Lord and who spent a lot of time talking to the Lord and meditating upon the word of God while he watched over the flock and while he pruned and fertilized the fruit trees. Just as David composed psalms during the many solitary hours he was by himself watching the sheep, I think Amos spent his solitary hours talking to the Lord and listening to the Lord. Because he was in the habit of listening to the Lord, when the Lord called him to go and speak to the people of Israel, Amos said yes. When the Lord told him to go, Amos was ready to go.
I wonder whether Amos always wanted to do something big for the Lord. I wonder whether he always felt the Lord had big plans for him. And I wonder whether he ever felt impatient for those plans to be revealed to him and whether he felt an overwhelming desire to get on with whatever the Lord was going to call him to do. Being an impatient person myself, I can relate to it if Amos ever felt like he was chomping at the bit, eager to get on with whatever was going to be his primary purpose in life. Waiting is hard, isn't it? It's hard when we're waiting to find out what we're supposed to do. It's even harder to wait when we know what we're supposed to do but the opportunity hasn't yet arrived for us to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if Amos had experienced some of these feelings and that when the Lord finally said, "Go!", he was ready to leap right out of the gate.
I'm praying for the Lord's direction right now. I don't know if a particular thing is the right thing to do and, if it is the right thing, I don't know if now is the right time. I think it's very important to seek the Lord's guidance when we have a big decision to make. We first have to make sure the thing we feel we ought to do is what the Lord wants us to do. If He reveals to us that we are on the right track about that, we still have to be careful not to get ahead of Him. He always knows what's best for us and He always knows what's the best time for us to begin. Amos may have prayed for years before the Lord revealed to him what He wanted him to do. If so, that's because Amos wasn't the only person involved in the situation. When the Lord tells us to wait it's often because He is busy getting other people and various circumstances lined up in the right way so that when we step forward we are stepping forward at precisely the right time for the endeavor to be successful.
Join us tomorrow as we begin looking at the words the Lord told Amos to speak.
No comments:
Post a Comment