"Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel: 'Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words.'" (Amos 7:10) This is King Jeroboam II. Politically and militarily, he was a good king for Israel. He reclaimed some of the territory that had been captured by enemies and the northern kingdom was more prosperous during his reign than it ever had been before or ever would be again. But spiritually he was not a good influence and neither is this high priest of Bethel.
Amos was preaching against idolatry. Amos was proclaiming a message of impending disaster if the people did not turn away from idolatry. Amaziah feels threatened by what Amos is saying. If the king listens to the prophet and decides to do away with the golden calf altars, Amaziah will be out of a job. The priesthood (the unlawful priesthood of the northern kingdom that used priests not from the tribe of Levi) is being supported from the royal treasury. No doubt Amaziah is living a life of prestige, power, and wealth. If he can make the king suspicious of Amos, the king won't listen to a word Amos says.
While it's true that Amos is predicting bad things for the nation, it's not because he intends to take any violent action himself. But the priest wants the king to think Amos is threatening the king's life. He continues: "For this is what Amos is saying: 'Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land.'" (Amos 7:11)
In yesterday's text the Lord said, "With My sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam," but this statement may be intended to indicate the fall of the house of Jeroboam, not that Jeroboam would literally die by the sword. The Bible doesn't provide us with the cause of death for Jeroboam. 2 Kings 14:29 says, "Jeroboam rested with his ancestors," and 2 Chronicles 13:20 says, "The Lord struck him down and he died." Both of these verses may indicate a natural death for Jeroboam, since there are other kings in the Bible who were "struck down" by the Lord with illness. But Jeroboam was warring with King Abijah of Judah during the end of his reign, with Abijah winning some major battles against him and taking several towns from him. It may be that he died in battle or died at his palace from wounds he received in battle. Either way, Amos is not threatening to personally strike him with a sword, so the priest is falsely accusing him.
After bearing false witness against Amos to the king, the priest confronts Amos, who may be standing in front of the king at this time. I think it's likely that the two of them are standing before the king's judgment seat so the priest can present his accusations and so Amos can answer these charges. "Then Amaziah said to Amos, 'Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.'" (Amos 7:12-13) He says something like, "Go peddle your fortune-telling in Judah where they tolerate this kind of stuff. We won't put up with it here."
The priest may be insinuating that Amos will be welcomed with open arms in the royal court of the king of Judah and that he will be paid handsomely as an advisor to the king. Why should he eke out a meager living while proclaiming a message in Israel that no one wants to hear? He will not be appointed to any position of power in Israel but his chances of such a promotion might be quite good in Judah. But Amos, unlike the wicked priest, is not interested in fortune or fame. In Amos' reply he points out that he was just a shepherd before he became a prophet and he isn't used to being a member of the royal court and has no aspirations to become a member of the royal court.
"Amos answered Amaziah, '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, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.'" (Amos 7:14-15) Amos only cares about what the Lord thinks of him, not about what the priest or the king thinks. Amos is only concerned with pleasing the Lord, not with pleasing his fellow man. The Lord will provide anything he needs.
Chapter 7 concludes with an unpleasant prediction for the priest who has so sorely mistreated the prophet. "Therefore this is what the Lord says: 'Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a pagan country.'" (Amos 7:17a) We won't hear any further details of the priest's life but we can safely assume that the prophecy came true. The Lord said it would happen and I believe it did happen, likely when the land was invaded by the Assyrian army. The Assyrians deported many thousands of citizens to other lands and Amaziah must have been among those captives. His children probably died in the military conflict. His wife, perhaps left behind to fend for herself, turned to prostitution to make a living.
As we close today's study we find Amos repeating his prediction of the fall of the nation. "And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land." (Amos 7:17b) Did King Jeroboam II take any action against Amos based upon the priest's charges? There is no indication in the books of the Holy Bible that he did. He may have seen through the priest's lies and realized he was jealous and insecure about his position in the kingdom. But since Jeroboam II had no intention of demoting Amaziah as his high priest, the priest's worries were unfounded. However, there is an apocryphal book known as "The Lives Of The Prophets" which states that Amos was banished from Israel based upon the priest's words and that sometime later, perhaps after the king's death, he returned to the land but was murdered by Amaziah's son. We must keep in mind that most of the apocryphal books are not considered holy Scripture and that most of them first appeared on the scene many hundreds of years after the deaths of the people they were written about. Some of these books contain obvious falsehoods that contradict the books that are accepted as Scripture. Others are based on oral traditions as to what happened to this or that person. But since they appeared late in Israel's history, we cannot be sure of the veracity of what's contained in them, and we do not know what happened to the prophet Amos.
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