Simply teaching the Bible, simply

Amos, a shepherd and tender of sycamore trees, was happily going about his business one day when the call of God came upon him. Now, at a moment like that you can either choose to run (Jonah style – that didn’t end well!), or you can try and ignore the call (that’s what many do – but then they lose out on an opportunity to serve God, and that moment will be lost forever), or they can choose, like Amos, to obey. In chapter 6, Amos starts by warning Israel about their complacency. God had given Israel their land, and the two principle cities, Jerusalem and Samaria we're both situated at high elevations which made them ideal to fortify and defend against attack. In their arrogancy, Israel thought they would never be defeated. However, Amos reminds Israel that great cities like Calneh (near Babylon), Hamath (in Syria) and Gaza (formerly a principle city of the Philistines), had all being defeated. Rhetorically, Amos asks if Israel were really any better than these gentile cities? Before listing the consequence for their sin and the coming destruction God had decreed, Amos continues to lay out the charge against Israel, listing four ways they had replaced the true worship of Jehovah with idolatry immorality and open rebellion. Chapter 7 opens with Amos receiving three visions, but it is his response that carries a great lesson for us today. Firstly God warns that He will send a locust plague that would devastate the Land. Rather than just shrug his shoulders and accept it, Amos pleads with God to show mercy, on the basis that Israel would not survive if God did as He had warned. In the New Testament, James tells us that the prayers of one righteous man avails much. On account of Amos’ prayer, God relents of the coming judgment. In his second vision, Amos sees the land being scorched through intense heat so as to dry up all the water and bring about an intense famine. Once again, Amos pleads with God to show mercy, and again He relents concerning this judgment.