Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 25
6:13–7:13
A mos
13
And you brag about your conquest of Lo-debar.
You boast, “Didn’t we take Karnaim by our own strength?”
“O people of Israel, I am about to bring an enemy nation against you,”
says the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.
“They will oppress you throughout your land—
from Lebo-hamath in the north
to the Arabah Valley in the south.”
The Sovereign Lord showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a
vast swarm of locusts over the land. This was after the king’s share had been
harvested from the fields and as the main crop was coming up. In my vision
the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord,
please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
So the Lord relented from this plan. “I will not do it,” he said.
Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision. I saw him preparing
to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of
the sea and was devouring the entire land. Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord,
please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
Then the Lord relented from this plan, too. “I will not do that either,”
said the Sovereign Lord.
Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall
that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see
if it was still straight. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
I answered, “A plumb line.”
And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will
no longer ignore all their sins. The pagan shrines of your ancestors will be
ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty
of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a message to Jeroboam, king of Is
rael: “Amos is hatching a plot against you right here on your very doorstep!
What he is saying is intolerable. He is saying, ‘Jeroboam will soon be killed,
and the people of Israel will be sent away into exile.’”
Then Amaziah sent orders to Amos: “Get out of here, you prophet! Go
on back to the land of Judah, and earn your living by prophesying there!
Don’t bother us with your prophecies here in Bethel. This is the king’s
sanctuary and the national place of worship!”
