THE BOOK
OF
AMOS
Part One
A Plumb Line in Israel
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall
always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are
those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When
will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long
as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors
of police brutality. We can never be satisfied,
as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue
of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels
of the highways
and the hotels
of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic
mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children
are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their
dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only".
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in
Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in
New York believes he has nothing
for which to vote.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we
will not be satisfied until justice rolls
down like waters and righteousness
like a mighty stream.
But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.
Amos 5: 24
* Jerusalem
And Jeroboam said in his
heart, “Now the kingdom
may return to the house
of David: If these people
go up to offer sacrifices
in the house of the Lord
at Jerusalem, then the
heart of this people will
turn back … and they
will kill me and go back
to Rehoboam king of
Judah.”
I Kings 12:26, 27
* Dan
Bethel *
* Jerusalem
Therefore the king …
made two calves of gold,
and said to the people,
“It is too much for you to
go up to Jerusalem. Here
are your gods, O Israel,
which brought you up
from the land of Egypt!”
And he set up one in
Bethel, and the other he
put in Dan.
I Kings 12:28, 29
* Dan
Bethel *
* Jerusalem
Jeroboam ordained a
feast on the fifteenth day
of the eighth month, like
the feast that was in
Judah, and offered
sacrifices on the altar….
at Bethel on the fifteenth
day of the eighth month,
in the month which he
had devised in his own
heart.
I Kings 12: 32, 33
* Dan
Bethel *
* Jerusalem
“I hate, I despise your
feast days, and I do not
savor your sacred
assemblies.
Though you offer Me
burnt offerings and your
grain offerings, I will not
accept them,
Nor will I regard your
fattened peace
offerings.”
Amos 5: 21, 22
Jeroboam … became king
in Samaria, and reigned
forty-one years….
* Dan
Bethel *
* Jerusalem
Now the rest of the acts
of Jeroboam, and all that
he did—his might, how
he made war, and how
he recaptured for Israel,
from Damascus and
Hamath—are they not
written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of
Israel?
II Kings 14:23 -28
So it shall be, when the Lord your God
brings you into the land of which He
swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, to give you large and
beautiful cities which you did not build,
houses full of all good things, which you
did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did
not dig, vineyards and olive trees which
you did not plant— when you have eaten
and are full— then beware, lest you
forget the Lord who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, from the house of
bondage.
Deuteronomy 6: 10 - 12
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The
ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall
I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he
said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and
build greater, and there I will store all my crops
and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you
have many goods laid up for many years; take your
ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’
But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will
be required of you; then whose will those things be
which you have provided?’
“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is
not rich toward God.”
Luke 12: 16 - 21
I will send a famine on the land, not a famine
of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord. … They shall
run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but shall not find it.
Amos 8: 11, 12
A man and his father go in to the same girl.
Amos 2: 7
The Lord of Hosts says: I abhor the pride of
Jacob, and hate his palaces. Amos 6:8
Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your
stringed instruments.
Amos 5: 23
For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not turn away its
punishment;
Because they sell the righteous for silver,
And the poor for a pair of sandals.
They pant after the dust of the earth
which is on the head of the poor.
Amos 2: 6, 7
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
who are on the mountain of Samaria,
Who oppress the poor,
Who crush the needy,
Who say to your husbands,
“Bring wine, let us drink!”
Amos 4: 1
Hear this, you who swallow up the needy,
And make the poor of the land fail,
Saying: “When will the New Moon be past,
That we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
That we may trade wheat?
Making the ephah small and the shekel large,
Falsifying the scales by deceit,
That we may buy the poor for silver,
And the needy for a pair of sandals—
Even sell the bad wheat?”
Amos 8: 4 - 6
* Dan
Bethel *
* Jerusalem
Go you seer! Flee to the
land of Judah. There
eat bread and prophesy;
but never again prophesy
in Bethel, for it is the
King’s sanctuary and it
is the royal residence.
Then Amos answered, I
was no prophet, nor was
I a son of a prophet. But
I was a sheepbreeder.
Amos 7: 12 - 14
Behold, the Lord stood on a
wall made with a plumb line
…
Then the Lord said:
“Behold, I am setting a plumb
line in the midst of My people
Israel; I will not pass by them
anymore.”
Amos 7: 7 - 8
Therefore thus says the
Lord God: “Behold, I lay
in Zion a stone for a
foundation, a tried stone,
a precious cornerstone, a
sure foundation; whoever
believes will never be
dismayed.
Also I will make justice
the measuring line, and
righteousness the
plummet.
Isaiah 28: 16, 17
Coming to Him as to a
living stone, rejected
indeed by men, but chosen
by God and precious, you
also, as living stones, are
being built up a spiritual
house, a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ.
Therefore it is also
contained in the Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a
chief cornerstone, elect,
precious, and he who
believes on Him will by no
means be put to shame.”
I Peter 2: 4 - 6
Therefore thus says the
Lord God: “Behold, I lay
in Zion a stone for a
foundation, a tried stone,
a precious cornerstone, a
sure foundation; whoever
believes will never be
dismayed.
Also I will make justice
the measuring line, and
righteousness the
plummet.
Isaiah 28: 16, 17
Amos has said … Israel shall surely be led
away captive from their own land.
Amos 7: 11
For the children of Israel walked in all the
sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not
depart from them, until the Lord removed
Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all
His servants the prophets. So Israel was
carried away from their own land to
Assyria, as it is to this day.
II Kings 17: 22 – 23
Therefore thus says the
Lord God: “Behold, I lay
in Zion a stone for a
foundation, a tried stone,
a precious cornerstone, a
sure foundation; whoever
believes will never be
dismayed.
Also I will make justice
the measuring line, and
righteousness the
plummet.
Isaiah 28: 16, 17
THE BOOK
OF
AMOS
Part Two
The Lord is His Name