Editorial November 29, 1930 Issue

Amos

Clifford P. Smith

Commonly reckoned among the minor Hebrew prophets, and having an obscure position in the arrangement of the Old Testament, Amos ought to be counted among the persons who have initiated forward steps of large importance in the spiritual progress of mankind. He deserves a creditable rating among all who have contributed distinctly to humanity's knowledge of God. For one thing, Amos appears to have been the first to teach that Yahweh was not exclusively the God of the Hebrew people but was also the God of all people. Apparently, also, Amos was one of the first persons to teach that God is the Mind of man. Furthermore, he evidently had a concept of God's character far in advance of the ordinary religious thought of his time.

To be appreciated as he deserves, Amos needs to be given his own place in Hebrew history. He delivered his prophecies or sermons between 760 and 750 B. C. This period was about five centuries after Moses and about two centuries after the kingdom left by Solomon had been divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The prophet-statesman Isaiah had not spoken yet, nor had many of the Psalms been written. Jeroboam II was king of Israel, while Azariah (Uzziah) was king of Judah. For both kingdoms, especially for Israel, this was a time of material prosperity but of spiritual poverty. Tiglath-Pileser III became king of Assyria, then the dominant power in that part of the world, and he was soon to reduce both of the Hebrew kingdoms to the position of dependent and tributary states. Before many years, one of his successors put an end to the kingdom of Israel, and scattered its inhabitants so widely that they were remembered afterward only as the lost tribes. "There was none left but the tribe of Judah only" (II Kings 17:18).

Amos was a resident of Judah, not of Israel. He was a shepherd and a cultivator of fruit trees, not a priest. Nevertheless, he felt that he was called to exhort and warn the rich and ruling class in Israel. So he went to Bethel, the northern kingdom's religious center or sanctuary, and succeeded in delivering the oral sermons which he afterward preserved as the Book of Amos. During the series of sermons, the chief priest at Bethel tried to stop them (Amos 7:10-13), but Amos persisted, and was allowed to complete his work.

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