Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we finished our 19th book of the Bible. Congratulations. All right, let's wrap up the back

half of Amos. He starts by calling out the leaders of the land

who relax into lives of luxury and pay no mind to the needy and poor, and who fail to notice

that they've gotten so far off track in their relationship with God. He promises destruction

for all the ways they've forsaken God. In Chapter 7, God shows Amos three different images, and they all foretell

destruction. Twice, Amos pleads with God to relent, and he does. Remember how the prophet Jonah

didn't want the people of Nineveh to repent, and God pointed out how ridiculous that was?

Amos is the opposite of Jonah. He begs God to stay his hand. But when the third

vision appears, Amos starts to get the point that this is inevitable, a necessary part of God's

process to turn his people's hearts back to himself. The first vision was of locusts eating a field

and devouring all the farmer had to live on after he'd

paid the king with the first portion of growth. The second was of a fire devouring everything.

And while both of those visions involved land, the third vision is a construction image. Amos sees a

plum line, which is a tool used to make sure a wall is straight. It's like a level, but vertical instead of horizontal.

If a wall isn't vertical, it's going to collapse eventually. Leaning Tower of Pisa, your days are numbered.

The metaphor God is setting up here is that the northern kingdom of Israel is about to collapse because they're so far off the standard and can't be set right.

As you can imagine, none of this sits well with Amaziah, who was the priest at the time.

Amaziah goes to King Jerry 2, accuses Amos of conspiring against him, and twists the prophecies to help his point. Then Amosiah tries to deport Amos of conspiring against him and twist the prophecies to help his point. Then Amaziah

tries to deport Amos. I can't imagine how this must feel for Amos. Remember how he begged God to

relent? He's just the messenger here and he's being targeted. I want to give him a hug. Obeying God

doesn't mean everyone will understand your motives or honor your actions.

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