Standing Firm for Truth

KEY VERSE: “The LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go prophesy unto my people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD.” —Amos 7:15,16

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Amos 7:8-17

ACCORDING TO HIS own testimony, Amos was a herdsman of Tekoa who was given a message from the Lord to deliver to Israel “in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash.” Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, known for identification purposes as Israel and Judah. Uzziah was king of Judah at the time Amos delivered his message to Israel.—Amos 1:1

At the time of Amos’ ministry Israel was at the height of power, wealth, and security. At least, the ruling class thought they were secure. But evils prevailed, which is usually the case under such circumstances. The poor were oppressed, while the more favored indulged in Idleness and extravagances. The serious things of life were ignored while they wantonly sought pleasure in gluttonous eating and riotous dancing.—Amos 6:5, Marginal translation

Nothing is more unwelcome to a people in time of prosperity than to be told that calamity is coming upon them, but this was the warning that Amos sounded to Israel. So “Amaziah the priest of Bethel” took action to have Amos sent back to Judah. Because he was called ‘a priest of Bethel’, this does not indicate that he was a servant of Jehovah, the true God of Israel, for it was at Bethel that the original Jeroboam—not the one mentioned in this lesson—set up idol worship. This shrine of heathen worship remained there throughout the entire existence of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel.

Amaziah said to Amos, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel [Margin, ‘sanctuary’], and it is the king’s court [Margin, ‘house of the kingdom’].” (Amos 7:12,13) While Amos did return to Judah, before doing so he replied to Amaziah, “Thus saith the Lord: Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.”—vs. 17

Subsequently the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and many of the ten tribes taken into captivity in Assyria. In chapter 9, verses 8 and 9, we read, “Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth: saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Judah, saith the Lord. For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.”

This ‘sifting’ of the house of Israel among all nations seems to refer to a scattering still more widespread than merely their captivity in Assyria. It is from this worldwide scattering that the promised regathering takes place. (vss. 14,15) When the ten-tribe kingdom was destroyed many of the people of those tribes remained in their land and became associated with the two-tribe kingdom. In 606 B.C. these were taken into captivity. But this is not the return foretold in the prophecy just quoted. In this prophecy the Lord states, “I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land.”

After the return from Babylonian captivity, the people of Israel were again driven out of their land—scattered among all nations. It is from this worldwide captivity that they are now being regathered and reestablished in the Promised Land. And we are assured that this “planting” is to be a permanent one.

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