Joel (“the Lord is God”) and Amos

Turn to the Lord your God

In the present post we read Prophet Joel and Prophet Amos. About the first one we know very little: the text that takes his name is probably datable after the exile and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Joel particularly insists on the subject of sincere penitence, to avoid the consequences of the Lord’s day: «Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him» (Joel 2,13-14). That day will start a new era, in which there will be an extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit of God (normally reserved to the prophets and leaders of the Elected People): «“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit. I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. It will happen that whoever will call on the name of the LORD shall be saved» (Joel 3,1-5). The Acts of the Apostles quote these verses in chapter 2 to describe the outpouring of the Holy Spirit over the first Christian community.
Amos is a prophet of the VIII century BC from Tekoa, a village of Judea near Bethlehem. He is a herdsman (Am 1,1); the Hebrew noun that describes his profession is the same used for the king of Moab in 2Kgs 3,4: Amos was probably not poor when the Lord called him. It is indeed a very important clarification, considering that the prophet harshly reproaches the rich men who oppress the humbler people: Amos is not taking a personal revenge, but he is only obeying the Lord’s commands. Even if the story of his vocation is not present, from the text we can argue it was a very strong experience. The Lord is compared to a wild animal: «The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken. Who can but prophesy?» (Amos 3,8). Amos is from Judah, but his ministry takes place in the northern kingdom (Israel). «Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel […] said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but do not prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!” Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’



Now therefore listen to the word of the LORD: ‘You say, Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not proclaim against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”» (Amos 7,10.12-17). From this dialogue we can have an idea of the resolute tone of Amos’s prophecies and of the reason why they were not welcome to the ruling classes of the time. Here is a taste of them, in which Israel is condemned (with the listeners’ indignation, we can imagine) like one of the pagan nations: «Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name; and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined. […] I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites [consecrated people that could not drink alcohol, see Num 6,1-21]. Isn’t this true, you children of Israel?” says the LORD. “But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Do not prophesy!’ Behold, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of grain. Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself; neither shall he stand who handles the bow; and he who is swift of foot won’t escape; neither shall he who rides the horse deliver himself; and he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked on that day,” says the LORD» (Amos 2,6-8.11-15). Amos calls «cows» (Amos 4,1) the women of the capital city Samaria who live in a luxury produced by injustice; similarly, the religious rites are useless if there is no righteousness (Amos 5,21-27). The Lord’s day, an awaited moment of redemption and liberation from enemies, will instead pour inexorably over the sinners: «“Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light. As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him» (Amos 5,18-19); «It will happen in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day» (Amos 8,9-10). The Lord’s Word, so stubbornly rejected by Israel, will be eagerly searched, as to satisfy a basic and vital need («famine», «thirst»): «Behold, the days come,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of the LORD, and will not find it» (Amos 8,11-12).
Amos is not happy to announce woes over Israel: we have a confirmation of it in chapter 7, verses 1 to 6, in which two terrible punishments of the Lord are avoided thanks to his heartfelt intercession. Moreover, in the final chapter we can find promises of restoration and peace (Amos 9,11-15).
In the next post we will read Obadiah and Jonah.