By Evangelist Barbara Lynch

I asked God for a word for the people today and He told me Amos chapter 3. I am trying to get the attention of My people, but still they ignore me.

The book of Amos is a book of prophecy. In it, the Lord speaks through Amos to let Israel and other nations know what they’re doing wrong, what will happen to them as a result of that sin, and what His eventual plan is to bring them back.

The prophet Amos was a shepherd in Judah in the town of Tekoa. Amos was not trained in the school of the prophets. He was called by God to go to Bethel in Israel to present God’s message to the people and to the leaders of the northern kingdom. He followed God’s call to go to Bethel.

The prophet Amos’ message was that God had sent him to get their attention and to convince them to turn from their sinful ways. “I was the one who brought famine to all your cities, yet you did not come back to me. I kept it from raining when your crops needed it most.

Did Amos prophecy come true?
His prophecies come true when the Assyrians conquer the Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 17:6–23 ). The writer of Second Kings tells us that God’s prophets urged Israel and Judah to turn from their evil ways and keep God’s commandments, but the people stubbornly ignored them ( 2 Kings 17:13–14 ). Amos is an example of this.

Amos 3:1-15 (AMP)
1 HEAR THIS word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt:
2 You only have I known (chosen, sympathized with, and loved) of all the families of the earth; therefore I will visit upon you all your wickedness and punish you for all your iniquities.
3 Do two walk together except they make an appointment and have agreed?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing?
5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where there is no trap for him? Does a trap spring up from the ground when nothing at all has sprung it?
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be alarmed and afraid? Shall misfortune or evil occur [as punishment] and the Lord has not caused it?
7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?
9 Publish to the strongholds in Ashdod [Philistia] and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold what great tumults (confusion and disorder) are in her and what oppressions are in the midst of her.
10 For they know not how to do right, says the Lord, they who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.
11 Therefore thus says the Lord God: An adversary shall surround the land, and he shall bring down your defenses from you and your strongholds shall be plundered.
12 Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear [of a sheep], so shall the children of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued with the corner of a couch and [part of] the damask covering of a bed.
13 Hear and bear witness in the house of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of hosts,
14 That in the day when I visit Israel’s transgressions upon him I will also visit [with punishment] the altars of Bethel [with its golden calf], and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish and the many and great houses shall come to an end, says the Lord.