Amos

Chapter 3
Please read chapter 3 if you
have not already
First few verses
 The first few verses focus on the special place that
Israel has with God and the privileged relationship it
has with God.
 Israel is referred to as a family—family image with
God as the head
 God brought Israel out of Egypt
 God has chosen the people of Israel out of all of the
families of the earth.
 Remember that through Jesus we are part of that
family
What are our privileges being
God’s people?
 We are loved by God
 We are under the care of God
 We receive interventions from God
 We are liberated from our sins
 God sent Jesus for us
 We are promised eternal life
What are our responsibilities?
Take a look at verse 3
 Verse 3 shows two people walking
together
 In the Bible, there are many references
to walking with God
 Abraham and Moses walked with God
and in the New Testament there are
references to walking with Jesus (see
Emmaus Walk at the end of Luke)
What does it mean for us to
walk with God?
 Be attentive to God
 Responsive to what God says to us
 Not go on a different path
Look at verses 4-8
 Notice the cause and effect sequence of
the text.
 Example verse 5 IF a bird falls into a set
trap THEN it will be ensnared.
 In other words, BECAUSE Israel sinned
against God, it will be destroyed
In verse 9, we read about
Samaria
 Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel
 It was a very well defended city, but because of its sinfulness,
there was rot underneath.
 The sinfulness is of course the worship of the foreign God, Baal.
 In fact, if you take a look at verse 14, you see one of the great
sins of Samaria.
 An altar to God was converted to an altar to Baal
 This is why Samaritans were outcasts in the New Testament—
there is still an association with their sinful past
 Remember Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan—horrors!!
Destruction is coming
 In the text, we see that Samaria and
Israel will be destroyed.
 Phrases like tear down, destroyed, and
overrun are found in the chapter
 This is exactly what happened as Israel
was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC
Was it completely destroyed?
 There is some controversy as to
whether or not verse 12 indicates that
some of Israel will remain.
 What do you think?
What relevance does Chapter
3 have for today???????