AMOS Introduction: The Book of Amos is the third in the Hebrew Canon known as The Twelve Minor Prophets. Amos is the only “layman” among those prophets. He calls himself “a shepherd” and a cultivator of sycamore-fig ‘tees.! Evidently, the prophet did not want to be considered to be a prophet or a theologian. The irony of history is that God sometimes bypasses established institutions and acknowledged offices because they have become useless as channels of His revelation. In calling Amos, God demonstrated ‘that He chose that which the world despised. In the words of the apostle Paul: “He chose the lowly things of ‘this World and the despised things-and the things that are not-to mullify the things that are, so that no one may ‘boast before him.”? Thus speaks Amos, a farmer, an uneducated person, in simplicity and with clarity, with a spiritual insight that makes us stand in awe. Thus the book found its way into the Canon of Scriptures as mockery of literature, but as the Word of God. Outline: Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary provides the following outline of the book: L Introduction to Amos 112 TL The Eight Judgments 13-216 A. Judgment on Damascus 13-5 B. Judgment on Gaza 1 C. Judgment oa Tyre 19-10 D. Judgment on Edom 111-12 E, Judgment on Ammon 113-15 F. Judgment on Moab 213 G. Judgment on Judah 245 HL Judgment on Israel 26-16 TL _ The Three Sermons of Judgment 31-614 A The First Sermon: Israel's Present 3 1 Israel's Judgment Is Deserved 3:1-10 2. Israel's Judgment Is Described 311-15 B. The Second Sermon: Israel's Past 4 1 Israel's Judgment Is Deserved 415 2. Israel's Judgment Is Demonstrated 46-11 3. Israel's Judgment Is Described 4:12:13 C. The Third Sermon: Israel's Future 5:16:14 1 Israel's Judgment Is Deserved S115 2. Israel's Judgment Is Described. 5:16-6:14 ‘a. The First Woe of Judgment 5:16.27 b. The Second Woe of Judgment 6 TV. The Five Visions of Judgment TA-9:10 A. Vision of the Locusts 713 B. Vision of the Fire TA6 C. Vision of the Plumb Line 119 D, Opposition of Amazish Historical Parenthesis) 7-10-17 E. Vision of the Summer Fruit F. Vision of the Doorposts Sato The Five Promises of the Restoration of Israel 9115