Amos 5 Esv (2024)

FAQs

What is the message of Amos 5? ›

Seek good “so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you.” Seeking good is the only way we can maintain a relationship with God. God is only with us when there is a return to godly behavior. We cannot claim to be the people of God and then engage in ungodly behavior. Seeking the Lord is to hate evil and love good.

21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs!

So, the language of 5:24 constitutes a call for the people to exercise justice and righteousness. Indeed, they are to flood the community with acts of justice and righteousness, like a stream that never stops flowing. Is Amos presenting an either/or here: either worship or justice/righteousness? Not likely.

And while the book of Amos was written for the pre-exilic northern people of God under a different covenant with judgment forthcoming from the Assyrians, I got hit with how some of the points in vv10-24 are similar of the Church's past and applicable for the Church today.

Amos' message is to call Israel to repent from her sins and seek God as the only way to free of God's punishment and judgment. God would punish Israel because she did not repent from her sins although God sent many prophets to remind her. At that time, Israel was involved in social and religious sins.

Amos 5 tells how Israelites were again encouraged to seek the Lord and repent of their evil ways. In particular, the Lord condemned their greed and their idolatry. He said if they would “seek the Lord,” they would “live” (see vv. 3–6, 14–15), but if they did not, they would be carried away into captivity.

Amos warned the Israelites that they would be destroyed if they did not repent. He prophesied that because the Israelites had rejected the Lord's prophets, the Lord would remove the prophets from among them. Amos also warned the nations bordering Israel and Judah that they would be destroyed.

Amos 5:23–24 Shows Us Religion without Righteousness

Here is a people who were carrying on religious ritual, observances, and songs, while ignoring injustice and unrighteousness. So God says, “Your songs, your instruments are not pleasing, glorifying, honoring to me. Justice brings honor to me.

Like many prophets of the Old Testament, Amos warned of coming judgment for the idolatry, false worship, and corruption of the nation but also prophesied that the restoration of the Davidic line of kings would come through the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Amos 5:25 reconfirms that the sacrifice, offering, and shedding of blood is a foundational necessity for a relationship with God. "Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?" The answer is, "Yes." The people were sacrificing, but is that all that they did?

What is the meaning of Amos 5 14? ›

A second text that further equates doing good with acting in justice is Amos 5:14-15 when the exhortation to “seek good and not evil, that you may live” is repeated once more in verse 14. In this text, one finds a close connection between God's presence and the people's ability to live justice-filled lives.

Amos the prophet shared the LORD's words concerning the judgment that was to come upon Israel, and though they continued their acts of worship to God, He rejected them on account of their disobedience.

Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the LORD God of hosts will be with you: Amos proclaimed God's cure for Israel's sin. They must begin to simply seek good and not evil. They must transform their corrupt courts and establish justice in the gate.

“Amos wrote at a time of relative peace and prosperity but also of neglect of God's laws. He spoke against an increased disparity between the very wealthy and the very poor. His major themes of justice, God's omnipotence, and divine judgment became staples of prophecy.”

That day will be darkness, not light" (Amos 5:18 NIV). Because Israel had sinned, God would come in judgement on them. Thus, the day of the Lord is about God chastening his people, whether it be through the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem or a locust plague described in Joel 2:1–11.

Through Amos' words, we can still hear the call to learn from Israel's hypocrisy and the disastrous consequences of their sins. It's a call to embrace the true worship of God that should always lead to justice, righteousness, and loving our neighbor. That's what the book of Amos is all about.