The book begins, directly after Amos' calling from the humble occupation of a shepherd, with a declaration of the might of the Almighty that is reminiscent of the latter chapters of Job -
The LORD roars from Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.
Immediately afterward He launches into a judgment of the nations for their lack of mercy and their persecution of God's people. For these things He says that He will break the gates of Damascus and send their people into exile; He will destroy the palaces of Gaza; He will set fire to the city of Tyre and to the lands of Edom and Moab and to the people of Ammon. From other books of the Bible we see that God sometimes used the neighboring nations to lead Israel into exile and show them their sins, and teach them to return to Him; but despite that, the heathen nations still had to answer for their treatment of God's chosen people, and He does send His wrath upon them.
But the judgment is not limited to the heathen people. In chapter 2 God turns to Judah and declares their sin of having despised His law, and declares again that He will send fire upon the palaces of Jerusalem. But the main focus of the book of Amos is on Israel, for these are the things he saw "concerning Israel." Here in pronouncing judgment God does not merely state their sins; He also speaks of His goodness to them and contrasts that with their sins -
Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt...
There is a mixture of plea and anger in the tone of the words, that is not there in His addresses to the wicked nations. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth," God says in chapter 3; "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." The punishment He gives to the people of Israel (and gives to believers now) is a good thing, meant to teach and instruct and correct. "For whom the LORD loves, He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights" (Proverbs 3:12). Discipline is a blessing, for God gives it to those whom He loves in order to set their feet on the straight and narrow path. It is His rod and staff that comfort us, as David says, and they are used equally to correct us when we sin and to protect us from enemies.
Israel despised God's first "round of discipline," if I can put it that way, and did not return to Him in repentance; yet again in chapter 5 He gives them a call to "repent and live." He commands them not to seek the land or other gods, but to call on Him, for "He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning and makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth; the LORD is His name." The people are to seek good and not evil, and so to live; for God will send judgment and wrath on Israel and send them into exile in Damascus because of their sin.
Chapter 7 presents an image like Abraham when he pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah. God shows Amos a vision of plague - locusts - first, and yet when Amos humbly and boldly cries out for Him to forgive the people, God, as He did for Abraham, says that He will not send the locusts. Again God shows a vision of fire, and again Amos pleads for Israel because it is so small and, one may infer, weak. And God, who "knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust," turns away this manifestation of His wrath and says again that it will not be so. There is, however, no record of a plea from Amos during the third vision, of the plumb line; he goes and speaks God's word to Israel, until the priest orders him to be silent and leave. Thus Amaziah the priest brings about God's judgment on himself, for contradicting the word of a true prophet.
Surely the punishment spoken of throughout seems very harsh: Israel will be overcome by her enemies and her palaces will be plundered, and so on, and God will bring destruction upon her. Yet the prophecy concludes with a hopeful tone within the somber context. God again declares His faithfulness to the house of Jacob, and says that, though He will destroy the sinful kingdom, yet He will not completely annihilate Israel. When the wicked have been dealt with, God speaks through Amos that He will again restore the people of Israel to the place that He gave them.
'I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,' says the LORD your God.
So the whole of the book is both strong and encouraging and full of applicable truth, for we can see a multitude of things about God in the prophecy. We see that He is strong to save His people and punish their persecutors, and that He will not leave them in trouble forever. We see His holiness and strength in dealing with sin, mingled with His mercy and everlasting love in that He persistently shows them the way of repentance, and that He always has a remnant of people who follow Him.
