Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

This week’s Sunday School lesson covers parts of the writings of two more of the “minor prophets” (see last week’s post for details): Amos and Joel.

Background

In the actual order of books in the Old Testament, Joel comes right before Amos, although in the SS lesson plan, they choose to talk about Amos first (I’m saying this just in case you went looking for the book of Joel after Amos!).  But because the lesson emphasizes prophecy, the writers of the curriculum likely chose to start the lesson with Amos to emphasize the above quoted passage, Amos 3:7.  I’ll follow the lesson plan’s order to avoid confusion, however, in order of the biblical books, at least, Joel comes first.

Amos served as a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel from approximately 765 – 750 BC, before the Assyrian Conquest of Israel and the Babylonian Exile of Judah.  While we don’t know exactly when this took place, it is said (Amos 1:1) that he began his role as prophet ”two years before the earthquake” that occurred during the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel.  This great earthquake is also mentioned in Zech 14:5. 

Amos was from Tekoa, just ten miles south of Jerusalem.  Before his ministry, he had worked as a farmer and shepherd.  Unlike Isaiah, he was not familiar with the royal court, nor of prominent priestly circles like Jeremiah. He was a man of humble origins called by God (see Amos 7:14–15) to fulfill an important role — to be the mouthpiece of God to call King Jeroboam and the northern tribes to repentance and thus avoid an imminent doom.  Amos leaves his village in Judah to preach in Bethel, a holy site in the North that had become a royal sanctuary for the kings of Israel.

Regarding Joel, we aren’t told much about him in the biblical record.  Because of this lack of information, scholars have widely debated when Joel served as prophet, and dates range from a hundred years before the Assyrian Conquest (722 BC) to 100+ years after the Babylonian Exile (597 BC).  So the placement of the book of Joel before Amos in our Bibles is based more on tradition and thematic elements than on any exact dating.   Due to the foregoing reasons, there’s not much we can say about Joel besides the statement that his father’s name was Pethuel (Joel 1:1).  Joel’s name (alternatively: Jael, Jah-El, Yahoel, etc.) means ”Yah(weh) is God”.   

Prophecies of Amos

I won’t attempt to comment on the whole book of Amos, but will concentrate on the chapters the lesson covers.  Overall, the book of Amos presents his prophecies against the northern tribes, calling them, in no uncertain terms, to repent of their evil or face destruction.

The website Bible.org summarizes the theme and purpose of the book nicely:

The divine message given to Amos was primarily one of judgment, though it ends with words of hope. Amos warned that the Lord God, the sovereign Ruler of the universe, would come as a Warrior to judge the nations that had rebelled against His authority. Israel in particular would be punished for her violations against God’s covenant. Amos sought to bring the prosperous and materialistic northern tribes under Jeroboam to repentance as the only escape from imminent judgment. In the process, the book demonstrates God’s hatred of evil because of His holiness and that His justice must act against Israel’s sin for He cannot allow it to go unpunished.

However, even though the nation would be destroyed, God would still preserve a repentant remnant and one day this remnant would be restored to their covenant blessing and political prominence when the Lord would then also draw all nations to His Himself.

The content of Amos’ prophecies was common among the many prophets called at that time to preach to Israel.  Amos prophesies not only against Israel, but against various nearby nations that needed to likewise repent. The repetition of this call by a number of other pre-exilic prophets simply underscores the idea that God will give plenty of warning before his judgments come upon a people.  The multiple witnesses sent to Israel before its destruction is a good example of God’s mercy and love for his people.  In this light, I cite again Amos 3:7:

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

I think we are right to interpet this to refer to the pattern of God calling prophets throughout the world’s history in order to reveal his will and his judgments.  One of the most interesting words in this verse is the word “secret”, which is a translation of the Hebrew word sod.  The early Hebrew notion of sod referred to the heavenly council of God (see Ps. 89:8; Jer. 23:18; Job 15:8).  This divine assembly was understood to be presided over by Yahweh, accompanied by the lesser divine beings (later termed “angels”).  Entrance to this assembly was very exclusive — it could be deemed a “secret” council.  The relationship of this divine council to prophesy was in the sense that prophets were understood to receive their message while being present in the heavenly court (often via a heavenly ascent).  Examples of this can be see in Isa. 6, Jer. 23:18, and 1 Kgs. 22:19–22.  The prophet received his calling and his mission while standing before the blazing throne of God.  It was the same for Amos — we read, for example, in Amos 9:1, that the prophet saw the Lord standing upon the altar. In later usage, the name of the council (sod) became synonymous with the message (or “secret”) that was borne away from it by the prophet. (For an interesting and concise blog post on the Divine Council, see here).

In chapter 3 of Amos, the message that the Lord sends Israel through his prophet is very clear: because of their wickedness, an “adversary” (Amos 3:11) would come and conquer their land, wiping out palaces and sanctuaries, and carrying many of its inhabitants.  We know that these words were fulfilled not long afterwards with the Assyrian Conquest.

In chapter 7, we hear this message repeated again, speaking out directly against the king.  Here the priest of Bethel, obviously loyal to the wicked king, comes out and tells Amos to go home, and reports his words to the king.  I couldn’t help but see in this a parallel to the Book of Mormon prophet Abinadi, who speaks out against the wicked king Noah, and is reviled against by the king’s priests.  Like Abinadi, Amos does not go home, but boldly continues on with his message, and curses the priest and his family along with the rest.  

We often cite Amos 8:11–12 as a foretelling of the great apostasy that would come to the early Christian church. 

11 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

From the context of the chapter, it seems that these verses are referring to an imminent situation, perhaps involving the loss of prophecy in Israel due to the Assyrian destruction. However, these verses are certainly applicable to future periods of apostasy as well  — like many OT prophecies, we should understand them to often have multiple possible fulfillments.

Despite the prophecies of “doom and gloom” the Lord also reveals through Amos that Israel will some day be restored to the lands of their inheritance and to favor with the Lord (see ch. 9).  This, again, is the frequent message of the prophets, that although Israel would be scattered and feel abandoned for a time, the Lord would some day redeem them and gather them in again.

Prophecies of Joel

The book of Joel, although only three short chapters in length, is a very interesting book.  It contains many elements from the ancient New Year Festival, which I briefly discussed in my Jewish New Year post.  We see in Joel’s prophecies the themes of the Day of the Lord (which some scholars equate with the ancient New Year’s Day), where the Lord is recognized as King and when he pronounces his judgments on mankind.  As they would have done for the ancient festival, Joel calls all into a solemn assembly, a gathering at the house of the Lord (Joel 1:14).  This was a day to cry to the Lord for the salvation of the people from corruption and destruction. 

Chapter 2 calls for the blowing of the trumpet, as would have been done at the New Year.  There are so many elements in this chapter that are in line with New Year traditions that I don’t have time to go into them here.  The point that I want to bring out, however, is that what is being described in Joel is something that ancient Israelites would recognize as the scenario that was presented to them each year in their annual New Year celebrations.  This was all done as they were assembled at the temple grounds.  While the history of God’s intervention to save Israel was a major theme, it appears that the festival also served to present what God would do for Israel in the future.  This is why the themes of the festival are so much in line with the words of the prophets.  This was the history of humankind, past, present, and future, that the Lord always gave to his prophets who were called in the divine council. 

Chapter 3 gets very specific about the great war that will ensue after the Jews have been gathered back to Jerusalem.  All the nations of the earth will be gathered for war at the “valley of Jehoshaphat” (which can be interpreted as the valley of “Yahweh’s judgment”).  Here the heathen nations will be judged by the God of Israel.  Yahweh will come to defend his people.  We read in Joel 3:16–17:

16 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17 So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

After the judgment of the wicked is carried out, the land will be abundantly blessed and a fountain will come forth from the house of the Lord.  Again, the ancient themes of the New Year are echoed here — that after the danger and destruction, the Lord would redeem the land and bring in an age of renewal and peace. The Lord will reign in Zion with his righteous people.

Follow the Prophet

Bryce Haymond, the talented web designer who has blessed us with TempleStudy.com for the past couple of years (which, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned, has been a great inspiration for my own blog), has now, along with his brother Brad,  launched a new website designed to help readers get to know LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson better by reporting on the prophet’s words and activities.  The new site is called FollowtheProphet.Net.

In Bryce’s own words:

This site’s mission is to help members of the Church follow the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by collecting all the news, talks, speeches, devotionals, dedications, interactions, and activities he does and posting links to those things in one central location. This way members of the Church may more easily learn more about the prophet, and his ongoing counsel to us, as well as his daily example.

The site includes detailed reports,  information, pictures, and maps showing where in the world the prophet has been.

Although some early critics have dubbed the site’s efforts as “stalking”, I totally disagree.  One of the most admirable characteristics of our current prophet is the fact that he is so people-oriented — so loving and caring and down-to-earth.  It is great, in my opinion, for Latter-day Saints to see him interacting with people, visiting members of the Church, and sitting down to dinner with common folk at a common restaurant like Dee’s (as was reported on the site).  Pres. Monson takes time to talk to people, gives attention to small children, and changes his busy schedule to take care of his wife and family when they are in need.

Keeping in mind the safety of the prophet, Bryce notes:

Please note that we will only post about the prophet’s activities some time after he has visited a location, unless it is a scheduled event, so there is absolutely no security concern for the prophet.

I believe that the items posted by the site are important for us as members of the Church (or anyone else) to see, and I support their efforts and congratulate them on their fine work.  The site is beautiful, smooth and user-friendly, as we have come to expect from the Haymonds.  I send my many thanks to them for their great work.

Andrei Orlov’s Blog

For those who haven’t noticed it, my former professor and adviser Andrei Orlov (Associate Professor at Marquette University), has his own blog and has been posting some great material there.

The blog is at  http://aorlov.livejournal.com/

Much of the blog is written in Russian, but I have recently noticed that Dr. Orlov is posting much more in English than I had previously seen.  And the items posted appear to be segments from some of his most recent research, so it is especially interesting.  If you’ve read any of the stuff I’ve posted from him before (or even if you haven’t), you will find this blog very enlightening.  Andrei Orlov is an expert in many areas that are of interest to Latter-day Saints, including the Enochic literature, Abrahamic traditions, heavenly temple themes, throne theophanies and other visions of God, apocalyptic literature, mystical texts, and so on.

One very interesting recent post is entitled: Re-enactment of the Yom Kippur Festival in the Apocalypse of Abraham:  The Scapegoat Ritual

Another great one is:  Mosaic Background of Abraham’s Priestly Initiations and the Day of Atonement

Also: Arboreal Metaphors and Divine Body Traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham

This is the cool cosmological pic Orlov includes with this post

Orlov is an incredible resource for these materials and his writing style is very interesting.  I highly recommend looking at his blog.  Unless you read Russian, you may have to scroll down a bit, but its very much worth your time and effort to search for the hidden treasures he has posted.

I have posted the RSS feed of both Dr. Orlov’s and Bryce’s sites in the right sidebar of Heavenly Ascents.  That way you can keep up to date with their most recent posts right here and have a convenient link to their websites.  Check them out!