Thy Strong Word — Amos 4:1-13: "Prepare to Meet Your God!"

Amos delivers a stark warning to Israel, highlighting their complacency and repeated disobedience. Despite the nation’s prosperity, they are blind to God’s repeated calls for repentance. Through vivid imagery, Amos recounts the hardships sent by God—famine, drought, pestilence—as opportunities for Israel to turn back, yet they persist in their stubborn ways. The chapter culminates in a chilling declaration: prepare to meet your God, Israel.

The Rev. Jacob Hercamp, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Noblesville, IN, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Amos 4.

Amos, a simple shepherd and fig tree farmer from Tekoa, was called by God to deliver a powerful message to Israel—a nation steeped in corruption, injustice, and complacency. Unlike the professional prophets of his time, Amos was an outsider, chosen to proclaim a divine warning against the moral decay and social inequalities that plagued the northern kingdom. Through vivid imagery and uncompromising language, Amos called out the wealthy elite for their exploitation of the poor, condemned the nation’s empty religious practices, and foretold the impending judgment that would come if they did not repent.

Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven. Learn more at lhfmissions.org.

Amos 4

4 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
    who are on the mountain of Samaria,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
    who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
²The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
    that, behold, the days are coming upon you,
when they shall take you away with hooks,
    even the last of you with fishhooks.
³And you shall go out through the breaches,
    each one straight ahead;
    and you shall be cast out into Harmon,”
declares the Lord.

⁴“Come to Bethel, and transgress;
    to Gilgal, and multiply transgression;
bring your sacrifices every morning,
    your tithes every three days;
⁵offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,
    and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them;
    for so you love to do, O people of Israel!”
declares the Lord God.

Israel Has Not Returned to the Lord

⁶“I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁷“I also withheld the rain from you
    when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
    and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
    and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
⁸so two or three cities would wander to another city
    to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁹“I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹⁰“I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,^[a]
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹¹“I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand^[b] plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹²“Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

¹³For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,
    and declares to man what is his thought,
who makes the morning darkness,
    and treads on the heights of the earth—
    the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Footnotes

Amos 4:10 Hebrew along with the captivity of your horses
Amos 4:11 That is, a burning stick

Rev. Dr. Phil Booe

Native North Carolinian Rev. Dr. Phil Booe serves pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, and host of Thy Strong Word on KFUO Radio. His parishioners probably think he can’t teach Bible study without a mug of coffee in his hand, and he’ll always be happy to eat a plate of sushi. When he’s not shepherding his flock or teaching on the radio, you might find him watching bad movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and especially binging RiffTrax and MST3K episodes. Some day he’d love to travel to the Lutheran homeland in Germany, but for now he spends time in Minnesota with his wife, son, daughter, and cat, and looks forward to Holy Week every year.