[ex-snook]

AMOS

Father John T. Myler
The Wanderer Press

"Never will I forget a thing they have done" (from Amos).
"Lift up holy hands, without anger or argument" (from 1 7imothy).
"You cannot serve both God and mammon" (from the Gospel According to St. Luke).

Scripture scholars tell us that the mission of the prophet Amos lasted perhaps only one year.  His message to Israel was so unrelenting and so forceful that a paucity of words sufficed:
 "Fallen, no more to rise, maiden Israel; forsaken on her land, with no one to raise her up."
  Yet Israel was not lacking in money or in power during Amos' time (around 760 B.C.) The Chosen People were at the height of wealth and influence. Nevertheless, Amos' message was that "they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His statutes." Israel was a kingdom full of injustice.

Amos spoke boldly to the rich and mighty: "Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy  the poor  of the land!"
  They would often "display their wheat on the Sabbath. ...Diminish the ephah, add to the shekel. .. fix their scales for cheating!" Amos uncovered the darkness of their injustices -"buying the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals." In their hearts, and in their actions, they plotted: "Even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!"
  Amos confronted the corporate greed of his time:
 "The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done!"

In a very short time, the words of Amos -- who had been a humble shepherd - -came to pass. Earthquakes, political divisions, the destruction of the northern kingdom -all these were presaged by the herald of Israel's injustice.

When the Messiah came, He announced: 'No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.

"You cannot serve both God and mammon."

Then and now.

===========================

Was Amos a prophet or just unpatriotic?

[LoneGreenEyeshade]

Having money and loving money are two different things.

But, I cannot judge the hearts of individual men and women and children, and God commands that I do not:

"You are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges, for wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you that judges does the same things.

But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things." Romans 2:1-2

[Terriergal]

Was Amos a prophet or just unpatriotic?

Most of these guys would have probably been defined as unpatriotic at the time. Most of them were executed or otherwise persecuted because of it. It is only in hindsight that prophets are recognized for what they are.

Incidentally, it makes me wonder about the preponderance of wannabe "prophets" in America today... I get the feeling they actually *want* the job for the *status* which is something a prophet *never* has had in the past. What makes them think it's different now?