A Walk Through the Bible – Amos

Scripture Texts: Amos 1:1-2; 2:4-8; 3:7-8; 5:24

Mr. Beaver said, “He’ll be coming and going.  One day you’ll see him and another you won’t.  He doesn’t like being tied down–and of course he has other countries to attend to.  It’s quite all right.  He’ll often drop in.  Only you mustn’t press him.  He’s wild, you know.  Not like a tame lion.”

Lucy said, “Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”  “That you will dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”  “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.  “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?  Who said anything about safe?  ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.”

“And now,” said Aslan presently, “to business.  I feel I am going to roar.  You had better put your fingers in your ears.”  And they did.  And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it.  And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind (C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe).

Amos knew a thing or two about things “that go roar in the night” (John Stevenson).

He had been raised on stories of Samson killing a lion with his bare hands and of David killing one with his sling.  Amos was a shepherd , and if there is anything a shepherd dreads, it is the sound of a lion’s roar (v. 2).  He had faced his own lions while out with his sheep.

But this lion was different.  And Amos was his messenger.  God called him out of Tekoa in Judah and sent him north to Bethel in Israel to be the first prophet to speak against Israel.  The Lord, who had been Israel’s shepherd, had now become Israel’s predator.  In the prophecy of Amos, the Lord was roaring.