Amos was a quiet shepherd from Judah – until God called him to be his prophet. So, okay, he was only a minor prophet, not like Isaiah or Jeremiah but he made up for it with his fiery attitude. His Old Testament prophetic book is short but by God, it was explosive.

On the surface everything seemed fine in Israel under the king, King Jeroboam II. The country was a enjoying a rare period of peace and prosperity, trade was up, the shekel was doing well, mansions were being built and the good times were enjoyed by the wealthy few – so what was wrong with that?

Most ordinary people were living in suffocating poverty and were being mistreated dreadfully by the rich and powerful. The poor were being sold into slavery, judges were being bought off, and organized crime was rife.

Our formerly ‘gentle’ shepherd Amos headed straight for the National Shrine at Bethel and prophesied to the King, his authorities, priests and rich folks
‘Stop this corruption now, or God, who loves the poor, will take everything away from you. Amos’ actual words were:
‘Listen, you cows of Bashan! The days are coming when you will be dragged out like cattle,
led by a hook and prodded with goads.’

They decided to get rid of Amos, and continued in heir unjust uncaring ways and God did exactly as Amos prophesied.

We are all called to speak out about evildoing in our community – we don’t necessarily have follow Amos presentation style but his content was about right. As regards the response, that is up to others.