CHAPTER ONE

Contents: Judgments pronounced upon surrounding peoples Syria, Tyre, Edom, Ammon.

Characters: God, Amos, Uzziah, Jeroboam, Hazael, Benhadad.

Conclusion: The God of Israel is the God of all the earth, and the nations that refuse to worship Him, and who persecute His people will be made to know that they are accountable to Him as Judge.

Key Word: Punishment, vv. 6, 9, 11, 13.

CHAPTER TWO

Contents: Judgments pronounced upon Judah, Moab and Israel.

Characters: God, Amos.

Conclusion: To keep not the commandments of God's Word, making no conscience of them, is to despise the wisdom, justice and goodness of the Author. Those who will not submit to the convictions of the Word will have to sink under the weight of God's punishments.

Key Word: Punishment, vv. 1, 4, 6.

Strong Verses:   16.

CHAPTER THREE

Contents: Jehovah's controversy with Israel.

Characters: God, Amos.

Conclusion: Judgment begins at the house of God. The nearer men are to God in profession, and the kinder notice God has taken of them, the more quickly and severely will He reckon with them if they by wilful sin disgrace their relation to Him. We cannot expect God to act for us unless we are reconciled to Him.

Key Word: Punishment, v. 2.

Strong Verses:   2, 3, 6.

CHAPTER FOUR

Contents: Threatening against the oppressors in Israel. Israel reminded of God's chastening in the past.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: God designs all His providential rebukes to influence men to turn to Him. The reason God sends worse troubles is because former and lesser troubles have not done their work. If men continue obstinate, they force God to do what He does not willingly do, but what is necessary to bring men to their senses.

Key Word: Israel's stubbornness, vv. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

Strong Verses:   12 (b), 13.

CHAPTER FIVE

Contents: God's lamentation over Israel and captivity foretold. The day of the Lord.

Characters: God.

Conclusion: If men will not take a right course to obtain the favor of God, God will take an effectual course to make them feel the weight of His displeasure. Our transgressions do not pass Him unobserved, and He knows all hypocrisy in worship, and the punishment will be in proportion to the profession made.

Key Word: Lamentation, vv. 1, 16.

Strong Verses:   8, 9, 14, 15.

Striking Facts: vv. 22-23. Religious ceremonies are of no account with God, except as they express from the heart that for which they stand. "No man cometh to the Father but by Christ." Those ceremonies designed to set forth Christ are an abomination to God if the offerer does not from the heart recognize Christ in them and yield himself to Him. Though ritual sacrifices may be dispensed with, spiritual sacrifices in Christ cannot.

CHAPTER SIX

Contents: Woe pronounced upon those at ease in sin abandoned by God.

Characters: God, David.

Conclusion: Many are puffed up and rocked to sleep in carnal security by the position they occupy in the world set upon their own pleasure and careless of the afflictions of others. Those who thus give themselves to mirth when God calls them to mourning will find it a sin that will be punished with terrible woes.

Key Word: Woe, v. 1.

Strong Verses:   1 (a).

CHAPTER SEVEN

Contents: Threatening judgments. The prophet's intercession no longer to prevail. Amos charged before the king and his answer.

Characters: God, Amos, Amaziah, Jeroboam.

Conclusion: God's patience, which has long been sinned against, will at length be sinned away for to be often reprieved yet never reclaimed; often reduced to straits, yet never brought to God is a great insult to God and merits His rejection. Those who have faithfully declared the counsel of God may expect to be misrepresented as enemies, and often by men in high religious standing.

Key Word: God-abandoned, v. 8.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Contents: The basket of summer fruit foretelling Israel's near ruin. Summary of the case against Israel.

Characters: God, Amos.

Conclusion: The time of God's patience draws surely to a conclusion, and if men do not make an end of sin, God will make an end of them, even though they be His professing people. To continually trample under foot the Word of God will end in a famine of the Word of God, which in a time of trouble will be the sorest judgment.

Key Word: The end, v. 2.

Strong Verses: 7 (b), 11.

CHAPTER NINE

Contents: Final prophecy of dispersion of Israel and their ultimate restoration and blessing in the kingdom age.

Characters: God, Amos.

Conclusion: The sword of war is the sword of divine vengeance, for God will thoroughly sift His people who ignore His constant pleadings. Evil is often nearest those who put it at the greatest distance from them (v. 10).

Key Word: Israel's sifting, v. 9.

Strong Verses:   6, 10, 11.

Striking Facts: vv. 11-15. The bringing again of dispersed Israel to their own land is the sure promise of God's Word. In the coming Kingdom of Christ, the Messiah, Israel shall take deep root in the world, never to be rooted out of it. They shall find in Him the happiness and rest they have so long sought, and God's favor shall again be with them to give abundance of all good things.