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Click here to Read the book of Amos from the World English Bible The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Amos 1:1 As with all the prophets of the Bible, we can only understand the writings of the prophet Amos if we look at the context of his preaching. We must look at the political, religious and economic climate of the nation in which he lived and worked in order to understand what his words meant to the peoples of his day and then to translate this into some significance for us today. Amos, along with Hosea, lived and preached around the middle of the eighth century BC at a time when there was relative stability and prosperity during the reign of Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom. Trade had greatly increased and money was in generous supply. However such economic prosperity was, as is often the case, accompanied by widespread corruption and social injustice. The plentiful money lined the pockets of the few who had control over such trade and the poverty of the poor workers looked more severe in light of such riches. State religion also prospered. Rituals, tithes and ceremonial observance were at the heart of the nation. Caanite religion and gods were also part of the Israelite worship, but it was seen as being all that God required if the worship was sincere and as the country was doing well then surely God was happy. Injustice and fraud were not considered to be an issue - God would protect them as He always did. There was no need for concern. However their worship and religion was far from sincere as they imagined it to be. All the sacrifices and ceremonies were simply rituals. There was no depth or meaning to the worship of God. They believed that their ceremonies and rituals were spiritual and pleasing to God but their hearts weren't in it. As with many people today, They trusted in the ritual itself to save them from disaster. They believe that ceremonial worship would be pleasing to God and keep them safe from impending loom. However, as the prophet Amos recognised, their religion was just that. Religion for religion's sake. There was no commitment or love of God in their hearts. They did not live out their trust in the Lord. To put it simply, they trusted religion rather than trusting the object of the religion, namely Yahweh, the God of Creation! At the same, the Assyrians were growing in power and influence under Tiglath Pileser III. Their increasing list of conquests was still in the early stages and so was not seen as being a threat to the Children of God. Indeed the looming capture and dominance of the northern kingdom by the Assyrian Empire was not only unseen by Israel but seemed impossible as God would protect such a religious nation. Was not their prosperity a sign of God's providence? Click here to read the book of Amos from the World English Bible If you have any suggestions or comments please email Paul If you would like to print this article for private or group study, download the pdf version here. To view and print documents in Acrobat PDF format, download the FREE reader here: