Persistence...

Power strikes back.

Amos is holding up their unjust practices. Perhaps they stood before the press of the day and made a milquetoast apology. Perhaps they just avoided the issue.  But after Amos has gone on and on and on...power bites back.

Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sends word to the King, reporting all the ways Amos challenges the power and practice of those in charge. 

"Seer," Amaziah says, with the full power of the King behind him. "Go prophesy somewhere else. Bethel belongs to the King and we're tired of your trouble."

Hear the finger pointing that weakens Amos's words: 

• You are a prophet sent to destroy the king...
• You are a political hack, sent to destroy the opposition...
• You are an enemy of the good guys, sent to spread lies and propaganda...
• You are someone with a vendetta against us...making up charges

Amos fires back. I'm a herdsman, a tree trimmer. God took me from that work and gave me this work.

You can tell me to stop speaking, but God is still at work.

The Alpha and the Omega will bring justice. 

Amos 7:10-17 

10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said,

‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
    and Israel must go into exile
    away from his land.’”

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am[a] no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am[b] a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

16 “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
    and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
17 Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
    and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
    and your land shall be parceled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
    and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”