Amos 7:12-15 
Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.” 

Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now then, hear the word of the LORD. (NIV)

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Context is helpful here. Amaziah was a priest in Bethel in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Amos was from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, but God had sent him north to declare his words of truth and life. 

The religion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was similar to that in Judah, but with some pagan innovations. These innovations were not welcome. They were in no way acceptable to God. This is why God sent Amos north. And this is why Amaziah had such harsh words for Amos, telling him to “get on home now.”

Notice the demeanor of Amos. He’s a man accustomed to talking to sheep and to cultivating figs. You get the idea that he was not one to sit around and chat and chew with the good ol’ boys. He was a man who was focused on the tasks before him. And right now, the task was to tell these people where they were wrong, what they needed to do to get right, and that if they didn’t get right, judgment was coming. 

Amaziah and others like him took Amos’ message as a threat. God’s message through Amos, however, was a mercy. It really was a turn-or-burn moment. As we know, they chose to burn rather than turn. 

So there was Amos, armed with God’s words of truth and life, told to shut up and go away. God told him to go to this place and what to say. When you find yourself between such a rock and a hard place, who do you obey? 

Amos experienced what many of us discover. Some people don’t want to hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Some people want to hear anything but the truth. Some people think that whatever they choose to believe is the truth, whether it has ever been true or not. 

Some people follow the fashion of the day and the way people think now as somehow superior to everything that’s ever been thought before. The reality is that what was wrong 3,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, a thousand years ago, a hundred years ago, and last week is still wrong. 

Wrong is wrong, and it never becomes right. Right is right, and it never becomes wrong. God’s words of truth and life endure forever. They don’t change. They don’t adapt themselves to current lines of thinking. They provide direction, clarity, hope, and a future.

Bossypants people may tell you to shut up and go away, but they especially need to hear God’s Good News. They may not take it as Good News, at least initially, but the Gospel really is Good News. It’s the Good News that there is a God who knows all about us and loves us anyway. He wants us to know and experience Him every day. He has a way He wants us to live that not only keeps us out of unnecessary problems but also makes us a blessing to everyone we meet. 

There are a lot of people who tell you to shut up and go away. They don’t want to hear the Good News. Find a way to tell them anyway. Their eternity depends on it. Their quality of life now depends on it. Their peace and purpose depend on it. As Amos demonstrates, there are some things we cannot not say. Notice the last thing he said in the verses above. 

But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now then, hear the word of the LORD.

God sent him with a message, and he was determined to deliver that message. And he did. Sadly, most of the people ignored him. The nation was destroyed, and the people were exiled. 

God loved them enough to warn them. He sent a shepherd and fig picker to give them instructions that led to hope and a future. They chose a different path, and that path led them far away from anything they ever wanted to know. It led them far away from the good life they had dreamed of. It led them to dust, ashes, and regret. 

The Good News was then and remains the positive alternative God offers each of us. His plans for us are better than any we could make for ourselves. It’s a really good day when we say yes to his extravagant offer of grace, mercy, kindness, and compassion. 

Have you said Yes to God’s Good News?

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I will live in the center of God’s Good News and help others hear it and receive it for themselves.

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Our Father, thank you for taking rebels like us and inviting us into a deep and abiding relationship with you. How good and kind you are! Bless us with lives that declare your Good News in how we behave, speak, and do our work. Make us evidence of your positive alternative. Amen.