Opposition may come to those who serve God because people may feel threatened by the truth. Some people would rather cling to the darkness they know than to live in the light. This was certainly the case with the opposition to Amos by the prophet Amaziah. Amos was a lay preacher, called by God from a vocation of shepherding and farming during the eight century B.C.E. Amos lived in the Southern Kingdom of Israel., but God called Amos to preach in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. A few centuries of rivalry between the two kingdoms did not help endear this southern preacher to his northern hearers.
In addition, Amos preached in the heart of the Northern Kingdom’s centre of worship, the temple at Bethel. This was the northern King Jeroboam’s personal sanctuary.. What an affront to good manners and common sense must Amos’ preaching have been! He brought a scathing denunciation against the king and his policies and preached gloom and doom for the entire Northern Kingdom. It did not win friends and was a very unpopular message to bear.
The professional, paid prophet Amaziah, told Amos to go back to the South where he belonged . Amos replied that he did not intend to become a ‘kept preacher’. He said he was called by God and it was God’s message he was preaching. History proves that Amos was right. All the things he predicted came to pass. Now at the time of preaching Amos had no assurance , he only had the conviction of his calling.
If you must stand for a truth and hold a conviction that is unpopular, or that brings you in direct confrontation with the authorities, or that costs you your job, may you be blessed with the same quiet confidence of Amos.
Sometimes a follower of God must walk a lonely path