Amos; Obadiah; Jonah Explained for Kids, Youth & Adults

Prophets bring messages from God (Amos 3:7)

Long ago, God called a man named Amos. Amos took care of animals, like a farmer. God asked him to go to the people of Israel and give them a message.

Amos taught, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). That means God tells His prophets what we need to know. A prophet is like a messenger who carries a note from someone who loves you. Today we have a prophet too, and he gives us messages from Jesus Christ.

Seek the Lord (Amos 5:4)

Some people in Israel were not being kind. They were unfair to people who were poor. God told them, "Seek ye me, and ye shall live" (Amos 5:4). To seek is to look for something. When we pray, read scriptures, and are kind to others, we are looking for God, and He helps us.

Jonah runs away, then obeys (Jonah 1–3)

God asked a prophet named Jonah to go to a big city called Nineveh. The people there were doing mean and hurtful things. Jonah did not want to go. He got on a ship going the other way.

A big storm came. Jonah told the sailors the storm was because he had not obeyed. They threw him into the sea, and a great fish swallowed him. Inside the fish, Jonah prayed. He said, "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9). The fish put Jonah back on dry land.

God asked Jonah "the second time" (Jonah 3:1), and this time Jonah went. He told the people of Nineveh to repent. They listened! They stopped doing mean things, and God did not destroy their city (Jonah 3:10).

God gives second chances

Jonah got a second chance. The people of Nineveh got a second chance. Because of Jesus Christ, we can repent too. Repenting means saying sorry to Heavenly Father and choosing to do better. He is happy every time we turn back to Him.

Jonah had to learn to be kind to people he did not like. God loves everyone, and He wants us to be kind to everyone too.

Sing and say it together

Sing "Follow the Prophet" (Children's Songbook, 110–11). Then try this chant: "Jonah ran, the sea was wide; Jonah prayed, the Lord was his guide!"

Question for your child: When is a time Heavenly Father helped you do something hard?

Three prophets, one message

This week covers three short books. Amos was a herdsman from Tekoa in Judah, sent north around 760 BC to preach to Israel during a time of big money and bad behavior. Obadiah spoke against Edom, a neighboring nation that looted Jerusalem and handed refugees over to Babylon when the city fell in 586 BC. Jonah was told to preach in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Israel's most violent enemy, and he ran the other way.

All three prophets carry the same message: the Lord sees what people do, He warns them, and because of Jesus Christ, it's not too late to change.

Amos: worship that doesn't change how you treat people

Israel was rich. Archaeologists at Samaria found more than 500 carved ivory plaques from beds and furniture, the "houses of ivory" Amos condemns (Amos 3:15). The people went to religious feasts, but they also "sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes" (Amos 2:6).

The Lord told them, "I hate, I despise your feast days" (Amos 5:21). He wanted them to keep worshipping, and He wanted that worship to change how they treated others. His invitation was "Seek ye me, and ye shall live" (Amos 5:4).

This connects to real life. You can go to church, attend Seminary, and still be the person who mocks someone in the group chat. Amos teaches that seeking the Lord shows up in how you treat the kid nobody sits with.

Why prophets? (Amos 3; 7; 8)

Amos argued from cause and effect: a lion roars because it caught prey, and a trap snaps because something stepped in it (Amos 3:4–5). So when a prophet speaks, the Lord has spoken (Amos 3:8).

When Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, told Amos to go home, Amos answered that he wasn't trained as a prophet. "The Lord took me as I followed the flock" (Amos 7:15). His authority came from God's call.

Amos also warned of "a famine... of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11). Latter-day Saints recognize this as the Great Apostasy, which ended when the Lord called Joseph Smith. Elder Ulisses Soares taught that "having prophets is a sign of God's love" (April 2018 general conference). When it feels like everyone online has an opinion, a living prophet gives you direction from God.

📖 Scripture Mastery Moment

Amos 3:7: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." Memorize this one because it explains why we follow a living prophet: God tells His prophets what His people need to know.

Jonah: running away, and a second chance

Jonah sailed toward Tarshish, about as far from Nineveh as he could get. A storm hit, the sailors threw him overboard at his own request, and a great fish swallowed him. From inside the fish he prayed, "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord" (Jonah 2:7).

Then "the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time" (Jonah 3:1). Jonah went, Nineveh repented, and "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way" and spared the city (Jonah 3:10).

The surprise is chapter 4. Jonah got angry, because he knew God was "gracious... and merciful" (Jonah 4:2) and didn't want that mercy reaching his enemies. The book ends with God asking Jonah a question, and leaves it open for you to answer.

What this means for you

• If you've run from something God asked: Jonah got a second call. So can you, through repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
• If someone hurt you or seems hopeless: The Lord "inviteth them all to come unto him" (2 Nephi 26:33). Nobody is beyond His reach.
• Obadiah 1:21: President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that we become "saviours on mount Zion" when we do temple work for the dead. Doing baptisms for your ancestors is one way you help others receive what Christ offers.

This week, notice one person you've written off, and pray to see them the way the Lord does.

Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah lived in different times, but each delivered warnings from the Lord with an offer attached. The Come, Follow Me manual centers this week on Amos 5:4: "Seek ye me, and ye shall live."

Amos and Israel's prosperity (Amos 1–6)

Amos was a herdsman and gatherer of sycomore fruit from Tekoa in Judah (Amos 1:1; 7:14). Around 760 BC the Lord sent him to the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Jeroboam II, when Assyria was weak and Israel was growing rich.

The wealth showed up in the archaeology: more than 500 carved ivory plaques from Samaria's royal citadel match the "houses of ivory" Amos condemned (Amos 3:15; 6:4). Israel kept its feasts and sacrifices, yet the people "sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes" (Amos 2:6).

The Lord said, "I hate, I despise your feast days" (Amos 5:21), because worship had become separated from how people lived. He asked instead, "let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24). King Benjamin taught the same connection: "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17).

In Amos 4 the Lord lists hunger, drought, and plague He allowed so Israel would turn back, and five times He says, "yet have ye not returned unto me." Mormon describes the same pattern among the Nephites (Helaman 12:3).

• 💬 How have hard experiences in your life become opportunities to turn to the Lord?

Prophets reveal the Lord's will (Amos 3; 7; 8)

In Amos 3:3–6, Amos reasons from effect back to cause: a lion roars because it has caught prey, and a snare springs because something was caught. He applies that to prophets: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).

When Amaziah, priest of Bethel, ordered Amos home, Amos answered that the Lord had taken him "as I followed the flock" (Amos 7:15). A prophet's authority comes from God's call.

Israel had told prophets, "Prophesy not" (Amos 2:12), and Amos warned of "a famine... of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11). Latter-day Saints see this fulfilled in the Great Apostasy, which ended with the Restoration through Joseph Smith. Elder Ulisses Soares taught that "having prophets is a sign of God's love" (April 2018 general conference).

• 💬 How would you complete this sentence: "I know God loves me, because He sends prophets who..."?

Obadiah and saviours on Mount Zion (Obadiah 1)

Edom, a nation related to Israel through Esau, trusted its cliff strongholds. When Jerusalem fell in 586 BC, Edom looted the city and caught refugees for Babylon. The Lord said, "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee" (Obadiah 1:3).

Obadiah closes with hope: "saviours shall come up on mount Zion" (Obadiah 1:21). President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that we become saviors on Mount Zion when we receive ordinances for the dead in the temple. In a small way, that work resembles what the Savior did for us: we do for others what they cannot do for themselves.

Jonah and the reach of God's mercy (Jonah 1–4)

Jonah fled from Joppa toward Tarshish, the opposite direction from Nineveh, an enemy city known for violence. After the storm and the great fish, Jonah prayed, "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9). The Lord called him "the second time" (Jonah 3:1), and he went.

Nineveh believed, fasted, and turned from violence, and "God saw their works... and God repented of the evil" He had warned of (Jonah 3:10). Jonah was angry, admitting he ran because he knew God is "gracious... and merciful, slow to anger" (Jonah 4:2).

The Lord asks why Jonah pities a gourd but begrudges mercy to a city of more than 120,000 people. The book ends on that question. Compare Jonah with the sons of Mosiah, who "could not bear that any human soul should perish" (Mosiah 28:3) and went to the Lamanites.

• 💬 Who might you be reluctant to see receive the Lord's mercy, and what would change if you saw them as He does?

Jesus Christ is at the center

Jesus used Jonah's three days in the fish as a sign of His own burial and Resurrection (Matthew 12:39–41). Because of His Atonement, Nineveh, Jonah, and each of us can repent and receive another chance. This week, look for one way to seek the Lord through service to someone in need.

Key Takeaways

• The Lord reveals His will to His prophets (Amos 3:7), and living prophets are evidence of His love.
• Seeking the Lord includes how we treat others, especially the poor (Amos 5:4, 24).
• The Restoration ended the spiritual famine of the Apostasy (Amos 8:11–12).
• Temple work for the dead makes us "saviours on mount Zion" (Obadiah 1:21).
• Through Jesus Christ, the Lord's mercy reaches everyone who turns to Him (Jonah 3:10; 4:2).

Historical setting: prosperity before the fall

In the early 700s BC, Assyria was occupied with wars against Urartu and internal revolts, and Aram-Damascus had been weakened. Israel under Jeroboam II (about 786–746 BC) expanded its territory, as Jonah himself had prophesied (2 Kings 14:25), and trade made Samaria rich.

Excavations at Samaria's royal citadel uncovered more than 500 carved ivory plaques once set into beds and wall panels, the "beds of ivory" of Amos 6:4. Amos dates his preaching "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1), an event evidenced at Hazor, Gezer, Lachish, and in 2021 in Jerusalem's City of David, with tilted walls and collapsed buildings dating to about 760–750 BC. Within about twenty-five years of Jeroboam's death, Assyria conquered Samaria (722 BC).

Amos preached into that prosperity, and he explained that it would not last because the nation had abandoned justice.

The Lord reveals His secret to the prophets (Amos 3; 7)

Amos 1–2 opens with oracles against Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab, using the formula "for three transgressions... and for four." Israel's audience would have welcomed these, until Amos turned to Israel. Because the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt and raised up prophets among them (Amos 2:10–11), their accountability was greater: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you" (Amos 3:2).

Amos 3:3–8 is a chain of cause-and-effect questions. Lions roar over prey; snares spring on something caught. So prophecy has a cause: "The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3:8). Verse 7 states the principle that the Lord reveals His purposes to His servants before He acts.

Amos 7 tests that principle against institutional religion. Amaziah, priest at the shrine Jeroboam I set up to rival Jerusalem, calls Bethel "the king's chapel" (Amos 7:13) and tells Amos to leave. Amos replies that he was "no prophet, neither... a prophet's son" by training; the Lord took him from the flock and sent him (Amos 7:14–15). Prophetic authority rests on divine call, a principle the Restoration reaffirms in D&C 21:4–6, where the Lord promises that those who heed His prophet's words will find "the gates of hell shall not prevail against you." Elder Ulisses Soares taught that "having prophets is a sign of God's love" ("Prophets Speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit," April 2018).

Spiritual famine and the Restoration (Amos 8:11–12)

Israel had "commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not" (Amos 2:12). The consequence Amos foretells fits that refusal: "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord," with people wandering "from sea to sea" to find it (Amos 8:11–12).

Famine is an apt image because people can live a while without God's word without noticing the loss, until they are starving. Latter-day Saints read this as a description of the Great Apostasy. The famine ended when the Lord called Joseph Smith, which fulfills the principle of Amos 3:7 in our dispensation. Christ's own teaching completes the image: "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35).

Seek the Lord and live (Amos 4–5)

Amos 4 lists famine, drought, blight, plague, and destruction, each followed by the refrain "yet have ye not returned unto me." The hardships had a purpose: to turn Israel back. Mormon observes the same pattern among the Nephites (Helaman 12:3).

Amos 5 then offers life: "Seek ye me, and ye shall live" (Amos 5:4), and "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live" (Amos 5:14). The Lord's rejection of Israel's feasts (Amos 5:21) came because the worshippers also corrupted justice in the city gate. He was asking them to let worship reshape conduct: "let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24). King Benjamin makes the same link between devotion and service (Mosiah 2:17), and Nephi applies Amos's warning about those "at ease in Zion" (Amos 6:1) to the latter days (2 Nephi 28:24).

Amos ends in restoration: Israel will be sifted among the nations, yet "not the least grain" will fall (Amos 9:9), and the Lord will "raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen" (Amos 9:11). Scattering is followed by gathering.

Obadiah: covenant kinship and saviours on Mount Zion

Edom, descended from Esau, was bound to Judah by kinship, and ancient Near Eastern custom expected related peoples to defend one another. When Nebuchadnezzar burned Jerusalem in 586 BC, Edom looted the city and caught refugees at the passes (Obadiah 1:10–14). Its pride rested on red sandstone strongholds like Sela, "rock" (Obadiah 1:3).

The book closes: "saviours shall come up on mount Zion... and the kingdom shall be the Lord's" (Obadiah 1:21). President Gordon B. Hinckley connected this verse to temple ordinances for the dead (October 2004 general conference, "Closing Remarks"). Edom abandoned its brother in crisis; the Saints are called to act for kindred who cannot act for themselves. Specifics of temple ordinances are sacred; a temple-attending family or class leader can say more.

Jonah: mercy beyond Israel

Jonah, from Gath-hepher in Galilee, fled from Joppa toward Tarshish, likely Tartessos near Gibraltar. Pagan sailors, following custom, cast lots to identify the cause of the storm, and after Jonah was thrown over, they "feared the Lord exceedingly" and offered sacrifice (Jonah 1:16). Gentiles were turning to the Lord before the prophet did.

From the fish, Jonah looked toward the temple and confessed, "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9). Given a second call (Jonah 3:1), he preached five Hebrew words in substance: forty days and overthrow. Nineveh believed; the king decreed that "man and beast" fast in sackcloth, consistent with Mesopotamian crisis rituals, and "God saw their works" (Jonah 3:10).

Jonah's anger in chapter 4 reveals his problem. He quotes the Lord's self-description from Exodus 34:6, "gracious... and merciful, slow to anger" (Jonah 4:2), and resents it. Compare the sons of Mosiah, who "could not bear that any human soul should perish" (Mosiah 28:3) and went among the Lamanites. The Lord's closing question about 120,000 people stays unanswered so that each reader answers it. Nephi gives the doctrinal answer: the Lord "inviteth them all to come unto him... and all are alike unto God" (2 Nephi 26:33).

Christ as the fulfillment

Jesus named Jonah's three days in the fish "the sign of the prophet Jonas," pointing to His own burial and Resurrection, and noted that Nineveh repented at Jonah's preaching (Matthew 12:39–41). The mercy Jonah resisted is made available to all through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This week, consider whose repentance you would struggle to welcome, and bring that to the Lord in prayer.

Geopolitical setting and the dating of Amos

Amos dates his oracles "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). The chronological marker is unusual in that it ties prophecy to a datable seismic event. Destruction layers showing tilted walls and collapse without burning appear at Hazor, Gezer, Lachish, Tell es-Safi, and 'En Haseva around 760–750 BC, and the Israel Antiquities Authority reported comparable evidence in the City of David in 2021. Zechariah still recalls the earthquake about two centuries later (Zechariah 14:5).

Jeroboam II's long reign (about 786–746 BC) coincided with Assyrian preoccupation with Urartu and internal revolt, permitting Israelite expansion that 2 Kings 14:25 attributes to Jonah's prophecy. That cross-reference matters, because it places Jonah and Amos in the same horizon: one prophesied Israel's expansion, the other its judgment. The Samaria ivories, more than 500 carved plaques, give material form to Amos 3:15 and 6:4. Prosperity depended on Assyrian weakness, and Samaria fell in 722 BC.

The oracles against the nations and graded accountability (Amos 1–2)

The formula "for three transgressions... and for four" structures judgments against Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab for atrocities such as deporting captives and killing the helpless. These nations had not received Sinai's law, yet are held accountable for cruelty, which assumes a moral order binding on all peoples.

The sequence then narrows to Judah, condemned for rejecting the law (Amos 2:4), and finally to Israel. Israel's indictment is economic and judicial: selling "the poor for a pair of shoes" (Amos 2:6), lying on pledged garments beside altars (Amos 2:8), and silencing prophets (Amos 2:12). Amos 3:2 states the principle of graded accountability: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Election increases responsibility, which corresponds to the Restoration principle that where much is given, much is required.

Prophetic epistemology: Amos 3:3–8 and 7:10–17

Amos 3:3–6 is a sequence of rhetorical questions, each inferring a cause from an observed effect: a lion's roar implies prey, a sprung snare implies a catch, a trumpet implies alarm. Verse 8 applies the inference to prophecy: "The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" Verse 7 states the governing principle: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." The Hebrew sod, rendered "secret," denotes counsel, the deliberations of the divine council into which the prophet is admitted.

Amos 7 places this epistemology against institutional authority. Amaziah, priest at Bethel, the shrine Jeroboam I established to rival Jerusalem, calls it "the king's chapel, and... the king's court" (Amos 7:13). Religion there served the crown. Amos answers that he belonged to no prophetic guild; "the Lord took me as I followed the flock" (Amos 7:15). Authority derives from divine call. The intercessions of 7:1–6, where the Lord relents twice at Amos's plea, and the plumbline of 7:7–9 show the prophet as both advocate and measure.

The Restoration renews this pattern. D&C 21:4–6 commands the Church to receive the prophet's words "as if from mine own mouth," with the promise that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against you." Elder Ulisses Soares framed the institution of prophets as covenantal love: "having prophets is a sign of God's love" ("Prophets Speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit," April 2018).

Famine of the word as apostasy typology (Amos 8:11–12)

The vision of summer fruit (Amos 8:1–2) introduces merchants impatient for the Sabbath to end so they can falsify measures and "buy the poor for silver" (Amos 8:5–6). The judgment that follows corresponds to the offense: a people who silenced prophets (Amos 2:12) will receive "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11), wandering "from sea to sea" without finding it.

Latter-day Saints read this as a type of the Great Apostasy. The logic is internally consistent: if the Lord acts only after revealing His counsel (Amos 3:7), the withdrawal of prophets means the withdrawal of that counsel. The Restoration reverses the condition by restoring the prophetic office. The New Testament supplies the Christological center: "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35), and Nephi's invitation to "feast upon the words of Christ" (2 Nephi 32:3) answers Amos's famine directly.

Cult and ethics: "Seek ye me, and ye shall live" (Amos 4–5)

Amos 4:6–11 is a liturgy of failed discipline, five calamities each closed by "yet have ye not returned unto me." The hardships served a remedial purpose. Helaman 12:3 articulates the same principle: the Lord chastens His people with afflictions because otherwise they will not remember Him.

Amos 5 begins as a funeral lament for a living nation (5:1–2), then offers life on condition: "Seek ye me, and ye shall live" (5:4); "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live" (5:14). The rejection of feasts (5:21–23) is a judgment on worship separated from justice, and the prescription is ethical: "let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (5:24). The Lord's complaint concerns the separation of worship from conduct, and Mosiah 2:17 states the same unity from the other direction: service to fellow beings is service to God. Amos 6:1 ("woe to them that are at ease in Zion") is taken up in 2 Nephi 28:24 as a latter-day warning, which shows that Nephi read Amos's critique as typological for the Church in the last days.

Edom, kinship obligation, and vicarious salvation (Obadiah)

Obadiah's oracle depends on kinship ethics. Edom, descended from Esau, owed Judah protection under the expectation that related peoples defend one another. In 586 BC Edom instead looted Jerusalem and caught refugees at the passes for Babylon (Obadiah 1:10–14). Its confidence in the strongholds of Sela and Teman is diagnosed as self-deception: "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee" (1:3). Judgment follows a principle of correspondence: "as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee" (1:15).

The closing verse inverts Edom's failure: "saviours shall come up on mount Zion... and the kingdom shall be the Lord's" (1:21). President Gordon B. Hinckley applied this to temple ordinances for the dead ("Closing Remarks," October 2004). Edom abandoned kin in their crisis, and the Saints act for kin who cannot act for themselves. That vicarious service is a small likeness of the Savior's own vicarious work. The ordinances themselves are sacred; a temple-attending family or class leader can say more.

Jonah: the universality of mercy and the reluctant prophet

Jonah's flight from Gath-hepher through Joppa toward Tarshish, likely Tartessos near Gibraltar, is a deliberate movement to the far western edge of the known world. The narrative repeatedly sets Gentiles beside the prophet in ways that expose him. The sailors cast lots according to Mediterranean custom, try to row to land rather than throw Jonah overboard, and end by fearing the Lord, sacrificing, and making vows (Jonah 1:13–16). Nineveh's king decrees fasting and sackcloth for "man and beast" (3:7–8), consistent with Mesopotamian crisis ritual, and "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way" (3:10).

Jonah's psalm (2:1–9) is orthodox in content, oriented toward the temple and concluding "Salvation is of the Lord," yet chapter 4 shows his theology outrunning his heart. He quotes Exodus 34:6 ("gracious... merciful, slow to anger") as his grievance (Jonah 4:2). The gourd episode sets his concern for a plant beside God's concern for more than 120,000 people, and the book ends with a question addressed to the reader.

Two Restoration texts frame the answer. The sons of Mosiah "could not bear that any human soul should perish" (Mosiah 28:3) and went to a people with a history of hostility (Alma 17:23–25), so they model the disposition Jonah lacked. Nephi gives the doctrinal ground: the Lord "inviteth them all to come unto him... and all are alike unto God" (2 Nephi 26:33).

Christological fulfillment

Jesus named Jonah's three days in the fish "the sign of the prophet Jonas" for His burial and Resurrection, and cited Nineveh's repentance against His own generation (Matthew 12:39–41). The pieces of this week's books meet here. The prophetic call, the offer of life to those who seek, the vicarious work of "saviours on mount Zion," and mercy extended to enemies all find their source in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Amos's promise to "raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen" (Amos 9:11) completes the movement from scattering to gathering.

Students who want to go further may trace how Amos 3:7, Amos 8:11–12, and Obadiah 1:21 each receive fuller meaning in the Doctrine and Covenants and in the teachings of modern prophets, and test how Jonah 4 shapes their own readiness to welcome the repentance of others.