Come Follow Me Amos; Obadiah; Jonah (Nov 23–29): Summary, Key Stories & Study Guide

Wealth and injustice in Israel under Jeroboam II

In the early 700s BC, Assyria was occupied with wars against Urartu and with revolts at home, and Aram-Damascus had been weakened by earlier Assyrian attacks. This left Israel and Judah free to expand (2 Kings 14:25–28), and trade made Samaria rich.

Excavators at Samaria's royal citadel found more than 500 carved ivory plaques from this period. They were once set into wooden beds, couches, and wall panels. These are the "houses of ivory" and "beds of ivory" Amos condemns (Amos 3:15; 6:4). The prosperity lasted only while Assyria was weak. When Assyria recovered, it conquered Samaria in 722 BC.

The earthquake in Amos 1:1

Amos dates his preaching to "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Zechariah still remembered that earthquake about two centuries later (Zechariah 14:5).

Archaeologists have found evidence of a major earthquake around 760–750 BC at Hazor, Gezer, Lachish, Tell es-Safi (Gath), and 'En Haseva. These sites show tilted walls and collapsed buildings with no signs of fire or attack. In 2021 the Israel Antiquities Authority reported the same kind of damage in Jerusalem's City of David: smashed storage jars and fallen walls under an unburned layer. The ground shaking Amos described was a real event people would have remembered.

Edom's cliffs and its betrayal of Judah

Edom lay south and east of the Dead Sea, a country of red sandstone cliffs, deep gorges, and high plateaus that were easy to defend. Its strongholds included Sela, whose name means "rock," and the district of Teman (Obadiah 1:3, 9).

In the ancient Near East, related peoples were expected to defend one another. When Nebuchadnezzar burned Jerusalem in 586 BC, Edom looted the city and caught refugees at the mountain passes to hand them to Babylon. Obadiah treats this as a crime against a brother (Obadiah 1:10–14).

Joppa, Tarshish, and Nineveh

Jonah came from Gath-hepher in Galilee, about three miles from Nazareth. He went down to Joppa, modern Jaffa, Israel's main Mediterranean port, and paid for passage to Tarshish, likely Tartessos near the Strait of Gibraltar. He chose about the farthest destination he could reach in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

The ruins of Nineveh lie across the Tigris from modern Mosul, Iraq, in two mounds. One of them is called Tell Nebi Yunus, "the mound of the prophet Jonah." Assyrian records from the 760s BC report plagues, revolts, and a total solar eclipse on June 15, 763 BC. Some scholars think these troubles may have made the city more willing to listen to a warning.

Sailors' lots and Assyrian mourning customs

Mediterranean sailors believed a violent storm meant that a god was angry with someone on board. Casting lots was the usual way to find out who it was, and survivors often offered sacrifices and made vows afterward (Jonah 1:7, 16).

In Mesopotamia, animals were sometimes included in public rituals during times of crisis or bad omens. They were made to fast or were dressed for mourning. This explains the king of Nineveh's decree that "man and beast" wear sackcloth and go without food (Jonah 3:7–8).

Amos

A herdsman and gatherer of sycomore fruit from Tekoa in Judah (Amos 1:1; 7:14). Around 760 BC the Lord sent him north to preach in Israel. He had no prophetic training and did not belong to any group of prophets, yet he spoke against injustice, empty ritual, and false security. He also taught that "the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7).

Amaziah, priest of Bethel

The chief priest at Bethel, the shrine Jeroboam I set up to compete with Jerusalem. Amaziah reported Amos to the king as a traitor and ordered him to leave, calling Bethel "the king's chapel" (Amos 7:13). He shows what happens when religion serves the government: he cared more about the king's approval than about God's word.

Jeroboam II

King of Israel from about 786 to 746 BC. He won back territory as Jonah had prophesied (2 Kings 14:25), and his long reign brought Israel great prosperity. Amos warned that his house would fall by the sword (Amos 7:9). Within about twenty-five years of his death, Assyria had ended the Northern Kingdom.

Obadiah

A prophet we know only from his short book. His name means "servant of the Lord." He most likely prophesied soon after Jerusalem fell in 586 BC. He condemns Edom's pride and its betrayal of Judah, and he promises deliverance on Mount Zion, where "saviours" will come and "the kingdom shall be the Lord's" (Obadiah 1:21).

Jonah son of Amittai

A prophet from Gath-hepher who had already prophesied success for Israel (2 Kings 14:25). He fled from his call to Assyria's great city, was saved by a fish the Lord prepared, then preached and saw Nineveh repent. His anger at God's mercy is the question his book leaves for the reader. Jesus used his three days in the fish as a sign of His own burial and Resurrection (Matthew 12:39–41).

The Lord reveals His will through prophets

In Amos 3:3–8, Amos reasons from cause to effect. A lion roars because it has caught prey, and a snare springs because something stepped in it. So when a prophet speaks, it is because the Lord has spoken: "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 shows that God's call gives a prophet his authority, whatever his training or position. Israel had "commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not" (Amos 2:12), and the result was a famine "of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11). That describes the Great Apostasy, which ended when the Lord called Joseph Smith. The Lord promises today that if His people heed His prophet, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against you" (D&C 21:4–6). Elder Ulisses Soares taught that "having prophets is a sign of God's love" (April 2018 general conference).

Seek the Lord and live

Israel kept its feasts, tithes, and sacrifices, but the Lord said, "I hate, I despise your feast days" (Amos 5:21), because the people who worshipped also took bribes and cheated the poor. He did not want them to stop worshipping. He wanted them to seek Him, and that meant changing how they lived: "Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live" (Amos 5:14).

The hardships of Amos 4 were meant to turn Israel back to God, and Mormon describes the same pattern among the Nephites (Helaman 12:3). King Benjamin connects love for God with service to others: "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17).

The Lord is merciful to all who turn to Him

Jonah could recite God's character from Exodus 34:6, "a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger" (Jonah 4:2), but he resented it when that mercy reached his enemies. Nineveh's repentance shows what the Lord responds to: "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way" (Jonah 3:10). The pagan sailors also turn to the Lord, and Jonah himself is given a second chance (Jonah 3:1).

The Book of Mormon teaches the same truth. The Lord "inviteth them all to come unto him" and "all are alike unto God" (2 Nephi 26:33). Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, no person or people is beyond the reach of repentance, and disciples are asked to want that for others as much as the Lord does.