“Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts. (Amos 5:27)

Amos was not a man of high religious standing. By his own writing, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs” (Am 7:14). He is not tied to any famous personage or else it would be stated. He forever stands as a testament of what God can do through an ordinary person who is willing to be used by Him.

He lived in a time of relative affluence well after the civil war and subsequent split in the nation of Israel during the time of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. The nation’s wealth grew because of its location along the major trade route between Egypt and Syria. The moral climate, however, declined into selfish materialism where the rich oppressed the poor. Amos was commissioned to preach righteousness and warn of coming judgment by God, first against the northern kingdom (often called Ephraim, but sometimes called Israel) and also the southern kingdom of Judah, where the Davidic dynasty continued on.

The name Yahweh is mentioned 78 times in the book of Amos, and very pointedly: “The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens and has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, The LORD is His name” (Amos 9:6). Repeatedly, Amos appends to his proclamations, “Declares the LORD” or “Thus says the LORD” (Amos 5:3). Amos’ God, Yahweh, is authoritative over all.

Yet despite their heritage of the Law, the David kingdom and the prophets before Amos, God’s people continually strayed into idolatry. Amos rebuked them, “‘Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also carried along Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves’” (Amos 5:25–26). “‘Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,’ says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts” (Amos 5:27).

Few commentators give much time to this name of God, “Elohim Sabaoth,” which occurs only here in the Bible. Its significance is found, though, in the anticipation of God using the military of another nation to take Israel into captivity. (The term “hosts/sabaoth” is used mostly for military troops.) He is God of hosts (sometimes translated “God Almighty”), and He will use whatever means suitable for accomplishing His purposes, even punishing His people. Yes, sometimes God uses evil people and nations to accomplish His purposes.

Lord, God of hosts, I confess the idolatry in my life when I make other things more important to me than You.