CHECKPOINT H

• Used with permission of Scripture Union, Adelaide South Australia. Copyright holder. Original edition (C) 1986.
• Designed for the Christian setting out to read the Bible for the first time.

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CHECKPOINT H Introduction to the selections from the prophecies of

Jeremiah and Amos ——– —- * Judgement and repentance * (Readings 83 to 89)

Meet two famous prophets – Amos and Jeremiah. We often think of prophets as FORETELLERS of the future. Some of them, at times, had that ability. However their main function was FORTH-TELLING! They spoke for God, thundering about things that needed to be put right. So, their message was often one of judgement and doom. However, the message of hope, repentance and new beginnings was never far from their lips.

Even today their criticisms have biting relevance to our own forms of injustice and idolatry.

JEREMIAH was God’s spokesman in the years prior to the exile in Babylon – 627 to 587 BC. He probably finished his days in Egypt. There is no clear pattern in the arrangement of the book. His chief theme is the failure of the Old Covenant (the Old Testament) and the need for a New Covenant based on an inward, spiritual relationship with God – which Jesus brought into existence.

About 150 years before Jeremiah AMOS fiercely attacked the injustices and complacency of the northern kingdom of Israel. Religion was formal and unrelated to life; a matter of privilege rather than responsibility.