In his first six oracles of Amos systematically articulates the specific sin of each nation and the resultant judgment. Then, without batting an eye, Amos turns his indictment to the hub of his prophecy, the nation of Israel. It has been suggested that Amos was just using the preliminary oracles against the nations to catch his true audience cheering on the judgment of their enemies before revealing to them that the very same sins exist in their nation. In much the same way as the prophet Nathan did to David, Amos is exposing the sin of the nations so that he could turn the finger to Israel and say, “You are the man.”
While it is true that the sins of the nations were outward sins of a cruel nature, they nevertheless stem from inward sins common to all. Like the nations, God sees our using of other people for gain, our broken promises, and our long-term bitterness against family members. He sees our ambition, our lurking memories of hatred. The very sins that Amos will expose in Israel we find in our own hearts and in the life of even faithful churches. They may not be the hardened sins of an unrepentant and faithless people, but they are the same sins nevertheless. Many of these sins are the result of our being squeezed into the mold of this world, so two things you can do guard against this are: 1) by the grace of God, pursue a lifelong task of transforming your mind through Scripture, and 2) insulate yourself from the false security of the quasi-Christian subculture.
