Read the Verses As They Are Dealt With in Class. (Teachers -- don't let the class get bogged down on anything for more than two minutes.) The Setting: It would be good to draw a diagram of the divided kingdom and make it clear that Amos is preaching to the northern kingdom. Q-1. Amos was from the southern kingdom of Judah, and was preaching to the northern kingdom. They were probably prejudice against him on that account also. Amos' Beginning: Q-1. The Lord will roar from Zion, even Jerusalem. Q-2. Fertility in the land will suffer as a result of God's intervention in judgment. * Teacher -- be sure to use a map if possible to point out Amos' pattern of talking about nations around Israel, north, then south, northwest, then southeast, etc., ever drawing closer to their homeland. -- page 2-- Q-3. (see scriptures) Damascus: Q-4 "threshed Gilead (the eastern side of the Jordan) with threshing instruments of iron." NIV "with sledges having iron teeth" (Whether they literally had done this very thing, or just a figure of speech that they had done just awful and terrible things we aren't sure, but this very type of thing was often literally done to one's enemies.) Gaza: 1:6-8 Q-5. Possible Comment: The "Human Rights" issue is a matter that God is concerned with. It is a moral and ethical matter. God is concerned about "slave trading" etc. and man's inhumanity to man. Tyre: 1:9-10. Q-6. Their brotherly covenant. Tyre was guilty of "covenant breaking." Get comments on Q-7 from the class! Edom: 1:11-12. Q-7. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, brother of Jacob, sons of Isaac, thus, cousins to the Israelites. Q-8. Get comments from the class on this question. Ammon: 1:13-15. Q-8. The Ammonites were also distant cousins of the Israelites. They were the descendants of Lot by one of his daughters. Q-9. They were guilty of killing pregnant women in the brutality of war. Q-10. Their motive was aggressive expansionism, they just wanted more territory. Moab: 2:1-3. The Moabites had desecrated the remains of an Edomite king. Just when they did this we don't have an record in the OT. The burning of the bones or corpse of one was a way of showing disdain. Judah: 2:4-5. Q-11. Judah had rejected the Law of the Lord. Though Judah claimed to be faithful (while the north went off into idolatry), her faithfulness was only in lip service if even that much of the time. The charge is not leveled against the gentile nations around because they had not been given God's law. (cf. Deut. 5:1-5) LESSON: Along with blessings come obligations. "...for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required ..." Luke 12:48. Israel: 2:6-26. Q-12. The subtle message for Israel was that just as God took the land away from the Amorites, he could take the land away from Israel and lead them into captivity, which very thing he did. Verse 13 ... Read. Q-13. This lesson clearly points out God's supreme place of control over nations. He controls their rising-up and their down-fall. Then and today! -- Windell Gann