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The Book of Amos – Introduction – Chapter 1:1

“So mighty an earthquake and so great such as was not since men were upon the earth” – Rev 16:1

[Study Aired October 26^th 24]

The term “Minor Prophets” refers to the length of each Prophet’s prophecy and not to the importance of their divinely inspired messages. The spirit-led visions of all twelve prophets are approximately in chronological order, and they all speak to the Elect of God about the profound spiritual plan for the recreation of humanity. This glorifies God by our revelation that we, by his choosing, can perceive things spiritually, a truly enlightening, fearful, yet gloriously received earthquake-like revelation.

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you [Christ’s chosen Elect since the Cross] it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others [The masses, the world of Gog and Magog numbered as the sand of the sea] in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets [Before the holy spirit came to inspire interpretation of the same spirit] have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves [The prophets before the Cross], but unto us [those with Christ’s spirit] they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the holy ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels [Every person drawn to seek Christ and most not given to see and hear] desire to look into. 

The Elect of God, endowed with the spiritual understanding of Christ’s word, gazes in awe at both historical and future aspects of scripture. Inwardly they agonise how close, yet so far, their fellow Prophets of the Old Covenant were in their understanding that God Himself must come—unbeknownst to them—in the form of Jesus, who became the Christ. This divine intervention was necessary to recreate humanity in perfection, as God is perfect. The consistent intractability of the Lord’s own people, Old Israel, serves as a clear reflection of our decreasing struggles, illustrating that humanity is incorrigibly corrupt at every level and incapable of adhering to the Lord’s Commandments. That understanding had no greater impact on anyone more than the Minor Prophets, whose righteous spirit is paralleled by Elihu’s pent-up expression upholding his God-given righteous discharge; he says, “My belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles” – Job 32:19. That is how we see the Minor Prophet’s frustrating desire to understand that something far superior to the flesh’s ability to keep God’s Laws must eventuate for man to be at peace with himself being one with God. Consequently, their blackened understanding was equal to Solomon’s tortured quest in the Son 1:5-6 to understand the Shulamite, and consequently feeling like wine fermenting in new bottles that won’t burst forth understanding, but, if uncorked, would fountain such a volume of questions and hopeful truth, that it would be impossible (as it is) to recork their righteous ‘issue’ (H2231 – seminal discharge. From H2230 – 1. rain-shower, thunderstorm, flood of rain, downpour, rain-storm). The powerful parallel of that uncontainable understanding is what the Shulamite in The Song of Solomon portrayed in spirit. Solomon’s God-inspired design of Christ’s Bride soundly crushed Eve’s curse. She alone is given to ravish him, knowing he will ‘vent’ (Job 32:19) her Husband’s ‘wine’ of understanding that Christ understatedly “desired” to lavish in that day with her, his Wife – She ecstatically knew that she had been given the pearl of great price. She would similarly bring forth his fruitful and righteous’ issue’ in her for her enduring understanding, and that is why her first utterance in the SoS is, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine”! – Son 1:2.

At this point in studying the remaining Books of those Prophets, if you have read any one of the already presented studies of Hosea, Joel, Obadiah, Micah, Zechariah and Malachi, you should have a good understanding of the very same expressed outward destruction of our ‘old man’ for his transition to the New Man in Christ. Each hand-chosen Prophet of God, typically by nature, ministers his unique style of portraying Israel’s inevitable exile with uniquely striking gems of understanding for our spiritual enlightenment, and this is what is hoped to be extracted from our study in Amos. Nonetheless, I somewhat agonise over repetition, and as oxymoronic as it sounds, I shall try not to reiterate verbatim the same verses, yet I find it impossible as obviously the spirit inspired all twelve Prophets in his style, likewise to repeat closely the same message. And already, in repeating the verses above, I am gladly guilty. Why? Through repetition and incrementally, we drive out of our land the spirit of our first father, Satan (John 8:43-45), in transition to the New Man in Christ and order of headship in the Father.

Mat 23:9  And call no man your father upon the earth [for his apparent perfection in truth]: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Mat 23:10  Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

No AOL (Absent Without Leave), a third entity called the holy spirit – just two witnesses in Christ and his Father, and his Bride becoming the third, ironically as ‘one’ – 2Cor 13:1 … ‘In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established’.

Exo 23:29  I will not drive them [The “giants”, our traditional and unwittingly deluded doctrines] out from before thee in one year; lest the land [You and I] become desolate, and the beast of the field [Our family, friends we are leaving behind in Babylonian Christianity gnashing their teeth upon us] multiply against thee.
Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them [Their/our false doctrines] out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land [Christ, spiritually within]. 

Amos is a Prophet who, colloquially speaking, ‘calls a spade a spade’ (for non-English familiarity), meaning to expose a matter starkly as is. One such example Mike (Vincent) loves and we equally are entranced for its hiding in plain sight is, “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” – Amos 3:6. But, oh no, our former Babylonian selves would have said, “God allows evil!” ~ unwitting that statement saying God allows evil covertly says that he directly facilitates evil by his perfectly designed deceiving servant, Satan.

Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil [Hebrew: ra]: I the LORD do all these things.

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Evil Hebrew 7451: Ra`

– Phonetic: rah

– Definition: adj
bad, evil
bad, disagreeable, malignant
bad, unpleasant, evil (giving pain, unhappiness, misery)
evil, displeasing
bad (of its kind – land, water, etc) ].

Amos was a shepherd and sycamore fig farmer from Tekoa, a village about ten miles south of Jerusalem. Hence, he was inspired by the Lord to connect Israel’s waywardness to the rich spiritual significance of fruit and sheep (Amos 8:1-2).

Amo 7:14  Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
Amo 7:15  And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

Amos’ writings, as do all the Lord’s righteous prophets, emphasise his separation from the traditions of men the Israelites erotically preferred (representing ecstatic spiritual understanding) from their neighbouring tribes to juxtapose that God despises idolatry. As a regular layman, a shepherd (Herdsmen were traditionally despised as uncouth and illiterate) and orchardist and, therefore on the social ladder, a relative nobody, Amos, as do all the Prophets, fiercely expresses God’s message without concern for nationalised opinion. As with most other Prophets, he typically concludes his prophecies for greater Israel and the gentile world with immense hope. Yet, for the future Elect of God and they alone by God’s choosing, the realisation of receiving unspeakable honour and glory as Christ’s Bride.

The powerful theme of all eight chapters in The Book of Amos points to a unique and incredibly violent one-of-a-kind end-time “earthquake” that will be inflicted on every man since Adam. While there have been and will be many smaller earthquakes, both physical and spiritual, within the soul of mankind, the major impact from the earthquake of Christ’s return, as massive as it will be, will somewhat diminish over time; nonetheless, those under the rule of the Rod of Iron during the Thousand Year Reign will experience a dreadful foreboding and uncertainty about their future. Of course, Satan’s release from prison towards the end of that rule will embolden mankind to, once again, challenge God for his throne. Upon everyone’s inevitable death for such an enduring and audacious act, they will arise in the Resurrection to Judgement and then be impacted by that earthquake Amos speaks, superseding all earthquakes! Consequently, we will be studying only the first verse of the Book of Amos since it unfathomably introduces the final catalytic earthquake of Revelations 16:18, the ‘daddy’ of all earthquakes.

Significations of Amos Verse One

Amo 1:1  The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Wow! In that first verse, right out of the proverbial sheep-yard gate, a flood of exciting connecting inspirations flows like sheep inherently and highly amusingly skip through an open gate as if there is something only they see to leap over ~ as does the Bride! Once a large flock of sheep see a chance to get out through an open gate or hole in a fence, even sheepdogs are hard-pressed to stop the ‘flood’. (A very small flock of sheep intriguingly leaping link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wk9B8RGXDjw)

First things first, with the verse’s relatively unfamiliar name meanings, Amos, H5986 means,

`Amowc

– Phonetic: aw-moce’

– Definition: Amos = burden
a prophet of the Lord who prophesied in the northern kingdom; native of Tekoa in Judah near Bethlehem and a shepherd by trade; author of the prophetic book by his name.

From H6006:   1. to load, carry, carry a load a. (Qal) 1. to load 2. to carry a load b. (Hiphil) to lay a load on.

 

Tekoa H8620 means,

Phonetic: tek-o’-ah

– Definition: Tekoa or Tekoah = a stockade n pr m
a Judaite, son of Ashur and grandson of Hezron n pr loc
a town in the hill country of Judah near Hebron built by King Rehoboam of Judah, birthplace of Amos
a wilderness area where King Jehoshaphat of Judah defeated the people of Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir.

The Lord’s inspiration of holy scripture is often minimalistic in the expression of his word to paradoxically hide it from Babylonian enemies of the Cross. And so, he didn’t haphazardly inject a seeming inconsequential remark that Amos’s prophesies happened “two years before the earthquake“. Thus, the expression “the earthquake” evokes a dreadfully significant spiritual event. Outwardly, according to historical and today’s scientific evidence, that earthquake was uncommonly memorable! It is easy to do your own and more extensive research, and the following link has extracted accounts from the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology – https://armstronginstitute.org/319-amoss-earthquake-a-mountain-of-evidence

“Amos is one of the earliest prophets in the Bible to have a book named after him. Any direct evidence of the man himself is elusive (as with most biblical prophets, and understandably so). But as for what has become known as “Amos’s earthquake”? There are, quite literally, piles of evidence that show why such an event lived in infamy—under the name “the earthquake.”

As Dr. Steven Austin writes regarding Tel Gezer’s outer city wall: “[H]ewn stones weighing tons [were] cracked and displaced several inches off their foundation. The lower part of the wall was displaced outward (away from the city), whereas the upper part of the wall fell inward (toward the city) still lying course-on-course. This indicates that the wall collapsed suddenly.”

So great is the amount of evidence spread throughout the Levant, in fact, that scientists have determined that the epicentre was likely in Lebanon and that its strength was probably around a magnitude 8.2 (at very least a 7.8), with a Modified Mercalli intensity in Israel of 9. Dr. Steven Austin continues: “[This event] appears to be the largest yet documented on the Dead Sea Transform fault zone during the last four millennia. The Dead Sea Transform fault likely ruptured along more than 400 kilometres as the ground shook violently for over 90 seconds! The urban panic created by this earthquake would have been legendary.

According to biblical chronology, this quake happened sometime during the first half of the eighth-century b.c.e. Amos 1:1 and Zechariah 14:5 reveal that it took place during the reigns of Jeroboam ii of Israel and Uzziah of Judah—two kings whose reigns overlapped for a narrow 14-year window (Jeroboam the earlier king, and Uzziah the latter; 2 Kings 15:1). Furthermore, the historian Josephus writes that the earthquake happened at the time that Uzziah became a leper, further constricting the time frame to the very end of that 14-year period (2 Chronicles 26). Thus, depending on the chronology, the earthquake must have occurred during the 770s or 760s b.c.e., at the end of Jeroboam’s reign.

Besides the first verse of Amos (and several other references throughout his book relating to earthquake-like destruction), the Prophet Zechariah mentions the event in Zechariah 14:5: “Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake In the days of Uzziah, king of Judah ….”

The fact that Zechariah was a second temple prophet, writing some 250 years after the event, speaks to the magnitude and infamy to which it was held. Here [in the article, and for your further reading], he compares the earthquake to a prophesied end-time event prior to the coming of the Messiah.” [End of extract from Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology]

Richter Earthquake Magnitude

0.2 Not felt by people. Small.

2-3 Felt a little by people.

3-4 Ceiling lights swing.

4-5 Walls crack. Moderate.

5-6 Furniture moves.

6-7 Some buildings collapse. Major.

7-8 Many buildings were destroyed.

8 + A total destruction of buildings, bridges and roads. Very Severe. Every 100 years.

9 Very Severe. Every 300 years.

10 Super. Rarely. Every 1,000 years.

Each increase of one unit also represents the release of about 31 times more energy than that represented by the previous whole number on the scale. (That is, an earthquake measuring 5.0 releases 31 times more energy than an earthquake measuring 4.0.) In theory, the Richter scale has no upper limit, but in practice, no earthquake has ever been registered on the scale above magnitude 8.6. (That was the Richter magnitude for the Chile earthquake of 1960. The moment magnitude for this event was measured at 9.5.).

Increasingly, particularly in Old Covenant times, tribes and the known world fanatically guarded their idols with spooky devotion of appeasement just in case ill winds blew misfortune upon them for upsetting the gods (1Cor 8:5-6. Acts 19. Acts 17:23-31). Typically, the earthquake Amos speaks of must have generated tremendous fear in Israel for her growing number of ‘many gods’ wrath. “The earthquake” is indicative first of the end of Israel’s physical domination of the legendary Promised Land and secondarily yet primarily, most fiercely soon, hopefully in this age, upon Jews who say that they are Jews and are not inclusive of the entire world representing ‘The Great Whore’ of Revelations. That spiritual earthquake is a ‘one event to all mankind’ in his own time and order of calling that violently shakes them out of their beastly self-righteousness of presenting themselves as ‘god’.

Ecc 9:2  All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

2Th 2:1  Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our [the Bride alone!] gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2  [Paradoxically – ] That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 

It is the Lord’s own people chosen to go ahead of the world who are first shaken by that spiritual “so mighty an earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth” (Rev 16:18). It is we, just like ancient Judah, the Priests of God, who have done a greater evil in the world by not diligently keeping all our Lord’s Commandments. Therefore, because we act no differently than the nations around us, we, too, must suffer His wrath and be judged as the heathen are judged.

The outward coming of Christ will be a massive ‘earthquake’ to a Christless world that will be superseded by the “earthquake” of Amos 1:1, representing a far greater spiritual earthquake in the Lake of Fire. Its shockwave will reverberate around the world until all people acknowledge their sins and that the Father is the God of gods in order of Christ and ‘his Christs‘ preceding humanity (Joh 10:34-3-36), becoming like and as numerous as the stars of heaven. It will be an earthquake that will split the spiritually deluded ‘rocks’ within every man since Adam.

The greatest thermonuclear device ever detonated was the Tsar Bomb from Russia, which detonated in 1961 on Severny Island in the Arctic Circle. Its shock wave, registered on the Richter scale as 5-5.25, travelled three times around the world, with each wave overlapping in reverse upon each circumnavigation. Compare Amos’s and all of those earthquake shock registrations with the earthquake-like revelation of the Elects and, following, the world’s understanding in Rev 16:18.

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air [our spiritual understanding!]; and there came a great voice out of the Temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 
Rev 16:19  And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20  And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

(A refreshing of the first verse in Amo 1:1)

The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Hence, the phenomenally profound and hidden implications of Amos’s prophesy are indeed a “burden” (H5986) to his ‘natural’ understanding of ‘the earthquake’, first by condemning the world represented as Israel’s neighbours, who, with their similarity of idol worship, ironically, Israel, is directly aligned. Typically, the world doesn’t have any interest in a prophecy coming from that most vexatious nation, Old Israel (Rev 11:10), particularly from a despised herdsman among his fellow ‘herdsmen’, the other Minor Prophets. That dismissive mindset of Israel reminds us of the forty-two children (symbolising our former immaturity) mocking the Prophet Elisha of his commission to go up and prophase to Bethel and dying a terrifying death by two she bears (2Ki 2) for dishonouring the symbolic Elect of God’s witness.

The world, represented by Egypt, Sodom and Old Jerusalem, all symbolised as the coming exile to Babylon, is the “stockade” – H8620 sheep pen; ‘voice of an instrument’, (in this case, the voice of Amos), and is another ‘sheep pen’ of Israel, meaning gentiles and Gentile Christians outside the ‘Camp’ of the primary sheep pen represented physically as Israel. Since the Cross, Old Israel and Babylonian Christianity are one and the same, unwittingly endowed with the Lord’s indictment of being Jews who say that they are Jews and are not, still rejecting Christ and irritating the world by her self-righteous supremacy more outrageously to this very day! For the spiritual Elect of God, that is a beautiful earthquake of understanding of their former selves and draws vindictive hatred from family, friends and, in coming years, no doubt more intensely from the world for claiming to be Christ’s Christs.

Joh 15:18  If the world [Christians, and outward Jews who unwittingly say that they are spiritual Jews, and are not] hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 

There are two primary ‘sheep pens’: two women who represent churches: Old Jerusalem, which still answers to Mt. Sinai, and the New Heavenly Jerusalem, above. Of course, there are many ‘sheep’ in different sheep pens of all ethnicities and spiritually different languages, all controlled by the god of this world.

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

As much as the Jews who say that they are spiritual Jews and are not but hate Christ, our Lord is in the process of bringing them and all into salvation; hence, he says that he has sheep who “are not of this fold”, meaning not in the sheep pen of the Elect of God.

Joh 10:15  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Joh 10:16  And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 
Joh 10:17  Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
Joh 10:18  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Joh 10:19  There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
Joh 10:20  And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?
Joh 10:21  Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

Next in line for the coming earthquake-like fear is Judah, represented by righteous King Uzziah acting as Israel’s imaginary strength in Jehovah (H5818 – Uzziah = my strength is Jehovah) and spiritually on behalf of the Lord’s Elect today. They, the much later spirit-led Priests of God, his very Elect, finally understand the meaning of Rev 16:18, the most alarming earthquake the world, beginning with them, the few will ever experience (preceding the majority in the Lake of Fire), and never again!

Gideon’s vastly reduced army from 30,000 men chosen to fight a 132,000-strong Midianite army; Gideon stripped down to 10,000, and the Lord still further to 300 men, representing a mere one per cent for the Lord’s very Elect who fought and are today still fighting the greatest spiritual battle the world will ever historically see! (Jdg 6:11-15. 7:1-8).

The number 3, or 300 in Gideon’s army, represents the process of spiritual progression for the completion of judgment upon our old man.

Isa 40:26  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names (written in the Lamb’s book of life) by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

These 144,000 are “redeemed from the earth” and are “the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb”. These are what Paul calls “those who first trusted in Christ” (Eph 1:12) and have been “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavens” (Eph 1:3).

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 

Notice that the very Elect,  chosen to be the Bride, can be numbered (figuratively, as if God can’t number). The greater number leaving behind the ‘few’ are represented by those men in Gideon’s army, the 99% that the Lord said to send home from the coming fight with Midian. These returning home are characterised as Babylonian Christianity, Gog and Magog, the world, and, sadly, some of the Elect of God, the yielding sons of perdition not given to endure to the end their fiery chastisements. The remaining 1% are the very Elect of God, his Bride gloriously receiving His kisses better than wine.

Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Furthermore, the “two years” in Amos 1:1 represent the two witnesses, the ‘one per cent’, and the 300 men combining the Bride of Christ, who, at her Lord’s hand, precedes the thunderous orchestration of “the earthquake.” Jeroboam (H3379) means the people will contend, and that is precisely what Babylon has been unconsciously doing against the Lord’s symbolic Elect since Israel went into exile and to his very Elect since the cross.

Summary

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19  And the great city [Old Jerusalem within, Babylon the Great, the Great Whore, the Beast sitting on the throne of God stating that he IS god] was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 
Rev 16:20  And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found [every lying doctrine was ground to powder].
Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Hail washes away the refuge of lies.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

When the Lord said that he’d do a ‘quick work upon the earth’, relatively speaking, he has, beginning with his very Elect. That massive “earthquake” Amos speaks of points to the greater earthquake that no man has experienced or will ever experience again in Rev 16:18.

That “Earthquake” of Rev 16:18 is the Lord giving his Elect eyes that see and ears that hear his word and being given Christ’s faith and belief that utterly turns on its head every one of the 200,000,000 doctrinal lies of Babylon! Figuratively twice as big as the Tzar thermonuclear bomb, it is Amos’ primary theme that our subsequent studies will introduce Christ’s reverberating shock waves back and forth across our spiritual world every time we receive a gold nugget of truth!

Locusts spiritually signify the lies and false doctrines of Babylon in our heavens (mind), that for a time completely cover the earth and blot out all the true light (Exo 10:15). Below is a partial description from Revelation 9 that links these locusts to the father of all lies as Isaiah 9:15 (the false prophet being the tail) confirms. Rev 9:10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them
Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
Rev 9:9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
Rev 9:10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
Rev 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

By their very name, grasshoppers are linked to the earth and the flesh (Isa 40:6 – all flesh is grass) and speak to the secret or hidden sins that arise with our continued unbelief. Our failure to overcome these sins leads us to doubt the Word and lean on our understanding above Christ’s. The word for ‘grasshopper’ in Amos 7:1 is “gob” which is Strong’s number H1462, which is found in only one other verse. “Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great [H1462 grasshoppers H1462], which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun [Christ and his Christs] ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are” – Nah 3:17.

Num 13:33  And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers [H2284 – locust, grasshopper], and so we were in their sight. 

For the Lord’s Elect who are not given to endure to the end of their chastisements, understanding the “Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” is that massive and reverberating “Earthquake” that Amos and Rev 16:18 speak, there remains an even greater earthquake, yet, is the same earthquake now fully believed and understood, one of not being clothed in a wedding garment at Christ’s wedding reception.

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen. 

For those yet to fully understand the ‘earthquake’ of Amos and Rev 16:18, the following is a link detailing the primary magnitude Richter scale’s ten spiritual daddy of all ‘earthquakes’, titled “ESSENTIAL READING”; that term understates the sheer magnitude of “the earthquake” for those able to receive it:

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/essential-reading/

We thank God for first giving us to learn to tremble and shake most gloriously for his “Earthquake” of understanding, being made perfect as Christ is perfect through fiery trials.

Herein, this first verse of Amos 1 is the foundation for the remaining nine chapters of ‘earthquake’-like understanding alone, for the Elect of God.