October 5, 2026
by Lisa Massotti
Today we revisit Amos 7:1-8:14. In last week’s blog, Clinton did an excellent job discussing the call of Amos and God’s call on our own lives. Like Clinton, I opted not to analyze each vision but rather will focus on a couple of takeaways I found during my study: prayer and discernment. There are some questions at the end for you to spend some time with in contemplation. Truthfully the longer I spend on this text the more I keep finding in it that prompts further reflection and I’m afraid this will turn into a novel if we don’t just jump on in, so here we go…
The way I spend the majority of my days is as a group insurance underwriter. My primary customer/partnership is our internal field sales and case management team. Some of the things they come to me and ask for are an easy, “Yes, we can absolutely accommodate that request.” Some things they come with cause me to raise my eyebrows (and hold my opinions on the outlandish request) and give a definitive, “No.” Between the easy Yes and the definitive No is the land of Maybe where things might be possible but might need a little more research, a little more back and forth. Included are some things that unless they are explicitly asked for, we aren’t just offering. They have to specifically say, “I would like this thing to happen.”
It seems there are times like this in our prayer life with God. Truthfully, it’s an endeavor that can make us more than a little crazy if we try to understand why God does or doesn’t give us the answer we earnestly seek. I’m not attempting to say this topic isn’t heavy with deep wells of grief that are left after hope fades. You aren’t alone in learning to live with answered prayers, but before you got to the point of knowing God’s answer, there was a period of time when there was still a chance. Still a possibility that God might change the outcome. In some instances, God does actually answer in the way we so desperately desire, working miracles or changing course. This is where we find ourselves starting in today’s passage.
At the beginning of Amos Chapter 7, when God revealed His first two visions to Amos, the response of the prophet was to appeal to God for forgiveness and God heard his cries. It’s a small part of the passage we’re in but something I just want you to take in for a moment before you breeze past it. Amos 7: 3 and 6 (ESV) both start by saying, “The Lord relented…” The simple herdsman turned prophet who received these visions petitioned God for a different outcome and God relented.
In the second book of Samuel in Chapter 12, we see David (at this point King) praying and fasting on behalf of his child in hopes that God might relent and spare his son. This was the child born out of his sin with another man’s wife. As soon as his son dies, David cleans himself up and has a meal. His servants are confused because they don’t understand why he is not fasting and weeping after his child’s death but only did so while he still lived. David’s response in verse 22 was to say, “because, Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me?” The answer might not be what we want in the end, but until that day comes, who knows? Prayer is powerful and while God has plans in place, we see in scripture where He listens to the cries of His people.
We move from prayer to discernment because, after relenting twice, God finally had enough and moved forward with His plan to judge Israel. Amos brought the messages from God to Amaziah who was the priest of Bethel. Last week, Clinton discussed the differences between the two men in more detail and I’d encourage you to read his blog if you haven't yet for more insight on Amaziah’s role. Here we have a priest who did not recognize the truth of God’s message when it was staring him in the face. Discernment is needed for the priest in this example but is something we should all seek in our day to day lives. Discernment in the context of our relationship with God relates to our perceiving/detecting that which God is trying to tell us; listening to God and recognizing what is truly from Him as truth. It requires us to be an active participant in this relationship with God. We as the church generally do this through prayer, scripture, and counsel together with other believers.
Good news! With practice, discernment can become easier, you can even teach this to children and youth. In The Message, John 10 says, “...The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won’t follow a stranger’s voice but will scatter because they aren’t used to the sound of it.” Did you figure it out yet? It’s Jesus. He’s the shepherd, we’re the sheep.
Amaziah as a priest of God should have been able to discern what God was saying through Amos as truth, but the fact that he could not and that he was more concerned with his earthly king was indicative of the sinful state Israel was in at that time. There wasn’t a right heart in Amaziah that sought and knew God’s voice, so it was no surprise that when Amos brought a word from God it would be so easily disregarded. The trajectory of the nation could have been different had not just the leaders of that time, but also the common person been taking time to know God’s voice and had been discerning what He was telling them.
We end with Amos Chapter 8 where God is foretelling judgement and spiritual famine. God will no longer act like everything is fine and calls out their mistreatment of the poor and He says there will be Word-thirst and God-thirst when His judgement falls. There’s too much to dive into that section today but what I will say is that it never ceases to amaze me when descriptions of how people acted hundreds of years ago reads like it could be a description of our own time.
This week, I ask that you take time to consider the following questions: