Amos informs us that he was a shepherd who bred sheep and a fruit picker. He is not mentioned anywhere else. He was a simple man with no theological training, he was a farmer, but he was appointed by God as a prophet. There was a school of the prophets but evidently, he didn’t attend there. He was believed to be a contemporary of Hosea, Isaiah and Micah.
In chapter 7:14-15 He tells us plainly, “I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheep breeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’”
He came from Tekoa a city about ten miles from Jerusalem. It seems that he delivered his prophetic message at Bethel (Amos 7:13), one of the southernmost cities of Israel which was not far from Tekoa. His name means ‘burden’. He was a burden bearer, a worker burdened for the working classes. Vance Havner is quoted as saying, ‘God is on the lookout for a man who will be quiet enough to get a message from Him, brave enough to preach it and honest enough to live it’.
God invariably chooses a man who is busy – Moses and David looked after flocks, Elisha was a ploughman, Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen, Matthew was a taxman, later in time William Carey was a cobbler and there are many others.
