Tekoa

Amos, one of the twelve minor prophets of the Bible, is an intriguing and powerful figure whose words resonate through the centuries.

His story begins in a small village called Tekoa, located about 10 miles south of Jerusalem.

Unlike many other prophets, Amos did not come from a priestly lineage or a major city.

He was a shepherd and a sycamore fig farmer, an ordinary man called by God to fulfill an extraordinary role.

By studying the context in which Amos lived, we gain a deeper understanding of the relevance and urgency of his message.

Before his prophetic calling, Amos lived a simple life as a shepherd and sycamore fig farmer.

He tended his flock on the hills of Tekoa and worked with sycamore trees, which produced a fruit similar to figs.

His occupation was humble but dignified, providing him with a modest livelihood.

entitled to impunity, beyond the law.

And it reminds me of the story that Amos told us about his times 2,000 years ago in the West Bank, in the hills of Tekoa.

And Bishop, I was reflecting on Amos' story.

He said that in his times, While they, the elite, trample on the poor, they build houses hewn of stone.

In occupied historic Palestine, known as present-day Israel, Palestinians have held daily protests against a Jewish settler outpost in the town of Majd al-Krum in the heart of the Galilee.

The outpost, mostly tents, was established last week by Jewish settlers from the Tekoa colony near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Middle East Eye says that the settler outpost was established after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced an election campaign plan to, quote, Judaize the Nakab and Galilee by bringing one million additional Jewish residents to the areas.

Smotrich said he wanted to extend the settlement, quote, revolution from the occupied West Bank to areas inside Israel where most Palestinian citizens of Israel live.

This is representing a significant escalation and turnout for the 1948 Palestinians because we have these settlement outposts and this herding, these West Bank settlement tactics being imported across the Green Line into, of course, the Palestinian majority towns within the 1948 borders.

So settlers linked to the Tekoa settlement near Bethlehem actually traveled north into the occupied Galilee and erected an unauthorized settlement in Majd al-Kurum.

Majd al-Kurum is in the upper Galilee.

And they used a plot of land leased by the JNF, which was nominally for livestock herding.

And, uh, even as I had great respect, and still do, for those of my friends who moved to settlements, who helped found settlements.

I have friends who founded, uh, helped found, uh, Tekoa, Shilo.

These are, you know, foundational places on the map.

And so there's nothing extraneous for me in this story.

[laughs] Amos, as we've heard, was a manual laborer from the poor southern kingdom of Judah.

He was from a village called Tekoa about five miles outside Jerusalem.

And God had sent him to the rich northern kingdom of Israel or Samaria, um, in about 760 BC.

The north had their own version of the historic religion of worshiping God.

Open your Bible to Amos chapter 1.

The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa, the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

He said, The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem.

The pastures of the shepherds dry up and the tops of Carmel withers.

We're going to read all of chapter one and even into a little bit of chapter two together.

So here it says in Amos chapter one, the words of Amos, who was among the sheep breeders 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.

And he said, The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem.

The pastures of the shepherds mourn and the top of Carmel withers.

But it begins in verse 1, the words of Amos.

We're introduced to him.

Amos was among the sheep breeders of Tekoa.

So here we see that Amos bred sheep.