Behind the men who shaped history are the heroes who forever changed it. In The Prophet, the fourth book in the Sons of Encouragement series, beloved author Francine Rivers illuminates the life of Amos. Francine examines the life of Amos and his relationship to Israel during its prosperous years. Amos's message--and his relationship with God--made him unpopular. But his challenge to those who were enjoying the blessings of prosperity was crucial then and is strikingly timely today as well.

The book of Amos holds a unique and central place among the canonical prophetic literature and presents a special array of issues for scholarly discussion. This book provides a thorough and balanced overview of the history of scholarship on the book of Amos, two essays that trace the history of scholarship and offer promising lines for further inquiry, a substantial anthology of readings of the multiple ways Amos has been analyzed and appropriated, an extensive and current bibliography, and notes on doctoral dissertations conducted in recent years. The result is a comprehensive compendium of resources for scholarly writing on the book of Amos.

Robert Coote describes the stages of growth of the book of Amos, discussing the process of the book's gradual formation. Chapter One introduces Coote's approach, rationale, and method for his analysis. Chapter Two deals with the oracles of doom, basically the oral legacy of the prophet himself. Chapter Three shows how the words of Amos were reactualized and composed in their seventh century setting. Chapter Four comes to grips with the book of Amos as a theological whole, as it now stands in the biblical canon. This book also serves as a useful resource for understanding pre-exilic prophecy because of the many similarities between Amos's message and other prophetic traditions which Coote highlights.

An investigation of the literary structure and rhetorical challenge that prompted the book's production. Moller argues that the book of Amos captures and presents the debate between Amos and his eighth-century audience. When read in the light of Israel's fall, the presentation of Amos struggling (and failing) to convince his contemporaries of the imminent divine punishment functions as a powerful warning to subsequent Judaean readers.

Bernhard Anderson has written a commentary that gives new perspective and clarity to the prophetic tradition and demonstrates the timely nature of the prophets' messages for today. 'The Eighth Century Prophets' treats the four Old Testament figures as a 'prophetic quartet' that produced a powerful and startling consensus about Israel's relationship to God and the world. The core of the prophetic message is shown to be both religious and political as Anderson describes and explains the great themes of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah: divine judgment, the present and the future, justice and mercy, the covenant, walking humbly with God, and waiting for God. Included is a bibliography and time chart of Eighth Century Israel.