THE STORYTELLER'S BIBLE
Act IV - The Prophets, Scene 6
Script by Bob Allen
For four voices

Scene 6

                                    1  3                              2

                                    4

VOICE TWO:            All of God’s prophets were men of courage, but few 

                                   possessed greater courage than Amos, a common farmer called by God to leave

                                   his native Judah to preach in a foreign country, the northern kingdom of Israel.

VOICE FOUR:         Do horses run on rocks?  Or do you plow rocks with oxen?  Yet you have turned

                                  justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.   The high places of 

                                  Isaac will be desolated and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste.  Then shall I rise up 

                                  against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

VOICE TWO:            Amos stood on his familiar preaching platform, an outcropping of rock just outside the gate of the city of Bethel, capitol of the northern kingdom and seat of government for King Jeroboam II.  Right in the middle of the crowd which gathered near to hear him stood one of the false priests of Bethel, a man named Amaziah.

VOICE FOUR:          King Jeroboam will die by the sword unless he repents.  God will give you into the hands of your enemies.  You will be carried away captive and never see the land of your birth again.

VOICE TWO:            Amaziah had heard enough.  Pushing his way through the crowd he entered the luxurious throne room of the king without waiting to be announced.

VOICE ONE:             Treason, O king.  Amos speaks treason.

VOICE THREE:        Is that prophet from Judah up here on another of his crusades?

VOICE ONE:             He’s telling the people that you have disobeyed God and that they will all be carried into captivity.  He is encouraging them to give up when our enemies attack instead of fighting them.

VOICE THREE:        Sounds like treason to me.  Tell him to go back to Judah where he belongs.

VOICE TWO:            Amos’ sermon still continued when Amaziah returned from the palace but the crowd had grown even larger.  The false priest pushed his way through the throng and interrupted the prophet.

VOICE ONE:             Go away, Amos.  Go back to Judah where you belong.  Eat your bread there and prophesy there.  You have no business preaching here in Bethel, this is the king’s city.  You are in the king’s court and I am the priest of the king’s chapel.  You can’t get away with preaching treason against King Jeroboam.  Go back to Judah.

VOICE TWO:            The prophet fell silent and stared at the false priest with eyes that burned like coals of fire.  Soon a hush enveloped the entire crowd as they waited for the prophet’s reply.

VOICE FOUR:          I was not born a prophet and my father was not a prophet.  I was a farmer who herded flocks and gathered the fruit from sycamore trees.  But God placed His hand on me as I followed the flock.  God told me to preach to the people of Israel here at Bethel.  If I were to quit prophesying, I would disobey God, and it is far more important for me to obey God than it is to obey either you or your wicked king.

VOICE ONE:             Treason!

VOICE FOUR:          What I am telling you comes from God Himself.  You tell me not to preach, but God tells me what to preach.  Your sons and your daughters will be killed by the sword, this city will fall to its enemies.  All Israel will go into captivity.

VOICE TWO:            Nothing Amaziah tried could stop the Prophet Amos from preaching his message.  And nothing could keep the Word of God from being fulfilled.  Within thirty years the nation had fallen to Assyria, and the northern kingdom disappeared into captivity, never to return.  The mouth of the Lord had spoken.