The First Vision - The Locust Swarm (Amos 7:1-3).
In this vision ‘the Lord YHWH' showed Amos the forming of a huge swarm of locusts which devoured the vegetation of the whole land. Amos, a farmer himself, is horrified at the sight and asks that Jacob (Israel) might be spared because they are so puny that they will be unable to recover from it. At this YHWH ‘repents' and promises that it will not happen. Israel meanwhile were blissfully unaware of what Amos's intercession had saved them from.
Note the careful use of ‘the Lord YHWH' in order to bring out YHWH's sovereign activity in judgment, and ‘YHWH' as the covenant God and the One Who shows mercy.
‘Thus the Lord YHWH showed me, and, behold, he formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.'
The Lord YHWH showed Amos the first vision. It commenced with the formation of a huge swarm of locusts, larger than any ever known before, which took place after the king had received the benefit of the first ‘mowing' (gathering in of the initial growth). It would appear from this that the custom was for the initial growth to be reserved for the king as a kind of taxation (although it is not testified to anywhere else). Thus what would be destroyed would only indirectly affect the palace initially, but it would totally devastate the land and the people and ensure no food for the people as a whole, with no prospect of food in the future. The result would be death on a large scale, and the cessation of Israel as a nation. Amos would have seen swarms of locusts before, and the devastating effect on the trees and crops as they descended and stripped them bare, but we are quite clearly intended to see that this swarm of locusts was of supernatural magnitude like nothing ever known before.
The delay until after the initial growth was not because YHWH was showing sympathy to the king, but because it was the main crops which fed the people that were being depicted as subject to destruction. A double appearance of locusts would have been unnatural. However, there may be in this an indirect reference which would remind the people of how Joseph had stored up grain in the barns of Pharaoh so that when the huge famine came its effects fell on the ordinary people who were made destitute by it while the king gloated. Possibly here Amos is preparing for his declaration against the house of Jeroboam.
‘And it came about that, when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, “O Lord YHWH, forgive, I beseech you, how will Jacob stand, for he is small?” '
As Amos then watched in horror, the locusts ate up all the vegetation in the land, stripping the trees and the fields bare until nothing was left in the whole of Israel. Recognising that Israel could never recover from devastation and inevitable death on such a large scale Amos pleaded with the Lord YHWH for forgiveness for Israel/Jacob on the grounds of Israel's puniness. This plea reflects Amos's awareness that he could no longer plead the covenant, or the promises to their forefathers. He knew that the covenant was no longer valid for Israel because they had rejected it, and that such judgment was in fact the fulfilment of what the covenant had promised when such a rejection occurred. Thus he pleads with the Lord YHWH by emphasising the puniness of Israel. It was recognised that great kings revealed their greatness by their attitude towards the weakest in the land. And that was the basis of Amos's plea. Note that there is a direct contrast in the narrative between Israel's boast in its strength in Amos 6:13, and the declaration of its puniness here. Israel thought that it was strong an powerful, but Amos and YHWH knew that it was weak and puny.
‘Jacob' (y ‘qb) may have been used here instead of ‘Israel' so as to resonate with the verb (yqwm), although the thought may have in mind Jacob's ‘smallness' before he became ‘Israel'. As we have already seen the term is used throughout the prophecy in a chiastic pattern, thus:
a ‘The house of Jacob' who are to be testified against (Amos 3:13).
b ‘The excellency (pride, manifested wealth) of Jacob' which is hated by YHWH (Amos 6:8).
c ‘How shall Jacob stand?' because he is so puny (Amos 7:2).
c ‘How shall Jacob stand?' because he is so puny (Amos 7:5).
b ‘The excellency (pride, manifested wealth) of Jacob' whose works will never be forgotten (Amos 8:7).
a ‘The house of Jacob' who will nevertheless not be fully destroyed (Amos 9:8).
Thus the name brings out both all that is worst in Israel, and their puniness, and yet promises in the end that YHWH will show mercy, just as He had with Jacob.
‘YHWH repented concerning this. “It shall not be, says YHWH”.'
The consequence was that YHWH repented of what He had intended to do to His people and promised that it would not happen, thereby demonstrating His love and compassion towards them. It was not forgiveness, as the second set of visions will make clear. But it was a stay of execution and a deliverance from immediate and total destruction.
As always this is seen from man's viewpoint. Something initially prophesied would in fact now not happen. This apparently demonstrated a ‘change of mind'. God, however, Who knew the end from the beginning, had intended just such a situation from the beginning. (Compare how He sent Jonah to Nineveh to announce judgment, knowing that they would repent and escape the judgment, even though from Jonah's viewpoint it would look as though He had ‘changed His mind'). But the emphasis on His ‘repentance' was intended to remind His people of His good intentions towards them if only they would put their hearts right towards Him. It was an example for the people to follow. While the Muslim would resign himself and say, ‘it is the will of God' and expect no change in the situation, the Bible believer does believe that appealing to God can alter situations because of His personal interest in them.