The role of the prophet was to mediate between God and His covenant people by declaring God’s word and encouraging obedience to His requirements. They were guardians of the kingdom, seeking to hold kings and other leaders accountable to God for their actions. They can be regarded as enforcement mediators of the covenant, dedicated to maintaining the special bond that God had established with His people.

We know very little about some of the prophets, but the book of Amos, like his contemporary, Isaiah, is different. Amos tells us at the very beginning of his book that he was from Tekoa, and that his ministry was directed to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He dates it as being delivered two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king in Judah, and Jeroboam was king in Israel (Amos 1:1). This means his book is to be dated around 760 BC, though we have no way of determining the date of the earthquake with precision. There are three special things that we should learn from this book.
1. A prophet had to be called of God.
Amos did not come from Israel, but from the southern nation of Judah. “Go home to your own country,” was the message of Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, “earn your food there, and work as a prophet” (Amos 7:10–13). Amos had been a farmer until God directed him to go to the Northern Kingdom of Israel with his message.
Being a prophet did not depend on the family one came from or belonging to any guild of professional religious people. Rather, it depended on God’s sovereign call to serve as His spokesman. Prophets were raised up by God as the times required, and words were given them to speak to their audiences. Before God acted, divinely chosen messengers were entrusted with His word. The secret counsel of the Lord was communicated through His servants, the prophets.
2. The role of the prophets was connected with the covenant that God made with Israel.
The role of the prophet was to mediate between God and His covenant people by declaring God’s word and encouraging obedience to His requirements. They were guardians of the kingdom, seeking to hold kings and other leaders accountable to God for their actions. They can be regarded as enforcement mediators of the covenant, dedicated to maintaining the special bond that God had established with His people.
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Deuteronomy is concerned with the bond between God and His people. God acted in His gracious condescension, entered into a special relationship with them. He loved His people and redeemed them by His outstretched hand of power (see especially Deut. 7:7–9; Deut. 9:5–6; Deut. 14:2). At Sinai, He entered into this formal relationship with them. He drew near them and promised, “I will be your God, and you shall be My people.” Hence, the covenant was a bond between God and man, sovereignly imposed by God in His grace, whereby He and His people gave expression to their relationship in formal terms.

The book of Deuteronomy is significant in itself, but also because of the number of times it is quoted in the New Testament. The proclamation of Jesus and His disciples drew directly from it. Jesus quoted it in His temptations (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10) and reaffirmed its emphasis on an all-embracing love to God (Matt. 22:37–38). The Apostolic preaching in Acts draws heavily upon it, especially in pointing to the fulfilment of the word concerning the prophetic office in the person of Jesus (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22). At least seven New Testament epistles contain quotations from Deuteronomy, perhaps the most significant of these being in Galatians 3:10–14. Here, Paul writes that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of which Deuteronomy speaks (see Deut. 21:23) by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).
The name of this book in English, Deuteronomy, has come via Latin and Greek and means “the second law,” assuming that the reference in Deuteronomy 17:18 means exactly that. However, what that passage refers to is the king having a copy of the law for himself. The content of the book shows that it is not a second law but a renewal of the covenant made at Mount Sinai (called “Horeb” throughout Deuteronomy, except in Deuteronomy 33:2). It is linked expressly with the gracious promises God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (see, for example, Deut. 6:10–11; Deut. 7:7–9). It also marks the completion of the Pentateuch, with the emphasis on the partial fulfilment of the patriarchal promises just prior to Israel’s entry to the land that God had sworn to give them.
There are three special matters that readers should know about the book of Deuteronomy and its teaching.
1. Deuteronomy is a covenantal document.
As a covenantal document, Deuteronomy is concerned with the bond between God and His people. God acted in His gracious condescension, entered into a special relationship with them. He loved His people and redeemed them by His outstretched hand of power (see especially Deut. 7:7–9; Deut. 9:5–6; Deut. 14:2). At Sinai, He entered into this formal relationship with them. He drew near them and promised, “I will be your God, and you shall be My people.”
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