Three-Legged Races and Other Wise Rhetoric

Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

Does a lion roar in the thicket when he has no prey?

Does he growl in his den when he has caught nothing?

Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set?

Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch?

Amos 3:3-5

Rhetoric: “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech” (online Oxford Languages). Amos is variously praised in the commentaries for his gifted writing. I was intrigued. When you want to get someone’s attention you paint a word picture for them, as the prophet effectively did. The Israelites were all familiar with the certainties in the questions above.

I especially loved Jennifer Rothchild’s modern day rendition of 3:3: “You can’t run in a three-legged race unless you and your buddy are going in the same way at the same pace.”* You immediately have a visual! And while the Israelites may not have known what a three-legged race was, they would get the picture.    

Once he had their attention Amos threw in the next couple of zingers: “When a trumpet sounds in the city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?” (3:6). Now they knew that God meant business. They had been warned: Hear this word the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt: “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins” (3:1-2).

How it grieved the LORD! It is as we tell our kids when we have to punish them: “This hurts me more than it hurts you.” You see, they were God’s chosen, His children, family.

God delicately balanced His wrath with His mercy in Amos’ day. He continues to do so now, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That truth and so many others are carefully crafted in the persuasive language of Scripture, be it rhetoric or poetry or prophecy or history. It would be wise indeed to agree to walk together with the Spirit (3:3) for life, in a three-legged race so-to-speak. 

Nancy P

*Amos: An Invitation to the Good Life, Lifeway Press, p.70

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted.