Amo 4:11 I have overthrown cities among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.
Amo 4:12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
Lighthouse:
2] It was in reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, not Israel. And it was used because the people in those cities, with the exception of those God saved, were sexually immoral, in many ways. Homosexuality being one of them. It was used in reference to them for all their wicked ways, for which God rained fire on them. So the term faggot can be used in reference to adulterers, sluts, whores, fornicators, and any other sexually immoral person.
Lighthouse..Amos only used Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of His exaxting His wrath on people who did not follow His ways...just as the people Israel were not , in their idolatrous worship ands indulgent living in the northern Kingdom of Israel. They broke their covenant with God and were going to suffer God's wrath for it.
The firebrand [ the 'faggot' / bundle of sticks] , Israel, were plucked [saved] from the fire of God's wrath before it was too late...the word 'firebrand' being a 'figure of speech'- not a missive to be hurled at people.
Sodom and Gomorrah used here in Amos was merely an example of 'how' God exacts His wrath on cities who persist in not following his ways...not used as an example specifically to highlight the 'homosexuality' that was rampant in those 2 cities. It was used as an example to say to Israel , "Watchout, because I [ God ] can destroy you, just as I did Sodom and Gomorrah!"
