Tekoa was a small fortified town in the arid hills of Judah, a few miles south of Bethlehem, on the edge of the Judean desert. Its elevated position gave a view all the way to the lands near the Dead Sea.
The town first appears when Joab sends for a wise woman there to intercede for Absalom before King David. Later, Rehoboam fortifies it among the defense cities of Judah, and King Jehoshaphat gathers his army in the nearby desert before a victory God grants over the Moabites and Ammonites.
Tekoa is remembered above all as the birthplace of the prophet Amos, a simple shepherd whom God called to proclaim justice to Israel. Centuries later, Jeremiah uses the town’s name as a signal post ahead of the Babylonian invasion, and its residents help rebuild the wall of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah.
Tekoa’s story shows that God calls ordinary people, shepherds and residents of small towns, to tasks that mark the history of faith.
