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§ 6. The fifth vision displays the Lord standing by the altar and commanding the destruction of the temple (Amo_9:1). No one shall escape this judgment, flee whither he will (Amo_9:2-4); for God is Almighty (Amo_9:5, Amo_9:6). Their election shall not save the guilty Israelites; still they shall not be utterly destroyed (Amo_9:7-10).
Amo_9:1
I saw the Lord. It is now no longer a mere emblem that the prophet sees, but actual destruction. He beholds the majesty of God, as Isa_6:1; Eze_10:1. Upon (or, by) the altar; i.e. the altar of burnt offering at Jerusalem, Where, it is supposed, the whole nation, Israelites and Judaeans, are assembled for worship. It is natural, at first sight, to suppose that the sanctuary of the northern kingdom is the scene of this vision, as the destruction of idolatry is here emblemized; but more probably Bethel is not meant, for there were more altars than one there (Amo_3:14), and one cannot imagine the Lord standing by the symbol of the calf worship. Smite. The command is mysteriously addressed to the destroying angel (comp. Exo_12:13; 2Sa_24:15, etc.; 2Ki_19:35). The lintel of the door; τὸ ἱλαστήριον ; cardinem (Vulgate); better, the chapiter (Zep_2:14); i.e. the capital of the columns. The word kaphtor is used in Exo_25:31, etc; for the knop or ornament on the golden candlesticks; here the idea is that the temple receives a blow on the top of the pillars which support it sufficient to cause its overthrow. The LXX. rendering arises from a confusion of two Hebrew words somewhat similar. The posts; the thresholds; i.e. the base. The knop and the threshold imply the total destruction from summit to base. Cut them in the head, all of them; rather, break them [the capital and the thresholds] to pieces upon the head of all. Let the falling building cover them with its ruins. The Vulgate renders, avaritia enim in capite omnium, confounding two words. Jerome had the same Hebrew reading, as he translates, quaetus eorum, avaritia, as if giving the reason for the punishment. The overthrown temple presents a forcible picture of the destruction of the theocracy. The last of them (Amo_4:2); the remnant; any who escape the fall of the temple. He that fleeth, etc. All hope of escape shall be cut off.
Amo_9:2
The thought of Amo_9:1 is further expanded, the notion of flight being, as Jerome says, dissected. For dig, the LXX. reads, "be hidden;" but the expression implies a breaking through (Eze_8:8). Hell (Sheol) is supposed to be in the inmost part of the earth (comp. Psa_139:7, Psa_139:8; Oba_1:4). Take them. To receive punishment.
Amo_9:3
The top of Carmel. Among the woods and thickets. There are no eaves on the summit of Carmel. "Amos tolls us that in his day the top of it was a place to hide in; nor has it changed its character in this respect ... I would not have been prompted to place 'the top of Carmel' third in such a series of hiding places, yet I can fully appreciate the comparison from my own experience. Ascending from the south, we followed a wild, narrow wady overhung by trees, bushes, and tangled creepers, through which my guide thought we could get up to the top; but it became absolutely impracticable, and we were obliged to find our way back again. And even after we reached the summit, it was so rough and broken in some places, and the thorn bushes so thickset and sharp, that our clothes were torn and our hands and faces severely lacerated; nor could I see my guide at times ten steps ahead of me. From such biblical intimations, we may believe that Carmel was not very thickly inhabited". Other writers speak of the occurrence of caves and deep valleys in the Carmel range. In the bottom of the sea. Both this and heaven (verse 2) are impracticable hiding places, and are used poetically to show the absolute impossibility of escape. Serpent (nachash, elsewhere called leviathan and tannin, Isa_27:1), some kind of seamonster supposed to be venomous. Dr. Pusey mentions that certain poisonous hydrophidae are found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. and may probably infest the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Amo_9:4
Captivity itself, in which state men generally, at any rate, are secure of their lives, shall not save them from the sword (Le 26:33; Deu_28:65, etc. comp. Tobit 1:17, 18; 2:3, where we see that the murder of captives was not unusual). The prophet looks forward to the Assyrian deportation. For evil. The people are indeed subject to God's special attention, but only in order to punish them (Psa_34:15, Psa_34:16; Jer_44:11).
Amo_9:5
To confirm the threats just uttered, the prophet dwells upon God's omnipotence, of which he gives instances. He who will do this is the Lord God of hosts, There is no copula in the Hebrew here. (So Amo_4:13; Amo_5:8.) This title, Jehovah Elohim Zebaoth, represents God not only as Ruler of the heavenly bodies, but as the Monarch of a multitude of heavenly spirits who execute his will, worship him in his abiding place, and are attendants and witnesses of his glory (see note on Hag_1:2). Shall melt; σαλεύων ; comp. Psa_46:6; Psa_97:5; Mic_1:4; Nah_1:5. The expression denotes the destructive effects of the judgments of God. Shall mourn. The last clauses of the verse are a repetition of Amo_8:8, with some slight variation.
Amo_9:6
Stories; ἀνάβασιν ; ascensionem (Vulgate); upper chambers, or the stages by which is the ascent to the highest heavens (comp. Deu_10:14; 1Ki_8:27; Psa_104:3). His troop (aguddah); vault. The word is used for "the bonds" of the yoke in Isa_58:6; for "the bunch" of hyssop in Exo_12:22. So the Vulgate here renders fasciculum suum, with the notion that the stories or chambers just mentioned are bound together to connect heaven and earth. But the clause means, God hath founded the vault or firmament of heaven upon (not in) the earth, where his throne is placed, and whence he sends the rain. The Septuagint renders, τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν αὐτοῦ , "his promise." So the Syriac. The waters of the sea. The reference is to the Deluge (Amo_5:8; Gen_7:4, Gen_7:11).
Amo_9:7
Israel's election to be God's people should not save them, unless their conduct corresponded with God's choice. If they opened not, they were no better in his eyes than the heathen, their delivery from Egypt had no more significance than the migration of pagan nations. Here is a contrast to Amo_6:1, etc. The children of Israel were now no dearer than the children of the Ethiopians (Cushites). The Cushites are introduced as being descendants of the wicked Ham, and black in complexion (as Jer_13:23), the colour of their skin being considered a mark of degradation and of evil character. The Philipstines from Caphtor; from Cappadocia (LXX. and Vulgate). This rendering is mistaken. The immigration spoken of took place before the Exodus (see Deu_2:23; Jer_47:4); and Caphtor is either Crete (see Dillman on Gen_10:14) or the coast land of the Delta, "which was occupied from an early period by Phoenician colonists, and thus came to be known to the Egyptians as Keft ur, or 'greater Phoenicia,'" Keft being the Egyptian name of Phoenicia" (Monthly Interpreter, 3:136). Medieval Jewish writers identified it with Damiette. The Syrians (Arum, Hebrew) from Kir; τοὺς Σύρους ἐκ βόθρου , "the Syrians out .of the ditch"; Syros de Cyrene (Vulgate); see note on Amo_1:5. "Aram" here probably means the Damascenes, Damascus shortly before the time of Moses having been occupied by a powerful body of immigrants from Armenia.
Amo_9:8
The sinful kingdom. The kingdom of all Israel and Judah, the same as the house of Jacob just below, though a different fate awaits this, regarded as the covenant nation, whose are the promises. Destroy it, etc; as was threatened (Deu_6:15). Saving that. In spite of the destruction of the wicked people, God's promises hold good, and there is still a remnant who shall be saved (Jer_30:11).
Amo_9:9
For, lo! He explains how and why the whole nation is not destroyed. I will sift. Israel is to be dispersed among the nations, tried and winnowed among them by affliction and persecution, that the evil may fall to the ground and perish, and the good be preserved. The word rendered "sift" implies "to shake to and fro;" and this shaking shall show who are the true Israelites and who are the false, who retain their faith and cleave to the Lord under all difficulties, and who lose their hold of true religion and assimilate themselves to the heathen among whom they dwell. These last shall not return from captivity. The least grain; Hebrew, tseror, "pebble;" so the Vulgate, lapillus; Septuagint, σύντριμμα ," fragment." It is used in 2Sa_17:13 of small stones in a building; here as hard groan in distinction from loose chaff (Keil). The solid grain, the good wheat, are the righteous, who, when the chaff and dust are cast away, are stored in the heavenly garner, prove themselves of the election, and inherit the promises (comp. Isa_6:13; Eze_20:38; Mat_3:12). Fall upon the earth; i.e. perish, be lost (1Sa_26:20).
Amo_9:10
If any are to be saved, it will not be the sinners; they need not flatter themselves that their wilful blindness shall secure them. The evil shall not overtake. They lulled themselves into a false security, and shut their cars against the warnings of the prophets; but that would avail them nothing. Prevent; come upon suddenly, surprise.
Amo_9:11-15
Part IV. EPILOGUE. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW KINGDOM AND THE REIGN OF MESSIAH. THE KINGDOM SHALL EMBRACE ALL NATIONS (Amo_9:11, Amo_9:12), SHALL BE ENRICHED WITH SUPERABUNDANT SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS (Amo_9:13, Amo_9:14), AND SHALL ENDURE FOREVER (Amo_9:15).
Amo_9:11
In that day. When the judgment has fallen. The passage is quoted by St. James (Act_15:16, Act_15:27), mostly from the Greek, in confirmation of the doctrine that the Church of God is open to all, whether Jew or Gentile. The tabernacle (sukkah): hut, or tent (as Jon_4:5); no palace now, but fallen to low esthete, a "little house" (Amo_6:11). The prophet refers probably to the fall of the kingdom of David in the ruin wrought by the Chaldeans. Interpreted spiritually, the passage shadows forth the universal Church of Christ, raised from that of the Jews. Pusey notes that in the Talmud Christ is called "the Son of the fallen." The breaches. The house of David had sustained breaches under the hands of Jeroboam and Joash, and in the severance of the ten tribes at the hands of Assyriaus and Chaldees; these should be repaired. Unity should be restored, the captives should return, and another kingdom should be established under another David, the Messiah. Judah's temporary prosperity under Uzziah and Hezekiah would have been a totally inadequate fulfilment of the prophecy. Prophecies of the temporal and spiritual are, as usual, blended together and run up into each other. His ruins. The destroyed places of David! will build it; Hebrew, her. The whole Jewish Church (comp. Jer_31:4; Jer_33:7). As in the days of old. The days of David and Solomon, the most flourishing times of the kingdom (2Sa_7:11, 2Sa_7:12, 2Sa_7:16). In the expression, "of old," Hebrew, "of eternity," may lurk an idea of the length of time that must elapse before the fulfilment of the promise. Septuagint, Ἀνοικοδομήσω αὐτὴν καθὼς αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ αἰῶνος , "I will build it up as are the days of eternity." This seems to signify that the building is to last forever.
Amo_9:12
That they (the true children of Israel) may possess the remnant of Edom; i.e. those who were nearest in blood, and yet most hostile of all men. David had subdued the Edomites (2Sa_8:14; 1Ki_11:16), and Amaziah had inflicted a great slaughter upon them (2Ki_14:7); but later they recovered their independence (2Ki_16:6, where "Edomites" should be read for "Syrians;" 2Ch_28:17), and were actively hostile against the Jews. It was on this account that they were emphatically denounced by Obadiah. "The remnant" is mentioned because, according to the threat in Amo_1:11, Amo_1:12, they would be punished so that only a few would escape. The Septuagint gives , Ὅπως ἐκζητήσωσιν οἱ κατάλοιποι τὼν ἀνθρώπων , [ τὸν κύριον , Alexandrian], "That the remnant of men may earnestly seek the Lord," regarding Edom as a representative of aliens from God, and altering the text to make the sense more generally intelligible, This version, which reads "Adam," men, instead of "Edom," is endorsed by St. James. Which are called by my Name; "over whom my Name hath been called". This is closer to the Hebrew; but the meaning is much the same, viz. all those who are dedicated to God and belong to him being by faith incorporated into the true Israel. The Messianic kingdom shall be established in order that salvation may be extended to all hastens who embrace it. Saith the Lord; is the saying of Jehovah. This is added to show the immutability of the promise. The covenant God himself hath predicted it.
Amo_9:13
The prophet expatiates upon the rich blessings which shall follow the establishment of the kingdom. Under the figure of a supernatural fertility are represented the victories of grace (comp. Isa_11:6; Eze_26:10, etc.; Eze_34:25, etc.). The blessing is founded on the Mosaic promise (Le 26:5). The ploughman shall overtake the reaper. Ploughing and harvest shall be continuous, without sensible interval. The treader of grapes him that soweth seed. The vintage should be so abundant that it should last till sowing time. The mountains shall drop sweet wine. This is from Joe_3:18. And all the hills shall melt. As Joel says, "shall flow with milk," in this promised land "flowing with milk and honey." Septuagint, πάντες οἱ βουνοὶ σύμφυτοι ἔσονται , "all the hills shall be planted" with vines and olives. For, as Corn. a Lapide quotes, "Bacchus amat colles" (Virg; 'Georg.,' 2:113). The hyperbolical expressions in the text are not to be taken literally; they depict in bright colours the blessings of the kingdom of Messiah. Material and temporal blessings are generally represented as closely connected with spiritual, and as figurative of them. Such predictions, understood literally, are common in the so called Sibylline Books; see e.g. lib. 3:743, etc; where, among other prodigies, we have—
Πηγάς
"... nec vomere sulcus adunco
Findetur; subitis messor gaudebit aristis.
Rorabunt querceta favis; stagnantia passim
Vina fluent, oleique lacus."
Amo_9:14
I will bring again the captivity; i.e. I will repair the misery which they have suffered. The expression is here metaphorical, and does not necessarily refer to any restoration to an earthly Canaan. Shall build the waste cities (Isa_54:3). All these promised blessings are in marked contrast to the punishments threatened (Deu_28:30, Deu_28:33, Deu_28:39; compare similar premises in Isa_65:21, etc.).
Amo_9:15
The blessing shall last forever. They shall no more be pulled up. This was not true of the literal Israel; it must be taken of the spiritual seed, planted in God's land, the Church of Christ, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. "Lo," says Christ, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Mat_28:20)
I. THE GOD OF ISRAEL STANDING ON AN IDOL ALTAR. Not the altar of God at Jerusalem, but the altar for calf worship at Bethel, is probably here referred to. God's standing on the idol altar is not for purposes of fellowship. That would be a moral impossibility. "What concord hath Christ with Belial? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" Not light and darkness are less compatible, not fire and water more inherently antagonistic, than the great God, who "is all in all," and the idol which is "nothing in the world." Neither is it in token of tolerance. Between the two can be no peace, no truce, no parley. "God is a jealous God," and can have no rival. His sovereignty and supreme greatness make him necessarily intolerant here. There can be no Dagons on any terms where the ark rests. It is for purposes of destruction only. "There, where, in counterfeit of the sacrifices which Cod had appointed, they offered would-be-atoning sacrifices and sinned in them, God appeared standing, to behold, to judge, to condemn" (Pusey). When God approaches sin, it is only to destroy it. Sometimes be destroys it in saving the sinner; sometimes the sin and the sinner, hopelessly wedded, are destroyed together.
II. IDOLATERS' JUDGMENT BEGINNING AT THEIR IDOL SHRINE. "Smite the lintel," etc. This is the natural course. The lightnings of judgment strike the head of the highest sin, and strike it in the provision made for its commission. And there is a fitness in this Divine order. 1. It stops the worship. With the appliances destroyed, the observances could not go on. The interruption of sin is an intelligible and appropriate object of Divine judgment. The most effectual punishment of criminal indulgence is a visitation that stops it perforce. If not cured, at least the evil is stayed. 2. It regals the Divine hand. Two plagues had passed on Egypt without any very deep impression having been made. But when Moses smote the dust, and it became lice on man and beast, the magicians said unto Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." The miracle stopped at once the entire ceremonial of their national worship by making all the priests unclean. The idols were confounded, and Jehovah's power revealed. When a man finds his sufferings in the seat of his sins, he has materials for identifying them as the visitation of God.
III. THIS JUDGMENT FOLLOWING THEM INTO ALL THEIR RETREATS. (Amo_9:2, Amo_9:3.) Driven in terror from their idol shrines, men seek escape in diverse ways, according to their diverse characters and surroundings. but it is a vain quest. The God who is omnipresent to infallible saving effect in the case of his saints (Psa_139:8-12) is so also to the inevitable destruction of the ungodly. One climbs the heaven of proud defiance, to be brought ignominiously down (Jer_49:16; Oba_1:4). Another "breaks through into the hell" of abject fear and self-abasement, to be dragged forth into the intolerable light. The Carmel of philosophic nescience presents no cave or grove impenetrable by the hounds of righteous judgment. Even the sea of deeper sinful indulgence has a serpent of avenging providence in its depths, from whose bite there is no escape.
IV. THIS JUDGMENT REACHING THEM THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF ALL NATURAL CAUSES. The "sword," as representing human agency, and the "serpent," as representing the agency of natural causes, are both set in motion by God's command. The causes of nature are to God as the bodily organs to the brain, viz. servants to do his bidding. He "acts himself into them." Human wills are accessible to the will of the Supreme, and move with it as the tides with the circling moon. The Assyrian warring against Israel for his own reasons is, nevertheless, the rod of his anger in the band of Israel's God. This fact gives moral significance to many events that seem purely natural. The drunkard's bloated body, the sensualist's shattered health, the spendthrift's ruined fortunes, are results of natural laws, it is true, but of these directed and combined by supernatural power, and accomplishing Divine moral ends. The evil that comes through nature comes from its God.
Amo_9:4
I. GOD'S EYE FOLLOWS THE WICKED. In one sense his "eyes are upon the righteous" (Psa_34:15). On the wicked they rest in a very different sense.
1. In heedfulness. Divine omniscience is an uncomfortable fact which the wicked try not to realize. "They seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord." Their whole aim is to get away from him; to be able to think thoughts he shall not know, and cherish desires he shall not sift, and do works he shall not observe (Joh_3:20; Isaiah cf. 27). But the project is futile (Jer_23:24; Psa_33:13; Pro_15:3). God is everywhere, sees everything, fills heaven and earth. No dispensation of inadvertency is possible. God will not ignore. He cannot be inattentive. Events of whatever kind, and everywhere, are infallibly submitted to his cognizance as the movements of the clouds above are faithfully mirrored in the glassy lake. He fills all things, and all that happens happens in his presence.
2. In perfect insight. "I the Lord do search the heart." Noticing things, God sees them through and through, discerns their character, and appraises their moral value. The mind and heart of man are no mystery to him. No slightest motion of either eludes his perfect knowledge. The purpose before it comes forth in action, the thought before it has matured into a purpose, the fancy before it has taken shape in evil desire,—all these are open to his eye. Even to the heathen he was totus oculus, a Being "all eye." He knows all things eternally, immeasurably, immutably, and by a single act; and men and their works and words and wishes are continually in his sight.
3. In uncompromising displeasure. God is passible. He can be affected by the actions of his creatures. His possession of genuine character ensures his genuine feeling. The moral perfection of that character ensures his feeling appropriately. "There must be so much or such kind of passibility in him that he will feel toward everything as it is, and will be diversely affected by diverse things according to their quality" (Bushnell). Therefore "he is angry with the wicked every day." Sin is to him as smoke to the eyes and vinegar to the teeth. It pains him inevitably, and leads to that infinitely pure recoil of his nature from evil, and antagonism to it, in which his wrath consists.
II. GOD'S INFLUENCES FOLLOW HIS EYE. "I set mine eye upon them for evil," etc. God's look brings evil consequences where it falls on evil things.
1. To feel is faith God to act. Much human feeling comes to nothing. No action is taken on it. Its very existence may remain unspoken. Not so with God. It is a result of his perfection that his mental or moral attitude toward any object is his active attitude toward it also. Disposition associates itself inevitably with suitable action. Feeling against sin, he must also act against it. His very feeling is equivalent to action, for his volition is power, and to will a thing is to bring it to pass.
2. God's action exactly answers to his feeling. If he regard sin as evil, he will not treat it as good. His attitude towards it must be one all round, and therefore rigorous all round. And so it is. Whatever mystery may be about certain cases, there is no mystery about the connection between all suffering and sin. In sickness, in sorrow, in anxiety, in doubt, in all forms and degrees of pain, God's eye and hand are on sinners for evil. Until sin becomes congenial to his nature, it cannot become satisfactory to the sinner.
III. GOD'S MERCY WARNS THE SINNER OF BOTH. He makes no secret of his attitude and way in reference to sin. Both are made known to those whom they most concern.
1. This course is merciful. It gives the sinner an advantage. He sees the moral quality of sin as hateful in God's sight, and its inevitable result as provoking his hostile action. He can neither sin ignorantly nor incur the penalty unawares. Forewarned, it is his fault if he is not forearmed.
2. It is moral. It tends to deter from sin, and so to save from its penal consequences. The thought that it is under God's eye ought to make sin impossible, and does make it more difficult. The knowledge that it ends inevitably in ruin does much to stay the transgressor's hand.
3. It is judicial. Sin done consciously under God's eye, and deliberately in defiance of his wrath, is specially guilty. The warning which being heeded might have deterred from sinning will greatly aggravate the guilt of it if disregarded. The truth will be, as we treat it, a buoy lifting us out of the sinful sea, or a millstone sinking us deeper in its devouring waters.
Amo_9:5, Amo_9:6
I. GOD'S NAME REVEALING HIS CHARACTER. This is the object of a name. It distingnishes the bearer from others, and this by expressing some leading characteristic.
1. The Lord. This is the word invariably substituted by the Jews for Jehovah in the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is a name of authority, and means "the supreme Lord." The Lord is over all. He is Governor and Judge in one. He does as it pleases him. He disposes of all matters, and settles all interests without appeal. He reckons with none, and none can call him to account.
2. Jehovah. This is a verb, third person, signifying "he is," and another form of the name "I am," by which God revealed himself to Moses. Its root idea is that of "underived existence;" then, as arising out of this, "independent action;" and then, as the corollary of both, "eternity and unchangeableness" (see Fairbairn). It is thus the proper name of God to man; self-existent himself, the Author of existence to all persons and things, and manifesting his existence to those capable of knowing it. Jehovah is the concrete and historical name of God. As revealed by it, he exists by his own energy, and makes to be all things that are. Absolute and undetermined, he determines absolutely all things outside himself. Unseen and invisible, he comes forth—concretes himself, as it were—in the works which his hands have made.
3. Jehovah of hosts. This title appears first in 1Sa_1:3, and, as has been remarked, "simultaneously with the foundation of the Jewish monarchy." It may mean Lord of (Israel's) armies (Psa_44:9), or of celestial beings (Psa_148:2), or of the heavenly bodies (Isa_40:26), or, more probably, of all three. In this wide sense we "see in the title a proclamation of the universal sovereignty of Jehovah, needed within the nation, lest that invisible sovereignty should be forgotten in the visible majesty of the king; and outside the nation, lest Jehovah should be supposed to be merely a national deity" (Kirkpatrick, on 1 Samuel). This is the God whose eye is for evil on Israel—God supreme, God absolute, and God in special relation to the hosts of Israel who had forsaken him, to the heavenly bodies which they worshipped, and to the angel hosts, the ministers to do his will on those whom he would visit in wrath.
II. GOD'S OPERATIONS REVEALING HIS WAY. What God does is a criterion of what he can do. His all-pervading activity will include in its sweep the accomplishment of the destiny again and again announced.
1. He occupies the sky. "Who buildeth his stories," etc. There were, according to a rabbinical theory, seven heavens, the seventh containing the throne of the Eternal, symbolized by Solomon's throne of ivory and gold, the six steps leading up to which symbolized in turn the six celestial regions below the highest heaven (1Ki_10:18-20). In terms of this mystic theory is the expression, "stories of the heaven." Heaven is conceived of as a giddy height, approached by aerial steps or stages, all of them the handiwork of God. He stands on the "cloud-capped towers." He dwells in the "airy palaces." He walks on the "fleece-like floors." He makes the different levels of the firmament steps between his throne and the earth below.
2. He metamorphoses the earth. (1Sa_1:5.) God's word brought order out of chaos at first. "He spake, and it was done," etc. By the same word, turning order into chaos again, shall all things be dissolved (2Pe_3:10, 2Pe_3:11). It is little for the word that makes and unmakes, that created and will dissolve the frame of nature, to move in earthquake upheaval the solid crust of earth till it mimicks the roll of the sea, or "Nile's proud flood" in its rise and fall.
3. He distributes the waters of the sea. The sea is the most stupendous natural object. There is majesty in all its moods, and awe in its very presence. Hence in the mythology a god was allocated to it, brother to Zeus, the god of heaven and earth, and second only to him in power. And God's "way is in the sea." He rules its waves. He regulates its myriad currents and restless tides. Its great throbbing pulse beats but at his will. He holds its waters in the hollow of his hand, and concentrates or disperses them as it pleases him. He is a God, then, "whose wrath is terrible." Every force of nature he not alone controls, but wields an instrument of his will. In Amo_5:8 the same fact is plod as an inducement to seek his favour, which here appears as a reason to dread his wrath. As the same locomotive will drive the train before it or draw it after it at the engineer's will, so the fact of the omnipresent energy of God is fitted alike to alarm and to attract, but in either case to bring the sinner to his feet.
III. PHYSICAL CONVULSIONS THE COUNTERPARTS OF MORAL CONVULSION. Events in the two worlds happen according to similar if not identical laws. To a discriminating eye, the one set rises up in the likeness of the other, created so by God. "He daily buildeth his stories in the heavens when he raiseth up his saints from things below to heavenly places, presiding over them, ascending in them" (Pusey). "He toucheth the earth, and it melteth;" when he stretches out his hand in wrath on its inhabitants, and men's hearts fail them for fear. "He calleth to the waters of the sea, and poureth them out over the earth," when he makes the wicked the rod of his anger to overrun and vex society (Psa_93:3, Psa_93:4). Verily the God who makes the heavens his throne, the earth his footstool, the elements his playthings, and men and angels his ministers, is a Being in whose favour is life and whose power is terrible.
Amo_9:7-10
I. APOSTATE ISRAEL CAN ONLY TAKE RANK WITH THE HEATHEN IN GOD'S ESTIMATION. National election was, no doubt, a pledge of national preservation, but only in connection with national faithfulness; for:
1. A spiritual relation with the unspiritual is impossible. "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?" It is a moral impossibility. They are moral opposites and incompatible in the nature of things. Becoming assimilated to the heathen, Israel contracted themselves out of the covenant, and became "afar off," even as they.
2. A relation, when it is repudiated on either side, virtually terminates. Israel had said, "We will not have this Man to rule over us;" and the relation of favour on the one side and fealty on the other could not survive the step. God must cease to be their God when they ceased to be his people. "God chose them that they might choose him. By casting him off as their Lord and God, they cast themselves off and out of his protection. By estranging themselves from God, they became as strangers in his sight" (Pusey).
3. Acts done because of a spiritual relation existing lose their meaning when it is broken off. "Have I not brought Israel," etc.? They might think that, after bringing them out of Egypt, God Could never disown them, however unfilial and unfaithful. But had not the circumstances of their idolatry and corruption altered the ease? Theirs was not the only exodus. He had brought "the Philistines out of Caphtor, and the Syrians out of Kir;" yet these nations were aliens, and to be destroyed (Amo_1:5). If Israel conformed itself to these in character and way, then Israel's exodus would lose its significance, and be no more than events of a like kind in their distant past. What the father did for the son is no binding precedent for the case of the prodigal.
II. ACCORDINGLY, ISRAEL SHALL FARE AS THE HEATHEN DO WHO FORGET GOD. Grouping Israel like to like with heathen, God's attitude must be the same to both. They shall be treated:
1. As the objects of God's displeasure. He is angry with the wicked every day. He is angrier with those of them who sin against light and privilege. He is angriest with the spiritual renegades whose disaffection is guilty in proportion to the strength of the ties it sets aside.
2. As the victims of his destroying judgments. (Verse 8.) "And I will destroy it off the face of the earth." Strange words from a God visibly in covenant. But the covenant was broken. The theoretically "holy nation" was actually a "sinful kingdom." Israel's character was not the character to which covenant promises referred. Heathenish in corruption, what but the bolts forged for their pagan kin could fall upon their heads?
3. This in the character of defiant transgressors. (Verse 10.) "Not because they sinned aforetime, but because they persevered in sin until death" (Jerome, in Pusey). Sin may be forgiven, but impenitence never. The unpardonable sin is unforsaken sin.
III. THE JUDGMENT THAT SHALL DESTROY THE WICKED MASS SHALL LEAVE A. RIGHTEOUS REMNANT. (Verse 8.) "Except that I shall not utterly destroy the house of Jacob." God ordains no indiscriminate destruction. His bolts strike his enemies. Of his friends:
1. Not one shall perish. "Not even a little grain falls to the ground." The Divine nature, of which the righteous are partakers, is indestructible. The life of the saint is a living Christ within him (Gal_2:20). Christ "is alive forevermore" (Rev_1:18), and says to all in whom he is as their life, "Because I live, ye shall live also." In a mixed community the righteous sometimes die for the fault of the wicked; but their death is precious in God's sight (Psa_116:15), and "not an hair of their head shall perish."
2. They shall be sifted out of the mass. (Verse 9.) In these graphic words the righteous minority are corn, and the corrupt masses the chaff. The nations are the sieve, and the Divine judgments the shaking of it. The result is not destruction of the grain, but separation between it and the chaff. "In every quarter of the world, and in well nigh every nation in every quarter, Jews have been found. The whole earth is, as it were, one vast sieve in the hands of God, in which Israel is shaken from one end to the other.... The chaff and dust would be blown away by the air;… but no solid corn, not one grain, should fall to the earth" (Pusey). So in other cases. God's judgments winnow men, discerning clearly between clean and unclean. When the storm is over, the seaworthy vessels are easy of identification, for they alone survive.
3. Their own sinfulness shall be sifted out of them. "What is here said of all God doth daily in each of the elect. For they are the wheat of God, which, in order to be laid up in the heavenly garner, must be pure from chaff and dust. To this end he sifts them by afflictions and troubles" (Pusey). Suffering is not purifying per se. But the suffering of the righteous is (Heb_12:11; 1Co_4:17). It subdues the flesh, deepens our sense of dependence on God, spiritualizes our thoughts, and tests, and by testing strengthens, faith (1Pe_1:7). In the night of suffering come out the stars, guiding, consoling, irradiating the soul.
"Then fear not in a world like this,
And thou shalt know ere long—
Know how sublime a thing it is
To suffer and be strong."
Amo_9:11, Amo_9:12
I. THE RESTORATION OF DAVID'S HOUSE. David's house here is not merely the dynasty of David, but the kingdom of David, and this as a type of the kingdom of Christ. Its restoration, in the ultimate sense, is accomplished only in the establishment of the Messianic kingdom which it symbolized. "The raising up of the fallen hut of David commenced with the coming of Christ and the founding of the Christian Church by the apostles" (Keil). Interpreting the passage thus, the rabbis adopted "the Son of the fallen" as one of the titles of Christ.
1. This house has degenerated into a fallen hut before its true dignity is reached. Judah shrinks into a petty province, the royal line is represented by a carpenter's wife, and the Jewish Church is a little flock with many a black sheep, ere the set time to favour Zion comes. "Strange comment on human greatness, that the royal line was not to be employed in the salvation of the worm until it was fallen. The royal palace had to become the hut of Nazareth ere the Redeemer of the worm could be born, whose glory and kingdom were not of this world" (Pusey).
2. Its restoration will be to a state of ideal perfection. The "breaches" would be repaired, and the "ruins" rebuilt, with the effect of making it "as in the days of old;" i.e. restoring it so as to embody the original design. This restoration to an as yet unrealized ideal could be only spiritual, and the Restorer Jesus Christ. The "hut" into which the "palace" had deteriorated (2Sa_5:11) was transformed into a far more glorious structure when Christ sat "upon the throne of David to order it," etc. (Isa_9:7; Luk_1:32, Luk_1:33). The ideal of the Davidic kingdom is realized in the Christian Church; there fully, and there only.
3. This restoration will be a work of Divine power. "In the days of these kingdoms shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed" (Dan_2:44). The Church, composed of Spirit-quickened men, is the creature of God as no political kingdom can be. Redeemed by Jesus Christ, quickened by the Holy Ghost, made one in the white heat of heavenly grace, it is altogether a Divine thing. Every energy it has is God-given; every grace is Spirit-wrought. In this is the special glory of the Jerusalem which is above. And when, among the ruins of a Hebrew monarchy, there rises, radiant in the beauties of holiness, the kingdom of our God, then indeed the bricks are changed to hewn stones, and the sycamores to cedars, and the palace of David is rebuilt as in the days of old.
II. THE WIDE CIRCLE OF INTERESTS TO BE ADVANCED BY THIS RESTORATION. "The restoration was not to be for themselves alone. No gifts of God end in the immediate objects of his bounty and love. They were restored in order that they, the first objects of God's mercies, might win others to God" (Pusey). Those brought in were to be:
1. Gentiles as well as Jews. (Amo_9:12.) James, in his speech at the council of Jerusalem (Act_15:14-17), declares the fulfilment of this prophecy in the calling of the Gentiles. Edom, as the nation most hostile to the Jews and furthest from David's house, is put by a natural figure for the whole Gentile world. The "remnant of Edom," whether mystic or natural, are the few called in each case out of the many (Mat_20:16; Amo_1:12). "All the nations," etc; is a fuller and more literal statement of the ingathering of "the fulness of the Gentiles," when God brings his sons from afar, and his daughters from the ends of the earth. The gospel kingdom is to be the universal kingdom, "filling the whole earth," covering it with the knowledge of God, and making it, as the home of righteousness, a transfigured place.
2. The Gentiles by means of the Jews. "That they may take possession," etc. It is in Abraham and his seed that the nations are blessed. In our spiritual freedom and fulness of privilege we may not forget that Christ who founded the Church, the apostles who preached the kingdom of God and organized it, and the holy men who wrote the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, were, almost without exception, Jews. It is thus that "out of Zion has gone forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." To those we owe to the Jews there are no earthly obligations parallel, and the time of their graffing in again is one for which by every tie we are bound to pray.
3. Both these in virtue of a Divine appropriating act. "And all the nations upon which my Name is called;" i.e. appropriated, or marked as God's own (Gen_48:16; Deu_28:9, Deu_28:10; Jer_15:16). Those whom God saves are such as he has graciously chosen to be his own. "Whom he did foreknow them he also called." Salvation is the evolution of an external plan, which in turn is the expression of Divine electing love.
III. GOD'S PURPOSE IN THIS MATTER POTENTIALLY A FACT. "Saith Jehovah who doeth this."
1. The Divine energy is the efficient cause of events. Second causes are not independent of or coordinate with the First Cause, but the instruments in its bands. Behind all and in all is the Divine Omnipotent energy, the ultimate cause, direct or indirect, of whatever is.
2. The Divine word pledges the exercise of this Divine energy. God's word is absolute truth. It cannot be broken. If it goes before, the corresponding act will follow. As well divorce the lightning from the thunder as the work from the word of God. When he says, and what he says, and as he says, he does infallibly.
3. The Divine will constitutes the Divine energy. God wills all things into existence. His choosing that a thing shall be brings it to pass. What a source of unfailing consolation is this fact to the gracious soul! Its rich future is assured. Omnipotent power and unchanging truth have the issue in hand, and miscarriage is not to be named.
Amo_9:13-15
I. A TIME OF TEEMING PLENTY. Figures of unheard of fertility and abundance are multiplied.
1. Seed time and harvest should overlap. "The ploughman shall overtake the reaper," etc. With a certain difficulty of defining the exact idea here, the general purport of the language is plain. The teeming crops could scarcely be gathered till another seed time had come, or else growth would be so quick that the harvest would begin as soon as the seed time was over. So Shakespeare—
"Spring come to you at the farthest
In the very end of harvest."
This rich promise was not now recorded for the first time. Conditionally on obedience, it had been made by the mouth of Moses seven centuries before (Le 26:5). But, absolutely made, it assumes a new value now. And as the events in it are altogether impossible in the natural world, it must obviously be taken in a spiritual sense. The plenty, like the previously threatened famine (Amo_8:11), was not to be one of bread and water, but "of hearing the words of the Lord." In the spiritual sphere the seed time and the harvest may come together. The man who goes forth with seed may return with sheaves (Psa_126:6). Indeed, the Samaritan fields were "white unto harvest" (Joh_4:35), when, as yet, the sowing had only begun. In such a case poetic figure becomes literal truth, and Zion, as soon as she travails, brings forth (Isa_66:7, Isa_66:8).
2. The mountains should drop wine spontaneously. The vineyards of Israel were on the mountain slopes. Of the plethora of over-rich grapes with which they would be loaded many would burst, and in the spontaneous discharge of their juice the mountains would literally "drip new wine." This process, in its spiritual analogue, is more wondrous and delightful still. Spiritual plenty has its inevitable and enriching overflow. Freely have ye received, freely give. Spiritual character is always imparting of itself in spiritual influence. From the gracious lip there drops continually the new wine of "a word in season." And the religious life, "lived not for ourselves," is a tide of helpful action beating perpetually on the shore of others' lives.
3. The hills should dissolve themselves in the products they yield. This is the force of the expression, "All the hills shall melt." The rich earth throws its own substance into the teeming crops it bears. The richer it is the larger proportion of its substance is expended in this process. Pure leaf mould would, in this way, almost totally disappear, transforming itself entirely into grain or fruit. In the spiritual sphere self-surrender for others is a law of life. Christ gave himself, and Christians give themselves, for men. "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you" (2Co_12:15) is the philosophy, not alone of Paul's, but of all Christian living. The gracious heart expends itself in helpful action. The sum total of philanthropic effort in the world is just the concreted spiritual energy of the godly company.
II. A TIME OF NATIONAL RESTORATION. (Amo_9:14.) Each term here has a spiritual reference, and the whole has an ultimate spiritual fulfilment. This comes:
1. Generally, in the breaking of every yoke by Christ. Sin is bondage—enthralment by the devil, the world, and the flesh. Ceremonialism was bondage—subjection to "weak and beggarly elements" in symbolic and wearisome observance. From both Christ comes a Liberator. He "makes an end of sin" in every aspect; "destroying the devil," "delivering from this present evil world" (Gal_1:4), and fulfilling his righteousness in men "who walk not alter the flesh." He abolishes type, substituting for it the thing typified: for the shadow, the substance; for the Law, "grace and truth."
2. For individuals, when the Son makes them free. Spiritual bondage cannot survive believing union with Christ. His blood dissolves the chains of guilt. His Spirit breaks the bonds of indwelling sin. Acceptance with God is not conditioned on an impossible obedience to the whole Law, "for we are not under the Law, but under grace" (Rom_7:6). The life of self-surrender is not made burdensome by a carnal nature, "for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and death." The conditions of the life of joyous fellowship are presented in the inwrought spirit of adoption, and the "Abba, Father" of the free, on Spirit-opened lips (Rom_8:15, Rom_8:21; Joh_4:18). They are free indeed, whom, trebly loosing thus, the Son makes free.
3. For the nation, when brought into the Church during the millennial era. Their conversion in the latter days is distinctly and repeatedly foretold (Hos_3:4, Hos_3:5; Rom_12:12, Rom_12:15, 23; 2Co_3:16). National restoration this may not strictly be, but it is more than equivalent to it. When the long wandering return, when the hearts cold and embittered for ages glow with heavenly love, when the veil drops that hung on mind and sense, when the broken-off branches are set again in the good old olive tree, a spiritual fulfilment will have come of Amos's words, more glorious than any literal or local one, as the glory of the second temple exceeds the glory of the first.
III. A TIME OF RESETTLEMENT IN THEIR OWN LAND. (Verse 15.) In three classes of events, come or coming, we have as many steps in the fulfilment of this promise.
1. The return from the Babylonish exile. The captivity was God's final, because effective, disciplinary measure. Israel was thoroughly sickened with heathen gods and heathen ways. Osiris and Isis in Egypt, and Baal and Ashtaroth in Palestine, had won, almost without wooing, an attachment which, in Babylon, Bel and Nebo could not so much as stir. The last and bitterest prescription had succeeded, and soon the patient, cured abroad, was ordered home. Amidst tremendous difficulties, Jerusalem was repaired, the temple rebuilt, and the land in a measure resettled, and so an approximate fulfilment of Amos's glowing prophecy realized (Ezr_7:13, etc.).
2. The calling of the Gentiles. They are the spiritual Israel, the true children of Abraham (Gal_3:7-9). They throw off the yoke of the mystic Babylon; "possess the kingdom forever" (Dan_7:8-22); "inherit the earth," as their own land; repair the ruins, and restore the spiritual wastes left by sin; and they revel in "the feast of wines on the lees," etc. "Throughout the world Churches of Christ have arisen which, for the firmness of faith, may be called cities; for the gladness of hope, vineyards; and for the sweetness of charity, gardens" (Pusey).
3. The future restoration of the Jews to Palestine. This is foretold (Eze_28:25; Eze_36:28; Eze_37:25). God does the work (Eze_34:11-13) through Gentile agency (Isa_49:22; Isa_66:20). "They are to be nationally restored to the favour of God, and their acceptance publicly sealed by their restoration to their land" (David Brown, D.D.). Converted Israel will be eminent alike in character and influence in the millennial Church (Isa_59:21; Isa_66:19; Eze_39:29; Mic_5:7). Held again by the old people, her cities rebuilt, her grandeur restored, her broad acres reclaimed and fertile, and, above all, Jesus Christ on the throne of the nation's heart, Palestine will be indeed "the glory of all lands."
IV. ALL THIS SECURED BY INFALLIBLE GUARANTEE. There is no romancing with inspired men. What they say is coming, as God is true. The pledge of this is:
1. God's character. "Saith Jehovah," i.e. "the One who is." He is Reality as against the seeming, Substance as against the typical, Veracity as against the deceiving, Faithfulness as against the changeful. As being Benevolent he is true, human happiness depending on confidence in his character. As Independent he is true, being above all possible temptation to deceive. As Unchangeable he is true, falsehood being essentially a change of character. As Omnipotent he is true, the use of moral agents in free and yet infallible execution of his purposes being passible only as his Word is a revelation of his thought.
2. His existing relation. "Thy God." Not a God unknown. Not a God apart. Not a God untried. In his present attitude, his covenant relation, his past deeds, in all such facts is "confirmation strong." The God they connect themselves with is a God to trust. His perfections are the strands, and his relation their twining together, in the cord of confidence not quickly broken, which binds the soul to his eternal throne.
I. THE FOOLISH AND VAIN ENDEAVOURS OF SINNERS TO AVOID THE RECOMPENSE OF THEIR INIQUITY. The language of the prophet is vigorous and poetical. He pictures the smitten and scattered Israelites as delving into the abyss, as soaring to the heights of heaven, as hiding in the caves of Carmel, as crouching beneath the waters of the ocean; and all in vain. This figurative language represents the sophistry and the self-deception and the useless wiles and artifices by which the discovered sinner seeks to persuade himself that his crimes shall be unpunished.
II. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE. We are reminded of that ancient acknowledgment, "Thou God seest me!" as we read this declaration, "I will set mine eyes upon them." The psalmist, in the hundred and thirty-ninth psalm, has given us the most wonderfully impressive description which is to be found even in sacred literature of the omnipresence and the omniscience of God. Next to that description, for vigour and effectiveness, comes perhaps this passage of the prophecies of Amos. At every point and at every moment the universal and all-comprehending Spirit is in closest contact with every created intelligence; and that presence which may be discerned in operation wherever any work of God in the realm of nature is studied, is equally recognizable in the intellectual, the spiritual kingdom. Every conscience is a witness to the ever-present, all-observing Deity.
III. THE CONSEQUENT CERTAINTY OF THE CARRYING OUT OF ALL THE REGAL AND JUDICIAL DECISIONS OF THE DIVINE RULER. The circumstances of Israel led to the application of this great principle to the case of the sinful and rebellious. It was a painful duty which the prophet had to perform, but as a servant of God he felt that there was no choice left him. It was his office, and it is the office of every preacher of righteo