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Amos Chapter
Five
Amos 5
Chapter Contents
Israel is called to seek the Lord. (1-6) Earnest
exhortations to repentance. (7-17) Threatenings respecting idolatries. (18-27)
Commentary on Amos 5:1-6
The convincing, awakening word must be heard and heeded,
as well as words of comfort and peace; for whether we hear or forbear, the word
of God shall take effect. The Lord still proclaims mercy to men, but they often
expect deliverance from such self-invented forms as make their condemnation
sure. While they refuse to come to Christ and to seek mercy in and by him, that
they may live, the fire of Divine wrath breaks forth upon them. Men may make an
idol of the world, but will find it cannot protect.
Commentary on Amos 5:7-17
The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners,
easily turn affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn
the prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness. Evil times will not bear
plain dealing; that is, evil men will not. And these men were evil men indeed,
when wise and good men thought it in vain even to speak to them. Those who will
seek and love that which is good, may help to save the land from ruin. It behoves
us to plead God's spiritual promises, to beseech him to create in us a clean
heart, and to renew a right spirit within us. The Lord is ever ready to be
gracious to the souls that seek him; and then piety and every duty will be
attended to. But as for sinful Israel, God's judgments had often passed by
them, now they shall pass through them.
Commentary on Amos 5:18-27
Woe unto those that desire the day of the Lord's
judgments, that wish for times of war and confusion; as some who long for
changes, hoping to rise upon the ruins of their country! but this should be so
great a desolation, that nobody could gain by it. The day of the Lord will be a
dark, dismal, gloomy day to all impenitent sinners. When God makes a day dark,
all the world cannot make it light. Those who are not reformed by the judgments
of God, will be pursued by them; if they escape one, another stands ready to
seize them. A pretence of piety is double iniquity, and so it will be found.
The people of Israel copied the crimes of their forefathers. The law of
worshipping the Lord our God, is, Him only we must serve. Professors thrive so
little, because they have little or no communion with God in their duties. They
were led captive by Satan into idolatry, therefore God caused them to go into captivity
among idolaters.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Amos》
Amos 5
Verse 2
[2] The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise:
she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
The virgin — So she was, when first espoused
to God.
Upon her land — Broken to pieces upon her own
land, and so left as a broken vessel.
Verse 3
[3] For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a
thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall
leave ten, to the house of Israel.
By a thousand — That sent out one thousand
soldiers.
An hundred — Shall lose nine parts of them.
Verse 4
[4] For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek
ye me, and ye shall live:
Ye shall live — It shall be well with you.
Verse 5
[5] But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not
to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come
to nought.
Seek not — Consult not, worship not the idol at Bethel, Gilgal,
or Beersheba.
Verse 6
[6] Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like
fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in
Bethel.
The house of Joseph — The kingdom of the
ten tribes, the chief whereof was Ephraim, the son of Joseph.
In Beth-el — If once this fire breaks out, all
your idols in Beth-el shall not be able to quench it.
Verse 7
[7] Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off
righteousness in the earth,
Ye — Rulers and judges.
Judgment — The righteous sentence of the law.
To wormwood — Proverbially understood;
bitterness, injustice and oppression.
Leave off — Make to cease in your courts of
judicature.
Verse 8
[8] Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and
turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night:
that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of
the earth: The LORD is his name:
The seven stars — A constellation, whose rising
about September was usually accompanied with sweet showers.
Orion — Which arising about November brings usually cold,
rains and frosts intermixt very seasonable for the earth.
The shadow of the earth — The greatest
adversity into as great prosperity.
Dark with might — Changes prosperity into
adversity.
That calleth — Commands the vapour to ascend,
which he turns into rain; and then pours from the clouds to make the earth
fruitful.
Verse 9
[9] That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so
that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
The strong — The mighty, victorious and
insolent.
Shall come — Shall rally and form a siege
against their besiegers.
Verse 10
[10] They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor
him that speaketh uprightly.
They — The judges and people.
In the gate — Where judges sat, and where the
prophets many times delivered their message.
Verse 11
[11] Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor,
and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but
ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall
not drink wine of them.
Your treading — You utterly oppress the helpless.
Ye take — Ye extort from the poor great quantities of wheat, on
which he should live.
Verse 12
[12] For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty
sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in
the gate from their right.
In the gate — In their courts of justice.
Verse 13
[13] Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time;
for it is an evil time.
Shall keep silence — Be forced to it.
Evil — Both for the sinfulness of it, and for the troubles,
wars, and captivity now at hand.
Verse 14
[14] Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the
LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
With you — To bless and save you yet.
Verse 15
[15] Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment
in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the
remnant of Joseph.
The evil — All evil among the people, and yourselves.
Love — Commend, encourage, defend: let your heart be toward
good things, and good men.
Remnant — What the invasions of enemies, or the civil wars have
spared, and left in Samaria and Israel.
Verse 16
[16] Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith
thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways,
Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are
skilful of lamentation to wailing.
Therefore — The prophet foreseeing their
obstinacy, proceeds to denounce judgment against them.
The husbandman — This sort of men are little used
to such ceremonies of mourning, but now such also shall be called upon; leave
your toil, betake yourselves to publick mourning.
Verse 17
[17] And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass
through thee, saith the LORD.
Vineyards — In these places were usually the
greatest joy.
Pass through — To punish all every where.
Verse 18
[18] Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what
end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
That desire — Scoffingly, not believing any
such day would come.
To what end — What do you think to get by it?
Is darkness - All adversity, black and doleful.
Not light — No joy, or comfort an it.
Verse 19
[19] As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or
went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
And a bear — You may escape one, but shall
fall in another calamity.
Into the house — At home you may hope for safety,
but there other kind of mischief shall meet you.
Verse 21
[21] I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell
in your solemn assemblies.
I hate — Impure and unholy as they are.
Will not smell — A savour, of rest or delight, I
will not accept and be pleased with.
Verse 23
[23] Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I
will not hear the melody of thy viols.
Thy songs — Used in their sacrifices, and
solemn feasts; herein they imitated the temple-worship, but all was unpleasing
to the Lord.
Will not hear — Not with delight and acceptance.
Thy viols — This one kind of musical
instrument is put for all the rest.
Verse 24
[24] But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness
as a mighty stream.
Let judgment — Let justice be administered
constantly.
Righteousness — Equity.
Stream — Bearing down all that opposes it.
Verse 25
[25] Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Have ye — Their fathers and they, tho' at so great a distance of
time, are one people, and so the prophet considers them.
Unto me — Was it to me, or to your idols, that you offered, even
in the wilderness?
Verse 26
[26] But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and
Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
Ye have borne — Ye carried along with you in the
wilderness; the shrine, or canopy in which the image was placed.
Moloch — The great idol of the Ammonites.
Chiun — Another idol.
Verse 27
[27] Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond
Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
Therefore — For all your idolatry and other
sins, in which you have obstinately continued.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Amos》
05 Chapter 5
Verses 1-27
Verses 1-3
Hear ye this word which I take up against you.
The end of carnal security
Such words as these must have fallen like a thunderbolt into the
midst of the corrupt and careless inhabitants of Samaria and the other cities
of Israel among whom Amos prophesied. It is a dirge or lamentation, uttered by
one who sees beyond the present prosperity of the land the future ruin of its
proud idolaters.
I. Carnal
security. Nothing about sin is more wonderful to the awakened soul than that
blindness which hides from the ungodly the awful future. Noah’s generation, on
the eve of that signal punishment of the deluge, saw no sign of peril (Matthew 24:39). The same spirit marked
the society of Amos’s time. The sinners forgot all fear. They lived in careless
ease in their winter houses and summer houses, enjoying all manner of luxury,
and no fear of God or man disturbed their rest, or made them pause either in
oppression or idolatry. Such is the prevailing spirit of sin. It hills the soul
to sleep till suspicion of danger scarcely ever comes to darken the spirit;
like the little sailor lads who fell asleep on deck during the roar of the
cannon in the great battle of the Nile, none of the dangers rouse them to seek
safety (Philippians 3:19).
II. God’s way of
breaking this security is by revealing its end. At every turn of this prophecy
our wonder at the tact and resource of the prophet seems to grow. His Master
took him aside to show him the future, and then, with those awful sights before
his eyes, sent him forth to utter his solemn dirge over the vanished glories of
the nation. What an effect such revelations must have had on all who were
willing to understand their meaning. “The virgin of Israel is fallen”--she who
was now adorned with tabrets and joined in the dances of those that made merry
(Jeremiah 31:4), should soon lie
prostrate, not to rise again, forsaken of all her friends, and without any to
lift her up or comfort her--none of her sons left to guide her, or take her by
the hand in this day of calamity (Isaiah 51:18). Her glory gone, her pride
humbled, her resources cut off. This is the picture of the end of that false
security. It is accompanied by God’s message (verse 3), which give added terror
to this revelation. A general decay similar to that mentioned in chap. 2:14-16 should fall upon
the cities of the land. Application. Remember that sin blinds men’s eyes. The
god of this world has no hope of retaining his power save by blinding the eyes
of them that believe not. Remember that warning voices are God’s messengers. (J.
Telford, B. A.)
Verse 4-5
Seek ye Me, and ye shall live . . . But seek not Bethel, nor enter
into Gilgal.
I. The blessings of Israel. Gilgal and Bethel were places in
Israel’s history bedewed by showers of blessing.
1. Gilgal was the scene of new life.
2. Bethel was the scene of the manifestation of the Divine presence.
II. Israel had
misused these blessings.
1. “All their wickedness is in Gilgal.” The sanctuary had been
desecrated.
2. Bethel, the house of God, had become “the king’s chapel and the
king’s court.”
Jeroboam had set up the golden calf there as a convenient place
for the worship of God, but in violation of the second commandment.
III. Misused
blessings become curses. Gilgal and Bethel were marked for destruction on
account of these idolatries. This was the retribution that should follow abuse
of privileges.
IV. Gilgal and
bethel have their counterparts in the Christian life. Gilgal may represent the
new start in life which is taken at confirmation, after sickness, etc. Bethel
represents the Sundays and the services which should be as gates to heaven in
the house of God.
Satan intrudes into our most sacred seasons and places, and introduces
idolatry. He fills our minds with other thoughts, so that we forget our
resolutions, make light of our blessings, and sacred things become an occasion
of falling. The safeguard against misuse of blessing, is to keep in memory the
redemption that has been wrought and the promised presence of the Lord. (W.
Walters, M. A.)
The search which ends in life, and the search which ends in ruin
I. THE SEARCH
WHICH ENDS IN LIFE. The end of such search is life. “Ye shall live.” Doubtless
that form was given to the promise because of the calamities which were impending
over the State. But there is something more than preservation from the scourge
of sin. Life of the soul--full exercise of its powers, full pleasure in its
blessings, with that “life for evermore” which God gives to those who seek Him.
II. The search which
ends in ruin. Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba were the centres of idol worship in
Israel (Amos 4:4; Amos 8:14). They could not keep
themselves from ruin, what then must be the fate of their worshippers? The
deluded people brought their sacrifices; but when trouble came it was in vain
to turn to Bethel and Gilgal--even their deities perished. Application. Verse 6
shows that God would punish the nation, and none would be able to stay His
hand. From Bethel in the days of vengeance there should be no deliverance. The
sinner must meet his Judge, whom he had despised and refused to seek, and meet
Him alone. (J. Telford, B. A.)
Verse 8-9
Verse 8
Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.
Creation, and the Creator’s name
The text brings the works of God and the name of God into one focus,
and makes use of both as an argument with man to raise himself from the low and
unworthy pretences of religion, such as are represented by the calf-worship of
Bethel, to Him who sits high above the magnificence of all material forms, yet
deigns to listen to the whisper of a kneeling child.
I. Seek Him
because He is immutable. This is declared by “the seven stars and Orion,” and
by all the constellations among which the Pleiades are set. It is a wonderful
thought, that when we look up to the mighty heavens, we see precisly what Adam
and Eve saw. They beheld the Pleiades, that group of stars so beautifully
likened to “a knot of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.” They beheld those
shining orbs in which we detect the appearance of an armed warrior, and call
Orion. Through all the changes of human history, those celestial bodies have
shone with like brilliancy, and moved with like pomp in the great spaces
overhead. The Chaldeans from their astronomical towers, the Phoenicians from
their bold sea-tracks, the Egyptian sages from their mystic temples, the
Idumean shepherds from their broad pastures, the Jewish kings from their palace
roofs, beheld those august revelations of Almighty power and wisdom; and they
are as superb, as radiant, now as then. “And the heavens are the works of Thine
hands. They shall perish;. . . and they all shall wax old, as doth a garment;
and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shad be changed.” “But Thou
art the same, and Thy years shad have no end.” And now look at man. “As for
man, his days arc as grass: as
a flower of the field so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it
is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.” Thus frail, and in the
midst of frailty, what is to become of us? Where is the arm on which we can
lean? What is the hope to which we can cling? The reply to these inquiries
comes not from the oracles of human wisdom, but from Amos, the herdsman of
Tekoa. “Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.” Let us seek Him as He
bids us in His Word; and when the Pleiades are bereft of their sweet influence,
and when the bands of Orion are loosed, his zone of mighty worlds unclasped,
and his flaming sword sheathed in eternal darkness, we shall shine with light
which can never fade, and be glad with a gladness which can never die.
II. Seek Him
because He is all-powerful. This also is declared by “the seven stars and
Orion.” Many have looked on the Pleiades as but an insignificant group in the
heavens; but that constellation has depths of glory which the unaided eye
cannot reach. We count seven stars, but the telescope announces fourteen
magnificent sun-like bodies clustered comparatively near to one of the seven.
This, however, is not the special peculiarity of the Pleiades. For some time it
was suspected that there is one great central sun, round which our planetary
system, and many, if not all, other suns and systems are revolving in measured
and majestic movement; and at length an eminent continental astronomer decided
that a bright star in the Pleiades is the sublime centre of this sublime march.
Here, then, is a thought of almost appalling grandeur. Myriads of orbs keeping
their own relative position, and sweeping round and round in the path of their
own revolutions; yet the vast host--suns compared with which ours is but a
speck of fire--worlds of such magnitude as to dwarf ours into a mere grain of
sand--all rolling through space as if doing homage to the influence of what to
us is but a point of light in the blue immensity. According to this theory,
those thousands of bodies are speeding along with amazing velocity; yet such is
the long curve on which they travel, that it will take more than eighteen
millions of years for even some of the less remote to complete one circuit
round that great luminary. Now glance at Orion, as he gleams aloft in more than
imperial pomp and blazonry. We may well look on this constellation with awe and
wonder when we take into account the following statement in reference to it. In
what is Called the sword of Orion there is a hazy glimmer, which has been
thought by some to be only a kind of nebulous fluid; but Lord Rosse, having
scanned it with his powerful telescope, ascertained that it is another gorgeous
universe, so far away, that to an ordinary glass it only appears as a dim
streak, yet having heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths, of creative
power and diversity surpassing all that we behold in the whole canopy of the starry heavens.
But even if this daring assertion should be proved to be incorrect, and all
those worlds to be no more than a conjecture, we should scarcely be conscious
that aught had been subtracted from our idea of the magnitude and multiplicity
of Jehovah’s works; for there are other streaks and misty appearances on the
sky which are known by indubitable evidence to be gatherings of stars, huge in
bulk and veiled in dazzling splendour. And here is another great motive to seek
the Lord. The power evinced in “the seven stars and Orion,” and the other orbs
they represent, is power wielded for the advantage of those who respond to the
Divine command, “Seek ye My face.” And when terrors shake our souls, when our
heart and flesh fail, what consolation we shall have in the thought that the
Hand which measured out the heavens is over us, and around us, to keep us from
ill. “Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He would, put
strength in me.”
III. Seek Him
because of His beneficent activities. And turneth the shadow of death into the
morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waves of the sea, and
poureth them out upon the face of the earth.” How beautiful is morning, as it
comes with golden sandals and rosy veil through the gates of the east!
Beautiful on the silent peaks of the Himalayan mountains, beautiful on the
green heights of Ceylon, beautiful on the icy pinnacles of the Alps, beautiful
on the broad mass of the Grampians, beautiful on the isles of the Caribbean
Sea. How it is welcomed as the apparition of a smiling friend; welcomed by the
Arab as it gleams on his tent; by the mariner as it turns his sails to cloth of
gold; by the sentinel as it gleams on the steel of his weapons. How beautiful
is night! How soft and soothing the shadows with which it enwraps the earth!
What images of peace it suggests to the mind! The bird spreading its wings over
its nestlings, the sheep gathered in the fold, the child in its cot, and
wearied labour calmly renewing its energies for another day. That calleth for
the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the earth.” How beautiful the
silent processes by which the rain is distilled on the thirsty ground! Think of
the oceans--those mighty reservoirs of the Most High. Think of the clouds drawn
from them--now white as the snows which crown a mountain’s forehead; now gorgeous,
as if woven of a thousand rainbows; now black as a funeral pall. Think of the
rain, how it falls; not in a sudden and overpowering splash; not in a flood,
tearing the leaves from the trees and the young shoots from the soil, but in a
succession” of gentle drops. Is not this,, gracious. Being, whose hand is in
the pleasing changes of day and night, and in ram from heaven and fruitful
seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness,” One with whom it is
desirable to live in filial relationship?
IV. Seek Him
because of His name. “The Lord is His name.” Now we come to the teachings of
the written Word in reference to the Supreme Being. Glance at some of those
ideas which the ancient saints attached to the Divine name. Jehovah-jireh--the
Lord will provide. Jehovah-nissi--Jehovah my banner. This was the name which
Moses gave to the altar he built as a memorial of Israel’s victory over Amalek.
What a banner! A Divine perfection for every fold, radiant with the heraldry of
eternal truth, and bearing a name bright as if every syllable had been wrought
out in a constellation of suns. This banner is for us if we seek the Lord.
Jehovah shalom--the Lord is my peace. The angel said to awestricken, affrighted
Gideon, “Peace be unto thee.” Jehovah-Tsidkenu--the Lord our righteousness.
This title is specially connected with the manifestation of God in Christ
Jesus. “And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is
of God by faith.” In one part of the heavens there is a constellation known as
the Southern Cross; and when Humboldt was in South America, he often heard the
guides who con ducted him over the savannahs of Venezuela cry out, as they
looked up to that constellation, “Midnight is past--the cross begins to bend.”
Thank God the cross bends over us, and our midnight is past--the midnight of
our fear, the mid-night of our bondage. (J. Marrat.)
The Pleiades and Orion
There are some things which make me think that it may not
have been all superstition which connected the movements and appearance of the
heavenly bodies with great moral events on earth. Astrology may have been
something more than a brilliant heathenism.
1. Amos saw that tile God who made the Pleiades and Orion must be the
God of order. It was not so much a star here and there that impressed the
inspired herdsman, but seven in one group and seven in the other group. For
ages they have observed the order established for their coming and going. If
God can take care of the seven worlds of the Pleiades, He can probably take
care of the one world we inhabit.
2. The God who made these two groups of the text was the God of
light.
3. That the God who made these two archipelagos of stars must be an
unchanging God.
4. That the God who made these two beacons of the Oriental night-sky
must be a God of love and kindly warning. The Pleiades, rising in midsky, said
to all the herdsmen and shepherds and husbandmen, “Come out and enjoy the mild
weather, and cultivate your gardens and fields.” And Orion, coming in winter,
warned them to prepare for tempest. The sermon that I now preach believes in a
God of loving, kindly warning, the God of spring and winter, the God of the
Pleiades and Orion. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
God and nature
The prophet first draws the attention of Israel to the living God
who stands behind nature, determining all its movements. The atheist is rebuked
by this view of things. The thought of the prophet is full of God; nature does
not deny God--it demonstrates Him. God is. Those who identify God with nature
until they confound the personal Cod with tile laws and forces of the world,
are also rebuked by the text. Nature is not God. “He maketh the seven stars and
Orion.” And the view that nature is independent of God is equally repudiated.
On the contrary, the teaching of Amos is that God acts through nature. The
people of Israel are summoned to look up and to behold the supreme,
self-existent God, standing before and above the world, acting upon it, acting
through it, with sovereign sway. He maketh the seven stars and Orion, etc. But
the argument of Amos goes farther than this; he argues that God rules in the
midst of the nations just as He rules in the midst of nature, and we must see
His hand in human affairs as we see it in the rising and setting of stars, in
tile ebbing and flowing of seas. He setteth up kings and captains, and casteth
them down; He smites the splendour of nations into desolation; and again He
restores their greatness and joy. The argument of the prophet proceeds on the
assumption that a Divine purpose, a vast design, runs through all the
evolutions of nature and all the movements of history. And in this point of
view, let us say, these primitive thinkers have been confirmed by the vast majority
of the philosophers who succeeded them. A few erratic philosophers have failed
to discern any direction or tendency in the career of the universe; they could
not detect any coherency among events, or admit that such events were working
together toward any assignable result whatever. From their point of view,
things and events drifted and eddied about in an utterly blind and irrational
manner; temporary combinations might accidentally assume a rational appearance,
but it was only accidental. Worlds, they concluded, have no definite beginning,
no connection or sequence, no dramatic consistency, no definite end; all is
unrelated, arbitrary, accidental, purposeless. But this interpretation has
found little acceptance. Aristotle, who lived some centuries later than Amos,
wrote: “In the
unity of nature there is nothing unconnected or out of place, as in a bad
tragedy.” And nearly all philosophy since then has in different ways confirmed
this view of the universe set forth by the prophet of Israel and the philosopher
of Greece. But the prophets of Israel not only recognised a distinct design
running through nature and history; they saw, and this was the special merit of
their mission and message, they saw that that design was spiritual and moral.
Many thinkers see design and orderly progress in the world who recognise design
and progress as purely intellectual. They see in nature and history nothing
more than a play dramatically conducted; a story artistically developed; a
picture exquisitely balanced and harmonious; an organism complete in all its
parts and functions; but they miss the real heart of the thing, that the
universe is the intellectual working out of the purpose of the holy God. This
was the point of view of the prophets. The design they discovered in the
universe did not merely satisfy their logical sense, their aesthetic sense, or
their scientific sense, but their moral sense. They wished to teach that God
rules the universe with a view to reveal His righteous character; His
government is wholly moral; and the end of all His rule in heaven and earth is
to instruct His children in righteousness, and to discipline them into holiness
until they are perfect, even as their Father who is in heaven is perfect. The
religious and moral idea is subtly interwoven with the universal fabric, but it
is only spiritually discerned, only the devout soul follows the golden thread
that runs through nature and the long, mysterious story of the race. “We are
nothing but the playthings of Fate,” says the pagan mind; but we refuse the
verdict of dismal atheism. He “that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and
turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with
night”; He who kindles the stars, and who darkens them in eclipse; He who
causes His sun to rise upon the earth, and to set in night; He who makes the
firmament a magnificent theatre of majestic and unfailing order, will not
permit caprice and chaos in the far higher world of human history--souls are
more than stars, and when a great nation is lifted up and cast down, great
reasons and great ends must be assumed. If you look through this prophecy of
Amos you must be struck by its intense and persistent moral tone. The fifth
chapter is full of it. “Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness
in the earth, seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.” “Forasmuch
therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of
wheat: ye have
built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted
pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your
manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe,
and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.” “Seek good, and
not, evil, that ye may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with
you, as ye have spoken.” “Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish
judgment in the gate.” And it is thus throughout the whole prophecy--the
destiny of the nation turns on righteousness, on matters of definite, practical
honesty, clemency, humanity, justice, chastity, and temperance. The shepherd
Amos, like David, like Job, was familiar with the constellations, and he felt
how offensive the unjust and the unclean must be to Him whose faultless government
is declared in the inviolable laws which govern the chaste and solemn stars.
And God is still of Coo pure eyes to behold iniquity, and, according to their
works does He deal with the mightiest nations. He calls us back to Himself, to
His moral government and righteous laws. God has often “made the day dark” to
us, and again He has “turned the shadow of death into the morning.” We live
with the consciousness of these impending possibilities. Any day, any hour may
witness the mighty change. These changes, so extreme and searching, are to
remind us that life does not exist either for pleasure or pain, but for the
perfecting of the soul in love and nobleness. He who makes the seven stars and
Orion, who turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day
dark with night for the education of a nation in righteousness, does the same
with and for the individual. And every change is good that unsettles us in the
world to settle us in God, every variation of fortune is blessed that drives us
to the central reality, and makes us richer in spiritual feeling and moral
fruit. In some parts of South America all seasons are singularly blended within
a year; in the same locality there are many returns of spring and winter,
temporary calms and temporary snows rapidly and unceasingly succeed each other,
but in such places plants bloom with the greatest vigour, and are remarkable
for their beauty. So, if we seek Him who maketh the seven stars and Orion, and
who orders so strangely the days and nights, the summers and winters of human
life, these bewildering changes shall only discipline us into more perfect
strength, and make us rich in the fruits of righteousness and peace. (W. L.
Watkinson.)
The glory of religion
I. The connection
God has with his universe.
1. That of a Creator.
2. That of a Governor.
3. That of a Redeemer.
II. The connection
which man should have with God. “Seek Him.” The pursuit implies--
1. Faith in God’s personal existence.
2. A consciousness of moral distance from God.
3. A felt necessity of friendly connection with God.
4. An assurance that such a connection can be obtained.
What a grand thing is religion! It is not a thing of mere
doctrine, or ritual, or sect, or party. It is a moral pursuit of “Him that
maketh the seven stars and Orion,” etc. (Homilist.)
The true object of worship
I. As the creating
God. “Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.” This suggests--
1. His unlimited power. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens
made; and the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”
2. His manifold wisdom. “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth;
by understanding hath He established the heavens.”
3. His boundless benevolence. The sun rules the day, the moon and
stars the night. God’s bounty is lavished on the world night and day.
II. As the
providing God. “That calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon
the earth.” This implies--
1. God’s government over the world. At His bidding the waters of the
sea hasten to the clouds, and again fall in rain upon the face of the earth.
2. Man’s dependence upon God. Rain is a universal blessing, and is
essential for growth, fertility, and happiness. The earth must be irrigated,
and none can command the clouds to pour out their contents but God.
III. As the
redeeming God. “And turneth the shadow of death into the morning,” This
indicates--
1. God’s dominion over death.
2. His gracious presence with His people in the greatest emergency.
His smiling countenance turns the shadow and darkness of death into a happy and
refreshing day. They hope in death. They die in faith.
3. His faithfulness to His word unto the last. He will realise His
promises to them in life, in death, and in eternity. Seek the Lord, the
Creator, the Preserver, and the only Saviour. Seek Him who is mighty to save. (Joseph
Jenkins.)
And turneth the shadow of
death into the morning . . . the Lord is His name.
The shadow of death
I. The shadow of
death falls upon the pathway of life. It is the shadow of God’s wrath, which
fell upon the sunshine of His love, when man, a free agent, marred His work. No
man knows when or how he will die.
II. It is best that
we do not know the time or manner of our death. If we knew the time was near we
might be overcome by terror or despair. If we knew the time was distant, we
might presume. As it is uncertain, we need to be “always ready.”
III. We make that
which was intended for our soul’s health only an occasion of falling. The
uncertainty of life is a subject commonly on our lips, very seldom in our
serious thoughts. All men think all men mortal but themselves.
IV. You admit the
argument, do you apply it personally? There can be no greater ignorance than to
ignore the inevitable. Yet Cyprian says, We will not know that which we cannot
but know.
V. What is death?
To the generality of the Gentiles death was dreadful, and they spoke of it as
terrible, cruel, black, and blind. One of the great Italian painters, Luino,
the favourite pupil of Leonardo de Vinci, has represented these departures into
the unseen world by a design which, though it is but an imagination, appeals
forcibly to our hopes and fears. In a grand picture of the Crucifixion, which
is in the Church at Lugarno he has represented the soul of the forgiven thief
coming from his lips at the moment of his death in a miniature figure of himself,
robed in white, in an attitude of prayer, and welcomed by a smiling angel sent
to escort him to paradise. From the mouth of the reprobate who died reviling
Christ, there issues a figure struggling in agony with a cruel demon.
VI. How shall we
prepare for death? We must learn to overcome our natural reluctance to think,
earnestly and constantly, about our own death. The way to overcome our fear is
not to evade it, but to meet and master it.
VII. Our meditations
on death should be inseparably united with prayer. Of this we have scriptural
examples, as in Psalms 39:1-13; Psalms 90:1-17.
VIII. All that we think,
or say, or do, has this one great purpose, that we may seek and find Him, who
turneth the shadow of death into the morning.
1. He manifests Himself to the faith which worketh by love.
2. He blesses especially with His assured presence.
3. At the altar, most nearly, dearly, we realise His presence. (S.
Reynolds Hole.)
Turneth the shadow of death into the morni
ng:--The
Romans had thirty epithets for death; and all of them were full of the deepest
dejection. “The iron slumber,” “the eternal night,” “the mower with his
scythe,” “the hunter with his snares,” “the demon bearing a cup of poison,”
“the merciless destroying angel,” “the inexorable jailor with keys,” “the king
of terrors treading down empires”--some of them were these, the bitterness of
which is indescribable. The revelation which the New Testament furnishes breaks
like beautiful sunshine through the unutterable gloom. Our Lord Jesus came to
bring life and immortality to light in the Gospel.
The immortal life
In the last days of a good man’s life the fear of death is usually
destroyed. I am not about to assert that death has no solemnity, nor would I in
any way lessen your sense of its importance. But many of our common conceptions
concerning death are false and unreal. We have mistaken figures of speech for
facts represented by them. Of death as a physical evil little need be said. Not
seldom it appears sadly painful. Death is viewed as essentially evil, because
it is assumed to be the direct result of sin. It is a penal infliction--the
shame and curse of life, the outcome of our guilty rebellion. Thinking thus
concerning it, many Christians are as much in fear of death as the heathen. But
this theory cannot be true. It is contrary to the laws of reason and the
conclusions of science, and it is opposed to the very spirit of our religion.
Scripture, rightly interpreted, gives it no support. Death, instead of beings
retribution, is a relenting; instead of a curse, a blessing. Whatever of death
Adam by his wrong-doing introduced, Christ by His work has thrust out. The
physical change called death is not the result of sin. Instead of being a dread
shadow hanging over life, it is a beneficent arrangement in the constitution of
nature by the infinite mercy of God. It is recorded that, among the half pagan
legends which floated about Ireland during the Middle Ages, there was one in
which two islands were mentioned, and named respectively Life and Death. Upon
the one its inhabitants could never die. Yet all the ills of human life came to
its people. At length these did their work. The cruel immortality became a
curse which consumed the joy and love of life, and the people learned to regard
the opposite island as a haven of repose. Then soon, with all eagerness, their
launched their boats upon the gloomy waters of the lake; they reached the isle
of death, leaped upon its shore, and were at rest. Death is a change from a
known to an unknown state of existence. It is simply one of those changes
ordained in the constitution of things through which we must pass. The eternal
life is ours now, and in this world. We are within the sweep of the
eternal. There is no break in the continuity of a life. Present and future are
but sections of the one immortal state. This earth-side is but a small part of
life. From the lower to the higher is the law of growth. Life and progress
never cease. Death will check neither. Is there not sublimity in the thought
that death will but free the spirit from the clogs of flesh, and usher it into
a world that gives play to all its powers? Then the death of the body is
nothing to be feared. It is but the laying down present powers to take up
others. By it the soul becomes conscious of its relations with a new world and
a new order of beings. To every Christian heart this happy revelation should
come with regenerating power. He alone need fear death who is abusing life.
What we are now determines what we shall be then. (George Bainton.)
The shadow of death turned into morning
I. To those who
have truly sought God grim death is but a shadow. To the Christian death is but
the semblance of a foe.
II. The shadow of
death ushers in the eternal morning. No sooner does the shadow of death fall
than the light of heaven begins to dawn. Heaven’s morning is without clouds. No
cloud intercepts the intellect of the glorified. No moral mists are known
there.
III. The shadow of
death is often the precursor of brighter days on earth. Death of one has
been followed by the conversion of others. The fortitude of departing saints
often dispels the fear of death from the living. (W. Williams.)
The shadow turned
I. Every sorrow is
a shadow of death. Our deepest sorrows are not always to be measured by events
themselves, but by thoughts and emotions which lie at the heart of them. When
we see and feel how griefs and tribulations are used by God, for softening,
purifying, and elevating character, we see even here how the shadows of death
are turned into the morning.
II. National or
personal judgment is the shadow of death. Perhaps this is the direct reference
of these words. Israel may live again.
III. Declining
strength is a shadow of death. There comes the time when irremediable and
irresistible disease does its steady work.
IV. Unbelief is a
shadow of death. Unbelief regarded as distrust of God as a Father and Redeemer;
and distrust of ourselves as destined for the glorious immortality opened to
us, and prepared for us by the death and resurrection of our blessed Lord.
V. Bereavement is
the shadow of death. We realise nothing till it creates vacancy with us. Some
losses we can bear. After bereavement there gradually comes a morning of humble
submission and rest in God. (W. M. Statham.)
The shadow of death turned into morning
The Tekoan herdsman had often seen daybreak.
1. How mightily,
2. How silently,
3. How mysteriously,
4. How mercifully God brought in the brightness of day after the
gloom of night.
Is not this an illustration of what God is always doing?
I. He turneth
winter to spring. How, when the wild flowers perfume the glen, and the foliage
buds in the hedgerows, and birds carol under brightening skies, the shadow of
death, that winter so often seems to be, is turned into morning.
II. He turneth
adversity into prosperity. Thus was it with Job. Thus need it be with many in
this season of commercial depression.
III. He turneth
sickness to health. As with Hezekiah, “He healeth our diseases.”
IV. He turneth
death to immortality. (Homilist.)
Verse 10
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that
speaketh uprightly.
The hates of sin
Amos has here preserved a characteristic of the society of his
time which throws much light on the real character of sin--its hatred of
justice and truth.”
1. “They hate him that rebuketh in the gate.” At the gate the princes
of the East sat in judgment (Job 29:7; Psalms 127:5). No wonder such men as Amos
laboured amongst hated the judge. His practised eye pierced their disguise and
detected the hypocrisy and sin that lurked for their prey. He was vested with
power which could thwart all their purposes. No good man fears justice. It is
the friend that frees him from the attack of his enemies, and preserves to him
the peace and prosperity of his home.
2. But there is another particular added. “They abhor him that
speaketh uprightly.” They could not even bear to hear the truth. Amaziah (Amos 7:12-13) resorts to stratagem to
free the country of words that revealed the true condition of things (also 1 Kings 22:8, also Ahab and
Jezebel’s hatred of Elijah). The condemnation of sin is pronounced in this
description of it. What can be said in defence of that which makes men hate
justice and truth? Yet this spirit is widespread. See the story of the Greek
who voted for the condemnation of Aristides because he was tired of hearing him
called “the just.” Christ endured its utmost rancour.
The reasons for these hates of sin.
1. Justice is a reproof of its own course. Such words and deeds make
conscience sting (Proverbs 9:8).
2. Justice snatches away the booty of sin, and truth (him that speaketh
uprightly) robs it of the respect that even sin likes to have. Hence the
hatred.
3. Warning of future punishment. These censures are warnings of the
final judgment which God shall pronounce on sin. Who would cast in his lot with
such men? (J. Telford, B. A.)
Verse 14
Seek good and not evil, that ye may live.
Religion
From these words two things may be inferred concerning religion.
I. It implies a
specific pursuit. “Seek” good, and not evil. Good and evil are both in the
world; they work in all human souls; they explain all history.
1. They imply a standard of right. By what do we determine the good
and evil in human life? The revealed will of God. What accords with that will
is good, what disagrees with it is evil.
2. Their object is a human pursuit. There are those who pursue evil; they
follow it for worldly wealth, animal pleasure, secular aggrandisement. There
are those who pursue good; and their grand question is, “Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do?”
3. The pursuit of good is the specific effort of religion. Good in
thought, spirit, aim, habit, as embodied in the life of Christ. To get good
requires strenuous, persistent, devout, prayerful effort.
II. It involves the
highest benediction.
1. The enjoyment of true life. “ That ye may live.” Without goodness
you cannot really live: goodness
is life. Everlasting goodness is everlasting life.
2. The enjoyment of the Divine friendship. What a benediction this!
“The Lord God of hosts,” the Almighty Creator, Proprietor and Governor of the
universe to be with us, to guide, guard, beautify existence. “I will walk among
you,” says He, “I will be your God, and ye shall be My people.” (Homilist.)
Siding with the good is to be on God’s side
If a man wants to be on the winning side, let him be on the right
side. There is no other safe rule to conform to. If a man is on the right side
he will be on the winning side, even ii it seems the losing side. The right
side is God’s side, and God’s side is sure of a triumph in the end,
however it may look to the world just now. It may be said reverently, that
God’s trains have the right of way on the roads of universe, and that he who
wants to reach his destination surely, and in time, will do well to take his
passage on one of those trains. Any other train is liable to a disastrous
collision; at the best it is sure to go astray. He who is not going with God is
not going God’s way; and no other way is a safe one to travel. (Great
Thoughts.)
Habit aids right doin
g:--The
force of habit, when enlisted on the side of righteousness, not only
strengthens and makes sure our resistance to vice, but facilitates the most
arduous performances of virtue. The man whose thoughts, with the purposes and
doings to which they lead, are at the bidding of conscience, will, by frequent
repetition, at length describe the same track almost spontaneously,--even as in
physical education, things, laboriously learned at the first, come to be done
at last without the feeling of an effort. And so, in moral education, every new
achievement of principle smooths the way to future achievements of the same
kind; and the precious fruit or purchase of each moral virtue is to set us on
higher and firmer vantage-ground for the conquests of principle in all time
coming. He who resolutely bids away the suggestions of avarice, when they come
into conflict with the incumbent generosity; or the suggestions of
voluptuousness, when they come into conflict with the incumbent self-denial; or
the suggestions of anger, when they come into conflict with the incumbent act
of magnanimity and forbearance--will at length obtain not a respite only, but a
final deliverance from their intrusion. (T. Chalmers.)
Verse 15
The Lord of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
A remnant saved
There is a mystery of mercy in the destruction and salvation; but
for the destruction and the salvation meeting together in the fulness of time,
the race of mankind would all be lost. There are questions we constantly insist
on asking with reference to the number of the saved and the lost. I fear we
often try to make out a case for the smallest number of the saved; while some
are fond of calling the New Jerusalem, the Church, “a Zoar”--“a little one.”
The Book is a wondrous record of the story of the remnant of grace which God
has preserved in every age. (E. Paxton Hood.)
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord!
The day of the Lord
I.
AN
AWAKENING COMMINATION.
1. What is meant by the “day of the Lord”? The day of death, or
personal dissolution. The day of captivity, or national dissolution. The day of
judgment, or general account.
2. What is meant by desiring this day? The people are censured for
desiring it rashly, because they did not consider it; scoffingly, because they
did not believe it; desperately, because they did not fear it. Men desired the
day of the Lord from discontentedness in their own condition; presumption of
their own innocency; and from ignorance or misapprehension of the thing itself.
II. The convincing
expostulation. “To what end is it for you? “ Here is a calling of them to an
account for their desire, or an expostulation. And a discovering to them the
fruitlessness of their desire, or a conviction. To all good Christians and
believers it is a day of absolution; a day of redemption; and a day of
salvation.
III. The express
conclusion or determination. “The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.”
This is to be understood of the day of death and judgment. This sentence may be
taken--
1. In the general proposition of it, as it stands by itself.
By way of opposition; by way of intention, to show the greatness
of the darkness; by way of perpetuity. Darkness and always dark; by way of
extent or explication, to show unto us the full nature of this business,
wherein it does consist.
2. In its particular scope, as directed more especially to the
persons above mentioned, who desired this day of the Lord. It carries a
threefold force or emphasis with it. An emphasis of information; an emphasis of
conviction to those who were obstinate; and an emphasis of astonishment to
those which were desperate, which knew it, but laid aside the thoughts and
considerations of it, and would put it to the venture. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Avengers of a broken covenan
t:--To
the overthrow of the ten tribes for their idolatry Amos refers in the text. He
asserts the absolute certainty of that overthrow except on their national
repentance.
I. The hardened
impiety of ungodly men. Numbers of these impenitent and blaspheming Jews openly
defied the judgment of the Almighty, mocked at the messages and warnings of
God’s Word, and, as though to show their utter contempt of the prophet and the
prophecy, expressed their desire to “see the day “--to brave the worst--as
though convinced that, in spite of warnings, the judgment announced would never
take place, or if it did, it would not be nearly so formidable as was
described. It is not safe to despise death, as some affect to do, nor that God
whose minister death is, since the dread realities of the unseen world will far
surpass our utmost apprehension. The Arabians have a saying that there are
three things not to be trifled with. It is not good to jest of God, of death, or
of the devil. Not of God, for God neither can nor will be mocked. Not of death,
for death mocks the pride
of all men, one time or other. Nor even of the devil, for the devil puts an
eternal sarcasm on those who are too familiar with him.
II. The causes of
this hardened impiety.
1. It proceeds from infidel presumption. Infidelity is often more of
the heart than of the head. A man never set about proving Christianity untrue,
hut he wished it first.
2. Sometimes from a one-sided view of God’s character. At one time
they argue that God is merciful, and therefore they trust to escape. At other
times they think that others having escaped is an encouragement to them, and
that threatenings long delayed may never be fulfilled. They presume upon
security because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed. The
silence of providence emboldens them.
3. From their practical immoralities. These darken the understanding,
and sear the conscience, and blind the mind to its own guilt and deformity.
III. The threatened
judgments to which they stand exposed.
1. The certainty of the punishment. “The lion out of the forest; the
bear from the wood; and the serpent by the sides of the house” appear. These
Jewish hypocrites defied the threatened judgment, but they could not escape it.
2. The slight and casual agency by which it was brought about. Amos
paints to the life. To this day this is no uncommon circumstance. The
naturalist in Jamaica tells us that the most common reptile of the serpent
tribe in the East and West Indies, is the small black snake, which may often be
seen hanging half out of the loose walls, so much used as fences, and thus
lying motionless for its prey. Now apply these images to God’s judgments on the
ancient Jews. Their own writers interpret this almost literally of the
captivities they should suffer from the Chaldeans, the Persians, and the
Grecian armies. Their words are, “ Fleeing from the face of Nebuchadnezzar, the
Lion, you will be met by Ahasuerus the Persian, and encounter the Persecution
instigated by Haman; or (the Empire of the Chaldeans being destroyed), next the
Medes and Persians shall arise, compared by Daniel himself to ‘the Bear,’ as
their symbol. But When, at the command of Cyrus and Darius, your captivity is
ended, and ye return to Jerusalem, and lean your weary hands upon its ruined
wails in hope of peace and safety, then shall come Alexander the Great, the
head of the Grecian Empire,--or Antiochus Epiphanes, the Great Persecutor, who
shall bite like a serpent. Yet not without, as in Babylon or Susa, but within,
in the very borders of the Holy Land itself. By all which it appears,” say
they, “that the day you anticipate is a day not of joy but of sorrow, not of
light but of darkness.”
3. Guard against all approaches to this sin. Things do not suddenly
come to the worst between man and God. Again, let the young beware of abusing
the Divine forbearance to embolden them in sin. But though you escape the lion
and the bear, you may,
in an unexpected moment, be stung by the serpent to the heart, in the chinks
and crevices of the wall.
4. Learn the value and preciousness of that Gospel which reveals a
method of escape from greater evils than those which threatened ancient Israel.
5. Beware of neglecting the grace of the dispensation under which you
live.
6. Implore especially the grace of the Holy Spirit to renew and
restore your nature. To have a proud heart under humbling dispensations, and a
hard heart under softening ones is awful. (Homiletic Magazine.)
On false hopes in death
We must distinguish the persons to whom the prophet addresses this
solemn denunciation. They are self-deceivers. Notwithstanding the sinfulness of
the people, that national pride which led them to imagine that because they had
Abraham to their father they must needs be saved--was still their besetting
sin.
1. From these words we gather at once this great, fact, that there is
a day of the Lord coming--a day of judgment and righteous retribution. It is
that day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ. It
will be a day of fearful discovery; of universal assembly; of awful decision.
2. The only ground of hope on which we Can look for salvation in that
day. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a
subordinate condition of acquittal and salvation in the day of judgment. The
future destiny of each individual will have an exact reference to the tenor of
his present conduct.
3. There are many who form vain hopes of salvation at the coming of
our Lord. There are some who appear to have no fear or hope on the subject.
There are others who have strong expectations, while they have no warrant from
Scripture for their hope. Some trust to what they call the goodness and
benevolence of God. Some are self-righteous. Some make a high profession of
faith in His name, while they have in works denied Him. Theirs is the hope of
the hypocrite that shall perish. (Anon.)
I hate, I despise your feast days.
The Divinely abhorrent and the Divinely demanded
I. The Divinely
abhorrent. The same aversion from the ceremonial observances of the insincere and
rebellious Israelites which Jehovah here expresses He afterwards employed
Isaiah to declare to the Jews (Amos 1:10). The two passages are
strikingly parallel, only the latter prophet amplifies what is set forth in a
more condensed form by Amos. It is also to be observed, that where Amos
introduces the musical accompaniments of the sacrifices, Isaiah substitutes the
prayers: both
concluding with the Divine words, “I will not hear.” “Take thou away from Me
the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.” The
singing of their psalms was nothing more to God than a wearisome word which was
to be brought to an end. Singing and playing on harps was a part of the worship
of the temple (1 Chronicles 16:40; 1 Chronicles 23:5; 1 Chronicles 23:25.). Nothing seems
more abhorrent to the holy eye and heart of Omniscience than empty ceremony in
religion. No sacrifices are acceptable to Him, however costly, unless the
offerer has presented himself.
II. The Divinely
demanded. “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty
stream.” We prefer to see justice rolling on like mighty waters, and
righteousness as a swelling and ever-flowing stream, to crowded churches. “Show
me your faith by your works.” Show me your worship by your morality; show me
your love to God by your devotion to your fellow-men. “ If we love one another,
God dwelleth in us.” (Homilist.)
But let judgment run down
as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
A prophet of righteousness
This is one of the commonest ideas all through the prophets, but
it is the sole idea of Amos.
I. The prophet.
Amos is probably the oldest prophet whose writings have come down to us. Once
only the Divine inspiration descended on him, and constituted him the messenger
of heaven. Amos was the prophet of a single occasion.
II. His prophecy.
Amos opened his message in a way that must at once have riveted the attention
of the crowd. Be began with a series of brief oracles about the neighbouring
nations. He denounces their sins, and announces the punishments that were about to fall on them
for their sins. Notice the peculiarity of the sins which this prophet
denounces. This is the speciality of Amos. They are not sins against God, but
against man. The oppression of the poor is the subject of Amos. The prosperity
of the country was only illusory. The righteousness which the righteous God
requires is not something in the air. It is not an abstraction, it is conduct
between man and mall, and there is no righteousness of any account that does
not embrace that. (James Stalker, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》