| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Amos Chapter
Six
Amos 6
Chapter Contents
The danger of luxury and false security. (1-7)
Punishments of sins. (8-14)
Commentary on Amos 6:1-7
Those are looked upon as doing well for themselves, who
do well for their bodies; but we are here told what their ease is, and what
their woe is. Here is a description of the pride, security, and sensuality, for
which God would reckon. Careless sinners are every where in danger; but those
at ease in Zion, who are stupid, vainly confident, and abusing their
privileges, are in the greatest danger. Yet many fancy themselves the people of
God, who are living in sin, and in conformity to the world. But the examples of
others' ruin forbid us to be secure. Those who are set upon their pleasures are
commonly careless of the troubles of others, but this is great offence to God.
Those who placed their happiness in the pleasures of sense, and set their
hearts upon them, shall be deprived of those pleasures. Those who try to put
the evil day far from them, find it nearest to them.
Commentary on Amos 6:8-14
How dreadful, how miserable, is the case of those whose
eternal ruin the Lord himself has sworn; for he can execute his purpose, and
none can alter it! Those hearts are wretchedly hardened that will not be
brought to mention God's name, and to worship him, when the hand of God is gone
out against them, when sickness and death are in their families. Those that
will not be tilled as fields, shall be abandoned as rocks. When our services of
God are soured with sin, his providences will justly be made bitter to us. Men
should take warning not to harden their hearts, for those who walk in pride,
God will destroy.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Amos》
Amos 6
Verse 1
[1] Woe
to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which
are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
At ease —
That neither fear nor believe the threatened judgments of God.
In Zion —
That is put for the kingdom of the two tribes, and principally the inhabitants
of Jerusalem.
Samaria —
Woe to them also who rely upon the strength, wealth, and policy of the kingdom
of Samaria or Israel.
Which —
Which two cities, Zion and Samaria.
Named chief —
Accounted the chief cities of that part of the world.
To whom — To
which place all Israel had recourse, the two tribes to Zion, the ten tribes to
Samaria.
Verse 2
[2] Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great:
then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or
their border greater than your border?
Pass ye —
Run over the history of that great and ancient city.
Hemath —
Head of the Syrian kingdom, lately overthrown by Tiglath-Pilneser, and a fresh
instance of God's just indignation against secure sinners.
Gath —
The chief city of the Philistines, a few years before wasted by the arms of
Hazael; by these examples learn to amend your ways, or expect to perish in
them.
Greater —
That is, greater than these kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and their borders, or
bounds, greater than these of Israel and Judah.
Verse 3
[3] Ye
that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
Ye — That flatter
yourselves the day of darkness foretold, is far off.
The seat —
The judgment seat which should relieve the oppressed, is made a seat of
violence.
Verse 4
[4] That
lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the
lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
That lie —
That out of laziness or luxury, lay themselves to rest.
And eat —
The very best in all their flock.
Verse 5
[5] That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments
of musick, like David;
That chant —
That in a time of deep mourning entertain themselves with songs, and musical
instruments.
Verse 6
[6] That
drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they
are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
In bowls —
Not in little vessels, but probably bowls: they drank these filled as full as
they could hold too, and in design to drink each other down.
And anoint — In
those hot countries this anointing was much used.
Not grieved —
Nothing affected with the calamities of their country.
Verse 7
[7]
Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the
banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
The banquet —
The feastings of voluptuous ones shall cease.
Verse 8
[8] The
Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the
excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city
with all that is therein.
The excellency —
All that the seed of Jacob accounts a glory and excellency to them, all their
external privileges and worship.
Verse 9
[9] And
it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall
die.
Remain —
Escaping the enemies sword.
Ten men —
Many men, a certain number for an uncertain.
They shall die — Tho'
they escape a while, they shall not finally escape.
Verse 10
[10] And
a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the
bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the
house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then shall he say,
Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.
Uncle — Or
near kinsman, instead of those who were wont to do this, and were paid for it;
but now none of these remaining, the next to the dead must, as well as he is
able, take him up on his shoulders, and carry him.
That burneth —
Though the Jews mostly buried, yet in some cases they burned the dead bodies,
as in this of pestilence.
The bones —
The flesh being consumed, the bones are reserved to be buried.
Unto him —
Any one he sees near the house out of which the bones are carried.
Is there yet any — Is
any one living in your house.
Hold thy tongue — Do
not complain, lest thou thyself be killed, lest all be rifled.
For — It
is too late to seek God, who is executing his immutable decree.
Verse 11
[11] For,
behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches,
and the little house with clefts.
For behold — It
seems to be the continued speech of him who took care of the dead, verse 10, God hath sent out war, famine, and
pestilence.
The great house —
The palaces of great men shall have great breaches made in them, and the
cottages of poor men shall, by lesser strokes, be ruined.
Verse 12
[12]
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have
turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Shall horses — If
prophets exhort or advise, it does no more good than if you would run your
horses upon the precipices of rocks.
Verse 13
[13] Ye
which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by
our own strength?
Who rejoice — In
your victories, alliances, and idols.
Have we not — We
have raised ourselves to greatness by our wisdom and courage.
Verse 14
[14] But,
behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD
the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering in of Hemath
unto the river of the wilderness.
Hemath — A
city of Syria, bordering on Israel, north-east.
The wilderness —
Which is the south-west parts of Canaan. So all your country shall be
destroyed.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Amos》
Casualties of Ease (Amos 6:1~7)
Introduction
In this Scripture we are brought
face to face with a tragic situation existing in Israel, also with the
faithfulness of the prophet of God.
Here is described a people “at ease
in Zion” in the face of gravest dangers.
I. Their pride (vv.1~2). They
considered themselves “the chief of nations,” they rested in the strength of
the “mountain of Samaria”—but they had about them examples of the nations which
had been destroyed(v.2).
II. Their presumption that they
would never be called to judgment for their wickedness (v.3).
III. Their indulgence in all manner
of sensual pleasures and ease (vv.4~6).
IV. They were not grieved for the
affliction of Joseph (v.6)—had no concern for the interests of the Church of
Christ or for the nation which was sinking into decay.
They
were “at ease in Zion”—careless, indifferent, unconcerned, lukewarm, blinded by
this “ease” to the presence of gravest dangers. Judgment came—they were ‘casualties
of ease.” How pertinent is this message to this day?
A.
Consider the National Situation.
Nations
are threatened from without by terrorism and instability, from within by
corruption and disease. We are in danger of losing our glorious liberties through
“ease”.
B.
Consider the General Church Situation.
The
loss of moral force, the loss of prestige, the loss of spiritual power among
the peoples of the world. It is an inner weakness—a love of ease, There is a
form of worship without heart devotion. The substance of religion is lost in
the shadow. The spirit is lost in the letter. “A form of religion, but denying
the power thereof.” Inability of the Church to challenge its membership to
spiritual pursuits.
C.
Consider the Local Church Situation.
“At
ease in Zion.” How difficult it is to stir us to consistent activity! We permit
any trifling excuse to keep us from doing the work of god. We are torn with
petty bickering, hypocrisies; we are victims of selfishness, lovers of ease,
unwilling to search our own hearts, or to have God search us to know our actual
state before Him.
Hear
God’s Word—“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!” Shall we heed His Word?── Selected
06 Chapter 6
Verses 1-14
Verse 1
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.
The secure alarmed
There is something very agreeable and desirable in ease. Yet,
strange as the declaration may appear, this tranquillity is too common; and to
disturb it should be our design. For your peace may be a false peace. Before an
earthquake the air is uncommonly serene. Ascertain precisely the characters
whose delusions we wish to destroy.
I. Some are at
ease in Zion from selfish insensibility. Such there were in the days of Amos.
In a similar way to Amos, Isaiah upbraids the Jews. There are still many whose
attention to their own indulgences regulates all their actions. Our
dispositions ought always to correspond with the providence of God, and the
purposes for which He placed us in the world. For the unfeeling wretch
conscience has no kind office to perform. For him no orphan prays, no widow
sings. For him the evil day comes on charged with every horror. He has no
asylum in the feelings of the community, the happiness of whose members he
never sought.
II. Some from
infidel presumption. If there be any truth in the Scriptures, the dispositions
of the generality of mankind are very unsuitable to their state and their
destiny. What is this ease which flows from infidel persuasion?
1. It is obtained with difficulty.
2. It is partial, and liable to interruption.
3. The less liable it is to be disturbed, the more awful; for it is
penal.
4. This ease is fatal. Its duration is momentary; it must end, and
end in anguish and despair.
III. Some from vain
confidence; relying on the goodness of their present state, and on the
certainty of their future happiness. There is such a thing as spiritual
self-flattery; there is such a thing as a delusive dependence on religion.
1. This confidence keeps them from looking after salvation. They are
too good to be saved.
2. This course will terminate in woeful surprise and disappointment.
IV. Some prom
practical indifference. You would much offend persons of this class, were you
to inquire whether they believed the Scripture. These persons are not to be
charged sentimentally with anti-nomianism or any other error. They know the
Gospel in theory; but they are strangers to its Divine efficacy. Of all the
various characters we have to deal with in our ministry, these are the most
unlikely to insure success. We preach; you acknowledge, and admire,--but you
discover no more concern to obtain the one thing needful we propose, than if you were
persuaded we called you “to follow a cunningly devised fable.” Your life is a
perpetual contradiction to your creed: you are not happy, and contrive not to be
miserable. Inferences.
1. They are highly criminal, who countenance and promote a state of
carnal ease.
2. Let none be troubled when they find their connections distressed
and alarmed with a sense of their sin and danger.
3. Nothing is so much to be dreaded as false security in religion.
4. There is consolation for those who are distressed. We do not
applaud all their doubts and dejections, but these painful scruples are easily
accounted for, and they lie on the safe side. (William Jay.)
Carnal security
I. The state of
mind that is reproved in this passage.
1. It includes carnal security (Amos 6:1).
2. It includes presumptuous unbelief (Amos 6:2-3).
3. It includes sensual indulgence (Amos 6:4-6, first clause).
4. It includes selfish indifference (Amos 6:6, last clause).
II. The justice of
the woe denounced against it.
1. Such a state of mind indicates a lurking enmity against God.
2. Indicates insensibility to the claims of Jesus.
3. Indicates a deep-seated unbelief of coming judgments. (G.
Brooks.)
The danger of indifference to spiritual things
I. The state
condemned. God’s threatenings had been declared against the kingdoms of Judah
and Israel, but the people confided in their fortifications and external
advantages, or in their profession of being the people of God; thus they
carelessly indulged themselves, and were heedless about consequences, though
destruction impended over them. The application of the passage to the conduct
of many under the means of grace is natural and easy. The state of mind
condemned is--
1. Expressive of careless indifference.
2. It is expressive of false security.
The persons warned in the text were regarding themselves as secure
on false and uncertain grounds. So many are now found perverting the doctrines
of the Gospel, and promising to themselves security in such per version. Or
they pretend that they arc waiting for God’s time, when He will afford them
necessary help. They make their moral inability, or in other words, their
unwillingness to receive Christ and His Gospel an excuse for their continued
disobedience, and attribute their rebellion and unbelief to the want of God’s
help, rather than to the state of their own hearts, to the love of sin, and to
their unwillingness to yield submission to the Saviour’s authority. Others make
their moral conduct a ground of hope. Their honesty, their kindness to their
neighbours, and the propriety of their general deportment are substituted for
faith in Christ, and a cordial reception of His Gospel.
3. It is expressive of a state of sloth. Many professors are thus at
ease. Once they were anxious, inquiring, full of apparent desire after the
favour of God and the blessings of salvation, and of activity ‘in the Saviour’s
cause. But their zeal, activity, and ardour have passed away. They are
slumbering and sleeping.
II. Mark the place
where this state of mind is exercised. If slothfulness and indifference are
unseemly in other spheres, are they less so in Zion, in the house, in the
Church of God? If they are injurious to our temporal concerns . . . are they
less so to our spiritual and eternal interests? Restricting the term “in Zion”
to the place where God is worshipped, to His sanctuary, we remark--
1. That in Zion the law of God is declared. Its purity, its justice,
its spiritual character and extensive requirements are set forth. In Zion we
are shown the harmony of the law with the Gospel, while it becomes the means of
preparing us to receive salvation.
2. In Zion the Gospel is proclaimed. Here the most constant theme is
salvation through the Saviour s blood. Here Jesus is evidently set forth as
crucified among us. Can you be at ease in Zion, cold and insensible, with the
Cross in view, and indifferent to the Saviour’s voice addressing us therefrom?
3. Zion is the special residence of Christ. Jesus is now represented
as King in Zion, as the Ruler and Head of His Church.
III. The danger to
which this state of mind exposes.
1. How opposed to all spiritual improvement.
2. How expressive of contempt for spiritual blessings.
3. How ruinous to our eternal interests. (Essex Remembrancer.)
Sinners in Zion described and doomed
I. Consider the
persons here mentioned. They are described as being “at ease in Zion.” The
temple was called Zion. The name was gradually extended to the worshippers, so
that it came to embrace all who profess to know and worship God. To be in Zion
means to be in a land where the true God is known and worshipped, where
religious privileges, similar to those of the Jews, are enjoyed. Taking the word
in a more limited sense, to be in Zion is to be among those who statedly meet
for the purpose of religious worship. Or it may include only those who have
made a public profession of religion. The ease here intended is ease not of
body, but of mind; ease relating not to our temporal but to our religious or
spiritual concerns. Persons are at ease when they feel neither sorrow nor alarm
on account of their sins; when they are seldom troubled by the admonitions of
conscience; when they arc not engaged in working out their salvation with fear
and trembling, but feel quiet and secure. This unconcern respecting themselves
is usually accompanied by at least equal unconcern respecting the salvation of
others. Such persons are described as “not grieved for the affliction of
Joseph”; that is, for the evils and calamities that afflict the Church. This
body may be divided into several classes, corresponding with the various
causes to which their ease is ascribed.
1. Those who deny that any punishment will be inflicted on sinners.
This includes infidels of every description; those who deny God’s government of
the world; those who contemn God; and the scoffers. In this class must also be
placed those who believe that all men will be saved. False prophets who cry
“peace, peace,” when there is no peace.
2. Those who allow that sinners will be punished, but who deny, or do
not appear to believe, that they are sinners. They find, or fancy that they
find none better than themselves, few so good, and very many worse. Hence they
conclude that they arc in no danger, that they have nothing to fear, and of
course feel easy and secure. Such persons are without the law. They know
nothing of its spirituality, strictness, and extent. They have never tried
themselves by this rule. They are like a man buried in sleep, totally
unconscious of their true character and situation, insensible of their sins,
and of the danger to which their sins expose them.
3. Those who acknowledge that they are sinners, and that sinners will
be punished; and yet they are at ease, for they contrive in various ways to
persuade themselves that though other sinners will be punished, they shall
themselves escape. Such persons, though habitually, are not always at ease.
They have times of anxiety and alarm. It is their way by promises and
resolutions to put off the evil day. They trust to a future convenient season.
There is perhaps no class of sinners whose situation is more dangerous. This
class also includes all who entertain a false and groundless persuasion that they
have already become pious, obtained the” pardon of their sins, and secured the
favour of God. The reasons why persons feel such a persuasion are various.
II. The woe which
is denounced against them in our text. The doom is expressed in general terms;
in terms which may include curses and threatenings of every kind. Why are such
characters thought worthy of a punishment so severe?
1. Because the ease which they feel proves that they belong to the
number of the wicked. All who are habitually at ease in Zion know nothing of
true religion. They are either careless sinners or self-deluded hypocrites.
2. They are not only sinners, but sinners of no common stamp, sinners
whose guilt and sinfulness are peculiarly aggravated, and whose punishment will
therefore be peculiarly severe. He who is at ease in Zion must be deaf to God’s
voice, blind to God’s glories, insensible to every spiritual object; he sins
against light and against love.
3. There is little reason to hope that they will ever repent. On what
grounds can we hope for the salvation of those who are at ease? If they cannot
be roused, if their false peace cannot be disturbed, they must inevitably
perish; and to rouse them, humanly speaking, seems impossible. (E. Payson,
D. D.)
The Church warned against supineness
While Amos unveils the transgressions of Israel, he does not spare
the sins of Judah.
I. The persons
here referred to. Those who are “in Zion.” The class of persons spoken of are
the members of the visible Church, the professing people of God. Regard the
professing Church--
1. As solemnly devoted to holiness and God.
2. As the appointed instrument in the evangelisation of the world.
The Church of Christ is designed to be a benevolent institution. They are
appointed “witnesses” for God to an unbelieving and perishing world.
3. As a mediator with God on behalf of a perishing world.
II. The sin charged
upon them. “They are at ease.” Consider--
1. Their spiritual condition. They are devoted to holiness; are they
holy? The spiritual state of Christians generally is not such as to warrant
their being at ease. Every scriptural view of their character and duty involves
the obligation of strenuous exertion.
2. The state of the world. The Gospel has now been preached over
eighteen hundred years, and what is the result? Look at your own family and
domestic circle. Look at the inhabitants of your town and neighbourhood. To how
small a proportion of our race have even the tidings of the Gospel yet been
conveyed.
3. Another reason for uneasiness is that the success of the Word must
always arise from the agency of the Holy Spirit.
III. The judgment
denounced. Under stand--
1. In the sense of a simple prophecy, as the prediction of a calamity
likely and even certain to ensue.
2. It is the language of righteous retribution. That there is an
equitable correspondence between sin and its consequences is testified by all
experience.
3. It is the language of Divine denunciation. God is a just God, and
a terrible. The sceptre of His mercy may become the rod of His wrath. If by our
supineness, our unfaithfulness, our inconsistency, our sin, we have caused to
be shed the blood of souls, shall we escape, think you, the just judgment of
God? (John G. Avery.)
At ease in Zion
The text practically applies to all nominal and professing
Christians.
I. What is meant
by those who are at ease in Zion? Lazy Christians. Christianity is more than
profession, it is even something more than faith. It is carrying into practice
the truths we profess. The soul that is at ease sits down very contentedly on
his mere profession, and mistakes earth for heaven.
II. What is the
cause of being at ease in Zion?
1. There is ignorance of the nature of Christian life. Christianity
is not ease, but labour. It is a daily struggle against unbelief and sin. The
man at ease does his religion by deputy, or trusts entirely to the “mercy” of
God, or relies on outward service and participation in form and ceremonies.
2. There is a dislike of the duties to be undertaken. Self-denial is
not congenial to the natural heart. Labour is hateful, conflict repulsive, and
therefore men sit down and dream away their opportunities.
3. Self-confidence. Disaster seems so unlikely. We fancy we are so
secure that nothing can move us. Our prosperity, our privileges, our apparent
tranquillity deceive the heart and lure the soul to sleep.
III. The result of
being at ease in Zion.
1. It generates sin.
2. It merits the displeasure of God.
3. It will end in entire destruction. (G. Wood, M. A.)
The “policy of drift” easy
Unless you make for the great things of your life, for I am not
talking about the little things of life, many of which are best deter mined by
circumstances--unless you make for the great things of life, the deliberate
choice of the better part, you have in effect made the disastrous choice of the
worst. The “policy of drift” always ends in ruin for a nation, for an army, for
an individual. And it is plain enough that it is so, because, to the
superficial observer, it is a great deal easier, and a great deal pleasanter,
to take the low levels than to climb; and there are far more, and very clamant
voices calling to us from out of worldly things to eat, and drink, and take our
ease and be merry, and let ideals alone, than there are summoning us to the
loftier, harder, more heroic, Christlike course of life. It is hard work taking
a great junk up the Yang tse-Kiang. Hundreds of trackers have to strain every
nerve and muscle as they go stumbling over the rocks on the bank, with great
cables on their shoulders, and slow progress is made. It would take a week to
get as far up as they can travel coming downwards in a day, without any
trouble. Ay, and what is that that the idle crew begin to hear, as they lie
half somnolent on the deck, enjoy ing the repose? A groaning sound, the roar of
the rapids. To go down stream is easy, but there is a Niagara at the far end.
You choose the worse when you do not deliberately choose the better. That is
true all round. If you do not coerce, by a deliberate act, your will, or your
inclination, the baser sort of them will get the upper hand of you. Take away
the police, and the mob will loot and riot. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The inner life of a nation determines its destiny
It is not the increase of the outer man and his surroundings and
possessions, but the renewal of the inner life and spirit which makes the net
profit and abiding wealth. It is the inner life of a nation that determines all
things, not the visible, but the more or less invisible, not what can be
arrayed in figures and statistics, but what no figures can express--not the
show and splendour of prosperous times, the glare of wealth, the blaze of
knowledge, the surfeit of luxuries, the pomp of pride, the flaunting of power,
but the hidden qualities of patience, faith, self-mastery, courage, righteousness,
and purity which lie underneath all this external display. It is the soul of a
nation that makes a nation, not its body. If the soul is not sound, the body
soon becomes a mass of weakness and decay. France is wealthier than it ever was
before. It has more splendid cities, larger armies, greater intellectual
resources and material resources than ever before; the outward man was never so
fair and strong as now. What of all that if the heart has ceased to beat with
honest purpose, if its ideals are lost, if the inner life has become diseased,
defiled, corrupt? The outward show slowly rots away, when the inspiring force
within degenerates and disappears. It is the continued renewal of the inner man
that saves all. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.)
Degrading moral transitions
The phases of transition in the moral temper of the falling
Venetians, during their fall, were from pride to infidelity, and from
infidelity to the unscrupulous pursuit of pleasure. During the last years of
the existence of the State, the minds both of the nobility and the people seem
to have been set simply upon the attainment of the means of self-indulgence.
There was not strength enough in them to be proud, nor forethought enough to be
ambitious. One by one the possessions of the State were abandoned to its
enemies; one by one the channels of its trade were forsaken by its own languor,
or occupied and closed against it by its more energetic rivals; and the time,
the resources, and the thoughts of the nation were exclusively occupied in the invention
of such fantastic and costly pleasures as might best amuse their apathy, lull
their remorse, or disguise their ruin. It is as needless, as it is painful, to
trace the steps of her final ruin. That ancient curse was upon her, the curse
of the cities of the plain, “Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of
idleness.” By the inner burning of her own passions, as fatal as the fiery rain
of Gomorrah, she was consumed from her place among the nations; and her ashes
are choking the channels of the dead salt sea. (John Ruskin.)
Verse 2
Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath.
Comparing notes
This was a Divine challenge to Israel. Israel in those days thought
that religion was often a great hardship; that it abounded with demands for
self-denial; and that its numerous duties could be observed only at
considerable cost. You generally find that the least self-denying are the most
keenly conscious of their self-denial. In those days the people of Israel were
willing to be religious, after a fashion, but they must be also politic, so
that their religion should not militate against their national interests, or
weaken them in their struggle with the heathen powers by which they were
surrounded. Israel practically said: “Cast among these godless nations, there is
nothing for us to do but largely to adapt ourselves to circumstances; to obey
God’s commandments as far as it is practicable, but not henceforth, as in the
past, to sacrifice national interests by a too scrupulous attention to
religious precepts.” We have in the text God’s reply to Israel’s fallacy. “Pass
ye into Calneh.” Calneh was a great city on the Tigris. Hamath was also a great
city, and a capital, on the banks of the Orontes, on the north. Gath was one of
the great cities of Palestine. God now practically says to Israel: “Look at those
powers, those centres of worldly empires and governments. You say that they
have nothing to hamper them; that they fight their battles irrespective of
right and wrong; that no principle is at stake; that their aim is
self-aggrandisement; and therefore that the path of victory is to them a far
easier one than it can be for nations who, like yourselves, have to fear God and
to keep His commandments. See, what is the practical issue. Compare your
national prosperity with the prosperity of these surrounding nations. Are their
borders greater than your borders?” That was the question which practically
silenced their complaint. What are the relative compensations of godliness and
worldliness? In what consists man’s highest interests or his greatest wealth?
Does true blessedness consist in what the world calls success? Take--
1. The life of the thorough worldling--the man who has no principle
to hamper him, and to whom the highest law of life is self-aggrandizement. Such
as the spendthrift. The man with an insatiable love of money. The gambler.
2. Those who are determined to make their position in the world. Such
an one enters business, or a profession, and considers that it is necessary to
adopt certain customs which are not above suspicion, but which become largely
respectable by their universal acceptance. Even in such cases there are
hundreds of thousands who fail entirely in their attempts. Some undoubtedly do
prosper and accumulate wealth; but in how many instances have they lost their
good name in the effort!
3. The honest man of the world. Even then business may be allowed to
monopolise all his time and all his energy, to the exclusion of higher aims,
without Which even an honest life is poor. There is a distinctly spiritual work
for man to do. If that Christian work is neglected, and the claims of Jesus
Christ along spiritual lines ignored, that man may gain the whole world, but he
will lose his soul. (David Davies.)
Verses 3-6
Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence
to come near.
Man’ s evil day
I. All men have an
evil day in their future. Calamities and trials are common to all. There
is one evil day, it is death; but it need not be evil.
II. Some men
adjourn in thought this evil day.
1. Not because they have any doubt as to its advent.
2. Not because they lack reminders of its approach. Why then do they
adjourn the thought? The reason is found--
III. None who
adjourn this evil day in thought can delay it in fact. These men so ignored
their coming calamities that by their conduct they hastened them on. A general
truth is suggested here,--That a man who adjourns all thought of his end, will
pursue such a course of conduct as will hasten its approach. (Homilist.)
The knowledge of sin
Only history can tell what sin is; nothing but Divine judgment can
give you a definition of bad doing. We must watch the desolation if we would
know the meaning of certain terms and the range of certain actions. We must
study Divine judgment if we would know human sin. The difficulty of the teacher herein is that
so many persons are unconscious of sin and are therefore mayhap the greater
sinners. Some do not distinguish between crime and sin. They have not been
criminals, and therefore they think they have not been sinners,--as if all the
story of life did not lie in the disposition rather than in the action. The
heart is the seat of evil. None knoweth the heart but God. The heart does not
know itself; and if there were not a concurrent line called history, or
providence, or judgment, we should never know the real state of the heart. We
must go to the broader history, the larger experience of mankind, and find, not
in it alone, but in it as interpreted by Divine providence, God’s meaning of
the term sin. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Verse 6
They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
Personal sympathy the only right basis for Christian effort
The term “Joseph” is here employed for the whole of the people of
the kingdom of Israel. The term “Ephraim” is usually employed by way of
reproach when the sin and rebellion of the whole people are referred to, while
the more illustrious name of “Joseph” is apparently reserved for occasions that
call for pity and compassion. The idea here appears to have been suggested by the
heartless conduct of Joseph’s brethren when they made away with their brother,
without pity for his youth or respect for his piety. So the prophet, describing
the rich men and rulers of his time, says, “They drink wine in bowls, and
anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved for the
affliction of Joseph.” In this chapter we have a terrible picture of a corrupt,
degenerate commonwealth. The prophet, with a noble plea for patriotism, turning
from the miseries of the lower to the heartless luxuries of the higher ranks,
sees nothing in the future but national ruin. The principle he establishes is
this,--The life of a nation depends on the healthy exercise of sympathy
throughout all its parts, all its ranks and classes. How shall we apply this
principle, and the warning that accompanies it, to ourselves? I am not one of
those who would willingly indulge in reflections upon the character of the age
in which we live. I do not see the wisdom of making a disadvantageous
comparison between these and past times, as if our forefathers were in all
respects wiser and better than we. But I am not bound to shut my eyes to the
signs of the times, nor cease to reprove the evils of the times. Is not a want
of union and sympathy throughout all ranks of the nation as characteristic of
our age as of the age of Amos? Our divisions, political and religious, when
taken in connection with our great prosperity and liberty, are the surprise and
the ridicule of the whole world. Of all power in the world there is no force
equal to the moral force of sympathy. This is the power that takes strongest
hold, and enables us to wield empire over the hearts of men. Personal influence
and kindness--thus we may form an estimate of tim comparative failure of so
many of our benevolent institutions. Tried by these Divine rules of conduct,
how does the benevolence of many who have earned a reputation for
charity, pale before that which may never be able to go beyond kindly words and
secret intercessory prayer. Charity ceases to be charity if it is unaccompanied
by tenderness and courtesy. By sympathy is meant an entrance into the
circumstances, a true realisation of the position of those whom we seek to
benefit. Jesus came down at first from heaven, and still administers His way of
salvation by the exercise of sympathy. The same mind that was in Christ Jesus
must and will animate every true disciple. He will be impelled to seek out
sinners, and lead them to their Saviour by kindly advice and loving persuasion;
not by cold reproofs and pharisaic condemnation, but by brotherly sympathy,
because he is like that Saviour who came “not to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved.” (Joseph Maskell.)
The ruin wrought by a selfish spirit
We belong to the greatest empire that this world has ever seen,
and not only is this the vastest empire, but it is also the most opulent. Ours
is an empire teeming with wealth, genius, and splendid possibilities, With this
vast empire, with this rich and manifold civilisation, what is our particular
peril? Let me say it in a word--selfishness. If historians are to be believed,
selfish indulgence ruined the ancient empires; if some of the most capable and
dispassionate critics living are correct, selfish indulgence is ruining France.
Selfishness in various subtle forms is a far greater menace to this empire than
any foe that threatens the silver streak. Selfishness is the worm to spoil your
roses, whether they belong to York or Lancaster. Selfishness is the canker upon
your gold; selfishness is the moth to fret your purple, and selfishness is the
creeping paralysis that may eat out the strength of this empire and spoil its
splendour and its fame. Wherein lies our safety? In spiritual magnanimity! If
you want to take care of your empire, take care of your missions. It is a
strange thing to say, but the guarantee for your splendour is your sacrifice.
You are going to keep your wealth just as you give it away in noble causes. The
tonic for your luxury is the generosity that does and dares for the perishing;
and if you want to keep your place with the topmost nations you will keep your
place at the top by taking a tremendous stoop to those who are at the base--the
lost. When you bring your learning, or wealth, or political mastery, and when
you associate them with pity, humanity, and magnanimity, you have got a supreme
safeguard upon all your greatness and glory. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Endosed within self
There is a little pool in a mountain chasm, so completely enclosed
within its high and rocky walls that no sound reaches it from the great outer
world. Yet the slightest noise started within its environ ment--the cry of the
heron, the splash of the muskrat, or the roll of the pebbles under the feet of
the deer--reverberates over the water and is echoed from the cliff. Some minds
are so enclosed within their own selfishness as to be silent to the great
things which stir the world--the calls of human need, the summons of God to
public duty, and all the onrolling cause of human progress in many lands. They
live only among their own thoughts, desires, and prejudices. To them their
little concerns are great. (L. A. Banks, D. D.)
Christian solicitude
When William Burns was asked the nature of his thoughts on finding
himself among the Chinese, he turned to his interrogator and answered, “The
lost, and a Christ for them.” When Henry Venn preached, such was his flaming
fervour that “men went down before him like slaked lime.” It was the same
yearning which drove John Brown to nightly and prevailing intercession for
“dead Haddington, and wicked, withered East Lothian”; the same which wrung from
Rowland Hill the cry, “Oh that I were all heart and soul and spirit, to
tell the glorious Gospel to perishing multitudes!” Would that I burned out for
Jesus with the same intense and ardent glow! (A. Smdlie.)
Careless indifference of Christians
I know a beautiful valley in Wales, guarded by well-wooded hills.
Spring came there first, and summer lingered longest, and the clear river
loitered through the rich pastures and the laughing orchards, as if loth to
leave the enchanting scene. But the manufacturer came there; he built his
chimneys and he lighted his furnaces, out of which belched forth poisonous
fumes night and day. Every tree is dead, no flower blooms there now, the very
grass has been eaten off the face of the earth; the beautiful river, in which
the pebbles once lay as the pure thoughts in a maiden’s mind, is now foul, and
the valley, scarred and bare, looks like the entrance into Tophet itself. And
this human nature of ours, in which faith, and virtue, and godliness, and all
sweet humanities might flourish, in miles of this London of ours, is what bad
air, and the gin palace, and the careless indifference of a Christianity bent
only upon saving itself, have made it. (Morlais Jones.)
Verse 12
Shall horses run upon the rock?
will one plough there with oxen?
Labour in vain
These expressions are proverbs, taken from the familiar sayings of
the east country. A proverb is generally a sword with two edges, or, if I may
so say, it has many edges, or is all edge, and hence it may be turned this way
and that way, and every part of it will have force and point. The connection
would tolerate two senses in this place. An ancient commentator says that it
has seven meanings. Like those curiously carved Chinese balls in which there is
one ball within another, so in many a holy text there is sense within sense,
teaching within teaching, and each one worthy of the Spirit of God. It may be
that the prophet is expostulating with ungodly men upon their pursuit of
happiness where it can never be found. They were endeavouring to grow rich and
strong by oppression. And if any of you try to content yourselves with this
world, and hope to find a heaven in the midst of your business and your family,
without looking upward for it, you labour in vain. To seek after happiness in
evil deeds is to plough a rock of granite. To labour after true prosperity by
dishonest means is as useless as to till the sandy shore. The words may mean
this,--God will not always send His ministers to call men to repentance. There
is a time of ploughing, but when it is evident that the heart is wilfully
hardened, then wisdom itself suggests to mercy that she should give over her
efforts. Taking that sense, we remark--
I. Ministers
labour to break up men’s hearts. They would make hearts ready to receive the
heavenly Seed. Many truths are used, like sharp ploughshares, to break up the
heart. We must cut into the heart with the ploughshare of the law. If we really
love the souls of men, let us prove it by honest speech. The hard heart must be
broken, or it will still refuse the Saviour who was sent to bind up the
broken-hearted. There are some things which men may or may not have, and yet
may be saved; but those things which go with the ploughing of the heart are
indispensable There must be a holy fear and a humble trembling before God,
there must be an acknowledgment of guilt and a penitent petition for mercy;
there must, in a word, be a thorough ploughing of the soul before we can expect
the seed to bring forth fruit.
II. At times
ministers labour in vain. In a short time the ploughman feels whether the
plough will go or not, and so does the minister. He may use the very same words
in one place which he has used in another, but he feels in one place great joy
and hopefulness in his preaching, while with another audience he has heavy work
and little hope. All labourers of Christ know what it is sometimes to work in
heavy soil. There are rocky hearers in all congregations. On some impression is
made, but it is not deep and permanent. Certain of these rocky-hearted people
have been ploughed for years, and have become harder instead of softer. The sun
which softens wax hardens clay, and the same Gospel which has brought others to
tenderness and repentance has exercised a contrary effect upon them, and made
them more careless about Divine things than they were in their youth. Why are
men so extremely rocky? Some are so from a peculiar stolidity of nature. Some
are hard because of their infidelity. Worldliness hardens a man in every way.
With many hardness is produced by a general levity. There is no depth of earth
in their superficial natures; beneath a sprinkling of shifting, worthless sand
lies an impenetrable rock of utter stupidity and senselessness.
III. It is
unreasonable to expect that God’s servants should always continue to labour in
vain. Labour in vain cannot be continued for ever if we consider the ploughman.
Then there is the Master to be considered. Is He always to be resisted and
provoked? And there are so many other people needing the Gospel who will
receive it. There is a boundary to the patience of men, and even to the
patience of God.
IV. There must be
an alteration then, and that speedily. The oxen shall be taken off from such
toil. It can be effected in three ways.
1. The unprofitable hearer can be removed so that he shall no more
hear the Gospel from the lips of his best approved minister.
2. Another plan is to take away the ploughman. Or
3. God may say, “This piece of rock shall never trouble the ploughman
any more. I will take it away.” The man dies. O Lord, break up the rock, and
let the seed drop among its broken substance, and get Thou a harvest from the
dissolved granite at this time. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Ye have turned judgment
into gall.
Man’s perverting power
The meaning of this is that they had turned the best things into
bad use. See the working of this perverting power in many departments of
action.
I. In physical
operations. Everywhere you see man perverting nature, perverting the metals,
the rivers, the fruits, and the chemical elements of the world to bad and
mischievous uses.
II. In civic life.
The principle of human government is a Divine ordinance, intended to secure
equal justice and protection. But how has man perverted it! He has turned it
into an instrument to benefit the few at the expense of the many, an instrument
of tyranny and oppression. Man’s perversion of the law is proverbial as a
hideous enormity. The principle of merchandise, intended to band man together
by the exchange of commodities, in mutual obligation and fellowship, man has
awfully perverted. He has made it the instrument of cupidity, monopoly, and
nameless frauds.
III. In the
religious sphere. Do not let man say he has no power. His moral power is
something stupendous. He has power to turn the things of God to the use of
Satan, heavenly blessings into hellish curses. (Homilist.)
Verse 12
Shall horses run upon the rock?
will one plough there with oxen?
Labour in vain
These expressions are proverbs, taken from the familiar sayings of
the east country. A proverb is generally a sword with two edges, or, if I may
so say, it has many edges, or is all edge, and hence it may be turned this way
and that way, and every part of it will have force and point. The connection
would tolerate two senses in this place. An ancient commentator says that it
has seven meanings. Like those curiously carved Chinese balls in which there is
one ball within another, so in many a holy text there is sense within sense,
teaching within teaching, and each one worthy of the Spirit of God. It may be
that the prophet is expostulating with ungodly men upon their pursuit of
happiness where it can never be found. They were endeavouring to grow rich and
strong by oppression. And if any of you try to content yourselves with this
world, and hope to find a heaven in the midst of your business and your family,
without looking upward for it, you labour in vain. To seek after happiness in
evil deeds is to plough a rock of granite. To labour after true prosperity by
dishonest means is as useless as to till the sandy shore. The words may mean
this,--God will not always send His ministers to call men to repentance. There
is a time of ploughing, but when it is evident that the heart is wilfully
hardened, then wisdom itself suggests to mercy that she should give over her efforts.
Taking that sense, we remark--
I. Ministers
labour to break up men’s hearts. They would make hearts ready to receive the
heavenly Seed. Many truths are used, like sharp ploughshares, to break up the
heart. We must cut into the heart with the ploughshare of the law. If we really
love the souls of men, let us prove it by honest speech. The hard heart must be
broken, or it will still refuse the Saviour who was sent to bind up the
broken-hearted. There are some things which men may or may not have, and yet
may be saved; but those things which go with the ploughing of the heart are
indispensable There must be a holy fear and a humble trembling before God,
there must be an acknowledgment of guilt and a penitent petition for mercy;
there must, in a word, be a thorough ploughing of the soul before we can expect
the seed to bring forth fruit.
II. At times
ministers labour in vain. In a short time the ploughman feels whether the
plough will go or not, and so does the minister. He may use the very same words
in one place which he has used in another, but he feels in one place great joy
and hopefulness in his preaching, while with another audience he has heavy work
and little hope. All labourers of Christ know what it is sometimes to work in
heavy soil. There are rocky hearers in all congregations. On some impression is
made, but it is not deep and permanent. Certain of these rocky-hearted people
have been ploughed for years, and have become harder instead of softer. The sun
which softens wax hardens clay, and the same Gospel which has brought others to
tenderness and repentance has exercised a contrary effect upon them, and made
them more careless about Divine things than they were in their youth. Why are
men so extremely rocky? Some are so from a peculiar stolidity of nature. Some
are hard because of their infidelity. Worldliness hardens a man in every way.
With many hardness is produced by a general levity. There is no depth of earth
in their superficial natures; beneath a sprinkling of shifting, worthless sand
lies an impenetrable rock of utter stupidity and senselessness.
III. It is
unreasonable to expect that God’s servants should always continue to labour in
vain. Labour in vain cannot be continued for ever if we consider the ploughman.
Then there is the Master to be considered. Is He always to be resisted and
provoked? And there are so many other people needing the Gospel who will
receive it. There is a boundary to the patience of men, and even to the
patience of God.
IV. There must be
an alteration then, and that speedily. The oxen shall be taken off from such
toil. It can be effected in three ways.
1. The unprofitable hearer can be removed so that he shall no more
hear the Gospel from the lips of his best approved minister.
2. Another plan is to take away the ploughman. Or
3. God may say, “This piece of rock shall never trouble the ploughman
any more. I will take it away.” The man dies. O Lord, break up the rock, and
let the seed drop among its broken substance, and get Thou a harvest from the
dissolved granite at this time. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Ye have turned judgment
into gall.
Man’s perverting power
The meaning of this is that they had turned the best things into
bad use. See the working of this perverting power in many departments of
action.
I. In physical
operations. Everywhere you see man perverting nature, perverting the metals,
the rivers, the fruits, and the chemical elements of the world to bad and
mischievous uses.
II. In civic life.
The principle of human government is a Divine ordinance, intended to secure
equal justice and protection. But how has man perverted it! He has turned it
into an instrument to benefit the few at the expense of the many, an instrument
of tyranny and oppression. Man’s perversion of the law is proverbial as a
hideous enormity. The principle of merchandise, intended to band man together
by the exchange of commodities, in mutual obligation and fellowship, man has
awfully perverted. He has made it the instrument of cupidity, monopoly, and
nameless frauds.
III. In the
religious sphere. Do not let man say he has no power. His moral power is
something stupendous. He has power to turn the things of God to the use of
Satan, heavenly blessings into hellish curses. (Homilist.)
Verse 13
Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not
taken to us horns by our own strength?
Human joy in the unsubstantial
“Horns” are signs and symbols of power; here they stand for the
military resources with which they fancied that they could conquer every foe.
“These delusions of God-forgetting pride the prophet cast down, by saying that
Jehovah, the God of hosts, will raise up a nation against them, which will
crush them down in the whole length and breadth of the kingdom. This nation was
Assyria” (Delitzsch).
I. To rejoice in
worldly wealth, is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.”
II. To rejoice in
personal beauty, is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.” But is this beauty a
thing to rejoice in? Those who possess it do rejoice in it; many pride
themselves on their good looks and fine figures. But what is beauty? It is a
“thing of nought.”
III. To rejoice in
ancestral distinction, is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.” There are those
who are constantly exulting in their pedigree. But even had we come from the
loins of the intellectual and moral peers of the race, what in this is there
for rejoicing? It is truly “a thing of nought.” Our ancestry is independent of
us, we are not responsible for it. It is not a matter either of blame or
praise.
IV. To rejoice in
moral meritoriousness, is to “rejoice in a thing of nought.” There are many who
rejoice in their morality. Like the Pharisee in the temple, they thank God they
are not as “other men.” Moral merit in a sinner, is a baseless vision, a
phantom of a proud heart. No, our righteousness is “a thing of nought.” (Homilist.)
Our own strength a “thing of nought”
The Christian life is something more than what we call a moral
life. The mere moral life is one which begins to be and grows simply by
voluntary, conscious, self-originating deeds and choices. It is “self
righteousness” in Paul’s sense of the word. The Christian life no less has
conscious choices, but something more is builded into it, something spiritual
and real out of God. Here is an illustration. Plant a grain of wheat in a wet
sponge kept moist by a bowl of water. It will grow and grow rapidly, fed on
itself and water, but directly its tall stem leans, limp and weak, to break at
last., and wither and die before it bears fruit. It was self-nourished; its
growth was out of itself. Now plant another like grain of wheat in the earth.
It grows, not so quickly; but it is having builded into it lime and phosphorus
and iron out of the earth, and its tall stein bends at last also, but with the
weight of “ the full corn in the ear,” the fruit of its union with the strength
of the earth. So the Christian life and growth are the strength of God, builded
by Him into the character. It is the spiritual element, thus wrought into our
life by the higher Nourisher of our souls, which gives us character and moral
strength; and that process, though unconscious, is a real happening. (S. B.
Meeser.)
We take to ourselves the credit of our good things
Why is it we are so slow to realise this? Partly, I think, because
we are wont from so much of our life to shut God out. “It is ever the nature of
Galloway,” says Mr. Crockett in one of his stories, “to share the credit of any
victory with providence, but to charge it wholly with any disaster.” “Wasna
that cleverly done?” we say when we succeed. “We maun juist submit,” we say
when we fail. And Galloway nature is very much like human nature all the world
over. We make God responsible for our evil things; the credit of our good
things we put down to ourselves. (Helping Words.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》