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Amos Chapter
Seven
Amos 7
Chapter Contents
Visions of judgments to come upon Israel. (1-9) Amaziah
threatens Amos. (10-17)
Commentary on Amos 7:1-9
God bears long, but he will not bear always with a
provoking people. The remembrance of the mercies we formerly received, like the
produce of the earth of the former growth, should make us submissive to the
will of God, when we meet with disappointments in the latter growth. The Lord
has many ways of humbling a sinful nation. Whatever trouble we are under, we
should be most earnest with God for the forgiveness of sin. Sin will soon make
a great people small. What will become of Israel, if the hand that should raise
him be stretched out against him? See the power of prayer. See what a blessing
praying people are to a land. See how ready, how swift God is to show mercy;
how he waits to be gracious. Israel was a wall, a strong wall, which God
himself reared as a defence to his sanctuary. The Lord now seems to stand upon
this wall. He measures it; it appears to be a bowing, bulging wall. Thus God
would bring the people of Israel to the trial, would discover their wickedness;
and the time will come, when those who have been spared often, shall be spared
no longer. But the Lord still calls Israel his people. The repeated prayer and
success of the prophet should lead us to seek the Saviour.
Commentary on Amos 7:10-17
It is no new thing for the accusers of the brethren, to
misrepresent them as enemies to the king and kingdom, as traitors to their
prince, and troublers of the land, when they are the best friends to both.
Those who make gain their godliness, and are governed by the hopes of wealth
and preferment, are ready to think these the most powerful motives with others
also. But those who have a warrant from God, like Amos, ought not to fear the
face of man. If God, that sent him, had not strengthened him, he could not thus
have set his face as a flint. The Lord often chooses the weak and foolish
things of the world to confound the wise and mighty. But no fervent prayers, or
self-denying labours, can bring proud sinners to bear faithful reproofs and
warnings. And all who oppose or despise the Divine word, must expect fatal
effects to their souls, unless they repent.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Amos》
Amos 7
Verse 1
[1] Thus
hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the
beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter
growth after the king's mowings.
Thus —
This is the first of five prophetic representations of what was coming upon
this people.
The latter growth —
The shooting up of the first growth being too luxuriant, they often eat it down
with cattle; but if the second growth were eat up, it marred the whole harvest.
Mowed — It
is supposed the first mowing of the corn in the blade was for the king's use;
and after this the second springing grew up to the harvest.
Verse 2
[2] And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of
the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob
arise? for he is small.
It came to pass — In
the vision.
By whom —
How shall any of Jacob escape, if thou dost cast him down?
Verse 3
[3] The
LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.
Repented —
This is spoken after the manner of men.
Verse 4
[4] Thus
hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend
by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
Shewed — In
vision.
Called —
Commanded fire from heaven.
A part — Of
the land too.
Verse 7
[7] Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a
plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
By a plumb-line —
Strongly and beautifully built.
Verse 8
[8] And
the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then
said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel:
I will not again pass by them any more:
Set a plumb-line — I
will exactly measure the whole ten tribes.
Pass by them — I
will no more forbear, but will pull down all that is faulty.
Verse 9
[9] And
the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall
be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
The high places —
The temples on high mountains built to idols.
Of Isaac —
The seed of Isaac.
Verse 10
[10] Then
Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath
conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not
able to bear all his words.
In the midst —
Openly, and publickly, endeavouring to stir up Israel to sedition or rebellion.
The land —
The people cannot bear all his harsh predictions.
Verse 11
[11] For
thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be
led away captive out of their own land.
Jeroboam shall die — He
nowhere said so, but spake of his house distinguished from his person, as verse
9.
Verse 13
[13] But
prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is
the king's court.
The king's court — To
which therefore thou oughtest to shew more respect, and not thus to affront the
king in his own house.
Verse 14
[14] Then
answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's
son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:
No prophet —
Not originally, or by study, or by any human designation.
An herdman — By
breeding and occupation I was and still am, an herdman.
Sycamore fruit —
This fruit was good food for man, or cattle.
Verse 16
[16] Now
therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against
Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.
The house of Isaac — The
posterity of Isaac.
Verse 17
[17]
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy
sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided
by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into
captivity forth of his land.
In a polluted land —
Among the Heathen.
Israel —
The ten tribes.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Amos》
07 Chapter 7
Verses 1-17
Verses 1-6
O Lord, forgive, I beseech Thee . . . The Lord repented for this:
It shall not be, saith the Lord.
Intercession for pardon prevailing
I. Concerning
intercession.
1. This intercession was made by Amos alone. Neither Hosea nor
Isaiah, nor any other God-fearers of the time joined in it. To Amos alone the
vision appeared, and by him alone the intercession was made.
2. This intercession was made in the behalf of a wicked people. Amos
calls them Jacob, but they had renounced the principles of that holy man, and
stained their manners with the vilest corruptions. Corruption in manners, the
effect of corruption in principles, like a spreading pestilence, infected the
whole kingdom.
3. The form of this intercession is a prayer for pardon. Sin is the
cause of misery, and misery is the effect and punishment of sin. By pardon sin
is taken away, and when the cause is taken away the effect ceases. In going to
the throne for deliverance from misery, if we have a true sense of sin, pardon
will be our chief concern.
4. This intercession was made in a moment of extremity. In the
preceding reigns the kingdom had been mortally wounded, and though under
Jeroboam some of its wounds were bound up and healed, others continued bleeding,
and terminated in a universal mortification.
5. Importunity in this intercession is tempered with reverence. For
the preservation of the house of Israel, the man of God is earnest and fervent
in prayer; but his prayer is blended with the reverence that is suitable to
Divine majesty and holiness.
6. This intercession is exemplary; an example and pattern to after
ages.
II. Concerning the
prevailing of this intercession. “The Lord repented for this.” His meaning is,
the Lord accepted his importunity, granted the desire of his heart, and assured
him that the miseries, represented under the emblem of the grasshoppers, would
not eat up and consume all things. Illustrate the form of words in which this
meaning is expressed.
1. The holy writings frequently contain this expression.
2. Changes in the administration of providence, according to the
purpose of God, are expressed by these words.
3. These changes of administration encourage intercession, and
furnish excitements and motives to repentance. Encouraged by considerations of
the grace, mercy, and kindness of the God of Israel, Amos stood and interceded.
III. The sovereign
manner in which the Lord was pleased to express and communicate the prevailing
of the intercession. “It shall not be, saith the Lord.”
1. This intimation came immediately from the Holy One, by whom alone
pardon of sin and remission of punishment is granted.
2. This intimation was made by the Saviour of Israel, who alone had
power to restrain and countermand the destroyers of Israel. The waster is the
creature of His power, and the servant of His providence.
3. The intimation came to the individual who had made intercession.
4. This intimation is effective and sovereign. “He spake, and it was
done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”
5. The intimation is solemnly authenticated. Amos heard the words
distinctly pronounced, and “saith the Lord,” solemnly added by the glorious
Speaker. This encouraged him to continue interceding, and raised his hope of
prevailing.
Inferences.
1. Intercession for a wicked and perverse people is a duty. The Lord
allows, requires, and commands it, and in accepting it hath glorified Himself.
2. Supplication for pardon is an essential part of intercession.
3. Through the forbearance and long-suffering of God, some temporal strokes
may be mitigated, or removed, upon intercession; while the desolation
determined, deserved, and denounced, is making ready and hastening forwards.
4. Intercessors, though friends to their country, are sometimes
treated in it as enemies. Toward the restoration of the country Amos
contributed more by prayer than Jeroboam did by the sword. A few men who have
power with God in prayer are better than chariots of war, and stronger than
standing armies. Exhort--
Revelation and prayer
I. A divine
revelation leading to human prayer.
1. A Divine revelation. A vision of judgments symbolically
represented to the mind of the prophet. Destruction by grasshoppers.
Destruction by fire.
2. A human prayer. “Forgive.” This calamity is brought on by the sin
of the nation. Forgive the sin; remove the moral cause of the judgment. “By
whom shall Jacob arise?” Or, better, “How can Jacob stand? for he is small.”
Jacob’s--the nation’s--weakness, is the plea of the prayer for forgiveness. The
Israelites had been greatly reduced by repeated invasions on the part of the
Assyrian kings, and were now on the point of being attacked by the Assyrians,
but purchased their retreat by one thousand talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19-20). The nation was
now so weakened that it was unable to stand before another invader. How can
Jacob stand? The time has come when men may well ask this question in relation
to the Church. By whom shall it arise? Not by statesmen, scientists, etc.
II. Human prayer
leading to a Divine revelation. The prophet prays, and the great God makes a
new revelation of mercy. “The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord.” (Homilist.)
Verse 2
By whom shall Jacob arise?
The duty of Christians towards the Jews
These words were used as a plea for Israel before God, and proved
successful.
1. Jacob is fallen. And great was his fall. He stood higher than any
other on the face of the earth. He was nearer to God than any other people
were. Jacob, among the nations of the earth, was to God what Joseph was to his
father among his brethren: the
chiefest blessings invariably fell to his lot. “To whom pertaineth the adoption.”
The Jews as a nation were adopted by God into His family. And a dear son was
Ephraim to God for a long-period. Alas, that we are now compelled to say of
this once exalted people, Thou art fallen”! Many a downfall did Jacob
experience “ because of his iniquity.” He descended into the land of Egypt. God
raised him thence “with a stretched-out arm and great judgments.” He again fell
into Babylon, and once more did God graciously lift him out, and place him upon
his feet; but of all his falls, this, the last, is the deepest and the
heaviest. Hitherto he had but fallen backwards, as it were. This time he fell
prostrate on his face. In all his former falls he had contrived to keep his
hold of many promises, blessings, privileges. On this occasion he lost his
grasp of all,--he is “without a king, and without a prince, and without an
ephod, and without teraphim.” He descended lower than did any nation, so that
all look down now upon the Jew.
2. Jacob is unable to arise. Every movement he makes sinks him lower
in the mire. Does he renounce the Talmud? It is but to embrace infidelity. No
one has fallen among such cruel thieves as Jacob, and it is hard to pass by him
continually, as the priest and Levite are said to have done. Extend a helping
hand to Jacob.
3. Jacob is worth raising. True, Jacob has received a great fall, but
the pit into which he descended is not bottomless. The grace of God is deeper
than the fall of the Jew. The Christian Church has long acted towards the Jew
as if it thought he was not fit to be raised. Our hearts appear to have been
more tender to all than to the poor Jew. But Jacob is not so foul as that the
blood of the Cross cannot cleanse him.
4. Jacob is to be raised. What a multitude of things there are that
are worth raising, but of
whose restitution we have no certainty. It may be questionable whether Jacob
will again be restored to his own country, but there is not the shadow of a
doubt as to his being raised into the Divine favour. It is by the
instrumentality of the Gentiles that Jacob’s restoration is to be accomplished.
One great reason for extending the Gospel to us was that we might reach it to
others, and “to the Jew first.”
5. There is a large reward for raising Jacob. Once the Jews are
brought to believe, the lever that is to move the whole world will have been
obtained. The Jew is a wanderer in every land; he is found under the burning
sun of Hindoostan, and among the eternal snows of Siberia; he can speak every
tongue, so that, without any educational preparation, he is ready to preach the
Gospel of Christ unto all the nations of the earth. (David Roberts, D. D.)
Help for Jacob
The chosen people are in trouble and distress. They have forsaken
the living God, and He is punishing their apostasy. But the prophet of the
Lord, and the few faithful among his brethren deeply deplore the national sin,
and earnestly invoke the Divine mercy. They will not rest, they cannot hold
their peace till God pardon the iniquity of His people, and restore to them the
tokens of His loving-kindness. At such a time how natural and significant the language of Amos.
Often in the Church of Christ are there not seasons of declension,
lukewarmness, discouragement, inefficiency, fightings without, and fears
within, bitter partisanship, and uncharitable controversy, when all hands are
feeble, and all hearts arc faint? And thus afflicted, what need we so much to
know as our spiritual poverty and feebleness, and what so much to learn as the
sufficiency of our Divine resources?
I. Jacob is small.
1. In numbers.
2. In substance.
3. In influence.
4. In religious knowledge.
5. In fruitfulness and efficiency.
II. By whom shall
Jacob arise? His helplessness conceded, who shall help him? Shall the civil
ruler? Or the wealthy patron? Or by the popular orator? Or by the speculative
theorist? Or by the partisan controversial st? Or by the sensational
enthusiast? Nay, Jehovah-Jesus is our strength and salvation. The cause is His,
and with Him is the residue of the Spirit. Year not for the future of the
Church. God shall help her, and that right early. To the full extent of her
necessity His plenipotence is hers. (J. Cross, D. D.)
The true Helper of the Church
This was an appeal to the heart of God at a time when the
judgments of heaven were bringing the chosen people to ruin. This is a question
which might well have been asked in every age which the Church has yet seen.
Her numbers have always been small in comparison with the ranks of the wicked.
The Church, to this day, is but a drop in the ocean. And she is weak as well as
small. When we look abroad over the world we behold a race of men dead in
trespasses and sins, given over to the dominion of the selfish passions,
chained down in ignominious servitude to the world; whom no motives can
conquer, no means reclaim. To form such beings into materials for building up
the Church, they must be made to undergo a thorough and wonderful
transformation. Who shall accomplish this mighty change? The transformation
must not only be begun, it must be continued and perfected. After men are set
out on the heavenly course, they still have to contend with their original
corruptions, and with a world full of objects fitted to inflame them. All these
corruptions and temptations stand in the way of the growth of the Church. And
the Church as a body has to contend with a world in arms. Every natural man is
a foe. The whole bent of the natural heart in every age and country, in every
family and individual, is against it. Leave man to himself for a single
generation, and with all the means of civilisation and grace, the Church would
become extinct. Our strength is wholly incompetent to preserve the Church a
single hour, to add one to the number of her sons, to produce a single
impression on a single heart. If no other helper is found we must sit down in
tears, and give up all for lost. The Church is God’s interest. This interest
God has not committed to men; it is His own, His only portion. He has taken it
into His own hands. The great end which He purposes to Himself in all His works
is to bring out to view the riches of His nature, that creatures may see and
acknowledge Him as He is, and for ever enjoy Him. It is the natural course of
unbelief to put Him out of view. God is resolved to be acknowledged as the sole
author and finisher of the whole. For this reason He studiously constructs the
dispensations of His grace in a way to convince His people that it is “ not by
might nor by power, but by “His Spirit that the Church is enlarged. Then our
hope is only in God. Let all other dependencies be given up; the Church must
rise by God alone. This is our consolation in the darkest times. (E. D.
Griffin, D. D.)
How to have a revival
1. The first step is humiliation.
2. The second step is reformation.
3. The third step lies in the direction of religious duty. The path
of duty must be again frequented. The cross must once more be carried. Duty
must become, what it once was, the paramount consideration.
4. The spirit of prayer must be sought and exercised till the
blessing comes. (Homiletic Monthly.)
Jacob crippled
I. A sad
confession. “Jacob is small.” If none but those who have been redeemed from a
low life of flesh-love to a higher one of holiness may be classed under this
term to-day, then is Jacob small.
1. Numerically.
2. In worldly esteem.
3. In material resources.
4. In political power.
And alas! Jacob is small spiritually, in personal power. Faith,
hope, and charity are small, so is our self-denial. All this diminutiveness
comes as the result of being prostrate, down, low. For Jacob to be prostrate is
a great reproach indeed. Jacob is, in too many cases, a self-made cripple.
II. An anxious
inquiry. “By whom,” etc. That he ought to arise is generally admitted.
1. Not by monarch’s smile.
2. Not by decrees of State.
3. Not by the addition of a few more men of means.
4. Not by a larger supply of education and literature.
5. Not by increasing the number of our sanctuaries.
What is needed is heaven’s force and life. “By My Spirit.” The
Holy Ghost is Jacob’s blessed Strength, Guardian, and Helper.
Verse 7-8
The Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline
in His hand.
God in relation to human work
All men are workers, the world is “full of labour.” The
words suggest two facts in relation to it.
I. God has a
commanding view of it. “He stands upon the wall” high up, so that every portion
comes within His glance. He observes--
1. Its quality, good or bad.
2. Its variety, overt or occult.
3. Its influence, useful or pernicious.
Solemn thought, that God’s eye is on us in all our activities, and
that the most, secret act eludes not His glance.
II. God tests the
character of it. “A plumbline in His hand.” The mason uses the “plumbline” to
determine the straightness of the wall, and thus God tests the character of
human actions. What is God’s “plumbline”?
1. His law as inscribed upon the human conscience. By this He tries
all men, heathen, etc.
2. God’s law as written in the Scriptures. By this He tries all who
possess the revelation.
3. God’s law as embodied in Christ. By this He tries all who have the
Gospel. (Homilist.)
Man’s moral character
I. There is a kind
of masonry in the formation of man’s character. Man’s character may be compared
to masonry in several respects.
1. It has one foundation. Walls are built, not upon two, but upon one
foundation. So is every man’s character. There is some one principle on which
it is organised. That principle is the paramount affection of the man. Whatever
he loves most, governs him. If he loves pleasure most, his character is
sensual; if he loves money most, his character is worldly. If he loves wisdom
most, his character is philosophic; if he loves God most, his character is
Divine, etc.
2. It has a variety of materials. In a building there are earth,
lime, stones, bricks, wood, iron, etc. etc. These are brought together into a
whole. Character is not formed of one set of actions, thoughts, impulses,
volitions. All kinds of acts enter into it, mental, moral, muscular, personal,
political, religious--all are materials in the building.
3. It is a gradual advancement.
II. There is a
divine standard by which to test man’s character. What is the Divine
“plumbline” by which to test character? Here it is. “Whatsoever ye would that
men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.” Or, perhaps more
intelligibly, the moral character of Christ. “If any man have not the Spirit of
Christ, he is none of His.”
III. There is a
terrible ruin for those whose characters will not bear the test of this
plumbline. “Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of My people Israel: I will not again pass
by them any more: and
the high places of Israel shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel
shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the
sword” (Matthew 25:31-46). (Homilist.)
A test for uprightness
Italy is a land of volcanoes, and earthquakes, and other shaking
things of the sort, so that it is not easy to build tall and slender towers and
yet keep them true to the plummet:
There comes a shake, or the foundation yields a little, and the
towers tilts--like the leaning tower of Pisa, and the two leaning towers of
Turin. It is natural then that builders who have taken pains to do their work
thoroughly should seek for some way to “prove” it, so as to show that what they
have done is both upright and downright. The builders of the cathedral in
Florence took a very ingenious way of proving tiffs. High up, in the centre of
that beautiful building, is a lofty dome, like that of St. Paul’s, with stained
windows all round. On the casement of one of these windows is a small iron
ring, and it is by this the uprightness of the tower is tested every year. For,
on a certain day in June, at a certain hour, the sun shines through that ring,
and its light falls on a brass plate let into the marble floor far beneath. So
long as the sunbeam falls on a spot there, on that day and at that moment, it
proves that the building is as erect as on the day it was finished; if it had
tilted over so little to the one side or the other, that long ray of light
would have proved it, for then it could not have fallen exactly on the right
spot. (J. Reid Howatt.)
What seest thou? And I
said, A plumbline.--
Straight up and down religion
Bricklayers, and stone masons, and carpenters, in the building of
walls, use an instrument made of a cord, at the end of which a lump of lead is
fastened. They drop it over the side of the wall, and, as the plummet naturally
seeks the centre of gravity in the earth, the workman discovers where the wall
recedes and where it bulges out, and just what is the perpendicular. Our text
represents God as standing on the wall of character, which the Israelites had
built, and in that way testing it. What the world wants is a straight up and
down religion. Much of the so-called piety of the day tends this way and that
to suit the times. We have all been building a wall of character, and it is
glaringly imperfect, and needs reconstruction. How shall it be brought into
perpendicular? Only by the Divine measurement. The whole tendency of the times
is to make us act by the standard of what others do. There are ten thousand
plumblines in use, but only one is true and exact, and that is the line of
God’s eternal righteousness. Nothing would make times so good, and the earning
a livelihood so easy, as the universal adoption of the law of right. Suspicion
strikes through all bargain-making. In the same way we need to measure our
theologies. All sorts of religions are putting forth their pretensions. All
religions but one begin at the wrong end, and in the wrong place. The Bible
religion demands that we first get right with God My text gives me a grand
opportunity of saying a useful word to all young men who are now forming habits
for a lifetime. A young man is in danger of getting a defect in his wall of
character that may never be corrected. Oh, this plumbline of the everlasting
right! God will throw it over all our lives to show us our moral deflections. (T.
De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
The plumbline
Builders could not build our houses as they ought without a
plumbline. Israel had been built up as a people, so to speak, with a plumbline;
everything was right; God approved of them. But now Israel had become a very
different people from what they were at the beginning. Very early Jeroboam
began to introduce calf worship. The people thus became very wicked, and
departed from the way of the Lord more and more. Amos went to warn Jeroboam the
Second. But all his warnings were in vain. Amaziah the high priest told him to
go away, for they did not want
his services there. God comforted Amos by showing him a plumbline, and in
effect saying, “I have noticed how Israel, like a wall which was once upright,
has been gradually giving way, and yet I have passed it by, but I cannot do so
any more.” This is what God says at last to every kingdom or nation that ceases
to be upright and true. How many nations there have been that have begun
fairly, but have got worse as time passed by! God is always with His plumbline
trying our lives. What is His plumbline? The grand old Book. By this, too, we
ought all to be trying ourselves. You are building up a life. Every thought you
cherish, every word you utter, and every deed you perform is the building up of
character and life. Bricklayers are not foolish enough to think that if they
build a wall out of perpendicular it Will stand. If a man will grow up crooked,
or dishonest, or untruthful, he is bound to come down sooner or later. If Jesus
comes to us, He is sure to find something or other in our character that is not
right, and very likely He will find a good many bulging defects. It may be
selfishness, untruthfulness, unkindness, or some other sin. We must build up
our life according to His law. We cannot do anything ourselves without His
help; but that help He is ever ready to give. (David Davies.)
Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of
Israel.
The conventional and the genuine priests of a people
I. The
conventional priest. Amaziah was chief priest of the royal sanctuary of the
calves at Bethel.
1. He was in close intimacy with the king.
2. He seeks to expel an independent teacher from the dominion of the
king.
II. Here we have
the genuine priest of a people. Amos seems to have been a prophet not
nationally recognised as such.
1. He is not ashamed of his humble origin. “I was no prophet,” that
is, I am not a prophet by profession, “neither was I a prophet’s son.” By the
son of a prophet he means a disciple or pupil. He had not studied in any
prophetic college. No true prophet is ever ashamed of his origin, however
humble. As a rule the greatest teachers of the world have struggled up from the
regions of poverty and obscurity.
2. He is conscious of the Divinity of his mission. “The Lord took me
as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people
Israel.” Amos seems to have had no doubt at all as to the fact that the Lord
called him. How he was called does not appear. When God calls a man to work,
the man knows it. No argument will convince him to the contrary.
3. In the name of heaven he denounces the conventional priest. In return
for this rebellion against Jehovah, Amos foretells for the priest the
punishment which will fall upon him when the judgment shall come upon Israel,
meeting his words, “Thou sayest, Thou shalt not prophesy” with the keen retort,
“Thus saith Jehovah.” The punishment is described in verse 17. (Homilist.)
Verse 14-15
Verse 15
The Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto
me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel.
The messenger faithful to his mission
Holy Scripture seldom teaches more impressively than when it
teaches by contrasts. There may be instituted a contrast between two classes of
religious workers.
1. Professional religious workers. In every age there have been such
men--conventional religionists, whose creed is compromise, and whose maxim is,
“Sail with the stream.”
2. Men whose hearts the Lord has touched. Such was Amos. Observe the
surroundings of his life. What Was it the mere professionals were afraid of in
his message? They may have feared lest the people should be roused to think.
More probably they felt the inward uneasiness which hollow profession must ever
experience when brought into contrast with genuine piety and the power of the
Holy Ghost. The presence and testimony of Amos condemned them. The priest
Amaziah suggested that Amos would be wise to flee away to the land of Judah.
There would have been nothing necessarily sinful in following this advice. The
presence of the prophet in Jerusalem would have been hailed with the warmest
sympathy and welcome. He would have gained a wide popularity, and would have
been an object of general admiration. And we are all liable to be influenced by
such motives. We do not like to stand alone, beset with continual difficulties
arising from our position. No doubt Amos would have yielded had he not been
walking in the Spirit, and it is only this that will keep an.y of us at the
post of duty. We are often tempted to run away from the cross given us to bear,
flattering ourselves all the time that in doing so we are seeking opportunities
of greater usefulness. We cannot get away from the Cross; it is the law of true
Christian experience. Satan will always entice us to run away. Consider the
temptations of the prophet more in detail.
1. Immunity from danger is promised. Amos was in a state of continual
danger where he was.
2. If Amos would only go across the border, he had a clear prospect
of obtaining what none of us can do without--bread. He might count upon a comfortable
maintenance, a good living. A judicious use of his religion would have got him
on in the world, and his godliness might have been made the steppingstone to
rank and fortune. The position of Amos where he was must have been very
precarious; he had left his regular means of livelihood, and was living a life
of faith. He must have been living, as we say, “from hand to mouth.” To stay
where he was would be to continue in poverty, perhaps to starve.
3. There was something more than even bread. Which of us does not
know the yearning of the human heart for sympathy? How painful it is to stand
alone! Which of us is altogether indifferent to popularity?
4. Even this was not all. The temptation is backed by an attempt to
get up a question of casuistry. The king has commanded you not to speak, and
you are disobeying him. How dare you arrogate to yourself such airs of
superiority, and set yourself up as better than every one else? This is one of
the severest trials of the Christian life. It does seem to those who do not
take pains to find out the truth, as if we assumed an attitude of religious
superiority. But, after all, our position is not as trying as Amos’s was. Our
only safety is ever to put our direct duty to God before our indirect. Be loyal to
Him-personally, first; be loyal to Him indirectly, through your king or your
parent, second; and remember you cannot be loyal to Him indirectly, when you
have ceased to be loyal to Him directly. Against all these considerations of
expediency and self-interest what had Amos to set? Only one mighty word from
the lips of God. It was this that kept him at his post. “Go, prophesy unto My
people Israel.” That was all; but it was clear. The voice said, “Amos, go!”
From that moment Amos lived for God and His work; he turned his back on the
sheepfold, gave up the gathering of sycamore, and began to deliver his message.
Everything seemed to wave him back to his primitive seclusion. But against all
opposition rang out the clear inner voice, “Amos, go; have not I sent thee?” And
he went, with his life in his hand. He went, in the face of the jeers, and
scoffs, and threats of the world, and the advice of such religious professors
as Amaziah. We do not want two-faced Christians. We want men who, like Amos,
are carried forward by the mighty consciousness of the Divine call, men in whom
inmost heart the mighty, some of God is heard, calling them as by name, and
bidding them Go. (W. M. Hay-Aitken, M. A.)
A humble origin remembered
Felix Faure, the late president of the French Republic,
never sought to conceal his lowly origin. Hanging in a conspicuous place on the
wall of his presidential office was a photograph of a young man wearing a
tanner’s blouse and wooden shoes. Faure the president, did not forget that he
was once Faure the currier.
──《The Biblical Illustrator》