Amos 2
Vs. 1-3
Judgment on
1 “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of
I will not turn away the punishment
thereof; because he burned the bones
of the king of
nation connected
by ties of blood with
been shown in the hiring of Balaam to curse the Israelites,
and in seducing
them to idolatry (Numbers 22-25:3). He was their oppressor
in the time of
the Judges (Judges 3:12); and David had to take most
stringent measures against
him (II Samuel 8:2). The Moabites joined in a league
against Jehoshaphat (II Chronicles
20:22), and later against Jehoiakim
(II Kings 24:2-3), and, as we see by the
inscription
on the Moabite Stone, were always ready to profit by the
disasters or weakness of the
chosen people. “I erected this stone,” says Mesha, “to Chemosh at Kirkha, a stone
of salvation, for he saved me from all despoilers, and made
me see my
desire upon all mine enemies, even upon Omri,
King of Israel.” And then
he goes on to recount his victories. He burned the bones of the King of
II Kings 23:16; Jeremiah 8:1-2) is not mentioned in the
historical
books. Some of the older commentators, as Tirinus and Corn. a Lapide,
think that the prophet wishes to show that the sympathy of God extends
beyond the covenant people, and that he punishes wrongs
inflicted even
on heathen nations. But as in the case of the other nations, Amos reproves
only crimes committed against
have the same connection. The reference to the King of
Moab’s sacrifice of
“his eldest son,” even if we suppose (which is improbable)
the son of the
King of Edom to be meant, is plainly inapplicable (II Kings
3:27), as the
offence regarded the king himself, and not his son, and the
expression,
“burned into
lime,” can hardly be thought to refer to a
human sacrifice. The
act mentioned probably occurred during the time that the Edomites joined
Jehoram and Jehoshaphat in the league
against Mesha, the King of Moab
(Ibid. vs.7, 9), the author of the inscription on the
celebrated stone
erected by him at Dibon.
Unfortunately, the last lines of that inscription,
describing the war against the Edomites,
are lost. The paragraph that
remains is this: “And Chemosh
said to me, Go down, make war against
Horonaim [i.e. the men of
Wherefore I made… year … and I…” The Jewish tradition,
quoted by
Jerome, tells that after this war the Moabites, in revenge
for the assistance
which the King of Edom had given to the Israelites, dug up
and
dishonored his bones.
its independence some ten years later (Ibid.ch. 8:20). The
sacrilegious
act was meant to redound to the disgrace of
2 “But I
will send a fire upon
Kirioth: and
the sound of the trumpet:” Kirioth; cities, and so taken as an appellative
by
the Septuagint translators, , τῶν πόλεων αὐτῆς – ton poleon autaes
–
but it is doubtless a proper name of one of the chief Moabite towns
(Jeremiah 48:24, 41). Keil, after Burckhardt,
identifies it with the decayed
town of Kereyat, or
Korriat;
others, with Ar, or Kir,
the old capital (Isaiah 15:1).
The plural termination
of the word, like Athenae, Thebae,
etc., may denote a
Double city —
upper and lower, or old and new.
personified. With
tumult; caused by war (compare Jeremiah 48:45, and
the prophecy of Balaam, Numbers 24:17). Septuagint, ἐν ἀδυναμίᾳ - en
adunamia - “in weakness.” With shouting. Omitted by the
Vulgate (see on
ch.1:14). Trumpet (ch.3:6;
Jeremiah 4:19). Trochon cites Virgil,
‘AEneid,’ 2:313, “Exoritur clamorque virum clangorque tubarum,” “Rises
the
shout of men and trumpets’ blare.”
3 “And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and
will slay all
the princes
thereof with him, saith the LORD.” The judge; shophet, probably
here a synonym for “king” (compare Micah 5:1). it implies the chief magistrate,
like the Carthaginian
sufes, which is the same word.
There is no ground for deducing,
as Hitzig and Ewald do, from the use of this form
that
time. The country was conquered by the Chaldeans,
and thenceforward
sank into insignificance (Jeremiah 48.; Ezekiel 25:8-11).
The Woe against
Much that has been said of Ammon
applies equally to
nations had close relations and affinities, and in
Scripture are generally
mentioned together. Both were mildly treated by
as long as such treatment was possible. Yet were they at
one in an
implacable hatred of her, and a national policy of outrage
towards her. A
spring raid into Hebrew territory seems to have been an
established
Moabitish institution (II Kings 13:20, literally, “were wont to
come”).
Again,
prophet of God to curse his own people (Numbers 23:7). Of
the
comprehensive and thorough character of the national
hatred, which these
doings reveal, we have evidence in the passage before us.
ITS HATRED OF
The particular occasion referred to here is not known. But the events
that led
up to it are briefly recorded.
and rebelled against it in the
reign of Jehoram (II Kings 3:1, 4-5). In the
repressive war that followed, Jehoram was joined by the King of Judah and
the King of Edom, then probably
a tributary of
This war, the only one in which
exasperated
(Ibid. ch.3:26-27). The horrible
sacrifice of the King of Edom’s son by
the King of Moab, and the
subsequent burning of the King of Edom’s
bones by the Moabites, were both
expressions of this wild and savage
resentment.
and therefore at bottom was
hatred of
things from the
standpoint of their connection with religion. They
hate believers for Christ’s sake
(Matthew 10:22), and the friends of
believers for believers’ sakes.
The compensation for this is that for Christ’s
sake also Christians love each
other and the ungodly as well, and God for
His own sake loves them
all. (Also, not the attitude of Cain – I
John 3:12 –
CY – 2013).
APPEASE. This fact
illustrates its insatiability. The soul being after death
beyond man’s reach, the hatred
vented upon his remains is a sort of
impotent grasping at eternal
vengeance. It wreaks on what it knows to be
insensible the hatred with which
it would pursue, if it could, the living
being who is beyond it. The
employment of the burnt bones as
lime is a circumstance which, like
the ripping of pregnant women by
Ammon, reveals the savage
debasement of
the people, and that
contemptuous disregard of the
human body which is generated by a career
of blood and lust. There is a
sacredness about death. It introduces an
unseen factor, marks off a
territory into which we may not intrude. There is
a sacredness, too, about the
human body. It is for a temple of the Holy
Ghost, and to be treated as holy
(I Corinthians 6:19-20). Its members
are to be members of Christ, and
to be treated as consecrated things
(Ibid. vs.15-18). The best
guarantee against intemperance, uncleanness,
violence, and every abuse of the body is
respect for it as THE HOME
AND INSTRUMENT OF
GOD!
results in two directions, it
embroiled her with
commended her to
Israel’s God. His favor to His people includes, to certain intents,
their
friends. Members of the families
of Noah and
fathers’ sake. A mixed multitude
of foreigners were fed miraculously in the
desert, because they were
servants to the Israelites. Even the Egyptians
were favored because they for a
time had given
(Deuteronomy 23:7). So with
(Ibid.), and had been an ally
against
by God in this exactly as the
cause of
more spiritual relations. The
virgin companions of the bride, the Church, are
brought, as her companions, to
the King (Psalm 45:14). The final judgment
apart, service rendered to God’s
people will not go unrewarded (Matthew
10:40-42). No investment brings in
surer return than help and kindness
shown to the saints of God.
die with tumult.” The
Moabites were “sons of tumult” (Numbers 24:17;
Jeremiah 48:45), and as in
tumult they lived, so in tumult they should
die. This is providential, the
punishment being made appropriate to the
crime. It is also natural,
violence provoking violence, and so fixing the
character of its own punishment.
before the prophecy was
fulfilled, but the judges and princes who
had headed the nation in its
violence fitly head it in its destruction also.
(Compare Romans 1:27 – CY –
2013)
It is natural for the mind to lay hold upon and to retain
in memory some
one
out of many characteristics of a nation, some one out of many
incidents of a war. The one thing that is remembered is
representative of
many things that are forgotten. So is it with Amos’s treatment of the sins
of
the surrounding nations. Several of these are characterized by some
special quality. In the case before us in this passage an incident
of
malignant brutality is mentioned, not as standing alone, but
evidently as a
sample of the conduct of which the children of
which was about to bring down upon them the wrath of Heaven.
·
IRREVERENCE AND INSULT OFFERED TO THE DEAD
INDICATE A BASE AND ABANDONED DISPOSITION. We know
nothing of the circumstance here referred to. The Moabites had
made war
upon the Edomites; had conquered them,
had captured their king, and had
slain him, and then consumed his bones with fire. This last
action must be
judged by the standard of the habits and feelings of the time. In
some
nations and at some periods cremation has been regarded as an
honorable
mode of disposing of dead bodies. In the time of the prophet,
and among
the Hebrews and their neighbors, it was held in detestation.
No greater
insult, no more horrible evidence of brutality, was possible. The dead are
always considered, by civilized and religious communities, as
entitled to
tender and reverential treatment. Especially those who believe in a future
life are bound to support their creed by treating a dead body
as something
better than a carcass. The instance of irreverence here recorded
was
aggravated by the fact that it was a king whose body was thus
treated. War
is in itself bad enough; but savage brutality renders war
still worse.
·
DIVINE
APPROPRIATE RETRIBUTION.
Ø
War, with all its
accompanying horrors, is the doom of the savage
slaughterers. They that take the sword perish by the sword. The
measure they mete is measured to them again.
Ø
In this retribution
the great suffer equally with the multitude. They who
insult their neighbors’ kings may suffer in the person of their
own mighty
ones. Fire devours the palaces as welt as the cottages, and the
judges and
princes are cut off and slain along with the meanest of the
subjects. The
Lord is King and Judge, and He
will not allow those nations always to
prosper which violate His Law and defy His authority.
In vs. 4-5,
nations, through the most
favored people, to
4“Thus saith the LORD; For three
transgressions of
I will not turn
away the punishment thereof; because they have despised
the law of the
LORD, and have not kept His commandments, and their lies
caused them to
err, after the which their fathers have walked:” They have
despised the Law
of the Lord. The other nations are denounced for their
offences against God’s people;
God Himself. The former likewise had offended against the law of conscience,
natural religion; the latter against the written Law, revealed
religion. By thus
denouncing
general name for the whole body of precepts and
commandments, chuqqim,
moral and ceremonial. Their lies; Vulgate, idola sua, which is the sense, though
not the translation, of the word. Idols are so
called as being nonentities in themselves,
and deceiving those who trust in them. “We know,” says Paul (I Corinthians 8:4).
“that an idol is nothing
in the world.” The Septuagint gives, τὰ μάταια
αὐτῶν ἃ
ἐποίησαν – ta mataia auton
a epoinaesan - “their vain things
which they made.” Their fathers
have walked. This is the usual expression
for attachment to idolatrous practices. From this error
the Israelites were never
weaned till their return
from the penal CAPTIVITY!
Heredity and the Idol
Taint (v. 4)
“And their lies led them astray, after which their fathers
walked.” Idolatry
was
fell into it, and, in
spite of Divine deterrent measures, they returned to it
persistently for nine hundred
years. They took to idol worship, in fact,
as
“to the manner born” And that the
sin was constitutional, and in the grain,
is
evident from the fact that there was no corresponding secession from
idol worship to the service of the true God (Jeremiah 2:11). It was,
moreover, the germinal sin. Deranging
the primary relation to God, it led
to the
derangement of all other relations subordinate to this. From it, as a
fruitful seed, sprang up in a luxuriant crop the hateful national
vices, in
which the heathen around were not merely imitated but outdone. And then,
as
was natural, all the national troubles, including the crowning one of
captivity in
and
were designed to be at once its punishment and cure. How near the
practice lay to the sources of national corruption and calamity
this passage
shows. We have here:
·
AN IDOL A LIE. This is
a strong figure, and very apt (Jeremiah 16:19-20;
Romans 1:25).
Ø It is a figment of the imagination. “An idol is nothing in the world”
(1 Corinthians
8:4). It is simply, as the very name implies, the creation
of an errant
fancy. If we think that to be something which is nothing, we
deceive
ourselves; and the idol which is the occasion of the
deception is an
illusion
and a lie. There are
idols in every human heart. Such are all its
passions and
lusts (Colossians 3:5; 1 John 5:21). And they are lies.
They are
conversant with unrealities only. They deceive by false shows and
promises.
They promise joys that are purely visionary. They afford joys
that
turn out greatly poorer than they seemed. They refuse to believe in evil
consequences that are manifold and inevitable. Every man who has given
them entertainment has deceived himself (Romans 6:21).
Ø It is the devil’s figurehead. This is Paul’s reading of the natural history
of an
idol (1 Corinthians 10:19-20), and it was that of Moses
(Leviticus
17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17) and Ezra (II Chronicles 11:15)
and David
(Psalm 106:37) before him. Thus the imaginary god
is, after
all, a real devil, and therefore doubly a lie; for he “is a liar, and the
father of it.” (John 8:44) He suggests it, and designs
it, and works through it,
and
embodies himself in it, and then crowns all by concealing the fact.
The
“kingdom of the beast” in prophecy is probably the great idolatrous
confederation or false Church in which idolatry is wedded to empire.
So with the spiritual idols of our hearts. They are of the devil (1 John 3:8),
produced
by his working (Acts 5:3) and charged with his evil nature
(John 8:44). To
serve the flesh in the lusts of it is, in a very literal sense,
to serve the devil.
Ø It
disappoints all expectations from it. “Ye
are of nothing,” says
Isaiah,
addressing
idols, “and your work of naught” (Isaiah 41:24). So we say,
“Out of nothing
nothing comes.” Idol impotence, declared is in
Scripture
(Jeremiah
14:22), and proved by experiment (1 Kings 18:24, 29), is
a
corollary from the very nature of things. So with spiritual idols.
Nothing
comes out
of them to the purpose. Covetousness and concupiscence and
frivolity
promise happiness, and
it never comes, but
is wasted by them
beyond
recovery. And then, instead of happiness, there comes a:
o
ruined
estate,
o
shattered
health,
o
blasted
hopes, and
o
an accusing conscience,
and the
first tooth of the worm that never dies.
·
AN IDOL A CORRUPTING LIE. “Caused them to err,” or “led
them
astray.” There is a
whole philosophy of morals in this statement.
Ø Wrong belief leads to wrong
action. The modern byword that “religion
is not a creed,
but a life,” is cant generally, and a blunder always. Religion
is
neither a creed nor a life; it is both. “if ye know these
things, happy are
ye if ye do them.” (John 13:17) You cannot do them otherwise; and in that
case, to
know them is useless. It is impossible to steer right with a wrong
theory of
navigation or with no theory. (There is no right way to do the\
wrong
thing! - CY - 2022) So a right life is impossible
where there is a
wrong
creed or no creed. A creed is but a formula, of which the intelligent
life is
the tilling up. Belief in idols, or in any ordinance of their worship,
is a
mistake, and acted on must lead astray. So, too, with the idols of sinful
appetites.
We expect happiness from serving them, and serve them with
that
view. What is this but committing sin on principle — wrong
practice
the inevitable outcome of wrong
theory?
Ø Idolatry casts off God, and so all restraints on ill-doing. Morality has
its basis
in religion. The standard morality it is GOD’S
CHARACTER!
The ground of it is God’s command. If there is no God there is no duty, as
theists
understand duty, and men may live as they list. This was what
did
as soon as they became idolatrous (v. 7). Idolatry was equivalent with
them to a deed of indemnity for sinning. So with the worshippers of idol lusts.
The idolatry that makes a god of
ourselves makes us also a law to
ourselves.
Ø
An idol is evil even as a conception, and
the worship of it makes the
idolater like it. “Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?”
(Job 14:4) The idol invented by corrupt man is a corrupt
creation. The gods
of
vices; and as they were models for men to study and imitate, the
worship of
them made
the people like them. We are naturally assimilated to the likeness
of the
thing we serve, if we serve it truly. Let this warn us to take service
only with
a pure master.
·
AN IDOL AN HEREDITARY LIE. “After which their fathers
walked.” Reason suggests
and history shows that the idols of the fathers
are the idols of the children.
Ø All practices tend to become hereditary. Children are imitative. They do
what they
see done. An act repeated becomes a habit, and the habit leading
to
persistence in the act, presses it on others’ attention, and leads to its
being imitated. It is thus that the social and religions
customs of a
community
assume an aspect of heredity, and propagate themselves down
the
generations.
Ø Evil practices do so especially. (Proverbs 22:15) Evil is congenial
to human
nature, and men will do the thing that is pleasant. Hence evil
never
dies, whilst good is dying out continually; and evil propagates itself,
whilst good can be propagated only by a
perpetual exercise of Divine
influence.
Ø Family sins are the most surely hereditary of all. Dispositions run in the
blood.
The drunkard, the thief, the libertine, each transmits his evil appetite
or
tendency to his children, and so practically ensures their failing into his
sin.
There is no reason to except a taste for idol worship from the
operation
of this law. In the literal sense it is an appetency easily
transmissible. In the spiritual sense it is more easily propagable
still. If “the
fathers have eaten the sour grapes” of idol service in any form, “the
children’s teeth” are more than likely to be “set
on edge.”
Ø
Idol worship is self-worship in an
insidious form, and therefore
specially congenial to human nature. Self is the idol easiest to
enthrone.
The injunction to
love ourselves is not given in Scripture. It is safely and
properly
assumed, and made the model and measure of our love to others
(Matthew
19:19). Self-love is an affection native to the heart,
and that
in ideal
strength. Now, an idol represented the maker’s ideal of himself.
It was, therefore,
agreeable to his nature, and its service congenial, and so
of easy
transmission from generation to generation. All sin is really at
bottom self-worship. We prefer ourselves to God; our will, our
pleasure,
our way, to His. We push Him off
the throne, and ourselves on it, and
then do as we wish. It is only grace that says, “Lord,
what wilt thou have
me to do?”
The
Privileged but Faithless (v. 4)
The preceding denunciations refer to the idolatrous nations
by whom the
chosen people were surrounded. But the impartiality of the
prophet is
apparent from his condemnation of his own kindred. Amos came from
Tekoah, a city of
did
not spare his own tribe.
·
THE TRANSGRESSION OF
THEIR POSSESSION AND THEIR NEGLECT OF THE DIVINE LAW.
From the days of the desert
wanderings the Jewish people had enjoyed the
unspeakable privilege of possessing the laws of Moses, which were the
laws of Jehovah. A treasure of incomparable value should have been highly
esteemed and diligently used. That there were those to whom the Law was
as “fine
gold,” as “honey
and the honeycomb,” cannot be questioned. But
the people as a whole were insensible of their privileges, and
neglected and
abused them; indeed, they are charged with having despised them. The
surrounding and heathen nations were not guilty of this heinous
offence.
Great is the sin of those who
have the Word of God, but who treat it with
neglect and disdain.
·
THE TRANSGRESSION OF
THEIR FAILURE TO PROFIT BY THE LESSON OF WARNING
OFFERED IN THE HISTORY OF THEIR FOREFATHERS. The chosen
people were taught not only by words, but by facts; not only by
the books
of Moses, but by the history of their ancestors. How often had the Hebrew
people forsaken their God! How grievously had they sinned! And how
terribly had they been scourged for their folly! Yet the
lesson, emphatic and
impressive though it was, was overlooked and unlearned.
·
THE TRANSGRESSION OF
THEIR LAPSE INTO IDOLATRY. The “lies” spoken of by the prophet
refer to the deceptive and hideous rites and practices of the
heathen.
Jehovah was the true God; the “gods
of the nations” were but idols, the
professions of whose worshippers and priests were delusive and vain.
That
those who had been trained to idolatry should persevere in it
was
intelligible; but that
God for the capricious and obscene and ridiculous divinities
of the
surrounding nations, was monstrous, and only to be
accounted for by an
awful abandonment to self and sin. The greater the height from which one
falls, the deeper is his descent.
·
THE AGGRAVATED TRANSGRESSION OF
A SEVERE RETRIBUTION. Nebuzaradan and the army of
the Chaldees
fulfilled this prediction to the letter.
5 “But I will send a fire upon
foretold (Jeremiah 17:27; Hosea 8:14; II Kings 25:9-10).
The Woe against
In the form of this woe, as compared with those before, is
nothing to
indicate the difference of underlying principles which it
involves. A woe on
a Hebrew and a heathen have little in common but the inevitable
connection between PUNISHMENT and SIN.
WHO KNOW HIM AND THOSE WHO KNOW HIM NOT ARE
VERY DIFFERENT. The
six woes against the heathen are fathered
exclusively on their sins against
is denounced with exclusive
reference to sins against God himself. This is
exactly what we might expect.
Each is judged out of his own law
(Romans 2:12). The revelation of God and duty to Him was the
first
great commandment of the Law
given to the Jews (Matthew 22:37-38),
and for this God reckons with
them — first, because it was at once the
guiltiest sin, and the sin of
which they were oftenest guilty. The law revealed
to the heathen made known the
existence and many perfections of God
(Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20), and
threw a side light on the way to worship Him
(Acts 17:29). But this was not
their clearest revelation, and so their sin
against it is not the sin that
is emphasized. The law written on their heart
(Romans 2:14-15) — i.e. speaking
in reason, conscience, and human
feeling — was specially the law
of duty to their fellow creatures; and it is
for their sin in this matter
specially that God brings them into judgment. It
is its blindness, and not its
darkness, that is the condemnation of the world
(John 3:19). Where the white ray
of revelation focuses, there the red
ray of judgment shall fall and
burn.
EACH OTHER. “Despised the Law of
Jehovah, and kept not His
commandments.” The Law
is the abstract thing — God’s revealed will as a
whole. The commandments are the
“particular precepts” into which
it is broken up. The first,
Being general, is fitly described as being
“despised;” i.e. its drift
disliked and its authority spurned. The second,
being precepts enjoining
particular duties, is said with propriety to be
disobeyed. The order of
enumeration is also the logical and natural order.
Action is ever the outcome of
sentiment, and its expression. What a man
outwardly disobeys
he has begun by INWARDLY DESPISING.
And
so what he begins by despising he naturally goes on to disobey. It is
in the heart that the eggs are
hatched which, in a later stage, are the birds
of evil doing. It is, therefore, at the door of his heart that the wise man
will
Their lies led them astray. “By
‘lies’ here we are to understand idols. And
the figure is most appropriate.
Amos calls the idols ‘lies,’ not only
as res
quoe fallunt, But as fabrications and nonentities” (I Corinthians 8:4).
It is
this lying character that makes
them inevitably the occasion of sin. The first
sin was brought about by a lie,
in which the truth of God’s threat was denied,
and so its practical power
destroyed. And every idol is just such a lie in
embodied form. It is an
abrogation of God’s authority, a denying of His very
existence; and it is a
substitution for these of a god and a code congenial to
our fallen nature. Under such
circumstances violation of God’s Law is a
foregone conclusion.
FATHERS. Imitation is
easier than invention. Hence
wanted an idol, adopted the calf
of
also just left
Then, other things being equal,
the persons men are most likely to imitate
are their fathers, who are their
teachers and guides and natural examples.
Add to this that national tastes
and habits and characters, formed in
connection with a particular
idol worship, would be in special
harmony with it, and would be
transmitted with it from sire to son.
WITH ON THE SAME PRINCIPLES. The manner of the sin was the
same with Judah and the heathen. It was a transgression, or act
of
disobedience to a known law, as
distinguished from a sinful disposition. It
was a series of these acts,
culminating in a final one of special enormity.
“For three transgressions, and for four.” The manner of treatment was the
same. God threatened to strike. Then He lifted His hand for the
stroke.
Then He withheld it for a time.
Then He declared the limit of forbearance
was past, and nothing could now
prevent the falling of the blow. The mode
of punishment was to be the
same. The agent would be devouring fire.
This
would fall on the capital. Sin
in a visible spiritual relation, and however
mixed up with acts of worship,
is no whit less guilty. There is only one hell,
and all sin alike deserves it, and, unrepented
of, must bring to it.
Vs. 6-16 are a summons and
general denunciation of
incest, luxury, and idolatry.
6 “Thus saith the LORD; For three
transgressions of
four, I will not
turn away the punishment thereof; because they
sold the
righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;”
They sold the righteous
for silver. The first charge against
perversion of justice. The judges took bribes and condemned the
righteous, i.e. the man whose cause was good. Pusey
thinks that the literal
selling of debtors by creditors, contrary to the Law (Exodus
21:7; Leviticus
25:39; Nehemiah 5:5), is meant (compare ch.8:6 and Matthew
18:25).
The needy for a
pair of shoes. For the very smallest bribe they betray the
cause of the poor (compare Ezekiel
13:19); though, as sandals were
sometimes of very costly materials (Song of Solomon 7:1;
Ezekiel 16:10),
the expression might mean that they sold justice to obtain
an article of luxury.
But the form of expression is opposed to this
interpretation.
Great Sufferings Following Great
Sins
(ch.1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; ch.
2:1, 4 ,6)
“For three transgressions of
the
punishment,” etc. Amos, we are
informed, was a native of Tekoah, a
small region in the tribe of
humbler class of life, and pursued the occupation of the humble
shepherd
and
dresser of sycamore trees. From his flock he was divinely called to the
high office of prophet; and though himself of the tribe of Judah, his
mission
was
to
commenced his ministry in the reign of Uzziah,
between B.C. 772 and 746,
and
therefore labored about the same time as Hosea. In his time idolatry,
with its concomitant evils and immoralities of every description, reigned
with uncontrolled sway amongst the Israelites, and against these evils he
hurls his denunciations. The book has been divided into three or
four parts:
First, sentences pronounced against the Syrians, the
Philistines, the
Phoenicians, the Edomites, the
Ammonites, the Moabites, the Jews, and
the
Israelites (ch. 1 and 2). Second, special discourses
delivered against
comminatory nature, in which reference is had both to the times that
were
to
pass over the ten tribes previous to the coming of the Messiah, and
finally to what was to take place under his reign (ch. 7 to 9). His style is
marked by perspicuity, elegance, energy, and fulness.
His images are
mostly original, and taken from the natural scenery with which he
was
familiar. We may say that the whole passage, extending from ch.
1:13 to ch. 2:8,
illustrates the three following great truths:
character or conduct, are under the cognizance of God.
abhorrent to the Divine nature.
others also.
The first and second of these truths we will not here
notice; but to the third we
must now give a moment’s attention. In all the passages to which we have
referred
at
the head of this sketch punishment is the, subject. We offer two remarks on
this
subject.
threatened to these different tribes of different lands are of the
most terrible
description. But they are all such as to match their crimes.
Ø
The connection between
great sins and great sufferings is inevitable. The
moral Governor of the world has so arranged matters that every sin
brings with it its own punishment, and it is only when the sin is
destroyed the suffering ceases. Thank God, this sin can be destroyed
through faith in the mediation of Jesus
Christ who came to put away
sin by faith in the sacrifice of Himself.
Ø
The connection between
great sins and great sufferings is universal. All
these sinful peoples had to realize it from their own bitter
experience. It
does not matter where, when, or how a man lives, his sins will
find him
out. (Numbers
32:23).
PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT THE ACTUAL OFFENDERS. “The fire,”
which is here the instrument of God’s retribution to us sinners,
would not
only scathe the persons and consume the property of the actual
offenders,
but others. The fact is patent in all history and in all
experience, that men
here suffer for the sins of others. We are so rooted together
in the great
field of life, that if the tares are pulled up the wheat will be
injured if not
destroyed. The cry of men in all ages has been, “Our fathers have sinned
….and we have
borne their iniquities.” (Lamentations 5:7) - “The fathers
have eaten sour
grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
(Ezekiel
18:1;
Jeremiah 31:29) (I remember as a child eating grapes too
early before they were ripe and they made the edges of the teeth
extremely sensitive to touch – CY – 2013). Two facts may reconcile our
consciences to this.
Ø That few, if any, suffer more
than their consciences tell them they
deserve.
Ø That there is to come period
when the whole will appear to be in
accord with the justice and goodness of God.
The Enormity of the Sin of
Persecution
(ch.1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; ch.
2:1, 4 ,6)
“For three transgressions of
charged in general,” says an old expositor, “with three transgressions,
yea,
with four; that is, with many transgressions, as by ‘one or two’ we mean
many; as, in Latin, a man that is very happy is said to be terque quaterque
beatus — ‘three and four
times happy;’ or, ‘with three and four,’ that is,
with seven transgressions — a number of
perfection, intimating that they
have filled up the measure of their iniquities, and
are, ripe for ruin; or,
‘with three’ (that is, a variety
of sins), and with a fourth especially, which is
specified concerning each of them, though the other three are not,
as
Proverbs 30:15, 18, 21, 29. Where we read of ‘three things, yea, four,’
generally one seems to be more especially intended. Now, the sin
especially referred to here as the “fourth” is taken to be that of
persecution, that is, the sin of
inflicting suffering upon others because of
their peculiar religious convictions and doings. Other sins innumerable,
varied and heinous, they had committed, but this fourth seems to
be the
crowning of their evil. Persecution has been called the measure
filling sin of
any
people, the sin that will be taken into account on the last great day. “I
was hungry, and ye gave me no meat,” etc. (Matthew 25:42-43).
persecutor acts upon the assumption that his ideas of religion are
absolutely true, that his theological knowledge is the test by which
all other
opinions are to be tried. Such a man is represented by the apostle
as one
that “sitteth in the
(II Thessalonians 2:4).
Presumptuous mortal! The proud tyrant who has won
his way through seas of blood to the throne, and claims
authority over
men’s bodily movements, shows an arrogance before which servile
spirits
bow, but from which all thoughtful and noble men recoil with
disgust and
indignation. But his arrogance is shadowy and harmless compared with
the
arrogance of him who enters the temple of human conscience, and
claims
dominion over the moral workings of the soul. Yes, such arrogant
men
abound in all ages, and are by no means rare even in this age and
land of
what is called civil and religious liberty. The most arrogant
title that mortal
man can wear is “Vicar of Christ.”
who would legislate for the winds or the waves, and, like Canute, give
commands to the billows than he who attempts to legislate for human
thoughts and moral convictions. Still more foolish to attempt to
crush
men’s religious beliefs by inflicting civil disabilities or corporeal
suffering.
In sooth, the way to give life,
power, and influence to religious errors is to
persecute. And truth never seems to rise in greater power and
majesty than
under the bloody hand of cruel persecution. It has been well
said that “the
blood of the martyrs is THE
SEED OF THE CHURCH.”
“A
blameless faith was all the crime the Christian martyr knew;
And
where the crimson current flowed upon that barren sand,
Up
sprang a tree, whose vigorous boughs soon overspread the land;
O’er
distant isles its shadow fell, nor knew its roots decay,
E’en when the Roman Caesar’s throne and empire passed away.”
inhumanities are in these verses charged against the various
peoples
mentioned — those of
observed that no anger is so savage as the auger which springs up
between
relations of blood. A brotherly hate is the chief of hates; and it
may be truly
said that there is no animosity that burns with a more hellish
heat than that
connected with religion. Gibbon, referring to the cruelties
inflicted upon
the early Christians, says, “They died in torments, and their
torments were
embittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on crosses,
others
sewn up in the skins of wild beasts and exposed to the fury of
dogs; others,
again, smeared over with combustible material, were used as
torches to
illuminate the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were
destined for
the melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied by a horse
race and
honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the
populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer.” (“Who through
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the
armies
of the aliens. Women
received their dead raised to life again:
and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they
might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of
cdruel mockings and scourgings,
yea, moreover of bonds and
imprisonment: They were stoned,
they were sawn asunder,
were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about
in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted,
tormented;
(Of whom the world
was not worthy:)
they wandered in deserts,
and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And
these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received
not the promise: God
having provided some better thing for
us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Hebrews
11:33-40)
7 “That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the
poor, and
turn aside the
way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in
unto the same
maid, to profane my holy name:” That pant after the
dust of the earth on the head of the poor. This
is the second charge —
oppression of the poor. The obscure expression in the text is capable of two
explanations. Hitzig, Pusey, Trochon, assume that its meaning is that in their
avarice and cupidity the usurers or tyrannous rich men grudge even the dust
which the poor man strews
upon his head in token of his sorrow at being
brought to so low a state.
But this seems unnatural and farfetched, and
scarcely in harmony with
the simple style of Amos. The other explanation,
supported by Kimchi, Sehegg, Keil, and Knabenbauer, is
preferable. These
oppressors desire
eagerly to see the poor crushed to the earth, or so miserable
as to scatter
dust on their heads (compare I Samuel 4:12; II Samuel 1:2;
Job 2:12). The poor (dal,
not the same word as in v. 6); depressed, as
brought low in condition. The Septuagint joins this with
the previous
clause, “And the poor for sandals, the things that tread on
the dust of the
earth, and smote on the heads of the needy.” The Vulgate
gives, Qui
conterunt super pulverem terrae capita pauperum, “Who bruise the heads
of the poor on the dust of the earth.” Turn aside the way of the meek.
They thwart and hinder their path of life, and force them
into crooked and
evil ways. Or way, according to Kimchi,
may mean “judicial process,” as
Proverbs 17:23. This gives, to the clause much the same
meaning as
v. 6. The meek are those who are lowly and
unassuming. And a man and his
father will go in unto the same maid; This sin, which was
tantamount to
incest, was virtually forbidden (Leviticus 18:8,15; 20:11).
Some (as Ewald, Maurer,
Gandell) see here an allusion to the organized prostitution in
idol temples
(Hosea 4:14), but this seems unnecessary. To profane my holy Name
(Leviticus 22:32). Such crimes dishonored the God who
called them
His people, so that to them could be applied what Paul says
(Romans 2:24), “The Name of God is blasphemed among the
Gentiles
through you” (compare
Leviticus 20:3; Ezekiel 36:20, 23). The word
lemaan, “in order that,”
implies that they committed these sins, not through
ignorance, but intentionally, to bring discredit upon the
true faith and worship.
8 “And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge
by every
altar, and they
drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.”
The prophet condemns the cruel luxury which, contrary to
the Law, made the
poor debtor’s necessities minister to the rich man’s
pleasures. They lay
themselves
down upon; Vulgate, accubuerunt. Ewald
translates, “they cast
lots upon;” but the Authorized Version is supported by the highest
authorities,
and gives the most appropriate meaning. The Septuagint, with which the Syriac
partly agrees, refers the clause to the immoralities practiced in heathen worship,
which the perpetrators
desired to screen from observation, Τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν
δεσμεύοντες σχοινίοις παραπετάσματα ἐποίουν ἐχόμενα τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου,
"
– ta himatia auton desmeuontes
schoiniois parapetasmata
epoinoun echomena tou
thusiastaeriou - “Binding their
clothes with cords,
they made them
curtains near the altar.” This is far from
the intention of the
prophet’s words. Upon clothes laid to pledge; or, taken
in pledge. The “clothes”
(begadim) are the large
outer garments which formed poor men’s dress by
day and cover by night, and which, if pledged, were ordered
to be returned
by nightfall (Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:12). These the
hardhearted usurers
kept as their own, and reclined luxuriously upon them at
their feasts and carousals
in their temples. By
every altar. At the sacrificial feasts in the temples at Dan and
sukophantion - wine from
the blackmailer. Wine obtained by
fines extorted from the oppressed. So it is better to
translate, “of such as
have been fined.” In
the house of their god. The true God, whom they
worshipped there under the symbol of the calf.
The Woe against
This is the last woe and the greatest. “The thunder cloud
of God’s
judgments having passed over all the nations round about,
and even
discharged the fire from heaven on
does His heart suffer specially in their punishment. And
so, whilst
compendious justice may be meted out to heathen nations,
the destruction
of the chosen people cannot be denounced without regretful
enlargement
on the circumstances of the case.
HUMAN LIFE. “They sell the righteous for money, and the
poor for a
pair of shoes.” This may be either a commercial or a judicial transaction,
but in either case the principle involved is the same. An undue estimate
of
wrong involves an inadequate estimate of all else. Wealth becomes the
one
good, and gain the one pursuit. Human life is as nothing in comparison
with
personal aggrandizement to the
extent of even a paltry sum. Officialism, to
which the death of a human being
is mainly a question of a burial or
registration fee, is not an
altogether unheard of thing. This principle has a
bearing, not only on murder and
the perversion of justice, but on slavery,
oppression, the opium and liquor
traffics (in this day cocaine, meth, heroin,
and many other mind and life
altering drugs – CY – 2013), and every method
of making money at the expense
of human life or health or well being. The
extent to which such things
prevail, and the tens of thousands of human lives
annually sacrificed for gain, is
a startling commentary on the maxim that
“the love of money
is a root of all evil.”
OTHER VICES ITS TRIBUTARIES.
fellow men was covetousness.
Ø
This was inhuman. It bore hardest on
the poor. These, being helpless,
were its easiest victims.
Humanity was put out of the question, and the
unspeakably greater
suffering involved in making the same gain off the
poor, as compared with the
rich, was no deterrent whatever. Gain,
though it be the very
heart’s blood of miserable fellow creatures, was
all they had an eye for or
a heart to consider.
Ø
It was ungodly.
It made special victims of the righteous.
This course
was partly utilitarian, no
doubt. The righteous might be expected to
submit to the maximum of
wrong with the minimum of retaliation. But it
was profane as well. The
wicked hate good, and all in whom it is found.
“If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him”
(I John 2:15). It was natural, therefore, that a
worldly act should assume
an ungodly character where opportunity
arose.
Ø
It was devilish.
“Who
pant after the dust of the earth on the head
of the poor.” It
rejoiced in all the incidental evils which oppression of the
poor involved. When those it impoverished were leveled in the dust of
misery and degradation, this was the sort of thing it panted after. One
side
of a man’s moral nature cannot become vitiated without affecting the
other
sides. The vices have an
affinity for one another, and tend to come
together in groups. If evil
gets in the little finger of one vice, the intrusion
of the whole body is only a question of time.
TO COMPOUND SINS FOR A NEW SENSATION. Sin does not
satisfy any time, and the longer
it is followed up it satisfies the less. In the
commission of it appetite
increases, and relish diminishes pari passu, and
so the candle of actual
enjoyment is being shortened at both ends. One
device in mitigation of this is
to increase the dose, and another to multiply
the ingredients. (Does not
2013). Reduced to the latter expedient,
Ø
Carousal with uncleanness. The two things often
go together. They
are the two chief
indulgences craved for by carnal appetite. The one,
moreover, helps to produce
the other. A Falstaff who combines the
drunkard with the libertine
is the typical debauchee. (I once had
a girl in health class, who
in her oral report made this statement:
alcohol increases the
desire but hinders the performance.” -
CY –
2013)
Ø
Uncleanness with incest. “A man and his father
go to the same girl.”
This act was equivalent to
incest, which was a capital crime according to
the Mosaic code (Leviticus
18:7,15; 20:11). It outdid the heathen
themselves, among whom this
crime was not so much as named
(I Corinthians 5:1). An
apostate is always the vilest sinner (II Peter
2:21-22).
Ø
Robbery with all three. “Stretch themselves upon pawned clothes.”
This was robbery in two
forms. They retained pawned clothes overnight,
contrary to the Law of
Moses (Exodus 22:26-27), and in further
violation of it used them
to sleep on (Deuteronomy 24:12-13). “And
drink the wine of the amerced.” Again a double injustice. The fine
was unjustly inflicted, and
then dishonestly appropriated.
Ø
Profanity with the entire troupe. “In order to profane my holy
Name.” Incest
was the guiltiest, but as a carnal indulgence it had no
advantage over any other form of uncleanness, It must,
therefore, have
been sought out because of its very horrors, and with a
view to the
profanation of God’s holy name, making the “members the members
of an harlot” (I Corinthians 6:16).
“Before every altar,” i.e. at
fashion, and therefore in
determinate contempt of God. “In the
house of their God,” not
the idol god probably, but the God of Israel.
In the time of Jeroboam II
there was no heathenish idolatry in the
kingdom of the ten tribes,
or at any rate it was not publicly maintained.
But the sin, though less
complicated, was scarcely less heinous than if
idolatry had been a part of
it. It was done of set purpose to dishonor
Him, and in order to this
the place selected for the commission of it was
His house, and the occasion
the celebration of His worship. What a
horrible exhibition of
extreme and multiplex depravity! “They condensed
sin. By a sort of economy
in the toil of sinning they blended many
sins in one… and in all the express breach of God’s
commandments!
A Nation’s
Crimes (vs. 6-8)
The ministry of Amos was mainly to the northern kingdom.
With this
passage commences the long impeachment and warning which the
prophet
was
inspired to address to
but
brief; now Amos puts forth all his strength of invective, reproach, and
expostulation.
·
UNGODLINESS IS AT THE ROOT OF A NATION’S MORAL
DEBASEMENT.
solemnly rejected God. “The house of their god,” says the
prophet with
a quiet irony, referring to the idol
temples which the people had taken to
frequenting. The reverence of the supreme Lord of righteousness is the
very
root of national morality. Let a people worship such deities as were worshipped
by
known to what fatal results such worship will surely lead. And let a nation
abandon all worship, and live a life of sense, and it is certainly
upon the
high road to moral ruin.
·
GREED AND OPPRESSION ARE AMONG THE FRUITS OF
NATIONAL UNGODLINESS. In the state of society with which Amos
was conversant, these immoral habits displayed themselves in
the
enslavement of the poor or in their deprivation of the ordinary
comforts of
life. There was no human law to prevent some of the base
transactions
mentioned, and all belief in a Divine Law was abandoned. History gives us
many proofs of the pernicious effect of secularism and
superstition upon
human relations. Not only are
all restraints, save those of civil law and
physical force, spumed and ridiculed;
there is no impulse and no motive to
a higher than the selfish and animal life.
·
FLAGRANT LICENTIOUSNESS IS ANOTHER FRUIT OF A
NATION’S IRRELIGION. The passions which lead to such atrocities as
those here mentioned are, no doubt, deep seated in human nature. But
religion assists men, not in repressing them wholly, but in
controlling and
guiding them. It is
believed by many that Amos refers to some of the
practices which were encouraged by the idolatries to which the
Israelites
were conforming. Certain it is that infidelity is often associated with the
vilest principles of an immoral life, and tends
to the letting loose of that
wild beast-sensual appetite — which works DIRE DEVESTATION IN
SOCIETY!
·
APPLICATION. These considerations should induce those who prize true
religion for themselves to seek its maintenance at
home against the assaults
of infidelity, and to seek its propagation in lands where
its absence is so
morally deleterious.
9 “Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was
like
the height of the
cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I
destroyed his
fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.”
God complains of
had shown them. And
yet I. The personal pronoun has a prominent
position, and is continually repeated, to contrast God’s faithfulness
and the
people’s unthankfulness. The Amorite (Joshua
24:8, 18). The
representative of the seven nations of Canaan who were
dispossessed by
the Israelites (Genesis 15:16; Exodus 23:27; 34:11). The
hyperbolical description
of this people is taken from Numbers 13:32; Deuteronomy
1:28. Thus is shown
the help of the Lord. Fruit… roots. Keil explains that the
posterity of a nation
is regarded as its fruit, and the kernel of the nation out
of which it springs as the
root, comparing Job 18:16; Ezekiel 17:9; Hosea 9:16. The
expression
is equivalent to our “root
and branch” (Malachi 4:1).
10 “Also I brought you up from the
years through the
wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.”
The deliverance from
chronologically first, are mentioned last, as the great and
culminating example
of THE FAVOR AND
PROTECTION OF GOD! First God
prepared the land for Israel, and then trained them for
possessing it. From
the many allusions in this section, we see how familiar
Amos and his
hearers were with the history and law of the Pentateuch. Led you forty
years (Deuteronomy 2:7; 8:2-4).
11 “And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your
young men
for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of
LORD.” Having
mentioned two temporal benefits conferred on
the prophet now names two spiritual favors — the presence of
holy
speakers and holy doers. I raised up. The prophet
and the Nazarite were
alike miracles of grace. The former gave heavenly teaching,
the latter
exhibited holiness of
life. It
was THE LORD
who gave the prophet power
and authority to
proclaim His will; it was THE LORD who inspired the
vow of the Nazarite and enabled him to carry it out in practice. Prophets.
To
Jehu, son of Hanani (Ibid. ch.16:7),
Elijah and Elisha, Hosea and Jonah.
Young men. In the height of
their passions, lusty and strong. Nazarites. The law
concerning the Nazarites is given
in Numbers 6. The special restrictions by which
they bound themselves (viz. abstention from strong drink,
from the use of the razor,
and from all ritual defilement) were the outward signs of inward purity and
devotion to God. Their very name implied separation from the world and
devotion to God. They were, in fact, the religious
of the old Law, analogous
to the monks of Christian times. The
vow was either temporary or lifelong.
Of perpetual Nazarites we have as instances
Samson, Samuel, and John the
Baptist. Is it not even thus? Is not the
existence of prophets and Nazarites
among you a proof that you are signally favored by God, separate from other
nations, and bound to be a holy people? Taking the general import of the
passage and the signification of the word “Nazarite,”
the Septuagint renders,
εἰς ἀγιασμόν – eis agiasmon - “I took… and of your
young men for
consecration.”
The Manifold Mercies of the Covenant
People (vs. 9-11)
In striking contrast to
them. Mercy rises
above mercy, tier on tier, in a mighty pyramid of
blessing. Of these there was:
·
NATIONAL ADOPTION.
This is not mentioned, but it is implied, as
underlying all the other favors. God’s first step was to make them his
people. He loved
and chose them (Deuteronomy 10:15; 7:7-8). He
separated them from the peoples, and took them into covenant with
Himself
(Exodus 33:16;
Genesis 17:7, 19). That covenant he
sealed (ibid. v.13), and
all who observed the seal He styled His own people (Isaiah
43:1), lavishing
on them in addition many a title of affection. This national
adoption is the
fact that attends the whole line of
·
NATIONAL DELIVERANCE. “Brought
you up,” etc. (v. 10). This
was a stupendous providence; stupendous in its measures and
stupendous
in its results, and therefore of immense moral significance and weight. The
mighty forces of nature are utilized. A haughty heathen nation is
brought to
its bended knees before the God of the down-trodden
becomes an army. Crouching slaves become the fearless free. And,
out of
the chaos of despair and death emerges the young world of fresh national
life. This astounding
work was Jehovah’s rod to conjure with in the after
centuries. He makes it the fulcrum on which to rest the lever of
resistless
motive. His Law, in its moral (Exodus 20:2), judicial
(Deuteronomy
24:18-22; 15:15), and ceremonial
aspects (ibid. 16:12), is bespoken a
ready and glad obedience in the word, “I am the Lord thy God,
which brought thee out of the
·
NATIONAL PRESERVATION.
“And
led you forty years.” The
sustained but quiet miracles of the desert pilgrimage were a worthy
sequence to the prodigies of the Exodus. Divine energies were not
exhausted in the thunder bursts under which
were but the stormy prelude to the sunshine and soft showers
and gentle
wooing winds of a long spiritual
husbandry. In the manna falling
silently,
and the mystic guiding pillar, and the Shechinah
glory lighting up the most
holy place, Jehovah by a perpetual miracle kept Himself before the
nation’s eye in all providential and saving
relations. The
resistless
Deliverer was the
jealous Protector, the bounteous Provider, and the
solicitous and tender Friend.
·
NATIONAL TRIUMPH. “I
destroyed the Amorite,” etc. The
Hebrews had fierce and powerful
enemies in all the neighboring nations.
These were generally their
superiors in physical strength and courage and
the warlike arts. Apart from miraculous help, it is doubtful
whether
would not have been overmatched by almost any one of them
(Exodus
17:11; 1 Samuel 17:42). Yet the
giant races were subdued before them
and wasted off the earth. When the grasshopper (Numbers 13:33)
seizes on the lion’s domain there are forces at work that invert
the natural
order of things. To make the minnows of unwarlike, timid,
plodding
victorious over the tritons of Anak, the
colossal warriors of
(Joshua 11:21), was a moral
miracle, sufficient
in itself to carry a
nation’s faith and a nation’s gratitude till the
end of time.
·
NATIONAL ENFEOFFMENT (under
the feudal system, the deed by which
a person was given land in exchange for a pledge of service)
“To
possess the
land of the Amorite.” An
earthly inheritance was included in the earliest
promise to
was never lost. In the stubble fields and by the brick kilns, where, “like
dumb, driven cattle,” they toiled throughout the
years of their Egyptian
bondage, the vision of it came as a ray of
comfort lighting the darkest
hours. When they marched from
their own land, and the long detention in the desert was taken
as a tedious
but appropriate schooling
to prepare them for the coming of age.
when at last they settled in it, was the very
garden of the world, and a home
so perfect of its
kind as to be made AN EMBLEM OF THE ETERNAL
HOME ABOVE. God’s standing monument, written over
with the story
of His goodness, was to every Israelite the teeming,
smiling land in which
he lived.
·
NATIONAL EVANGELIZATION. “And I raised up of your sons,”
etc. The prophet was a characteristic national institution
among the Jews.
He was a man to whom God made
revelations of His will (Numbers
12:6), and through whom He
communicated that will to the people
(Hebrews 1:1). Of this
communication more or less was generally,
although not invariably, committed to writing, and embodied in the
Scriptures. The prophet did not regularly instruct the people; that was
rather the business of the priest. But he did so often, and was
besides
God’s mouthpiece
for the communication of new truth,
speaking it always
according to the analogy of faith (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). The
permanent establishment thus of a Divine oracle in their midst,
giving
constant access to the fountainhead
of truth, was a notable privilege to
They were consecrated ones,
separated from common men and common
uses, and devoted in a special manner to God (Numbers 6:1-21).
Such
consecration was the ideal human life (John 17:19). Therefore what the
prophet did for truth in the abstract the Nazarite
did for it in the concrete.
The one revealed
God’s will, the other embodied it, or at least its great
central principle. Their respective functions were complementary
of each
other, and between the two the Israelitish
nation was “throughly furnished
unto good works.”
A Nation’s
Privileges (vs. 9-11)
The transgressions of
peculiar favor which had been shown, to the people who were
descendants of the father of the faithful and the friend of God. Upon
these
special privileges the prophet here dwells with a view to bring home to t
he offenders the
magnitude of their sin.
·
A NATION SHOULD TRACE THE HAND OF GOD IN THE
DELIVERANCES WROUGHT ON ITS BEHALF.
in the land of the Canaanites, of whom the Amorites are in
this passage
taken as the representatives. These foes of the chosen nation
are pictured
majestic as the cedar and mighty as the oak. Yet Jehovah had
smitten them
in the lofty branches, and had extirpated them from the
roots, and had
planted in their stead the vine brought out of
sword or bow, but by the right hand of the Lord, that the Amorites had
been vanquished. A devout mind will trace the presence and the
action of
Divine
succored by the interposition of Omnipotence from
the assaults of
powerful and unpitying foes. The “good hand of our God” has been upon
us to protect and to deliver.
(Ezra 8:18)
·
A NATION SHOULD REMARK THE GUIDANCE OF THE ALLWISE
GOD APPARENT IN THE EVENTS OF ITS POLITICAL LIFE.
“I led you:” such is the language in which Jehovah reminded the
forgetful
and unfaithful Hebrews of His treatment of His chosen. The
epoch of
wilderness wandering was the critical epoch of
the nation was consolidated and disciplined. A marvelous story
it remains
to this day, the story of the forty years in the
too, with encouragement for all who trust God. What Christian
nation has
not reason to give thanks to “Him who led His people
through the
wilderness” for His mercy endureth
forever”?
(Psalm 136:16) The eye
must be dull which cannot see, the heart must be cold which
does not
confess, the directing hand of the Eternal in the career of such a
nation
as our own.
·
A NATION SHOULD GRATEFULLY HONOR GOD FOR
RAISING UP WISE AND HOLY MEN AS NATIONAL TEACHERS
AND EXAMPLES.
The prophets and Nazarites of the Jews may represent
men of sanctified genius and insight, and mental and moral
force, whom
is beautiful and good. A people’s
greatest strength and most valuable
possession must be sought in its finest, purest, ablest
men. God did much
for
mercies were transcended by the gift of heroes and
saints, judges and seers,
valiant, true-hearted kings, fearless prophets,
faithful priests. Rich as our
own country is in many other respects, its true wealth must be
sought in its
noblest, most unselfish sons. God give us grace to appreciate and to profit
by His goodness in this respect!
12 “But ye gave the Nazarites wine
to drink; and commanded the
prophets, saying,
Prophesy not.” Ye gave the Nazarites
wine to drink.
Far from profiting by their example, or acknowledging the
grace of God
displayed in their holy lives, ye tried to get rid
of their testimony by
seducing or forcing them to
break their vow. Prophesy not.
impatient of the continued efforts of the prophets to warn and to win; and,
unmindful of the fact that the man of God had a message which he was bound to
deliver (compare Jeremiah 20:9; I Corinthians 9:16), this ungrateful nation
systematically tried to silence the voices which were a
standing rebuke to
them. (Thus, falling
into this category is the American Civil Liberties Union,
not in theory, since the ACLU pledges to protect the rights
of Americans,
and should recognize
the First Amendment, that Congress shall make no law
“forbidding the exercise of religion” but in reality, a
very vicious “anti-religious”
organization. While
working on my master’s degree in the early 1970’s at
in the 1930’s investigated the ACLU as a communist
organization – CY –
2013). Thus Amos
himself was treated (ch.7:10). (For proof of
this opposition, see I Kings 13:4; 18:10; 19:2; 22:26-28; II Kings 6:31;
II Chronicles 25:15-16; and compare Isaiah 30:10; Micah
2:6; Matthew 23:37.
Children that are Corrupters (v. 12)
“But ye made the dedicated drink wine; and ye commanded the
prophets,
saying, Ye shall not prophesy” Action and reaction have a natural
connection and a normal relation to each other. In all departments of
being
they meet and answer, as face answers to face in a glass. The rebound is as
the
blow, the conviction as the argument, the response as the appeal. The
mention of what God had done for
had
Had gratitude waited on blessing in due proportion, and
improvement
followed privilege? This
verse is the disappointing answer.
response to God’s appeal, as contained in His gracious dealings,
was not
the
gratitude and fealty due, but unaccountable and aggravated sin. God
delivered them from bondage, and they oppressed each other; He
defended
them against unjust violence, and they wrought injustice. He guided them
in
their journeys, and they led one another astray. He plied them with
evangelizing agencies, and they responded by committing sacrilege and
procuring blasphemy. The last is the sin charged against them here.
·
THIS WAS PRIMARILY A SIN AGAINST GOD. The Nazarite and
the prophet were both Divine institutions. The vow of the one
and the
message of the other were alike prescribed by God (>Numbers
6:1-8;
12:6). It was His will that they
should perform their characteristic acts. In
doing so they were but His instruments, accomplishing His
purpose toward
the nation. Accordingly,
against His servants, against His ordinance, against His authority. So with
all action against God’s people as such. As we deal by them
will He regard us
as dealing by Himself. They are all God’s prophets,
understanding the
mysteries of His kingdom, and “holding forth the Word of life.”
(Philippians
2:16) They are all His dedicated ones, separate
from the world, and living,
“not to themselves, but to Him who died and rose again for
them.”
(II Corinthians 5:15) And whether as the one thing or the other, they
are
His accredited
representatives on earth (Matthew 10:40). Our treatment of
them is virtually our treatment of Him that sent them (Matthew 25:40).
A kiss to them reaches the Master’s lips;
a blow to them touches the apple
of His eye.
·
PROXIMATELY THIS WAS A SIN AGAINST MAN. It consisted in
compeling
the prophet and the Nazarite to disobey God. Now,
disobedience is sin, even when committed under pressure. “We ought to
obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:27-29) Men have faced death rather
than the guilt of disobedience to known law. And so long as
there is any
alternative, even death itself, there is no place for disobedience.
was the sin of compeling others to
sin. This was soul murder, and therefore
guilt of the darkest dye. Early persecutors sometimes compeled Christians
to swallow poison, an infernal device to make them suicides
as well as
martyrs, and so destroy them soul and body both. So diabolically
ingenious
was the young persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, that he compelled
believers to /
blaspheme (Acts 26:11); and when recalling the sin of his
unconverted life
he makes that fact the bitterest count in his
self-accusation. Kindred to this
was
their damnation — a crime
to which killing the body is as nothing. And it is
not so uncommon in Christian lands and
among us are tempters to drunkenness, tempters to uncleanness,
tempters
to falsehood, tempters to profanity! Well, every tempter is a
murderer — a
murderer not merely in the ordinary sense, but in the Satanic sense
of
destroying or trying to destroy an immortal soul.
INTERESTS. All
sin is unprofitable, but this was doubly so. The prophet
brought God’s message, not for their destruction, but for their
salvation.
When they shut his month they
cut themselves off from their only chance
of being saved. “Where no vision
is the people perish” (Proverbs
29:18) and in deliberately cutting
it off,
DESTRUCTION! Then
the Nazarite was an embodied revelation,
a typical representation of a consecrated life. A heedful
eye might have
read a spiritual lesson out of his separation. “The life
of the Nazarites
was a continual protest against the self-indulgence and worldliness
of the
people.... It was a life above nature and thought They were an evidence
what all might do and be if they used the grace of God. But, in the
compulsory violation of his vow, the rich page was blotched
and its lesson
blotted out. It presents the piteous sight of A PEOPLE STOPPING
THE FOUNT OF LIFE IN
ORDER THAT THEY MIGHT DIE
OF THIRST!
Ø
listen to the Divine voice nor
Ø
look at the Divine life.
And the sight is
not confined to
that will not tolerate faithful preaching.
There is a preaching that minces the
gospel testimony against
sin. It is the case of
sinfully silence the preacher, and the preacher
sinfully submits to be
silenced. A Church
asleep, and the minister rocking the cradle, is a poor
interpretation of the pastoral
relation.
·
ALTOGETHER IT WAS A SIN AGGRAVATED BY THE
ENJOYMENT OF
SPECIAL MERCIES. All that God
had done was a
motive to obedience and an argument against sin. But all the
arrows of
influence fell pointless and broken from their hearts of stone. The
more
Divine mercies multiplied, the
more did abominable wickedness increase.
Sin, under such unlikely
circumstances, argues special
inveteracy (obstancy;
persistent tenacity), and
involves corresponding aggravation of guilt
(Romans 2:4). With every want
supplied and every better feeling appealed
to, it was sin not only without temptation, but in spite of
strong deterrents,
and was therefore hopeless as it was guilty. The love and
goodness of God
are the most potent persuasives to
His service. Where these fail the case
is desperate. What mercy cannot bend judgment will only
break. If you
sin against mercy YOU CAN SIN ETERNALLY!
There is no spiritual
argument that can make you yield (II Peter 3:15; Romans 2:3-4).
Vs. 13-16 threaten severe punishment for the sins mentioned
above.
13 “Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that
is full of
sheaves.” Behold,
I am pressed under you; Septuagint, κυλίω ὑποκάτω ὑμῶν
– kulio
hupokato humon - “I roll under you;”
Vulgate,
stridebo subter vos; Syriac, as Anglican; Hitzig, “I make it totter beneath you,
as a cart tottereth;” Ewald, Keil,” I will press you
down, as the cart presseth;”
Baur, Pusey, “I straiten myself under
you, as a cart is straitened;” Revised Version,
“I will press you in your place, as a cart presseth.” The translation of Keil,
which
is that of Gesenius, is most
suitable, meaning, “I will press you with the full
force of war, as a loaded wain
presses the earth over which it passes.” The
sense of the English Version is that God is burdened and wearied with their
sins, as Isaiah 43:24; Malachi 2:17. The verb, being hiphil, is an
objection to this explanation. The comparison of the wain is very natural in
the
mouth of the shepherd Amos.
God and Nations (vs.. 9-13)
“Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was
like the
height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I
destroyed his fruit
from above, and his roots from beneath,” etc. These verses suggest a few
remarks in relation to God and nations.
·
HE REMINDS NATIONS OF THE GREATNESS OF HIS
KINDNESS
TOWARDS THEM. In
these verses He reminds
merciful interpositions of His on their behalf.
Ø The
destruction of the Amorite
— the original inhabitant of
Amorite here
stands for all the old Canaanites. He drove out the
Canaanites that
they then
lived (Exodus 23:27).
Ø Their
emancipation from
“Also
I brought you up from
These two great
acts of kindness are mentioned only as specimens of
millions
of others. The language in which these acts are represented
suggest three great truths in relation to God’s
conduct toward the world.
o
He often sacrifices one people in order to
advance the interests of
another. The old Canaanites He sacrificed for the
good of
history
of the world this is often done; one country ruined for the
advantage
of another. This is marvelous; it clashes with our primitive
ideas of
justice and Divine goodness. But we cease to murmur when
we remember
that there is a great explaining day, and that the peoples
that
have been ruined for the interests of others have never suffered
more
from the hands of God than they have justly deserved.
o
That the mightiest human powers cannot
obstruct Him in His procedure.
The Amorites,
the original inhabitants of
It is said
their “height was like the height of cedars,” and they were
“strong as oaks” They were in the great field of mankind not like the
tender
sapling or the stunted shrub; they were tall as the cedars and
mighty as
the oak (Numbers 13:32-33). Then
He delivered
them,
was a mighty power. Pharaoh was the greatest
despot of
the old world. But what was all this human power before
the march
of Omnipotence? The mighty Canaanite and the powerful
Egyptian were as mere stubble under His feet. God will not be hindered.
o
That He fulfils His great purposes with
nations by the agency of men.
He crushed the
Canaanites and He crushed the Egyptians, not by
hurling directly
from his hand the thunderbolts, No; but by the
agency of
Joshua and Moses. God works with men by men. By men
He blesses and
by men He punishes, He allows man to be the devil
of man,
and He makes man the saviour of man.
·
HE REMINDS NATIONS OF THE ABUSE OF THE MERCIES HE HAD
CONFERRED ON THEM. He specifies here two special mercies which He
had bestowed upon
Ø
A spiritual ministry. “And I raised up of your sons for prophets.” He
gave them men whom He duly qualified to indoctrinate and
inspire them
with the highest truths of duty and of destiny. The
greatest blessing
which God bestows upon a people is a true ministry.
Ø
Virtuous young men. “Your young men
for Nazarites.” “These were
young men who,” to use the language of another, “bound themselves
by
a vow to God and His service, and, in pursuance of that,
denied
themselves many of the lawful delights of sense, as drinking wine and
eating grapes. There were some of their young men that were in
their
prime for the enjoyment of the pleasures of this life, and yet
voluntarily
abridged themselves of them; these God raised up by the power of His
grace to be monuments of His grace, to His glory, and to be His
witnesses
against the impieties of that degenerate age.”
Virtuous and high-minded
young men are amongst the chief ornaments and brightest hopes of
a
people. But how did
the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.” They did not wish to hear their
voices; they closed their ears to their ministry. To a great
extent this is
the case with our own country now. The great bulk of our
people say
to the pulpits of
not want your ministry. Sad state this — a state of sin
and the
PRECUSOR OF RUIN! How did
virtuous young men? “They gave the Nazarites
wine to drink,” They
caused them to break their vow. This they did, it may be, by
seductive
promises, or frightening threats, or abashing ridicule and
reproach. A
greater crime than the crime of a people endeavoring to make young
men drunkards can scarcely be imagined, and this crime
all hands earnestly promoting. The multiplication in our midst
of beer
houses and gin palaces (in
2022), all under the sanction of law, is an insult to
Heaven, an outrage
on decency, a curse to the country. It behoves every philanthropist
to
take his stand against this abomination, and to sweep from the earth
such huge establishments of the devil as the
the infernal spirit distilleries, whence streams of poison flow through
every grade of social life. “Every inordinate cup is unbless’d,
and the
ingredient is a devil;” “O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast
no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!” (Shakespeare).
Ø Men’s
Sins a Divine burden (v. 13)
The figure of the text is one taken by Amos from his own
experience as a
husbandman. In the harvest field the cart is piled high with sheaves
to be
taken to the garner or the threshing floor. The wain (wagon) groans — as poets
put
it — beneath the load.
Even so, it is represented that the sins of
oppress Jehovah; He is
distressed by their magnitude and their
aggravations.
·
LIGHT IS CAST BY THIS LANGUAGE UPON THE CHARACTER
OF GOD.
Ø
His repugnance to sin
is here brought before us. The deities of
the
heathen do not seem to have been represented as hating sin, though
they
were pictured as resenting the neglect of their worshippers. It
was
otherwise with Jehovah, for He was not an invention of human
ignorance
and frailty. The Old Testament writers, with one
consent, represent
THE ETERNAL AS HOLY and
as hating sin as sin.
Ø
His distress at sin is conveyed in this declaration. This is no
imperfection. Mere disapproval would have been an imperfection.
But it is an encouraging view
which we are justified in taking of the
Divine character, as we read
that
God is pained by human iniquity.
What an appeal to sinful man is
this, “I am pressed under you”!
·
LIGHT IS CAST BY THIS LANGUAGE UPON THE NATURE OF
HUMAN SIN.
Men’s transgressions are not unheeded by God, neither are
they a matter of indifference to Him. The Supreme Being is not
oppressed
by the vast care of the material universe. But sin is so heinous and awful
that it affects His feelings — if we may use language so human. Shall man
be careless with regard to that which is so felt by the
infinite heart? Of all
ills there can be none like this.
·
LIGHT IS CAST BY THIS LANGUAGE UPON THE PROSPECT
OF REDEMPTION.
This light may be dim, but it is an advance upon
darkness. If man’s sin is so distressing to God, there is reason
to hope that
Divine wisdom and grace will concur to provide means for
its forgiveness
and its canceling. The
feeling which is uttered in the figurative language of
the text found FULL
EXPRESSION IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST, in the
gospel of salvation.
14 “Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the
strong shall
not strengthen
his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:”
In this and the two following verses Amos INDIVIDUALIZES THE
“PRESSURE” THAT WAITS
THEM when every means of resistance
and escape shall fail. The flight shall perish from the swift. The swift of foot
shall have no time or way to flee (Jeremiah 25:35; 46:6), Ewald, Pusey,
Gandell, for “flight” render “place of flight, refuge,” as Job
11:20 “their hope
shall be as the giving up of the ghost”; Psalm 142:5;
Septuagint, φυγή: -
phugae – flight - Vulgate, fuga. Shall
not strengthen his force. The
strong
man shall not be able
to collect or put forth his strength to any good purpose
(compare Proverbs 24:5; Nahum 2:1). Neither shall… himself. Some of the
Greek manuscripts omit this clause. Deliver himself occurs three times —
a kind of solemn refrain.
15 “Neither shall he stand that handleth
the bow; and he that is swift of
foot shall not
deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the
horse
deliver himself.”
Stand
(“they did not stand, because the day of their
calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation” –
Jeremiah 46:21; compare Revelation 6:12-17; Nahum 2:8). The skilled
Archer shall not
stand firm. That handleth
the bow (Jeremiah 46:9).
16“And he that is
courageous among the mighty shall flee
away naked
in that day, saith the Lord.” He that is courageous among the mighty;
literally, the strong in his heart; i.e. the
bravest hero. The Septuagint takes the
words differently. Ὁ κραταιὸς οὐ μὴ εὑρήσει τὴν καρδίαν
αὐτοῦ ἐν
δυσαστείαις –
Ho krataios ou mae heuraesei
taen kardian autou en dusasteiais - “The strong
shall not find his heart
(confidence) in powers.” Naked. Casting away heavy
garments and weapons and whatever might hinder flight (compare
Mark 14:52;
John 21:7).
The Wrath of Outraged
Goodness (vs. 13-16)
“A wounded spirit who can bear?” (Proverbs 18:14)
Even God will not bear it
forevermore. A “base contempt of covenant mercies,” exemplified here,
may go
too
far. The limit of intelligent forbearance will be passed, and the pent-up vials
of
wrath restrained will be poured forth.
·
THE CRUSHER. “Behold,
I will press you down as the cart presses that
is filled with sheaves” (Keil).
This is a strong figure. God, in His retributive
action, is compared not only to a cart, but to a heavily loaded
one, which
crushes all it passes over. His stroke, when it falls, will be
heavy in
proportion as, in mercy, it has been long suspended. His love had
long been
spurned, and now at last it is turned into righteous indignation.
Unspeakable
goodness disregarded persistently will now give place to thick
disasters.
His power had been
insanely dared, and
whether they had an arm like His. “On whomsoever it shall fall, it
shall
grind him to powder.”
(Matthew 21:44) How indignant love can
be that
has suffered persistent outrage! How stern goodness becomes
when it finds
itself thrown away unappreciated and with contempt! How overwhelming
OMNIPOTENCE is, which nevertheless
endures defiance from worms of the
dust so long! How terrible God will be as a Foe where He will not be
accepted as a Friend
(Psalm 18:26; Proverbs 1:24-28)!
·
THE CRUSHED. These are
not the nation in general, but each class in
particular — the strong, the courageous, the swift, the fighter, the
runner,
and the rider alike. NONE SHALL ESCAPE! God’s wrath, like His love, is
distinctive — rests not on masses, but on individuals. And, answering
to
this, the judgments which execute His wrath are elaborated in
detail They
are no more necessary than reluctant, no more reluctant than
sure, no more
sure than thorough.
“The mills
of God grind slowly,
But they
grind exceeding small.”
It is noticeable, too, that of
those who fall in the sweep of God’s sword, it
is the best protected who are emphasized. Nothing is said of
the weak and
timid and slow. Their destruction might be taken for granted.
But, lest any
should cherish a hope of escape under any circumstances, the persons to
whom such hope would be most natural are doomed BY NAME!
An occasion of remaining in sin
is, with many wicked, the stealthy hope
that somehow or other they will escape at last (Isaiah 28:15).
Perhaps they
have no definite expectation, no theory even, on the subject.
They know
the Word of God to be decisive, and feel the chances are
against them.
But they cajole the judgment
into negligently making the wish the father
to the thought, and go down
to death the half-conscious victims of a make
believe. The gospel to such
wants heralding with a Saviour’s warning cry,
“How can ye escape
the damnation of hell?” (Matthew
23:33)
·
THE CRUSHING. A
variety of figures combine to illustrate this.
Ø
It cannot be resisted. “The strong one will
not fortify his strength,” etc.
There are no arms we can use against God. They are suited to a
material, not a spiritual, foe. There is no strength to be put in
competition with His. The bare thought of a struggle is the climax
of all absurdity. “Let the
potsherds strive with the potsherds
of the earth.” (Isaiah
45:9)
Ø
It cannot be faced. “The courageous
one among the heroes will flee
away.” Man has strength, and confidence in it, for a struggle with
fellow man. But his strength leaves
him in GOD’S PRESENCE!
(John 7:44). He cannot even
attempt resistance. “He falls at His feet
like one dead.”
Ø
It cannot be escaped. “The flight will be lost to the swift.”
To fly from Omnipresence is as inconceivable as to fight against Omnipotence.
Darkness cannot hide, nor
distance separate, from God. (Psalm 139:7-12)
We
live in His presence. We sin
in His presence. We die in His presence.
Even
the destruction from His presence as gracious (II Thessalonians
1:9) is
destruction in His presence as filling heaven and earth.
Ø
Judgment is the obverse of grace. There are only the
two ways of it.
There is no compromise between
obedience and disobedience
(Matthew 12:30). So there is no via
media (middle road) between
salvation and destruction. The coin of Scripture truth comes to us
with a nimbus on the one side and a death’s head on the other.
We
may choose between the two, but one or other we must take
(Mark 16:16). God will save if
He may, but He will destroy if
He must.
Ø
Grace is the converse of judgment. Judgment empties the strong of
strength. Grace makes the weak to be strong in
God. You may have
either; and you must have one. Which shall it be?
Judgment Inevitable
(vs. 14-16)
In the preceding verses there is observable an accumulation
of human
transgression and iniquity. And in these closing verses of the chapter the
reader is equally struck with the rhetorical accumulation of
figures intended
to
convey a deep impression of the inevitableness of retribution.
·
A PICTURE OF HUMAN GREATNESS. Man has his own standard of
greatness. The prophet piles up epithets to represent man’s power.
In vivid
colors and in rapid succession there rise before the imagination
the figures
of the “swift” runner who is wont to
overtake his foe, the “strong” hero
whose blow cleaves the helmet in twain, the “mighty” whose praise is
upon
all lips, the “bowman” whose arrow pierces the
fugitive in the battlefield,
the “swift on foot” who trusts for
safety to his speed, the “horseman”
whose charge has often broken the fearless ranks of the enemy,
the
“courageous,” “the strong of his heart,” whom no danger daunts.
·
A VISION OF INEVITABLE RETRIBUTION AND OF THE
DISCOMFITURE OF THE ENEMIES OF GOD. Even such as those who
have been described shall be powerless in the day of the Lord. Exemption
from the operation of righteous law is not to be obtained by any
human
craft or might. The swift
shall be overtaken, and the arm of the warrior
shall tall powerless by his side. Justice must be
vindicated; the Lord of right
will never abandon His sovereign throne.
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