Amos 5
Chapter 5 and 6 are a lamentation
over the fall of
o Amos calls
declined from the right
way. (vs.1-3)
o To make this plain, he contrasts God’s power and majesty with the people’s
iniquity, instances of which he gives (vs. 4-12).
o The only condition of safety is amendment (vs. 13-15); and
o As they refuse to reform, they shall have cause to lament (vs. 16-17).
o This threat is enforced by the two emphatic “woes”
that
follow, the first of which
demonstrates the baselessness of their trust in
their covenant relation to God
(vs. 18-27);
1 “Hear ye
this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation,
O house of
his own feeling about it, the prophet utters his prophecy
in the form of a dirge (kinah,
II Samuel 1:17; II Chronicles 35:25). Which I take up against
you; or, which I raise
over you, as if the
end had come. O house of
Domus
making the dirge begin at v. 2. The ten tribes are
addressed as in v. 6.
2 “The
virgin of
upon her land; there is none to raise her
up.” The virgin of
virgin
treated and guarded from enemies (compare Isaiah 23:12;
47:1; Jeremiah 14:17).
Is fallen (compae II Samuel 1:19); she shall no more rise. This is
apparently a
contradiction to the promise of restoration elsewhere
expressed, but is to
be explained either as referring exclusively to the ten tribes,
very few of
whom returned from exile, and to the
reestablished. Forsaken upon her land; better, she
shall be dashed upon
her own land; her own soil shall witness her ruin — that
soil which was “virgin,”
unconquered, and
her own possession. (The same could say
of
virgin – never been conquered on her own land, but 9/11
showed vulnerability
to be messed with! – 9/11 never would have happened had
true to God instead of departing from Him over the last
half century! - CY – 2013)
(Case in point: “Oh
that my people had hearkened unto me, and
in my ways! I should
soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand
against their adversaries.” Psalm 81:13-14 - CY - 2022)
3 “For
thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a
thousand
shall leave an hundred, and that which went
forth by an hundred
shall leave ten, to the house of
The city that went out by a thousand. Septuagint and Vulgate, “from which went
the fight, in such a city only a tenth of the inhabitants
shall remain; and this shall
happen to small cities as well as great.
It is poor work singing the things that might have been. It
means sweet
dreams dispelled, fair hopes blighted, and human lives in ruins. Yet such is
the prophet’s task in this passage — writing
graves of her dead millions. He had been denouncing
nameless woes
against the rebellious people, Here he changes his tone to
that of a
mournful spectator of accomplished ills. In imagination he
throws himself
forward out of the sinful present into the calamitous
future, and in
accommodation to the change of scene his denunciation
becomes a dirge. It
is a natural transition, and at the same time a new form of
appeal. When
ears become inattentive, the skilled musician will vary his
tune. We have here:
far enough from existing facts.
The Israel of God’s ideal was:
Ø
A holy people.
(Exodus 19:6; Deuteronomy 28:9.)
Theoretically
they were, as the word “holy” means
(Deuteronomy 7:6), a people
separated from men, and sin
and set apart to God. But the fair ideal
of their national life remained an ideal and nothing more. The
reality never reached it,
never approached it. They connected
themselves freely with heathen
men and heathenish sin. They at times
outdid the nations
(ch.2:6-9) in avarice, injustice, spoiling the poor,
abominable rites, and every
nameless infamy.
Ø
An unconquered people. This is the force of
the expression “virgin
(of)
as His loyal people
(Deuteronomy 1:30). If, and so long as he did so,
they would be invincible.
But they never claimed His help on the
appointed terms. His
promise was doubted (Ibid. v.32) and its
conditions disregarded,
with the inevitable result that it failed of
fulfillment in
MANY A CRITICAL TIME!
“the unconquered,” was
practically the often vanquished, the twice
carried captive, the soon-to-be-destroyed. God’s help comes
surely, but comes only
where there is attention to the conditions on
which it is offered and
given.
Ø
A prosperous people.
the very garden of the
earth; unique in the combination of the highest
agricultural capacities,
with the finest commercial situation. The
prosperity of an
industrious, peaceful nation in it was, so far as
favorable circumstances
went, a foregone conclusion. But:
o
war had devastated,
and
o
mildew blighted, and
o
drought laid bare its fertile
fields (ch.4:6-13).
God saw His gifts abused
and made the ministers of sin, and He was
driven to destroy these in
their hands. When
temporal good begins to
be made the occasion
of moral evil, our tenure of it will soon end.
(This is happening in
citizenry seem to be oblivious – CY – 2013)
Ø
A happy people. A people prosperous, strong, and pure, could not but
be happy as well (Psalm
144:15). And such was
ideal (Deuteronomy 33:29).
But the actual misery experienced was as
complete as the theoretical
happiness revealed. HAPPINESS is
nowhere so IMPOSSIBLE, MISERY nowhere so INTENSE,
as with A PEOPLE WHO HAVE
FALLEN BENEATH
THEMSELVES! In proportion as the former might have been,
will the latter be.
lamentation becomes a funeral
song.
Ø
A nation made shipwreck is a sight for tears. It is the destruction
of
magnificent possibilities
of good. It is the failing of a tremendous reality
of evil. It is the ruin of most precious interests on
a gigantic scale. If one
soul lost is the occasion
of grief to pure spirits and A TRAVAILING
SAVIOUR, what must the calamity be when MULTIPLIED
A MILLION-FOLD?
Ø
When the wicked fall the truest mourners are the
righteous. Not
the heathen who had seduced
them, not the remnant of apostate
that might escape, but the
prophet of God, who had kept himself
unspotted in the midst of
national corruption, was the tearful mourner
by the ruined nation’s
grave. The wicked are
TOO SELFISH to
care for any
sorrows but their own. They are as the
wolves,
which would make a prey of
the dead one’s remains, rather than
any mourning for his fall. God and the God-like alone truly mourn
when the wicked perish.
Ø A prophetic
sight of his own epitaph ought to stay the hand of
the suicide. Men supposed to be dead have lived to read their own
obituary notice. It has enabled them to
see themselves for once as
others see them. And
it ought to have a practical influence for good.
Israel, reading beforehand the inscription on their
own tomb,
might have been warned away, if anything could have
warned
them, from the course
in which they were rushing on. It
showed
them what was coming, and
how it was being brought on, and how
it looked, whether as a
morality or a policy, in enlightened eyes. An
adequate idea of
sin MUST INCLUDE ITS END and issues
and place in history, and
this IT WAS IN
TO LEARN (AND OURS ALSO – CY
– 2013) from Amos’s
prophetic wail.
His way. The way of God is a
revelation of His purpose. All three are along
the lines of the just and
fitting. Now:
Ø
Adequate punishment means practical extermination. Sin is an
infinite crime, merits an
infinite punishment, and failing this will receive a
punishment exhaustive of
the criminal’s good. The proverbial question,
“Wherefore doth a living man complain?” (Lamentations 3:39), is
An understatement of the
case. While a field, or a blessing, or a living
man remained,
body and soul have been
both destroyed, there will still be no more
than JUSTICE DONE! If our sin have not its punishment
IN CHRIST then
that punishment must be UTTER
DESTRUCTION!
Ø
When wrath smites many, mercy
spares a remnant. Ninety
percent were to be
destroyed. The thousand should become a
hundred, and the hundred
ten. Neither the strength of the great
nor the insignificance of
the small should avail them for escape.
With perfect impartiality,
all should be made to suffer proportionally.
Yet decimation was to stop
short of utter extinction. A tenth part
(see Isaiah 1:9; 6:13)
should be spared. This less guilty remnant,
taught and chastened by the
judgments which swept away the
bulk of the nation, might
form the nucleus of a new and better
mercy often steps in and
saves a “seed
to the sower.”
(Isaiah
55:10). There is seldom a deluge without its ark and
its
Noah family, the conditions
and materials of a fresh start for
the reduced.
Ø
national name, and with it
the covenant relation and privileges to
which the name referred
(Genesis 32:28). Toward the
Church, for its sin “cast
down but not destroyed,” the same
gracious policy was
announced (Isaiah 54:7-10). While a
Mephibosheth remains the royal line of God’s anointed is not
extinct. Chastisement makes
a chaos only to bring out of it
the young world of a new
life and a new hope (Psalm 89:30-33).
4 “For
thus saith the LORD unto the house of
ye shall live:” The more formal proof that
here begins. In calling her to repentance the prophet
contrasts God’s
requirements with her actual conduct. Seek ye me, and ye shall live. Two
imperatives: “Seek me, and (so) live;” duty and its reward. “Seek me in the
appointed way, and ye shall be saved from destruction” (compare Genesis 42:18).
Seek
the Lord (v. 4)
Man is by nature a seeker. He desires good, of one kind or
another, and
what he desires he makes the object of his quest, more or
less diligent and
persevering. Hence the restlessness, the energy, the
effort, so distinctive of
human life. Religion does not destroy or repress natural characteristics; it
hallows and
dignifies them. Religion gives to human
search a just direction
and noble aim.
·
THE REASONS IN MAN’S NATURE AND CIRCUMSTANCES
WHICH SHOULD LEAD HIM TO SEEK THE LORD.
1. Man is so constituted that he cannot find a full
satisfaction in any earthly
and created good. He returns
from every such endeavor with the
complaint, “All is vanity.” “Our heart,”
said
restless till it rests in thee.”
2. Especially do all human religions prove their
insufficiency.
learning this by bitter experience. “Seek not Bethel,” etc., was the
admonition of the prophet to
those who had been in the habit of resorting
to idol shrines. The gods of the heathen were known to the Jews as
“vanities.”
·
THE REASONS TO BE FOUND IN GOD WHY HE SHOULD
ENGAGE THE SEEKING POWERS OF MAN.
1. His own proper excellence is such that the soul that
gains even a glimpse
of it may well devote to the pursuit of Divine knowledge and
favor all
powers and all
opportunities.
2. GOD ALONE IS ABLE TO SUCCOR AND SAVE those who set their
affection and desire upon Him.
3. God condescends to invite the children of men to seek
Him. By the
mouth of the prophet He gives an
express command and invitation. We may
be assured that this language is
sincere and trustworthy.
4. There is
an express promise of incomparable preciousness addressed to
such as are ready to respond to the heavenly call. “Ye shall live,” is the
authoritative assurance. By this we may understand that seekers after God
shall be
delivered from destruction, that they shall be made partakers of the
Divine life, in
all its spiritual energy and happiness.
·
THE METHODS IN WHICH GOD MAY BE SOUGHT AND FOUND.
1. Observe where He is to be found: i.e.
a.
in His holy Word;
b.
in his blessed Son,
by whom in this Christian dispensation
He has revealed Himself unto
us, and who has said, “No
man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
(John 14:6)
2. Consider how He is to be found: i.e.
a.
by penitence,
b.
in humility,
c.
through faith, with prayer;
in a word, by the exercises
special to the spiritual nature.
3. Notice when He is to be found: i.e. NOW: “Seek ye the Lord while He may
be found, call ye upon Him while He is
near.”
(Isaiah 55:6)
Seeking
the Lord (v. 4)
“For thus saith the Lord unto the
house of
live.” It is
impossible to read this chapter without noticing the tenderness
of the prophet, his compassion and pitifulness,
his yearning wish to help
and save. This feeling is the more remarkable because Amos
belonged to
the tribe of
Isaiah (Isaiah 22:4) says, “Look away from me; I will weep
bitterly,
labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter
of my
people,” etc.
Samuel, too, after Saul the king had proved himself so
headstrong and willful that nothing could save him,
although he went down
to his own house and, in accordance with Divine command,
saw him no
more, nevertheless mourned for Saul to the day of his
death. And, loftiest
of all, Christ Jesus stood on the
which had rejected Him, He wept over it, saying, etc.! It was
in this spirit that Amos wrote the passage before us, and
thrice repeated the
message in our text. Meditation on this subject gives us
some thoughts:
1. On the loss of God.
2. On the search for God.
3. On life in God.
·
THE LOSS OF GOD. The
exhortation to “seek” Him implies that He has
been lost sight of by His creatures.
This is brought about by various
influences.
1. By intellectual temptations. These vary in
different ages. In the time of
Amos the study of God’s works
led to superstition, while in these days it
leads many to skepticism. Then
the stars were believed to affect human
destiny (v. 8); each season had
its own deity; every element obeyed some
unseen being. The polytheist
would have joined heartily with the Jew in
saying, “The fool hath said in his
heart, There is no God.” In our day, on
the contrary, folly is supposed
to lie in the other direction, namely, in the
heart of him who believes in
that which is beyond sensuous perception and
purely intellectual research. Science, which has driven fairies from the
woods, elves from the
mountains, and nymphs from the sea, is now
supposed to be almost
prepared to drive God from his universe.
Articles
in our magazines, addresses in
our halls, speak with such ill-disguised
contempt of religious men that
their language is, “The fool hath
said in his
heart, There is a God.” BUT THE WORLD HAS NEVER WANTED GOD
MORE! Men are not
satisfied with knowing, and some who see no evidence
for a future heaven are bitterly asking — Is life worth
living? Amidst the
miseries of civilized society,
and the wrangling of sects, many a one secretly
says, “My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God!” (Psalm 84:2)
In an age when men believed in
gods who had no personal love or
righteousness, they wanted to
know the heavenly Father; and in this age,
when skepticism has
swept the world bare of some of its old creeds,
we do well to hearken to the
message of God, “Seek ye me, and
ye shall live.”
(v. 4)
2. By prevailing idolatries. Show how places of
sacred memory had
become sources of idolatry and
pollution (v. 5).
a.
and
his would be the Lord’s;
b. Gilgal,
where the people reconsecrated themselves on
entering
c.
and
were all transformed into
idolatrous resorts. From this, point out how easily
creeds, forms of worship, holy
places and relics, nominal profession of
Christianity, etc., may hide God, instead of bearing witness to him. Suggest
also certain modern idolatries.
3. By practical unrighteousness. Amos addressed his
hearers as “Ye who
turn judgement to wormwood [that is, who, instead of rendering justice,
commit bitter wrong], and leav e off righteousness in the earth [or, rather,
‘dethrone it from rule’].” Trace
these sins in some trades and professions,
and in some social customs and
ecclesiastical movements, of our own day.
Yet, in spite of such sins, which
will incur the penalties here foretold,
the
message comes to every sinner
from Him who is not willing that any should
perish, “Seek ye me, and ye shall live.”
·
THE SEARCH FOR GOD.
Let us rightly estimate the privilege offered
to us. God is great beyond our
conceptions. “He maketh the seven stars
and Orion,” etc., yet says, “To that man will I look… who is of a humble
and contrite
heart.” (Isaiah 66:2)
1. There is necessity for seeking Him. He will not force
Himself on our
notice, nor blazen
His name in the sky. Any man, if he chooses, is free to
live as if God were not. It is “he
who seeketh findeth.”
2. There are advantages in seeking him. These are additional to
the
advantages of FINDING
HIM!. The most precious things
(jewels, corn,
knowledge, etc.) are not the most
easily obtained. The self-discipline, the
steadfast effort, the trials of
faith and hope, etc., cultivate character. So, in
seeking God, we find that the
pains and difficulties resulting from doubts,
indolence, sins, etc., are part
of our Heaven-appointed discipline. If God
were visible as the sun is
visible, there would be no moral advantage in
“seeking” Him; but as He is visible only through faith and prayer, we rise
heavenward in our very
seeking after Him.
3. There is a right way of seeking Him. Hence v. 5, “Seek
not
etc. Some hoped to get help in
other directions rather than in the path of
penitential prayer. Multitudes
now, instead of turning to Him who is the
Light of the world, pursue false
lights, which, like the will-o’-the-wisp, will
lead to destruction. Hear the
words of Jesus Christ: “He that hath seen me
hath seen the
Father;” “I and the Father are one.”
·
THE LIFE IN GOD. “And ye shall live.” This does not allude to
national life. That was irrevocably doomed. But in the doomed
nation any
sinner turning to
God would live. Nor is the allusion to
natural life, but to
that spiritual life which is
referred to in the verse, “This is life eternal, that
they might know
thee, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” John 17;3)
This life in its nature and
source is more fully revealed to us than to Amos
himself.
1. The source of this life is found in God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ our
Lord. No man can create
life where it is not, nor restore it where it once
was. Christ, by the raising of the dead,
showed in a visible sphere what He
alone can do in the
invisible. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God
is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
2. The nature
of this life. It is Divine, and constitutes us “partakers of the
Divine nature.”
a. Its germ is faith,
b. its inspiration is love,
c. its breath is prayer,
d. its manifestation the likeness of Christ.
3. The vigor of this life. It will live amid the
influences of an evil
atmosphere, as a healthy man
walks unhurt through a tainted hospital It will
assert itself in streams of
benediction to the world around, and it will finally
prove itself victorious over
death; for the Lord has said, “He that liveth
and
believeth in me
shall never die. Believest
thou this?” (John 11:25)
5 “But
seek not
Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and
no true seeking of God (see note on ch.4:4).
about fifty miles south-southwest of
been lost, and is marked to this day by seven
much-frequented wells. As
being one of the holy places celebrated in the history of
the patriarchs
(Genesis 21:31, 33; 26:23-25; 46:1), it had become a shrine
of
idolatrous worship, to which the Israelites resorted,
though it lay far out of
their territory (compare ch.8:14). Gilgal shall surely go into captivity.
There is in the Hebrew a play on the words here and in the
following clause (Hag-gilgal galoh yigleh), which
commentators have
paralleled with such expressions as,
name, we may say, “Roll-town shall be rolled away.”
nought. As
vanity” (see Hosea 4:15), as being the temple of an idol
(compare
I Corinthians 8:4), so the prophet, with allusion to this,
says that “
shall become aven” — vanity, nothingness, itself. No mention is made of
the fate of
the destiny of places beyond their territory is not here
the object of his
prediction; and indeed, when
6 “Seek
the LORD, and ye shall live; lest He break out like fire in the
house of Joseph, and devour it, and there
be none to quench it in
Break out like fire. God is
called “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24;
Hebrews 12:29; compare Jeremiah 4:4). And devour it; Septuagint, Ὅπως μὴ
ἀναλάμψη ὡς
πῦρ ὁ οϊκος Ἰωσὴφ καὶ καταφάγῃ
αὐτόν, – Hopos
mae
analampsiae hos
pur ho oikos Iosaeph kai kataphagae
auton - “Lest the
house of Joseph blaze as fire, and He devour him;”
Vulgate, Ne forte
comburatur ut ignis domus Joseph, et devorabit. But it is best to take the
last member of the sentence thus: “and it (the fire) devour.”
The house
of
Joseph. Ephraim, i.e.
the
distinguishing tribe. In
has, τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰσραήλ,
– to oiko
The Seeking that is Life
(vs. 4-6)
This passage contains at once a
vindication of the coming destruction on
a last offer of escape. All past evil had been justly incurred by DEPARTURE
FROM GOD. All coming evil might yet be avoided by
RETURN TO HIM.
“Seek ye me” was the direction on their treatment of
which the whole issue
turned.
The
antediluvians were PREACHED TO
FOR A CENTURY after
their
destruction was denounced. So
ordinances of a
Christian Church for forty years after Christ had pronounced
her doom
(Matthew 23:37-39).
Ø God’s
threatenings are in a certain sense conditional on
men’s
conduct.
They are
addressed to men in their character or circumstances
at the
time they
are uttered. If and when the character or circumstances
cease to
exist, the
threatenings cease to apply. It was so in the case of
Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:1,
5), and also of
such cases does
not change, but the circumstances do, and his modes
of treatment
change accordingly.
Ø
They are
designed to turn men, not to plunge them in despair.
All life
is disciplinary. Each event and experience is fitted, and meant to
exercise
a moral influence. Being, moreover, controlled by a holy
God, the
moral influence of each must be in the direction of right, It is
so with
blessings and the promise of them (Romans 2:4; Isaiah 1:19).
It is so
also with judgments and the threat of them (Isaiah 26:9;
Luke
13:3,5). God takes pleasure in the
soul’s turning (Ezekiel 18:23,32),
and all
His dealings with it aim at and tend to this result. Therefore, until
judgment
actually falls, the threat of it is kept as a deterrent before the
sinner’s
eyes.
Ø INDIVIDUALS MAY TURN after national repentance has
become hopeless. Language addressed to a nation is really meant
for the
individuals composing it; and as individuals they would be
influenced
by it. No general forsaking of sin was probable in
STILL,
SOME MIGHT TURN, AS MANY DID IN
and
were saved after the destruction of the city as a whole
was
foretold; and, so
long as this was possible, the means fitted to turn
would not
be withdrawn. God’s expostulations will go forth to glean in
comers
even when the prospects of a harvest are blighted.
LIFE TO FIND. To
of search is
God, not mere good (Psalm 42:2); and GOD FOR HIMSELF,
NOT
FOR HIS GIFTS!
Ø
This seeking implies previous
non-possession. God is neither the
property
of the wicked nor his possession. Sin made separation
between
them, and a severing of all previously existing ties. Man
abandoned
God, and God drove out man. Now he is “without
God,
(having no hope…in the world”), Ephesians 2:12, is
“enmity
against God,” bids God depart from him, says in his
heart, “No
God.” It is only by the
saint, and after seeking, that it
can be
said, “I have found him whom my
soul loveth”
(Song of
Solomon 3:4). “This God is our God
forever and ever.”
(Psalm 48:14).
Grace it is that knits
again the ties broken by sin,
and
restores man and God to a condition of mutual love and
possession
and indwelling.
Ø
It is a quest with the whole heart and
strength. The essence of
seeking
God is to desire Him. And to desire Him really is TO
DESIRE
HIM HEARTILY! Not to desire Him with other things.
Not to
desire Him more than other things. Not to desire Him weakly.
Not even
to desire Him strongly. BUT
TO DESIRE HIM
WHOLELY,
SUPREMELY AND INTENSELY! Seeking God
is heart
seeking, or it is nothing. Heart seeking is truly such when it is
seeking
with the whole heart. Therefore only to
such seeking is there
a promise
of finding “And ye shall seek me, and
find me, when ye
shall
search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13; 24:7).
God cannot
be had till He is adequately wanted, and to be
wanted
adequately is to be wanted supremely.
Ø
It is synonymous with finding. In God’s world everywhere supply
meets and
measures demand. Plant, animal, and man, each FINDS on
earth, in
climate, habitat, covering, and food, EXACTLY THE
THING
IT NEEDS! There
is no want for which there is not
FULL
AND FITTING PROVISION! So in the spiritual
sphere. “Blessed are they that do hunger and
thirst after
righteousness,
for they shall be filled,”
(Matthew 5:6).
Over
against
every need of the soul is a Divine supply. That need becoming
conscious,
means help waiting; that need expressed, means help
already
on the way. Spiritual good is obtained
on the simple condition
of its
being truly desired.
Ø
To find God is to find all good which
inheres in Him. God is
Himself
the greatest Good; He is, moreover, the Sum, and
therefore
the Source, of all good. There is certain good which
He
unconditionally bestows on all, even the ungodly. But it is
good of
the lower kinds, and which ministers to the lower
needs. All
spiritual
good, and all temporal good that has any spiritual aspect,
God
gives only WITH AND IN JESUS CHRIST (Romans 8:32;
Matthew
6:33). The planets attend the sun and follow where he leads.
So
on CHRIST, as GOD’S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT, the other
lesser
gifts wait. We have them when
we grasp Him.
Ø
This good, summed up in one word, IS LIFE!
Life is a general
term for
the highest good (Psalm 30:5; 133:3). It is physical life, the
prevention
or withdrawal of destroying judgments. It is judicial life,
or the
reversal of the death sentence on the soul, and the privilege
for
it of living. It is spiritual life, being quickened once
for all out
of the
death in sin, being made alive and kept alive. It
is
EVERLASTING
LIFE, the out blooming in eternity of the
flower of
soul life planted on earth. (“it
doeth not yet appear
what
we shall be: but we know that, WHEN HE SHALL
APPEAR,
we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as
HE
IS.” (I John 3:2)
TURN. It was under pretence of greater convenience that Jeroboam’s
calves were set
up in Dan and
of
inconvenient of
access. That
that they
preferred idolatrous rites to the worship of God.
Ø
Idols are man’s own invention, and therefore the EGOIST
CHOICE.
There is self-sufficiency verging on self-worship in all sin.
Man puts
his own opinion and will and work above God’s (Thus
the
philosophies of
in
their AFTERMATHS! THOUGH BOMBS, if you
please –
CY – 2013). An idol is his own creation, and for
that reason, if for
no other,
is preferred to God. It is a
subtle form of SELF-
WORSHIP
(such is secular humanism – CY – 2013), and so
inevitably
preferred to any other.
Ø
They are credited with qualities congenial
to his nature. A man
impresses
himself on his work, virtually puts himself into it. It reflects his
genius and
his moral character. The idol a man makes is thus substantially
a
repetition of himself, and therefore congenial to him all round. (“They
have
mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see
not;
They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any
breath
in their mouths. They that make them are
like unto
them: so is every one that trusteth
in them.” – Psalm
135:15-18)
Made by
his hand, it is after his heart, which the God of heaven is very
far from
being.
Ø The fall into idol worship is broken by the retention in it of a
flavoring of the worship of God.
were spots
where the Divine presence had of old been richly manifested,
its rites
mimicked, to some extent, the national worship of God. It was
added on at
first to Divine worship, not substituted for it. Satan lets men
down
into idolatry by easy stages. It begins in the sanctuary. It appears
at first in the
likeness of a better thing. (I wonder how contemporary
worship fits
into this? - CY – 2013). Then, when men have become
sufficiently familiar with it and degraded by it to bear the sight, it
puts on its
natural shape, and is IDOL
WORSHIP PURE AND
SIMPLE!
MEAN DISASTER. By a play upon words, Gilgal,
“the Great Rolling,” is
to be rolled
away; and
“aven,” or vanity.
Ø An idol is a figment, and the worship of it can only result in
deception and loss. It is not a thing, but only the image of a
thing,
It is the
image, moreover, not of a real, but of an imaginary thing.
It is, therefore,
“nothing,”
and “a thing of nought” (I Corinthians
8:4), and
out of nothing, nothing can come. To worship it is delusion,
to trust
it inevitable disappointment.
Ø God’s infinite
power and His wrath are against them that forsake
Him.
The idolater
pits idol impotence against Divine omnipotence,
with the inevitable
result of discomfiture and destruction. There are
idols
of the heart the service of which is no
less ruinous. They
group
themselves under the heading “world,” and the love of them
is
incompatible
with the love of God, and so “Anathema” (I John 2:15;
I
Corinthians 16:22).
7
“Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and
leave off righteousness
in the
earth,” The prophet brings out the contrast between
corruption
and GOD’S OMIPOTENCE! Ye who turn judgment to
wormwood.
As Jerome puts it,” Converterunt dulcedinem judicii in
absinthii amaritudinem,”
“They turned the sweetness of judgment into the
bitterness of absinth” (compare ch. 6:12). Who make judgment the
occasion of the bitterest injustice. There
is no syntactical connection
between this verse and the last, but
virtually we may append it to “seek
the
Lord.” It would sound in people’s ears as a
reminiscence of
Deuteronomy 29:18, 20. The Septuagint
reads, ὁ ποιῶν
εἰς ὕψος
κρίμα -
Ho
poion eis hupsios krima - “that
executeth judgment in the height,”
referring the sentence to the Lord, or
else taking laanah, “wormwood,” in a
metaphorical sense, as elsewhere they
translate it by ἀνάγκη πικρία, ὀδύνη -
- anagkae pikria odunae - (Deuteronomy 29:18; Proverbs 5:4; Jeremiah 9:15;
23:15). The name “wormwood” is applied to all the plants of the genus that
grow in
righteousness
in the earth; rather, cast down righteousness to the earth
(as Isaiah 28:2), despise it and trample it underfoot (compare
Daniel 8:12).
This is
and has power to punish! Righteousness includes all transactions between
man and man. The Septuagint (still referring the subject to the Lord),
καὶ δικαιοσύνην
εἰς γῆν
ἔθηκεν, – dikaiosunaen
eis gaen ethaeken - “and
He
established righteousness on earth.”
8
“Seek Him that maketh the
seven stars and Orion, and turneth the
shadow of
death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with
night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth
them out
upon the
face of the earth: The LORD is His name:” Striking instances are
given of God’s creative power and omnipotence. Seek
Him that maketh
the
seven stars. “Seek
him” is not in the Hebrew. “He that maketh,” etc.,
is in direct antithesis to “ye who turn,” etc. (v. 7). The seven stars;
Hebrew,
kimah, “the heap,” the constellation of the Pleiades (Job 9:9; 38:31). The
Septuagint here has, ὁ ποιῶν πάντα – ho poion panta - the One making everything
but in Job has Πλειάδα – Pleiada - Pleiades. The Vulgate gives, facientem
Arcturum.
Symmachus and Theodotion give Πλειάδα (Pleiades) in
the present passage. The
observation of this most remarkable cluster among the
heavenly bodies would be
natural to the pastoral life of Amos. And Orion; Hebrew, kesil, “foolish,” a rebel, the
name being applied to Nimrod, whose representation was
found by the Easterns in
this constellation. Some render kesil,
“gate;” others connect it with the
sohail, equivalent to
Sirius, or
– kai metaskeuazon - “and changing,” which looks as if the
translator was not
familiar with the Hebrew word, and substituted something in
its place. It reads
Ὠρίωνος - Orionos – Orion – in Job 38:31. Turneth the
shadow of
death
into the morning. “The shadow of death,” the depth of
darkness. This
and the following clause do not simply state
that the regular interchange of day
and night is in God’s hands, but rather
notify that GOD IS THE MORAL
GOVERNOR OF THE WORLD! He saves men from the utmost dangers,
from the darkness of sin and from the
night of ignorance; and, on the other hand,
He sends calamity on those that offend His
Law (compare ch.4:13). Maketh
the
day dark with night; literally, as the Septuagint - ἡμέραν εἰς
νύκτα
συσκοτάζων – haemeran eis nukta suskotazon - “darkeneth
day into night.”
That calleth for the waters of the sea, etc. As judgments are the prophet’s
theme, this expression cannot be an intimation of the working of the natural law
by which the moisture taken up from the sea as cloud returns upon the earth as
rain (compare ch. 9:6). Rather it is an allusion to the Flood and similar
catastrophes, which are proofs of God’s judicial government of the universe,
when “The Lord will take His zeal as His whole armor and will arm all creation
to repel His enemies” (Wisdom of Solomon ch. 5:17). The
Lord is His name.
Jehovah, the self-existent God, doeth all these marvelous
things, and men presume
to skirt His law and think to be unpunished. (ch. 4:13; Deuteronomy 29:19)
The Message
of the Stars (v. 8)
“Seek him that maketh the seven
stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow
of death into the morning, and maketh
the day dark with night: that calleth
for the waters of the sea, and poureth
them out upon the face of the earth:
The Lord is his Name,” This recognition of God amidst the phenomena of
nature is characteristic of Amos. He looked on the Pleiades
and Orion, as
they shone radiantly in the heavens, changeless in their
relations, calm
amidst human vicissitudes, and constant in diffusing their
light upon a
troubled world, and bade men seek Him who created them. He
speaks of
night, that “shadow of death,” and reminds his
hearers that, though it be
long and fearsome, the light of dawn comes at last, and God turns it into
morning; and again, after the work of the day is done, and tired
men want
rest, God draws the curtains, and “makes the day dark with night.”
The last
clause is more obscure. Sometimes the waters have been “poured
out upon
the earth” in
destructive deluge, and this has occurred at the command of
God; but we prefer the application of the prophet’s words
to that
familiar
and constant
display of the Divine power by means of
which the waters are
secretly gathered up into the sky, that they may be poured
out in showers
of blessing upon the earth. Our text is true of nature; but
it is also true of
that of which nature is the symbol and shadow, as we shall
endeavor to
show. It reminds us:
·
THAT GOD OVERRULES THE OUTWARD CONDITIONS OF
HUMAN LIFE. “Seek
Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.”
The
words are literally true. Philosophy
teaches us to find an adequate cause for
all effects, and science
acknowledges that the First Cause eludes
its search,
and is beyond its sphere. Revelation
declares, “God made the sun to rule by
day, and the moon
to rule by night: He made the stars also.” (Genesis 1:16)
More than this primal fact is,
however, asserted here. Amos was speaking to
those who saw in the stars more
than material lights. His hearers believed in
astrology, which has been
prevalent in all ages, from the very dawn of history.
This superstition, which has
left its mark on the earliest records of our race, in
the literature of the Egyptians,
Chaldeans, Hindus, and Chinese, was not
without effect on the people of
Indeed, it only received its
deathblow when the Copernican system was
finally established; for even Kepler would not deny that there was a
connection between the movements
of the stars and the fortunes of men.
Now, two constellations so peculiar
and brilliant as Pleiades and Orion
naturally had special powers
ascribed to them. Thus Rabbi Isaac Israel, in
his remarks on Job 38:31, says,
“Some of the stars have operations in
the ripening of fruits, and such
is the opening of the Pleiades; and some of
the stars retard and delay the
fruits from ripening, and this is the opening of
Orion.” In other words, the
Pleiades were associated with the spring, when
Nature was bursting into new
life, when she was emitting the sweetest
influences from every blade and
flower, when ships which had been shut up
through stress of weather could
put out once more to sea. Hence the
question, “Canst thou bind the sweet
influence of Pleiades?” — Canst thou
prevent the outpouring of vernal
life? Whether you will or not, the change
comes; for it is of God. Similarly, Orion was associated with autumn, when
the earth was throwing off her
beauty, and the voyages of the ancient times
came to an end, and frost bound
the streams as in fetters of iron. “Canst
thou loose the bands
of Orion?” — Canst thou check the
storms, and break
up the reign of frost? Now, says
Amos, look beyond these constellations to
Him who made them; and when you
rejoice in the spring, or dread the
approaching winter, when you are glad over the pleasantness of life, or
faint under its
adversity; — THINK OF HIM who is above and beyond all
material forces and all
visible influences. There is a spring and
autumn
known in human experience which
have their sources beyond ourselves and
beyond all visible agency; and
our hearts rest in the assurance of this.
Compare the lot of two children
in dissimilar circumstances — the one
with every comfort and care, as
if “born under a lucky star,” and sharing
“the sweet influences of
Pleiades;” the other in the drunken home,
with
curses temporal and
moral on every side. These children do
not choose
their lot, they do not appear to
deserve treatment so different; yet their
circumstances are not the result
of chance nor the decree of blind fate, but
are to be ascribed to Him “who
made the seven stars and Orion,” and, as
the Judge of all the earth, He will do right. (Suggest other examples of
seeming unfairness in men’s
circumstances.) This Divine revelation in
Scripture affirms of God that He
appoints the lot of each, and this with a
view to the training of
character, which far outweighs the pleasantness or
the painfulness found in mere
circumstances. Adversity will
by and by
appear to be but
a small thing to him who amidst it proved himself faithful,
and prosperity will seem in the retrospect of little
worth to him who,
through his thanklessness and prayerlessness, has failed
to “lay hold on
eternal life.” Whatever influences
surround us, we are, for our own sakes,
called on to
recognize God as overruling them. If we are prosperous, it is
“the Lord who
gives power to get wealth;” if we are
in adversity, we are
not to blame our luck or our
friends, but to seek the comfort and help of
Him “who maketh
the seven stars and Orion.”
·
THAT GOD OVERRULES THE INWARD EXPERIENCE OF MEN.
“He turneth the shadow of death into the morning,” etc. The Hebrew word
translated “shadow of death” almost always means more than natural night,
however black that may be (see
references in Job and Psalms). Admitting
this figurative use of the word
here, the reference of the prophet would
seem to be to the changes from sorrowfulness
to joyfulness, and from
joyfulness to sorrowfulness, which we frequently experience. These are not
dependent on circumstances. The
wealthiest men have often said of their
surroundings, “I have no
pleasure in them;” while the poor and persecuted
have sometimes made their
miserable abodes resound with praise. We may
illustrate this from the life of
our Lord. At one time “He rejoiced in spirit”
(Luke 10:21) at another time he
was “exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death;”
(Matthew 26:38) yet the Father’s
hand was recognized in both experiences.
God inspires the children’s
songs (Cedarmont Kids - You Tube), and He
gives the cup of agony. What
abundant reason we have to praise God for
certain inward changes — the
carelessness turned into serious and sad
penitence, and this again into the joyfulness of pardon! To many a weeping
penitent, sitting in darkness,
He has come and “turned the shadow of death
into morning.” Others have been in the darkness of doubt. They have cried,
“Why hast thou
forsaken me?” They have felt around
them for some hand
to help in their dire extremity;
At last the sense of Christ’s love has come
home to them, and though their
questions are not all answered, they believe
in Him, and enter into rest, and soon they find that “he that believeth does
not walk in
darkness, but has the light of life.” (v. 15) God turns
for them
the shadow of death into
morning. Soon “the shadow feared of man” will come.
Yet even the darkness of death shall be
transformed into the brightness of
heaven; and in the place where “there is no need of the sun or
moon to shine”
(Revelation 21:23) because God Himself is the Light thereof,
we shall see
how God has forevermore
turned the shadow of death into morning.
·
THAT GOD TRANSFORMS CURSES
INTO BLESSINGS. God
“calls for the
waters of the sea.” They secretly
ascend to heaven, and then
descend in refreshing showers. The
transformation effected in that
phenomenon is noteworthy. If we pour sea water on flowers,
they will die;
but when it is called up into the heavens the pernicious salt is left
behind,
the water is purged from its destructiveness, and the curse is made a
blessing. A
transforming influence passes over all that comes to us, if it is
caught up to heaven. Suppose
prosperity comes to you. It may enervate
and destroy your spiritual life,
but
if praise to God is associated with it, and
habitual prayer that you may use this for God, you may
become by your
very prosperity a more generous, tender-hearted, and
Christ-like man. If
adversity is yours, and you take all
your troubles before the Lord, they will
be transfigured before you in the light of God’s love and Christ’s
sufferings, and through your
and nobler hope. If doubts or
temptations try you, they will not curse, but
bless you, if they arouse the
earnest prayer, “Lord, help me!”
Christ was
never more precious to Thomas
than when, after his doubts, he exclaimed,
“My Lord and my
God!”
(John 20:28) But his doubts would
have ruined
him had they kept him from the
presence of the Lord. Let all your troubles
and joys be wafted, by prayer and praise, into the heaven
of God’s presence,
and they shall
be poured down upon you in showers of spiritual blessings.
·
CONCLUSION. If you would know the comfort of the text, you will only
find it in obedience to its first clause, “Seek Him!” “Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found,” (Isaiah 55:6) “Acquaint
now thyself with Him, and be
at peace, thereby
good shall come unto thee.” (Job 22:21) Then,
under
the quiet light of the stars, or
in the splendors of sunset and dawn, or watching
the fall of the heaven-sent
showers, you
will have thoughts of Him who rules
over all, as of one who through
Jesus Christ is your Father and your Friend.
9 “That strengtheneth the spoiled
against the strong, so that the
spoiled shall
come against the fortress.” That strengtheneth….
Translate, That causeth
destruction to flash forth upon the strong,
So that
destruction cometh upon the fortress. The idea is that God,
as with a lightening flash smites the strongest man, and no fortress is
a refuge from Him. Septuagint Ὁ διαιρῶν
συντριμμὸν
ἐπὶ ἰσχύν
–
Ho diairon suntrimmon epi ischun “Who divideth
destruction unto strength.”
The Vulgate, taking the Hebrew verb balag
in the sense of lighting up the
countenance, renders, Qui subridet
vastitatem super robustum,
which
means that the Lord smiles while He brings desolation on
the mighty —
a figurative expression denoting His anger at man’s pride,
and THE EASE
WITH WHICH HE PUNISHES!
We may add
that Rosenmuller agrees with
the Authorized Version in the first
clause: "Who strengtheneth the weak against
the strong, and giveth
the plunderers power over the fortresses of the strong."
The Lord of the Universe (vs. 7-9)
The herdsman of Tekoah was a true
poet. His eyes were open to the
beauty and to the splendor of nature; and his heart felt
the presence of the
Unseen and
Eternal in all the works of His hands, in all His providential
arrangements. More than this, the moral character and rule of the
Omnipotent were very present and very real to him; he felt the
force of the
appeal made to
the spiritual nature of man, and calling for a life of religious
faith, of
practical obedience. There is nothing
strained or unnatural in the
striking conjunction in this passage of poetic sensibility
with ethical and
religious exhortation.
·
A REPRESENTATION OF DIVINE GREATNESS AND GLORY.
1. Seen in the creation of the starry
host. The Pleiades and Orion are
mentioned as two of the most
noticeable and most splendid of the
constellations of the midnight
sky.
2. In the alternations of day and night, in sunrise and
sunset, in storm and
in eclipse.
3. In the grandeur of the sea, in the torrents of rain, in
the floods which
pour their waters over the
earth; in a word, in all the processes
of nature.
4. In the
providential interpositions and the righteous rule of the Most
High, who does according to His will among the inhabitants of the earth.
·
AN INFERENCE AS TO HUMAN CONDUCT. The poet-prophet is
more than a mirror to reflect
the visible splendor, the awful forces of the
universe. To him nature has a
voice of authority, appealing to
the
understanding
and to the conscience of the sons of men. There is a
summons to the unrighteous and the irreligious to forsake
their ways and
to choose a
better path. This summons will take a
different form according
to the character, the moral
development, of those addressed.
1. There is what may be called the lower view — a God so great will
not
suffer iniquity to triumph, or injustice and disobedience to
go unpunished.
All are in the hands of the
Almighty; and He whose power is so evidently
revealed in the heavens above
and on the earth beneath will not fail to
assert His authority over all
the creatures of His power. Although
wickedness may prosper for a
season, the law of righteousness shall be
maintained and
vindicated.
2. There is a higher view — not inconsistent with the
other, but presenting
itself to natures more morally
cultivated and advanced. Great as God
appears in nature, our conceptions
of His excellence are enhanced when we
reflect upon his glorious attributes and his righteous
reign. The eternal law
of righteousness administered by Omnipotence demands our
lowly
reverence,
deserves our grateful obedience.
The Glory of
Religion (vs. 8-9)
“Seek Him that maketh
the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow
of death into the morning,” etc. The word reveals two things.
·
THE CONNECTION WHICH GOD
HAS WITH HIS UNIVERSE. His
connection is that:
1. Of a Creator. “He maketh the seven stars and Orion.” These
constellations are only given as
specimens of all the things He has created in
different parts of the universe.
“In
the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
2. Of a Governor. “He turneth the shadow
of death into the morning, and
maketh the day dark with night: that calleth
for the waters of the sea, and
poureth them out upon the face of the earth.” The truth taught is this —
that God presides over
the revolution of day and night, and the changes of
the seasons, and the
fortunes of men. All nature is under His control. “He
maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the
unjust.” (Matthew 5:45)
3. Of a Redeemer. “That strengtheneth
the spoiled against the strong, so
that the spoiled
shall come against the fortress.” The reference is
here
undoubtedly to His redemptive work in human history.
·
THE CONNECTION WHICH MAN SHOULD HAVE WITH GOD.
“Seek Him.” A phrase of frequent use in the Bible, denoting the
duty of
man to attain to the knowledge, the friendship, and the
fellowship of the
Eternal. And in this
all true religion consists. The pursuit implies:
1. Faith in God’s personal existence.
A
belief that He is.
2. A consciousness of moral distance from God. We do not
seek what we
possess.
3. A felt necessity of friendly connection with God.
4. An assurance that such a connection can be obtained.
·
CONCLUSION. What a grand thing is religion I It is not a thing of
mere
doctrine, or ritual, or sect, or
party. It is a moral pursuit of “Him that
maketh the seven stars and Orion,” etc.
In vs. 10-12, the prophet gives further instances of the
people’s corruption.
10 “They
hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor
him that
speaketh uprightly.” Him that rebuketh in the gate (Isaiah
29:21). The
gate of Eastern cities was the place of public resort
(Proverbs 1:21), (for an
idea of what they resent see Ibid. vs. 22-33 – CY – 2013) -
either for
business (Deuteronomy 25:7), or the administration of
justice (II Samuel 15:2),
or for gossip. So “he
that rebuketh in the gate” may be a judge, or a
chief,
or a prophet (Jeremiah 17:19; 19:2). It seems better to
take the words thus
than to join “in the gate” to “they hate,” with the meaning
that those who resort
to the gate — kings, chiefs, judges — hate the prophet’s
reproof, for the
following verses show that Amos is referring chiefly to
judicial proceedings,
and not to his own mission. Uprightly; literally,
perfectly; Vulgate, perfecte;
i.e. without reserve,
keeping nothing back.
11 “Forasmuch
therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take
from him burdens of wheat: ye have built
houses of hewn stone, but ye
shall not dwell in them; ye have planted
pleasant vineyards, but ye shall
not drink wine of them.” Therefore. Because ye refuse
reproof, and oppress
the poor. Your treading is upon the poor; ye trample upon. The
Hebrew
word boshes is found
nowhere else, and is variously explained. Septuagint,
κατεκονδύλιζον – katekondulizon - “smote with the
fists;” so the Syriac;
Vulgate, diripiebatis, with
which the Chaldee agrees. Keil,
Schegg, and most
modern commentators explain the word, by a slight
dialectical variation, as
equivalent to conculcare.
Burdens of wheat; rather, tribute,
exactions of
wheat, or presents like enforced “benevolences.” They
exacted such gifts
before they would do justice to the poor. Or it may refer
to interest for
money or victuals lent, which took the form of presents in
order to evade
the Law (Exodus
22:25; Leviticus 25:37; Deuteronomy 23:19).
Septuagint, , δῶρα ἐκλεκτά - dora eklekta – chosen gifts - Vulgate,
praedam electam, the
Hebrew word bar meaning either “wheat” or “elect.”
Hewn stone. Houses thus built were
a mark of luxury and wealth, sun-dried
brick being the usual material employed (compare
Isaiah 9:10; Ezekiel 12:5, 7).
Ye shall not dwell in them. This is the punishment of their evil doings, according
to the threat in Deuteronomy 28:30, 39. The people
shall be banished and the land
desolated (Micah 6:15; Zephaniah 1:13).
12 “For I
know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict
the just, they take a bribe, and they turn
aside the poor in the gate from their
right.” Your
punishment is richly deserved, for “I know how many are
your transgressions and how mighty are your sins,”
especially, as it follows,
your sins of oppression and injustice. They afflict the just. The
construction is continuous: “afflicters of the just.” Hostes justi (Vulgate);
καταπατοῦντες δίκαιον – katapatountes dikaion - “trampling down the just”
(Septuagint). They
take a bribe. The translation of kopher
as “bribe” is
justified, perhaps, by I Samuel 12:3; but the word is
elsewhere used for
“ransom,” redemption money paid to escape the consequences of crime
(Proverbs 6:35), in direct opposition to the Law in Numbers
35:31,
which forbade any ransom to be taken for the life of a
murderer. The
Septuagint has, λαμβάνοντες ἀλλάγματα - lambanontes allagmata –
taking wares - the Vulgate (with
which the Syriac agrees), accipientes
munus.
Turn aside the poor in the gate from their right; or, bow down the needy
in the gate, i.e. in the place of judgment (see note on v. 10). Vulgate,
paupers
deprimentes
in porta;
Septuagint, , πένητας
ἐν πύλαις
ἐκκλίνοντες
–
penaeta en pulais ekklinontes
- “turning aside the
poor in the gates.”
The crime specified is that of wresting judgment in the case of the poor, or
not giving the poor man justice unless he could pay for it (compare Exodus 23:6;
Deuteronomy 16:19).
13 “Therefore
the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.”
Even while he speaks, the prophet feels that his reproof is
useless (compare
Jeremiah 7:27-28; Hosea 4:1, 17). In that time; at such a time as this, the man
who acts wisely holds his peace, because it is a time of
moral corruption and of
personal danger. But the prophet cannot restrain his call
(compare Ezekiel 33:3).
In Micah 2:3 the “evil time” is one of calamity.
The Contrast Presaging the Conflict (vs.
7-13)
Judgment is coming. Warning has been given. Duty, and the prevailing
derelictions of it, have been pointed out. Here God’s
perfections and
Such incompatibility must lead to collision. It is by God’s
character and
ours that our mutual relations and attitudes are shaped. We
see here:
important revelation of Himself.
He has written all over it the glorious
lineaments of His character.
Each part of it reflects some feature, and
in the whole we see His face.
Here He shows Himself:
Ø
In the sphere of creation. “He maketh the seven stars and Orion.”
This is a pregnant thought.
Alcyone, one of the seven stars, or
Pleiades, is the central
orb of the heavens, round which the
others move. It is as it
were the heart of the material universe;
and the Creator of it is by implication the CREATOR OF ALL!
In this fact speak the power and wisdom of the Great Uncaused,
who is the
Cause not only of all effects, but of all
causes as well.
Ø
In the sphere of providence. “And turneth the shadow,” etc.
(vs. 8-9). We have here three classes of operations. The
first was
illustrated in the
miraculous light that shone around Paul at his
conversion (Acts 9:3), is
seen daily in the rise of the morning sun,
and appears in the turning
of the night of adversity into the day
of prosperity. The second
was seen in the three hours’ miraculous
darkness at the Crucifixion
(Luke 23:44), is seen in the gathering
shades of every night, and
in the darkening down into adverse
circumstances of many a
life day. The third was seen in the Deluge,
is seen in every shower of
rain, and will be seen in future widespread
judgments on the
wicked (v. 9,
“Who causeth desolations to flash
on the strong,” God’s
judgments are bold, as singling out the strong
and the fortress; swift, as
coming on them like the lightning’s flash;
sweeping, as involving them
in utter destruction.
Ø
In the sphere of redemption. God scatters spiritual night. He
illuminates the darkness of the soul. He makes men light in
the Lord. He gives them the
inheritance of the saints in light.
He also judicially
blinds, by leaving impenitent souls to
the
natural effects of
wrongdoing; and HE CASTS INTO OUTER
DARKNESS AT
LAST. In all these things we behold power —
power here as goodness,
power there as severity; but power
everywhere as resistless
and Divine.
In many transgressions and great
sins
corruption comes out.
Particulars are:
Ø
As unjust. Injustice is a natural form for the sin, which is at
bottom SELFISHNESS, to take. It was an especially prevalent
form, moreover, among the
Hebrew people. From Jacob down
the sordid race has cheated
the strong and imposed on the weak.
Action is in a sense the
fruit of character, and answers to the tree.
God’s grace is to convert
the thorn into the fir tree, and the briar
into the myrtle tree; but
man’s sin works the converse process,
and changes the sweet “tree
of righteousness” into bitter
wormwood. Casting “righteousness
down to earth” is another
aspect of the same charge. Righteousness
ought to rule. Its proper
place is the
throne of human life. But
cast it down to the earth,
and set injustice, a usurper, in its place.
Ø
As oppressive. (vs. 11-12.) The oppression suffered by
done nothing to produce
detestation of the thing. What other
nations had inflicted on
them in this way, they were only too
ready to inflict, with
interest, on each other as they had opportunity.
Humiliation does not always
prepare for exaltation, nor poverty
for wealth, nor the
endurance of injustice for power. The freed
slave will often make the
very worst master, and the erewhile
victim of wrong the most
outrageous inflictor of it (Proverbs
19:10; 30:22-23).
Ø
As venal. “Who take a bribe.” They
did injustice, not only in their
private, but in their
public, capacity. They not only plundered the
public themselves, but made
a profit by helping others to do the
same. A dishonest man will
make a corrupt magistrate. He will
use for his own
aggrandizement whatever power he gains.
Ø
As impious. (vs.10,12.) As cowardice appeared in oppressing the
poor, so did impiety in
oppressing the righteous. Much of what
the righteous suffer is due
to the hatred of righteousness by the
wicked. They hate the thing
itself, they hate it as a standing
rebuke to their own ways (I
John 3:12), and their antipathy
invariably exhibits itself
as it has occasion.
Given what God is and what
may easily be anticipated.
Ø
God will disappoint their schemes of self-aggrandizement. (v.11.)
Their labor and pains and
sin would prove in the end to have been
thrown away. Their ill-gotten
gains would never be enjoyed. The
vineyards and houses, in
which they had invested them, would,
after having been acquired
at great pains, be lost again before
they had even begun to be
used. Gain gotten by injustice is seldom
abiding, and never
remunerative. The one
condition of getting
satisfaction out
of earthly good is to ACQUIRE IT
ACCORDING TO THE
WILL OF GOD!
Ø
He will leave them unrebuked (v.13). The prophets and the wise
WOULD BE SILENT! This would be a
great calamity. It would
be followed by an
INCREASE OF SIN, involving in turn an
aggravation of punishment.
It would mean abandonment to fate;
for when God ceases
to strive, A MAN ‘S
DOOM IS SEALED.
(Genesis 6:3; John 6:44). It is the Physician discontinuing his
treatment because the hand
of death is on the patient. The SINNER
SINS CONVICTION
AWAY and THEN
CONGRATULATES
HIMSELF ON THE
DISCOVERY OF PEACE. But it is only
God saying, “Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone.”
It is the one spiritual case
that is utterly desperate.
A Time to be
Silent (v. 13)
“Therefore
the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.”
These words describe an evil time, and specify one
of its most evil features.
It is a time of culminating wickedness, of imminent
destruction, and, as
related to both, of DIVINE
NON-INTERVENTION. “There is a time to keep
silence” (Ecclesiastes 3:7) as well as “a time to speak.” And that time,
as pointed out by characteristic features, was at hand in
this case.
which in vain had been
pled with and plagued, would then be SEVERELY
LEFT ALONE. . Her victims would suffer in silence. Her prophets would
cease
to expostulate. God, in judgment, would cease to strive for
her restraint or
turning. In AN AWFUL AND UNNATURAL CALM she
would pass the
moments before there broke on her THE STORM OF
DOOM. And the
dawning of this “dies irae”- DAY OF WRATH - was
almost come. As to the
particular characteristic of this day, note that God’s servants are
silent:
·
WHEN THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE SAID TO THE
PURPOSE. This will often
happen. Seasonable speech is a valuable thing.
But men are not infallible, and
occasions are often puzzling, and the right
thing to say is hard to find.
1. Silence is sometimes the resource of feeling too deep for
words. There
are unspeakable things. “Speech
is but broken light on the depth of the
unspoken.” The finest thoughts,
the deepest feelings, are unuttered often
because they cannot be expressed
in words. As a noted Shakespearian
character says —
“Silence
is the perfectest herald of joy:
I were but
little happy if I could say how much.”
And the sentiment is not
uncommon. “Does the wind write what it sings in
those sounding leaves above our
heads? Does the sea write the moaning of
its surge? Nothing is fine that
is written; the divinest in man’s heart never
issues forth. The instrument is
flesh, the note is fire. What would you have?
Between what one feels and what
one expresses, there is the same space as
between the soul and the
twenty-six letters of the alphabet; that is to say,
the Infinite. Can you on a
rosewood flute give forth the harmony of the
spheres?” (Raffaelle).
2. Silence is often more impressive than any speech.
“The
silence of pure innocence
Persuades,
when speaking fails.”
So also do the silence of deep
feeling and of strong passion, uttering
“speech in their dumbness,
language in their very gesture.” Christ but
looked on the recreant Peter
after his miserable desertion and denial. Yet
that silent look, as the denied
One passed him in the hall, was eloquent of
wounded love, and cut the denier
more keenly than any words. No word
was uttered on the cross where
the dying thief was brought to faith. The
God-like fortitude, the ineffable
meekness of the Saviour, suffering silently
the devilish malice of sin, — it
was that broke His heart and won His free
allegiance. In this dumbness was
speech to the power of which articulate
speech admits of no comparison.
The gift of being “eloquently silent”
is
one that is not unworthy of more
general cultivation. To
silence of the
prophets, after centuries of expostulation, would tell its own
startling tale. It would indicate discouragement and disgust, and
duplicate
to their minds the “let
him alone” (Hosea 4:17) of Divine desertion at a
similar crisis. And this unequivocal proof that
they are given up might bring
the tardy repentance which all else had failed to stir. When communications
are broken off, the dream of a lasting peace is over. (Consider this in
reference to God and modern man who is in a state of denial! CY - 2022)
The patient will believe that
death is at hand when the physician turns away
and refuses to prescribe. JESUS CHRIST is
the GREAT PHYSICIAN.
3. Silence is
always better than haphazard speech. When a man knows not
what to say he should guard against saying he knows not what. “Silence,
when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion.” Peter would
have escaped some blunders and rebukes
if he had followed this rule. But it
was when “he wist
not what to say” (Mark 9:6) that he was given to
saying most. Such speech is more
likely to be inappropriate than silence,
and being inappropriate there
are many more ways in which it can work
evil. Hence the
numerous Scripture references to the tongue, the power of
it, the difficulty of governing it, and the danger of it
if unruly. Indeed, so
liable are men to err and so
specially liable to err in speech as compared
with overt act, that the proper
government of the tongue is made the
highest religious act
(James 3:2).
1. Sometimes men will refuse to
listen. The Jews did in the beginning of the
gospel. Faithfully and firmly
Stephen pressed the truth home; but they
“stopped their
ears, and ran upon him” (Acts 7:57).
Here was a case for
silence. Speech, had it been
possible, would have been unheeded. Those
men, with murder in their
hearts, and their fingers in their ears, would listen
to no words. With
were stopped,
and their hearts within them were set to do iniquity.
(Has
PREACH TO
ME”. For such a state of matters the appropriate measure
is the silence which the prophet
predicts. When men will not hear,
bawling
into an ear that is deaf or
stopped is effort thrown away, and unworthy
of common sense (Matthew 10:14;
Mark 6:11There are many such cases.
2. Sometimes evil
has gone so far that words can be of no avail. God’s
Spirit will not always strive.
(Genesis 6) With the antediluvians by Noah’s
preaching he strove above a
century, but when iniquity reached
a certain stage
he ceased, and his ultima ratio (the
final argument) was the Deluge. He strove
with Saul for years, but when insensibility and hardness became confirmed,
communications were
broken off; and whether by dreams, or
by Urim,
or by prophets, God spoke no more (1 Samuel 28:6). He strove with
during the ministry of our Lord, but they would not
listen to His word,
and at last He was silent, sad the doomed people
were left to die
(Luke 19:42). God ceases to speak when
He is ready to strike. Expostulation
would be an anachronism (out of place) when execution is imminent. The
point
at which He will give up the
persistent wrong doer and withdraw all
deterrent measures NONE CAN FIX! But
there is such a point, and, to each
of the ungodly, the danger of passing it (Proverbs 1:26; 29:1). Every hour we
continue in rebellion
is cutting down our chance of being longer striven
with. Those who speak for God to
men are sometimes conscious that the time
to be silent has come. The sinner seems to have reached A FINAL
FIXITY.
In the nature of things he cannot be expected now to change. Paul at a certain
stage concluded the Jew to be incorrigible, and turned deliberately to the
Gentile (Acts 13:46; 28:28). And like Paul, when it becomes clear that
further
dealing with men must be barren of result, the servant of Christ will
transfer
his strength from the hopeless to some hopeful form of effort.
·
WHEN IT IS JUST AS LIKELY TO DO HARM AS GOOD. This is
no remote contingency. Such
times are cropping up continually. Under
certain circumstances speech:
1. May do harm to
men. The truth of God and the sinful
heart are
uncongenial. Men love the
darkness and hate the light. The truth forbidding
all lust is actually through the
corruption of our nature the occasion of
stirring it up (Romans 7:7-9).
This, of course, is no reason for
withholding it or suppressing
our testimony to it. But there are
circumstances and moods in which
this tendency attains its maximum of
strength, and it will then be prudent
to keep silence “even from good.” It is
as “fishers of men” that we
speak the truth, and we must justify our claim
to the title by presenting the truth in the time and way in which it is
most
likely to tell. If we “testify” at random, and uniformly, in all companies
and
on all occasions, we shall
oftener harm than help the people whom we wish
to serve.
2. It may do harm to
the truth. There is such a thing as “casting
pearls
before swine” (Matthew 7:6) to no better purpose than the prostitution
of sacred things The difference
between truth profaned and necessarily
inoperative, and the same truth
listened to and the power of God, is often
the difference between the
untimely presentation of it and the timely. To
force it on men when they are
out of humor and will not give it a fair
hearing is only to bring it into
contempt — to lessen its dignity in the eyes
of others, and diminish its
chance of winning their acceptance. The truth is
meant to sanctify and save, and we must be careful to do nothing that
would place it at a disadvantage
in the work.
3. It may do harm to ourselves without any
compensating advantage. “He
that reproveth a scorner getteth
himself shame” (Proverbs 9:7) - the
shame of
aggravating the case and bringing
needless evil on himself. No Scottish
Covenanter was called on to
enter the camp and preach the gospel of good
will and peace to the
bloodthirsty troopers of Claverhouse or Dalziel. The
thing would have been good in
itself, and was deeply needed, but to
attempt it meant not merely
failure, but death. If there was no one else to
do it, this work must be left
undone. There is room for judgment and
discretion in timing and
planning the work of winning souls. The most
acceptable service and the most useful
we can give to God is our
“reasonable
service.” (Romans 12:1)
We are not to “count our lives dear
to us” in comparison with His work; but it must appear that the
work demands
the sacrifice, and will benefit
by it, before we are at liberty to give up the life
which we hold in trust for God.
Pearls are to be withheld from swine for
this among other reasons, “lest
they turn again and rend you.” The
characters of the “time
to keep silence” deserve attention no less than those
of the “time to speak,” (Ecclesiastes
3:7) and he has mastered both who
rightly divides the Word of
life.
a.
Silence is sometimes a Divine form of appeal.
b.
In that case it is probably the last appeal.
c.
Disregarded, it is the lull before the storm.
14 “Seek
good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the
God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have
spoken.”He repeats his loving
summons to repentance, as in vs. 4, 6, showing that their only hope of safety
lay in AMENDMENT OF LIFE
(compare Zephaniah 2:3). Seek good,
and
not evil. Use that
diligence and zeal in pursuing what is good which you have
hitherto shown in the pursuit of evil. The
Lord, the God of hosts, shall be
with you, as ye have spoken; or, as ye say. The
Israelites fancied that, owing
to their covenant relation to
God, He would be always with them and ready
to help them under any
circumstances. Their prosperity under Jeroboam II,
as Calmet
remarks seemed an argument in their favor, proving that God
blessed them, and that they had no
cause for fear (compare Jeremiah 7:4-7;
Micah 3:11; Matthew 3:9; John
8:39). But really God’s help and favor
were conditioned by their obedience.
Religion
(v. 14)
“Seek good, and
not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of
hosts, shall be
with you, as ye have spoken.” From these
words two things
may be inferred concerning religion.
·
IT IMPLIES A SPECIFIC PURSUIT. “Seek good, and not evil.” Good
and evil are both in the world;
they work in all human souls; they explain
all history.
1. They imply a standard of right. By what do we
determine the good and
evil in human life? The revealed
will of God. What
accords with that will is
good, what disagrees with
it is evil.
2. Their object is
a human pursuit. There are those who pursue evil; they
follow it for:
a.
worldly wealth,
b.
animal pleasure,
c.
secular
aggrandizement.
There are those who pursue good;
and their grand question is, “Lord, what
wilt thou have me
to do?”
3. The pursuit of good is the specific effort of religion. Good in thought,
spirit, aim, habit, as embodied
in the life of Christ. To get good requires
strenuous, persistent, devout,
prayerful effort. (Diligence: exercise thyself -
CY - 2022)
·
IT INVOLVES THE HIGHEST BENEDICTION.
1. The enjoyment of true life.
“That
ye may live.” Without goodness you
cannot really live: goodness is
life. Everlasting goodness is everlasting life.
“This is life
eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou has
sent.” (John 17:3).
2. The enjoyment of the Divine friendship. “So the Lord, the
God of hosts,
shall be with
you.” What a benediction is this! “The Lord God of hosts,”
the Almighty Creator,
Proprietor, and Governor of the universe to be with
us, to guide, guard, beautify existence! “I will walk among you,” says He;
“I will be
your God, and ye shall be my people.” (Leviticus 26:12)
15 “Hate
the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the
gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will
be gracious unto
the remnant of Joseph.” Reverse your
former conduct, undo what ye have
done (v. 10). This verse emphasizes the preceding; hating and loving
are more real
and hearty than mere seeking. The Septuagint makes this
clause to be what the
people said, Ον τρόπον εἴπατε, μεμισήκαμεν
τὰ πονρὰ
καὶ ἠγαπήσαμεν
τὰ καλά
-
On propon eipate, memisaekamen ta ponaera, kai aegapaesamen
ta kala -
As ye said, We
have hated evil, and loved good.” Establish judgment. Maintain
justice in your tribunals (in contrast to v. 7); then it
may be that the Lord will
have mercy on you or some of you. The
remnant of Joseph; implying that
only a few of them will be saved after
this heavy chastisement, which points
to the final ruin of their city and nation. The prophet speaks of the “remnant
of Joseph” instead of Ephraim, to
remind them of their forefather, who
received the patriarchal blessing of Jacob, for whose sake this remnant
should be spared (compare Isaiah 6:13;
10:21-23; Joel 2:32; Romans 11:4-5).
The Nation with which God will Dwell (vs.
14-15)
The opening words of this presage imply a history.
but they sought it out and the occasions of it” (Pusey). They gave evil their
special
attention, never failing to do it when they had opportunity, and
seeking
opportunities when none presented themselves. (Contrast this
with the days before the Flood when God said that “....the
wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually.” -
Genesis 6:5) In fact, they did it
with an amount of method and pains which they are now
called upon to
direct into a new channel, and apply to the doing of good.
EXPRESSION OF HIS FAVOR. It was the original, and remains the
normal condition of human
life. Accordingly, Adam left God’s
presence and hid even before he
was driven out of the garden. In losing
the DIVINE LIKENESS he had lost all relish or fitness for the
DIVINE
PRESENCE. The one could be recovered only with the other.
Born from above, and made
partakers of the Divine nature, we are in
affinity with
God, and COME WITH RELISH INTO HIS PRESENCE!
1. It is the restoration of acceptance. Separation from God is penal. God
“drove out the
man” and we remain “afar
off” because of sin committed.
He will dwell with us again only
when our sin is put away. The king will
not consort with rebels as such.
He will meet them only as subjects and
friends. The condition of access
to His presence is the equitable recovery of
His forfeited favor. In the
promise to dwell with
promise to restore them to His
favor.
2. In reunion with God these two occasions of unhappiness are removed.
By regeneration the old nature
is crucified, and the new one is set by faith in
UNION WITH GOD, where it has SPIRITUAL COMPLETENESS
and so its ideal of a
happy state. Hence the Christian’s
aspiration is summed
up in one idea to “be with Christ, which is far better.” (Philippians 1:23)
3. It
is the restoration of happiness. “Thou
will shew me
the path of
life: in thy presence is fullness of
joy; at thy right hand
there are PLEASURES FOR EVERMORE.” (Psalm 16:11) Sin
means loss on the one
side and infliction on the other. Its guilt
separates from God, with the result
that OUR BEING IS
INCOMPLETE! Sins corruption introduces:
Ø
disorder among our
own powers, and
Ø
disease in each, and so
Ø
unrest and misery
become INEVITABLE (Isaiah 48:22;
57:20).
·
THEM WHICH WAS NOT NOW IN
FACT ENJOYED. (Exodus
29:45-46.) It is implied in
God’s offer to be with them under certain
circumstances, that He was not
with them then.
1. He was not with them in worship. God’s
presence at the Jewish national
worship was pledged (Exodus 20:24). But the worship must be His
worship, conducted
according to His appointment. This it now was
not.
Where not positively idolatrous
or profane, the worship of
utterly formal and hollow. In
such worship the Divine presence is not
desired and is not enjoyed
(Isaiah 1:13-15). The worship must be real,
the heart contrite, in which God
promises to be present.
God’s promised presence by
failing to claim it on the appointed terms.
2. He was not with them in war. For
centuries He had been (Judges
6:16), and victory attended
their armies (Joshua 24:12, 18; 1 Chronicles
17:21). Nothing could withstand
them. The nations of
in whose sight they had felt as
grasshoppers, were subdued before them.
And God
had explicitly connected their victories with His presence and help
(Exodus 17:11, 14; Psalm
44:1-3). But there came a time of which
the psalmist had to say, “Thou
hast cast off and put us to shame, and goest
not forth with our
armies” (ibid. ch. 44:9). The conditions on which the
Divine promise of
help in the field was suspended were violated or ignored,
and God left them to fight with the arm they
preferred to His.
3. He was not with them in their daily walk. They did not seek
Him nor
want Him, nor were they fit to be near Him. The graces to which
His
presence is congruous, the means
by which His presence is secured, were all
absent, and so they were a nation given up of God and forsaken (Isaiah
2:6; Jeremiah 7:29). He no longer dwelt
with them, nor met them, nor
directed them, nor spoke to them. He became, as He does to all under like
conditions, “a God afar off, and not a God
near at hand;” and the
journey
of their national existence, begun in such goodly company, was left to be
finished alone.
·
TO MAKE THE THEORY OF GOD’S PRESENCE FACT, THE
THEORY OF
withdrawal was the natural reply
to
relations would synchronize with their return to righteousness.
1. Evil must be
rejected. This duty is laid down in three degrees. It is not to
be sought, nor done, nor loved.
It had been all three. It could cease to be
the one only by ceasing to be
the others also. The seeking implies that the
love and the doing have gone
before. The love guarantees that the doing
and seeking shall follow in due
course. The way to break off’ from evil
is
to be utterly separate.
The least link of connection will develop into a
mighty chain.
2. Good must be chosen. This is dutiful. Duty has a positive side still more
important than its negative one.
Mere avoidance of what is wrong would
be a colorless thing. God’s Law
is not merely a system of restrictions, but
a system of commands. There must be actual doing of what is right, with a
knowledge that it is right, and because it is right. And this is no more
dutiful than natural The
qualities that turn away from evil turn instinctively
to good. Indeed, the two things
are so antagonistic that the love of the one
and the hatred of the other are
only different aspects of the same feeling.
And in this choosing of God,
again, there are three phases or degrees
answering to those in the
avoidance of sin.
a.
It is to be loved,
as the fairest and most amiable thing on earth.
b.
It is to be done,
as the only thing that is fitting and right.
c.
It is to be
sought, as a thing important and desirable in the
highest possible degree.
3. Justice must be done. “Established in
the gate.” Unjust judgment was a
prevalent and crying evil. The
Jewish character was prone to it, and the
experience of it at the hands of
strangers only strengthened the tendency.
Perversion of
justice is one of the most constant elements in natural
corruption
everywhere. A corrupt man makes a dishonest trader, an unjust
judge, and an oppressive master.
Fair and upright dealing between man and
man has no natural basis, unless in the fear of God. The fear of God, on the
other hand, will naturally
coordinate itself with regard for man. The man
who “does justly and loves mercy”
is one who “walks humbly with God.”
(Micah 6:8)
·
WHAT GOD DOES FOR
BEING “THE REMNANT OF JOSEPH.” This form of expression is
significant.
1. The remnant.
This implies weeding out by previous judgment.
sinned long, and in punishment
had been almost decimated. This was
necessary as a matter of
justice. Until it had been done they could not be
saved. Sinners, individually and
collectively, must receive for the wrong
they have done. God’s original promises were made to
and not to individuals, and the
nation in His eye was the remnant left after
His judgments had run their
course. To this remnant hope of deliverance is
here held out as a Brand plucked
from the fire; a thing on which, justice
having been vindicated,
mercy may now, and not till now, be
shown.
2. The remnant of
Joseph. This means
Joseph was
brethren,” and the recipient of the promise (Genesis 48:4) given to
Abraham (ibid. 17:8) and repeated to Isaac and Jacob. Accordingly,
the “remnant of Joseph” is
equivalent to the “remnant
according to the
election of
grace” (Romans 11:5). God never
forgets His covenant,
never fails to give its promised blessings, never gives
them to the covenant
people, but as covenanted mercies. On the broad ground of creature-hood
his general mercies are
distributed, but special mercies
are on the narrower
basis of a
spiritual relation. All wherein we are
made to differ from others is
the gift of a God in covenant,
and the
story of providence is at bottom the
story of grace
(Romans 8:32, 28).
The Great
Alternative (vs. 14-15)
The coincidence between religion and morality is brought
very strikingly
before us in such passages as these. How different are such
appeals as
these, made by the prophet in the name of the Lord, from
the requirements
of merely formal religion! The highest conception of good is revealed,
the
noblest
standard of right is exhibited; and all the sanctions furnished by the
authority and
the loving kindness of the Eternal are brought to bear upon
human nature to
induce to consecration and obedience.
·
MAN’S NATURE AND POSITION RENDER NECESSARY A
MORAL CHOICE.
1. Man’s emotional nature impels him to adopt an object of
supreme love.
Human affection may be diffused
or it may be concentrated, it may be
feeble or it may be intense. But
in any case it exists and acts as a principle
of the moral life.
2. Man’s voluntary and practical nature requires an object
of supreme
quest and endeavor. We seek what
we love, we avoid what we hate.
·
THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE WHICH PRESENTS ITSELF TO
MAN IS THE CHOICE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. This is a real
and not a fictitious or
conventional distinction. It would be as reasonable to
deny the distinction between
straight and crooked, between light and
darkness, as that between moral
good and moral evil. The distinction is
vital and eternal, connected
with the “nature of things,” with the attributes
and character of God, with the
constitution of man. The choice between
pleasure and pain, between
worldly prosperity and adversity, is as nothing
compared with this choice. The appeals of
revelation, from the beginning
to the end of the Bible, urge men to choose the good in
preference to the
evil. There are doubtless inducements to another choice;
but this remains
the choice enforced by reason, by conscience, by God.
·
HOWEVER IT MAY BE REPRESENTED OTHERWISE, THE
FACT IS THAT THE PRACTICAL PREFERENCE OF GOOD
CONDUCES TO MAN’S WELFARE. The inducements offered to adopt
a life of selfishness and of pleasure are many and
powerful; there
are
“pleasures of
sin for a season.” The way of virtue
and religion is a steep
and rugged path. Yet it yields a
deep and pure satisfaction not to be found
in the ways, the broad and primrose paths, of sin. We are not called upon
to balance pleasures. The voice of
right, of God, is authoritative, and
demands obedience without
hesitation or calculation. Yet God promises
such as listen to and obey His
voice that
He will “be with” them, that He will
be “gracious unto” them, and that they shall “live.”
In verses 16-17, the retribution for their incorrigible
iniquity is
announced. For “they that would not be reformed by that
correction,
wherein he dallied with them, shall feel a judgment worthy
of God” (Wisdom
of Solomon - 12:26).
16 “Therefore
the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, saith thus;
Wailing shall be in all streets; and they
shall say in all the
highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call
the husbandman to
mourning, and such as are skilful of
lamentation to wailing.”
Therefore. The prophet returns to what was said in v.13
about the uselessness of reproof; vs.14 and 15 being a kind
of
parenthetical exhortation which his love for his nation
forced from him.
“Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord,” Adonai, saith what follows, these
solemn titles being used to add solemnity, certainty, and
weight to the
announcement. Wailing; misped,
“the death wail.” Streets; broad places;
πλατείαις – plateiais - (Septuagint);
plateis - (Vulgate). Highways; the
narrower streets;
ὁδοῖς – hodois - (Septuagint); in cunctis quae foris sunt
(Vulgate). Everywhere in town
and country shall the wail be heard. Alas! alas!
ho! ho! This is
THE
DEATH WAIL - (compare Jeremiah
22:18), which
should sound abroad when
the husbandman to
mourning. The husbandman shall be called from his
labor in the fields to mourn for a calamity in his house. Pusey thinks the
mourning is for his occupation gone, his tillage now only
furnishing food
for the enemy; but the
context involves the notion of death. And such as
are skilful of
lamentation to wailing; literally, proclaim wailing to such,
etc. These are the hired mourners, both male and female,
who sang
mournful songs at deaths (compare II Chronicles 35:25;
Jeremiah 9:17;
Matthew 9:23).
17 “And in
all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee,
saith the LORD.”
Vineyards. The
place of mirth and gladness (Isaiah 16:10).
I will pass
through thee. A terrible echo of the last plague of Egypt
(Exodus 12:12), when God will not
“pass over” thee but treat thee as
and “pass through” to smite and punish (Nahum 1:12; compare Ezekiel
9:4-7).
The Track of the Destroyer (vs. 16-17)
Each name of God is a guarantor of His action. It expresses
a character, or
relation, or operation, in which He thereby reveals
Himself. The
multiplication of His names and titles here is a cumulative
argument for the
sureness of the matter revealed. He who is GOD OF
HOSTS or the
OMNIPOTENT ONE, or LORD or the ABSOLUTE ONE, and
JEHOVAH or the
SELF-EXISTENT ONE, is the BEING with
whom to decide is to act, and to will is to accomplish. Of
the deliverance so emphasized observe:
APOSTATE WILL BE VAIN. The possibility of a happy end, by the
grace of God, to
verse. Yet here the falling of the judgments
denounced is assumed to
be INEVITABLE. Paul declares that it is impossible to restore to
repentance
those who might fall
away from a high degree of spiritual attainment (Hebrews
6:4-6). The apostate is a
hopeless case:
Ø
Because he loves sin more than other men. They love it knowing
nothing better, but he does
so with experimental knowledge of the way of
peace. He loves it under a
less impulse than they, and in the face of
stronger deterrents than
they, and must therefore love it more than they.
The fuel that kindles with
the least fire, and burns in spite of most water,
is clearly the most
inflammable.
Ø
Because he is harder than other men. The strain is
proportioned to
the wrench. All sin
hardens, and hardens in proportion as we are active
and resolute in it. Sinning
against more light, and more deterrent influence
than others, the apostate’s
sin involves a more decided act of will, and
so a more violently
hardening effect. The more firmly the branding-iron is
applied, the
more deeply it scars. The more violently the moral sense is
sinned against, the more
the organ is indurated and injured.
Ø
Because his day of grace will be shorter than that of other
men.
The only chance of men’s turning at all is GOD’S STRIVING
WITH THEM! This He does with all men during a longer or
shorter
period. In the case of the
ante-diluvians the striving was for a hundred
and twenty years (Genesis
6:3). In the case of
years (Matthew 23:39). In
the case of Saul, King of Israel, it was till
within about seven years of
his death (I Samuel 18:12). In the case of
many it is during the entire life
(Matthew 20:6-9). Thus each man has
his day of grace, during
which God strives with him to bring him to
repentance. In the nature
of the case the day of grace for the apostate
must be far advanced. He
has been more and longer striven with than
other men, and so is
presumably nearer the limit beyond which the
process does not go.
I will pass through
the midst of thee;” i.e. as
elsewhere (Exodus 12:12)
in judgment. The language is a
threat. God, so far from dwelling with them,
as under other circumstances He
was ready to do (v. 14), would pass
through them in wrath and
destroying power. Underlying the announcement
of this alternative is the fact:
Ø
That compromise is impossible with God. HE WILL SAVE or
HE WILL
DESTROY. There is no half-way
house between the
good of His promise and the
evil of His threat. He can yield nothing
and abate nothing of
either. He will come as a Friend to abide and bless
unspeakably, or He will
pass through as an invading Foe, making
desolation in His track.
Ø
That the incentive to repentance must be double-edged. There are
people who must be led, and
others who must be driven. “The mercies
of God” (Lamentations
3:22-23; Romans 1:12) are the strongest motive
power with some minds,
whilst “the terrors of the Lord” (II
Corinthians
5:11) are most potent with
others. The Divine machinery of impulsion, to
be perfect in itself and
for its purpose, must include both. Hence men are
plied with each in turn and
often with both together (John 3:36) in
connection with the
salvation which they ultimately embrace.
case would not be
abandoned as hopeless until both MENACE
and PROMISE had made their
contribution to the work of its
persuasion.
The connection between man and
the creation is very close. The judgment
on
Ø
In the fields.
They would not be fertile as heretofore.
Their crops
would fail to grow, or be blighted
before they could be gathered
(ch.4:7). Enemies would devastate the country and
destroy the fruit
of the ground. Rapacious officials would confiscate the
earnings of
honest industry. In each
calamity, much more in all together, was
enough to quench
the joy of harvest, and cause the
husbandman to mourn.
Ø
In the vineyards. The whole food of the
people, the corn, the wine
together, would be swept
away. The grape gathering was a proverbial
occasion of joy (Isaiah
16:10). But with no vintage to gather, or no
chance to gather it for the
lawful owner, the “vintage shouting”
would cease, and for the usual
singing in the vineyards would
be
substituted A UNIVERSAL WAIL!
Ø
In the streets. “God made the country, and man made the town.”
And the human depends ON THE
DIVINE! Trade and commerce
draw from agriculture their
chief materials, and so when it fails they fail
with it. When the
husbandman has cause to weep there can be no dry
eye in the community. The
wail that begins in the fields, and
spreads
through the
vineyards, will rise
to A MIGHTY ROAR WHEN
IT REACHES THE
STREETS, where THE SUFFERERS
HERD AND LAMENT TOGETHER. (There will be no
Demonstrations
in hell along the lines of:
OCCUPY HELL –
CY – 2013)
Ø
This is universal.
In all “streets and vineyards”; etc. The judgment
affecting all classes in
the community, all should MOURN!
Ø
It is in concert.
Men would call their fellows to
lamentation. Not as
individuals merely, but as
a community, they sinned and suffer, and so
as a community they should wail. (Transpose this into any
American community – CY – 2013)
Ø
It is worked up.
“And
lamentation to those skilled in lamenting.”
The mourning would not be
left to take any form that happened. It
would be appointed and
organized, and then observed according to
program. ALL this implies an intelligent and vivid idea of
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE OCCASION! God’s judgments,
however long despised, will make themselves to
be understood and
respected at last. In hell
there is no UNAPPRECIATION or
MISAPPLICATION of the nature and strength of DIVINE
RETRIBUTION; and on
earth appreciation and application
comes INFALLABLY
with EXPERIENCE!
In the last ten verses, vs. 18-27, the prophet enforces the
threat by denouncing
woe on those that trust to their covenant relation to God,
expecting the day
when He would punish the heathen for their sakes, and
thinking that their
external, heartless worship was acceptable to Him.
18 “Woe
unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it
for you? the day of the LORD is darkness,
and not light.” The day of the
Lord. Any crisis in the
nation’s history is so called WHEN GOD INTERPOSES
TO PUNISH and CORRECT. To our minds it looks forward to THE
FINAL
JUDGMENT! It is often
mentioned by the prophets (e.g. Isaiah 2:12; “and He
shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it” 13:6, 9; Joel 2:1, “The
Lord…..
executeth His word” – v.11;
3:16; Zephaniah 1:7,14) as a time when
the heathen should be judged, all the enemies of
and when
and dominion. Without any regard to the moral condition affixed
to the
realization of these expectations (see Joel 2:32), the people “desired”
the appearance of this day, thus foolishly confirming themselves
in their sinful life and false security. Some think scoffers are
intended,
but the context shows that the persons signified are sincere but
mistaken believers in the safety of
is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness; Why would ye have the day
of the Lord? IT IS
DARKNESS! Why do
ye, such as ye are, want this day
to come? Ye know not what
ye ask. It will be the very contrary to your
expectations; it will be darkness,
and not light, tribulation and misery, not
joy and triumph for you
(compare Micah 7:8).
19 “As if
a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into
the house, and leaned his hand on the wall,
and a serpent bit him.”
Amos explains the dangers of this judgment day by
illustrations
drawn from pastoral life, equivalent to the rushing from Charybdis into
Scylla. Every place is full of danger — the open country,
the shelter of the
house.
Selfishness
in Terror (v. 19)
“As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or
went into the
house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit
him.” The
Israelites rested their hope of deliverance from every kind
of foreign
danger upon their outward connection with the covenant made
with their
forefathers; hence many put their trust in the days spoken
of in the context,
when Jehovah would judge all the heathen, expecting that He
would then in
all probability raise
delusion, the delusion of selfishness; for when Jehovah would appear to
punish the nations, Amos says they would be so panic-struck
as to be
confounded in their efforts to escape. Running from the
lion, they would
fall into the jaws of the bear; or fleeing into a house,
they would be met by
a serpent that would bite them. The passage illustrates selfishness
in terror.
Its characteristic is that in seeking protection from one
danger it rushes
into another. This is often seen:
·
IN COMMERCIAL LIFE. A
selfish man in trade often finds himself
running down the hill of
insolvency, and ruthless bankruptcy appears
before him as a lion ready to
destroy him. What does he do? Where does
he seek protection? Perhaps in
escape. But he is apprehended, and he
finds he has fled from “a
lion” to “a hear,” enters the house where the
“serpent” of enraged justice fastens on him. Or perhaps he resorts
to
forgery. Here he is detected,
and the same result is experienced. He has
fled from the lion only to rush
into the jaws of the bear.
·
IN SOCIAL LIFE. In few
social circles are men not to be found who in
some way or other commit a wrong
against their members. Indeed, in
family life it is so. Children do
some injury to their parents, and parents to
their children, husbands to
their wives, and wives to their husbands. After
the commission of the deed,
selfish terror is awakened, and they fabricate
falsehoods in order to escape
the danger. The falsehood is detected, and
then it is felt that the man has
only fled from the lion to the bear. He has
run for protection where he has
found the “serpent.”
·
IN RELIGIOUS LIFE.
Men get convinced of sin, their consciences
are roused, and hell appears
before them as a ravenous lion, which they
endeavor to escape; and they fly
for protection to what? To selfish
prayers, selfish sacrifices,
selfish performances; but to attempt to escape
from hell by selfish
efforts is only running from the lion to the bear. “He
that saveth his life shall lose it.” (Matthew
16:25)
·
CONCLUSION. This subject is capable of endless illustrations. It is
an
eternal truth that he who seeks
protection from selfish fear only rushes
from one danger into another.
There is no protection for a soul but in self-
renunciation, in the entire consecration of self to the worship and
service of
the great God.
20 “Shall
not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even
very dark, and no brightness in it?” The character of the
day of the Lord
is enforced with reiterated earnestness (v. 18) by an appeal to the
conscience
of the hearers. Do you not feel in your inmost hearts that in the case of
such
guilt as yours the Lord can visit but to punish?
The Day of the Lord (v. 18)
This is a common expression in the prophets, and its
meaning is well defined. It is
applied:
Jeremiah 46:10; Obadiah
1:15.) There are periods which God signalizes
by special doings. Long
quiescent, He becomes conspicuously active.
He intervenes in human
affairs with unusual emphasis:
Ø
Judgments often menaced
are sent.
Ø
Sinners long borne with
are punished.
Ø
The godly, for a
time imposed on, are delivered.
Ø
Abuses, the growth of centuries,
are dealt with on their merits,
and swept away.
Such a period is called “the day of the Lord” because it is THE
TIME OF OBVIOUS
AND SPECIAL DIVINE ACTIVITY.
God not only strikes, but shows His hand. (See Ezekiel
– Study
of God’s Use of
The Word Know – this web site – CY –
2013)
culminate and lose themselves in
this. The day of the Lord had already
become the name for every day of
judgment, leading on to the last day.
This is the day of the Lord in a
unique sense. It is unique as
regards universality. It will
see dealt with, not individuals merely, or
nations even, but THE
ENTIRE RACE (Matthew 25:31). It is unique
in the matter of thoroughness. There will be inquisition as to each
person, and as to EVERY ACT OF EACH. (II
Corinthians 5:10).
It is unique also in THE
MATTER OF FINALITY. Questions
already dealt with by temporal judgments will be REOPENED
to be SETTLED ONCE FOR ALL. Its sentence will be FINAL
and its adjudication of
rewards and punishments FOR ALL
ETERNITY! (Matthew
25:46)
To many, who put far off the day, and ridicule the prophets
who foretold
the coming of God’s day, Jeremiah 17:15; II Peter
3:3-4, their unbelief says
through much bravado,
“You are trying to frighten us with a bugbear. Let your
talked of judgment fall, and then we will believe it.” The
delay of God’s judgment,
which means that when it comes it shall be the more
terrible, is often erroneously
taken as meaning that it is not coming at all (Ezekiel
12:22-28).
The Day of the Lord the Night of the
Impenitent (vs. 18-20)
Divine judgments will be as sharp as they are sure. Sent in
wrath,
proportioned to guilt, falling on the vulnerable points, they are the least
desirable of all imaginable things. The very thought of
them should be
sobering, and the sure prospect of them overwhelming. Now,
the scoffer is
the worst type of sinner, and will, in the nature of the
case, be the greatest
sufferer when judgment comes. He is at the same time the
most utterly
blinded character, and therefore likely to be taken most
violently by
surprise. How he shall be so, and to what extent, is made
in these verses to
appear.
·
“THE DAY OF THE LORD.”
This is a common expression in the
prophets, and its meaning is
well defined. It is applied:
1. To the day of active Divine intervention on earth. (Job 1:15; 2:1;
Isaiah 2:12; Jeremiah 46:10;
Obadiah 1:15.) There are periods
which God signalizes by special
doings. Long quiescent,(a period of
inactivity) He becomes
conspicuously active. He intervenes in
human affairs
with unusual emphasis. Judgments often menaced are sent. Sinners long
borne
with are punished. The godly, for a time imposed on, are delivered.
Abuses, the
growth of centuries, are dealt
with on their merits, and swept away. Such a
period is called “the
day of the Lord” because it is the time of obvious and
special Divine activity. God not
only strikes, but shows His hand.
2. To the day of
final judgment. All others foreshadow, lead up to,
culminate and lose themselves in
this. “The day of the Lord had already
become the name for every day of
judgment, leading on to the last day”
(Pusey).
This is the day of the Lord in a unique sense. It is unique as
regards UNIVERSALITY. It will see dealt with, not individuals merely, or
nations even, BUTTHE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE! (Matthew
25:31). It is
unique in the matter of
thoroughness. There will be inquisition as to each
person, and as to
every act of each (II Corinthians 5:10). It is unique also
in the matter of finality. Questions already dealt
with by temporal judgments
will be reopened to be settled once for all. Its sentence will be final, and its
adjudication of rewards and punishments FOR ALL ETERNITY
(Matthew
25:46).
·
ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO THE WICKED. This is explicitly and
minutely defined as:
1. Evil. “Darkness, and not light.”
It could not be otherwise. Sin means
wrath, and wrath means
infliction. Between a righteous God and all
unrighteousness there must exist
an infinite antagonism. Between His Law
and such there is an essential
incompatibility. Therefore His action towards
them must be adverse, His
judgment on them that of condemnation. It is a
result of God’s purity, of
the majesty of law, of the needs of moral
government, that “with the froward (a
person difficult to deal with)
He shall show
Himself froward.” (Psalm 18:26)
2. Only evil. “And
no brightness in it.” The dispensation of forbearance, the
time for any measure or kind of
good, is over. While any hope of
reformation remained, judgment
was mingled with mercy. But when this is
hopeless, and the question is only one of punishing the
reprobate, the
exercise of goodness would be an
anachronism (out of place) and only
severity can be meted out.
3. Evil playing into the hands of evil.
“As
if a man fleeth before the lion,
and the bear meets
him.” Divine punitive measures are various and
complete. They surround us. They hem us in on every side. They form
as it
were a circle of fire round us.
They are not to be evaded or escaped
(Jeremiah 11:11; Romans 2:3;
Hebrews 2:3). In running away
from one, we only run into the
jaws of another. If it is not the lion’s tooth,
then in any case it will be the
bear’s claws. If health escape, property will
suffer. If both escape, the good
name will be tarnished. If all three escape,
conscience will
be wounded and happiness destroyed. If earthly evil
consequences do not reach us, there
are eternal fires kindled against which
there will be no
appeal.
4. Evil in the arms of good. “And rests his hand upon the wall, and the
snake bite him.” The wall, a ready support for the feeble or weary to lean
on, may furnish in its chinks a
hiding place for the venomous snake. So
with all human refuges in God’s
day of visitation. They will fail us. Their
help will not be
available, or it will not be sufficient, or it will involve some
other evil as great
as the one it will relieve. “The staff of
bruised reed”
(Isaiah 36:6) is the fitting emblem
of all fancied helps in the day of
God’s wrath. Even the likeliest
will be found wanting in the very matter in
which it promises most.
·
THEIR FOOLISH DESIRE FOR IT. “Woe to those who desire the
day of Jehovah!” The sinner’s desiring the day of vengeance on his sins
may mean:
1. Misapprehension.
did not see that the threatened
judgments were for themselves and on
account of it. They trusted to
their position as “
secure them the immunity that
only belonged to
so their idea of the day of God
was a time when their enemies would be
destroyed, and they themselves
delivered and exalted. With all the wicked,
the eye for the sins of others is so much keener than the
eye for their own,
that coming good is unconsciously allocated to themselves and coming
evil
to others, and so Divine judgments
desired which can only destroy them
when they come.
2. Bravado.
The prophets who foretold the coming of God’s day rebuked
the people’s sin on account of
which it was to come. Put on their mettle by
the rebuke, many would affect to
ridicule the prophecy. Like others
(Jeremiah 17:15; II Peter
3:3-4), they would say, with an affectation
of unbelief, “You are trying to
frighten us with a bugbear. Let your talked
of judgment fall, and then we
will believe it.” The delay of God’s judgment,
which means that when it comes
it shall be the more terrible, is often taken
as meaning that it is not coming
at all Ezekiel 12:22, 27).
3. Vindictiveness.
Some would deem themselves less criminal than others
— their enemies, it may be, and
oppressors. On these they would expect
the heaviest strokes to fall,
and to bring this about they would suffer more
or less themselves. There are Samsons among sinners who would run the
risk of perishing themselves in
order to secure the destruction of others. To
all three classes “the day of the Lord is darkness, and no brightness in
it.”
Evil will come none the less
surely because it is good that is expected, and
it will come all the more
sharply on those who to their other sin have added
malice against men and mockery
of God.
21 “I
hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn
assemblies.” Outward, formal
worship will not avert the threatened danger
or secure the favor of God in the day of visitation. Your feast days
(chaggim); your feasts;
YOUR COUNTERFEIT WORSHIP, the worship
of the true God under
an
idol symbol (compare God’s repudiation
of merely
formal worship in Isaiah 1:11-15). I will not smell; οὐ μὴ ἀσφρανθῶ
θυσίας –
ou mae osphrantho - (Septuagint). No sweet savor ascends to
God from such sacrifices; so the phrase is equivalent to “I will not accept,”
“I will take no delight in” (compare Genesis 8:21; Exodus 29:18; Leviticus
26:31). Solemn assemblies; πανηγύρεσιν – panaeguresin - (Septuagint);
atsaroth; the convocations for the keeping of the great festivals.
God under an idol symbol (compare God's repudiation of merely formal worship
in Isaiah 1:11-15). I will not smell; οὐ μὴ ἀσφρανθῶ θυσίας (Septuagint).
No sweet savour ascends to God from such sacrifices; so the phrase is
equivalent to "I will not accept," "I will take no delight in" (compare Genesis 8:21;
Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 26:31). Solemn
assemblies; πανηγύρεσιν (Septuagint);
atsaroth
; the convocations for the keeping of the great festivals.22 “Though
ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will
not accept them: neither will I regard the
peace offerings of your
fat beasts.” They maintained
the formal ritual of the Mosaic worship in
their idolatry. The various offerings are here enumerated. Burnt offerings;
ὁλοκαυτώματα
– olokautomata – (Septuagint) - (Exodus 29:38,42;
Numbers 28:9-11). Meat offerings; θυσίας – thusias - (Septuagint);
munera (Vulgate); Exodus
29:40-41; Leviticus 2:1. Peace
offerings
of your fat
beasts; σωτηρίους ἐπιφανείας
– sotaerious epiphaneias –
“your grand peace
offerings” (Septuagint); vota pinguium
vestrorum (Vulgate); Leviticus
3:1)
23 “Take
thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear
the melody of thy viols.” The noise of thy songs. Their psalms and hymns of
praise were
mere noise in God’s ear, and wearied Him (Isaiah
1:14; 24:8;
Ezekiel 26:13). Viols
(ch. 6:5); ὀργάνων
– organon - (Septuagint). The
nebel, usually translated
“psaltery,” was a kind of harp. Josephus (‘
7:12. 3) describes it as having twelve strings, played by
the fingers. Music,
both instrumental and vocal, was used in the temple worship
(see I Chronicles
16:42; 23:5; and ch.25).
The Autograph of the
Unreal (vs. 21-23)
Wicked
sanctimonious sinning. It was done more or less in a religious connection.
It was accompanied, and attempted to be covered, by an
unstinted dressing
of pietistic cant. But it only smelled the more rank to
Heaven. Unreal
worship is no mitigation, but only an aggravation,
of the guilt of unholy
living.
·
INSINCERITY IS OFTEN SCRUPULOUS ABOUT ALL THE
CIRCUMSTANTIALS OF WORSHIP. This is natural. It builds on the
form as a substitute for the spirit,
and on the observance of the ordinance
thus as a substitute for a godly life.
Going through religious forms costs
nothing in the way of crucifying
the flesh. Accordingly, the scrupulosity of
1. They kept the feasts. “Feasts”
(v. 21) means the annual feasts. There is
no hint that these, or any of
them, were neglected or overlooked. The
routine of celebration went
mechanically on. They were
observed without
purpose and
without heart, but they were observed.
2. They performed the acts of worship.
“The assemblies” (v. 21) were
probably the meetings for worship
(Leviticus 23:36) appointed to be
held at the feasts. These as a
class, no exception to which is indicated, are
spoken of as having been held.
“Then ‘songs,’ no doubt of
inspired by God, were duly sung,
and the accompaniment played on harps
— instruments almost exclusively
consecrated to the service of God”
(Pusey).
3. They offered the usual gifts. The
“burnt
offering,” the “meat offering,”
and the “peace offering,” which
are all voluntary offerings, were regularly
made, so far as appears. They
were made, moreover, with fatlings —
beasts the best of their kind,
and such as the Law prescribed. So far,
therefore, as form went, their
worship was scrupulously correct. And the
same is generally true of hollow
and unspiritual worship. Being purely
formal, it will seem excellent in proportion as it is
elaborate. The absence
of the spirit is attempted to be compensated for by the exaltation of the
letter. Worship can no more be
appraised by its fullness, and fairness of
outward form, than the dietary
value of a fruit by its size and color.
·
INSINCERITY IS CHARACTERISTIC NO LESS IN WHAT IT
OMITS THAN IN WHAT IT OBSERVES. No mention is made of the
“sin offering” or the “trespass offering.” Yet these were both compulsory,
whereas the three observed were
optional. Hence it appears that:
start here
1. To the formalist that is least acceptable which is most Divine. He has no
true respect for God’s
authority. He is a self-pleaser first of all and most of
all, and will find the ordinance
most acceptable into the observance of
which there enters most of his own will and least of God’s. On this
principle the optional in
worship will be preferred to the prescribed
(Isaiah 1:12), and the unauthorized
to either (<410709>Mark 7:9). The
illustration of this in the
countless vagaries of the Romanist and Ritualist is
easy to trace. Practical
attention to the various details of worship by the
unspiritual almost seems to be
inversely as their Divine authority.
2. To the formalist that is most distasteful which most
closely connects
him with his sin. The sin offering was an acknowledgment, and involved a
remembrance, of guilt. This is
distasteful to the natural heart. Give a sinful
man his way, and the last matter
he will face will be his own sinfulness.
Allow a formalist discretion in
worship, and the ordinance that most
articulately speaks of sin will
be the one least observed. Singing will be
preferred to praying, a form of
prayer will be preferred to the directness of
spontaneous utterance, and
preaching, which most distinctly brings face to
face with personal
responsibility and duty, will be almost crowded out.
Worship, in fact, in proportion
as it becomes formal, becomes impersonal
and indirect.
·
SUCH HOLLOW WORSHIP IS UTTERLY OFFENSIVE TO GOD.
The degrees of Divine
disapprobation run up a graduated scale. “I will not
accept;” “I will
not take pleasure in;” “I will not regard;” “I hate;” “I
despise.” (vs. 21-22) In all such worship the moral element, the first
element of
acceptability, is altogether
wanting. The thing is not meant for worship, and
cannot be treated as such. It is not observed according to God’s will, nor
as God’s appointment at all, but
as our own invention or choice. It is
not
aimed at the God-glorifying,
soul saving objects prescribed in Scripture.
Gone through without interest or heart, done for fashion, or freak, or
gain,
it honors neither God nor His
command, whilst it calls into play no grace
of the religious life whatever.
It is a mere performance, not only destitute
of moral value, but distasteful to God, and in gratuitous
violation of His
Law. Hence the
vocabulary of condemnation is exhausted on it (Isaiah
1:11-15) as the meanest and most
hateful thing in the whole spiritual
connection
Ceremonialism
Disdained (vs. 21-23)
Although the Jewish religion prescribed, as is evident
especially from the
Book of Leviticus, innumerable observances, elaborate
ritual, frequent and
costly sacrifices, still nowhere are there to be found more
disclaimers, more
denunciations, of a merely ritual and ceremonial piety than
in the Scriptures
of the Old Testament. This is but one of many declarations that
the true
and living God will not accept any tribute of the hands which may be
offered in lieu of the homage of the heart.
·
THE OUTWARD MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION WHICH GOD
REJECTS.
1. Sacred assemblies are displeasing to Him. He does,
indeed, love the gates
of
declare that God hates and
despises the gatherings of His own people.
2. Solemn festivals are equally distasteful. These, indeed,
have been
prescribed in the Law; they are
commemorative of great mercies, great
deliverances; their neglect or
omission is viewed with displeasure. Yet here
God is indignant that these
feasts should be celebrated.
3. The same detestation is extended to the burnt offerings,
meat offerings,
and peace offerings, which the Hebrews
were instructed on proper
occasions to present to their
Divine King.
4. More remarkable still, sacred songs and strains of music
are as discord
in the ear of God. The very
psalms in which the Divine attributes are
celebrated and the Divine gifts
acknowledged are no longer acceptable to
him who inhabiteth
the praises of
·
THE GROUNDS UPON WHICH GOD REJECTS THE OUTWARD
MANIFESTATIONS OF RELIGION.
1. Not because they are themselves an inappropriate tribute
of religious
emotion and religious consecration.
2. But because they
are not expressive of sincere
worship, gratitude,
confidence, and love.
“This
people,” saith the Searcher of hearts, “draweth
nigh unto me with
their lips, but their hearth far from me.” And our Lord
Christ has taught us that “God
is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must
worship Him in
spirit and in truth.”
3. And because ceremonial observances may be, and in the
cases in
question are, consistent with an
idolatrous and wicked life. The very men
who were punctilious in these
ceremonies and sacrifices were tampering
with the idolatry of surrounding
peoples, and were acting with injustice and
selfishness in the ordinary
relationships of life.
4. Because, further, these manifestations are as a matter of
fact substituted
for those feelings and purposes
which they are intended to promote. In
fact, seeming religiousness
hides the absence of real religion, so that this
absence is sometimes unnoticed
by the apparent but heartless and formal
worshipper.
24 “But
let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a
mighty stream.” But let judgment run down as
waters; let judgment roll on;
Septuagint, καὶ κυλισθήσεται
ὡς ὕδωρ
κρίμα, – kai kulisthaesetai
os
hudor krima - “and judgment shall roll along as water.” Et revelabitur
quasi aqua judicium (Vulgate). This verse
has been explained in different
ways. Hitzig, Keil,
with many ancient commentators, find
in it a threat of
chastisement, “the flooding of the land with judgment and the punitive
righteousness of God.” Pusey,
Professor Gandell,
and others consider it
to be a call to amendment. “He bids them let judgment, which had hitherto
been perverted in its course, roll on like a mighty tide of waters (being
from
the people of
much effort into fulfilling this verse as God commands – then the United
States of America would be forever changed, because it could not help
but
bubbling over into surroundings states – CY – 2013),
sweeping
before it all hindrances, filling
the whole land with righteousness. Schegg
makes it to be a promise of the coming of the day of the Lord, that is, the
revelation of Messiah. But such a promise in this position is very forced
and unnatural. The second interpretation seems most suitable. In the midst
of the denunciation of men’s formal worship, the prophet announces their
duty in the present crisis - attention to which could alone win God’s favor.
Judgment and righteousness, long neglected and forgotten, should permeate
the land like refreshing streams of water (
streams of water than any state except
southern
rains have increased the volume in many waterways and
sinkholes along
the highways and byways – this is what we are commanded to
do – CY –
2013) — a simile of special signification to an inhabitant
of an Eastern
country, where the neighborhood of a perennial stream was
as delightful
as it was unusual. Mighty
(ethan); ἄβατος – abatos - “impassable” (Septuagint);
fortis (Vulgate). The word
may mean “strong,” or “perennial.” “Whence
the seventh month, just before the early rain, was called
the month
Ethanim, i.e. the month of the
perennial streams, when they alone flowed”
(Pusey).
The Divinely Abhorrer and the
Divinely Demanded (vs. 21-24)
“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in
your solemn assemblies,”
Notice:
·
THE DIVINELY ABHORRENT.
What is that? Mere ceremonial
religion; empty ritual. “I
hate, I despise your feast days, and 1 will not
smell in your
solemn assemblies,” etc. “The same
aversion from the
ceremonial observances of the
insincere and rebellious Israelites which
Jehovah here expresses He
afterwards employed Isaiah to declare to the
Jews (Isaiah 1:10-20). The two
passages are strikingly parallel, only
the latter prophet amplifies
what is set forth in a more condensed form by
Amos. It is also to be observed
that where Amos introduces the musical
accompaniments of the
sacrifices, Isaiah substitutes the prayers; both
concluding with the Divine
words, ‘I will not hear.’ ‘Take thou away from
me the noise of
thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.’ The
singing of their psalms was
nothing more to God than a wearisome round
which was to be brought to an
end. Singing and playing on harps was a
part of the worship of the
temple (1 Chronicles 16:41; 23:5; 25.).
Nothing seems more abhorrent to the holy eye and heart of
Omniscience
than empty ceremony
in religion. No sacrifices are acceptable
to Him,
however costly, unless the offerer has presented himself. No psalmody is
acceptable to His ear but the
psalmody of self-oblivious devotion.” “God is
a Spirit: and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
(John 4:24)
·
THE DIVINELY DEMANDED. “Let judgment run down as waters,
and righteousness
as a mighty stream.” While no
direction is given
respecting the regulation of the
sacrifices in order that they may be
rendered acceptable, here is a
special demand for morality in life, moral
rectitude in conduct. Thus
God once more expresses the idea that “to obey
is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” (I Samuel
15:22) The way to worship God acceptably is not by ceremonial
observances, not by religious contributions, not in singing psalms,
but in doing the right and
loving thing towards our fellow men. (Micah
6:8) The true practical expression of our love to
God
is that of a virtuous and
generous conduct towards mankind. Stud your
country with fine churches if you
like, fill them with aesthetic worshippers
and enthusiastic devotees. But all that is
abhorrent to God unless you feel
and act rightly
towards your fellow men in your daily life. We had rather
see justice rolling on like
mighty waters, and righteousness as a swelling
and ever-flowing stream, than crowded
churches. “Show me your faith...
by your works.” Show me your
worship by your morality; show me your
love to God by your devotion to
your fellow men. “If we love one another,
God dwelleth in us.” (I
John 4:12) “If a man say, I love God, and hateth
his brother, he is
a liar: for if he loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen,
how can he love
God whom he hath not seen?” (ibid. v. 20)
The
Whilst the holy King and Judge rejects the mere service of
the lip and of
the hand, when unaccompanied by genuine piety, he desires above all
things the prevalence of those practical principles of
rectitude which are the
secret, hidden power of an upright and acceptable life. In
a very bold and
beautiful metaphor the Divine wish and pleasure are
declared. Let the
hypocritical festivals, the unmeaning sacrifices, the
hollow songs, be swept
away, and let the river of
righteousness roll through the land, and God shall
be pleased, and His people shall be blessed.
·
ITS DIVINE SOURCE.
The fountain of rectitude is not to be found in
the arrangements of human
society, in the laws of human device, in the
expediency which aims at human
pleasures. We are to look up to the hills,
to the heavens, for its source. It wells from the eternal constitution of the
moral universe,
from the very nature, from the glorious government, of the
Eternal.
·
ITS VAST VOLUME. There
is no community of men, there is no
social relationship, in which
righteousness may not be exemplified. Even
the heathen philosophers could
say great things of justice.
“Nor morning star, nor evening star,
so fair!”
Ardent religionists sometimes
lose sight of this principle and its necessity,
thinking justice too sublunary
and commonplace to be deserving of their
attention. Such a practice is
not sanctioned by Scripture, which from
beginning to end lays stress upon the faithful and
honorable discharge of
human duty, as between man and man, in all the varied
relationships of life.
·
ITS MIGHTY CURRENT. There is a
POWER IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
which only the morally blind
can overlook, which commands the homage of
the observant
and the thoughtful. For whilst it is not the kind of power that the
worldly cannot but see, and the
vulgar cannot but admire, it is nevertheless
power — enduring, effective,
undoubted power. The state
is strong in
which justice is administered, in which a high standard of uprightness
is
maintained in social and public life; whilst injustice,
insincerity, oppression,
corruption, and deceit are detrimental to the true interests
of any
community.
·
ITS PERENNIAL
FLOW. A river differs from a cistern,
a reservoir,
in this — that it does not run
dry, that it is not exhausted, that it flows on
from age to age. And the righteousness that the eternal King desires to
see
prevail in human society is an
ever-flowing stream. Not like the mountain
torrent, which is dried up in
summer heat; but like the vast river, which is
fed from the everlasting hills,
and is replenished by many a tributary stream,
is the course of Divine
righteousness upon earth. Not in one nation, in one
age, in one
dispensation only, but in every time and place does this river of
righteousness flow
for the welfare of mankind.
·
ITS BENEFICENT RESULTS.
From insincere religious observances
no good can come; but from
justice, from a proper discharge of duty, from
right principles, we may look
for every good. God is pleased that His
attribute becomes His creature’s law. And righteousness exalts nations
and establishes thrones.
Real Calamity Waiting upon Unreal
Service (v. 24)
“The meaning of this verse is not, ‘Let justice and
righteousness take the
place of your sacrifices.’… The verse threatens the
flooding of the land
with judgment and the punitive righteousness of God” (Keil). Adopting this
interpretation, we observe:
·
THAT WHICH IS REJECTED “IS NIGH UNTO CURSING.” Hollow
service has been sitting for its
portrait, and the picture is striking. Now we
have the Divine appraisemal revealed in the action to be taken forthwith.
Instead of approval there is
condemnation. Instead of reward there is
punishment. Instead of profit
resulting there is loss on every issue.
1. It deserves this. Want of conformity to law is a sufficient ground of
condemnation. Positive
transgression of law is ground more decided still
Wilful mockery of the Lawgiver is most deeply criminal of all.
All these
elements pertained to
constitute an indictment on
which the criminal’s conviction is inevitable.
2. It requires it. God’s moral government must show itself strong and just,
and in order to this, sin, and
all sin, must be visited with His avenging
stroke. Especially must this be
done in the sphere of “things whereby God
maketh himself known.” The thing whose function it is
to make Him known
must do so in the glorious character he bears.
·
THE JUDGMENTS THAT ENGULF ARE RIGHTEOUSNESS. This
could be argued, and is here affirmed.
1. They express righteousness. They are deserved.
They are all deserved.
They are deserved in the
proportions in which they come. If they did not
come, the moral balance of
things would be disturbed. If they came in less
decided form, this balance would
be only half adjusted. They
are “righteous
judgments” in the fullest and highest sense.
2. They accomplish righteousness. They are sent in the
interests of it. They
fall on the unrighteous. They are
designed and fitted to lead to their
reformation (Isaiah
26:9). Sometimes the righteous suffer from them
also. In that case their
tendency is:
a.
on the one hand to promote the righteousness of the sufferer, and
b.
on the other to emphasize the
evil of unrighteousness in any
section of a community, AND SO PREVENT IT.
As a matter of fact, Divine judgments have
often wrought righteousness both
in individuals (II
Chronicles 33:11-16) and communities (Isaiah 43:21).
Even in eternity they bulk
largely, in the thought of the redeemed,
among the helpful experiences of
earth (Revelation 7:14).
LIKE A FLOOD. There
are two ideas here. The first is:
Ø
Let judgment roll on like water. In this:
o
It will be deep (Psalm 36:6), swallowing up all its victims.
o
It will be sudden, taking the evil doers by surprise
(Luke 17:20-31).
o
It will be
irresistible, sweeping before it every
opposing
object (Psalm 90:5).
o
It will be
destroying, leaving no living thing in its track.
o
It will be ultimately
fertilizing, leaving behind it the rich ooze
of an abiding lesson. (Unfortunately, that lesson is
ETERNAL!
Ø
And righteousness like on inexhaustible stream. Judgment is
the act of which
righteousness is the principle. God’s
righteousness,
whether in Himself or in His judgments, is like an inexhaustible
stream.
o
It is perennial.
The righteousness of God’s judgments is a
constant quantity. It never
intermits. Each is righteous and
all are righteousness.
o
It is pure. Righteousness in God is necessarily so. There is no
Foreign ingredient, no
cloud of mixture in it whatever. It is
righteous through and
through. “There is,” there can be,
“no unrighteousness in Him.” (Psalm 92:15)
o
It is cleansing.
It purifies all it touches; the person it
is
laved on, the city it
passes through.
o
It is irrigating. It waters the fields of human
life. It makes
the graces, like the grass,
to grow in the desert, and withering
things revive. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, like
water streams, is rich in
every element of blessing for time and is
a benefactor for
eternity as well.
25 “Have
ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness
forty years, O house of
of pure worship. Your service in
the wilderness, when you were little exposed
to external influence, was no more true and faithful than that which
you offer
now; that was as unacceptable as this. Have ye offered unto me? Did ye offer
unto me? The answer
expected is “No;” i.e. you did not so really, because
your worship was mixed with falsehood, and was not offered simply and
genuinely to me. It is certain, too, that during the
sojourn in the wilderness
sacrificial worship fell greatly into desuetude, as we know
that the rite of
circumcision was suspended (Joshua 5:5-7), the Passover was
not duly
celebrated, and Joshua urged the people to put away the
strange gods from
among them (Joshua 24:23). Moses, too, doubtless with a
view to
existing practices, warns them against worshipping the
heavenly bodies
(Deuteronomy 4:19), and offering sacrifice unto devils (seirim), “after
whom they had gone a-whoring” (Leviticus 17:7). The prophets, too,
allude to the idolatry practiced in the desert (see Ezekiel
20:7-26;
Hosea 9:10). But to argue (as some neologians
do) from this passage
of Amos that the Israelites during those forty years knew
nothing of
Jehovah, or that Amos himself denies that they offered him
any worship, is
absurd, seeing that the prophet presupposes the fact, and
blames them for
corrupting the Divine service and mingling the prescribed and
enacted
ritual with idolatrous accretions. Sacrifices; slain, bloody sacrifices.
Offerings; bloodless sacrifices, meal offerings.
26 “But ye
have born the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun
your
images, the star of your God, which ye made
to yourselves.” This verse
has occasioned great perplexity to commentators. The connection with the
context, the meaning of some of the terms, and whether the
reference is to past,
present, or future, are questions which have roused much
controversy. We need
not here recapitulate the various opinions which have been
held. It will be
sufficient to state what seems to be the simplest and most
probable explanation
of the passage. But we must not omit to mention first the
explanation adopted
by Ewald, Schrader, Farrar, Konig, and others, viz. that this verse refers to the
punitive deportation which was to be the people’s lot, when
they should take
their shrines and images with them into captivity. “So
shall ye take (into exile)
Sakkuth your king,” etc. But the punishment is foretold in v. 27;
and this
verse contrasts their idol worship with the neglected
worship of Jehovah
(v. 25). But ye
have borne; and ye bare; καὶ ἀνελάβετε - kai anelabete –
(Septuagint); et portastis (Vulgate).
Ye offered me no pure worship in the
wilderness, seeing that ye took false gods with you, and
joined their worship
with, or substuted it for, mine. The tabernacle of your Moloch; τὴν σκηνὴν
τοῦ
Μολόχ – taen skaenaen tou Moloch - (Septuagint); tabernaculum
Moloch
vestro (Vulgate). The Hebrew
word rendered “tabernacle” (sikkuth). which is
found nowhere else, has been variously explained.
suskiasmous - Theodotion, “vision,”
reading the whole sentence thus: Καὶ ἤρατε
τὴν ὅρασιν
τοῦ Θεοῦ
ὑμῶν ὑμῶν
ἄστρον τοῦ Θεοῦ
ὑμῶν.
Kai aerate taen horasin tou
Theou humon humon astron tou Theou
humon - Many moderns render, “stake,” “column,” or “shrine.” Others
suppose
it to be equivalent to Sakkuth,
an Assyrian name for Molech (or Adar);
but this
is very uncertain, sad the parallelism requires the word to
be an appellative and
not a proper name. It most probably means “shrine,” a
portable shrine, like those
spoken of in Acts 19:24 in connection with the worship of
Diana. The Syriac and
Arabic versions call it “tent,” and thus the reproach
stands forth emphatically that,
instead of, or in conjunction with, the true tabernacle,
they bore aloft, as if proud
of their apostasy, the
tabernacle of a false god. Such shrines were used
by the
Egyptians, according to Herodotus (2:63). Many such may be
seen in the Egyptian
room of the
211, “These were small chapels, generally gilded and
ornamented with
flowers and in other ways, intended to hold a small idol
when processions
were made, and to be carried or driven about with it.”
Hence we must look
to
Septuagint and Stephen (Acts 7:43), is a mistranslation. De
Rossi,
indeed, mentions that one Hebrew manuscript gives Moloch,
but the
received reading is Melkekem,
which is confirmed by Symmachus and
Theodotion, who have τοῦ βασιλέως ὑμῶν – tou basileos humon –
and by the Syriac. The
translation, therefore, should run, “Ye took up the
shrine of your king,” i.e. of him whom ye made your
king in the place of
Jehovah, meaning some stellar divinity. And Chiun your
images; καὶ τὸ
ἄστρον τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν
Ῥαμφάν, – kai to astron tou Theou humon
Ramphan - “and the star of your
god Raiphan “(Septuagint); et
imaginem idolorum vestrorum; literally, the kiyyun of
your images. The
parallelism again requires us to take this unknown word as
an appellative;
and according to its probable derivation, its meaning is “pedestal,”
or
“framework,” that on which the image stood. The Greek
rendering is, as
Keil thinks, owing to a false reading of the unpointed text, in old Hebrew
kaph and resh being easily confounded, and vau and pe. Theodotion
considered the word a common noun, translating it by ἀμαύρωσιν –
amaurosin - It is
probably a mere coincidence that in some Assyrian
inscriptions the name Kairan
occurs as that of a deity, who is identified
with Saturn; that the Egyptians (from whom the Israelites
must have derived
the notion) ever acknowledged such a deity is quite
unproved. Stephen merely
quotes the Textus Receptus of his day, which was close enough to the
original for
his argument. The
star of your god. These words are in loose apposition
with the preceding, and are equivalent to “your star god,”
or the star whom
ye worship as god. Whether some particular star is meant,
or whether the
sun is the deity signified, cannot be determined, although
the universal
prevalence of the worship of sun gods in
supposition very probable. Stephen puts the sin in a
general form: “God
gave them up to
serve the host of heaven” (Acts 7:42;
compare
Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3). Which ye made to yourselves. This
was
the crime, SELF-WILL, desertion of the appointed way
for devices
of their own
invention.
A Divided Homage
Rejected (vs. 25-26)
The continuity of
same people that was brought by Moses out of
Joshua into
in fact, until after the Captivity, the chosen nation was ever liable to relapse
into partial and
temporary idolatry. This was especially
the case with the
northern kingdom, which had not the benefit of the temple
services,
sacrifices, and priesthood. The peculiarity of the case was
the
attempt to
combine two systems
of religion so inconsistent as the worship of Jehovah
and the worship of
the false deities of the neighboring nations. Yet this
attempt is substantially one which is renewed by some in
every generation,
even under this spiritual and Christian dispensation.
Displeasing as was the
conduct of
is every endeavor
to serve two masters, to divide the allegiance and
devotion of the
heart.
·
THE FACT THAT MEN DO ATTEMPT TO DIVIDE THEIR
HOMAGE AND WORSHIP.
This is no doubt an evidence of human
inconsistency and
instability; but it is not to be
denied that our nature
frequently exhibits these qualities.
On the one hand, education, the voice of
conscience, the aspirations of
better moments, the influence of pious
friends, tend to retain the
heart beneath the sway of true religion. On the
other hand, the example of the pleasure seeking and the worldly,
the baser
impulses of our nature, the suggestions of our spiritual
adversary, all draw
our hearts towards an inferior good, towards an ignoble
choice. Hence
many are found neither
renouncing God nor rejecting the allurements of a
sinful world.
·
THE GROUNDS UPON WHICH THE SUPREME REJECTS THE
DIVIDED HOMAGE AND WORSHIP WHICH ARE SOMETIMES
OFFERED.
1. God’s just claim is to the whole nature and the whole
life of His
intelligent creatures. The
Father of the spirits of all flesh cannot consent to
share His rightful possession
with any rival, any pretender, be he who he
may.
2. The nature of man is such that he can only give religious
reverence
and
service that shall be worthy of the name to one Lord.
Christ has
emphatically pronounced upon the
case in his words, “Ye cannot serve
God and
mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)
3. The moral degradation and disaster involved in the
endeavor are
palpable. There is
inconsistency, nay, there is opposition, between the two
services. A riven heart is a wretched
heart. Hypocrisy
is a sandy foundation
upon which to build
the character and life; upon this no secure and stable
edifice can possibly
be reared.
·
THE URGENCY OF THE ALTERNATIVE CONSEQUENTLY
PRESENTED TO EVERY MORAL NATURE. It is the alternative which
Joshua urged upon the
Israelites: “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”
(Joshua 24:15) It is the alternative which Elijah urged upon
a later generation:
“How long halt ye
between two opinions [between the two
sides]? If Jehovah
be God, serve Him; but if Baal, then serve
him.” (I Kings 18:21)
27 “Therefore
will I cause you to go into captivity beyond
saith the LORD, whose name is The God of
hosts.” Therefore. The
consequence of their continued
alienation from God should be deportation
to a foreign land, beyond
country once their own possession
(II Samuel 8:6), thus dimly denoting
at that time not hostile, but
known in the time of
accomplishment, II Kings 15:29; 17:6).
Stephen says (Acts 7:43), “beyond
“Magis enim,”observes Jerome, “intelligentiam
quam verbum posuit;” and he is
probably blending
other prophecies with that of Amos, e.g. Jeremiah 20:4.
Trusting in Idols that Cannot
Save (vs. 25-27)
In these words, God’s case against
Their services now were hollow and insincere; their
sacrifices formal acts
in which the heart had no part. This, in itself, was ground
of punishment
even to destruction. But it is only a portion of the
iniquity chargeable
against them. In the wilderness the course had been already
entered on.
Appointed
ordinances had been neglected. Idolatrous
ordinances had been
introduced. As now they were going on, so they had long ago begun.
There was a diuturnity (long
duration)in their wrong doing which made the fall
of destroying judgments a foregone conclusion. We see here:
·
had been and done in the desert
of sin. This is according to principles
universally received.
1. Every nation is
held responsible for its own entire past. The
today not only owns
responsibility for, but is striving nobly to make
compensation for, errors of the
prophet-killing
martyr blood shed from that of
Abel down (Matthew 23:35). The logic
of this is unassailable. The
national identity remains unbroken. The national
policy remains unchanged. The
national life maintains its continuity. And so
among its heirlooms is the
inherited responsibility for the sins of other
days.
2. A nation is
further responsible for its past, in that the present takes its
tone from it. A certain proportion of almost every evil is hereditary.
From
the past generations we inherit
evil qualities and learn evil ways. The
father’s vices reappear in the
child. The present is the child of the past,
begotten in its likeness, and
liable as such for the evil it has taken up and
perpetuates.
3. The life of a
nation, like that of an individual, can be judged of only as
a whole. If a nation from its birth to its death be one thing, so is
a nation’s
life. Now, the glory of
God’s dealing is its perfect equity,
arising out of its
exhaustive induction of facts.
He leaves nothing out of account, no smallest
word, no slightest desire, no
most trifling act. His verdict in each case is
based on the entire life of the
party in court. The method is fair. No other
method would be fair. Each part
is modified by its relation to all the others,
and cannot be fairly judged
unless in connection with them.
·
THAT PAST WAS PERSISTENTLY UNFAITHFUL. The interrogative
form of v. 25 is equivalent to a
strong negation.
1. They had neglected sacrifice in the
wilderness. “Have ye offered me
sacrifices and
gifts in the desert forty years?”
Typifying the atonement of
Christ, through which men draw
near to God, sacrifice was the
fundamental exercise of Old
Testament worship. This was not abandoned
by the priests (Numbers 16:46),
but it was, like circumcision
(Joshua 5:5), neglected by the people, and superseded by sacrifices to
idols (Deuteronomy 32:17; Ezekiel 20:16). In this neglect or
perversion were included the
voluntary gifts (offerings) as well as the
prescribed sacrifices. Thus
early adopted, and long persisted in, was
whole run of Jewish national
history, “Ye either offered no sacrifice
at all,
or none to me.”
2. They were at palm to make, and carry,
idolatrous appliances with them.
“But ye have borne
the tabernacle of your Moloch.” Divinely appointed
sacrifice they found too burdensome to be followed. Of Divine worship in
each of its ordinances they
said, “What a weariness is it!” But they thought
it no trouble to make and carry about portable shrines and
pedestals for use
in the worship of heathen idols. A man will do for his idol what he will not
do for God. Be it idol
lust, or habit, or opinion, he loves it more, and is
more like it, and so finds its service more congenial. The God of the
legalist is not the God of Scripture,
but a God of his own devising, and so
he serves Him laboriously in
works of self-righteousness, whilst
stubbornly
declining the far easier call of the true God to simple faith in
Jesus Christ.
It was in following his
affinities thus that
his idols, and alien to the God
of heaven.
3. This idolatry they had derived
from
Egyptian sun gods that the star
god which the Israelites carried about with
them belonged” (Keil). They were not seduced into idolatry merely by the
nations among whom they passed.
They did not wait for that. They tired of
Jehovah’s
service, and sought out false gods for themselves. They were
bent on having idols, come
whence they would. Failing others, they
adopted, in their blind and
besotted perverseness, those of
Their return to Jehovah for
deliverance was desertion, and the lesson
learned under idolatrous
worship that produced it.
This is eloquent of the godlessness of
the corrupt
heart. Nothing can
disgust it with idols, nothing can attach it to God. It
hates Him always, and embraces,
or seeks, or makes occasions of
abandoning His worship.
4.
your king.” Every man’s god is
his king. Worship is the highest act of
service. When it is rendered,
the other and lower acts necessarily follow;
when it is abandoned, they
logically and actually cease. A new idol in the
heart means a new sovereign over
the life.
·
THE DIVINE PUNISHMENT TO BE ADJUSTED TO THE SIN.
This it always is, but in the
present case the correspondence is specially
obvious.
1. They should go into captivity. God often punishes
sins against Himself by
human instrumentality, generally
that of the wicked (II Samuel 24:13;
Psalm 109:6). The severity of
such punishment is guaranteed by the
native cruelty of the human
heart. As the conqueror and owner of the
vanquished and enslaved, the
wicked puts on his worst character, and his
treatment becomes punishment
corresponding to the worst sin of idolatry.
2. Their captivity should be among
idolaters. The rod of God’s anger in
this case was to be the Assyrian
(Isaiah 10:5). In captivity with him,
This would disenchant them, if
anything could. The test of the god we
worship is the practical one of
the character of his service. When our idol
lusts become our masters, we
know them as they really are. The drunkard
has attained to a knowledge of the drink appetite that would be a
wholesome revelation to those who are just beginning to indulge.
3. They should die as slaves in the land out of which their progenitor had
at first been called. “I will carry you
beyond
(Acts 7:42-43) quotes this “beyond
neighborhood of
had been the cradle of the
nation, would be its grave. There, where their
godly ancestor had been a
prince, the idolatrous nation would be slaves
(Joshua 24:14, 3); his faith,
and the promises to it, having been lost
together.
·
GOD’S THREATS EMPHASIZED BY HIS NAME. This says what
he is, and so indicates how he
will act.
1. He is Jehovah, the
Self-existent One. “He cannot but be, and He is, the
Source of all being; the
unchangeable, infinite, eternal Essence.”
As
Jehovah, He:
a.
originates all
things (v. 8; ch. 9:6; Jeremiah 33:2),
b.
controls all
things (Psalm 10:16; 99:1),
c.
fills and
possesses all things,
and “nothing is too hard for him “
(Jeremiah 32:27).
2. He is Lord of hosts. “The Lord of the heavenly hosts, for whose worship
they forsook God; the Lord of
the hosts on earth, whose ministry He
employs to punish those who rebel
against Him. All creatures in heaven and
earth are, as He says of the
holy angels, ‘ministers of His that do His
pleasure’” (Pusey). “Jehovah,” the great First Cause, “God of hosts,” the
Controller of all second causes
whatever, there is that in the Name of God
which guarantees the execution, literal and exhaustive, of all
His threats.
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