INTRODUCTION TO
Amos
CIRCUMSTANCES OF WRITING
Amos was a shepherd from Tekoa, a village about ten miles south of Jerusalem. He received a call from God to go north and prophesy against Samaria and the kingdom of Israel around 760 BC. We do not know how long he actually was in the north; it appears to have been a fairly short time. He provoked a great deal of opposition and anger, as illustrated by his encounter with Amaziah, the priest of Bethel (7:10-17). He wrote his book, a summary of his prophecies, after his return to Judah. He probably wrote it with the aid of a scribe.
Amos prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah of Judah (792–740 BC) and Jeroboam II of Israel (793–753 BC). This was a time of great prosperity and military success for both nations, as all their traditional enemies were in a weakened condition. Samaria, the capital city of Israel, enjoyed enormous wealth, and luxuries flowed into the city.
At the same time, decades of struggle with Damascus had left the population exhausted. Many farmers were reduced to poverty. Their more affluent neighbors, and especially the aristocracy, swooped in with loans that the poor could not repay and then reduced the debtors to slavery and seized their lands. The leaders of society believed they had no reason to fear for the future. Their city had high walls and fortified citadels, and their army was everywhere victorious. They were the chosen people of God, and they considered themselves immune from judgment.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE BIBLE
Amos reminds us of the sovereignty of God in his involvement with his people. God will bring his judgment, a reality that certainly came to pass. Amos’s emphasis on the day of the Lord had implications for Amos’s contemporaries, but it also reminds the modern reader of a coming day referred to repeatedly in the NT—the day of Christ’s return.
STRUCTURE
After the superscript (1:1), the book of Amos is divided into seven parts. The first part, the introduction, is a single verse (1:2). This is followed by six major divisions: 1:3–2:16; 3:1-15; 4:1-13; 5:1–6:14; 7:1–8:3; 8:4–9:15. Remarkably, formulas of divine speech (statements such as, “the Lord says,” “the Lord has spoken,” and “the Lord’s declaration”) are evenly distributed in these sections. Amos 1:3–2:16 has fourteen such formulas, and each of the following sections have seven each, for a total of forty-nine. The basic structure and content of each section is described in the notes.
SPURGEON ON AMOS
Sometimes the Lord’s people get out of the way of communion and fellowship with him. It was so with Israel in the day of Amos, yet here the Lord asserts himself to still be their God, for he says, “Prepare to meet your God.” As for those who are his people, he is still their God, and though they may have fallen into a cold condition of heart and are now walking in darkness and seeing no light, he calls them to meet him, for he desires to have their company. He has been chastening them again and again because they would not walk near to him, and he is prepared to chasten them yet more. But he will stay his hand if they will now come near to him.
1The words of Amos, who was one of the sheep breeders A from Tekoa — what he saw regarding Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
2 He said:
The LORD roars from Zion
and makes his voice heard from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn, B
and the summit of Carmel withers.
JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL’S NEIGHBORS
3 The LORD says:
I will not relent from punishing Damascus
for three crimes, even four,
because they threshed Gilead with iron sledges.
4Therefore, I will send fire against Hazael’s palace,
and it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.
5I will break down the gates C of Damascus.
I will cut off the ruler from the Valley of Aven,
and the one who wields the scepter from Beth-eden.
The people of Aram will be exiled to Kir.
The LORD has spoken.
6 The LORD says:
I will not relent from punishing Gaza
for three crimes, even four,
because they exiled a whole community,
handing them over to Edom.
7Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Gaza,
and it will consume its citadels.
8I will cut off the ruler from Ashdod,
and the one who wields the scepter from Ashkelon.
I will also turn my hand against Ekron,
and the remainder of the Philistines will perish.
The Lord GOD has spoken.
9 The LORD says:
I will not relent from punishing Tyre
for three crimes, even four,
because they handed over
a whole community of exiles to Edom
and broke D a treaty of brotherhood.
10Therefore, I will send fire against the walls of Tyre,
and it will consume its citadels.
11 The LORD says:
I will not relent from punishing Edom
for three crimes, even four,
because he pursued his brother with the sword.
He stifled his compassion,
his anger tore at him continually,
and he harbored his rage incessantly.
12Therefore, I will send fire against Teman,
and it will consume the citadels of Bozrah.
13 The LORD says:
I will not relent from punishing the Ammonites
for three crimes, even four,
because they ripped open
the pregnant women of Gilead
in order to enlarge their territory.
14Therefore, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah,
and it will consume its citadels.
There will be shouting on the day of battle
and a violent wind on the day of the storm.
15Their king and his princes
will go into exile together.
The LORD has spoken.
I will not relent from punishing Moab
for three crimes, even four,
because he burned the bones
of the king of Edom to lime.
2Therefore, I will send fire against Moab,
and it will consume the citadels of Kerioth.
Moab will die with a tumult,
with shouting and the sound of the ram’s horn.
3I will cut off the judge from the land
and kill all its officials with him.
The LORD has spoken.
JUDGMENT ON JUDAH
4 The LORD says:
I will not relent from punishing Judah
for three crimes, even four,
because they have rejected the instruction of the LORD
and have not kept his statutes.
The lies that their ancestors followed
have led them astray.
5Therefore, I will send fire against Judah,
and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem.
JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL
6 The LORD says:
I will not relent from punishing Israel
for three crimes, even four,
because they sell a righteous person for silver
and a needy person for a pair of sandals.
7They trample the heads of the poor
on the dust of the ground
and obstruct the path of the needy.
A man and his father have sexual relations
with the same girl,
profaning my holy name.
8They stretch out beside every altar
on garments taken as collateral,
and in the house of their God
they drink wine obtained through fines.
9Yet I destroyed the Amorite as Israel advanced;
his height was like the cedars,
and he was as sturdy as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.
10And I brought you from the land of Egypt
and led you forty years in the wilderness
in order to possess the land of the Amorite.
11I raised up some of your sons as prophets
and some of your young men as Nazirites.
Is this not the case, Israelites?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
12But you made the Nazirites drink wine
and commanded the prophets,
“Do not prophesy.”
13Look, I am about to crush A you in your place
as a wagon crushes when full of grain.
14Escape will fail the swift,
the strong one will not maintain his strength,
and the warrior will not save his life.
15The archer will not stand his ground,
the one who is swift of foot
will not save himself,
and the one riding a horse will not save his life.
16Even the most courageous of the warriors
will flee naked on that day —
this is the LORD’s declaration.
GOD’S REASONS FOR PUNISHING ISRAEL
3Listen to this message that the LORD has spoken against you, Israelites, against the entire clan that I brought from the land of Egypt:
2I have known only you
out of all the clans of the earth;
therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.
3Can two walk together
without agreeing to meet?
QUOTE 3:3
Unless we are agreed with Christ, we cannot attain to the sweet state of communion with him.
QUOTE 3:3
Christ can go no further toward excellence, for he has already attained perfection. But the nearer we get to that perfection, the more fellowship we have with Jesus.
4Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion growl from its lair
unless it has captured something?
5Does a bird land in a trap on the ground
if there is no bait for it?
Does a trap spring from the ground
when it has caught nothing?
6If a ram’s horn is blown in a city,
aren’t people afraid?
If a disaster occurs in a city,
hasn’t the LORD done it?
ILLUSTRATION 3:6
What would we be if we were left to chance? We would be like poor mariners, put out to sea in an unsafe vessel without a chart and without a helm; we would know nothing of the port to which we might ultimately come; we would only feel that we were now the sport of the winds, the captives of the tempest, and might soon be the victims of the all-devouring deep. We would be travelers in a pathless waste, where there were no roads to direct us—travelers who might be overturned and overwhelmed at any moment, and our bleached bones left the victims of the tempest, unknown or forgotten by all. Thank God it is not so with us.
QUOTE 3:6
Believe not in fate but in God.
ILLUSTRATION 3:6
For what is the “fate” of some men? It reminds me of one of those huge machines employed in the lead mines, where two wheels are always revolving and breaking the stones quarried from the pit. The stones at first lie at a distance, but they are continually moving nearer and nearer to the all-devouring mouth of the great wheels, and at last they are crushed and ground. Such is fate in the minds of some men.
CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER UNLESS
THEY ARE AGREED?
“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
This question may be asked in relation:
I. TO THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. There has been, is, and will be still a great variety in their states, tastes, and views. Yet, they walk together. Among them, there is [a] union of love, concern, enjoyment of each other. And this, because and just in proportion, as they are agreed in their supreme love to one common Lord, and in a consistent manifestation of true holiness. These are the conditions of communion.
II. TO COMMUNION WITH GOD. That this was enjoyed by Adam is evident. And by all saints, from numerous Scripture declarations. And from the experience of the saints in death, trouble, and other seasons. It surpasses natural understanding. Only the professor knows it. It consists in:
1.Mutual love.
2.Mutual revelations.
3.Common aims and interests.
This cannot be enjoyed unless we are agreed with God, and just in proportion as we are so. The necessary agreement consists in:
1.Reconciliation by the atonement of Jesus, the only ground of acceptance.
2.Pardon and Justification, since perfection and sin is imperfection cannot agree.
3.Regeneration, Conversion, and Sanctification, making oneness of nature. It is in meditation, prayer, the Scriptures, the ordinances that we come most into the secret of communion. But this depends upon our previous agreement with God. (In our conversation)
Inf 1.Let none pretend to communion with God who are not like him.
Inf 2.Let the Christian take heed lest he disagree with God, either by harboring sin, his own righteousness. For if he does, he cannot “walk with God.[”]
Inf 3.If holiness be necessary to walk with him, how much more to an everlasting dwelling with him?
III. IF SINNERS WALK LIKE SATAN, THEY AGREE WITH HIM. Like effects spring from like causes. All sinners are brethren in sin. Our walk evidences our heart. Those whom we walk with here, we must live with for ever.
Bless me, Great God, for Jesus.
101.
For 77, see 7
7Indeed, the Lord GOD
does nothing
without revealing his counsel
to his servants the prophets.
8A lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord GOD has spoken;
who will not prophesy?
9Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod
and on the citadels in the land of Egypt:
Assemble on the mountains of Samaria,
and see the great turmoil in the city
and the acts of oppression within it.
10The people are incapable of doing right —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
those who store up violence and destruction
in their citadels.
11 Therefore, the Lord GOD says:
An enemy will surround the land;
he will destroy your strongholds
and plunder your citadels.
12 The LORD says:
As the shepherd snatches two legs
or a piece of an ear
from the lion’s mouth,
so the Israelites who live in Samaria
will be rescued
with only the corner of a bed
or the A cushion B of a couch. C
13Listen and testify against the house of Jacob —
this is the declaration
of the Lord GOD,
the God of Armies.
14I will punish the altars of Bethel
on the day I punish Israel for its crimes;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.
15I will demolish the winter house
and the summer house;
the houses inlaid with ivory will be destroyed,
and the great houses will come to an end.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
3:3 “Can two walk together without agreeing to meet?” The expression “walk together” is often used in Scripture as a figure for communion. “Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him” (Gn 5:24). Communion, if it is thorough and entire, implies activity. It is not merely contemplation; it is action and, therefore, inasmuch as walking is an active exercise, and walking with a man is communion with him, we see how walking comes to be the picture of true communion with Christ. An old Puritan said, “It does not say that Enoch returned to God and then left him, but he ‘walked with God.’” All his journey through, he had God for his companion and lived in perpetual fellowship with his Maker.
Another idea is contained in the idea of “walking together.” It is not only activity but continuance. So true communion with Christ is not a mere spasm—not just an excitement of ecstasy—but if it is the work of the Holy Spirit and if it is enjoyed by the healthy soul, it will be a continual thing.
It also implies progress, for in walking together, we do not lift up our feet and put them down in the same place, but we proceed nearer to our journey’s end. And whoever has true communion with Christ is making progress. Christ can go no further toward excellence, for he has already attained perfection. But the nearer we get to that perfection, the more fellowship we have with Jesus. Unless we progress, unless we seek to be more childlike in faith, more instructed in knowledge, and more diligent in service—unless we seek to have more zeal and fervency, we shall find that, in standing still, we lose the presence of the Master, for it is only by following the Lord that we continue to walk with him. It will, therefore, strike us on how walking with a person is an excellent figure for communion with him and how the expression “walking with God” is the best expression for fellowship with God. Hence, our text implies by its form that two cannot walk together unless they are agreed. And it teaches us, therefore, that unless we are agreed with Christ, we cannot attain to the sweet state of communion with him.
3:6 “If a ram’s horn is blown in a city, aren’t people afraid? If a disaster occurs in a city, hasn’t the LORD done it?” We may lay aside inquiries into the second cause of disaster and focus on the first great cause who has done all. “Hasn’t the LORD done it?” He gave the breath, and he has taken it away; he molded the human form, and he has laid it prostrate in the dust; he has sent man, and he has said, “Return to the dust from where you were taken!” Notions have spread throughout the world and still thrive in our age that seek to banish God and make him a stranger in the midst of his own works. God must have done this thing, or else we are driven to some other alternative. How did this calamity come about? Should we suppose it to be by chance? Some are foolish enough to believe that events happen without divine predestination and that different calamities transpire without the overruling hand or the direct agency of God. It would be sad for us if chance had done it. What would we be if we were left to chance? We would be like poor mariners, put out to sea in an unsafe vessel without a chart and without a helm; we would know nothing of the port to which we might ultimately come; we would only feel that we were now the sport of the winds, the captives of the tempest, and might soon be the victims of the all-devouring deep. We would be travelers in a pathless waste, where there were no roads to direct us—travelers who might be overturned and overwhelmed at any moment, and our bleached bones left the victims of the tempest, unknown or forgotten by all. Thank God it is not so with us. Chance exists only in the heart of fools. We believe that everything that happens to us is ordered by the wise and tender will of him who is our Father and our friend; we see order in the midst of confusion; we see purposes accomplished where others discern fruitless wastes.
Some, on the other hand, run to another extreme, still forgetting their God. They deny the thought of chance, but they bend to the idea of fate. Some predestinarians are as far astray in their ideas as those who believe in chance without a God. For what is the “fate” of some men? It reminds me of one of those huge machines employed in the lead mines, where two wheels are always revolving and breaking the stones quarried from the pit. The stones at first lie at a distance, but they are continually moving nearer and nearer to the all-devouring mouth of the great wheels, and at last they are crushed and ground. Such is fate in the minds of some men. I thank God that while I believe in predestination, I know the difference between that and fate. Fate is predestination blind, demented, brainless, wandering about, achieving wondrous things without a purpose, overturning mountains, plucking up cedars by the roots, scattering firebrands, hurling deaths about, but all without an end. But predestination is a glorious thing. With many eyes it looks to the interests of God and his creatures, too; and although it says the thing must be, yet it must be because it is wise and right and just and kind. And though we may think it is the same in the end, yet to our hearts the differences are poles apart. Believe not in fate but in God. We should not say it was someone’s destiny but that it is God’s will. It was not a cruel and irresistible fate that snatched him away but a tender hand, finding that the due time was come, has taken him from evil to come.
SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL CORRUPTION
4Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan
who are on the hill of Samaria,
women who oppress the poor
and crush the needy,
who say to their husbands,
“Bring us something to drink.”
2 The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness:
Look, the days are coming A
when you will be taken away with hooks,
every last one of you with fishhooks.
3You will go through breaches in the wall,
each woman straight ahead,
and you will be driven along toward Harmon.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
4Come to Bethel and rebel;
rebel even more at Gilgal!
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tenths every three days.
5Offer leavened bread as a thank offering,
and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings,
for that is what you Israelites love to do!
This is the LORD’s declaration.
GOD’S DISCIPLINE AND ISRAEL’S APOSTASY
6I gave you absolutely nothing to eat B
in all your cities,
a shortage of food in all your communities,
yet you did not return to me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
7I also withheld the rain from you
while there were still three months until harvest.
I sent rain on one city
but no rain on another.
One field received rain
while a field with no rain withered.
8Two or three cities staggered
to another city to drink water
but were not satisfied,
yet you did not return to me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
9I struck you with blight and mildew;
the locust devoured
your many gardens and vineyards,
your fig trees and olive trees,
yet you did not return to me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
10I sent plagues like those of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I caused the stench of your camp
to fill your nostrils,
yet you did not return to me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
11I overthrew some of you
as I C overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were like a burning stick
snatched from a fire,
yet you did not return to me —
This is the LORD’s declaration.
12Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you,
and since I will do that to you,
Israel, prepare to meet your God!
13He is here:
the one who forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and reveals his thoughts to man,
the one who makes the dawn out of darkness
and strides on the heights of the earth.
The LORD, the God of Armies, is his name.
4:12 “Therefore, Israel, that is what I will do to you, and since I will do that to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God!” Sometimes the Lord’s people get out of the way of communion and fellowship with him. It was so with Israel in the day of Amos, yet here the Lord asserts himself to still be their God, for he says, “Prepare to meet your God.” As for those who are his people, he is still their God, and though they may have fallen into a cold condition of heart and are now walking in darkness and seeing no light, he calls them to meet him, for he desires to have their company. He has been chastening them again and again because they would not walk near to him, and he is prepared to chasten them yet more. But he will stay his hand if they will now come near to him. Remember that Eliphaz told Job to obey the injunction, “Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you” (Jb 22:21).
If one were to ask, “What shall we do in order to get ready to meet him?” I answer: Cast out the idols from your hearts. Love no one else and nothing else as you love him; but give him your whole body, soul, and spirit. Humble yourself before him. Come also with a firm reliance on his unchanging mercy, believing that though you have often forsaken him, he has never forsaken you. Look again to the precious blood of Jesus, which is the only way of access to the Father, and come sprinkled with it even now. Why should someone not come to him at once? God has the most delightful ways of suddenly blessing his people. I know what it is to rise from the depths of despair, away from the place where I was distracted with a thousand cares, sorrows, and sins, and to soar into the serene ether of perfect reconciliation with God and conscious fellowship with him.
LAMENTATION FOR ISRAEL
5Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel:
2She has fallen;
Virgin Israel will never rise again.
She lies abandoned on her land
with no one to raise her up.
3 For the Lord GOD says:
The city that marches out a thousand strong
will have only a hundred left,
and the one that marches out a hundred strong
will have only ten left in the house of Israel.
SEEK GOD AND LIVE
4 For the LORD says to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live!
5Do not seek Bethel
or go to Gilgal
or journey to Beer-sheba,
for Gilgal will certainly go
into exile,
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6Seek the LORD and live,
or he will spread like fire
throughout the house of Joseph;
it will consume everything
with no one at Bethel
to extinguish it.
7Those who turn justice into wormwood
also throw righteousness to the ground.
8The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns darkness A into dawn
and darkens day into night,
who summons the water of the sea
and pours it out over the surface of the earth —
the LORD is his name.
9He brings destruction B on the strong, C
and it falls on the fortress.
10They hate the one who convicts the guilty
at the city gate,
and they despise the one who speaks with integrity.
11Therefore, because you trample on the poor
and exact a grain tax from him,
you will never live in the houses of cut stone
you have built;
you will never drink the wine
from the lush vineyards
you have planted.
12For I know your crimes
are many
and your sins innumerable.
They oppress the righteous, take a bribe,
and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates.
13Therefore, those who have insight will keep silent A
at such a time,
for the days are evil.
14Pursue good and not evil
so that you may live,
and the LORD, the God
of Armies,
will be with you
as you have claimed.
15Hate evil and love good;
establish justice in the city gate.
Perhaps the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies, the Lord, says:
There will be wailing in all the public squares;
they will cry out in anguish B in all the streets.
The farmer will be called on to mourn,
and professional mourners C
to wail.
17There will be wailing in all the vineyards,
for I will pass among you.
The LORD has spoken.
THE DAY OF THE LORD
18Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD!
What will the day of the LORD be for you?
It will be darkness and not light.
19It will be like a man who flees from a lion
only to have a bear confront him.
He goes home and rests his hand against the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20Won’t the day of the LORD
be darkness rather than light,
even gloom without any brightness in it?
21I hate, I despise, your feasts!
I can’t stand the stench
of your solemn assemblies.
22Even if you offer me
your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
I will have no regard
for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.
23Take away from me the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24But let justice flow like water,
and righteousness, like an unfailing stream.
25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness? 26 But you have taken up D Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, E images you have made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.” The LORD, the God of Armies, is his name. He has spoken.
5:5 “Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.” These were the places where the calves and other idols were set up for the worship of God by means of visible symbols. Pure spiritual worship was ordained by God, but that was not enough for the idolatrous Israelites. They must set up the image of an ox, the emblem of power—not that they would worship the ox, they said, but that they might worship the God of power through that symbol. But they are absolutely forbidden by God—“Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them” (Ex 20:4-5). The first commandment forbids us to have any other God than Jehovah. The second forbids us to worship him through any emblem or symbol whatever.
A 5:8 Or turns the shadow of death
A 5:13 Or who are prudent will perish
B 5:16 Lit will say, “Alas! Alas! ”
C 5:16 Lit and those skilled in lamentation
E 5:26 LXX reads taken up the tent of Molech and the star of your god Rephan ; Ac 7:43
WOE TO THE COMPLACENT
6Woe to those who are at ease in Zion
and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria —
the notable people in this first of the nations,
those the house of Israel comes to.
2Cross over to Calneh and see;
go from there to great Hamath;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Is their territory larger than yours?
3You dismiss any thought of the evil day
and bring in a reign of violence.
4They lie on beds inlaid with ivory,
sprawled out on their couches,
and dine on lambs from the flock
and calves from the stall.
5They improvise songs A to the sound of the harp
and invent B their own musical instruments like David.
6They drink wine by the bowlful
and anoint themselves with the finest oils
but do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
7Therefore, they will now go into exile
as the first of the captives,
and the feasting of those who sprawl out
will come to an end.
ISRAEL’S PRIDE JUDGED
8 The Lord GOD has sworn by himself — this is the declaration of the LORD, the God of Armies:
I loathe Jacob’s pride
and hate his citadels,
so I will hand over the city and everything in it.
9 And if there are ten men left in one house, they will die. 10 A close relative C and burner D will remove his corpse E from the house. He will call to someone in the inner recesses of the house, “Any more with you? ”
That person will reply, “None.”
Then he will say, “Silence, because the LORD’s name must not be invoked.”
11 For the LORD commands:
The large house will be smashed to pieces,
and the small house to rubble.
12Do horses gallop on the cliffs?
Does anyone plow there with oxen? F
Yet you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood —
13you who rejoice over Lo-debar
and say, “Didn’t we capture Karnaim
for ourselves by our own strength? ”
14But look, I am raising up a nation
against you, house of Israel —
this is the declaration of the Lord,
the GOD of Armies —
and they will oppress you
from the entrance of Hamath A
to the Brook of the Arabah. B
6:1 “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion and to those who feel secure on the hill of Samaria—the notable people in this first of the nations, those the house of Israel comes to.” In itself it is not a fault to be at ease. It is a great blessing to be at ease in Zion in the healthy sense and meaning of that word. Is it not one of the invitations of Christ—“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28)? Is not this one of the promises made to the believer—“He will live a good life, and his descendants will inherit the land” (Ps 25:13)?
But it seems there is also another sense in which the word ease may be used. This is a carnal ease, a fleshly security. It is not the confidence of a man who is pardoned but the ease of a hardened wretch who has learned to despise the gallows. It is not the assurance of one who is on the rock but the ease of a senseless drunk whose house is tottering from its sandy foundations, and yet he riots at full speed. It is not the calm of a soul at peace with God but the ease of a madman, who, because he has hidden his sin from his own eyes, thinks he has concealed it from God. It is the ease and peace of one who has grown callous, hardened, brutalized, stupid, sullen, and careless, who has begun a sleep that may soon be broken, or else it will surely bring him where he shall make his bed in hell.
6:12 “Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does anyone plow there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.” The prophet is disagreeing with ungodly men on their pursuit of happiness where it can never be found. They were endeavoring to grow rich and great and strong by oppression. The prophet says, “You have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood.” They had transformed the judgment seat into a place where justice was bought and sold and the book of the law was made to be the instrument of deception and high-handed fraud. Yet, says the prophet, there is no gain to be gotten this way—no real profit, no true happiness. And truly, if there are any who try to content themselves with this world and hope to find a heaven in the midst of business and family without looking upward for it, they labor in vain. If anyone endeavors to find pleasure in sin and think it will go well with them if they despise the law of God and seek pleasure by breaking the natural laws which concern their bodies, they will find that they have made a great mistake. They might as well seek for roses in the caverns of the sea or look for pearls on the bare pavements of the city. They will find what their soul requires nowhere but in God. To seek after happiness in evil deeds is to plow a rock of granite. To labor after true prosperity by dishonest means is as useless as to till the sandy shore.
D 6:10 A burner of incense, a memorial fire, or a body; Hb obscure
F 6:12 Some emend to plow the sea
B 6:14 Probably the Valley of Zared at the southeast end of the Dead Sea
FIRST VISION: LOCUSTS
7The Lord GOD showed me this: He was forming a swarm of locusts at the time the spring crop first began to sprout — after the cutting of the king’s hay. 2 When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord GOD, please forgive! How will Jacob survive since he is so small? ”
3 The LORD relented concerning this. “It will not happen,” he said.
SECOND VISION: FIRE
4 The Lord GOD showed me this: The Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive since he is so small? ”
6 The LORD relented concerning this. “This will not happen either,” said the Lord GOD.
THIRD VISION: A PLUMB LINE
7 He showed me this: The Lord was standing there by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand. 8 The LORD asked me, “What do you see, Amos? ”
I replied, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said, “I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will no longer spare them:
9Isaac’s high places will be deserted,
and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam
with a sword.”
AMAZIAH’S OPPOSITION
10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words, 11 for Amos has said this: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go into exile from its homeland.’ ”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. Earn your living C and give your prophecies there, 13 but don’t ever prophesy at Bethel again, for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple.”
14 So Amos answered Amaziah, “I was D not a prophet or the son of a prophet; E rather, I was D a herdsman, and I took care of sycamore figs. 15 But the LORD took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ ”
16 Now hear the word of the LORD. You say:
Do not prophesy against Israel;
do not preach against the house of Isaac.
17 Therefore, this is what the LORD says:
Your wife will be a prostitute in the city,
your sons and daughters will fall by the sword,
and your land will be divided up
with a measuring line.
You yourself will die on pagan A soil,
and Israel will certainly go into exile
from its homeland.
7:4-6 “The Lord GOD showed me this: The Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. Then I said, ‘Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive since he is so small?’ The LORD relented concerning this. ‘This will not happen either,’ said the Lord GOD.” Having prayed concerning the locusts and God relented, this time the prophet saw the fire devouring the land—perhaps the fire of war that casts its blazing brand on peaceful dwellings. This fire, however, was something worse than that, for the deep itself seemed to be licked up by tongues of flame. So the prophet, in hearty sympathy with the afflicted people, cried again as he had done before, and the answer came, “This will not happen either, said the Lord GOD.” This ought to encourage us to make use of the position in which his grace has placed us and to cry earnestly to him to turn away his wrathful hand and have pity on us sinners. God grant that many of us may have such an intercessory spirit as that of Amos the herdsman-prophet.
FOURTH VISION: A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT
8The Lord GOD showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos? ”
QUOTE 8:1-2
There is a ripening in holiness till we are gathered by the hand of Jesus for heaven and a ripening in sin till we are swept away with the rough hand of death and are cast away into the rottenness of destruction!
I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” B
The LORD said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel; I will no longer spare them. 3 In that day the temple C songs will become wailing” — this is the Lord GOD’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! Silence! ”
4Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
5asking, “When will the New Moon be over
so we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath,
so we may market wheat?
We can reduce the measure
while increasing the price D
and cheat with dishonest scales.
6We can buy the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and even sell the chaff! ”
7 The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: E
I will never forget all their deeds.
8Because of this, won’t the land quake
and all who dwell in it mourn?
All of it will rise like the Nile;
it will surge and then subside
like the Nile in Egypt.
9And in that day —
this is the declaration
of the Lord GOD —
I will make the sun go down at noon;
I will darken the land in the daytime.
10I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will cause everyone A to wear sackcloth
and every head to be shaved.
I will make that grief
like mourning for an only son
and its outcome like a bitter day.
11Look, the days are coming —
this is the declaration
of the Lord GOD —
when I will send a famine through the land:
not a famine of bread or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the LORD.
12People will stagger from sea to sea
and roam from north to east
seeking the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it.
13In that day the beautiful young women,
the young men also, will faint from thirst.
14Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria
and say, “As your god lives, Dan,”
or, “As the way B,C of Beer-sheba lives” —
they will fall, never to rise again.
8:1-2 “The Lord GOD showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. He asked me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I replied, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ The LORD said to me, ‘The end has come for my people Israel; I will no longer spare them.’” There are no hard words in the herdsman’s language and no great mysteries in the herdsman’s vision. There is a basket of fruit so ripe it has been gathered, and it is a sort of fruit—summer fruit—that will not keep until the winter but must be eaten at once. Amos sees at once that God’s purposes were now ripe with regard to his people, Israel, and the nation itself had become ripe in its sin—so ripe that it must be destroyed. It teaches us, in these modern times, that there is a ripeness of men as well as of summer fruit; there is a ripening in holiness till we are gathered by the hand of Jesus for heaven and a ripening in sin till we are swept away with the rough hand of death and are cast away into the rottenness of destruction!
B 8:2 In Hb the word for summer fruit sounds like the word for end.
D 8:5 Lit reduce the ephah and make the shekel great
FIFTH VISION: THE LORD BESIDE THE ALTAR
9I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
Strike the capitals of the pillars
so that the thresholds shake;
knock them down on the heads of all the people.
Then I will kill the rest of them with the sword.
None of those who flee will get away;
none of the fugitives will escape.
2If they dig down to Sheol,
from there my hand will take them;
if they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3If they hide
on the top of Carmel,
from there I will track them down
and seize them;
if they conceal themselves
from my sight on the sea floor,
from there I will command
the sea serpent to bite them.
4And if they are driven
by their enemies into captivity,
from there I will command
the sword to kill them.
I will keep my eye on them
for harm and not for good.
5The Lord, the GOD of Armies —
he touches the earth;
it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn;
all of it rises like the Nile
and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.
6He builds his upper chambers
in the heavens
and lays the foundation of his vault
on the earth.
He summons the water of the sea
and pours it out over the surface of the earth.
The LORD is his name.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF JUDGMENT
7Israelites, are you not like the Cushites to me?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
Didn’t I bring Israel from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor, D
and the Arameans from Kir?
8Look, the eyes of the Lord GOD
are on the sinful kingdom,
and I will obliterate it
from the face of the earth.
However, I will not totally destroy
the house of Jacob —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
9for I am about to give the command,
and I will shake the house of Israel
among all the nations,
but not a pebble will fall to the ground.
10All the sinners among my people
who say: “Disaster will never overtake A
or confront us,”
will die by the sword.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESTORATION
11In that day
I will restore the fallen shelter of David:
I will repair its gaps,
restore its ruins,
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
12so that they may possess
the remnant of Edom
and all the nations
that bear my name — B
this is the declaration of the LORD; he will do this.
13Look, the days are coming —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
when the plowman will overtake the reaper
and the one who treads grapes,
the sower of seed.
The mountains will drip with sweet wine,
and all the hills will flow with it.
QUOTE 9:13
God leads free will in sweet captivity, and his free grace is all-triumphant.
14I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. C
They will rebuild and occupy ruined cities,
plant vineyards and drink their wine,
make gardens and eat their produce.
15I will plant them on their land,
and they will never again be uprooted
from the land I have given them.
The LORD your God has spoken.
9:13 “Look, the days are coming—this is the LORD’s declaration—when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the one who treads grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it.” What is the doctrinal lesson taught in this text, and what does it teach us about revival? I think it is this—that God is absolute monarch over the hearts of people. God does not say here if people are willing, but he gives an absolute promise of a blessing. As much as to say, “I have the key of men’s hearts; I can induce the plowman to overtake the reaper; I am Master of the soil—however hard and rocky it may be, I can break it, and I can make it fruitful.” When God promises to bless his church and to save sinners, he does not add, “If the sinners are willing to be saved.” No, God leads free will in sweet captivity, and his free grace is all-triumphant. Sure, people do have a free will, and God does not violate it; but the free will is sweetly bound with chains of the divine love until it becomes freer than it ever was before. The Lord, when he means to save sinners, does not stop to ask them whether they want to be saved—but like a rushing mighty wind, the divine influence sweeps away every obstacle; the unwilling heart bends before the forceful gust of grace, and sinners who would not yield are made to yield by God!