Amos 1:2 - Homiletics

The thunder that both frights and smites.

These words are an echo of Joel 3:16 . We hence infer the continuity of the two prophetic messages. The one strikes the keynote, and the other takes up and continues the strain.

I. DIVINE INTERVENTION . This is to end a period of quiescence. It is:

1 . Intervention. "Utters his voice." The silence of God is often treated as equivalent to inaction ( Psalms 28:1 ; Psalms 50:21 ). So his speech would mean his becoming active, whether for good or for evil. Here the breaking silence is for evil. God bears long with his open enemies, and longer still with his seeming friends. But inactivity does not show indifference nor inattention. It is simply forbearance, that will not strike till it must. Action delayed is no less certain, and will be no less vigorous for the delay.

2 . Angry intervention. Shall "roar," like a lion ready to devour. Not till his anger burneth sore does God break the silence. But when he breaks it he does so emphatically. He thunders with his voice. His roar expresses wrath, and preludes a stroke; and is thus power and light in one ( Job 37:5 ; Job 40:9 ).

3 . Forcible intervention. God's speech is followed by action. It is more; it is accompanied by action. It is more still; it is itself action. Creative power, preserving power, redeeming power, each goes forth in a word ( Psalms 33:6 , Psalms 33:9 ; Matthew 9:2 ). Christ says, "Be clean," "Come forth;" and the sick are whole, and the dead live at his word. In speaking, God acts. The thunder of his voice is loaded with the electricity of his power. The vehicle of the Divine active energy is, in fact, a word.

II. GOD 'S BASIS OF OPERATIONS . God intervenes in character, and along established lines. He operates:

1 . From Jerusalem . This is God's own city, the metropolis of his earthly kingdom. Nothing could be more appropriate. Going forth to war, the king marches from his capital. There he has his magazine, his arsenal, and his headquarters. From thence he can bear down resistlessly on foes from whatever side, with all the resources of his kingdom.

2 . From Zion. God's seat and citadel within his city. The place he loves and chooses and honours above all others ( Psalms 87:2 ; Psalms 132:13 ; Psalms 48:12 , Psalms 48:13 ). Here he has made his dwelling place ( Psalms 68:16 ; Psalms 132:14 ). The place out of which go forth salvation and destruction. The place out of which the things that come are perfect after their kind. If they be blessings, there are no others so sweet; if curses, no others so stern. Zion is the beating heart of the spiritual world, which sends forth pure or poisoned blood to each greatest and least extremity.

3 . From the temple. This is not mentioned, but it is necessarily implied. The glory of Jerusalem was Zion, and the glory of Zion (using the word in its broad sense) was God's house. This was his sanctuary. There he dwelt in symbolic presence. There he revealed himself in symbolic portraiture. There he operated in unparalleled energy. Thence accordingly we might expect his activity to issue ( Psalms 20:2 ). There, too, was his mercy seat, from which judgment never came till every merciful expedient had been tried, but would come then with the fury of outraged goodness. Now, Jerusalem and Zion and God's house are each a type, and their common anti-type is the Church of Christ. And this is God's base of spiritual operations through all time ( Isaiah 2:3 ; Luke 24:47 ). He dwells in it ( Acts 7:38 ; Ephesians 1:23 ), speaks by it ( Ephesians 3:10 ), operates through it ( Daniel 2:44 ), and conquers in it ( Daniel 7:13 , Daniel 7:22 ).

III. AFTER THE CAMPAIGN . God makes no fruitless expedition. The armies of his judgments leave desolation in their track.

1 . The pastures wither. God's voice, as a figure for meteorological phenomena, is often spoken of as changing the surface of the earth ( Psalms 29:3-9 ). Here it stands for many agencies, including these, and especially drought. Nature is one, and if any part suffers the other parts suffer with it ( Jeremiah 25:36 ). Amos, as a herdsman, thinks naturally first of the calamity as it would affect the pastures by which he made his living. God's judgments strike each man in his special interest. It is as menacing this interest chiefly that they are feared.

2 . The head of Carmel is dried up . Carmel was in the north, and the pastures in the prophet's mind were in the south. The enumeration, therefore, points to the withering as prevailing over the entire land. Carmel was one of the richest and best-watered spots in Palestine. When it was withered, all other places must have been scorched. God's judgments come seldom, and with tardy foot; but they are thorough, and make an end of their work ( 1 Samuel 3:12 : Isaiah 60:12 ). Nor was this a passing visitation. It remains in its leading characteristics till the present day. Carmel, as its name implies, was rich in vineyards. Now there is only scrub, and the debris of ruined walls. The "head" is dried up, that might once have been said to "drop down new wine."

Verse 3-ch. 2:3

A hexade of woes.

The heathen in judgment : general features. In these verses is denounced a series of six woes, on six of the oppressing nations, round about the land of Israel. Each woe has characteristics peculiar to itself, but there are points common to them all to which it will be well to make preliminary reference.

I. IN EVERY CASE JUDGMENT IS THE ACT OF GOD . "I will send;" "I will kindle" ( Amos 2:4 , Amos 2:7 , Amos 2:10 , Amos 2:12 ). It is not fate, whose "winged shaft" is but a phantasy. It is not chance, which is but another name for inscrutable direction. It is not idols, the guesswork likenesses of imaginary things. It is not natural laws, which am simply forces put into things by their Maker. It is God—God in intelligence of device and energy of execution, who "creates evil" ( Isaiah 45:7 )—the evil of calamitous events.

II. IN EVERY CASE GOD 'S JUDGMENT IS THE COMPLEMENT OF MAN 'S SIN . "Because they have threshed;" "Because they carried away." The connection between human sin and human suffering is original, constant, and necessary. They came together, dwell together, and will die together. And just as our common suffering is the abiding result of our common sinfulness, so special suffering connects itself somewhere with special sin. Its relation to the sin, whether as a punishment, a deterrent, or a chastisement, is often obscure. The particular sin, or even the particular sinner, can seldom be pointed to with certainty. There is a warning against judging harshly of the specially afflicted ( Luke 13:4 , Luke 13:5 ). Yet the plain teaching of Scripture and experience and reason is that sin has "brought death into the world, and all our woe" ( Romans 5:12 ; Job 4:7 , Job 4:8 ).

III. IN EVERY CASE THE SIN SELECTED FOR PUNISHMENT IS THAT COMMITTED AGAINST GOD 'S PEOPLE . In five cases out of the six the sin was committed directly against Israel, and in the sixth case it was committed against their ally. God loves the world as a whole, but he loves his people best ( John 3:16 ; John 14:23 ). He gives to the wicked "life and breath and all things," but he gives to his saints the wicked, and all they have ( 1 Corinthians 3:21 , 1 Corinthians 3:22 ; Ephesians 1:22 ). He avenges the ill done even to the sinner, but he avenges more sternly, because he personally feels, the ill done to his people ( Zechariah 2:8 , Zechariah 2:9 ). Their persons are more sacred than those of others ( Matthew 10:30 ), and their lives more precious in his sight ( Psalms 72:14 ; Psalms 116:15 ). Accordingly, the worst form of murder is martyrdom ( Luke 18:7 , Luke 18:8 ), and the worst form of theft is sacrilege (Ma Amos 3:8 ).

IV. JUDGMENT IS PRECIPITATED BY PERSEVERANCE IN SIN . "For three, transgressions and for four" is the invariable formula. The expression (see Proverbs 30:15 , Proverbs 30:18 , Proverbs 30:21 ; Job 5:19 ; Ecclesiastes 11:2 ) means lot many transgressions, culminating in a final one. Persistent sin means cumulative guilt. Drop is added to drop till at last the cup is full. The tendency toward sin God warns; the first sin he rebukes; the second he threatens; the third he menaces with uplifted hand; the fourth he smites. God bears long with the wicked, but they may sin once too often. Your past offences have escaped, your next one may endanger the Divine forbearance, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you."

V. IN EVERY CASE THE EXTREME OF GUILT INVOLVES THE EXTREME OF PUNISHMENT OR ENTIRE DESTRUCTION . This is inflicted by fire, the most destructive element in each case. God employed fire in many of his most startling miracles ( Genesis 19:24 ; Exodus 9:23 ; Numbers 11:1 ; Numbers 16:35 ; Le Numbers 10:2 ; 2 Kings 1:10 , 2 Kings 1:12 ). In the language of figure it is the ideal destructive agent ( Isaiah 4:4 ; Isaiah 9:5 ). In prophecy, too, fire is or symbolizes the agent that destroys the beast, the false prophet, and all the wicked ( Daniel 7:11 ; Revelation 19:20 ; Revelation 20:15 ). To the impenitent, fire will be a destroying, not a cleansing power. It points onward to the vengeance of eternal fire, which will be the fitting retribution of sin at last.