Amos 1:9-10 - Homiletics

The woe against Tyre.

Tyre stands for Phoenicia, of which it was the capital. It was a renowned and very ancient city. Greatest, richest, proudest, and most luxurious, perhaps, of all the cities of its time, it passed through vicissitudes which were equally beyond the common lot. As with most ancient capitals, there were points at which its path and that of Israel crossed, involving that there should be corresponding points where they would recross, and on these the prophet has intently fixed his eye. Of the denunciation against it observe—

I. IT SINNED IN CHARACTER . The Phoenicians were a commercial people, and theirs was a commercial sin. "They delivered up the whole captivity to Edom." They did not make war, nor take prisoners, but they traded in them as slaves—bought them probably from the Syrians and sold them to the Ionians ("Grecians," Joel 3:6 ). For this their woe is denounced; and thus early was branded with condemnation "the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold a property in man." The image of God is not a thing to be trafficked in. "The law" is against men stealers ( 1 Timothy 1:10 ) among other criminals. A man's liberty is precious to him next to life itself. Slavery is the intolerable theft of his manhood and moral agency, and is contrary to the entire spirit of the Bible.

II. IT SINNED AGAINST A COVENANT . This was no doubt the covenant between Hiram and Solomon ( 1 Kings 5:12 ). It was a covenant of peace, of which the trading in Hebrew captives was a flagrant violation. This circumstance made the detestable traffic doubly guilty. It was two sins in one—perjury added on to oppression. And all Christian sin is in this red, poet its counterpart. The believer is in covenant with God. He has said, "This God is my God forever and ever," etc. Any after sin is, therefore, a breach both of God's Law and his own vow. The believing sinner has broken through more restraints and violated more laws than the unbelieving, and so is double dyed in guilt. The difficulty of bringing such to repentance again ( Hebrews 6:4-6 ) is no doubt closely connected with this fact.

III. THE FORGOTTEN COVENANT WAS A BROTHERLY COVENANT . This circumstance aggravated the guilt of the violation. Ties are strong in proportion as they are amicable. The electric core of friendship in the cable of a mutual tie gives it a character all its own. The breaking of it means to both parties more of change and loss in proportion as this core is relatively large. The Phoenicio-Israelitish covenant was brotherly:

1 . In its origin . It was the outcome of brotherly feeling and affection previously existing. "Hiram," we read, "was ever a lover of David" ( 1 Kings 5:1 ), and in token of it he had voluntarily sent materials and workmen, and had built him a house ( 2 Samuel 5:11 ). And the feeling was evidently transferred to Solomon. Hiram and he were on such cordial terms that he asked for, and Hiram readily sent him, skilful Sidonian woodmen to hew trees, and an accomplished Tyrian graver to act as foreman over his own workmen in carving, engraving, embroidery, and doing other cunning work for the temple ( 2 Chronicles 2:3-16 ). Solomon in turn gave Hiram wheat and oil in liberal measure for provisioning his house, and the outcome of these cordial relations was that "they two made a league together" ( 1 Kings 5:11 , 1 Kings 5:12 ), the brotherly Covenant referred to. The covenant was brotherly also:

2 . In its working. It was renewed from time to time with various additions, and was long kept by both parties. Israel never made war against Tyre, nor broke the letter or spirit of their fraternal league. The heartless sin of Tyre was, therefore, not only a violation of the covenant provisions, but of the intimate and cordial relations which it both expressed and fostered. It was a sin against both vows and close relations, and put on thus an aspect of double criminality.

3 . The covenant had even a religious aspect. Hiram grounds the good will and help, extended to Solomon, on the facts that the people he ruled and the house he was going to build were God's, as well as on the fact that he had a special gift of wisdom from above ( 2 Chronicles 2:11 , 2 Chronicles 2:12 ). His covenant was thus made with Israel as God's people, and in testimony of his belief in Jehovah as the true God, and his desire to advance his glory. This fact adds much to the significance and solemnity of the covenant, and so of the breach of it. What is done in God's name and as an act of homage to him is done under the highest sanctions possible. The commonest act is glorified, the smallest act becomes great in the greatness of its underlying principle. And as is the doing so is the undoing. The higher the promiser has risen, the lower has the violator fallen. Tyre's sin implied and sealed a large amount of previous deterioration, and so the more emphatically sealed her doom.