Amos 7:4-6 - Homiletics

The vision of consuming fire.

The prophet's vision goes on, and the situation in it becomes more critical. One woe is averted only for a worse to take its place. The Divine avenging hosts remain in battleline. They return to the attack with renewed vigour. For the fusillade is substituted the booming of the great guns. Escaping as by the skin of their teeth from the wasting locust, incorrigible Israel are met in the prophet's eye by the devouring fire. In connection with this second scene in the panoramic vision notice—

I. GOD CONTENDING BY FIRE . Again and again is it so in Scripture.

1 . It is the most destructive element in nature. It destroys all comfort, inflicting intense pain. It destroys all life, no animal or vegetable organism being capable of enduring it. It destroys the very form of organic matter, reducing it to its original elements. It destroys with unparalleled rapidity and thoroughness almost anything it attacks.

2. It is the element used and to be used by God in bringing about the greatest catastrophes . It was in the fire shower from heaven that Sodom was overwhelmed ( Genesis 19:24 ). Fire "very grievous" was mingled with the plague of hail which smote the land of Egypt ( Exodus 9:24 ). It was the fire of the Lord that burnt up complaining Israel at Taberah, and also Korah and his company in their gainsaying ( Numbers 11:1 ; Numbers 26:10 ). By fire from heaven were Ahaziah's two captains and their fifties consumed before Elijah ( 2 Kings 1:10-12 ). It was by bringing down fire that James and John proposed to destroy the inhospitable Samaritans ( Luke 9:54 ). And it is in a lake burning with fire that the beast, the false prophet, and all the finally impenitent shall be overwhelmed at last.

3 . It is in Scripture a frequent emblem of active power. God the Father in wrath ( Deuteronomy 4:24 ; Deuteronomy 9:3 ), God the Son in judgment ( 2 Thessalonians 1:8 ), God the Holy Ghost in grace, are each so figured ( Luke 3:16 ). Indwelling sin is fire ( 1 Corinthians 7:9 ; 2 Corinthians 11:29 ); the busy mischief-making tongue is fire ( James 3:6 ); God's Word is a fire ( Jeremiah 23:29 ); his ministers are "burning ones" (seraphim); spiritual life is fire ( Luke 12:49 ); affliction is fire ( 1 Corinthians 3:13 ; 1 Peter 4:12 ); and the misery of the finally lost is fire ( Mark 9:44 ). A God contending by fire is a God putting forth the extreme of destructive energy.

II. JUDGMENT DRINKING UP THE GREAT DEEP . As the fire is figurative, so probably is the "deep." It is the heathen world. God's judgment which includes this is:

1 . Discriminating. "The deep." The sweltering, restless sea is a fit symbol of the wicked in their unrest of heart and rebellion against God ( Isaiah 57:20 ; Psalms 46:3 ). These are the natural prey of the eagles of judgment. They deserve it, provoke it, and are its characteristic objects. The righteous may suffer sometimes with the wicked, but the ungodly cannot escape.

2 . Extensive. "The great deep." Not merely "wells," which are individuals ( 2 Peter 2:7 ), nor "rivers," which are nations ( Isaiah 8:7 ; Jeremiah 46:7 , Jeremiah 46:8 ), nor "seas," which are races ( Psalms 65:7 ; Isaiah 17:12 ), but "the great deep," or rebellious humanity in its entire extent, shall be contended with and destroyed. When the last word has been spoken God's argument against sin will be overwhelming; and all the ground covered by sin will have been covered also by judgment.

III. JUDGMENT EATING UP " THE PORTION " DOOMED . "Probably the definite portion foreappointed by God to captivity and desolation" (Pusey).

1 . God ' s acts are coextensive with his decrees. His plan has reference to all events, and these in turn exactly embody his plan. He had devoted beforehand a definite number to judgment; and all these, and these only, would it eat up in the day of its falling. No tares escape, nor is any wheat burned. "The Lord knoweth them that are his."

2 . To be nominally God ' s people establishes no special relation to him. Outward relations, if they have not inward relations to which they correspond, are nothing. Mere names and semblances leave unchanged the underlying realities which God regards, and to which his dealings are adjusted. A hollow profession is simply unbelief plus hypocrisy.

3 . God ' s judgments on his professing people are not for annihilation, but for weeding out. The "portion" was not all Israel ( Isaiah 10:20-22 ; Isaiah 37:31 , Isaiah 37:32 ). After it had been devoured, a remnant would remain. Judgments are the gardener's knife; they prune out the worthless branches, but leave the tree. Exposure to the wind is not for destruction of the wheat, but for the scattering of the chaff. In the track of the fire is to be found all that is fireproof.

IV. THE LEGITIMATE MEASURE OF ASKING IN PRAYER . (Verse 5.) It seems a forlorn hope to offer such prayer. Yet here it is done by a man under the guidance of God's Spirit. In imitation of him:

1 . We may ask anything that is innocent. It may not be promised. No one else may have received it. It may be a thing utterly unlikely to be done. It may be what God is threatening not to do. Yet it is legitimate matter of prayer, and we need not despair of it. God cannot do less than he promises, but he may do more; and, as a matter of fact, he does much for which no explicit promise is to be found.

2 . We may ask any amount that can be enjoyed. God's is no niggard heart or hand. He has exhaustless store. He loves to see us filled and thoroughly furnished. Hence he giveth liberally, satisfies with his mercy, gives all we can receive, and more than we can ask or think. Economy in asking where there is infinity to draw on is modesty run mad.

3 . We may ask it up till the last moment. White, in the nature of things, answer is possible, request may be made. Who knows whether evil may not be averted until it has actually fallen? Besieged cities have been saved even after the garrison had thrown open the gates, and battles won after the ranks of the victors had begun to break. With God all things are possible, and by prayer he is always moved. Till the moment of death we may pray for life, for salvation till the moment of destruction.

4 . Having received, we may ask again and again. "Men ought always to pray." Prayer has reference to returning wants, and is normally a habit of soul. As often as we hunger we eat, and, on the same principle, as often as we need we pray. Continued prayer is matter of necessity, a command of God, and an instinct of the soul. "In everything by prayer and supplication," etc. Half a century later the mercy of God's dealings appeared. After ravaging the greater portion of the land, the Assyrians unaccountably withdrew, and left the capital untouched. The connection between Amos's prayer and the unwonted slackness of Tiglath-Pileser belongs to that region into which sense cannot penetrate, but which is air patent to the eye of faith.

V. THE MERCIFUL ASPECT OF GOD 'S THREATS . (Verse 6.) The perseverance of the prophet's prayer is justified by the event. God's threat is not executed. Judgment is arrested on the way. Does God, then, change? No; but circumstances do, and with them his adjusted mode of action. The unexecuted threat is not unmeaning nor unnecessary.

1 . It forewarns of the coming evil. When the black clouds rise we know the storm is brewing. So when God speaks we know he is going to act and how. A threat is a conditional prophecy. It tells us exactly what, in given circumstances, we may expect. Knowledge of the evil coming is a prerequisite to any measure of precaution.

2 . It thereby often turns from the path in which the evil lies. All actions have their proper issues, and whatever changes the one changes the other. God's judgments are directed against us as transgressors in a certain way. If we cease so to transgress the reason for them is gone, and they will not be sent. The knowledge of these two tarts operates as a powerful incentive to reformation, and so a means to the arrest of impending judgment. We face a different way when we adequately realize that we thereby face a different end.

3 . It displays God ' s character in a most art, active aspect. He warns before he strikes. He warns that he may not need to strike at all. His threats are the merciful heralds of his judgments, offering terms of peace before the stern hour of intervention arrives. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." A threat like that is only a promise in disguise. It speaks of a gracious heart which "wills not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."