Amos 7:10-17 - Homiletics

Machination foiled by fearless candour.

Amos had deserved well of Israel. He took a more practical interest in their welfare than any other man from the king down. He saw their sin, and lamented it; their impending ruin. and would have averted it; their one way of escape, and pressed its adoption strenuously. Had they not been as blind as besotted, they would have revered him as a national benefactor. But the reformation he preached meant the abandonment of rooted habits and the harassing of vested interests in sin, neither of which would be so much as named. Accordingly, Amos anticipated the experience of all reformers since, in being assailed by a policy of falsehood, backed by force. We have here—

I. A MEDDLING PRIEST . "The priest of Bethel" was the chief idol priest at the sanctuary of the golden calf there. His position and functions were in profane mimicry of those of the high priest at Jerusalem. In making this charge:

1 . He appeals to force . The tyrant Jeroboam was the embodiment of irresponsible power in Israel. Idolatry is the religion of brute force. Its appeal to the strong arm as the only argument worth using is characteristic. Error eschews argument. The kingdom of darkness instinctively fears the light. What is an outrage on reason takes its shelter fitly behind a sword. "My kingdom is not of this world;" "The weapons of your warfare are not carnal." The true religion makes its appeal to truth. The religion that appeals to the sword is prima facie false.

2 . He is prompted by jealousy. He had a vested interest in the national idolatry. To abolish it would be to take the bread out of his mouth. Like the chief priests and scribes with Christ, and the Ephesian silversmiths with Paul, Amaziah was striking for his livelihood. "He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions." Conflicting self-interest, actual or supposed, is a constant and effective obstacle in the way of the religious life. It is the preliminary necessity of leaving all in act or spirit that makes the followers of the Lord so few.

3 . He makes a lying accusation. (Verse 11.) Amos had not really made either statement. That applied to Jeroboam had been made about Jeroboam's house. That about Israel had been accompanied by a call to repentance, and a conditional promise of escape, which modified its character altogether. The charge, therefore, consists of a lie and a half-truth, and is an attempt to work on the king's personal fears, by construing into a conspiracy against his kingdom and life what Amos did to save both. For this now stale device persecutors in all ages have shown a characteristic predilection. Christ was calumniously accused of speaking against Caesar ( Luke 23:2 ; John 19:12 ; Matthew 22:21 ). Paul was falsely charged with "doing contrary to the decrees of Caesar," and "stirring up sedition among the Jews" ( Acts 17:7 ; Acts 24:5 ). And often since has the assertion of liberty of conscience been construed into rebellion against the civil power. Falsehood and violence are the traditional propaganda of the kingdom of darkness.

4 . He judges the prophet ' s morals by the standard of his own. (Verse 12.) His relation to his own office was utterly sordid. He held the office of priest for the "bit of bread" it secured him. And he assumes that Amos is like himself. It is thus that the saint "judges the world, yet himself is judged of no man." Forming an estimate of the righteous, the wicked leave conscience out of the computation, and so vitiate the finding.

5 . He condemns idolatry by the argument he uses in its defence. (Verse 13.) "The king's sanctuary," set up and consecrated by the king, maintained by his authority, and subordinated to his purposes. The national idolatry was a creature of the king. Its claim to be a religion was no stronger than his claim to be a god. For religious ordinances state authority is so inadequate as only to expose them to suspicion—the suspicion of adjustment to a state policy rather than to the Word and glory of God.

II. A FAITHFUL PROPHET . Like every true man, Amos was:

1 . Humble. (Verse 14.) He remembers and confesses his lowly origin. He asks no respect but such as might be due to his native condition. He treats the prophetic office as an entirely unmerited dignity. His exercise of it was disinterested. He was neither a professional prophet nor the son of one. His prophesying was an incident, and the trust of Divine grace. The man whom office spoils was unfit for it. The religion that is puffed up by employment in God's work was never intelligent, or of a high order.

2 . Loyal to his Divine commission. (Verse 15.) In a believing life God is all. His will is the supreme interest and exclusive rule. God has chosen the man, and that means unconditional consecration. God has commissioned him, and he makes the fact the basis of his whole life programme. "I must work the works of him that sent me." That is a comprehensive life maxim. In the spiritual circle nothing is held supremely important but that God's work be done.

3 . Zealous. Amos made the salvation of Israel a personal concern and his life effort. He could think, speak, be active about nothing else. "The land could not bear his words," so vehement were they and so persistent. The advocacy that will take no refusal, that must be either yielded to or silenced, is that which alone beseems the stupendous importance of the cause of God. "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." If this is not an all-absorbing passion, it is not after the one Example.

4 . Bold. (Verses 16, 17.) Prohibition is treated as a challenge. It only leads him to repeat and emphasize. There is no bravado in this, but only a supreme regard for the principle, "We ought to obey God rather than men." The King's messenger, on the King's business, must brook obstruction from none. The best soldier is the boldest. Perfect devotion to and faith in his Captain speaks in absolute fearlessness in his service.

5 . Explicit. (Verse 17.) The heathen oracles always "paltered in a double sense." After the event their deliverances could be reconciled with whatever happened. But the prophet, delivering God's message, is sure of his ground. He specifies details with confidence, for no jot or tittle of the Divine Word can fail. As in other cases, the fulfilment of this particular detail of the prophecy is not recorded ( Isaiah 22:17 , Isaiah 22:18 ; Jeremiah 29:22 ), nor could it be expected to be in the condensed account of the Scripture narrative. "Scripture hath no leisure to relate all which befalls those of the viler sort." Yet the broad fact of the Captivity and exile, accompanied by all the horrors of Oriental warfare, forms a constructive record of the events.

III. A HARROWING PICTURE . (Verse 17.) These are the horrors born of idolatry. When Amaziah came to suffer them in his family he would know practically what his chosen idolatry was, and made of men.

1 . Family dishonour. "Wife dishonoured," etc. A common atrocity ( Isaiah 13:16 ; Zechariah 14:2 ) , and to all concerned the most diabolically cruel conceivable. Between this crime and idolatry there are analogies, and probably affinities, in virtue of which the one is figuratively called by the name of the other ( Jeremiah 3:9 ; Ezekiel 23:37 ). The patron of the one is fitly punished by being made the victim of the other. The conduct of Turkish troops in recent wars, in respect to this matter, is a commentary on the assertion that Mohammedanism is a valuable protest against idolatry.

2 . Family impoverishment. A Hebrew's property is inalienable. If he lost it by mismanagement, it reverted to his family at the jubilee. But the Assyrian would know nothing of jubilees. The chance of disgorgement was small when he had eaten up the inheritance.

3 . Family extermination. We all like to perpetuate our name and family. The Hebrew had this feeling in almost unparalleled strength. To die childless was with him the sum of all disaster. What more appropriate than that it should wait on idolatry, "the sum of all sin"?

4 . Dishonoured death. Dying in a strange country, both Jacob and Joseph made provision for being buried in their own land ( Genesis 47:30 ; Genesis 50:25 ; Hebrews 11:22 ). No Jew could die happy expecting burial in a heathen country. Exposure to such a fate would cap the climax of Amaziah's wretchedness.

5 . Exile for all Israel They had polluted their land, and were unworthy longer to remain in it. They had become assimilated to the heathen in their character and ways, and would be associated with them yet on closer terms. It was a holiday heathenism they were in love with, and they would be cured of their penchant by a sight of it in its working dress.

IV. A CLENCHING ARGUMENT . "The word of Jehovah." It was Amos who spoke it; but the word was God's. And it cannot be broken. The Divine truth is pledged to it. The Divine energy is lodged in it. The Divine purpose is couched in it, The thing it affirms is potentially a fact.