Amos 9:4 - Homiletics

The lidless eye.

God is not an absentee. He sits at the helm of things. He administers the affairs of the world which he has made. All creatures he takes cognizance of, determines their destiny, controls their actions. His kingdom ruleth over all. And this rule is moral. Under it condition takes the colour of character. God is pure to the pure, froward to the froward ( Psalms 18:26 ). This transgressors know to their bitter cost.

I. GOD 'S EYE FOLLOWS THE WICKED . In one sense his "eyes are upon the righteous" ( Psalms 34:15 ). On the wicked they rest in a very different sense.

1 . In heedfulness. Divine omniscience is an uncomfortable fact which the wicked try not to realize. "They seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord." Their whole aim is to get away from him; to be able to think thoughts he shall not know, and cherish desires he shall not sift, and do works he shall not observe ( John 3:20 ; Isaiah cf. 27). But the project is futile ( Jeremiah 23:24 ; Psalms 33:13 ; Proverbs 15:3 ). God is everywhere, sees everything, fills heaven and earth. No dispensation of inadvertency is possible. God will not ignore. He cannot be inattentive. Events of whatever kind, and everywhere, are infallibly submitted to his cognizance as the movements of the clouds above are faithfully mirrored in the glassy lake. He fills all things, and all that happens happens in his presence.

2 . In perfect insight. "I the Lord do search the heart." Noticing things, God sees them through and through, discerns their character, and appraises their moral value. The mind and heart of man are no mystery to him. No slightest motion of either eludes his perfect knowledge. The purpose before it comes forth in action, the thought before it has matured into a purpose, the fancy before it has taken shape in evil desire,—all these are open to his eye. Even to the heathen he was totus oculus , a Being "all eye." He knows all things eternally, immeasurably, immutably, and by a single act; and men and their works and words and wishes are continually in his sight.

3 . In uncompromising displeasure. God is passible. He can be affected by the actions of his creatures. His possession of genuine character ensures his genuine feeling. The moral perfection of that character ensures his feeling appropriately. "There must be so much or such kind of passibility in him that he will feel toward everything as it is, and will be diversely affected by diverse things according to their quality" (Bushnell). Therefore "he is angry with the wicked every day." Sin is to him as smoke to the eyes and vinegar to the teeth. It pains him inevitably, and leads to that infinitely pure recoil of his nature from evil, and antagonism to it, in which his wrath consists.

II. GOD 'S INFLUENCES FOLLOW HIS EYE . "I set mine eye upon them for evil," etc. God's look brings evil consequences where it falls on evil things.

1 . To feel is faith God to act . Much human feeling comes to nothing. No action is taken on it. Its very existence may remain unspoken. Not so with God. It is a result of his perfection that his mental or moral attitude toward any object is his active attitude toward it also. Disposition associates itself inevitably with suitable action. Feeling against sin, he must also act against it. His very feeling is equivalent to action, for his volition is power, and to will a thing is to bring it to pass.

2 . God ' s action exactly answers to his feeling. If he regard sin as evil, he will not treat it as good. His attitude towards it must be one all round, and therefore rigorous all round. And so it is. Whatever mystery may be about certain cases, there is no mystery about the connection between all suffering and sin. In sickness, in sorrow, in anxiety, in doubt, in all forms and degrees of pain, God's eye and hand are on sinners for evil. Until sin becomes congenial to his nature, it cannot become satisfactory to the sinner.

III. GOD 'S MERCY WARNS THE SINNER OF BOTH . He makes no secret of his attitude and way in reference to sin. Both are made known to those whom they most concern.

1 . This course is merciful. It gives the sinner an advantage. He sees the moral quality of sin as hateful in God's sight, and its inevitable result as provoking his hostile action. He can neither sin ignorantly nor incur the penalty unawares. Forewarned, it is his fault if he is not forearmed.

2 . It is moral . It tends to deter from sin, and so to save from its penal consequences. The thought that it is under God's eye ought to make sin impossible, and does make it more difficult. The knowledge that it ends inevitably in ruin does much to stay the transgressor's hand.

3 . It is judicial . Sin done consciously under God's eye, and deliberately in defiance of his wrath, is specially guilty. The warning which being heeded might have deterred from sinning will greatly aggravate the guilt of it if disregarded. The truth will be, as we treat it, a buoy lifting us out of the sinful sea, or a millstone sinking us deeper in its devouring waters.