Amos 9:2-4
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
What a variety, what a reduplication of expression in order to represent as utterly impossible that the parties who are here threatened could escape the vengeance of their God! It matters not where they might be, or whither they might betake themselves, the agency of vengeance is always close at hand. These words assert to us the greatness, the certainty, the ubiquity of Divine vengeance.
I. Consider the text as illustrated in the case of the Jews. If it were specially in the destruction of Jerusalem that these threatenings were accomplished, it is easy to show that at the same time, as well before as after, vengeance, as though by a kind of natural instinct, seized on the Jews wheresoever they were found. The history of the Jews, since their exile from Jerusalem, has been a history of fierce wrongs, disgraceful to the nations of the earth, of extortion, contempt, hatred, cruelty; the history of a people which every other seemed anxious to exterminate, or to preserve only that they might oppress. The serpent and the sword seemed to start forth wheresoever the exiles were found.
II. The text has reference to all men as well as to the Jews. In the kind of instinct with which vengeance has appeared to follow the exiles of Judea; in the mysterious but indissoluble association between themselves and suffering; we have but the picture of what has been universally appointed to the exiles from paradise. They may cross the ocean and ascend the mountain and dive into the cavern, but can never hide themselves from conscience, which, armed with fearful powers, is always ready to put on them the stamp of offenders, and to exact from them some of the penalties of offence. The commission of sin seems to produce the ministry of vengeance; its cry is heard as soon as the guilty pleasure has been enjoyed.
III. The words of the text may be applied to the second coming of Christ. The scenery of the last dread assize is brought into every district, yea, into every household of the world; and it does not sweep the earth of its inhabitants and gather them confusedly into one court of judicature, but it spreads that court of judicature over the whole earth; so that wheresoever a man is found, there is the white throne reared, there are the books opened, and there is the trumpet sounded.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2,541.
References: Amos 9:7. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vii., p. 330. Amos 9:9. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiv., No. 825; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 172.Amos 9:11. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vii., p. 331.Amos 9:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 296. Amos 9:13. Ibid.,vol. viii., No. 466; F. Hastings, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 261. Amos. R. Smith, Preacher's Lantern,vol. iv., pp. 535, 599, 673, 727.