Amos 3:6

DISCOURSE: 1187
GOD THE SOURCE AND CAUSE OF ALL THINGS

Amos 3:6. Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?

IT is a generally acknowledged truth, that every thing proceeds from God; and we have the authority of God himself for affirming it: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things [Note: Isaiah 45:7.].” The same truth was put in a way of appeal even to the enemies of God; and that, too, at a time when he was denouncing against them the heaviest judgments. As surely as the roaring of a lion betokens that he has seized his prey; or the capture of a bird that the snare had been set for him; or the blowing of a trumpet the approach of danger; so surely should the evils coming on his disobedient people mark the indignation of God against them: “Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?”

But as, on the incursion of evil, we are apt to trace it almost exclusively to second causes, and to overlook the hand of God in it, I propose,

I. To confirm the truth which is here intimated—

There is a great variety of evil in the world: but God is the author of it all. From him proceeds all evil;

1. Moral—

[Of course, we are not to imagine that moral evil proceeds from him in a way of actual efficiency: for “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed [Note: James 1:13.].” But, as no man would be in a capacity to perpetrate evil, if God did not invest him with the power, and allow him the opportunity to commit it, the Scripture uniformly represents God as concurring in it, even where the agency of men or devils is most manifest in the production of it. For instance;

In the selling of Joseph into Egypt, the envy of his brethren was manifestly the first moving cause: yet, what did Joseph say concerning it? “Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life. God sent me before you, to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God [Note: Acts 7:9. with Genesis 45:5.].” “Ye indeed thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good [Note: Genesis 50:20.].”

In the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, we must look further than to the innate depravity of that impious monarch; for God had raised him up to the possession of royal power, that so he might have full scope for the display of all that was in his heart: yes, and he gave him up, too, to the unrestrained exercise of all his evil dispositions; as he had before declared to Moses that he would do. And thus God himself is said, in a qualified sense, to have “hardened Pharaoh’s heart,” yea, and to harden in like manner the hearts of all whom he is pleased thus to give up to the unrestrained indulgence of their own lusts [Note: Exodus 4:21; Exodus 7:13; Exodus 9:16. with Romans 9:17.].

Above all, in the crucifixion of our blessed Lord, where shall we find human depravity so active and so combined as in that tremendous scene? And can we trace any part of that to Almighty God? Yes, the whole of it: for St. Peter says, that “Jesus was delivered up to his murderers by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God [Note: Acts 2:23.]; and that “Herod and Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel that were gathered together against him,” in all that they perpetrated, “did only what God’s hand and God’s counsel had determined before to be done [Note: Acts 4:27.].”

What, then, must not be traced to God, if we are taught to refer to him such transactions as these?]

2. Political—

[By political evil, I mean such as arises, whether to nations or individuals, in the common course of human events.

The defection of the ten tribes from Rehoboam may well be considered as originating in the tyranny of that weak monarch, and in his following the infatuated counsels of the young men, rather than the judicious counsels of the old. But God himself declares, that it was altogether ordained of him, for the accomplishment of his own designs: “The cause, it is said, was of God, that the Lord might perform the word which he had spoken [Note: 2 Chronicles 10:15.].” And when Rehoboam had raised an army of 180,000 men to reduce the ten tribes to subjection, one single word spoken by Shemaiah, a man of God, to Rehoboam and his army, saying, “Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren: return every man to his house: for this thing is done of me, saith the Lord,” was sufficient for the satisfying and disbanding of the whole army: so universally was God’s agency in human affairs acknowledged by them at that day [Note: 2 Chronicles 11:3.].

The captivity of Israel by the Assyrians might well be traced to the pride and ambition of the Assyrian monarch; as the captivity of Judah by the Chaldeans might also to the resentment and cupidity of the Babylonish monarch: but both the one and the other are traced to God himself, as stirring up the enemies of his people to execute upon them his sovereign will. Respecting the former, it is said, “The God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, to carry them away [Note: 1 Chronicles 5:26.].” And respecting the latter, it is said, “The Lord sent against Jehoiakim bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it. Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight [Note: 2 Kings 24:2.]:” so entirely are men, even when following most freely the dictates of their own minds, unconscious agents of the Deity, to execute his will; “the sword in his hand, and the staff of his indignation [Note: Isaiah 10:5.].”]

3. Penal—

[Sometimes God is pleased to send trials in a way of paternal chastisement, as when he stirred up enemies to disturb the peace and quietness of Solomon’s reign [Note: 1 Kings 11:14; 1 Kings 11:23.]. And he has told us, that he will deal thus with his children in every age, “visiting their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes, even when it is not his intention utterly to take away his loving-kindness from them [Note: Psalms 89:30.Hebrews 12:6.].” But sometimes he executes his judgments upon men in a way of righteous retribution. Go to Sodom; and behold the cities of the plain; and tell me, whose hand was there? See Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with all their families, swallowed up in the earth at the word of Moses; and say by whom was that judgment wrought? Or tell me by whose hand Ananias and Sapphira fell, for lying to the Holy Ghost? Was there any one of these evils which the Lord did not inflict and execute?]

Methinks, I have spoken enough for the confirmation of this truth; and may proceed,

II.

To shew how it is carried into effect—

God is pleased to work in a great variety of ways: for instance,

1. By a visible display of his own Almighty power—

[It was thus that he caused the sea to divide its waves, and to leave a dry path for the children of Israel; and presently afterwards to close again, and overwhelm every individual of the hostile army that pursued them. By a similar display of his power, he opened a passage also for his people through the river Jordan, at a time when it had overflowed its banks. Afterwards, in like manner, he caused the walls of Jericho to fall down, at the sound of rams’ horns. In such instances as these, no means were used that had the slightest tendency to effect the end; that so his own interposition might be the more manifest, and that he might have all the glory.]

2. By the instrumentality of second causes—

[David was informed, that, notwithstanding his heinous sin was forgiven, it should yet be visited in this world with evils in his own family, which should embitter all his remaining days. In the conduct of Amnon and of Absalom, we see how God marked David’s sin in its punishment. These sons only followed the dictates of their own corrupt hearts: but God wrought by them, and made them his instruments to punish their parent’s crimes [Note: 2 Samuel 12:10; 2 Samuel 13:14; 2 Samuel 16:22.]. So, by the instrumentality of Jehu, he destroyed the whole house of Ahab, when Jehu himself desired nothing but to advance his own glory [Note: 1 Kings 21:19. with 2 Kings 10:10.]

3. By the most trivial, and, as we call them, accidental, occurrences—

[Who can read the Book of Esther, and not stand amazed at the trifling circumstances by which the destruction of Haman, and the consequent deliverance of all the Jewish people, were brought to pass? The Persian king cannot sleep—he calls for the records of the nation to be brought, in order to amuse him—a record of a conspiracy, that had long since been defeated, was read to him—he inquires whether the person who had discovered the conspiracy had been suitably rewarded—this, with a multitude of other unlooked-for circumstances, brought Haman to the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai, and were the means of delivering the whole Jewish people from the ruin that had been prepared for them [Note: Esther 6:1; Esther 7:10.]. No one can conceive how minute are the links in the chain of Providence, the failure of any one of which would have defeated the counsels of the Most High. But “his counsel shall stand; and he will do all his will [Note: Isaiah 46:10.]:” and it will be found, at last, that “no one thing has ever failed, of all that he, in his eternal counsels, has ordained [Note: Joshua 21:45.].”]

4. In direct opposition to all the means that are used to obstruct his will—

[He will confound all the Jews by the resurrection of his dear Son. They, on the contrary, are determined to prove Jesus a deceiver. For this end, having put him to death, they roll a stone to the door of his sepulchre, and seal it with Pilate’s signet, and set a watch to guard the place; that so it may be impossible, as they think, for Jesus to be taken away, or for the expectations of his followers to be realized. Had they succeeded in this effort, they had proved to demonstration, that Jesus was an impostor. But Jehovah “laughed them to scorn;” and, at the predicted time, restored the Lord Jesus to life, and “proved him to be indeed the Son of God with power, by his resurrection from the dead [Note: Romans 1:4.].” This was in strict accordance with what David had foretold: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed; saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. But He that sitteth in heaven laughed; the Lord had them in derision [Note: Psalms 2:2.].” In a word, “He doeth according to his will, in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; nor can any stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou [Note: Daniel 4:35.]?”]

Has any kind of evil then occurred to us? Let us Learn,

1. Submission to God’s will—

[God says to us, “Be still; and know that I am God [Note: Psalms 46:10.].” And if once we learn to see the hand of God in every thing, what peace will it bring into the soul, even in the midst of the heaviest trials [Note: Psalms 29:8.]! You will not find anywhere a greater sufferer than Job: men, devils, elements, all conspired against him. But in all his trials he saw the hand of a gracious God; and that composed his mind: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord! Shall we receive good at the Lord’s hands, and shall we not receive evil [Note: Job 1:21; Job 2:10.]?” Let us then, in all our trials, the smaller which occur in. social or domestic life, as well as in those of a more overwhelming nature, habituate ourselves to see the Lord’s hand: and to say, “It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good [Note: 1 Samuel 3:18.].” This would greatly tranquillize our minds; and take out the sting from ten thousand little occurrences, which wound our feelings, and often pain us far more than heavier afflictions. Let us reply to the revilings of a malignant enemy, “The Lord hath bidden him curse me [Note: 2 Samuel 16:10.];” and there will be an end of all the anguish that his hostility has for a moment occasioned us.]

2. Inquiry into the design of God in the trial sent us—

[“Trouble springs not out of the dust [Note: Job 5:6.]:” “nor does God afflict us without a cause [Note: Lamentations 3:33.].” “Every rod,” which he sends, has a voice, which we ought most attentively to “hear [Note: Micah 6:9.].” Peradventure there is some sin which God designs to correct; some corruption to mortify; some grace to improve; or, at all events, some important lesson which he intends to teach us more perfectly. We should, therefore, go to God under our trials, and ask him “wherefore he contendeth with us [Note: Job 10:2.].” “In the day of adversity we should consider [Note: Ecclesiastes 7:14.];” and be more anxious to derive benefit from the affliction, than to obtain a premature deliverance from its pressure. If we may but be purged from our dross, and come out of the furnace purified as gold, it should be deemed an ample compensation for all our pains; and should make us thankfully to acknowledge, that “God in love and faithfulness has afflicted us [Note: Psalms 119:75.].”]

3. Amendment of life—

[This should be our object, under all the diversified circumstances of our lives. Nothing should be of any importance to us in comparison of this: nor should any pain be deprecated, which may be sent to “purge away our iniquity [Note: Isaiah 27:9.], and which may render us, in a more perfect manner, “partakers of God’s holiness [Note: Hebrews 12:10.].” If our “tribulation may but work patience, and experience, and a hope that shall not make us ashamed, and prove an occasion of the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts, we should even rejoice and glory in it [Note: Romans 5:3.].” Nor is it merely the mortification of any besetting sin that we should aim at, but an entire conformity of mind and will to God. We should desire to be “made perfect through our sufferings,” even as the Lord Jesus Christ himself was [Note: Hebrews 2:10.]: and, whether our tribulation be more or less painful in this world, we should be contented to pass through it as “our appointed way to heaven [Note: Acts 14:22.];” and be well pleased to “suffer with Christ, that we may hereafter dwell with him, and be glorified together [Note: Romans 8:17.].”]