Amos 5:14-20

RIGHTEOUSNESS DEMANDS REPENTANCEHATE EVIL AND LOVE GOD

TEXT: Amos 5:14-20

14

Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be with you, as ye say.

15

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that Jehovah, the God of hosts, will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

16

Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord: Wailing shall be in all the broad ways; and they shall say in all the streets, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing.

17

And in all vineyards shall be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of thee, saith Jehovah.

18

Woe unto you that desire the day of Jehovah! Wherefore would ye have the day of Jehovah? It is darkness, and not light.

19

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

20

Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

QUERIES

a.

How is seek good, parallel with seek Jehovah?

b.

What is the meaning of wailing shall be in all the broad ways?

c.

Why Woe unto all those who desire the day of Jehovah?

PARAPHRASE

Search after and do that which is good and refrain from doing evil in order that you may live. Then the Lord God of Hosts will truly be your Helper, as you claim He is. Outward religious formality is not enough, you must have a heart that abhors evil and loves good which brings about the establishment of what is right and just in social relationships. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Hosts will have mercy on the small remnant which remains after the great chastening takes place upon Israel. As I have said before, says the Lord God of Hosts, All admonition to return to Me appears to be useless, therefore, there will be weeping and moaning for the dead up and down the streets of every village and city, every farmer will also be wailing for the dead and there will be so much death and destruction lamentations will be chanted to those who are professional wailers themselves. And in the vineyards, where one would expect to see rejoicing, there shall be wailing. Jehovah no longer-' passes-over Israel but will have passed through the land in judgment just as He did in Egypt in the days of Moses. Alas for you who rest your hope of deliverance from the heathen upon what you think the Great Day of Jehovah will be! You do not know what you are asking for when you pray for the Day of Jehovah to come for it will not be a day of deliverance for you for you are no better than the heathen. It will be for you as it is for the heathen, a day of misery, darkness and doom. There will be no escape from it. In that day every place is full of danger and death; neither in-doors nor out-of-doors is anyone safe. God will not let you escape! How can you expect the Righteous Jehovah to bring upon those who seek evil and not good any kind of a Day but inevitable and absolute destruction and darkness?

SUMMARY

For a small remnant, godly living may avert the destruction that is surely coming. But for the majority, whose conception of the Day of Jehovah is perverted, God's judgment is inevitable and absolute.

COMMENT

Amos 5:14-15 SEEK GOD, AND NOT EVIL, THAT YE MAY LIVE. HATE THE EVIL, AND LOVE THE GOOD, AND ESTABLISH JUSTICE IN THE GATE. Social injustice and the abuse of human personality ultimately stems from the concept that religion and morality are separate. This is a Satanic dichotomy! God has never authorized such a division! But man has, ever since Eden, been deceived into thinking that religion and everyday living are two separate compartments of life. True God-revealed and God-centered religion is Life. Practically all the prophets had to deal with this false concept (cf. Isaiah 1:1-20; Micah 6:1-6, etc.). In this realm man makes either one of two errorshe either substitutes religion for morals or he substitutes morals for religion. God teaches through the prophets that all morality finds its roots, its spiritual source and its compelling power over the consciences of men in the character of God Himself, and that is true religion (cf. James 1:27). To seek God is to seek good; to love God is to love good and, conversely, to hate evil because God hates evil. Elton True-blood has described our modern predicament as a cut-flower society. That is, we are attempting to maintain an ethic without a religion. The solution in Amos-' day was, even as in our day, restoration of the old paths (cf. Jeremiah 6:16-21) and regeneration, not revolution. Social injustice cannot be corrected by simply renovation and reorganization of the social structure. Social injustice can only be overcome by upgrading the ethics of all men and this can be done only by regeneration, recreating men in the image of God, and this is accomplished by true religion which in turn involves submission to the authority of God as revealed exclusively in the written word of God!

The people of Amos-' day were claiming that Jehovah was with them and that they were with Jehovah, but Amos knew that as long as they continued in their present evil deeds and thoughts their claims on God were vain and false. Their only hope was to turn to God and righteousness. Many of the Israelites had already gone too far and had set their minds against God, Amos was speaking to those few who would still listen. God's mercy was still available for the few who would hate evil and love good.
The prophets did not preach reformation, but restoration and regeneration! They were not political revolutionaries or civil rights advocates, per se. They were preaching to change individuals, to call each man to repent and turn to God's revealed will for their lives. Society will never be changed except as men are changed! And men will never be changed until they are united with God through His revelation which has now been made in His Incarnate Son!

Amos 5:16-17. WAILING SHALL BE IN ALL. THE STREETS. AND IN ALL VINEYARDS. FOR I WILL PASS THROUGH THE MIDST OF THEE, SAITH JEHOVAH. Unless the sin of Israel was corrected, and Amos seems to feel the situation is almost hopeless for the largest segment of the nation, national destruction would be inevitable. Amos portrays the coming time as one of nation-wide mourning. There will be mourning in the squares and plaza'S, in every street of every city, in the fields of the farmers and lamentations will be changed to those who are professional wailers themselves. Alas! Israel is no longer God's special peopleshe has become as heathen and as rebellious as Egypt in the days of Moses. God will no longer pass-over Israel, but will pass through her midst as He did Egypt with the plagues!

Amos 5:18-20. THE DAY OF JEHOVAH. IT IS DARKNESS, AND NOT LIGHT. On the Day of Jehovah, see our Special Study seven, pages 84 to 90, The Day of The Lord. The Jews, from the Messianic prophecies of the Torah (Law of Moses), had interpreted the destiny of their theocracy to be that of eventual world rulers. On some great Day of the Lord they believed God would deliver his people from all heathen oppression and bondage and elevate them to the supreme place of power and influence among the nations. They looked forward to this great Day (Malachi 2:17, Amos 3:5) when the Lord would come suddenly to His temple, the Messiah would be a warrior king who would appear as a political champion and military hero to rally to his standard the Jews from every nation and lead them in a victorious onslaught against their enemies. Heathen oppressors would be annihilated and God's elect race would become the world's conquerors.

H. E. Dana, in The New Testament World, pages 128-139 describes in full the Messianic Hope of the Jews (or what the prophets call the Day of the Lord). The divine choice of Israel was to the end that Jehovah might have a people who would establish his name in all the earth and make his Law supreme. Therefore the national interests of Israel were one with the cause of Jehovah. To oppose or oppress the chosen people meant to defy Jehovah and to disdain his righteous demands. They were God's specially chosen representatives among the nations, and considered that they should be treated as such. But, on the contrary, they were despised by the Gentiles, ruthlessly seized and consigned to bondage by one despotic conqueror after another, to be buffeted and maltreated in the most humiliating fashion. To the devout Jewish religionist this could only mean that Jehovah was keenly incensed at the heathen nations and regarded them as his own defiant enemies. The coming Day of the Lord (Messianic age) must in the very nature of the case bring the consummate destruction of the incorrigible and the humble submission of those who yielded to the Jewish state.

The truth of the matter was, the Day of the Lord would be a day of deliverancebut only for the true Israel, those who were Jews inwardly and not Jews only outwardlyfor the Day of the Lord of which Amos speaks is typical and prophetic of the climactic Day of the Lord, the coming of the Messiah. When the Day of the Lord came of which Amos was speaking, God delivered the faithful remnant through which He could someday present the Messiah, while at the same time He judged those who were unfaithful and had therefore cut themselves off from covenant relationship with Him. For the most of the people of Israel, then, the Day of the Lord was darkness and not light. It was a time of inescapable crisis, a time of inevitable judgment, a time when man would be abandoned by every known source of aid. Amos uses an almost humorous figure of speech in Amos 5:19 to describe the inescapability of God's judgment!

Having known oppression during practically all of her existence it seems only natural that Israel would have longed for a time of deliverance, No doubt, people passionately spoke of the way in which life would be vindicated, once the day of the Lord was manifested. But they did not realize what they were hoping for. The Righteous God does not change! He must judge every man who sins! He must execute every rebel!
Has not every individual and generation been guilty of reliance upon national and religious heritages instead of personal relationship to God? Should we not have some second thoughts about how ready we are for the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord to come? If God were to come in the consummation ofall the ages today would we be ready? Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. (Mark 13:31-37)

QUIZ

1.

What did Isaiah and Micah have to say about the connection of religion and morality?

2.

Why cannot the two be separated?

3.

What is necessary in order to bring about true social justice?

4.

What is the meaning of God passing through the midst of Israel?

5.

What did Israel think the Day of Jehovah was?

6.

What does Malachi say the Day of the Lord will be like?

7.

How extensive may the Day of the Lord be?