The visions of this chapter Amos 7 continue the direct prophecy of the
last. That closed in the prophecy of the affliction of Israel through
the Assyrian: this foretells three gradations, in which it took place.
That spoke of a recovery of Israel after its extreme depression under
Hazael; the first... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BEHOLD HE FORMED - (that is, He was forming.) The very least
things then are as much in His infinite Mind, as what we count the
greatest. He has not simply made “laws of nature,” as people
speak, to do His work, and continue the generations of the world. He
Himself was still framing them, giving... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD REPENTED FOR THIS - God is said to “repent, to have strong
compassion upon” or “over” evil, which He has either inflicted
Deuteronomy 32:36; 1 Chronicles 21:15, or has said that He would
inflict Exodus 32:12; Joel 2:13; Jonah 3:10; Jeremiah 18:8, and which,
upon repentance or prayer, He sus... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD CALLED TO CONTEND BY FIRE - that is, He “called” His people to
maintain their cause with Him “by fire,” as He says, “I will
plead” in judgment “with him” (Gog) “with” (that is,”
by”) pestilence and blood” Ezekiel 38:22; and, “by fire and by
His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh” Isaiah 66... [ Continue Reading ]
As our Lord repeated the same words in the Garden, so Amos interceded
with God with words, all but one, the same, and with the same plea,
that, if God did not help, Israel was indeed helpless. Yet a second
time God spared Israel. To human sight, what so strange and
unexpected, as that the Assyrian a... [ Continue Reading ]
STOOD UPON - (Rather “over” “a wall” made by “a
plumbline;” lit. “a wall of a plumbline,” that is, (as our’s
has it) “made” straight, perpendicular, “by” it. The wall had
been “made by a lead” or “plumbline;” by it, that is,
according to it, it should e destroyed. God had made it upright, He
had giv... [ Continue Reading ]
AMOS, WHAT SEEST THOU? - o: “He calls the prophet by name, as a
familiar friend, known and approved by Him, as He said to Moses, “I
know thee by name” Exodus 33:12, Exodus 33:17. For “the Lord
knoweth them that are His. What seest thou?” 2 Timothy 2:19. God had
twice heard the prophet. Two judgments... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HIGH PLACES OF ISAAC - He probably calls the ten tribes by the
name of Isaac, as well as of Israel, in order to contrast their deeds
with the blameless, gentle piety of Isaac, as well as the much-tried
faithfulness of Israel. It has been thought too that he alludes to the
first meaning of the na... [ Continue Reading ]
AMAZIAH, THE PRIEST OF BETHEL - Was probably the high priest, in
imitation of the high priest of the order of Aaron and of God’s
appointment. For the many high places around Bethel required many
idol-priests; and a splendid counterfeit of the ritual at Jerusalem,
which should rival it in the eyes of... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THUS AMOS SAITH - Amos had said, “Thus saith the Lord;” he
never fails to impress on them, whose words he is speaking. Amaziah,
himself bound up in a system of falsehood and imposture, which, being
a creature-worship, gave itself out as the worship of the true God,
believed all besides to be fra... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeroboam apparently took no account of the false priest’s message.
Perhaps the memory of the true prophecies of Elisha as to the
successes of his father, and of Jonah as to his own, fulfilled in his
own person and still recent, inspired him with a reverence for God’s
prophets. To know his motive or... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS THE KING’S CHAPEL - Better, as in the English margin,
“sanctuary.” It is the name for “the sanctuary” of God. “Let
them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” Exodus 25:8.
“Ye shall reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord” Leviticus 19:30;
Leviticus 26:2. It is most often spoken of as... [ Continue Reading ]
I WAS NO PROPHET - The order of the words is emphatic. “No prophet
I, and no prophet’s son I, for a herdsman I, and dresser of
sycamores.” It may be, Amos would meet, for the people’s sake,
Amaziah’s taunt. He had a living, simple indeed, yet that of the
prophets was as simple. But chiefly he tells... [ Continue Reading ]
Amaziah then was in direct rebellion and contradiction against God. He
was in an office forbidden by God. God’s word came to him. He had
his choice; and, as people do, when entangled in evil courses, he
chose the more consciously amiss. He had to resign his lucrative
office and to submit to God spea... [ Continue Reading ]
THY WIFE SHALL BE A HARLOT - These were, and still are, among the
horrors of war. His own sentence comes last, when he had seen the
rest, unable to hinder it. Against his and her own will, she should
suffer this. Jerome: “Great is the grief, and incredible the
disgrace, when the husband, in the mids... [ Continue Reading ]