I SAW THE LORD - He saw God in vision; yet God no more, as before,
asked him what he saw. God no longer shows him emblems of the
destruction, but the destruction itself. Since Amos had just been
speaking of the idolatry of Samaria, as the ground of its utter
destruction, doubtless this vision of suc... [ Continue Reading ]
Height or depth are alike open to the Omnipresent God. The grave is
not so awful as God. The sinner would gladly “dig through” into
hell, bury himself, the living among the dead, if so he could escape
the sight of God. But thence, God says, “My hand shall take them,”
to place them in His presence, t... [ Continue Reading ]
He had contrasted heaven and hell, as places impossible for man to
reach; as I David says, “If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there: If
l make my bed in hell, behold Thee” Psalms 139:8. Now, of places in
a manner accessible, he contrasts Mount Carmel, which rises abruptly
out of the sea, with depths... [ Continue Reading ]
CAPTIVITY - , at least, seemed safe. The horrors of war are over. Men
enslave, but do not commonly destroy those whom they have once been at
the pains to carry captive. Amos describes them in their misery, as
“going” willingly, gladly, “into captivity before their
enemies,” like a flock of sheep. Ye... [ Continue Reading ]
And who is He who should do this? God, at whose command are all
creatures. This is the hope of His servants; from where Hezekiah
begins his prayer, “Lord of hosts, God of Israel” Isaiah 37:16.
This is the hopelessness of His enemies. “That toucheth the land”
or “earth, and it shall melt,” rather, “h... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT BUILDETH HIS STORIES - The word commonly means “steps,”
nor is there any reason to alter it. We read of “the third heavens 2
Corinthians 12:2, the heavens of heavens Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings
8:27; Psalms 148:4; that is, heavens to which this heaven is as earth.
They are different ways of e... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE YE NOT AS CHILDREN OF THE ETHIOPIANS UNTO ME, O CHILDREN OF
ISRAEL! - Their boast and confidence was that they were children of
the patriarch, to whom God made the promises. But they, not following
the faith nor doing the deeds of Israel, who was a “prince with
God,” or of Abraham, the father of... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE UPON THE SINFUL KINGDOM - The sinful
kingdom may mean each “sinful kingdom,” as Paul says, God “will
render unto every man according to his deeds - unto them who do not
obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, tribulation and anguish upon
every soul of man that doeth... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR LO! I WILL COMMAND! - Literally, “lo! see, I am commanding.”
He draws their attention to it, as something which shall shortly be;
and inculcates that He is the secret disposer of all which shall
befall them. “And I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations.” Amos enlarges the prophecy of H... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE SINNERS OF MY PEOPLE SHALL PERISH - At the last, when the
longsuffering of God has been despised to the uttermost, His
Providence is exact in His justice, as in His love. As not “one
grain should fall to the earth,” so not one sinner should escape.
Jerome: “Not because they sinned aforetime,... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THAT DAY I WILL RAISE UP - Amos, as the prophets were taught to do,
sums up his prophecy of woe with this one full promise of overflowing
good. For the ten tribes, in their separate condition, there was no
hope, no future. He had pronounced the entire destruction of “the
kingdom” of Israel. The t... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THEY MAY POSSESS - rather, “inherit
THE REMNANT OF EDOM - The restoration was not to be for themselves
alone. No gifts of God end in the immediate object of His bounty and
love. They were restored, in order that they, the first objects of
God’s mercies, might win others to God; not Edom only, “... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD THE DAYS ARE COMING - The Day of the Lord is ever coming on:
every act, good or bad, is drawing it on: everything which fills up
the measure of iniquity or which “hastens the accomplishment of the
number of the elect;” all time hastens it by. “The plowman shall
overtake the reaper and the tre... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL BRING AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF MY PEOPLE - Where all around
is spiritual, there is no reason to take this alone as earthly. An
earthly restoration to Canaan had no value, except as introductory to
the spiritual. The two tribes were, in a great measure, restored to
their own land, when Zacha... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL PLANT THEM UPON THEIR OWN LAND - The promises and
threatenings of God are, to individuals, conditional upon their
continuing to be of that character, to which God annexes those
promises or threats. Theodoret: “The God of all often promises, when
those who receive the promises, by joying i... [ Continue Reading ]