Amos 4

Amos 4:1-5

In this chapter, 1. The oppressors of Israel are threatened, ver. 1—3. 2. The idolaters are grown up to their own hearts lofts, ver. 4, 5.

3. All their sins are aggravated by their incorrigidency, and refuils to return and reform, notwithstanding the various rebules of providence they had been under, ver. 6—11. 4. They are resisted yet at length to humble themselves before God, since it is impossible for them to make their part good against him, ver. 12, 13.

4. HEAR this word, ye ‘kine of Bafhan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, ‘which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their

masters, Bring, and let us drink. 2. The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the day shall come upon you, that he will take you away ‘with hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks. 3. And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her, and ye shall call them into the palace, faith the LORD. 4. ¶ Come to Beth-el and transgress, at Gilgal multiply transgressions; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tribes after three years, 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leavers, and proclaim and publish the free-offerings; for § this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, faith the Lord GOD.

God’s controversy against the oppressors and idolaters is here continued.

1. The oppressors are convicted, and their punishment read. Like kine of Bafhan they were strong, wanton, untidy, breaking down the fence of justice, and treading the weak under their feet; they listened on the mountains of Samaria, oppressing the poor, and crushing the needy, by an enormous load of taxes, or the perversion of justice; or with a hard hand extorting such rents from their indigent tenants, as left them scarce a sufficiency to live; which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink; which may be the words of the magistrates encouraging the masters of the poor to find some accusation against them, and for an entertainment they would decide the cause in their favour; or of one oppressive lord to another, willing to feast with him on the spoils of oppression. But God will not suffer such deeds to pass with impunity; He hath sworn by his holiness, and iron to abide in the decree: they shall be taken and destroyed as easily and inevitably as the fish which is caught by the hook; and they and their posterity who should survive the slaughter made by the Affyrians, shall be sold for captives, and carried, as fish out of their element, into a strange land. Their city will bring bear down by a besieging army, at the breaches some would attempt to escape, whilst others call themselves into the palace or unkids, or lodged their substance there, but in vain; the fugitives will be pursued, and the high furselves laid low, even to the dust. Note, (1.) God will one day appear the patron of the injured, and avenge their wrongs. (2.) The fruits of oppression are often made the food of untemperance, and thus double aggravate the sinner’s guilt. (3.) What is got by wickedness often perishes strangely, and every observer may see the finger of God in the visitation.

2. The idolaters are abandoned to their own devices, and a heavier curle cannot be laid upon them. Ironically speaking, God bids them go on to multiply their transgressions at Beth-el and Gilgal, to bring their daily sacrifices, and offer their tythes at their idol-temples and altars, instead of the sanctuary at Jerusalem: and mimicking the worship of his temple, he faith, offer y ur sacrifice of thanksgiving with sorrow to your idols, Lev. vii. 13. and out of ostentation of piety, or inviting others to the feast, publish and proclaim the free offerings, for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel. They took a pleasure and pride in these idolatrous services: justly therefore doth God give them up to their own inventions, to fill up the measure of their iniquities.

3. ¶ And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto me, faith the LORD. 7. And also I have withholders the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest, and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not, withered. 8. So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water; but they were not satisfied; yet have ye not returned unto me, faith the LORD. 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew; when your gardens, and your vineyards, and your fig-trees, and your olive-trees increased, the palmer-worm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, faith the LORD. 10. I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have thin with the beard, and have taken away your horses, and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, faith the LORD. 11. I have overthrown some of you, as “God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and " ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: " yet have ye not returned unto me, faith the LORD. 12. Therefore " thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, " prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. 13. For lo, he that form

The mountains, and createth the 5 wind, and ‘de- clateth unto man what is his thought, ’that maketh the morning darkness, and ’treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the LORD, ’the God of hofts is his name.

Amos 4:6-13

The incorrigibleness of this people left them wholly incredible in their sins. God had tried repeatedly by his viltations to bend their flubborn hearts, ready to receive them if they humbled their fouls; waiting with long patience, and loth to abandon them to ruin, but neither mercies nor judgments had any effect: five times he complains, yet have ye not returned unto me, justh the Lord. We have here.

1. An account of the methods God had taken, by letter judgments, to bring them to repentance.

[1.] He had visited them with famine in all their cities, 2 Kings viii. 3. I have given you cleanness of teeth, there being no provision left, not even bread to chew, and satisfy the cravings of hunger: yet this was ineffectual, they repented not.

[2.] He lost a drought upon the land, and with held the rain when there were yet three months to the harvest, the time when it usually fell, and without it the corn was fenced up and withered away; but that they might observe, that this was not a thing merely accidental, or owing to any influence of secondary causes, but by Divine direction, as a judgment upon them, he could it to ruin on one city, and not on another, and gave the clouds their commission to water one piece, or to rest, and, while the effuse which lay conspicuous, was fenced up with heat and drought; and probably this distinction was obliterated, the idolaters being punished, and the law of faithful miraculously spared. In this district, two or three cities wondered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied, there being none, or but little to spare from their own wants; and even this produced no change.

[3.] Blaffing and mildew next destroyed their corn and wine, and the palmer-worm devoured all their trees and herbage; yet they perished in impunity, and turned not to him that fmote them.

[4.] The pestilence succeeded. They fell by a sudden ftrude, like the firth-born of Egypt, and God flew their armies with the fared of an enemy; or in the way of Egypt, as they were thorn for food, some fell by the pestilence; and others, who went in companies, were intercepted and flaln by their enemies, and their corpses left unburied, filling the air with noisome effluvia: yet notwithstanding, the survivors repented not.

[5.] By fire from heaven God overthrew some of them like Sodom and Gomorrah, as monuments of vengeance, and a warning to the rest who were spared, as brands plucked out of the damage, yet all their judgments left them as they found them, hardened in sin; and till God is pleased to be flown his effectual grace, all outward means and methods to bend the finner’s heart will be fruitless.

2. Since all hath proved hitherto ineffectual, by the divinely appointed Mefiah God will nevertheless bring salvation unto them, and cause his grace to triumph over their guilt and corruption. Therefore that will I do unto thee, or nevertheless, notwithstanding all these provocations; or because nothing else can overcome them, I will do as I have promised, feuding the divine Mefiah, who shall turn away unquestioned from Jacob: and become I will do that unto thee, let such an act of astonishing mercy and grace at last bend thy flubborn neck, and prepare it, meet thy God, O Israel; to receive him with readiness, fulmination, and delight, who comes with tidings of salvation. For he, he that formath the mountains, the great Creator of all, and who can make every mountain of difficulty a plain before his people; and createth the wind, holding these turbulent servants under his command; and declares unto man what is his thought, being the searcher of hearts, and revealing unto men, by his prophets, his own purposes concerning them, which are thought of peace, and not of evil; that maketh the morning darkness, changing prosperity into adversity, or the darkness morning, causing Christ, the day-stars, to arise; and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, exalted above all, and treading down the proudest of his foes; the Lord, Jehovah, the God of dofts is his name, to whom all must bow, and humble their fouls at his feet.

The words are generally understood in a quite different sense, as a threatening of more terrible judgment, since the former viltations were ineffectual. They must now prepare to meet an offended God, coming forth to execute vengeance; and how would they be able to stand when he appeared, whose power was irrefutable as his wrath was intolerable. It is our wisdom to prepare to meet God as our God, by faith, penitence, and prayer, before we are summoned to appear at his bar in an hour of death, or at the day of judgment.