mh_parser/scraps/Amos_5_4-Amos_5_15.html

<p>This is a message from God to the house of Israel, in which,</p>
<p class="tab-1">I. They are told of their faults, that they might see what occasion there was for them to repent and reform, and that, when they were called to return, they might not need to ask, <i>Wherein shall we return</i>?</p>
<p class="tab-1">1. God tells them, in general (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.12" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.12">Amos 5:12</a>), “<i>I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins</i>; and you shall be made to know them too.” In our penitent reflections upon our sins we must consider, as God does in his judicial remarks upon them, and will do in the great day, (1.) That they are very numerous; they are our <i>manifold transgressions</i>, sins of various kinds and often repeated. Oh what a multitude of vain and vile thoughts lodge within us! What a multitude of idle, foolish, wicked words have been spoken by us! In what a multitude of instances have we gratified and indulged our corrupt appetites and passions! And how many our own omissions of duty and in duty! Who can understand his errors? Who can tell how often he offends? God knows how many, just how many, our transgressions are; none of them pass him unobserved; we know that they are to us innumerable; <i>more than the hairs of our head</i>; and we have reason to see what danger we have brought ourselves into, and what abundance of work we have made for repentance, by our <i>manifold transgressions</i>, by the numberless number of our sins of daily incursion. (2.) That some of them are very heinous; they are <i>our mighty</i> sins; sins that are more exceedingly sinful in their own nature and by being committed presumptuously and with a high hand, sins against the light of nature, flagrant crimes, that are mighty to overpower your convictions and to pull down judgments upon you.</p>
<p class="tab-1">2. He specifies some of these mighty sins. (1.) They corrupted the worship of God, and turned to idols; this is implied <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.5" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.5">Amos 5:5</a>. They had <i>sought to Bethel</i>, where one of the golden calves was; they had frequented Gilgal, a place which they chose to set up idols in, because it had been made famous in the days of Joshua by God’s wonderful appearances to and for his people. Beer-sheba likewise, a place that had been famous in the days of the patriarchs, was now another rendezvous of idols; as we find also, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.8.14" href="/passage/?search=Amos.8.14">Amos 8:14</a>. And thither <i>they passed</i>, though it lay at a distance, in the land of Judah. Now, having thus shamefully gone a whoring from God, no doubt they should have felt themselves concerned to return to him. (2.) They perverted justice among themselves (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.7" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.7">Amos 5:7</a>): “<i>You turn judgment to wormwood</i>, that is, you make your administrations of justice bitter and nauseous, and highly displeasing both to God and man.” That fruit has become a <i>weed</i>, a weed in the garden; as nothing is more venerable, nothing more valuable, than justice duly administered, so nothing is more hurtful, nothing more abominable, than designedly doing wrong under colour and pretence of doing right. <i>Corruptio optimi est pessima</i>—<i>The best, when corrupted, becomes the worst. “You leave off righteousness in the earth</i>, as if those that do wrong were accountable to the God of heaven only, and not to the princes and <i>judges of the earth</i>.” Thus it was as before the flood, when the <i>earth was filled with violence</i>. (3.) They were very oppressive to the poor, and made them poorer; they trod upon the poor (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.11" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.11">Amos 5:11</a>), trampled upon them, hectored over them, made them their footstool, and were most imperious and barbarous to those that were most obsequious and submissive; they care not what shame and slavery they put those to who were poor and such as they could get nothing by. The judges aimed at nothing but to enrich themselves; and therefore they <i>took from</i> the poor <i>burdens of wheat</i>, took it by extortion, either by way of bribe or by usury. The poor had no other way to save themselves from being trodden upon, and trodden to dirt, by them, than by presenting to them horse-loads of that corn which they and their families should have had to subsist upon, and they forced them to do it. They took from the poor <i>debts of wheat</i>, so some read it. It was legally due either for rent or for corn lent, but they exacted it with rigour from those who were disabled by the providence of God to pay it, as <a class="bibleref" title="Neh.5.2,Neh.5.5" href="/passage/?search=Neh.5.2,Neh.5.5"><span class="bibleref" title="Neh.5.2">Neh. 5:2</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Neh.5.5">5</span></a>. In demanding and recovering even a just debt we must take heed left we act either unjustly or uncharitably. This sin of oppression by are again charged with (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.12" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.12">Amos 5:12</a>): <i>They afflict the just</i>, by turning the edge of the law and of the sword of justice against those that are the innocent and <i>quiet in the land</i>; they hated men because they were more righteous than themselves, and he that <i>departed from evil</i> thereby <i>made himself a prey</i> to them. They take a bribe from the rich to patronize and protect them in oppressing the poor, so that he who has money in his hand is sure to have the judgment on his side, be his cause ever so bad. Thus they <i>turn aside the poor in the gate</i>, in the courts of justice, <i>from their right</i>. If the poor sue for their right, who cannot bribe them, or are so honest that they will not, though they have it ever so clear in view and ever so <i>near</i>, yet they ar
<p class="tab-1">II. They are told of their danger and what judgments they lay exposed to for their sins. 1. The places of their idolatry are in danger of being ruined in the first place, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.5" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.5">Amos 5:5</a>. <i>Gilgal</i>, the head-quarters of idolatry, <i>shall go into captivity</i>, not only its inhabitants, but its images, <i>and Bethel</i>, with its golden calf <i>shall come to nought</i>. The victorious enemy shall make nothing of it, so easily shall it be spoiled, and shall bring it to nothing, so effectually shall it be spoiled. Idols were always vanity, and <i>things of nought</i>, and so they shall prove when God appears to abolish them. 2. The body of the kingdom is in danger of being ruined with them, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.6" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.6">Amos 5:6</a>. There is danger lest, if you seek him not in time, he <i>break out like a fire in the house of Joseph and devour it</i>; for our God is a righteous Judge, is a <i>consuming fire</i>, and the men of Israel, as criminals, are stubble before him; woe to those that make themselves fuel to the fire of God’s wrath. It follows, <i>And there shall be none to quench it in Bethel</i>. There their idols were, and their idolatrous priests; thither they brought their sacrifices, and there they offered up their prayers. But God tells them that when the fire of his judgments should kindle upon them all the gods they served at Bethel should not be able to quench it, should not turn away the judgment, nor be any relief to them under it. Thus those that make an idol of the world will find it insufficient to protect them when God comes to reckon with them for their spiritual idolatry. 3. What they have got by oppression and extortion shall be taken from them (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.11" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.11">Amos 5:11</a>): “<i>You have built houses of hewn stone</i>, which you thought would be lasting; <i>but you shall not dwell in them</i>, for your enemies shall burn them down, or possess them for themselves, or take you into captivity. <i>You have planted pleasant vineyards</i>, have contrived how to make them every way agreeable, and have promised yourselves many a pleasant walk in them; but you shall be forced to walk off, and shall never <i>drink wine of them</i>.” The law had tenderly provided that if a man had <i>built a house</i>, or <i>planted a vineyard</i>, he should be at his liberty to return from the wars, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.20.5,Deut.20.6" href="/passage/?search=Deut.20.5,Deut.20.6"><span class="bibleref" title="Deut.20.5">Deut. 20:5</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Deut.20.6">6</span></a>. But now the necessity would be so urgent that it would not be allowed; all must go to the battle, and many of those who had lately been building and planting should fall in battle, and never enjoy what they had been labouring for. What is not honestly got is not likely to be long enjoyed.</p>
<p class="tab-1">III. They are told their duty, and have great encouragement to set about it in good earnest, and good reason. The duties here prescribed to them are godliness and honesty, seriousness in their applications to God and justice in their dealings with men; and each of these is here pressed upon them with proper arguments to enforce the exhortation.</p>
<p class="tab-1">1. They are here exhorted to be sincere and devout in their addresses to God, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.4" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.4">Amos 5:4</a>. God says to the <i>house of Israel, Seek you me</i>, and with good reason, for <i>should not a people seek unto their God</i>? <a class="bibleref" title="Isa.8.19" href="/passage/?search=Isa.8.19">Isa. 8:19</a>. Whither else should they go but to their protector? Israel was a <i>prince with God</i>; let his descendants <i>seek the Lord</i>, as he did, and they shall be so too. Now, in order to their doing this, they must abandon their idolatries. God is not sought truly if he be not sought exclusively, for he will endure no rivals: “<i>Seek you the Lord, and seek not Bethel</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.5" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.5">Amos 5:5</a>), consult not your idol-oracles, nor ask at the mouth of the priests of Bethel; seek not to the golden calf there for protection, nor bring your prayers and sacrifices any longer thither, or to Gilgal, for you <i>forsake your own mercies</i> if you observe those <i>lying vanities</i>. But <i>seek the Lord</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.6,Amos.5.8" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.6,Amos.5.8"><span class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.6">Amos 5:6</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.8">8</span></a>); enquire after him; enquire of him; seek to know his mind as your rule, to secure his favour as your felicity.” To press this exhortation we are told to consider, (1.) What we shall get by seeking God; it will be <i>our life</i>; we shall find him, and shall be happy in him. So he tells them himself (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.4" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.4">Amos 5:4</a>): <i>Seek you me, and you shall live</i>. Those that seek perishing gods shall perish with them (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.5" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.5">Amos 5:5</a>), but those that seek the living God shall live with him: “You shall be delivered from the killing judgments which you are threatened with; your nation shall live, shall recover from its present languishings; your souls shall live; you shall be sanctified and comforted, and made for ever blessed. <i>You shall live</i>.” (2.) What a God he is whom we are to <i>seek</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.8,Amos.5.9" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.8,Amos.5.9"><span class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.8">Amos 5:8</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.9">9</span></a>. [1.] He is a God of almighty power himself. The idols were impotent things, could do neither good nor evil, and therefore it was folly either to fear or trust them; but the God of Israel does every thing, and can do any thing, and therefore we ought to seek him; he challenges our homage who has all power in his hand, and it is our interest to have him on our side. Divers proofs and instances are here given of God’s power, as Creator, in the kingdom of nature, as both founding and governing that kingdom. Compare <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.4.13" href="/passage/?search=Amos.4.13">Amos 4:13</a>. <i>First</i>, The stars are the work of his hands; those stars which the heathens worshipped (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.26" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.26">Amos 5:26</a>), the <i>stars of your god</i>, those stars are God’s creatures and servants. He <i>makes the seven stars and Orion</i>, two very remarkable constellations, which Amos, a herdsman, while he kept his cattle by night, had particularly observed the motions of. He made them at the first, he still makes them to be what they are to this earth and either <i>binds</i> or <i>looses</i> the <i>sweet influences of Peliades</i> and <i>Orion</i>, the two constellations here mentioned. See <a class="bibleref" title="Job.38.31,Job.9.9" href="/passage/?search=Job.38.31,Job.9.9"><span class="bibleref" title="Job.38.31">Job 38:31</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Job.9.9">Job 9:9</span></a>; to which passages Amos seems here to refer, putting them in mind of those ancient discoveries of the glory of God bef
<p class="tab-1">2. They are here exhorted to be honest and just in their dealings with men, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.14,Amos.5.15" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.14,Amos.5.15"><span class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.14">Amos 5:14</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.15">15</span></a>, where observe, (1.) The duty required: <i>Seek good, and not evil. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate</i>; re-establish it there, whence it has been banished, <a class="bibleref" title="Amos.5.7" href="/passage/?search=Amos.5.7">Amos 5:7</a>. Note, Things are not so bad but that they may be amended if the right course be taken; we must not despair but that grievances may be redressed and abuses rectified; justice may yet triumph where injustice tyrannizes. In order to this, good must be loved and sought, evil must be hated and no longer sought. We must love good principles and adhere to them, love to do good and abound in doing it, love good people, and good converse, and good duties; and, whatever good we do, we must do it from a principle of love, do it of choice and with delight. Those who thus <i>love good</i> will <i>seek it</i>, will contrive to do all the good they can, enquire for opportunities of doing it, and endeavor to do it to the utmost of their power. They will also <i>hate evil</i>, will abhor the thought of doing an unjust thing, and abstain from all appearance of it. In vain do we pretend to seek God in our devotions if we do not seek good in our whole conversations. (2.) The reasons annexed. [1.] This is the sure way to be happy ourselve 573d s and to have the continual presence of God with us: “<i>Seek good, and not evil, that you may live</i>, may escape the punishment of the evil you have sought and loved (<i>righteousness delivereth from death</i>), that you may have the favour of God, which is your life, which is better than life itself, that you may have comfort in yourselves and may live to some good purpose. You shall live, for <i>so the Lord God of hosts shall be with you</i> and be your life.” Note, Those that keep in the way of duty have the presence of God with them, as the <i>God of hosts</i>, a God of almighty power. “He will be with you <i>as you have spoken</i>, that is, as you have <i>gloried</i>; you shall have that really which, while you went on in unrighteous ways, you only seemed to have and boasted of as if you had.” Those that truly repent and reform enter into the enjoyment of that comfort which before they had only flattered themselves with the imagination of. Or, “As you have prayed when <i>you sought the Lord</i>. Live up to your prayers, and you shall have what you pray for.” [2.] This is the likeliest way to make the nation happy: “If you seek and love that which is good, you may contribute to the saving of the land from ruin.” <i>It may be, the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph</i>; though there is but a remnant left, yet, if God be gracious to that remnant, it will rise to a great nation again; and if some among them turn from sin, especially if <i>judgment</i> be <i>established in the gate</i>, though we cannot be certain, yet there is a great probability that public affairs will take a new and happy turn, and every thing will mend if men mend their lives. Temporary promises are made with an <i>It may be</i>; and our prayers must be made accordingly.</p>