096. LXVIII. The Inevitable Consequences Of Israel’s Crimes

§ LXVIII. THE INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES OF ISRAEL’S CRIMES 1. Jehovah’s leniency in averting the locust plague (Amos 7:1-3).

Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, And behold, he was forming locusts, When the late spring grass began to come up. And when they were making an end Of devouring the vegetation of the land, I said, O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I pray;

How can Jacob stand, for he is small?

Jehovah repented concerning this;

It shall not be, said Jehovah.

2. In averting the drought (Amos 7:4-6).

Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, And behold, he was giving command to execute judgment, By fire—the Lord Jehovah. And it devoured the great deep, And had begun to devour the tilled land.

Then I said, O Lord Jehovah, cease, I pray;

How can Jacob stand, for he is small?

Jehovah repented concerning this;

Neither shall this be, said Jehovah.

3. The inevitable judgment awaiting Israel (Amos 7:7-9).

Thus the Lord showed me, And behold the Lord was standing Beside a wall, with a plumb-line in his hand. And Jehovah said to me, What dost thou see, Amos? And I answered, A plumb-line, Then the Lord said, Behold, I am setting a plumb-line In the midst of my people Israel;

I will not again pass by them any more. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, The sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

4. Amaziah’s message to the king (Amos 7:10-11). Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus has Amos said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’

5. His command to Amos (Amos 7:12-13). Also Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go flee away to the land of Judah, and there eat bread and there prophesy; but you shall no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the royal residence.

6. Amos’s reply (Amos 7:14-15). Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, nor a son of a prophet; but I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores when Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Jehovah said to me, ‘Go, prophesy against my people Israel.’

7. Fate of Amaziah and his class (Amos 7:16-17). Now therefore hear the word of Jehovah: ‘Thou sayest, “Thou shalt not prophesy against Israel, nor preach against the house of Isaac,”’ therefore thus saith Jehovah: ‘Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die upon an unclean soil and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of this land.’

8. Israel’s ripeness for judgment (Amos 8:1-2).

Thus the Lord Jehovah showed me, And behold, a basket of summer fruit.

Then he said, What dost thou see, Amos? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. And Jehovah said to me, The end has come to my people Israel, I will not again pass them by.

9. The evidences of decay (Amos 8:4-6c).

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy, And oppress the poor of the earth, saying, When shall the new moon pass that we may sell grain, And the sabbath that we may open the corn—

Making smaller the measure and enlarging the weight And perverting the false balances— And that we may sell the refuse of the corn?

10. Consequences of crime: earthquake (Amos 8:7-8).

Jehovah hath sworn by the pride of Jacob, Never shall I forget all their deeds! For this shall not the land tremble, And all her inhabitants mourn? Shall not the whole of it rise like the Nile, And sink like the Nile of Egypt?

11. Eclipse and pestilence (Amos 8:9;Amos 8:3). And it shall come to pass in that day, It is the oracle of the Lord Jehovah, That I will make the sun set at noon, And darken the earth in broad day, And the singing-women of the palace shall wail, It is the oracle of the Lord Jehovah. A multitude of carcasses! In every place they are cast!

12. Universal lamentation (Amos 8:10). And I will turn your festivals into mourning, And all your songs into dirges, I will bring upon all loins sackcloth, And upon every head baldness, I will make it like the mourning for an only son, And the end of it like a bitter day.

13. Absence of divine revelation (Amos 8:11-12). And I will send hunger in the land, Not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, But for hearing the word of Jehovah.

Then shall they wander from sea to sea, From the north to the rising of the sun shall they run to and fro, To seek the word of Jehovah, but they shall not find it.

14. Destruction of the flower of the nation (Amos 8:13-14). In that day shall faint The fairest maidens and the youths, Who swear by the guilt of Samaria, And say, As liveth thy God, O Dan! And as liveth thy patron, O Beersheba! And they shall fall, no more to rise.

15. Destruction of sanctuary and people (Amos 9:1).

I saw the Lord standing by the altar, And he said, Smite the capitals that the thresholds may shake, Yea, break them off upon the head of all of them, And the rest of them I will slay with the sword, Not one of them shall escape, Nor shall a refugee be delivered from among them.

16. Absolutely no escape from Jehovah (Amos 9:2-3a, b).

If they dig through to Sheol, Thence will my hand take them; And if they climb up to heaven, Thence will I bring them down; And if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, Thence will I search them out and take them.

17. Retribution to over take all (Amos 9:3c, d.Amos 9:4). And if they hide out of my sight at the bottom of the sea, Thence will I command the sea-serpent to bite them; And if they go into captivity before their enemies, Thence will I command the sword to slay them, And I will keep my eye on them, For evil and not for good.

18. Israel to be punished like the heathen (Amos 9:7-8a, b). Are ye not as the Cushites to me, O Israel? is the oracle of Jehovah. Did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?

Behold the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

I. The Visions of Impending Judgment. It would seem that Amos, having exhausted the resources of exhortation, denunciation and warning, made a final effort by means of graphic word pictures, vividly and indelibly to impress his message upon the minds of the leaders of Northern Israel. The first picture was that of a dread locust plague sweeping over the land, just as the late spring grass was beginning to come up and just before the hot Palestinian summer began. Realizing that this plague meant want and starvation for man and beast, the prophet prayed that Jehovah would be merciful and pity the helpless nation, and his prayer was granted. Again he presents the vision of a fiery drought which destroyed even the perennial springs. Again the prophet petitioned for divine mercy, and his prayer was granted. In his third vision of the impending doom, Amos beheld Jehovah holding a plumbline, the symbol of justice and rectitude, over the nation Israel. Appreciating the guilt and impenitence of his people and the futility of pleading for mercy in the presence of impartial justice, the prophet could do nothing but proclaim the devastating judgment which should soon sweep over sanctuary and palace, leaving all a desolate waste. The meaning of these parables or visions is obvious. Repeatedly Jehovah has overlooked the crimes of his guilty people, and because of his mercy and love has delivered them from the judgments which they richly deserved; but “for three transgressions of Israel, yea for four, he could no longer revoke it.” The guilt of the impenitent Israelites compelled Jehovah in justice to visit upon them such a signal calamity that they would be shaken from their blind, senseless self-confidence. For them, therefore, these visions meant simply a dramatic and impressive reiteration of his message of solemn warning. They also represent Amos’s final appeal to the conscience of Northern Israel. Their balanced literary form and their perfect adaptation to the situation and to the characteristics of the nation, indicate that they are the product of careful thought and elaboration. Each successive vision is in itself a complete picture—vivid, impressive, terrifying. They are akin to the acted prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Their later counterpart is found in the marvellous parables of the New Testament.

II. The Reception of Amos’s Message. Some later disciple of Amos has fortunately recorded the way in which his message was received by the chief priest of the royal sanctuary at Bethel. Amos’s words were too true and too bold not to rouse bitter opposition. The sanctity of the person of the prophet and the fact that his words had been directed against the crimes of classes rather than of individuals had hitherto evidently deterred Amaziah from interposing. The reference, however, to the overthrow of the reigning house of Jeroboam was at once made the basis of a charge against Amos. The narrative would seem to imply that Jeroboam was then present at the royal sanctuary. Amaziah’s charge was partially true and partially false; at least it represents a very free interpretation of Amos’s words. The king’s answer is not recorded. Possibly Amaziah acted at his direction in expelling Amos from Bethel. The priest’s words voice the arrogant contemptuous attitude of the corrupt rulers of that ill-fated northern kingdom. Amos naturally resented the implication that he was a mercenary prophet, prophesying, like the four hundred false prophets who gathered about Ahab (§ LXIV), not under the compulsion of divine conviction but for personal ends. He even went further and denied that he had any connection with the prophet class in Israel, and asserted that he was simply a plain humble laborer whom Jehovah called from his task to go and warn the nation Israel. Thus, almost unconsciously, every true prophet is born.

Like many a bold speaker of truth in later ages, Amos was silenced by the rulers whose crimes he denounced. As he departed, however, he uttered against Amaziah, who represented the religious leaders of the nation, a final prophecy which pictured in grim detail the fate that was soon to overtake not only the priest to whom it was addressed but also the rulers of Northern Israel.

III. Amos’s Conclusions Regarding Israel’s Future. The remaining visions in the book of Amos may have been uttered as the prophet retired from Bethel or may have been appended to the final collection of his prophecies. They constitute a fitting conclusion to the prophet’s message. The vision of a basket of summer fruit represents the nation as prosperous, attractive, but, like perishable summer fruit in a hot, oriental climate, on the eve of a rapid and complete decay. There is also a solemn play on the sound of the similar Hebrew words for summer fruit (kêyic) and end (kêc). In the succeeding stanzas, Amos presents the causes and nature of the coming national decay: the greed and oppression of the ruling and merchant class and the lack of brotherly kindness. A fate, which he likens to the horrors of earthquake, eclipse and pestilence, shall quickly overtake the land, so that lamentation shall soon take the place of festal joys. The nation which has banished Jehovah’s prophet shall soon feel a hunger for the word of Jehovah which shall know no satisfaction, and the cults of the ancient sanctuaries shall prove of no help or avail to their devotees in the hour of Israel’s dire need. Indeed, upon the sanctuaries themselves and their vaunted sacrifices, the thunderbolt of Jehovah’s wrath shall fall, smiting the temple and destroying the worshippers. None shall escape Jehovah’s judgment. Even though they hide in the secluded caves of Carmel or seek refuge in the uttermost parts of the earth, Jehovah’s vengeance will yet pursue them. Before Jehovah’s tribunal heathen Cushites and Philistines and Israelites are judged alike; and Israel, being the most guilty, must suffer the most overwhelming fate.

IV. The Later Appendix to the Book. A later editor has added an appendix to the book of Amos (Amos 9:9-15), adapting it to the post-exilic point of view and presenting a glorious picture of restoration; but such promises in the mouth of Amos, as he stood before the defiant, guilty leaders of the nation, were impossible, and such predictions would have completely destroyed the effect of his courageous words of warning. They also speak of material prosperity and conquest; but Amos labored for something far more glorious—a nation ruled by the eternal principles of justice and of mercy toward all mankind.

V. Amos’s Conception of Jehovah. Amos is primarily a social and ethical reformer. The principles which he proclaimed are to-day being recognized by all civilized nations whether Christian or pagan. And yet it was not an abstract ethical ideal which inspired him. The motive which determined all his activity was his conception of Jehovah and the deep sense of personal obligation to him. The God of Amos’s prophecies is constantly called Jehovah of hosts. He it is who controls the forces of nature and his realm includes the earth, the great deep, and the heavens above. His authority was no longer limited to little Israel. The experiences and activities of the neighboring peoples, and even of the distant Assyrians, were determined by him. The God whom Amos proclaimed was not apart from life, but was intimately interested and active in all the experiences of men. In Amos’s logical, judicial thought, the most prominent attribute of Jehovah was unquestionably justice. The situation in Northern Israel also compelled him to place all the emphasis upon the imminent divine judgment; but he also declared that Jehovah was a God of mercy, lenient toward the crimes of the heathen, listening to the petitions of his prophet, seeking by judgments and warnings to save his people from ultimate annihilation—a God not only of justice but of goodness.

VI. Amos’s Social Teachings. Amos was the first great social reformer known to history. With the modern socialist he also had much in common. Probably he himself knew through painful personal experience the social evils of his day. He was the tribune of the poor and oppressed. The rich and the rulers and those in authority were the especial objects of his attack. By them he was silenced as a dangerous agitator and banished from the northern kingdom. He first of all the prophets committed his addresses to writing, and probably sent them forth as a tract that they might bear his message where he could not speak in person.

There is a sanity and a depth, however, in Amos’s social teachings which make him the father, not of any one passing school of socialists, but of all true social reformers. The ultimate goal of his work was not to overthrow existing social and political institutions, but by means of fundamental reform to preserve and render them efficient. He offered no programme for the reorganization of society, but looked for its salvation through an intelligent and faithful recognition of individual and class responsibility. He did not attack wealth and authority, but rather their selfish and criminal misuse. He not only declared that public office and wealth are a public trust, but he also demanded in the name of Jehovah that justice and mercy should govern every man in his dealing with his fellows. Above all he declared that deeds of justice and love are the absolutely essential fruits of true religion and the only stable foundations upon which a state or society can be founded.