2. The story from which the text is taken belongs to the reign of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, when the kingdom of Israel was at the height of its glory and its frontier extended beyond the farthest point reached in the brightest days of Solomon. This was a period of unexampled material prosperity for the Northern Kingdom. It was not a country of great natural resources in itself, but it lay on the main trading route between Assyria on the one hand and Egypt on the other. It was therefore rapidly growing wealthy, and had produced an order of great merchant princes. The immediate result of this increase of prosperous intercourse with foreign nations was an outburst of luxury and vice. As usual, the concentration of great wealth in the hands of a few tended towards the oppression of the many. The lot of the poor was intolerable owing to there being no justice in the land. Slavery grew rapidly ; there were crowds of foreign slaves in the palaces of the nobles, while the freemen of Israel were being reduced to the position of serfs on the soil they had formerly owned. These palaces must have been enormous structures, replete with
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322 A MEETING WITH GOD
everything that could minister to the senses. They were often built of marble and inlaid with ivory and gold. The women of the rich classes seem to have become demoralized and heartless. Eeligion was punctiliously attended to, but was almost completely divorced from morality. The priests accommodated themselves to the manners of the time, and taught that Jehovah was the God of Israel only, and that the national prosperity was a token of His favour. The worshippers believed that God was their God much in the same way as serfs believed in their feudal lord. It was His business to look after them and to secure to them material enjoyment and victory over their enemies ; they, on their part, had to endow His sanctuaries and be careful to observe His feasts and sacrifices.
3. This, then, was the first thing Amos saw, that, although the land was full of religion, it was as full of iniquity, which, God being judge, could not go unpunished. In the next place he saw that the punishment was near. On the horizon was a cloud that would spread itself and overwhelm them — the great conquering empire of the Assyrians. Amos nowhere mentions the Assyrians by name, but the people knew whom he meant. That made the treason of his prophecy — to think that the kingdom could be over- thrown ; and that also made the blasphemy of it — to prophesy that Jehovah's people could fall before the heathen. The people knew quite as well as Amos that their land was in danger from the Assyrians, for it was through the Assyrian weakening of Damascus, with whom they had fought for years, that they had been able to extend their borders ; and now that Damascus had fallen, nothing stood between them and the Assyrians. But for all that, they had no fear ; they put their trust in the God of their fathers. By His stretched-out arm they had conquered the nations round about ; the gods of the nations had fallen down before Jehovah. Who, compared with Him, was Baal or Moloch ? Kimmon of Damascus had fallen ; Chemosh had not saved Moab from His anger, nor Milcom the children of Ammon. And now that Asshur, the god of the Assyrians, was leading on his nation against them, it would be seen once more which of the two was the Lord of Hosts. And so they redoubled their sacrifices, and were confident of the issue.
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4. And what had Amos to tell them about this impending struggle between Jehovah and Asshur ? He told them that it was not Asshur but Jehovah who was leading the Assyrian army against them. We are so accustomed to the truth that God is the God of all flesh, that He has made of one blood all the nations of men, that we can hardly throw our imagination back to a time when this great fact was a new and startling revelation. But that is the truth Amos is labouring to impart to his countrymen — that although God had known them alone of all the nations, yet it was He who guided the blind movements of all the wander- ing peoples of the earth. "Jehovah, the God of hosts, is his name." Yes, the God of hosts — as the Israelites were so proud to call Him; but of what hosts? Not of the hosts of Israel merely ; they were but as dust in the balance. And so, because it was not Asshur but Jehovah that was bringing up the Assyrian army against them, Amos bade the people prepare to meet Him. That sentence, " Prepare to meet thy God," which has almost lost power to arrest us from being placarded in waiting-rooms and stencilled on the pavement of our streets, had a terrible signifi- cance as it first comes into Scripture. It meant, The God of your nation is bringing up an army against His own people ; when you prepare yourselves for battle, it will be to fight against your own God, who is advancing against you. " Prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel."