The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 29

the sin that is empha.sized. The law written on their heart (Rom, ii. 14, 15)-i.e. speaking in rea.son, conscience, and human feeling-was specially the law of duty to their ~ello~-oreatures; a~d _it ie_ for their sin in _this matter specially that God brings them mto Judgmenl. It 1s its blindness, and not its darkness, that is the conderunatlon of the world (John iii. 19). Where the white ray of revelation foousses, there the red ray of judgruent shall fall and burn. ' II. Co~"TEMl'T OF LAW AND THE VIOLATION OF LAW INVOLVE EAOH OTHER. "Despised the LRw of Jehovah, and kept not his commandments." The Law is the abstraot thing --0:od'~ re,·eal_ed ~ii( as a whole. The comman~ments are ~he "particular precepts" (Kell)mto :h'.ch _it 1s ~roke~ ~P· The ~rst, bemg ~eneral, 1s fitly described as being "despised; ,.e. its drift d1shked and its authority spurned. The second, being precepts enjoining particular duties, is said with propriety to be disobeyed. The order of enumeration is also the logical and natural order. Action is ever the outcome of sentiment, and its expression. What a man outwardly disobeys he has begun by inwardly despising. And so what be begins by despising he naturally goes on to disobey. It is in the heart that the eggs are hatched which, in a later stage, are the birds of evil-doing. It is, therefore, at the door of his heart that the wise man will mount guard (Prov. iv. 23). Ill. ALL TRANSGRESSION 18 THE O'OTOO:ME OF IDOLATRY. Their lies led them astray. "By 'lies' here we are to understand idols. And the figure is most apprer pria.te. Amos calls the idols 'lies,' not only as res quai fallunt, but as fabrications 11.Ild nonentities" (Keil; see 1 Cor. viii 4). It is this lying character that makes them inevitably the occasion of sin. The first sin was brought about by a lie, in which the truth of God's threat wa.s denied, and so its practical power destroyed. And every idol is jnst such a lie in embodied form. It is an abrogation of God's authority, a denying of his very existence; and it is a substitution for those of a god and a code congenial to our fallen nature. Under such circumstances violation of God's Law is a foregone conclusion. IV. THE IDOLS OF THE CHILDREN ARE THE IDOLS OF THE FATHERS. Imitation is easier than in.ention. Bence Israel, when they first wanted an idol, adopted the calf of Egypt (Exod. xxxiL 4); and Jeroboam, also just left Egypt, set up calf-worship in Dan and Bethel (1 Kings xii. 28). Then, other things being equal, the persons men are most likely to imitate are their fathers, who arc their teachers and guides and natural examples. Add to this that national tastes and habits and characters, formed in connection with a particular idol-worship, would be in special harmony with it, aud would be transmitted with it from sire to son. V. SIN INSIDE il'D OUTSIDE THE SPIRITIJ'AL CIRCLE 18 DEALT WITH ON 1'HE BAME PBINOIPLES. The manner of the sin was the same with Judah and the heathen. It was a transgression, or act of disobedience to a known law, as distinguished from a sinful disposition. It was a series of these acts, culminating in a final one of special enormity. "For three transgressions, and for four." The manner of treatment was the sam£. God threatened to strike. Then he lifted his hand for the stroke. Then he withheld it for a time. Then he declared the limit of forbearance was past, and nothing could now prevent the falling of the blow. Tf.e mode of p'lllll,ishment was to be tl,e sam£. The agent would be devouring fire. This would fall on the capital. Sin in a visible spiritual relation, and however mixed up with acts of worship, is no whit less guilty. There is only one hell, and all sin alike deserves it, and, unrepented e,f, must bring to it. Ver. 4.-Heredity and the idol-taint. "And their lies led them astray, after which their fathers walked." Idolatry was Israel's besetting sin. Within two months of their leaving Egypt they foll into it, and, in spite of Divine deterrent measures, they returned to it persistently for nine hundred years. 'l.'hey took to idol-worship, in fact, as " tu the manner bom." And that the sin was constitutional, and in the grain, is evident from the fact that there was no corresponding secession from idol-worship to the service of tbe true God (Jer. ii. 11). It was, moreover, the germinal _sin. Derauging the primary relation to God, it led to the derangement of all other relations subordinate to this. From it, as a fruitful seed, sprang up in a luxuriant crop the hateful national vices, in which the heathen around were not merely imita.ted but mr. u. 1-18.] THE BOOK OF AMOS. 29