The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 30

outdone. And then, ns was natura.l, all the nationa.l troubles, including the crownina ono of captivity in Babylon, were brought on them by this and its resultant RinA, and were designed to be at once its punishment and cure. How near the practice lay to the sources of national corruption and calamity this passage shows. We have here- I. AN IDOL A LIE, This is a strong figure, and very apt (Jer. xvi. 19, 20; Rom. i. 25). 1. It is a figment of the imagi'llatwn. "An idol is nothing in the world" (1 Oor, viii 4). It is simply, as the very name implies, the creation of an erra,,t fancy, If we think that to be something which is nothing, we deceive ourselves; and the idol which is the occasion of the deception is an illusion and a lie. There are idols in every human heart. Such are all its passions and lusts (Col. iii. 5; 1 John v. 21). And they are lies. They are conversant with unrealities only. They deceive by false shows and promises. They promise joys that are purely visionary. They afford joys that turn out greatly poorer than they seemed, They refuse to believa in evil consequences that are manifold and inevitable. Every man who bas given them entertainment has deceived himself (Rom. vi. 21). 2. It is the devil's.figure-head. 'l'his is Paul's rending of the natural history of an idol (1 Cor. x. 19, 20), and it was that of Moses (Lev. xvii. 7; Deut. xxxii. 17) and Ezra (2 Chron. xi. 15) 11,nd David (Ps. cvi. 37) before him. 'l'hus the imaginary. god is, after all, a real devil, and therefor~ doubly a lie; for he "is a liar, and the father of it." He suggests it, and designs it, and works through it, and embodies himself in it, and then crowns all by concealing the fact. The" kingdom of the beast" in prophecy is probably the great idolatrous confederation or false Church in which idolatry is wedded to empire (Dr. Wylie, 'Great Exodus'), So with the spiritual idols of our hearts. They are of the devil (1 John iii. 8), produced by his working (Acts v. 3) and charged with bis evil nature (John viii. 44). To serve the flesh in the lusts of it is, in a very literal sense, to serve the devil. 3. It disappoints all ezpectations from it. " Ye are of nothing," says Isaiah, addressing idols, "and yonr work of nought" (Isa. xli. 24). So we say, "Out of nothing nothing comes." Idol impotence, declared in Scripture (Jer. :xiv. 22), and proved by experiment (1 Kings xviii. 24, 29), is a corollary from the very nature of things. So with spiritual idols. Nothing comes out of them to the purpose. Covetousness and concupiscence and frivolity promise happiness, and it never comes, but is wasted by them beyond recovery. And then, instead of happiness, there comes a ruined estate, and shattered health, and blasted hopes, and an accusing conscience, and the first tooth of the worm that never dies. II. AN moL A CORRUPTING LIE. "Caused them to err," or "led them astray." There is a whole philosophy of morals in this statement. 1. Wrong belief leads to 1JJ'1'ong action. The modern byword that "religion is not a creed, but a life," is cant generally, and a blunder always. Religion is neither a creed nor a life; it is both. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." You cannot do them other- wise; and in that case, to know them is useless. It is impossible to steer right with a wrong theory of navigation or with no theory. So a right life is impossible where there is a wrong creed or no creed. A creed is but a formula, of which the intelligent life is the filling up. Belief in idols, or in any ordinance of their worship, is a mistake, and acted on mnst lead astray. So, too, with the idols of sinful appetites. We e:i:pect happiness from serving them, and serve them with that view. What is this but committing sin on principle-wrong practice the inevitable outcome of wrong theory? 2, Idolatry casts off God, and so all restraints on ill-doing, Morality has its basis in religion. The standard of it is God's character. The ground of it is God's command, If there is no God there is no duty, as theists understand duty, and men may live as they list. This was what Israel did as soon as they became idolatrous (ver. 7). Idolatry was equivalent with them to a deed of idemnity for sinning. So with the worshippers of idol lusts. The idolatry that makes a god of ourselves makes us also a law to ourselves. 3. An idol ls evil even as a conception, and tM worship of it makes tM idolater like it. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" The idol invented by corrupt man is a corrupt creation. The gods of Greece and Rome were many of them simply the embodiments of human vices; and as they were models for men to study and imitate, the worship of them me.de the people lik.e them. Wld are naturally assimilated to the likeness of the thing we serve, if we serve it truly. Lei thle warn us to take servlce oitly with a pure master. 80 THE BOOK OF AMOS, [oa, n. 1-18.