The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 44

III. JUDOMENT Is' mEVITABLE WHERE MERCY HAS BEEN RECEIVED IN VAIN. "There- fore will I visit," etc. (ver. 2). Mercy extended is made here the ground of judgment denounced, Each gift bestowed in the past is a count in the present indictment. I. lt is inevitable as punishment. Sin by God's professing people is specially heinous. It involves ingratitude to a. special Benefactor, insensibility to his love, contempt of his gifts, and disregard of special claims on their allegiance. The gnilt is in every aspect extreme, and so the punishment is sure, 2. It -is inevitable as testimony.' God's honour is closely identified with his people's conduct, which must therefore be closely looked after. Any sin in it must be rigidly punished if God would vindicate his purity and impartiality, hating sin as such, and wherever it appears. "It is necessary that God should vindicate hie own honour-by making it appear that he hates sin, and hates it most in those that are nearest him" (M. Henry). a. It is inevitable as discipline. Judgments are corrective as well as punitive. In this aspect they are sure, and will be severe in proportion to the love and mercy despised. Whom God leaves without cor- rection he bastardizes (Heb. xii. 8), but he expresses fatherly interest in the application of the rod. Judgment with Israel was just a change of corrective treatment. Mercy had failed, and now love would try another way, that nothing might be left undone to eeparate Israel from sin. 'l'hi.i ill why judgment begins at the house of God. Vere. 3-8.-No smoke withO'l/,t fire. God cannot utter empty threats. His every declaration is bonafides. When he roars he is about to rend. Let, then, the doomed sinner tremble. For all his insensibility he is no better than a dead man. I. Sm INVOLVES DISCONNECTION FBOM A HOLY Goo. "Can two walk together," etc.? Thie deep principle involves that: 1. Isi·ael, quarrelling with God, cannot reckon m his company. For so far God had associated with them. In Egypt, in the wilderness, in Canaan, he had vouchsafed them close companionship. But their rebellious attitude against him, approaching as it was a climax of irreconcilableness, must make a con- tinuance of intimate relatio □ s impossible. 2. The prophet, walking as he did with God, must be regarded as in agreement with him, and so e-.r;pressing his will. Amos spoke as God's servant and mouthpiece. lie looked at Israel's sin from God's standpoint. In reference to it he was as emphatically associated with God a-~ he was di.~sociated from them. Underlying this formal association it must be believed there was real agreement. "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." II. WHEN THE THUNDER OF Goo's THREATENINGS IS HEARD, THE LIGHTNING OF HIS JUDOMENTS IS IMMINENT. That peril is sure and near is taught in a series of similes of a graphic kind. 1. Wnen God utters his war-cry it is evident that he is just about to strike his enemy. (Ver. 4.) 'l'he lion roars when he has marked his prey, and is about to spring. God sees the sinful nation ripe for judgment. He sees that the time for sending it has come. His roar out of Zion ( eh. i. 2) is, therefore, the prelude to striking his prey forthwith. "The threatenings of the Word Rlld providence of God are not bugbears to frighten children and fools, but are certain inferences from the sin of man and certain presages of the judgments of God" (M. Henry). 2. When God reachesforth his hand there is something to take, and within his roo,ch. (Ver. 5.) It is the lighting of the bird on the trap that snaps it. If there were no trap laid no bird would be caught. If there were no bird in the trap it would not rise from the ground. Israel is the bird, and God is the Fowler, and his judgrnent is the snare, and the lesson of all is that she is already in God's destroying grasp. 3. When some are already alarmed it shows that danger to all is real and close. (Ver. 6, "Is a trumpet blown,'' etc.?) The prophet, who knew what was coming, was alarmed, and those like-minded with him. 'l'he note of alarm was already ringing over the land. Signs of evil will not show themselves until the evil is comparatively at hand. So surely as the smoke rises the fire is kindling, 4. When misfortune/alls it is a proof that God has been at work. "Does misfortune happen in the city," etc.? (ver. 6). "All things are of God," i~ an axiom that in one sense or other covers all events, whether good or bad. The qualification of it is that the sin of any of them is exclusively of man. God "creates evil" (Isa. xiv. 7}-the evil of suffering-whilst the evil of sin he allows us to create, that he may bring out of it greater good. ill. Goo WABNS HIS PROPHETS OF EVIL DEFORE IT OOMES. (Ver. 7.) 'l'he prophet le a negotiator, hearing the truth from God, and handing it on to men. God does not 44 THE BOOK OF AMOS. (tnt. III. 1-111,