The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 52

the bee.ping up of the sin of their unrighteous getting, whilst in heaping up sin they were necessarily treasuring up wrath (Rom. ii. 6). II. THE WITNESSES SUMMONED. "Assemble upon the mountains," etc. A. reference to t-ho topography of Samaria brings out the graphic fitness of the language here. The city was built on & hill, surrounded and overlooked by mountains higher than itself nnd from the tops of which the nations could look down into the very street1t, and observe the daily doings of the inhabitants. As regards these we notice: 1. Aband<m- ment in sin is a sight for a man's worst enemy to see. The certainty, severity, and nearness of avenging judgment makes sin, from even the low utilitarian standpoint, the greatest possible evil. The enemy, who rejoices in our ill, can find no such occa- sion of malignant joy as our giving ourselves up to sin. After the fact that it offends God, the Btrongest argument against sin is the fact, the obverse of the other, taa:t it pleases the devil and wicked men. 2. When men lose the sense of sin, God appeals to their sense of shame. It is strange that the sense of shame should survive the sense of sin, but so it is. We fear men more than God. We are not ashamed to do what we would be very much ashamed to acknowledge. The poet's sarcasm is just, that in the matter of sin our care is "not to leave undone, but keep unknown." The bitterness of punishment is greatly aggravated by its being inflicted in the presence of an exulting enemy. Philistia and Egypt were, moreover, the enemies whose cognizance of their way and end Israel would most feel and fear (2 Sam. i. 20). To this last shred of feel- ing on which a motive could lay hold Jehovah here appeals. They would be a. gazing- stock to their bitterest enemies. " Like the woman set in the midst amid one encircling sea of accusing, insulting faces, with none to pity, none to intercede, none to show mercy to them who had showed no mercy. Faint image of the shame of that day when not men's deeds only, but the secrets of all hearts, shall be revealed, and they, shall begin • to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us'" (Pusey). 3. The pupil in the art of ill-doing often outdoes the master. It is assumed that even Egypt and Philistia would be shocked at the sight of the wrong-doing of apostate, Israel, and so become witnesses against them. Yet Egypt had taught them" oppres- • sion," and Philistia had given them many a lesson in "violence and devastation." The art of wrong-doing advances with rapid strides as it is handed on. The son of the: "smart" trader is a. swindler, the son of the swindler is the burglar, the son of the· burglar is the robber-assassin. The pupil of the religious liberal is the rationalist, and the pupil of the rationalist is the atheist. Begin by imitating wicked men, and you will end by outstripping them in sin. , III. THE SENTENCE PRONOUNCED. This is at once heavy in its nature and explicit in its details. We see here that: 1. When God's judgments come against a man they surround him. (Ver. 11," An enemy, and that round about the land.") The impossi- bility of escaping when God attacks is axiomatic. Punishment is in such a ·way interwoven with sin that they cannot be dissociated. When we sin against God we sin against the nature of things. Physical, mental, and social law jump each with moral law, a.re broken in the breach of it, and so are each of them a channel to guide to us the full flood of retribution. "Though hand join in hand, yet shall not the wicked go unpunished." 2. When God strikes a: sinner he strikes him on the seat of his sin. "And he shall bring down," etc. (ver. 11); "That dwell in Samaria," etc. (ver. 12). The strong had oppressed and pillaged the weak, and God's band would fall on their strength. In the palaces the spoil of violence had been heaped up, and the palaces should be the special prey of the plunderer. The beds and couches which had ministered to their sinful indulgence would be carried away to the last stick. It is so always. The punishment of drunkenness, uncleanness, pride, theft, lying, comes in ma.ny ways, but in every ea.so pre-eminently through the lust or appetite involved. This is according to natural laws, but is none the less the arrangement of God. He has put latent in every power a. mystic spark, which, if the power be abused, becomes a retributive fire to burn the breaker of his La.w. 3. When sin is adequately punished the sinner's well-being is practically destroyed. "Delivers out of the mouth of the lion two shin-bones and an ear-lappet," etc. (ver. 12). 'l'hese are paltry leavings, not worth the rescue. And such, and so insignificant, would be the surviving good of Israel when God's controversy wa.s settled. Where the scythe of God's judgment has p~ssed there is little left for the gleauer. The detected thief, the broken-dowu 52 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [on. III, 1-16,