The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 73

,vbcn a man sine invariably, under whatever pressure of temptation, and when there is no temptation at all-sins in spite of all conceivable deterrent circumstances-the case i~ different. He rays to evil, "Be thou my good." His moral nature is inverted. He will not mould into a vessel of mercy now. He is "a vessel of wrath and fitted for destruction." Ver. 12.-.Tlu, g7"1!at preparation. "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, 0 Israel," etc. Here an important duty fathers itself on a stupendeus fact. An omnipotent God is in judgment with sinful Israel. His wrath has expressed itself in bolt after bolt of judgment already hurled. But these measures are far from embodying all his punitive resources. In the failure of these to bring repentance there are woes unnamed, because unutterable, still in store. If Israel, then, would have the heaviest artillery of retribution kept out of action, they had need bestir themselves in the matter of a duty the further neglect of which must precipitate disaster. I. GoD A~"D MEN LIVING A.PABT. Tbe enjoyment of God's presence was paradise (Gen. iii. 8), and will be heaven (1 Thess, iv. 17) ; that privilege lost is death (Gen. iii. 24), and will be hell (Luke xvi. 26). 1. .T7u, wiclud neither have God's presence nor desire it. "God drove out the man," when he became a sinner; and all men, as sinners, are "afar off." Purity and impurity are incompatible, and there can be no fellowship between them. Righteousness and unrighteousness are antagonistic, and cannot come together without coming into collision. Man's instinctive conscious- ness of this led him to anticipate expulsion from God's presence by trying to run away (Gen. iii. 8). The separation between God and the sinner is thus by consent, and in the nature of the case, and so inevitable during the status quo. 2. The righteous enjoy it in the imperfect measure in whiih they desire it. The need of Divine fellow- ship, uni~ersa.l with men, becomes conscious when they become spiritual (Pe. xiii. 2), As supply everywhere meets demand (Phil. iv. 19), and measures it, the drawing near of God is synchronous with the springing of desire for it (Matt. v. 6), as well as proportioned to its strength (Rev. :ui. 3). To each of us God comes when we desire him, a.nd as we desire him. If the presence be intermittent or incognizable, it is because appreciation is inadequate, and the longing for it irregular or weak (Isa.. lvii. 15 ; xliii. 22). 3. To desire it perfectly and possess it fully is heaven. "Heaven is endless longing accompanied with an endless fruition " (Maclaren). In it there is perfection of the faculties which commune with God. 'l'here is perfection of opportunity for their exercise. Accordingly, there is perfect attainment of the normal result. We are "with Christ," a.nd "know even as also we are known." II. ClEBTADi OCCASIONS ON WHICH THEY NEVERTHELESS MEET. The wicked fear God (Rom. viii. 15) and hate him (Rom. viii. 7), would be miserable in his presence (Rev. vL 16), and so do a.11 they can to keep away from it (Job xx.i.i. 17; xxi. 14}. But : 1. Tlu,y meet him in the dispensations of providen~. He is their King. He rules their life. All the events in it are of his disposing. He is where he operates, and so in each operation of which they are the subjects they meet him. Especially does he come to them in his judgments, which they are provoking every day. Misfortune, sickness, death,-these in their order, for a widening circle, and at ever closer quarters, are occasions of meeting God which none would choose, yet none oan shun. 2. TMy meet him in the influencu of hi, grace. "No one's salvation is so desperate, no one is so stained with every kind of sin, but that God cometh to him by holy inspir.i.tione to bring back the wanderer to himself" (Jerome, in Pusey). The strivings of the Spirit are unnoticed often, and resisted often (Luke xi.x. 44; Acts vii. 51), and so are in the end withdrawn (Gea. vL 3); but, so far as we know, they are universal. As truly as he met the Prophet Balaam in the way does God meet men in the exercise of constra.ioing or restraining grace. 3. They shall meet him m ,,,,. judgm.ent-day. "Before him sha.11 be gathered all nations." 'l'his meeting is sure, and will be unutterably momentous. All other meetings are preliminary and preparatory to it. It will gather up and declare and finally administer their cumulative results. 'l'Le wicked shall be finally banished from God's presence, and the righteous be finally admitted to it; and so for each it shall be the great meeting and the last meeting. Ill. TRE PREPAH.ATIOli NEEDED FOR SUCH ENOOUNTEH.8. Israel was evidently de!kicnt in tb.iB; not expecting the meeting and not furnitihed for it, In making i, -OU. IV. 1-13.] THE BOOK OF AMOS. 73