The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 74

we must : 1. Prepare a character.· To meet God satisfactorily men must be like him. '.l.'o see him on the one hand, or relish him on the other, or be capable in any ser.ss of holding communion with him, a man must be pure (Matt. v. 8; 2 Cor. vi. 14). He must bring to the meeting a character in sympathy with God's, if he would bring .a blessing away. 2. Prepare a case. Man before God is a criminal, guilty, con- demned, and sentenced. He wants all this reversed, and he must be able to show reason before it can be done. And what are the elements essential to hie case? Clearly the penalty he was under must have been exhaustively endured (1 Pet. ii .24); the Law he is under must have been perfectly obeyed (Isa. xlii. 21); both these things must have been done with the approval and by the appointment of God (Heb. v. 4, 5) ; and the man must be intelligently resting his case on these facts. In other words, there must be Divine vicarious obedience and death, divinely recognized, and rested in by faith. Any appearance before God apart from these must end in con- fusion. 3. Prepare an advocate. Man cannot plead his own case. He has no lccua .standi. He can approach God only through a mediator (1 John ii. 1). This mediator, to be admissible, must have Divine recognition (Isa. xiii. 1; Heb. v. 4-, 5); to be efficient, must have Divine power (Pa. lxuix. 19; Matt. :u:viii. 18); and to be .available, must have Divine sovereign love for men (Eph. v. 2). These conditions meet, and meet only, and always met, in Jesus Christ. He is the one Advocate of every dispensation. Access into the antitypical holiest of all has been one thing and by one way always (Heb. iL 8; x. 19-22). It is and was and shall be only spiritual and through the Son of God. 4. Prepare at once. To Israel a meeting in judgment had been long foreshadowed, and was now overdue. It might be any .time, and must be soon. A surprise-and in like circumstances it is the same with all-was probable, and would be disastrowi (Rev. iii. 3). To prepare immediately was, ,therefore, a duty as urgent as it was clear (Matt. :u:iv. 44). It is ill beginning to dig a well when the house of life is already on fire. IV. •ruE CONSIDERATIONS THAT MOVE us TO l'BEPABE. In the context these are written large. There is: 1. An implied promise. " It has hope in it to be bidden to prepare" (Pusey). The person so enjoined is not yet given up. The menaced doom is not yet inevitable. The way in which God shall be met, and so the result of the meeting, ill still capable or being modified. Every call to action is an implicit promise of the result to which it naturally leads. There is also : 2. An ,:;z;plicit threat. "Thus will I do unto thee." There is a vagueness here that is far more terrible than the most explicit denunciation. A series of woes already sent has just been named. But there is a woe that is unutterable in reserve, and already on its way. This, because words are too weak to express it, is left to the imagination to picture, "Thus will I do unto thee," he says, and attempts to particularize no further, where the sentiment is too terrible for words. And so it is with the woe in store for a)l the impenitent wicked. It cannot be literally defined, and so is suggested by figures such as " the blackness of darkness" (Jude 13), "the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched" (Mark ix. 48). But, however figuratively represented, the woe is real, is prepared, is being kept in store, is incomparably great, and shall fall as God is true. 3. Whether we are prepared or not, the meeting with God muse come. "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." There is a needs be in the case. The purpose of God must be fully carried out in issuing all the matters that go down unsettled to the grave. The righteousness of God must couclusively be vindicated in meting out to all rewards according to their works. The truth of the Divine Word, pledged in promise and in threat, must be established for ever in the answering of event to explicit prediction. The meeting may be a joy to us or a shame, as we choose to have it; but it must be a fact. 4. .Afeding of unreadiness is a necessary step to preparation. The measure of a sinner's fancied readiness to face hie Maker is the measure of his ignorance as to what real fitness implies. The man who has been brought to say," I dare not face God," has made one step in advance. He is disillusionized. His eyes are open and his conscience awake. Self-deception and false security are at an end (Rev. iii 17, 18). The first step toward grappling with the facts has been taken when once --:ve have fair~y fac~ them. Realize that you are sinners, and the grace of God that bnngeth salvation will find appreciation and an open door, V4 THE BOOK OF A.MOS. [oe. rv. 1-13~