The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 97

tively to good. Indeed, the two things are so antagonistio that the love of the one and the hatred of the other are only different aspects of the same feeling. And in this choosing of God, again, there are three phases or degrees answering to those in the avoidance of sin. It is to be loved, as the fairest and most amiable thing on earth. It i11 to be done, as the only thing that is fitting and right. It is to be sought, as a thing important and desirable in the highest possible degree. 3. Justice musl be done. "Established in the gate." Unjust judgment was a prevalent and crying evil. The Jewish character was prone to it, and the experience of it at the hands of stranuers only strengthened the tendency. Perversion of justice is one of the most constant ~laments in natural corruption everywhere. A corrupt man makes a dishonest trader an unjust judge, and an oppressive master. Fair and upright dealing between ma~ and man bas no natural basis, unless in the fear of God. 'l'he fear of God. on the other band, will naturally co-ordinate itself with regard for man. The man who" does justly and loves mercy" is one who "walks humbly with God." IV. WHAT GoD DOES FOB ISRAEL HE DOES FOR THEM AS BEING "THE BEMNAN'l' OF JosEPR." This form of expression is significant. 1. The remnant. This impliea weeding out by previous judgment. Israel had sinned long, and in punishment had been almost decimated. This was necessary as a matter of justice. Until it had been done they could not be saved. Sinners, individually and collectively, must receive for the wrong they have done. God's original promises were made to Israel as a nation. and not to individuals, and the nation in his eye was the remnant left after hie judg- ments bad run their course. To this remnant hope of deliverance is here held out as a brand plucked from the fire; a thing on which, justice having been vindicated, mercy may now, and not till now, be shown. 2. The remnant of Joseph. This means Israel as the covenant people. Joseph was Israel's favourite, "the man that was separate from his brethren," and the recipient of the promise (Gen. xlviii. 4) given to Abraham (Gen. xvii. 8) and repeated to Isaac and Jacob. Accordingly, the "remnant of Joseph" is equivalent to the "remnant according to the election of grace" (Rom. xi. 5). God never forgets hie covenant, never fails to give its promised blessings, never gives them to the covenant people, but as covenanted mercies. On the broad ground of creaturehood his general mercies are distributed, but special mercies are on the narrower basis of a spiritual relation. All wherein we are made to differ from others is the gift of a God in covenant, and the story of providence is at bottom the story of grace (Rom. viiL 32, 28). Vers. 16, 17.-TM track of the destroyer. Each name of God is a guarantor of his action. It expresses a character, or relation, or operation, in which he thereby reveals himself. The multiplication of his names and titles here is a cumulative argument for the sureness of the matter revealed. He who ie God of hosts or the Omnipotent One. Lord or the Absolute One, antl Jehovah or the Self-existent One, ie the Beicg with. whom to decide is to act, and to will is to accomplish. Of the deliverance so empha- sized observ&- 1. THE llOBAL CERTAINTY TB.AT THE WARNING TO AN APOSTATE WILL BE VAIN, The possibility of a happy end, by the grace of God, to Israel's sin and troubles is held out in the previous verse. Yet here the falling of the judgments denounced is assumed to be inevitable. Paul declares that it ie impossible to restore to repentance those who might fall away from a high degree of spiritual attainment. The apostate is a hopeless case: 1. Ber:ause he loves sin more than other men. They love it knowing nothing better, but he does so with experimental knowledge of tbe way of peace. He loves it under a Iese impulse than they, and in the face of stronger deterrents than they, and must therefore love it more than they. The fuel that kindles with the least fire, and bums in spite of most water, is clearly the most inflammable. 2. Beca'IJM he la harder than other men. The strain is proportioned to the wrench. All sin hardens, and hardens in proportion as we are active and resolute i~ it: _Sinning against mo~e light. ,ind more deterrent influence than others, the apostates em mvolves a more decided act of will, and so a more violently hardening effect. The more firmly the branding-iron is applied, the more deeply it scars. The more violently the moral sense ie sinned against, the more the organ is indurated and injured. 3. Beca,'11,Se his day of grace will be shurter than that of other men. The only chance of men's turning at all is God's OH, V, 1-27.] THE BOOK OF AMOS, 9'1'