The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 99

1hought of them should be sobering, and the sure prospect of them overwhelming, Now, the scoffer is the worst type of sinner, and will, in the nature of the case, be tho greatest sufferer when judgment comes. He is at the same time the most uttel'iy blinded character, and therefore likely to be taken most violently by surprise, How he shall be so, and to whitt extent, is made in these verses to appear. I. "THE DAY OF THE LoRn." This is a common expression in the prophets, and its meaning is well defined. It is applied: 1. To the day of active Divine intervention on earth. (Job i. 15; ii. 1; Isa. ii. 12; Jer. xlvi.10; Obad. 15.) There are periods which God signalizes by special doings. Long quiescent, he becomes conspicuously active. He intervenes in human affairs with unusual emphasis. Judgmente often menaced are sent. Sinners long borne with are punished. The godly, for a time imposed on, are delivered. Abuses, the growth of centuries, are dealt with on their merits, and swept away. Such a period is called "the day of the Lord" because It is the time of obvious and special Divine activity. God not only strikes, but shows his hand. 2. To the day of final fudgment. All others foreshadow, lead up to, culminate and lose themselves in, this. " The day of the Lord had already become the name for every day of judgment, leading on to the last day" (Pusey). 'l'his is the day of the Lord in a unique sense. It is unique as regards uuiversality. It will see dealt with, not individuals merely, or nations even, but the entire race (Matt. xxv. 31). It is unique in the matter of thoroughness. There will be inquisition as to each person, and as to every act of each (2 Cor. v. 10). It is unique also in the matter of finality. Questions already dealt with by temporal judgments will be reopened to be settled once for all. Its sentence• -will be final, and its adjudication of rewards and punishments for all eternity (Matt.. :xxv. 46). II. 1TB SIGl.'IFICANCE TO THE WICKED. This is explicitly and minutely defined as: 1. Evil. "Darkness, and not light." It could not be otherwise. Sin means wrath, and wrath means infliction. Between a righteous God and all unrighteousness there must exist an infinite antagonism. Between his Law and such there is an essential incompatibility. Therefore his action towards them must be adverse, his judgment on them that of condemnation. It is a result of God's purity, of the majesty of law, of the needs of moral government, that" with the froward he shall show himself froward." 2. Only evu. " And no brightness in it." The Jispensation of forbearance, th~ time for any measure or kind of good, is over, While any hope of reformation remained, judgment wa.s mingled with mercy. But when this is hopeless, and the question is enly one of punishing the reprobate, the exercise of goodness would be an anachronism, and only severity can be meted out. 3. Evil playing into the hands of evil. "As if a man fieeth before the lion, and the bear meets him." Divine punitive measures are various and complete. They surround us. They hem us in on every side. They form as it were a circle of fire round us. They are not to be evaded or escaped (Jer. xi. 11; Rom. ii. 3; Heb. ii. 3). In running away from one, we only run into the jaws of another. If it is not the lion's tooth, then in any case it will be the bea.r's·claws. If health escape, property will suffer. If both escape, the good name will be tarnished. If all three escape, conscience will be wounded and happiness destroyed, If earthly evil consequences do not ree.ch us, there are eternal fires kindled against.which there will be no appeal. 4. Eva in the arms of good. "And rests his ha.nd upon the.wall, a.nd the snake bite him." The wall, a ready support for the feeble or weary to lean en, may furnish in its chinks a hiding-place for the venomous snake. So with all human refuges in God's day of visitation. They will fail us. Their help will not be available, or it will not be sufficient, or it will involve some other evil as great as the one it will relieve. "The staff of brnised reed" (Isa. xx.xvi. 6) is the fitting emblem of all fancied helps in the day of God's wrath. Even the likeliest will be found wa.nting in the very matter in which it promises most. III. THEm FOOLISH DESIRE FOR IT. " Woe to those who desire:the day of Jehovah l" The sinner's desiring the day of vengeance on his sins may mean: 1. -Misapprehension. Israel did not realize the enormity of their sin. They did not see that t~e thr~3:tened judgments were for themselves and on account of it. They trusted to their position as " Israel after the flesh " to secure them the immunity that only belonged to Israel after the Spirit. Aud so their idea of the day of God was a time when their enemies would be destroyed, and they themselves delivered and exalted. With all the wicked, <Clll, V, 1-27.] THE BOOK OF AMOS. 99