The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 124

heart deparUng from the Lord. And it ie not only that the two trusts are one too many; they are incompatible and mutually destructive. To deify self, and defy Jehovah, are acts of the same moral qua!Hy. The blindness, and only the blindness, that ie capable of the one is capable of the other. 2. It is a blunder. It is putting faith in the faithless. It is attribnting power to the impotent. It is pitting the creature against the Creator, the vessel against the potter, the thing formed against him that formed it. Only disappointment can come out of this. A pierced hand is the natur11l and inevitable penalty of leaning on a broken reed. " Hast thou an arm like God," etc.? IV. "0 ASSYRIAN, THE BOD OF MINE ANGER." Israel's overthrow was decided on, and the instrument of it prepared. 1. War the minister of God. He does not command, nor authorize, nor sanction H. Be forbids the IW!ts of ambition and greed and revenge that lead to it. He inculcates a love of others which, carried out, would make it impossible. The progress of his religion leads to the diminution of war, and its final establishment will co-ordinate itself with the turning of war into peace to the ends of the earth. Yet, as with other evil things, he permits it to happen, controls its operation, utilizes its results, and makes it a means of good, and the minister of his holy will. War has always been a prominent agency in the judgments that fall on nations. And a terrible agency it is, more ruthlessly destructive than any other. It expresses all the evil qualities of corrupt humanity, deserving the poet's scathing words- " 0 war, thou son of hell, Whom angry Heavens do make their minister." •And war, apart from its severity as a scourge, is well calculated to be disciplinary. As a revelation of human wickedness, it indirectly lays bare to us the plagues of our own heart. Linked hand in hand as it is, moreover, with deceit and treachery, it exhibit& carnal human nature as "a thing of nought," and so is an effective antidote to confidence in the flesh. 2. The heathffl the rod in his hand. God is not fastidioW! in the matter of instruments. He uses every man, however vile, for some purpose or other. , I11rael, moreover, was so enamoured of the heathen-of their gods and worship and, way-that to know them in the character of enemies and conqnerors and masters would be a great advantage. It would be in these capacities that the worst effects of idolatry on the human character would show themselve.;i, and closer acquaint- ance with them might help to disenchant the idol-loving IsraeL 3. Victory always 911 God's side. God, for the time being, would be on the Assyrian's side. Wit.bout reference to the.intrinsic merits of the struggle, as between parties almost equally wicked, he would help the heathen to overcome the apostates. Israel's victories over the nations were due, not to their own valour or strength, but to God's assisting arm (Ps. xliv; 2, 3). Left to themselves, they would be utterly beaten now. The difference between defeat and victory is the difference between the God-forsaken and the God- defended. 4. God-sent affliction covers all the ground. co:uered by the provoking- sin. "And it shall oppress you from the entrance Hamath "-the extreme northern boundary (Numb. xxxiv. 8)-"to the brook of the desert," the southern boundary, whether "the brook of the willows," Isa. xv. 7 (Pusey), or the present "El Ahsy" (Keil). This territory they had recovered nnder Jeroboam II., and lost soon to Tiglath-Pileser, defeat and loss retracing to the last inch the steps of conquest. Not only,was "the whole scene of their triumphs one scene of affliction and woe" (Pusey), but the very thing, and the whole thing, which they had made an occasion of pride and carnal confidence, vainly deeming that they had conquered it in their own strength, is made an occasion of humiliation and distress. The only way to put as out of conceit with our idol is to destroy it all, and destroy it utterly. Ver. 13.-Joy in the unreal always precariotl,S. It is quite unaccountable. It ii almost incredible. But it is unquestionably true. Men reject t.he staff, and lean upon the broken reed. Whatever is worthy of trust they doubt, whatever is utterly unreli- able .they confide in. This was the way of Israel, and it is the way of huma.nity. They do not see the reality of things. They attribute to them qualities they do not po911ess, qualities sometimes the very opposite of tha actual oo.es. Then they .124 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [ea. vr.1-U.