The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 143

Yer. 2.-The problem c!I stability. The prayer of faith is free. The believing soul he.s the privilege of reasoning with God, and embraces it. It asks whe.t it wills, e.nd e.s it wills, e.nd for whom it wills. There is room for originality in it, e.nd scope for inventive resource; yet little risk of impropriety. The Spirit se.fegue.rds the.t in e.n effective "unction." Then gre.ce is one thing ever, and there is a ground-plrm of supplication which is pre.ctirally the same with e.11 the faithful. It he.s centrifugal en~rgy, flowing from the individual outwards. Its rivers wind and wander e.nd discharge themselves ultime.tely on the desolate places of ungodly livos; but they run first by the homes of the household of faith. And then it bas e. spiritual stree.m. It blesses temporal interests too, but leaves its fertilizing ooze most richly on the thin1£S of the religious life. Of the prophet's prayer here all this is che.rl\Cteristio, _t reveals to us- I. J ACOB's ACTUALITY. "Small." There is a natural Israel and e. spiritual Isre.el also, t.he one l\t once the type and the germ of the other. The Christie.n Church is not distinct from, but I\ continuation and expRnsion of, the Jewish; and both together are the one Yisible Church of God. To this, an already existing community, many were added at Pentecost (Acts ii. 47). In the congregation of Israel to which the sweet psalmist sang (Ps. xxii. 22) Paul sees the one Church of God (Heh, ii. 12); and with Stephen (Acts vii, 38) the wandering host of the tribes (Exod. xvi. 2) was nothing else than the " Church in the wilderness." This Church, continuous from the beginning, and one in all ages, is the "good olive tree" (Rom. xi. 17-24), whose Jewish "branches" excised, and again to be "graffed in," are meantime displaced by the ingraffed Gentile shoots, which partake" of the root and fatness of the olive tree." In Amos's time it was a little flock, whose preservation was me.tter to him of anxiety and prayer, 1. Be is small in comparison with Esau. The heathen around out- numbered Israel overwhelmingly. Left to itself in the struggle e.mong them for existence, it would inevitably have been swe.Jlowed up. So with the spiritual Israel. Sa.tan bas had in his kingdom e. majority of the re.ce for so far. Faith-gate is a strait one, Purity-way is a narrow one (Matt. vii. 13, 14), e.nd the saints who enter the one and follow the other are a little flock (Luke xii. 32). And no wonder. Unbelief is natural, living after the flesh is congenial (Exod. xxiii. 2), and e.n overwhelming preference for both is a foregone conclusion. Hence, not only has the Church ·been smaller than the world, but within the Church itself the whee.t has apparently been less than the tares. Relatively to Esau, Jacob is, e.nd has been, sme.11 indeed. 2. He v smail in com11<11rison with what he might have been, Smallness is sometimes a misforiune, but it was Israel's fault. It was a result of persistent national sin, drawing down the destroying judgments of Heaven. Their ranks had been thinned by war, or pestilence, or famine in just and necessary retribution for their incorrigible unfaithfulness. So the small number of the saints is the sin of e.ll concerned. It means opportunities neglected, ordinances abused, and e. Holy Spirit resisted. None of the agencies of a heavenly culture have been withheld (Isa. v. 1-4). Every unbeliever is such in despite of influences that ought to have brought him to fe.ith (Acts vii 51). Every spiritual weakling is one who has debilitated himself (Heh. v. 12; 1 Cor. ill. 1-8). Moreover, as workers for God the saints are not guiltless, for which of them has exercised his full influence for good? The difference between whe.t the Church is e.nd what she might have been is the mPJlllll.l'e of her delinquency before God. When the sun shines and tbe showers fall, something subjective is wrong with the crop that stunts. 3. He is small in comparison with what M will yet be. Israel is not yet full grown. The Gentiles are Abraham's seed (Gal. iii. 7), and their in-bringing is the increase of spiritue.l Israel. That increase is to attain world-wide proportions yet. The Church's limits shall be the ends of the earth (Ps. lxxii. 8), and its constituents the heathen nations (Pa. ii 8; lxxii. 11). It shall be a centre to which all the peoples shall gravitate (Isa. ii. 2). It shall be a light illuminating and incorporating in its own radiance the entire globe (Hab. ii. 14). It is ?.nly e. stone e.e yet, but it will be a mountain one day, and fill the whole earth (D~n. 11. 36, 44), In the faith of such a destiny the Church may well find strength to avail her, even in the day of small things. II. J ACOB's IDEAL. "Stand." It is assumed here that he ought to stand ; that ~lu.tJding is bis appropriate and normal position. And BO it ie. In the ideal and Oll. VII, 1-17.] THE IlOOK OF AMOS. 143