The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 151

God's just displeasure with them. He knew and had foretold that retribution should berall them. Yet be entreated mercy-a withholding of judgment, 11, little respite nt the least. He identified himself with the sinful, and sought forbearance. II. THE GROUND OF CONFIDEl!ICE IN INTERCESSORY PRAYER. Amos could not ask for the withholding of punishment on the ground that punishment was undeserved; for he confessed that the people's sin had merited chastening. His reliance was not upon justice, but upon mercy. It was forgiveness he besought; and forgiveness pre- 1umes disobedience on the part of the subject and offence taken on the part of the ruler. In pleading for our fellow-men, as in pleading for ourselves, we have to rely upon the pity and loving-kindness of our God. III. THE PLEA BY WHICII INTERCESSORY PRAYER IS URGED. "Who is Jacob?,, is the language of the prophet. "Who is Jacob, that he should stand, that he should endure, if such a visitation befall him? He is feeble and impoverished." 'l'hus, whilst the main reliance of him who intercedes must ever be upon the character and promises of the Eternal, he will naturally bring before God-as well known to the Omniscient- the weakness and helplessness of those whose interest he would promote. God is not as man. Men sometimes are found willing to favour the great, though they are indiffer- ent to the woes of the obscure; whilst with God need, poverty, and helplessness are a commendation to compassion and assistance. IV. THE SUCCESSFUL ISSUE OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER. The entreaty of the prophet was not in vain. The calamity-whether we understand it litljrally, as a plague of locusts, or figuratively, as the invasion by Pul-was averted and withdrawn. This is but one of many instances in Old and New Testament Scripture in which God repre- sents himself as willing to listen to the pleading of the pious on behalf of their sinful fellow-men. It is one office of the Church of Christ to plead perpetually for mankind, uttering the plaintive and effectual intercession, "Spare them, good Lordl"-T. Ver. 3.-~ repentance of Jelwvah. Whatever it was of which the Lord is here Ba.id to have repented, the meaning, the lesson, is the same. The plague of locusts, the incursion of the foe, was stayed, and it was stayed in consequence of the prophet's intercession, and because of the pity and loving-kindness of Jehovah. I. No CHANGE IS ASSERTED m THE CHARACTER, THE GOVERNMENT, TBE WILL, OF THE ETERNAL. In this sense the Lord is not a man that be should repent. Whilst all men are subject not only to vicissitudes of circumstances, but to variations in dis- position, and even in principles of action, God is a stranger to all such mutability. "I," says he, "am the Lord that changeth not." Well for us is it that this is so; that we have not to do with a mutable, a capricious deity. Because he is the Lord that changeth not, therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed. I!. BUT .ALL THE THREATS OF THE DIVINE JUDGE ARE CONDITIONAL UPON HUMAN CONDUCT. The whole of revelation bears out this statement. What God commands he en[orces with the promise of reward and with the threat of punishment. Thie is in accordance with his character and position as the Moral Governor of his universe. He does not, as an earthly tyrant might do, take pleasure in inflicting punishment upon any of his dependent creatures. On the contrary, he desireth not the death of a. sinner. If the threatened respond to the appeal of Heaven, if they turn from their wickedness, they shall surely live, and not die. He repenteth him of the evil, and is favourable and forgiving towards the penitent. Ill. 1'HE DrvIKE REPENTANCE DEMANDS THE ADORATION AND THE PRAISE Oll' THOSE WHO OWE TO IT THEIR SALVATION, There is not one child of Adam who is not indebted to the repentance of Jehovah for the sparing of life, for long-suffering, for the aversion of judgment. In fact, but for this, the original sentence against the sinner mUBt have been fulfilled, and the race of mankind mUBt have perished. Every succes- sive interposition of Divine mercy has been the evidence of that relenting which exclaims, "How shall I give thee up?" And the advent and sacrifice of Immanuel, the mediatorial scheme, the redemption of mankind, the recovery of the lost, a.re all to be attributed to this same cause. The fountain of salvation must be discovered in tb11 repentance of the Unchanging. It is a paradox; but it ia a paradox honouring to God Pd life-giving to man.-T. 011. VII, 1-17.] 'fHE BOOK OF AMOS. 151