HOMILETICS. Vors.1--4.-A quest which none may elude. We have here a. vivid picture of a dreadful subject, The prophet makes a new departure in bis mode of figuration. In other visions we so.w the judgments of Heaven painted in terror-moving forms; the mighty forceu of nature let loose a11d working destruction on sinners of men. Here we see, not judgments merely, but the Judge himself, active for destruction, fulmi- nating his thunders, brandishing his two-edged sword, and spreading devastation whore his anger rests. It is true a.II natural forces are his instruments, and their results his work. But they do not so reveal themselves to our sense. It is Scripture thnt shows us an omnipotent God in the forces of nature, and in every disaster they work a judgment from his hand. I. THE GoD OF lsRAEL STANDING ON AN IDOL-ALTAR. Not the altar of God at Jerusalem, but the altar for calf-worship at Bethel, is probably here referred to. God,'11 standing on the idol-altar is not for purposes of fellowship. That would be a moral impossibility. "Wha.t concord hath Christ with Belia!? And what agreement bath the temple of God with idols?" Not light and darkness are less compatible, not fire and water more inherently antagonistic, than the great God, who "is all in all," and the idol which is" nothing in the world." Neither is it in token of tolerance. Between the two can be no peace, no truce, no parley. "God is a jealous God," and can have no rival. His sovereignty and supreme greatness make him necessarily intolerant here. There can be no Da.gons on any terms where the ark rests. It is/or purposea of destruction only. "There, where, in counterfeit of the sacrifices which God had appointed, they offered would-be-atoning sacrifices a.nd sinned in them, God appeared standing, to behold, to judge, to condemn" (Pusey). When God approaches sin, it is only to destroy it. Sometimes he destroys it in saving the sinner ; sometimes the sin and the sinner, hopelessly wedded, are destroyed together. II. lDOLA.TEBB' JUDGl'dENT BEGINNING AT THEIR IDOL-BHBINE. "Smite the lintel," etc. This is the na.tura.l course. 'l'he lightnings of judgment strike the head of the highest sin, a.nd strike it in the provision made for its commission.. And there is a fitness in this Divine order. 1. It stops the worship. With the appliances destroyed. the observances could not go on. The interruption of sin is a.n intelligible and appro- priate object of Divine judgment. The most effectual punishment of criminal indulgence is a visitation that stops it perforce. If not cured, at least the evil is stayed. 2. B reveals the Divine hand. 'l'wo plagues had passed on Egypt without any very deep impression having been ma.de. But when Moses smote the dust, and it became lice on D1a.n a.nd bea.st, the magicia.ns sa.id unto Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." The miracle stopped at once the entire ceremonial of their nationa.l worship by ma.king all the priests unclean. The idols were confounded, and Jehovah's power revea.led. When a. man finds his sufferings in the seat of his sins, he has materials for identifying them a.s the visitation of God. III. THIS JUDGl'dENT FOLLOWING THEM INTO ALL THEIB RETREATS. (Vers. 2, 3.) Driven in terror from their idol-shrines, men seek escape in diverse ways, according to their diverse characters and surroundings. But it is a va.in quest. 'l'he God who is omnipresent to infallible saving effect in the case of his saints (Ps. cxxxix. 8-12) is so also to the inevitable destruction of the ungodly. One climbs the heaven of proud defiance, to be brought ignominiously down (Jer. xli.x. 16; Obad. 4). Another "breaks through into the hell" of abject fea.r and self-a.basement, to be dragged forth into the intolerable light. Tbe Carmel of philosophic nescience presents no ca.ve or grove impenetrable by the hounds of righteous judgment. Even the sea of deeper sinful indulgence has a serpent of avenging providence in its depths, from whoB0 bite there is no esoope. IV. THIS JUDGl'dENT REACHING THEM THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY 01" ALL NATURAL CAUSES, The "sword," a.s representing human agency, a.nd the "serpent," as representing the a.ge.ncy of natural causes, a.re both set in motion by God's command. The causes of nature are to Goll as the bodily organs to the brain, viz. servants to do bis biddinu. He "acts himself into them." Human wills are accessible to the will of tbe \Supre'fne, and move with it as the tides with the circling moon. The A,syrian 180 THK BOOK OF AMOS, [on. 1x. 1-15.
warring Rgainst Israel for his own reasons is, nevertheless, the rod of his anger in the l1and of Israel's God. This fact gives moral significance to many events that seem rurcly natural. The drunkard's bloated body, the sensualist's shattered health, the ep,•ndthrift's ruined fortunes, are results of natural laws, it is true, but of these directed and combined by supernatural power, and accomplishing Divine moral ends, The evil that comes through nature comes from its God.