The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 180

hostile action, He can neither sin ignorantly nor incur the penalty unawaree. Fore- W11rned, it is his fault if he is not forearmed. 2. Ie is mO'T'al. It tendH to deter from sin, and so to save from its penal consequences. The thought that it is under God's eye ought to make sin impossible, and does make it more difficult. The knowledge that it ends inevitably in ruin does much to stay the transgressor's hand. 3. It i, ,;udicial. Sin done consciously under God's eye, and deliberately in defiance of his wrath, is epecia.lly guilty. The warning which being heeded might have deterred from sinning will greatly aggravate the guilt of it if disregarded. The truth will be, as we treat it, a buoy lifting us out of the sinful sea, or a millstone sinking us deeper in its devouring waters. Vers, 5, 6.-The image of the Deity in" great rw,ture's open eye." God's wrath "is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness." And it is terrible as it is great. Impotent anger is ridiculous, but the wrath of Omnipotence overwhelms. Whatever, therefore, illustrates the power of Goel adds terror to his threat. And such is the effect of this passage. The stern purport of the previous commination is emphasized by the moving picture it presents of the Divine majesty and resistless might. Omni- potent resources will push forward to full accomplishment the purposes of Omniscience against doomed and abandoned Israel. We have here-- I. Oon's NAME REVEALING ms CHARACTER, This is the object of a name. It dis- tingt1ishes the bearer from others, and this by expressing some leading characteristic. I. The Lord, This is the word invariably substituted by the Jews for Jehovah in the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is a name of authority, and means" the supreme Lord." The Lord is over all. He is Governor and Judge in one. He does as it pleases him. He disposes of all matters, and settles all interests without appeal. He reckons with none, and none can call him to account. 2. Jehovah. This is a verb, third person, signifying "he is," and another form of the name "I am," by which God revealed himself to Moses. Its root-idea is that of "underived existence;" then, as arising out of this, " independent action;" and then, as the corollary of both, " eternity and unchangea.bleness" (see Fairbairn). It is thus the proper name of God to man; self-existent himself, the Author ofe:xistf:nce to all persons and things, and manifesting his existence to those capable of knowing it. Jehovah is the concrete and historical name of Goel. As revealed by it, he exists by his own energy, and makes to be all things that are. Absolute and undetermined, he determines absolutely all things outside himself. Unseen and invisible, he comes forth---concretes himself, as it were- in the works which his hands have made. 3. Jehovah of hosts. This title appears first in 1 Sam. i. 3, and, as has been remarked, "simultaueollsly with the foundation of the Jewish monarchy." It may mean Lord of (Israel's) armies (Ps. xliv. 9), or of celestial beings (Ps. cxlviii. 2), or of the heavenly bodies (Isa. :xl. 26), or, more pro- bably, of all three. In this wide sense we •• see in the title a proclamation of the universal sovereignty of Jehovah, needed within the nation, lest that invisible sovereignty should be forgotten in the visible majesty of the king; and outside the nation, lest Jehovah should be supposed to be merely a. national deity" (Kirkpatrick, on 1 Samuel). This is the God whose eye is for evil on Israel-God supreme, God absolute, and God in special relation to the hosts of Israel who had forsaken him, to the heavenly bodies which they worshipped, and to the angel-hosts, the ministers to do his will on those whom he would visit in wrath. II. Gon's OPERATIONS REVEALING HIS WAY. What God does is a criterion of what he can do. His all-pervading activity will include in its sweep the accomplishment of the destiny a.gain and a.gain announced. 1. He occupies the sky. " Who buildeth his stories," etc. '!'here were, according to a rabbinical theory, seven heavens, the seventh containing the throne of the Eternal, symbolized by Solomon's throne of ivory and gold, the six steps leading up to which symbolized in turn the six celestial regions below the highest heaven (l Kings x. 18-20). In terms of this mystic theory is tho expression, "stories of the heaven." Heaven is conceived of as a giddy height, approached by aerial steps or stages, all of them the handiwork of God, He stands on the "cloud-capped towers." He dwells in the "airy palaces." Ho walks on the "fleece-like floors." He makes the different levels of the firmament steps between his throne and the earth below. 2. He metamorphoses the earth. (Ver, 5.) God's word 182 THE TIOOK OF AMOS. (orr. 1:x. 1-lu,