The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 193

th:il kmchct.h the Janel, and it shall melt, and all that dw~n therein shall mourn," etc. 'l'heee words present God to uses the Administrator of justice. I. HE DOES IT WITH THE GREATEST EASE. The administrators of justice in connection -,.·ith human government have often to contend with difficulties that baffle and con- found them. But the Almighty has no difficulty. "He toucheth the land, and it shall melt." By a mere touch he can punish a whole nation, nay, destroy the world. Whence come earthquakes and volcanoes? Here is their cause:" He toucheth the hills, and they l'rnoke." Never can there be any miscarriage of justice with God. He bears it right home in every case. He ha.s no difficulty about it. He toucheth the clouds, and they drown the world ; he kindles the atmosphere and burns cities, etc. II. RB DOES IT WITH ALL THE POWERS OF NATURE AT HIS OOMMAND. "It is he that hnildeth his stories in the heaven, 11nd bath founded bis troop in the ea.rth." His throne is on high, above all the forms and forces of the universe, and all are at his e111l. From those heights which be has built, those upper chambers of the universe, he csn pour floods to drown a world, or rain fires which will consume the universe, Every force in nature he can make with ease an officer to execute his justice. Ill. HE DOES IT DISREGARDFUL OF M:E11.E RELIGIOUS P11.0l"ESSION. " Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?" Jehovah here repels the idea which the Israelites were so 11rone to entertain, that because he had brought them ont of Egypt and given them th:e land of Canaan, they were peculiarly the objects of his concern, and could never be subdued ,,r destroyed. He now regarded and would treat them as the Cushitee, or Ethiopians, who had been transplanted from their primal location in Arabia into the midst of the llarbarous nations of Africa. The Almighty, in administering justice, is not influenced by the plea of profession. A corrupt Israelite to him was as bad as an 'Ethiopian, though he calls Abraham his father. "Think not to say . . . that ye have Abraham to your father." Conventional Christians are in the eyes of God as bad as infidels or heathen. Be judgeth not as man judgeth, by the outward appearance; he looketh at the heart.. 1 V. HE DOES IT WITH A THOROUGH DISC11.DrllNATION OF CHABAOTEB. " Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord." There were some good people amongst the Israelites, men of genuine good- ness; the great Judge would not destroy them. "I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob. . • . I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is llifted in a sieve," etc. He would burn up the chaff, but save the wheat. Evermore will the Al.mighty Judge recognize and tenderly guard the virtuous and the good, how- ever humble their position in life. He will not destroy the righteoue.-D. 'l'. • Vera. 11-15.-The restoration of the true moral theocracy. "In that day will I raise np the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereofj and l will raise up l,is ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old," etc. In the previous verses we have had to notice the destruction of the sinful kingdom; in this-paragraph we have the establishment of the true kingdom-the true moral theocracy. "In that ds,,y," i.e. when the jud.gm.ent has fallen upon the ~in~~ kingdom, and all the-sinners _of ihe people of Israel are destroye.d. " The Israelites, ·says Dr. Henderson, "now dis- appear from the scene, in order to give place to a brief and prominent exhibition of the restoration of the J ewe from their repressed condition during their anticipated captivity in Babylon." The Apostle James, at the first ec?l~ias~ical ".°uncil at Jerusalem, q_uo~s this prophecy (Acts xv. 16, 17}-not, however, ID its 1dent1cal phraseology, but m 1ts general meaning-and applies it to the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world by the admission of the Gentiles into it. The old Hebrew world was for a.gee governed 1,y a theocracy. God was their King. He had under him and by his O.J>pointment lnunan rulers and other functionaries ; but they were simply his instruments, and he 11'38 their Kina. That form of government bas passed away; but it was symbolical: it was the emblem of a higher theocracy that is to be established, not over the Jews merely, but over the Gentiles and over the whole world. It was to stand for ever. We tiball use these words as an illustration of this theocratic government. Four thoughts llIC suggested conct·rniug it. tll, IX, 1-15.] 'fllE BOOK OF AMOS.