Amos 6
THAT the iniquity of Israel was now about full, these chapters of Amos’s prophecy make plain. In chapter 3, verse 2, God had said, “I will punish you for all your iniquities,” and the recital of them is an exposure of a state thoroughly bad, and demanding (and about to receive) His unsparing judgment.
A people who had always practiced idolatry while professing to be the people of Jehovah their God; who turned judgment to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth; who hated reproof and abhorred one that spoke uprightly; who trampled upon the poor; who afflicted the just; who took bribes, and turned aside the right of the needy when they asked for their due; whose transgressions were manifold and whose sins were mighty, they were yet supremely confident that all was well with themselves.
At the time of Amos the northern kingdom was prospering. Jeroboam II had added to the military successes of his father so that the northern part of the kingdom, which the Syrians had seized, was wholly restored (2 Kings 14:23-29). After his death decline was rapid; four of the six kings who reigned after him were murdered, and there were periods during which the country was without a ruler; then came the siege of Samaria and the captivity of the nation.
“The prophecy of Amos, while chiefly directed toward the ten tribes, embraces in its scope the two tribes also, for, except that they clung to the line of David their king, there was little difference between the northern and southern kingdoms (See 2 Kings 17:19), Accordingly, in verse 1 The opening word is “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion” (the kingdom of Judah) “and trust,” or are secure “in the mountain of Samaria” (the kingdom of Israel).
Verse 2: Calneh was an ancient city, only mentioned in Scripture here and in Genesis 10:10, and Isaiah 10:9; its location is in dispute. Hamath was both a city and a district north of Syria; it had been conquered by the Assyrians. Gath was captured by the Syrians (2 Kings 12:17).
Verses 3-6 present a picture of ease, of luxury and self-indulgence from which self-judgment was wholly absent. There was no grief among his children over the affliction (or breach) of Joseph; indeed, we may gather that the people of Israel would for the most part have denied that there was any such thing as decline among them.
Just so is it today in what is called Christendom, for there are evidently few among the millions of professors of Christianity who realize and mourn over the great departure from God and His word which marks the present hour.
Because of this blindness and self-confidence in the face of many warnings, added to their many sins, the ten tribes would go first into captivity (verse 7).
Verses 9-14 forecast a fearful time, the condition of the people being now hopeless; a nation that would afflict the house of Israel from end to end of their land, would be raised up against them by God.
ML 01/31/1937