Amos 7
THREE tokens of judgment from God are presented for Amos to see; first, grasshoppers or locusts; next fire; and, lastly, a plumbline. These are believed to represent the three successive attacks which the .Assyrians were to make upon the ten tribes of Israel; first, that spoken of in 2 Kings 15:19,19And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. (2 Kings 15:19) when Pul was given tribute; second, that mentioned in verse 29 of the same chapter, when the northeastern part of the country was seized by Tiglath-Pileser, and the inhabitants were taken captive to Assyria; third, the overrunning of the whole land by Shalmaneser and the captivity of the nation, told of in 2 Kings 17:5, 65Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. (2 Kings 17:5‑6).
God had borne long with this people who drew near him with their lips, but whose heart was far from Him, and the time was near when intercession would be without avail, He would forbear no longer. He would then set a plumbline in the midst of His people, and that meant judgment that would deal with all the transgressors.
“The high places of Isaac” (verse 9), and “the house of Isaac” (verse 16), are expressions not found elsewhere in the Scriptures. Isaac was Abraham’s heir, and these terms appear to have been adopted by the people to exalt their country, forgetful that their ways were very far from the God-pleasing course of those of their forefathers whom they professed to honor.
“The house of Jeroboam” (verse 9), though the then reigning king (2 Kings 14:23-2923In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. 24And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. 25He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. 26For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. 27And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. 28Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 29And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead. (2 Kings 14:23‑29)) bore tint name, may well refer to established ruler of the ten tribes, who established the evil course of the nation which it held to the end (1 Kings 1.4:16; 2 Kings 17:21-2321For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. 22For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; 23Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. (2 Kings 17:21‑23)).
The prophecy of the end of Israel naturally aroused the anger of the priest of Bethel, and he sent word of it to the king. The truth of God is always offensive to the natural heart, which prefers a religion of its own after the general pattern of Cain’s (Genesis 4:33And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. (Genesis 4:3); 1 John 3:1212Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. (1 John 3:12); Jude 1111Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. (Jude 11)). The first Jeroboam had arranged such a religion for his nation in order to secure the kingdom to himself and his successors (1 Kings 12:26-3326And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: 27If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. 30And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. 31And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. 32And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had made. 33So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense. (1 Kings 12:26‑33)). Of this religion, the king, and not God, was its head (verse 13).
Amos therefore is told to flee away to the land of Judah; there he might speak for God, but not in Israel! But it was God, and not man, that called Amos to speak. He was, as he told the priest of Bethel, no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but a herdman and a gatherer of fruit, and Jehovah took him as he followed the flock. The word which he proclaimed was God’s, and He had said to this man of humble life, “Go, prophesy unto My people Israel.”
There was an exceedingly solemn word for this priest who would silence the voice of God speaking through His servant (verse 17). In the troublous times which lay before the kingdom of Israel, Amaziah’s family would not be spared; his wife would become a dissolute woman; his sons and daughters would die by the sword; his land would be given to others; the country would be polluted; and (in from sixty to eighty years) Israel would certainly go into captivity, as God had declared.
ML 02/07/1937