CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 3:13. Hear] Addressed to heathen who have now to witness the punishment upon Israel.
Amos 3:14. Altars] Vengeance upon the centre from which spread the evils (1 Kings 12:32). Horns] destroyed in utter contempt and desolation (Exodus 27:2).
Amos 3:15. Houses] Eastern monarchs have summer and winter residences: the former upon mountains or in forests, the latter in cities and sheltered situations (Judges 3:20; Jeremiah 36:22). Ivory] Houses and palaces richly ornamented with this material will be entirely ruined. Samaria is threatened with the overthrow of its palaces, and the extermination of its people. Nothing will avail if righteousness be wanting in the day of the Lord (Proverbs 10:2).
HOMILETICS
DIVINE VISITATION.—Amos 3:13-14
These verses renew and raise the threatening to a higher degree. God will visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, and utter destruction will be the consequence of moral corruption.
I. The seats of idolatry overturned. A people guilty of false worship are incapable of seeing the evil and the danger of it. Sentence must be uttered against the house of Jacob, for they cannot escape Divine judgments.
1. The centres of idolatry destroyed. “The altars of Bethel” were the source of their sins, the fountain-head of their superstitions. A special judgment is pronounced against Bethel the religious, and Samaria the political, seats of corruption.
2. The objects of idolatry destroyed. Destruction is threatened against the horns of the altar, and all attractions to idolatry. These were to “be cut off” with violence and “fall to the ground.”
3. The votaries of idolatry destroyed. The teachers and supporters were to have their punishment according to their prominence. Their support was withheld, and their doctrines proved false. Their religion was not defence, and all their hopes were disappointed. Natural religion can never be a substitute for revealed. Those who trust in the former and reject the latter will sink into ignorance and sin. Every kind of false worship, instead of helping, will become an object of Divine displeasure. “So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness.”
II. The palaces of grandeur pulled down. “The great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord.” The mansions of the rich, with their pomp and splendour, extravagance and folly, shall be spoiled by the enemy. The capital shall be robbed, and all its magnificent palaces destroyed. Pride is not in keeping with prosperity. Prodigality to ingratitude will only increase misery. Habitations decorated with art and inlaid with ivory, which exclude the presence of God, will have an end and dissolve to dust.
III. The retreats of luxury destroyed. Luxury and pride generally follow idolatry. But we have “the same minute filling up of the picture,” says one, “in the threatenings against the luxurious retreats of the rich. ‘The winter house,’ with its comfortable shelter from the influences of cold; ‘the summer house,’ with all its spacious provision to secure a cool retreat from oppressive heat; ‘the house of ivory,’ which might show the refined taste of its possessor; and ‘the great house,’ which would display his wealth and give room for his revelry—all were marked, like trees in a forest; their end was determined, it would quickly come.” The palace of the prince and the cottage of the poor, the spacious mansion and the fortified castle, will one day come to ruin. Let us “build high,” and secure “that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Amos 3:13. Divine visitation. I. In relation to the prophets of God. A new charge is given to Amos and the rest of God’s servants, to understand the message themselves and proclaim it to others. “It is of little avail to testify, unless we first hear; nor can man bear witness to what he doth not know; nor will words make an impression, i.e. leave a trace of themselves—be stamped in or on men’s souls—unless the soul which utters them have first hearkened unto them” [Pusey]. II. In relation to others. “In the house of Jacob” the testimony must be given; but Philistines and Egyptians, as Amos 3:9, are called upon to witness. Not only God’s servants, but others have need to be roused from their slumber and quicken attention to the word and authority of God. In the space of six verses the prophet earnestly repeats the words, “saith the Lord.” Men of our time should not question nor limit the message of the gospel. Be imbued with the spirit of Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” III. In relation to their design. The punishment of sin and the correction of God’s people. Sin is the procuring cause of all punishment. God may endure long, but will at length vindicate his holiness and visit “the transgressions” upon those who commit them.
Amos 3:14-15. We are strongly reminded here of what in recent years befell Paris and Rome, which have occupied analogous positions in the Papal world, to those which were then held in Israel by Samaria and Bethel [Preacher’s Lantern, vol. 4].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Amos 3:14-15. Visit. The sins of a nation draw judgment after them as the moon draws after it the billows that beat upon the shore. Let no nation hope to escape judgment until it gets rid of sin. Judgments are but sins ripened into a harvest, subterranean fires breaking into volcanoes [Dr Thomas].