CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 4:4. Gilgal] The scene of idolatry. Multiply] Irony. Since you will not be reformed, go on, try whether God likes your sacrifices; eager as you are in worship, you will not prevent punishment. Your tithe and incense only increase guilt.
Amos 4:5. Leaven] against the law (Leviticus 2:11). Liketh] This is what you love.
HOMILETICS
UNGODLY LIFE AND FORMAL WORSHIP.—Amos 4:4-5
The prophet again turns to the people, and in bitter irony bids them pursue their course. The words describe the worship of Israel, and afford a specimen of address to desperate sinners.
I. The spirit in which they are uttered.
1. A spirit of irony. “Come to Bethel,” offer your sacrifices, and go on in your sin. It is sometimes right to cherish this spirit. Elijah to the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:27); Micaiah to the priests of Ahab (1 Kings 22:15); and Christ himself (Matthew 6:2) found it necessary. “Scorns and taunts are the best answers for serious idolatry,” says Bishop Hall. “Holiness will bear us out, in disdainful scoffs and bitterness, against wilful superstition.”
2. A spirit of reproof. Multiply your sacrifices, and what better will you be? What will they avail you in the day of adversity? When will you learn wisdom? “You shall be ashamed of Bethel, your confidence.”
II. The moral condition which they indicate. Their conduct was in direct opposition to God’s will. They thought great devotion would make up for ungodly life.
1. A self-righteous spirit. They boasted of their ritual, and proclaimed their zeal and offerings. “So well did they count themselves to stand with God, that there is no mention of sin-offering or trespass-offering.” They sought the praise of men, and not the approval of God. Their motives to goodness were derived from their fellow-creatures and not from their Maker. Like the scribes and Pharisees, they worshipped to be seen of men.
2. An infatuated mind. Go on; you are resolved to have your own way, whatever God and conscience say; and you may take it. Thus some darken their foolish minds, befool themselves, and are given up to strong delusions, to believe a lie.
3. An incorrigible life. Go on; neither judgment nor mercy has any influence upon you; take the consequences. They seemed judicially given up to sin. “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.” This is an awful condition, but only a type of that just sentence which will at last be passed against all transgressors. “He that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he who is filthy let him be filthy still.”
III. The character of the worship they describe. The most wicked do not entirely abandon Christian worship. Fashion and the force of habit constrain them. Israel kept up thank-offerings, but clung to their sins.
1. Corrupt worship. The worship of God was mixed with that of idols. The altar of God and the altar at Bethel had each their gifts. So now the adoration of self and graven images is combined with the worship of the sanctuary. Money, pleasure, and popularity rival God. Unworthy motives and glaring errors are cherished in his service. But God will not permit contamination. We must worship him in the beauty of holiness.
2. Formal worship. They were devout in sacrifices of thanksgiving and free-will offerings; zealous in their tithes, punctual in their ritual, and superabundant in their diligence. They were precise in their formalities, but insincere in their hearts. They kept the letter but violated the spirit. Mint and cummin were paid, but the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy, were neglected. Sacrifices to God are an insult when the heart is alienated and withheld. “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.”
3. Will-worship. They did what God commanded, but in their own way, and at their own places. The preference for Bethel and Gilgal, for priests of the people instead of the sons of Levi, the setting up of the golden calves, and the use of leaven in their worship, made it mere will-worship, unacceptable and dishonouring to God. The end of true worship is to please God, but if we please ourselves we offend him. “The command, therefore, to please themselves, as they will have it so, marks the utter rejection of the worshippers.”
4. Sinful worship. All their work was transgression, and the repetition of their service was a multiplying of transgression: their worship only added more sin to their violence and frauds. Corrupt religion aggravates guilt; diligence in superstitious devotions ripens for destruction; and self-will in anti-scriptural forms leads to utter rejection of God. “Though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them.”
“The holier worship which he deigns to bless
Restores the lost, and binds the spirit broken,
And feeds the widow and the fatherless” [Whittier].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Amos 4:4-5. What a sting is there—“this liketh you!” how it should pierce the conscience of every sinner—“for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel!” Far indeed was everything like levity from the prophet’s mind in treating such a subject as the sinfulness of the people; far enough was he from making a mock of sin as fools do. It was holy sorrow that prompted the irony; it was with deep solemnity of soul that he wielded that cutting weapon—and withal he could be touching and tender in expostulation [Stoughton].