CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 5:14. Spoken] They fancied that God was with them by virtue of the covenant with Abraham (John 8:39).
Amos 5:15. Perhaps] indicates difficulty in their case, not uncertainty with God (cf. Genesis 16:2; Joel 2:13). Peradventure (Exodus 32:3). Remnant] preserved in the approaching judgment, as Joel 3:5; Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:21-23.
HOMILETICS
SEEKING GOOD AND ENJOYING GOD.—Amos 5:14-15
These words supplement the previous paragraph, in which Israel were exhorted to renounce idolatry, an offence to God, a crime against man. Now the order is reversed. Good must be sought and evil avoided, that mercy may yet be shown to a remnant of the people.
I. The course recommended. “Seek good and not evil.” The negative and positive side of human duty.
1. Seek the good. Good is needful, and all men seek it. “Who will show us any good?” The soul is formed to know and love the good. As the plant turns towards the sun, so the soul seeks for good. But men seek in the wrong direction. They seek gratification in earthly things, and exclude God from their pursuits. They have a desire for him, a capacity to enjoy him, but move not in the direction to him. Seeking good is defined as loving the good. The right affection must be cherished. Depraved appetites and vitiated tastes must be renewed. A change of disposition is necessary to reformation of life. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
2. Hate the evil. Aversion is needful as well as affection. We have something to hate and something to love. Our sympathies and antipathies are not at variance, they differ in intensity, gain power according to their objects, and greatly influence our conduct. We evince the soundness of conversion by loathing and forsaking what God hates. We cannot love God without hating evil. The fear of the Lord is seen by departing from evil. “Positive virtue,” says one, “promotes negative virtue.” “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.”
3. Practise justice. “Establish judgment in the gate.” Israel must raise up and firmly support what they had thrown down. In their courts of law and in common practice they must be truthful. Neither bribe nor self-interest should divert men from judgment. The penitent will be just to man. In words and deeds he will give to all their due. Profession without principle is an insult to God. “What a man is in private duties, that he is in the sight of God, and no more,” says Dr Owen. We cannot serve God, unless we are right with men. “Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.”
“Be what thou seemest, live thy creed,
Hold up to earth the torch Divine,
Be what thou prayest to be made,
Let thy great Master’s steps be thine.”
II. The benefits of adopting this course. Self-interest is not always the right motive to urge; but the benefits of serving God are manifold.
1. Human life is preserved. “Ye shall live.” Calamity would take away their life, but deliverance would preserve it. In general, sin by its own nature and by the judgments of God upon it brings men to an untimely end. The wicked do not live out half their days. Worldliness wears out the spring; but piety contributes to the length and enjoyments of life. Religion promotes temperance and self-control. It redeems body and soul from morbid excitement and moral disease. “Righteousness tendeth to life.”
2. God’s grace is received. “The Lord God of Hosts will be gracious,” &c. The sinner is not only delivered from present danger, but blessed with grace to live a holy life. God’s grace is infinite and free. Former displeasures will not hinder him from bestowing it upon those who seek it. Penitent nations and feeble churches may hope for his returning favour. “God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.”
3. God’s presence is enjoyed. He “shall be with you as ye have spoken.” Israel boasted of being God’s people, and desired God to be with them in sin. But the “righteous Lord” cannot dwell with an unrighteous people. It is a delusion to talk of God if we do not seek him, to expect his presence when we do not walk in his commands. “If ye were Abraham’s seed ye would do the works of Abraham.” It is only when we repent and return to God that we enjoy his favour. God is always present to protect in the way of duty, as “the God of Hosts.” “Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Amos 5:15. It may be. I. If so, for what reasons?
1. Men do not deserve deliverance. “The expression ‘perhaps he will show favour’ indicates that the measure of Israel’s sins was full, and no deliverance could be hoped for if God were to proceed to act according to his righteousness” [Keil].
2. God in sovereign mercy has promised it. This is not the language of uncertainty. The difficulty is not with God, but with man. “Except ye repent,” &c. II. If so, on what conditions? Negatively and positively stated.
1. Not by presuming on outward relation to God. God must be sought and found.
2. By pursuing right, (a) Right towards God. “Hate the evil and love the good.” (b) Right towards man. “Establish judgment.” To these conditions the hope, though humiliating to carnal security, is attached: perhaps God will then be gracious to a remnant of Joseph.
The verse sets forth—The relation between the negative and positive duties of life; or—
1. The nature of true penitence—seeking God.
2. The evidence of true penitence—hating evil.
3. The reward of true penitence—God’s protection and favour in life; or,
1. God the object sought.
2. Evil the difficulty in the way.
3. Divine favour and blessings the motive to urge the pursuit.
“God gives encouragement to such as sincerely seek him; yet he would not have them absolutely expect deliverance in temporal judgments, when provocations are come to a height: and he seeth it meet to exercise them with uncertainties that they may be yet more diligent, and prove their real piety by submission in those things” [Hutcheson].
“Temporal promises are made with an, It may be: and our prayers must be made accordingly.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
Amos 5:14-15. We must not envy the doers of evil, but depart from their spirit and example. As Lot left Sodom without casting a look behind, so must we leave sin. No time or parley is to be held with sin, we must turn away from it without hesitation, and set ourselves practically to work in the opposite direction [Spurgeon].