CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 5:24. Run] judgments like a flood over the land [Keil]. Others take it as an exhortation to practise justice and truth.
HOMILETICS
JUDGMENTS LIKE A FLOOD.—Amos 5:24
The verse is to be explained according to Isaiah 10:22, and threatens the flooding of the land with judgment, and the punitive righteousness of God [Keil]. In this sense the judgments of God are like a flood.
I. In the method of coming. Terrors and troubles are often compared to waters in Scripture.
1. They come suddenly. All at once they burst upon men in sin and carnal security. When they say peace then sudden destruction cometh upon them.
2. They come supernaturally. God, and not any second cause, sends them. “God hath broken in upon mine enemies … like the breaking forth of waters.”
3. They come violently. They carry away all opposition, and roll direct to their place.
4. They come abundantly. One after another in dreadful succession upon individuals and nations, until the purpose of God is accomplished.
II. In the mischief they create. Floods and mighty streams are fearful in themselves, but when sent by Almighty power to chastise who can resist them?
1. They create consternation. Men are terrified and seek every possible way of escape. The late floods in England and France illustrate this. Divine judgments are intended to rouse men from slumber and lead them to God. “For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”
2. They cause universal devastation. They sweep the city and the country, and spread destruction on every hand. The mansions of the rich and the dwellings of the poor are overcome with the rolling stream. So God’s fierce anger goes over men as mighty waters, to drown their possessions and take their comforts. “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.”
“Wide o’er misfortune’s surging tide
Billows succeeding billows spread;
Should one, its fury spent, subside,
Another lifts its boisterous head.”