CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 6:12.] As horses and oxen are useless on a rock, so ye are incapable of fulfilling justice [Grotius]. The comparison indicates the folly of expecting prosperity while committing acts of injustice. The interrogative form gives strength to the representation.
Amos 6:13. Nought] Their growing empire, or imaginary strength. Horns] A symbol of power; dominion rescued by Jeroboam from the Syrians (2 Kings 14:25).
Amos 6:14.] God’s answer to this presumption. A people] Not named, perhaps to awaken attention; probably Assyria. Afflict] Oppress, crush down; the whole extent of territory said to have been recovered by Jeroboam II., the region of triumphs a scene of woe.
HOMILETICS
A HOPELESS PEOPLE.—Amos 6:12-14
These verses are rather abrupt, and generally taken to show how useless and impossible it is to reform the people. Their perversion of right and their indifference to threatening rendered punishment inevitable, and foolish confidence in their own power could not avert it.
I. Punishment was most inevitable. Two illustrations prove this. Their conduct was perilous and preposterous. Horses cannot run with safety, nor can oxen plough, upon rocks: so in their self-chosen way they will wound themselves and be disappointed.
1. Former attempts to reform had failed. God had sent judgment after judgment, prophet after prophet, but in vain. They had not broken up their fallow ground, but were hard and uncultivated as a rock. They hindered the work of God and acted most perversely. “Those who will not be tilled as fields shall be abandoned as rocks,” says Calvin.
2. Special sins were not forsaken. “Ye have turned judgment into gall,” &c. Power was still abused, oppression and injustice practised, and righteousness turned into hemlock. Men who pervert justice, and despise ordinances in hope of advantage, will neither preserve the nation nor escape punishment. They turn the hearts of men and the providence of God against themselves. It is as impossible for them to prosper as to reap a harvest from the rock.
3. The judgments of God were disregarded. They continued to rejoice in their idols and wealth; boasted of their own valour, and thought to defend themselves with their own strength. “Have we not taken to us horns?” i.e. acquired power and dominion. Premeditated injustice, wilful opposition to the word of God, will lead to judicial blindness and destruction. Those who exalt themselves in pride shall be abased.
II. Punishment was most destructive. What they took for their greatest gain would be their greatest loss.
1. Their own strength could not defend them. It was “a thing of nought.” There was no substance, no reality in it. Victory and dominion, courage and prosperity, are nonentities. Empire decays and riches flee away. God only is real and satisfying good.
2. The whole country would be desolated. Under Jeroboam II. they had recovered their lands, “from the entering in of Hamath,” &c. (2 Kings 14:25). They were boasting of their success and securing themselves in their dominions. But the scene of their triumph would be the scene of their fall. When men give not God the glory of their possessions, in justice will he take them away.
3. The whole people would be oppressed. “They shall afflict you.” Conquerors would take the riches in which they gloried, treat them with indignity and afflict them with shame. Neither Judah nor Israel would be spared. It is easier to turn the course of nature than to change God’s law from rewarding the righteous and punishing the wicked. When God commands it must be done, and the scourge will be prevalent as the evil.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
12. Horses upon a rock, &c. The course of the sinner—
1. Most foolish.
2. Most dangerous.
3. Most useless. Horses stumble and wound themselves. No harvest is reaped from such ploughing. The course of sin, turning equity into poison, will grievously disappoint.
13. Taken to us horns. The language of arrogance and self-confidence.
1. Men apt to ascribe possessions to their own efforts. They have done everything and God nothing.
2. To overvalue them in the enjoyment. How many things in which we trust are things of nought.
3. Hence, when we think more of the gifts than the Giver, we are taught our folly. To glory in anything, whatever it may promise, will delude. God will strip men of every false, that he may become their true glory.
14. I will raise up. No foe could ever invade us if the Lord did not raise him up. War therefore is not an accident, but a providential dispensation. Pharaoh, Hadad, Rezon, the Chaldees, are all expressly said to have been raised up by the Lord (Exodus 9:16; 1 Kings 11:14; 1 Kings 11:23; Habakkuk 1:6) [Lange].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Amos 6:12. The blessings of just administration are emphatically set forth by terms used to describe the opposite. Injustice is gall and poison, bitterness and death. How should it commend to us the kingdom of Christ, that he is to reign in righteousness, to judge in equity [Ryan].
Amos 6:13. Nought. The more I exaggerate these ideal joys, the more do I treasure up subjects of woe. Oh what vanity has God written upon all things under the sun! Adored be the never failing mercy of God! He has made my happiness to depend, not on the uncertain connections of this life, but upon his own most blessed self—a portion that never faileth [Martyn].
Amos 6:14. Captivity. Sell not your liberty to gratify your luxury [Matt Henry].
“There is a paradise that fears
No forfeiture, and of its fruit He sends
Large prelibations oft to saints below.” [Cowper.]