CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 6:4.] Luxury added to oppression. Stretch] Lit. pour themselves out, “dissolved, unnerved, in luxury and sloth.” Beds] inlaid with ivory. Lambs] Choice and delicious in the East.
Amos 6:5.] like David they employ themselves with music, but for a different aim.
Amos 6:6.] Not satisfied with small cups, they took the bowls used for sprinkling of blood, to indulge in excess, and used the most costly oils, not for health and cleanliness, but wanton luxury. Grieved] not for calamities suffered in the past, or threatened in future.
A RECKLESS COMMUNITY.—Amos 6:4-6
Israel not only put away the day of Divine retribution, but multiplied the causes which produced it. Violence within will bring violence from without the land. When we put away God we invite destruction. Luxury, revelry, and debauchery describe a reckless community and reign in the present day. The special sins condemned are depicted in a peculiar manner.
I. Self-indulgence. Men betray their feelings and abuse their gifts, show they live like epicures, and pamper themselves like beasts. This selfish indulgence is seen—
1. In luxurious ease. “That lie upon beds of ivory.” Beds most expensive and scarce, splendid and far-fetched. They unnerved and relaxed themselves upon couches. They humoured themselves in idleness and wealth; indulged in personal gratification, abounded in superfluities, and robbed the poor of necessities.
2. In effeminate diet. The choicest lambs and calves fed out of the stall only satisfied their appetite. Some live to eat, and do not eat to live; feed without gratitude, and indulge in lust without restraint. “Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.”
II. Profane revelry. “That chant to the sound of the viol” They tried to lead a merry life and a happy one. They displayed ingenuity by inventing instruments to drive away dull care. As David improved and introduced musical instruments into the service of God, so these men devised and fitted them for luxury and sensuality. But artificial music creates no Divine harmony. It weakens the nature and ministers to the folly of men. When men sing instead of weeping, when mirth is unseasonable, unbridled, and licentious, it is void of everything that dignifies the mind and elevates the soul to God. “Admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.”
“There’s not a string attuned to mirth
But has its chord in melancholy.”
III. Shameful debauchery. Luxury and selfishness lead to excess; sensuality and mirth, to irreverence. This is seen—
1. In profane conduct. They were not satisfied with ordinary vessels, but robbed the altars to “drink wine in bowls.” In former times princes of Israel manifested zeal in consecrating silver bowls to God, now they drink in honour of idolatry. They profaned the vessels of the sanctuary, and devoted to selfish what should have been for sacred uses.
2. In riotous excess. They drank out of large, not small cups. This they did habitually without measure or stint. They spent their wealth in pleasure and dissipation; employed their ingenuity to discover new methods of self-gratification, and drank wine to silence conscience, banish reflection, and harden the heart.
IV. Sinful apathy. They had no concern whatever for the nation sinking into decay and suffering under the judgment of God.
1. Their joy is unbridled. Their extravagance is seen in “the chief ointments with which they anoint themselves,” not for health and comfort, but wanton luxury. The custom of anointing was suspended in time of mourning (2 Samuel 14:2), but these neither grieve for themselves nor for the ruin of their country.
2. Their indifference is stolid. Bent on personal gratification of the most debasing kind, they were devoid of all patriotism and concern for the injury to the kingdom. “They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.” They indulged in the heartless conduct of the sons of Jacob towards their brother, eating bread when Joseph was in the pit (Genesis 37:24). Wrath had broken “out like a fire in the house of Joseph” (ch. Amos 5:6), but they were deaf to the warnings of God and the remonstrance of the poor. They spent their time in beds of indolence and ease; pampered their bodies with delicious viands; and delighted their souls in strains of music, excess of wine, and costly perfumes. Sensuality results in unnatural feeling for kindred and country; shuts out the sufferings of others, and leads to greater indulgence. “We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Amos 6:5. The use and abuse of music.
1. Its use, when devoted to the worship of God and the welfare of men. Vocal and instrumental music may be of immense service in the culture of the heart and the training of the young. Our nature is adapted to harmony, and God has bestowed means for improvement.
“There is in souls a sympathy with sounds,
And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased.”
2. Its abuse when employed in the service of Satan and ministering to licentiousness and lust. How often found in midnight revels and scenes of intemperance! “Debased music is a mark of a nation’s decay and promotes it,” says one. The constitution of nations may be affected by changing national music. “Give me the making of the nation’s ballads,” said Lord Chatham, “and I care not who makes the laws.” David consecrated lyre and harp to the service of God, now men gain reputation by comic songs and immodest dancing. “Bid lute and harp to awake to the glory of God.”
Like David. Men abuse gifts of God by the examples of saints. They stumble in their infirmities, and copy their actions in a wrong spirit. David a great lover of music, and employed it in the praise of God. Imitators use it for carnal pleasure.
Amos 6:6. True patriotism, grieving for Joseph.
1. A country is often deeply afflicted by inward calamities and outward dangers.
2. A lover of his country will grieve for its affliction. David and Jeremiah noble examples.
3. Selfish indulgence deprives men of sympathy with others, renders them ungrateful and unpatriotic. “How many dwell in ceiled houses, and sing to the sound of the harp, and feast on the richest dainties, and care nothing for the sorrows of Christ, and his Church, nay, rather rejoice in them!” (Revelation 11:10) [Wordsworth].
“Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!” [Scott.]
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Amos 6:4-6. Pleasure. Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasures, take this rule:—Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself [Southey].
“In this fool’s paradise he drank delight.” [G. Crabbe.]