CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 7:10.] The prophet opposed at Bethel on account of these predictions. Conspired] Heb. banded, implying that others joined. There is a charge of conspiracy and sedition; insinuates that Amos prophesies for bread (Amos 7:10-11), and in pretended courtesy advises him to remove. Say nothing against the king, let us alone in our customs, or we will suppress you by force.
Amos 7:14. Said] Indignantly repudiated the charge against himself. He was no scholar; as a herdsman he was content with a little, did not seek a mere livelihood, but as the messenger of God he spoke with dignity and authority.
Amos 7:17. Therefore] in return for this opposition Amaziah must bear his own doom. Wife] will be violently taken by the enemy. The city] publicly and openly: she would be dishonoured at the storming of the city. Land] possessed or assigned to others. Sons] Children slain by the foe; he himself would die in exile among the heathen, and the whole nation would be carried away into captivity.
THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN PRIEST AND PROPHET.—Amos 7:10-17
These verses contain an interesting episode, and present the prophet of God undaunted in danger. We see the issue of his preaching and the requital for his pains. Amaziah, the idolatrous priest of Bethel, is greatly incensed, resolves by force and fraud to get rid of Amos.
I. The conduct of the priest. Amaziah must be viewed as representative of the system of which he was no doubt the ecclesiastical head.
1. He seeks to silence the prophet by civil power. He seems to have been intimate with the king, pretends great kindness to him, when really he consulted his own interests. If Amos prevailed, his gods would starve, and Jerusalem would have all the custom. False teachers prove most cruel persecutors. Their authority is based on the patronage of the great and the support of the state. They are uncharitable in feeling and impotent in power. Flattery may find friends, but truth alone will stand.
2. He brings false charges against the prophet’s conduct. Every word has weight, like so many daggers, to stab the prophet.
(1) He makes false accusation against the character of the prophet. He was the proud pompous hierarch of a popular religion, a system upheld by prestige and patronage. Amos in his estimation was a needy vagrant, a contemptuous “seer.”
(2) He makes false accusation against the motives of the prophet. He insinuates Amos to be a mean, self-interested person, plying his vocation to “eat bread.” Self-interested persons, worldly priests, measure others by their own motives. Those who make godliness a gain, and are governed by hopes of preferment and wealth, understand not the aims of God’s servants, and think to rule others by inducements which influence them.
(3) He makes false accusation against the conduct of the prophet. He charges him with conspiracy. “Amos hath conspired against thee.” This was a most dangerous accusation, in the unsettled condition of the kingdom. This spirit has characterized a false priesthood in every age. Prophets and apostles, martyrs and reformers, and Christ himself, were all subject to the same persecution—the same artful and malicious design to excite the temporal power against them.
3. He brings false charges against the prophet’s preaching. In whatever spirit Amaziah reports the words of the prophet, he keeps back or perverts the truth. He artfully frames the language to establish his charge. He makes a base slander. The prophet had uttered the downfall of the house of Jeroboam, but not in a spirit of rebellion and treason. “Amos hath conspired against thee.” This was done openly at Bethel—think of that! “In the midst of thy people Israel.” “Commotions of the people are dangerous, O king! The people resent this. If thou dost not act they will”. “The land is not able to bear all his words.” God’s people have often been represented as enemies to the state and disloyal to princes. The true power of Christian character has been felt and hated. But “unable to resist the wisdom and the spirit” with which servants of God have spoken, recourse has been had to illegal methods, and men have not dared to appeal to reason and the word of God (Acts 6:10). “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.”
4. He advises the prophet to consult his own safety. “Flee thee away.” As a seeming friend he requests him to flee away from danger.
(1) He urges him in the language of terror. It is not safe to prophesy here against the king. This is Bethel, the centre of worship and the seat of government. He could expect no encouragement or sanction in the court. He was too blunt, too faithful, to be heard. Go to Judah.
(2) He urges him in the language of threats. As a haughty prelate he assumes authority. “Prophesy not again any more,” in my parish and jurisdiction. We have enough of schism and sedition. I am resolved to suspend and silence thee. Prohibition from man will not destroy the authority of God. Peter and John were forbidden to preach, Luther and Knox were threatened, but they could not but speak. “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
II. The behaviour of the prophet. Amos was too deeply impressed with a sense of duty to be swayed by arguments like these.
1. He repudiates the personal charge. “I was no prophet,” &c. He was a humble shepherd, neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet by profession. Content to cultivate and gather figs, he would never have thrust himself into office. He was a labouring man, neither ashamed of his origin nor employ. Others may boast of rank and authority, but God chooses the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty.
2. He asserts his Divine commission. “The Lord took me.” What the priest forbade, God commanded. “Go, prophesy.” Amaziah was in direct rebellion against God, Amos was acting in obedience to God. God often calls men from flocks and herds to stand before priests and princes. They may not be recognized by the learned scribe, the proud prelate, and the king’s court: but they are conscious of a Divine mission, and are determined to fulfil it.
3. He refuses to leave the path of duty. Amaziah might be influenced by the fear of man, Jonah may escape from Nineveh, but Amos fears not the wrath of a king. God sent him to Israel, not to Judah, and from Israel he would not go. If we are conscious of God’s sanction we shall be supported in trial and courageous in danger. This made Amos resolute against Amaziah; Nathan free with David; Elijah bold with Ahab; John faithful with Herod; and the apostles confident before the world. One prophet sent by God shall overcome the hosts of Baal, though backed by the power of king and queen. “Should such a man as I flee?”
4. He repeats his solemn message. He is not terrified by priest or king. Though forbidden to prophesy, he desists not, but denounces God’s words and bids the priest attend to the awful sentence.
(1) His wife would be dishonoured. She would be openly and publicly insulted at the storming of the city.
(2) His children would be slain by the sword. He had trained them up, and God would cut them off, in idolatry.
(3) His lands would be taken by the enemy. They would be allotted to others by line (Deuteronomy 32:9; 2 Samuel 8:2; Psalms 16:6). Thus he would lose his heirs and his inheritance also.
(4) He would die a captive in a foreign land. He who now gloried in priesthood and position should become an exile and die in a land polluted by idols. The greatest misery that could happen to one expecting a grave in the land of promise.
(5) The kingdom itself would be destroyed. “And Israel shall surely go into captivity.” The prediction is in the very words of the priest himself (Amos 7:11), and a warning to all who oppose the servants and abuse the gifts of God. If we pollute the people of God, we shall be dishonoured ourselves. Wicked parents and ungodly ministers reap what they sow and bring a curse upon posterity. Sinners and seducers can never make void the threatening of God. The most haughty and powerful cannot defy judgments which offend them. Opposition may provoke God to contend with them as individuals, and bring ruin upon their families and estates, upon body and soul, for time and eternity.
A POLITICAL PRIEST AND A TRUE PROPHET
Let us view the transactions of this high priest, and we shall find a complete character of a false prophet, or the perfect picture of a politician.
1. They use to flatter and delude great ones, making them to believe that none are their friends but such as say as they say, do whatever they would have them do, and humour them in their sins;—that they are their foes that, like Amos, deal faithfully and plainly with them; and this is no small part of great men’s misery, that they have few about them that dare or will deal faithfully with them. They may use the Litany (in this sense) with that alteration which the poor curate used, when he saw his lord come into the Church, O God the Father of Heaven, have mercy upon us Right Honourable sinners. Their state is worse (in this respect) than that of inferior persons, who are plainly and truly told of their sins, when these are soothed up to their destruction.
2. They calumniate and belie the true prophets. They observe the rule of Machiavel—Lie lustily, somewhat will stick though it be never so false.
3. They labour with might and main to suppress and silence the true prophets. They know that their kingdom cannot long stand, if once the faithful ministers of Christ be countenanced; light and darkness, the ark and Dagon, Christ and Belial, can never subsist together. This made Amaziah use both force and fraud to rid the land of Amos
4. They labour to suppress good men before they can be heard. They must not speak nor dispute the case. Thus Amaziah clandestinely accuseth Amos to the king, when he could make no defence for himself.
5. They usually mingle some truth with their lies. As fowlers do mix some wheat with their chaff, to catch the birds the sooner; so did Amaziah mix some truth with his lies. Amos hath said Jeroboam shall die by the sword (that was false), and Israel shall surely go into captivity (that was true) [Hall].
Let us now view the true prophet of God. He is the very opposite of a timeserving, conventional priest.
1. He is Divinely called to his work. He is no mere professional servant. He does not assume office for his own interests, nor does he run before he is sent. He does not always belong to the regular order of prophets, nor is he always qualified by human learning, but God has appeared to him and uttered the word, “Go prophesy to my people.”
2. He is often persecuted and opposed in his work. He predicts judgments which some cannot bear. He is called an enthusiast and “a mover of sedition,” denounced, reproached, and hindered in his work. If open violence does not answer, secret fraud is devised (Jeremiah 11:19; Jeremiah 12:6). Hence men display their personal spite and vile ingratitude. But they will find it perilous to fight against God and persecute his servants.
3. He is always faithful in doing his work. Truthful men are valiant. Cowards fear and creep behind. God’s servants stand their ground and are faithful to their trust. They are not deterred by false friends nor threatening foes. Fidelity to conscience and God often costs them their life. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
The sins of Amaziah.
1. Contradicting God’s command. “Prophesy not against Israel”
2. Slanderous report of God’s servant. “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”
3. Frustrating God’s purpose. (a.) In seeking to crush the truth, (b.) In tempting the messenger to flee from duty. The prophet’s defence proved the nature of the charge. Amaziah hears his doom, like Peter telling Ananias, “Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”
Amos 7:10. Not able to bear all his words. Truth often an offence—always a power in the land. The world is compelled to confess their impotence against it.
Amos 7:12. Worldly advice to God’s servants. “Flee,” &c. This given by Pharisees to Christ (Luke 13:31). It is folly to declare alarming truths before the great; impiety to oppose established customs and eminent dignitaries; and insolent to preach the gospel in king’s chapels. Smooth things and popular heresies must pass current with some, and royalty must pass undisturbed to destruction.
This was fit advice for the priest of Bethel. Carnal men do not rise above carnal motives; but true prophets consult not flesh and blood, have higher motives than safety, bread, &c. Apostles, Reformers, and Missionaries took no counsel with advisers like Amaziah. Duty before temporal interests. Pray for help to discharge it. This advice proves—
1. Selfishness,
2. Timidity, and
3. Disobedience.
Amos 7:13. Observe, this priest of Bethel claims honour for it, not because it is the Lord’s sanctuary, but because it is the king’s sanctuary, and not because it is the house of God, but the house of Jeroboam. All claims of reverence for a Church simply and merely as a national establishment, independently of Divine institution, are no better than these assertions of Amaziah. The first royal propounder of what is now called Erastianism, as far as we know, was Jeroboam I.; the first priestly advocate of it, as far as we know, was Amaziah [Wordsworth].
Amos 7:14. Herdman. One of that class to which Abraham, and Moses, and David had belonged; but not rich in fields and herds, in men-servants and maid-servants, like the first; nor learned in the wisdom of the Egyptians, like the second; nor with any, the most distant, intimations that he might one day be the shepherd of a people, like the third [F. D. Maurice].
1. God loves to appear to men diligent in their calling. Moses keeping sheep, David following the ewes, and Saul seeking the asses, &c.
2. When God calls we must be ready to forsake all. Amos leaves his herds, disciples their nets, and Abraham his country. Grace makes men able to do and willing to suffer what God commands.
3. The sphere must be left with God to appoint. Whatever the lot may be, we must be satisfied. Other places may seem better, but God knows best.
4. When once the place is fixed we must not quit it without Divine guidance. Nothing warrants unlawful fear in the performance of duty or neglect of it. Providence must never be construed to sanction flight or withdraw us from our work. We may apparently do little good, be permitted to prophesy in another place and be more successful. But we must abide in our calling, never give way to corrupt principles, and shun not to declare the whole counsel of God.
Amos 7:17. Opposers of God’s word examples of his justice and indignation. Amaziah led God’s people into idolatry, and his wife is an harlot in the city. He destroyed the souls of the people, and his own family fall by the sword. Given to the world, he was the chief cause why Israel was despoiled of their inheritance, and his land is divided among the conquerors. He was the chief cause of Israel’s exile, and would not let them believe it, the threatening was verified upon himself, and without recovery died in a polluted land [Hutcheson].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Amos 7:10-11. Latimer spoke his mind before Henry VIII. and was complained of by his enemies. One of them kneeled before the king and accused him of seditious doctrines. Latimer turned first to his accuser and asked, “What form of preaching would you appoint me to preach before a king?” No answer was given to this and several other questions. Then he turned to the king, confessed his unworthiness to preach, declared that he was called to it, but would give way to his betters. “But if your Grace allow me for a preacher, I would desire your Grace to discharge my conscience, give me leave to frame my discourse according to mine audience.” The king was pleased with Latimer’s words, who was congratulated by his friends, and told with tears in their eyes that they looked for nothing but confinement in the Tower for him [Whitecross].
Amos 7:14. Herdman. In Palestine at the present day none but the very poor consent to be herdmen, and only such gather sycamore fruit or use it [The Land and Book].