CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 8:4. Hear] The nobles hated reproof. Swallow] Heb. gape after, earnestly desire (Job 7:2); pant after goods as wild beasts for prey. They sought to rid the land of all the poor. 5 and 6 describe the method of doing this. New moon] Festivals were impatiently kept; they begrudged the regular holiday and suspension of trade (Numbers 28:11; 2 Kings 4:23). Set forth] Lit. open out to sell. Falsifying] Heb. perverting the balances of deceit (Hosea 12:7). Money was weighed. They increased the price both ways, dishonestly trading and breaking the command (Deuteronomy 25:13-15).
Amos 8:6. Poor] Made so poor that he was necessitated to sell himself for silver, which he owed, or a pair of shoes, which he could not pay for.
Amos 8:7. Sworn] to punish such conduct, by the pride, by Himself (Hosea 5:5; Hosea 7:10). Forget, i.e. leave unpunished.
Amos 8:8. Punishment] will be so great that the earth shall quake, its inhabitants mourn, and the globe will rise and fall like a flood
Amos 8:9. Noon] Darkness then an emblem of great calamities (Jeremiah 15:9; Ezekiel 32:7-10); a type of judgments upon ungodly people and of the great day of accounts.
Amos 8:10. Feasts] will be turned into mourning; baldness as a sign of it (Isaiah 3:24; Jeremiah 48:37). Mourning deep as that for the death of an only son (Jeremiah 6:26; Zechariah 12:10).
HOMILETICS
THE DEEDS OF COVETOUSNESS.—Amos 8:4-6
After describing the calamities, Amos now sets forth the ground of these calamities. Israel had broken both tables of the law and sinned against great light and love. They sought to secure themselves in irreligion towards God and unrighteous conduct towards men. In their oppressive and covetous rapacity they are summoned to hear threatenings against their cruel deeds. “Hear this.” Their covetousness is seen—
I. In cruelty to men. An avaricious man is naturally a selfish man. He makes laws of his own and regards not the interests of others. He isolates himself from the common brotherhood, and constitutes himself an all-absorbing and enlarging circle.
1. Oppression of the poor. “O ye that swallow up the needy.” They panted for the needy as wild beasts for prey, and sought to rid the land of the poor. Those who devour the poor without pity or compassion are inhuman in their disposition. They have iron teeth, vent their wantonness where there is no power to resist, and eat up the people “as they eat bread” (Psalms 14:4). “There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw-teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.”
2. Selling and enslaving the poor. “Buy the poor for silver.” The nobles of Israel oppressed the needy, that they might eventually trade in them. They gained the purses, and then sought the persons of their bondmen. Corn was dear, and they resolved to make merchandise of men. The mean and selfish estimate their fellows at a contemptible price. “A little silver or a pair of shoes.” Human nature is insulted, the rights of property disregarded, and the laws of liberty trampled upon, by greedy oppressors. “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker; but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.”
II. In contempt for the worship of God. “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn?” They kept the Sabbath with a weary, impatient spirit. Religious services were too great restraints upon them. “When will this service be over, that we may attend to business again?” Covetous men are formal and hypocritical in their devotion. Their hearts are in the mart, the field, and the ways of “buying, and selling, and getting gain.” The world does not tire them, they are not anxious for a day of rest. Religion is irksome. It interrupts worldly pursuits and is often turned into means of traffic. Men crowd the temple with tables like the money-changers, and convert the Sanctuary into a palace of Mammon. They reject the true God and worship a false one. They begrudge time for Christian worship, and like Doeg are detained before the Lord, when they long to be in the counting-house. “Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it!”
III. In fraudent trade with men. If men grudge time for God, they will grudge right to man; if they resist the claims of piety, they will soon fall into tricks of dishonesty. These tricks are manifold. A few are given in the text.
1. False weights and measures. In two ways they defrauded the poor—(a) diminishing the measure, “making the ephah small;” and (b) increasing the price, “and the shekel great.” They doubly deceived, by paring down the quantity and by uneven balances obtained more silver for what they sold. This was disobedience to the law (Leviticus 19:35-36), and violation of the conditions on which they held the land (Deuteronomy 25:13-15). In robbing God you indulge a propensity to injure man; in giving less and taking more than you ought you bring a double curse—deprivation of blessing and increase of pains which pierce the soul with many sorrows. “Take heed and beware of covetousness.”
2. Adulteration of food. “Sell the refuse of the wheat.” The bran or unfilled grain which fell through the sieve. The worst was sold and the best paid for. The poor are victimized now. Short weight and short measure are too common in England. Almost every article of food is adulterated, and even poison sold for bread! Men are hard-hearted, dishonest, inexorable as the taskmasters of Egypt, in driving bargains! We are influenced by the spirit of gain, and worship too much in the temple of Mammon. Every nation has its idol, and money is our god. “The love of money is the root of all evil.”
THE CURSE OF COVETOUSNESS.—Amos 8:7-10
Good men would rather be poor by providence than rich by sin. He that becomes rich by unlawful means, that hasteth to be rich, may haste to his ruin, and shall not be innocent or unpunished (Proverbs 28:20; 1 Timothy 6:9-11). Covetousness, more than any other sin, brings its own punishment. But in addition to this God often visits it with positive infliction, as in the text.
I. The certainty of the curse. “The Lord hath sworn.” If oaths among men confirm a promise, does not God’s oath indicate immutable purpose? He swears that he will never forget any of their works. All men’s doings are known to God. No lapse of times nor change of circumstances veil them from his omniscient glance. Iniquity is never forgotten until forgiven in Christ. Flight of years may efface the memory, but cannot ward off the fruit of transgression. God can sooner cease to be, than forget to punish the wickedness of men. He may seem to forget, but a faithful record is kept, an immutable purpose is formed, and eventually justice will give its reward. “Woe, and a thousand woes, to the man who is cut off by an oath of God, from all benefit of pardoning mercy.”
II. The terribleness of the curse. Mark the emphasis of the question—“shall not?” The appeal is to human consciences. How can it be otherwise? Great sins bring grievous judgments.
1. Curse like an earthquake—will bring terror and consternation. The land is represented as shaking, returning to primeval chaos, and suffering under the weight of sin. Wicked men are a curse to the earth, and all creatures testify indignation against their conduct (Psalms 60:1-2; Romans 8:22). “For this shall the earth mourn and the heavens above be black.”
2. Curse like a flood—will rise up and deluge the land; calamities shall overflow them. Judgments will be like the breaking forth of waters. Floods of sorrow, like the deluge of old, sweep impenitent sinners from the earth. General calamities affect insensate earth, until it casts out or drowns its wicked inhabitants. “The Lord God of Hosts is he that toucheth the land and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt.”
III. The suddenness of the curse. “The sun to go down at noon.” It is not a gradual, a natural, but unlooked-for, untimely sinking. So the sun of prosperity rises and shines upon the wicked in all its splendour; but God darkens the sky in the clear day. The darkness is blacker in contrast with the light; the sorrow the sadder when it succeeds festive joy. Thus prosperity ends in ruin and sinful prospects fade away. “Her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded.”
IV. The consequences of the curse. Prosperity is turned into misery, and mirth into mourning. Their common and holy feasts, their domestic and temple songs, into lamentation.
1. Mourning universal. “Every one mourn” (Amos 8:8). Rich and poor without exception. Judgments were prevalent as the sins (Hosea 4:3), penetrated all ranks and suffered none to escape.
2. Mourning with ceremonial rites. Instead of gay attire they would put on sackcloth. It was not the time for ornaments and fine clothing. Baldness would be upon every head. They would either shave in sorrow, or pull the hair off their heads in anguish (Ezra 9:3). Inward distress revealed itself in outward signs.
3. Mourning most bitter. “As the mourning of an only son.” The death of an only son was regarded as the most mournful of events. In Egypt one universal cry arose from the death of the firstborn. Parents may lose one out of many and be comforted in the possession of others. But the loss of an only child can never be repaired. “Make thee mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.”
4. Mourning without relief. It is not an eclipse, but a going down of the sun. The duration of sorrow is unto posterity, the end of the kingdom. The clouds will not vanish soon away. The wrath of God would abide upon them. When they looked for an end, the day would still be bitter. At evening time sometimes light will arise; but to the impenitent the day grows darker, and the night will be darkest of all. Bitterness will be the issue, and the end the beginning of sorrows. “What will ye do in the end thereof?” (Jeremiah 5:31). “This shall ye have at my hand, you shall lie down in sorrow.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Amos 8:4-6. Covetous men.
1. Are cruel to others.
2. Selfish in their aims.
3. Dishonest in their conduct.
4. Weary in religious worship. They are never at rest in their minds, never satisfied in their possessions, and never idle in their pursuits.
The value worldly men set upon the poor. Dross and dung, the filth and offscouring of society (1 Corinthians 4:13). Contrast this with God’s judgment of the poor. He esteems them the excellent of the earth (Psalms 16:3); the glory of the world (Isaiah 4:5); and too good for ungrateful men (Hebrews 11:38). If men make a prey of the poor, God will make an example of them.
Sin in wrong measures once begun is unbroken. All sin perpetuates itself. It is done again because it has been done before. But sins of a man’s daily occupation are continued of necessity, beyond the simple force of habit and the ever-increasing dropsy of covetousness. To interrupt sin is to risk detection. But then how countless the sins which their poor slaves must needs commit hourly, whenever the occasion comes! And yet, although among us human law recognizes the Divine law, and annexes punishment to its breach, covetousness sets both at nought. When human law was enforced in a city after a time of negligence scarcely a weight was found to be honest. Prayer went up to God on the Sabbath and fraud up to God on the other six days [Pusey].
Amos 8:7. The excellency of Jacob. By this title he would teach—
1. That nothing beside God can make a people truly excellent, enjoy what dignity and excellency they will.
2. That it is great ingratitude of a people, when being excellent through him, they do not acknowledge him, nor walk answerable [Hutcheson].
The favour and presence of God with a people is the glory and excellency of a people. It is not corn, wine, women, health, wealth, or multitude, that make a nation happy, for then Turks and Tartars, Barbarians and Indians, would excel God’s people, for they abound in these external comforts; but happy is that people whose God is the Lord (Psalms 106:20; Psalms 148:14; Jeremiah 2:11; Luke 2:32). Hence Moses glories in this above all other privileges (Deuteronomy 4:7-8). The fruition and enjoyment of God’s favour is the life of our lives, and the honour of our honours; without this we may write Ichabod upon all that we have. Hence the greater is their sin who dishonour him with sin and turn the glory which he hath put upon them into shame. This makes the Lord to swear that he will strip them of their privileges, and make them naked as in the day when they were born [Hall].
Amos 8:8-10. This will be a sudden ruin, a check in the midst of apparent prosperity, irresistible as the waters of a flood, sudden as the setting of the sun at noon, gloomy and dreadful as a darkness which should at once succeed to the light of a clear day. Those feasts, which had been the instruments of their pleasure and the cause of much of their sin, would be succeeded by mourning; luxurious and licentious music would give place to sounds of bitter lamentation. Instead of purple and fine linen, sackcloth would be their clothing, and delicious ointments and costly tiaras would be followed by baldness [Ryan].
1. To any man the sun sets at noon, when he is suddenly snatched away by death in the very midst of his life.
2. When he is suddenly destroyed in the midst of earthly prosperity.
3. “But it has still wider application. When the Lord shall come to judgment, at a time when the world, in its self-security, looketh not for him (cf. Matthew 24:37), this earth’s sun will set at noon, and the earth be covered with darkness in bright daylight. Every judgment that falls upon an ungodly people or kingdom, as the ages roll away, is a harbinger of the approach of the final judgment” [Keil].
Changes in human destiny and experience. Clear days, dark days, and bitter days.
Sin is a bitter thing. Bitter in itself and its consequences. It promises pleasure and brings pain; liberty, and brings bondage; happiness, and brings misery. Its misery is personal and eternal, darkness without day, sorrow without relief.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Amos 8:4. Oppression.
“Press not a falling man too far” [shakespeare].
Deliver him that suffereth wrong from the hand of the oppressor; and be not faint-hearted when thou sittest in judgment (Ecclesiastes 4:11).
Amos 8:5. Sabbath. In God’s house and business forget thine own; be there as a member of the Church, not of the commonwealth. Empty thyself of this world, thou art conversant with the next. Let all thy senses have no other object but God; let thine ears be open, but thine eyes shut. Remember God regards the heart of the worshipper. We are never safe till we love him with our whole heart whom we pretend to worship [Bp Henshawe]. Deceit. Commerce is a providential appointment for our social intercourse and mutual helpfulness. It is grounded with men upon human faith, as with God upon Divine faith. Balances, weights, money, are its necessary materials. Impositions, double-dealings; the hard bargain struck with self-complacent shrewdness—this is the false balance forbidden alike by law (Leviticus 19:35) and gospel (Matthew 7:12). Men may commend its wisdom; God not only forbids, but abominates it [Bridge]. A straight line is the shortest in morals as in geometry [Rahal]. Honesty is the best policy.
Amos 8:4-6. Covetousness. The man who sets his heart on riches must necessarily be a stranger to peace and enjoyment. Fear, care, anxiety, suspicion, and jealousy place him on a constant rack. To the toil of getting is added the trouble of keeping his pelf. Avarice is insatiable as the grave, or rather as a gulf without bottom. The more this passion is supplied with fresh fuel the more vehement the flame [Rusticus].
Amos 8:9-10. Go down. So use prosperity that adversity may not abuse thee. If, in the one, security admits no fears, in the other, despair will afford no hopes. He that in prosperity can foretell a danger, can in adversity foresee deliverance [F. Quarles].