CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amos 9:9.] The figure explains how. For] God will disperse Israel, shake them with other nations. Wheat and chaff are mixed together. The wicked, chaff and dust, fall through the sieve and perish; the grain (solid grain), the godly, will be preserved, every one shall be saved (Matthew 22:12; Luke 22:31).
Amos 9:10. Sinners] who say in self-confidence. Prevent] To meet one round about, i.e. to come from every side. All self-secured sinners shall perish, but the righteous shall be delivered. History proves, that the kingdom of Israel, the most profane and idolatrous, fell first by the Assyrians; that Judah continued long after, enjoyed considerable prosperity under Hezekiah and Josiah; that a remnant of Israel, left by Assyrians, were united to Judah, and that others joined them. After the sifting-time comes the prosperity.
HOMILETICS
THE SIFTING PROCESS.—Amos 9:8-10
Punishment is again threatened, but mitigated. All shall not be destroyed. A remnant shall be sifted and preserved. But the impious and proud will be cut off with the sword.
I. The nature of the process. Like precious grain, God’s people have to be purified and fitted for use.
1. It is a violent process. “I will sift,” i.e. cause them to be moved, shaken, or jostled about by other nations. We have need to be shaken. We get deeply rooted in our pursuits, confirmed in our sins, and require no light measures to wean us from the world.
2. It is an extensive process. Israel were not to be unsettled among one nation, but many. Their life was to be spent “among all nations.” The Jews have been found in every country of the globe almost. The whole earth in the design of God has thus become a sieve to his people. Each change in business and residence may be a sifting to preserve from sin and prepare for service. “Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.”
II. The results of the process. The righteous shall be saved and the wicked destroyed.
1. The grain is preserved. “Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.” God’s eye is upon every one of his people, in their trials. Like a refiner of gold, he sits watching the process. Jewish history and Church history prove that this sifting results not in destruction, but purification. “At the present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” Not one precious seed shall be lost. “It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones should perish.”
2. The chaff is destroyed. “The sinners of my people shall die by the sword.” The same process to one will be salvation, to another destruction. Like chaff, the wicked are worthless in their character and doom, blown away with the wind or burned in the fire (Psalms 1:4). God spares the wicked for the sake of the godly now; but a separation will come. Each will go to the place for which he is fitted and destined. “He will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Amos 9:8. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, especially,
1. Observing sinners,
2. Scrutinizing character, and
3. dealing out justice.
Amos 9:9. I will sift.
1. God the sifter of his people.
2. Making Divine purposes real facts. “I will command.” He wills and it is done.
“When God commands, who dare oppose, Or ask Him why, or what He does?”
God’s people are sifted–
1. By God. Abraham, the Centurion, and the Syrophenician were tried and approved.
2. By Satan. As Peter, saved by the prayer of Christ (Luke 22:31-32). “The blast of temptation struck down the leaves; but the root stood fast.”
3. By the world. (a) Its infidelities, (b) Its persecutions, (c) Its opinions. “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” &c.
“This concise prophecy contains a draught of determinate history: the kingdom, the body politic, to be destroyed from off the face of the earth; but the people, the stock, not to be destroyed. The people to be sifted through all nations; but the seed so sifted not to perish, nor its least grain to fall to the earth. It has a history made up of opposite particulars; destruction and preservation, scattering and particular custody, combined. It is the true outline of Jewish history. Is it of any other whatever?” [Davidson on Prophecy].
Amos 9:10. Which say. I. The impious spirit of sinners. Ignorant, false, confident, and presumptive.
2. The great disappointment of sinners. Their sayings do not make facts. Punishment does overtake them, suddenly and grievously. “Evil is often nearest those that put it at the greatest distance from them.” Hope of impunity is only the refuge of the proud and rebellious; God by his judgments will change their verdict, and prove it to be a refuge of lies (Isaiah 28:15). Flee to Christ, and he will be your hiding-place in the storm.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Amos 9:8-10. Sift. Gold in the ore is a treasure; but it is when it has passed through the refiner’s hands, and has received the stamp of currency, that it becomes of acknowledged value, and fit for adaptation to all the circumstances and conveniences of life [W. S. M.].
Fiery trials make golden Christians; sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotion [Dyer].