Amos 7
THREE tokens of judgment from God are presented for Amos to see; first, grasshoppers or locusts; next fire; and, lastly, a plumbline. These are believed to represent the three successive attacks which the .Assyrians were to make upon the ten tribes of Israel; first, that spoken of in 2 Kings 15:19, when Pul was given tribute; second, that mentioned in verse 29 of the same chapter, when the northeastern part of the country was seized by Tiglath-Pileser, and the inhabitants were taken captive to Assyria; third, the overrunning of the whole land by Shalmaneser and the captivity of the nation, told of in 2 Kings 17:5, 6.
God had borne long with this people who drew near him with their lips, but whose heart was far from Him, and the time was near when intercession would be without avail, He would forbear no longer. He would then set a plumbline in the midst of His people, and that meant judgment that would deal with all the transgressors.
“The high places of Isaac” (verse 9), and “the house of Isaac” (verse 16), are expressions not found elsewhere in the Scriptures. Isaac was Abraham’s heir, and these terms appear to have been adopted by the people to exalt their country, forgetful that their ways were very far from the God-pleasing course of those of their forefathers whom they professed to honor.
“The house of Jeroboam” (verse 9), though the then reigning king (2 Kings 14:23-29) bore tint name, may well refer to established ruler of the ten tribes, who established the evil course of the nation which it held to the end (1 Kings 1.4:16; 2 Kings 17:21-23).
The prophecy of the end of Israel naturally aroused the anger of the priest of Bethel, and he sent word of it to the king. The truth of God is always offensive to the natural heart, which prefers a religion of its own after the general pattern of Cain’s (Genesis 4:3; 1 John 3:12; Jude 11). The first Jeroboam had arranged such a religion for his nation in order to secure the kingdom to himself and his successors (1 Kings 12:26-33). Of this religion, the king, and not God, was its head (verse 13).
Amos therefore is told to flee away to the land of Judah; there he might speak for God, but not in Israel! But it was God, and not man, that called Amos to speak. He was, as he told the priest of Bethel, no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but a herdman and a gatherer of fruit, and Jehovah took him as he followed the flock. The word which he proclaimed was God’s, and He had said to this man of humble life, “Go, prophesy unto My people Israel.”
There was an exceedingly solemn word for this priest who would silence the voice of God speaking through His servant (verse 17). In the troublous times which lay before the kingdom of Israel, Amaziah’s family would not be spared; his wife would become a dissolute woman; his sons and daughters would die by the sword; his land would be given to others; the country would be polluted; and (in from sixty to eighty years) Israel would certainly go into captivity, as God had declared.
ML 02/07/1937