Amos 5:25

"Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?"

Amazingly, this verse is made the grounds for denying that the Pentateuch had been written at the time this prophecy was given, or that the custom of offering sacrifices had been instituted in Israel at all prior to the days of Amos. Such a viewpoint is in error. It is alleged, of course, that a negative answer to the question propounded is implied; but what is meant is that that portion of the whole nation of the Jews, namely, those who ultimately made up the Northern Kingdom, had never kept those commandments. The very next verse tells what they did instead of obeying God's commandments. It should be remembered of practically the whole Jewish nation in the wilderness that they repeatedly rebelled against God and that they were ultimately denied entry into Canaan for that specific reason. Furthermore, there is not a denial of any kind here that offerings and sacrifices were offered by Israel in the forty years wanderings; for as Jamieson said, "This is not a denial, for they did offer in the wilderness sacrifices to Jehovah of the cattle which they brought out of Egypt. It is not a denial, but an affirmation."[61]

No matter how this passage is interpreted, whether by assuming that the answer is affirmative, as did Jamieson, above, or whether by insisting that a negative answer is implied, as do Mays, Harper and many others, there can certainly not be any contradiction of the Pentateuch as in the notion that, "There is no way to reconcile this view (of Amos) with the extant Pentateuchal tradition."[62] If Amos said here that the Israelites had not offered sacrifices in the wilderness, the meaning would then be that as stated by Keil, to the effect that:

"The denial that they had offered sacrifices applied to the nation as a whole, or the great mass of the people, individual exceptions being passed by ... During that forty years, not even the rite of circumcision was practiced (See Joshua 5:5-7); and the sacrificial worship prescribed by the law fell more and more into disuse, so that the generation that was sentenced to die in the wilderness for their rebellion offered no more sacrifices."[63]

Furthermore, it is doubtless true that, "Israel during this period must have restricted their sacrifices very considerably because of circumstances,"[64] which would have more than justified what is implied here by Amos' question. That prophetic question was also justified by the fact that, although the people did offer sacrifices, they did not truly offer them to Jehovah, but to those favorite gods which they secretly adored during the forty years wanderings, a truth attested by the fact that after they entered Canaan, it was still necessary for Joshua to order them to "put away the strange gods from among them" (Joshua 24:33). One gets the proper idea by emphasis upon me. "Did you bring unto me, etc.?" No! They did not, but while pretending to worship God, they were actually worshipping idols. The great Christian martyr quoted this very passage in affirming this very thing (Acts 7:42). This has the meaning of:

"You have always been idolators, corrupters of pure worship. Your service in the wilderness, when you were little exposed to external influences, was no more true and faithful than that which you offer now."[65]

Thus it was altogether true of the Northern Kingdom, as stated by Barnes, that: "The idolatry of the ten tribes was the revival of the idolatry in the wilderness. The ten tribes owned as the forefathers of their worship those first idolators."[66] All of these considerations, therefore, are more than sufficient reason for rejecting allegations to the effect that, "The point Amos was trying to make was that sacrifice is not essential to a right relationship with God."[67] The New Testament affirms, of that period, that "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins" (Hebrews 9:22); and, therefore, there can be no acceptance of such a view as that just quoted. With equal authority, we also set aside as erroneous all such affirmations as this: "Amos was disputing the divine origin of the institution of sacrifice as it existed in his day."[68] Such erroneous misconceptions are actually founded in a failure to read the sacred text. Everything that is either stated or implied in this verse is fully explained by the observation that:

"The generation of Amos' day, in mixing idolatry with sacrifices done in the name of Jehovah, was just like the contemporaries of Moses, practicing idolatry and all the while claiming to be worshippers of Jehovah."[69]