Amos 2:4-5 - Homiletics

The woe against Judah.

In the form of this woe, as compared with those before, is nothing to indicate the difference of underlying principles which it involves. A woe on a Hebrew and a heathen have little in common but the inevitable connection between punishment and sin.

I. THE SINS FOR WHICH GOD VISITS RESPECTIVELY THOSE WHO KNOW HIM AND THOSE WHO KNOW HIM NOT ARE VERY DIFFERENT . The six woes against the heathen are fathered exclusively on their sins against Israel or its friends. This woe against Judah is denounced with exclusive reference to sins against God himself. This is exactly what we might expect. Each is judged out of his own law ( Romans 2:12 ). The revelation of God and duty to him was the first great commandment of the Law given to the Jews ( Matthew 22:37 , Matthew 22:38 ), and for this God reckons with them—first, because it was at once the guiltiest sin, and the sin of which they were oftenest guilty. The law revealed to the heathen made known the existence and many perfections of God ( Psalms 19:1 ; Romans 1:20 ), and threw a side light on the way to worship him ( Acts 17:29 ). But this was not their clearest revelation, and so their sin against it is not the sin that is emphasized. The law written on their heart ( Romans 2:14 , Romans 2:15 )— i.e. speaking in reason, conscience, and human feeling—was specially the law of duty to their fellow creatures; and it is for their sin in this matter specially that God brings them into judgment. It is its blindness, and not its darkness, that is the condemnation of the world ( John 3:19 ). Where the white ray of revelation focusses, there the red ray of judgment shall fall and burn.

II. CONTEMPT OF LAW AND THE VIOLATION OF LAW INVOLVE EACH OTHER . "Despised the Law of Jehovah, and kept not his commandments." The Law is the abstract thing—God's revealed will as a whole. The commandments are the "particular precepts" (Keil) into which it is broken up. The first, Being general, is fitly described as being "despised;" i.e. its drift disliked and its authority spurned. The second, Being precepts enjoining particular duties, is said with propriety to be disobeyed. The order of enumeration is also the logical and natural order. Action is ever the outcome of sentiment, and its expression. What a man outwardly disobeys he has begun by inwardly despising. And so what he begins by despising he naturally goes on to disobey. It is in the heart that the eggs are hatched which, in a later stage, are the birds of evil doing. It is, therefore, at the door of his heart that the wise man will mount guard ( Proverbs 4:23 ).

III. ALL TRANSGRESSION IS THE OUTCOME OF IDOLATRY . Their lies led them astray. "By 'lies' here we are to understand idols. And the figure is most appropriate. Amos calls the idols 'lies,' not only as res quoe fallunt , But as fabrications and nonentities" (Keil; see 1 Corinthians 8:4 ). It is this lying character that makes them inevitably the occasion of sin. The first sin was brought about by a lie, in which the truth of God's threat was denied, and so its practical power destroyed. And every idol is just such a lie in embodied form. It is an abrogation of God's authority, a denying of his very existence; and it is a substitution for these of a god and a code congenial to our fallen nature. Under such circumstances violation of God's Law is a foregone conclusion.

IV. THE IDOLS OF THE CHILDREN ARE THE IDOLS OF THE FATHERS . Imitation is easier than invention. Hence Israel, when they first wanted an idol, adopted the calf of Egypt ( Exodus 32:4 ); and Jeroboam, also just left Egypt, set up calf worship in Dan and Bethel ( 1 Kings 12:28 ). Then, other things being equal, the persons men are most likely to imitate are their fathers, who are their teachers and guides and natural examples. Add to this that national tastes and habits and characters, formed in connection with a particular idol worship, would be in special harmony with it, and would be transmitted with it from sire to son.

V. SIN INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE SPIRITUAL CIRCLE IS DEALT WITH ON THE SAME PRINCIPLES . The manner of the sin was the same with Judah and the heathen. It was a transgression, or act of disobedience to a known law, as distinguished from a sinful disposition. It was a series of these acts, culminating in a final one of special enormity. "For three transgressions, and for four." The manner of treatment was the same . God threatened to strike. Then he lifted his hand for the stroke. Then he withheld it for a time. Then he declared the limit of forbearance was past, and nothing could now prevent the falling of the blow. The mode of punishment was to be the same. The agent would be devouring fire. This would fall on the capital. Sin in a visible spiritual relation, and however mixed up with acts of worship, is no whit less guilty. There is only one hell, and all sin alike deserves it, and, unrepented of, must bring to it.