Amos 5:24 - Homiletics

Real calamity waiting upon unreal service.

"The meaning of this verse is not, 'Let justice and righteousness take the place of your sacrifices.'… The verse threatens the flooding of the land with judgment and the punitive righteousness of God" (Keil). Adopting this interpretation, we observe—

I. THAT WHICH IS REJECTED " IS NIGH UNTO CURSING ." Hollow service has been sitting for its portrait, and the picture is striking. Now we have the Divine appraisement revealed in the action to be taken forthwith. Instead of approval there is condemnation. Instead of reward there is punishment. Instead of profit resulting there is loss on every issue.

1 . It deserves this. Want of conformity to law is a sufficient ground of condemnation. Positive transgression of law is ground more decided still Wilful mockery of the Lawgiver is most deeply criminal of all. All these elements pertained to Israel's sham observances, and, together, they constitute an indictment on which the criminal's conviction is inevitable.

2 . It requires it. God's moral government must show itself strong and just, and in order to this, sin, and all sin, must be visited with his avenging stroke. Especially must this be done in the sphere of "things whereby God maketh himself known." The thing whose function it is to make him known must do so in the glorious character he bears.

II. THE JUDGMENTS THAT ENGULF ARE RIGHTEOUSNESS . This could be argued, and is here affirmed.

1 . They express righteousness. They are deserved. They are all deserved. They are deserved in the proportions in which they come. If they did not come, the moral balance of things would be disturbed. If they came in less decided form, this balance would be only half adjusted. They are "righteous judgments" in the fullest and highest sense.

2 . They accomplish righteousness. They are sent in the interests of it. They fall on the unrighteous. They are designed and fitted to lead to their reformation ( Isaiah 26:9 ). Sometimes the righteous suffer from them also. In that case their tendency is on the one hand to promote the righteousness of the sufferer, and on the other to emphasize the evil of unrighteousness in any section of a community, and so prevent, it. As a matter of fact, Divine judgments have often wrought righteousness both in individuals ( 2 Chronicles 33:11-16 ) and communities ( Isaiah 43:21 ). Even in eternity they bulk largely, in the thought of the redeemed, among the helpful experiences of earth ( Revelation 7:14 ).

III. WHEN JUDGMENT IN RIGHTEOUSNESS COMES , IT COMES LIKE A FLOOD . There are two ideas here. The first is:

1 . Let judgment roll on like water. In this:

2 . And righteousness like on inexhaustible stream. Judgment is the act of which righteousness is the principle. God's righteousness, whether in himself or in his judgments, is like an inexhaustible stream.