Amos 7:2 - Homiletics

The problem of stability.

The prayer of faith is free. The believing soul has the privilege of reasoning with God, and embraces it. It asks what it wills, and as it wills, and for whom it wills. There is room for originality in it, and scope for inventive resource; yet little risk of impropriety. The Spirit safeguards that in an effective "unction." Then grace is one thing ever, and there is a ground plan of supplication which is practically the same with all the faithful. It has centrifugal energy, flowing from the individual outwards. Its rivers wind and wander and discharge themselves ultimately on the desolate places of ungodly lives; but they run first by the homes of the household of faith. And then it has a spiritual stream. It blesses temporal interests too, but leaves its fertilizing ooze most richly on the things of the religious life. Of the prophet's prayer here all this is characteristic, it reveals to us—

I. JACOB 'S ACTUALITY . "Small . " There is a natural Israel and a spiritual Israel also, the one at once the type and the germ of the other. The Christian Church is not distinct from, but a continuation and expansion of, the Jewish; and both together are the one visible Church of God. To this, an already existing community, many were added at Pentecost ( Acts 2:47 ). In the congregation of Israel to which the sweet psalmist sang ( Psalms 22:22 ) Paul sees the one Church of God ( Hebrews 2:12 ); and with Stephen ( Acts 7:38 ) the wandering host of the tribes ( Exodus 16:2 ) was nothing else than the "Church in the wilderness." This Church, continuous from the beginning, and one in all ages, is the "good olive tree" ( Romans 11:17-24 ), whose Jewish "branches" excised, and again to be "grafted in," are meantime displaced by the ingrafted Gentile shoots, which partake "of the root and fatness of the olive tree." In Amos's time it was a little flock, whose preservation was matter to him of anxiety and prayer.

1 . He is small in comparison with Esau. The heathen around outnumbered Israel overwhelmingly. Left to itself in the struggle among them for existence, it would inevitably have been swallowed up. So with the spiritual Israel. Satan has had in his kingdom a majority of the race for so far. Faith gate is a strait one, Purity way is a narrow one ( Matthew 7:13 , Matthew 7:14 ), and the saints who enter the one and follow the other are a little flock ( Luke 12:32 ). And no wonder. Unbelief is natural, living after the flesh is congenial ( Exodus 23:2 ), and an overwhelming preference for both is a foregone conclusion. Hence, not only has the Church been smaller than the world, but within the Church itself the wheat has apparently been less than the tares. Relatively to Esau, Jacob is, and has been, small indeed.

2 . He is small in comparison with what he might have been. Smallness is sometimes a misfortune, but it was Israel's fault. It was a result of persistent national sin, drawing down the destroying judgments of Heaven. Their ranks had been thinned by war, or pestilence, or famine in just and necessary retribution for their incorrigible unfaithfulness. So the small number of the saints is the sin of all concerned. It means opportunities neglected, ordinances abused, and a Holy Spirit resisted. None of the agencies of a heavenly culture have been withheld ( Isaiah 5:1 4). Every unbeliever is such in despite of influences that ought to have brought him to faith ( Acts 7:51 ). Every spiritual weakling is one who has debilitated himself ( Hebrews 5:12 ; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 ). Moreover, as workers for God the saints are not guiltless, for which of them has exercised his full influence for good? The difference between what the Church is and what she might have been is the measure of her delinquency before God. When the sun shines and the showers fall, something subjective is wrong with the crop that stunts.

3 . He is small in comparison with what he will yet be. Israel is not yet full grown. The Gentiles are Abraham's seed ( Galatians 3:7 ), and their in-bringing is the increase of spiritual Israel. That increase is to attain world wide proportions yet. The Church's limits shall be the ends of the earth ( Psalms 72:8 ), and its constituents the heathen nations ( Psalms 2:8 ; Psalms 72:11 ). It shall be a centre to which all the peoples shall gravitate ( Isaiah 2:2 ). It shall be a light illuminating and incorporating in its own radiance the entire globe ( Hebrews 2:14 ). It is only a stone as yet, but it will be a mountain one day, and fill the whole earth ( Daniel 2:35 , Daniel 2:44 ). In the faith of such a destiny the Church may well find strength to avail her, even in the day of small things.

II. JACOB 'S IDEAL . "Stand." It is assumed here that he ought to stand; that standing is his appropriate and normal position. And so it is. In the ideal and purpose and promise, and as the handiwork of God, he is not to fall. He is:

1 . To stand against destruction. Israel was not to perish. Low she might fall, small she might become, contemptible she might long remain; but in all, and through all, and after all, she was to live. The spiritual Israel has a perpetuity of existence also. The individual Christian "shall never perish" ( John 10:28 ). The grace that is in him is a Divine thing, and indestructible ( Galatians 2:20 ). His life is a living Christ within, and he is immortal while Christ lives. This involves that the Church—God's kingdom—is an everlasting kingdom. If even a member cannot perish, much less the whole body. Redeemed by his Son, and dowered in permanence with his Spirit, the Church stands, let what may fall ( Daniel 2:44 ). A structure of God's building, on a foundation of God's laying, according to a plan of God's devising, it stands impregnable on its rock ( Matthew 16:18 ), and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Its immovable stability is a question of Divine will and resource. There is the unchangeable purpose, the unconquerable power, the inviolable promise. The house is impregnable over which these three mount triple guard ( John 10:28 ). In the soil of God's plan, in the rock cleft of his might, in the showers and sunshine of his pledge, the fair Church flower can neither fall nor fade, but must bloom while the ages run.

2 . To stand against temptation. Israel was separate and to be pure. The Divine ideal was set before her not to mingle with the nations, nor serve their gods, nor learn their ways ( Numbers 23:9 ; Deuteronomy 6:14 ; Deuteronomy 18:9 ). So with the Church as a whole, and individual members in particular. Temptation in some degree is inevitable. While within is the iron of a corrupt nature, and outside the loadstone of a corrupt surrounding, there will be the drawing toward sin. But while God is stronger than the devil, and his grace stronger than sin, there shall not be a lapsing into wickedness. The word of acceptance is peace-bringing. The change by regeneration is radical. The measure of grace conferred is sufficient ( 2 Corinthians 12:9 ). Therefore Israel, harnessed in armour of proof, shall defy the devil's darts, and stand in the evil day ( Ephesians 6:13 ). The bride of Christ will abide in loyal love, and be to eye and heart at last his "undefiled," with no spot in her (So Amos 6:9 ; Amos 4:7 ). She may grow languid almost to slothfulness, but even in her sleep her "heart waketh" (So Amos 5:2-6 ). Her love may at times burn low ( Matthew 24:12 ), but the fire remains alight, and glows at the slightest breath from heaven. In the end she is presented to Christ a glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ( Ephesians 5:27 ).

3 . To stand against misfortune. From this there is no earthly immunity ( Job 5:7 ). God's Israel will get a share, and a large share, of the shocks of calamity. There will even be special evils to which their character will expose them alone of men. But over against this stand the Divine helps which also are theirs alone. God is for them. They are the objects of a special providence. The Divine favour—their shield and buckler—is armour of proof. The darts of evil are turned aside, and fall pointless and broken to the ground. Nay, the evil, having been endured and survived, may be utilized. God constitutes it the appropriate and effective means of a heavenly culture ( Hebrews 12:11 ; 2 Corinthians 4:17 ). It destroys nothing, not even a hair of their head; and it prunes the tree into richer and choicer fruit bearing. It even increases future glory, adding the piquancy of contrast to its otherwise perfect bliss.

III. JACOB 'S ATTAINMENT OF HIS IDEAL A CARE OF GOD . God concerns himself about all that concerns his people. The prophet assumes that one way or other Jacob is bound to be upheld, and that God in the last appeal will see it done. As to this ideal:

1 . God loves it. It is set up by his own hand, and characterized by his own excellences, and it must be a thing after his own heart. All the graces that are acceptable with God shine in the saints, and the interests dear to his heart are those with which they are inseparably identified. Righteous himself, he loveth righteousness; unchangeable, he loveth steadfastness; and the things his heart loves his hand will guard.

2 . God appoints it. Salvation from first to last is of his devising. He decides that salvation shall be, and what, and how. It is the purpose of his adorable grace, and therefore something along the lines of which he may be expected to work. He has predestinated the individual "to be conformed to the image of his Son," and the Church to "come to a perfect man." And we may safely reckon that his measures will work in these directions; helping the individual, that he is "changed into the same imago from glory to glory;" and blessing the Church, that she gathers up and exemplifies in her many-sidedness the graces of Christ's faultless character. The Divine forceful action propels things in the direction of the Divine gracious appointment.

3 . God has already committed himself to it. To Israel his word of promise was pledged, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." To us it is pledged with greater emphasis still, "They shall never perish;" "Whom he justified, them he also glorified," etc. None shall pluck the Christian out of Christ's hand, nor shall the gates of hell prevail against his Church. The circle of the promises towers a wall of fire around the saints. The result is pledged to them; so are the means. The inheritance is reserved for them, and they for the inheritance ( 1 Peter 1:4 , 1 Peter 1:5 ). Their faith will keep them, and God will keep their faith ( 1 Peter 1:5 ). Then God had already begun to help . Israel had been upheld in many an evil. And there is continuity in the operations of God. He does not abandon a work once begun, nor allow after disaster to neutralize accomplished good. He had done something for Israel; he has done something for us. Then he will do more, and he will do all. Having bestowed his grace, he swears by the gift that the circle of our good will he made complete. A part already of the work of God, invulnerable in his armour, and immortal in his life, they have "a strong consolation," surely, "who have fled for refuge," etc.

IV. THE WHOLE MATTER A FITTING SUBJECT OF PRAYER . The prophet comes between God and Israel as an intercessor. In his act we see that:

1 . Prayer is a universal means of grace. "Men ought always to pray;" "In everything by prayer and supplication," etc. There is no blessing, temporal or spiritual, that is not the gift of God. There is no way of securing the least of these but by seeking it in prayer. The heart must throb continuously if the blood would be driven through the body; the breath must be regularly drawn if this blood would he purified and oxidized. So prayer, the throb of the new heart, the breath of the new creature, must go on if the new life is to be maintained. The interruption of it means the suspension of the most essential vital function. There is nothing we can count on getting without it ( Ezekiel 36:37 ; James 4:2 ). There is nothing legitimate we may despair of getting by it ( John 14:13 ). In prayer the soul puts forth its tentacles round about, and lays hold of good on every side.

2 . Prayer is a universal instinct of grace. All vital functions go on without an act of the will or the exercise of attention. And so with prayer in the new-created soul. It does not require a specific injunction. It does not wait on an effort of the will. It goes up as naturally as the hunger cry of the young raven. The new man breathes, the new heart pulsates, the opened lips speak, and the action in each case is prayer. "Behold, he prayeth," is an infallible token of a converted man.

3 . Prayer is expansive like grace. Sin is selfish. Seeking salvation, the sinner prays for himself only. He is conscious of need, but as yet knows nothing of supply. Only when he gets spiritual blessing himself does he know how valuable it would be to others, and begin to desire it for them. Selfishness gives way with sin. Philanthropy grows with the love of God. And prayer answers to and expresses the change. The prayer circle widens as personal religion deepens. Its instinct is catholic. It goes out to the Church of the Firstborn. It seeks the coming of the kingdom. We pray for Israel when we are Israelites indeed. Request for the household of faith is God's will, the Church's weal, and the spontaneous offering of the gracious soul