Amos 8:1-3 - Homiletics

A nation ripe for ruin.

While immunity lasts iniquity will go on. Men only love it less than they fear suffering. In the actual presence of the penalty the hand of the transgressor is stayed. The murderer will not strike the death blow under a policeman's eye. The blasphemer will not move a lip when the thunderbolt is crashing through his roof. But by so little does the one feeling master the other that if punishment be not both certain and at hand, the fear of it will fail to deter from sin. "My lord delayeth his coming." Let escape be out of the question, yet even the chance of respite will turn the scale in favour of doing the forbidden thing. Israel, sentenced and to be destroyed some time , sinned with a high hand. Israel, sentenced to be destroyed soon, yet sinned still. Perhaps Israel, sentenced to be destroyed at once, may be brought to bay. Here God tries the experiment.

I. THERE IS A TIME WHEN THE VINE OF SODOM RIPENS ITS FRUIT . Sin has its day. It disturbs the harmony of things, and when derangement reaches a climax a catastrophe comes, and arrests the process with a "thus far and no further." Israel's wicked course had reached this critical point.

1 . Idolatry, the archetypal sin against the first table, had practically superseded the worship of God. It was the religion of the king, and court and people. It was established and endowed, by the state. Its rites were observed at Bethel and elsewhere, in profane mimicry of the Levitical worship at Jerusalem. The substitution of it for the worship of Jehovah was part of the royal policy. Short of this the national apostasy could go no further. Interference, if it would be in time to save anything, must take place at once.

2 . Oppression, the archetypal sin against the second table, had reduced society to dissolution. The safeguards of property, liberty, and life were alike removed ( Amos 3:9 , Amos 3:10 ; Amos 5:7 , Amos 5:12 ; Amos 6:3 ). The order of society had been converted into chaos. Incapable of using liberty without perverting it into licorice, it was high time to deprive Israel of the grossly abused trust. As slaves they would be under a regime of the strong arm, which was the only one that suited them in present circumstances. There are chains forging somewhere for the man who can neither consider others nor rule himself.

II. SUCH RIPENING FOREBODES AN EARLY GATHERING . ( Amos 8:2 . "The end is come upon my people of Israel.") The sickle is put in as soon as the harvest is ripe. No practical husbandry could delay the operation longer.

1 . The crop has then reached the limits of its growth. Like the corn ripe unto harvest, or the grape purple and mellow, the natural life of Israel had fully developed itself. Tastes were matured, habits acquired, and characters settled into crystalline form. Things generally had put on an aspect of finality, and the sickle of judgment that follows the ripening of character need no longer wait. Let the ripe sinner beware the scythe. The fruits of unrighteousness full grown are suggestive of the harvesters on their way.

2 . It is then ready to serve its natural purpose. Green grapes are useless in the vat, and green faggots would only put out the fire. It is in the harvest, when both are mature, that the wheat and the tares alike are sent to their ultimate destination. One purpose, a high and noble one, Israel had at last proved their unfitness to serve; their exclusive fitness for another purpose had only now by the same events become apparent. Reward and punishment alike take typical form only when they have reference to lives and characters which have assumed an aspect of finality. The hard grain and the dry faggot are waiting respectively for the mill and for the fire.

3 . After this it will be in the way of the next crop. When the reaper goes the ploughman comes. If the harvesting were neglected the ploughing must be postponed. Israel had failed utterly to accomplish its Divine mission, and, left longer alone, would only prevent its accomplishment by other agency. "Take the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents." The unfruitful become in a little while cumberers of the ground, and a necessary measure of practical husbandry is then to cut them off .

4 . At this stage it will begin naturally to decay. Overripe fruit will "go bad "at once. If not used or preserved when ripe, it will be lost altogether. National decline waits on the development of national corruption. Israel become utterly dissolute would go to pieces according to a natural law, even if the Assyrian never came. Indeed, it was in the degeneracy already apparent that the invader saw his opportunity and found the occasion of his coming. The disease that stops the career of the sensualist means God's judgment on one side, and the natural breakdown of his constitution on the other.

III. THE DUNGHILL IS THE DESTINATION OF ALL TAINTED PRODUCE . ( Amos 8:3 .) The incorrigible wrong doer is involved at last in overwhelming calamity. God's judgments must fall, his mercy notwithstanding. Indeed, they are an aspect of it. "A God all mercy is a God unjust." He is leaving the lion to prey on the lamb. The most merciful course is that which offers most effective opposition to the wicked doings of wicked men. Israel's manners are past reforming, and past enduring. By their intolerable abuse of freedom they showed their fitness only to be slaves. And according to character and capacity they must be treated. What is bad for the table may be good for the dunghill. The life of many had become a curse, and it only remained to stop that, and make their death a warning. That is one crop which even the sluggard's garden cannot refuse to bear ( Proverbs 24:30-32 ).

IV. THE OCCASION OF SUCH A HARVEST HOME TOO DEPLORABLE FOR WORDS . ( Amos 8:3 , "Hush!") When judgment is overwhelming, silence is fitting.

1 . As opposed to songs. These had resounded from the palace. They spoke of mirth and revelry. But they would be turned into yells ere long. In awestruck anticipation of the utterance of pain and horror, the prophet bids the revellers be silent.

2 . As opposed to lamentations. You cannot always "give sorrow words." There is a grief that "speaks not"—the grief of the overwrought heart. "I was dumb, opening not the mouth, because this stroke was thine." Such grief would befit a time like this. Words, however strong, must be beneath the occasion. Let them then remain unspoken, and let the eloquence of silence meet the overwhelming severity of the visitation.

3 . As opposed to reproaches. Israel had outlived the period of probation, and therefore of expostulation. Its "great transgression" was committed, its course unchangeably chosen, its doom sealed. The condemned and sentenced murderer is removed to his cell in silence. In sterner measures than abuse of words must his crime be expiated. His very life is to be exacted, and windy denunciation may well be spared. "Let him alone" is of all measures the most sternly significant. It is the preternatural hush of the elemental world, presaging the thunder crash that shall make the very earth to reel.