Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 3

Amos, like Hosea, rebukes Israel directly and Judah indirectly. He had warned each nation separately. Now, before he concentrates himself on Israel, he sums up what he had previously said to Judah and in the Person of God: "You have been alike in My gifts to you, alike in your waste of them and your sins; alike you shall be in your punishment." What was said to Israel was also said to Judah; what was directed first to the former people belongs to us, the later. What Jesus said to the Apostles, He also said to the Church and to single souls, What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch (Mark 13:37).

Hear ye this word — With that solemn threefold call, so frequent in the Old Testament, he summons them three times (Amos 3:1; Amos 4:1; Amos 5:1), as in the Name of the Holy Trinity, to hear God’s words: "The prophet, at the outset of the chapter, rouses the hearers to anxious consideration. For the words of the Most High God are to be heard, not with a superficial, unawed, wandering mind, but with reverence, fear, and love."

That the Lord hath spoken against — (and upon) you, (coming down from heaven, Hebrews 12:25, both "upon" and "against" them) the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt. To Abraham God had said, in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:3). So now, in withdrawing that blessing from them, He takes it away from them, family by family (Zechariah 12:12). He includes them, one and all, and Judah also, since all had been brought out of Egypt.

You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities - Such is the one law of God. The nearer anyone is brought to God, the worse is his fall, and, his trial over, the more heavily he is punished. Nearness to God is a priceless, but an awesome gift. The most intense blessing becomes, by the abuse of free will, the most dreadful woe. For the nearer God places anyone to His own light, the more malignant is the choice of darkness instead of light. The more clearly anyone knows the relation to God, in which God has placed him, the more terrible is his rejection of God.

The more God reveals to anyone, what He is, His essential perfections, His holiness and love, the more utter, tearful malignity it is, to have been brought face to face with God, and to have in deed said to Him, “On Your terms I will have none of You.” The angels who sinned against fullest light, had no redemption or repentance but became devils. He took not on Him the nature of angels (Hebrews 2:16). The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitations, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great Day (Jude 1:6).

Of the former people, when their first day of grace was past, Daniel says: under the whole heaven hath not been done, as hath been done upon Jerusalem (Daniel 9:12). God says in Ezekiel, Begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house (Ezekiel 9:6). So our Lord lays down the rule of judgment and punishment hereafter (Luke 12:47–48): the servant which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.

For unto whomsoever much has been given, of him shall much be required, and to whom people have committed much, of him they will ask the more. Peter says, The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).

You only I have known - Such care God had for Israel, so had He known them, and made Himself known to them, as if He had, in comparison, disregarded all others, as He remained unknown by them.

Knowledge, among people, is mutual, and so it seemed as if God did not know those by whom He was not known. Knowledge, with God, is love, and so He seemed not to have known those to whom, although He left not Himself without witness (Acts 14:17), He had shown no such love (see the note at Hosea 13:5).

Hence our Lord will say to the wicked, I never knew you (Matthew 7:23); and conversely, He says, I am the good Shepherd and know My sheep, and am known of Mine (John 10:14; see 2 Timothy 2:19).

“Myriads of cities and lands are there under the whole heaven, and in them countless multitudes; but you alone have I chosen out of all, made Myself known and visible among you by many miracles, chosen you out of a bitter unbearable bondage, trained you by My law to be well-pleasing to Me, fenced you with protection, brought you into the land promised to your fathers, enlightened you with prophecies.”

“Not, I think, as though in the time of Israel and of the Old Testament, there were not, in the whole world, some good people and predestined; but because God did not then choose any nation or whole people, except the children of Israel. For it was fitting that that people, from whom God willed to be Incarnate, should be distinguished by some special grace.”

Therefore I will punish you - “To despise God and to neglect the Lord’s Will procures destruction to those who have known Him or been known of Him, and been spiritually made His own.”

“I made you My own people, friends, sons. As a Father, I cherished, protected, exalted, you. You would not have Me as a Father, you will have Me as a Judge.”

Rupertus says: “As Israel has, in its elect, been glorious above all, so, in the reprobate, has it been made viler than all, both before God and before people.”

How much more Christians, and, among Christians, priests! It has long been believed that the deepest damnation will be that of ungodly priests.

Yet since almost all punishment in this life is remedial, the saying admits another meaning: that God would leave no sin unchastened in those whom He had made His own. Both are true meanings, fulfilled at different times. God chastens in proportion to His love, in the Day of grace. He punishes, in proportion to the grace and love despised and trampled upon without repentance, in eternity. Here, “the most merciful Physician, cutting away the cancerous flesh, spares not, that He may spare; He pities not, that He may the more pity.”

For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. Hence, the prayer, “Burn, cut, here; and spare forever.”

Conversely, “we should esteem any sinner the more miserable, when we see him left in his sin, unscourged. Hence it is said, The turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them (Proverbs 1:32). For whoever “turns away” from God and is “prosperous,” is the nearer to perdition, the more he is removed from the severity of discipline.”

“This is the terrible, this the extreme case, when we are no longer chastened for sins, when we are no more corrected for offending. For when we have exceeded the measure of sinning, God, in displeasure, turns away from us His displeasure.”

“When you see a sinner, affluent, powerful, enjoying health, with wife and circle of children, and that saying is fulfilled, They are not in trouble (Psalms 73:5) as other ‘men,’ neither are they plagued like other ‘men,’ in him is the threat of the prophet fulfilled, ‘I will not visit.’”

Sacred parables or enigmas must have many meanings. They are cast on the mind to quicken it and rouse it by their very mystery. They are taken from objects which, in different lights, represent different things and so suggest them. This series of brief parables all have this in common: that each thing spoken of is alternately cause and effect, and where the one is found, there the other must also be. From the effect, you can certainly infer the cause, without which it could not be; and from the cause, you may be sure of the effect. Then, further, all the images are of terror and peril to the objects spoken of.

The prophet impresses upon their minds both aspects of these things: “Evil will not befall unless it has been prepared;” “signs of evil will not show themselves unless the evil is at hand.” The bird will not fall without the snare; if the snare rises and so shows itself, the bird is as good as taken.

As surely then (the prophet would say) as the roaring of the lion, the rising of the snare, and the alarm of the trumpet indicate imminent peril, so surely does the warning Voice of God. The lion hath roared; who will not fear? Again, as surely as these are the effects of their causes, so surely is all infliction sent by Him who alone has power over all things and is the cause of all. Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?

Again, as these tokens are given before the evil comes, and the God of nature and of grace has made it a law in nature that what is fearful should give signs of coming evil, so has He made it a law of His own dealing not to inflict evil without having foreannounced it.

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He reveleth His secret unto His servants the prophets. As nothing else is by chance, nor happens without cause, much less the acts of God.

The lion or young lion when they roar, the bird when it falls to the ground, the snare when it rises, the trumpet’s sound—all have their cause and ground. Shall not then the acts and works of God, even more so, have their cause? Shall evil happen in the city and have no ground in the Cause of all causes, God in His righteous judgments?

As there is fear whenever there are tokens and causes of fear, so you must fear now and watch, lest that fear overtake you and it is too late. The first words then,

Can (will) two walk together, except they be agreed? – these words are at once a general rule for all that follows and have different bearings according to their several aspects. And, before all these, it is an appeal at once to the conscience that feels itself parted from its God: “So neither will God be with you, unless you are agreed and of one mind with God. Think not to have God with you, unless you are with God;” as He says, I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way (Exodus 33:3); and, if ye walk contrary unto Me, then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins (Leviticus 26:23, Leviticus 26:4). And on the other hand, They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy (Revelation 3:4).

Lap.: “God cannot be agreed with the sinner who justifies himself.”

Rup.: “God who rebukes, and Israel who is rebuked, are two. God says, ‘We are not agreed, in that Israel, when rebuked, does not hear Me, God, rebuking. Herein we are not agreed, that I rebuke, Israel justifies himself.’ Lo, for so many years since Jeroboam made the golden calves, I have sent prophets, and none agrees, for no one king departed from the sin of Jeroboam. So then I came Myself, God made man, rebuking and reproving: but ye are they which justify yourselves before men (Luke 16:15), and, being sick, you say to the Physician, ‘We do not need You.’”

Augustine (on Psalms 75:1-10, Lap.): “So long as you do not confess your sins, you are in a manner litigating with God. For what displeases Him, you praise. Be at one with God. Let what displeases Him, displease you. Your past evil life displeases Him. If it pleases you, you are disjoined from Him; if it displeases you, by confessing your sins, you are joined to Him.”

So He awakens and prepares the soul for the following words of awe.

In connection with what follows, the words are also the prophet’s defense of his mission. Israel “said to the prophets, Prophesy not” (see the notes on Amos 2:12), or, The Lord our God hath not sent thee (Jeremiah 43:2), because, while it disobeyed God, the prophets must “speak concerning it not good, but evil.” Amos prepares the way for his answer: you yourselves admit that “two will not walk together, unless they be agreed.” The seen and the unseen, the words of the prophets and the dealings of God, would not meet together unless the prophets were of one mind with God, unless God had admitted them into His counsels and “were agreed” with them, so that their words should precede His deeds, and His deeds confirm His words given through them.

Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? — Then, further, each question by itself suggests its own thought. Amos had already, in repeating Joel’s words, spoken of God’s Voice, under the image of a lion roaring (Amos 1:2; Hosea 11:10 (see also Hosea 5:14; Hosea 6:1; Hosea 13:7); Jeremiah 25:30).

Hosea had likened Israel to a silly dove without heat (Hosea 7:11); on the other hand, he had likened God’s loud call to repentance to the roaring of the lion, the conversion of Israel to the return of the dove to its home (Hosea 11:10–11).

As the roaring of the lion causes terror, for he sends forth his terrible roar when he is about to spring on his prey, so God threatens by His prophets only when He is about to punish.

Yet the lion’s roar is a warning to escape. God’s threatening is a warning to turn to repentance, and so to escape from all fear, by fleeing from their sins.

If the season is neglected, will you rescue the prey from the lion’s grasp, or yourself from the wrath of God?

Can a bird fall in a snare - Again, the bird taken in the snare is the image of those drawn down from heaven, where our conversation is (Philippians 3:20) and the soul may rise free toward its God, “drawn up by the Spirit to high and heavenly things.” Such souls being allured by the things of earth, are entangled and taken by Satan; as, on the other hand, “the soul, escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler (Psalms 124:7), is a soul, set free by Christ and restored to heaven.

In the last likeness, the prophet comes nearer to the people themselves, and the trumpet is, at once, the well-known token of alarm among people, and of the loud voice of God, wakening them to repentance (Isaiah 58:1; Joel 2:15) and still more often, warning them of the approach of judgment (Isaiah 18:3; Jeremiah 4:5; Jeremiah 6:1; Ezekiel 33:2–6; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 8:1; Revelation 8:1–13), or summoning man before Him (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Rup.: “God’s Voice will not always be a still small voice, or whispered only among the Angels, or heard as from the ground. It will be heard terribly in the whole world.” Jerome: “Whatever is said in Holy Scripture is a trumpet threatening, and with loud voice sinking into the hearts of believers. If we are righteous, we are called by the trumpet of Christ to bliss. If we are sinners, we know that we are to suffer torment.”