Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 4:5

"and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill-offerings and publish them: for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah." — Amos 4:5 (ASV)

And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven - But amid this boastful service, all was self-will. In little or great, the calf-worship at Bethel, or the use of leaven in the sacrifice, they did as they chose. The prophet seems to have purposely joined the fundamental change, by which Jeroboam substituted the worship of nature for its God, and a minute alteration of the ritual, to show that one and the same temper, self-will, reigned in all, and dictated all they did.

The use of leaven in the things sacrificed was forbidden for a symbolic reason; that is, not in itself, but as representing something else. The Eastern leaven, like that used in France, consisting of what is sour, had the idea of decay and corruption connected with it. Hence, it was unfit to be offered to God. For whatever was the object of any sacrifice, whether of atonement or thanksgiving, perfection in its kind was essential to the idea of offering.

Hence, it was expressly forbidden. No grain offering, which you shall bring to the Lord, shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven in an offering of the Lord made by fire (Leviticus 2:11). At other times it is expressly commanded that unleavened bread should be used. In two cases only, in which the offering was not to be burned, were offerings to be made of leavened bread:

1. The two loaves of first-fruits at Pentecost (Leviticus 23:17), and
2. An offering with which the thank offering was accompanied, and which was to be the priest’s (Leviticus 7:13–14).

The special grain offering of the thank offering was to be without leaven (Leviticus 7:12). To offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven was a direct infringement of God’s appointment. It proceeded from the same frame of mind as the breach of the greatest commandments. Self-will was their only rule. What they chose, they kept; and what they chose, they broke. Amos then tells them to go on, as they did in their willfulness, breaking God’s commands intentionally, and keeping them by accident.

Rup.: “This is a most grave mode of speaking, by which He now says, ‘Come and do so and so,’ and He Himself who says this, hates those same deeds of theirs.

He so speaks, not as willing, but as abandoning; not as inviting, but as expelling; not in exhortation, but in indignation.

He adds then (as the case required), ‘for so you loved.’ As if He said, ‘I therefore say, come to Bethel where is your god, your calf, because so you loved, and until now you have come.

I therefore say, transgress, because you do transgress, and you are determined to transgress. I say, come to Gilgal, where there were idols (Judges 3:19, English margin) long before Jeroboam’s calves, because you come and you are determined to come.

I say, multiply transgressions, because you do multiply it, and yet are determined to multiply it. I say, bring your sacrifices, because you offer them and you are determined to offer them, to whom you should not.

I say, offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, because you do so, and you are determined to do it, leavened as you are with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, against the whole authority of the holy and spiritual law, which forbids offering in sacrifice anything leavened.

This pleases your gods, that you be leavened, and without the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:8). To them then ‘sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven,’ because to Me you, being sinners, cannot offer a fitting sacrifice of praise.

And so doing, proclaim and publish the free offerings, for so you do, and so you are determined to do, honoring the sacrifices which you offer to your calves with the same names by which the authority of the law names those which are offered to Me: burnt offerings, and peace offerings.

And proclaim them with the sound of trumpet and harp, with timbrel and dancing, with strings and organ, upon the well-tuned cymbals and the loud cymbals (Psalms 150:1–6), so that you may be thought to have sung louder and stronger than the tribe of Judah or the house of David in the temple of the Lord, because you are more.’

All these things are said, not with the intention of one willing, but with the indignation of one forsaking, as in many other instances. As that which the same Lord said to His betrayer: what you do, do quickly (John 13:27). And in Revelation we read, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still (Revelation 22:11). These things, and others similar to these, are not the words of one commanding, or, of His own will, conceding, but permitting and forsaking. ‘For He was not ignorant, (Wisdom says) (Wisdom; Revelation 12:10) that they were a wicked generation, and their malice was inbred, and that their cogitation never would be changed.’ ”

Proclaim and publish the free offerings - ^o : “Value highly what you offer to God, and think that you do great things, as though you honored God fittingly, and were under no obligation to offer such gifts. The whole is said in irony.

For there are some who magnificently appreciate the gifts and services they offer to God. They think they have attained great perfection, as though they made an adequate return for the divine benefits. In doing so, they do not weigh the infinite dignity of the Divine Majesty, the incomparable greatness of the divine benefits, the frailty of their own condition, and the imperfection of their service.

Against such people is what the Savior says, When you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do (Luke 17:10). Hence, David says, ‘all things come from You, and of Your own have we given You.’ (1 Chronicles 19:14).”