John Calvin Commentary Amos 4:11

"I have overthrown [cities] among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah." — Amos 4:11 (ASV)

Amos proceeds further and says that God had used a severity towards his chosen people similar to that which he formerly showed towards Sodom and Gomorrah. That, we know, was a memorable evidence of God’s wrath, which ought to have filled all ages with dread, as it ought to do even today: and Scripture, whenever it graphically paints the wrath of God, sets Sodom and Gomorrah before our eyes.

It was indeed a dreadful judgment when God destroyed those cities with fire from heaven, when they were consumed, and when the earth, splitting apart, swallowed up the five cities. But he says that nearly the same ruin had taken place among the people of Israel, only that a few escaped, as when anyone snatches a brand from the burning. For the second clause of the verse ought undoubtedly to be taken as a modification; for if Amos had only said that they had been overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, he would have said too much.

The Prophet then corrects or modifies his expression by saying that a few had remained, as when someone snatches a brand from the burning. But in the meantime, they ought to have been at least moved by punishments so grievous and dreadful, since God had manifested his displeasure to them, as he formerly did to Sodom and Gomorrah.

History seems, at the same time, to conflict with this narrative of Amos. For he prophesied under Jeroboam the second, the son of Joash, and the state of the people was then prosperous, as sacred history records. How then could it be that the Israelites had been destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah?

This difficulty may be easily solved if we pay attention to what sacred history relates. For it says that God had pity on the Israelites because all had previously been consumed, the free man as well as the captive (2 Kings 14:25, 26). Therefore, when there was such a deplorable devastation among the people, it was God’s purpose to give them some relief for a time. Consequently, he made King Jeroboam successful, so that he recovered many cities, and the people flourished again; but it was a short prosperity. Now Amos reminds them of what they had suffered and of the various means by which God had stimulated them to repentance, although they proved completely untamable.

Thus, these two things are in no way inconsistent: that the Israelites had been consumed before God spared them under Jeroboam, and that they had nevertheless been relieved for a time from those calamities, which proved ruinous both to the captive and to the free, as it is expressly declared.

We must, at the same time, remember that there was some remnant among the people, for it was God’s design to show mercy on account of his covenant. The people were indeed worthy of complete destruction, but it was God’s will that some remnant should continue, lest anyone should think that he had forgotten his covenant.

Therefore, we see why God had preserved some: it was so that he might contend with the wickedness of the people and show that his covenant was not entirely void. So the Lord observed a middle course, so that he might not spare hypocrites and also that he might not abolish his covenant, for it was necessary for the covenant to stand perpetually, however ungodly and perfidious the Israelites may have been. The Prophet then shows that God had been faithful even in this case and constantly kept his covenant, even though all the Israelites had fallen away from him. He finally concludes—