John Calvin Commentary Amos 4:4-6

"Come to Beth-el, and transgress; to Gilgal, [and] multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, [and] your tithes every three days; 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. And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah." — Amos 4:4-6 (ASV)

The Prophet here again pours contempt on the perverse confidence in which the Israelites had become hardened. They indeed thought that their worship was fully approved by God when they offered sacrifices in Bethel and Gilgal. But the Prophet here shows that the more diligently they labored in performing sacred things, the more grievously they offended God, and the heavier judgment they brought upon themselves.

“What do you obtain by wearying yourselves, when you so strictly offer sacrifices and omit nothing that is prescribed in the law of God? Only this—that you provoke God’s wrath more and more.” But he does not condemn the Israelites for thinking that they rendered a compensation, as hypocrites were accustomed to think, and were for this reason often reproved by the Prophets; rather, he denounces their forms of worship as vicious and false, and abominable before God.

The Prophets condemned sacrifices for two reasons:

1. Because hypocrites brought them before God as a compensation, so that they might escape the punishment they deserved, as though they paid God what they owed. Thus at Jerusalem, in the very temple, they profaned the name of God. They offered sacrifices according to what the law prescribed but disregarded the true and legitimate purpose, for they thought that God was pacified by the blood of beasts, by incense, and other external rites; it was therefore a preposterous abuse. For this reason, the Prophets often reproved them, because they imposed their sacrifices on God as a compensation, as though they were real expiations for cleansing away sins. This, as the Prophets declared, was extremely childish and foolish.

2. Amos now goes much farther. He does not blame the Israelites here for thinking that they fulfilled their duty to God by external rites, but denounces all their worship as degenerate and perverted, because they called on God in places where He had not commanded. God designed one altar only for His people, and there He wished sacrifices to be offered to Him; but the Israelites, at their own will, had built altars at Bethel and Gilgal. Therefore, the Prophet declares that all their profane forms of worship were nothing but abominations, however much the Israelites trusted in them for their safety.

This is the reason why he now says, Go to Bethel. It is the language of indignation; God indeed speaks ironically and at the same time manifests His high displeasure, as though He had said that they were wholly intractable and could not be restrained by any corrections, as we say in French, Fai du pis que to pouvras. So also God speaks in Ezekiel 20:39, Go, sacrifice to your idols. When He saw the people running headlong with so much stubbornness into idolatry and superstitions, He said, “Go,” as though He intended to inflame their minds.

It is indeed certain that God does not incite sinners, but He thus manifests His extreme indignation. After having tried to restrain men and seeing their ungovernable madness, He then says, “Go,” as though He said, “You are wholly irreclaimable; I accomplish nothing by My good advice. Hear, then, the devil, who will lead you where you are inclined to go: Go then to Bethel, and there transgress; go to Gilgal, and transgress there again; heap sins on sins.”

But how did they transgress at Bethel? Even by worshipping God. We here see how little the pretense of good intention avails with God, which hypocrites always bring forward. They imagine that, provided their purpose is to worship God, what they do cannot be disapproved. Thus they indulge in their own inventions and think that God receives His due, so that He cannot complain. But the Prophet declares all their worship to be nothing else than abomination and detestable wickedness, though the Israelites, trusting in it, thought themselves safe. “Add, then, to transgress in Gilgal; and offer your sacrifices in the morning; be thus diligent, that nothing may be objected to you, as to the outward form.”

After three years, that is, in the third year, “bring also your tenths”; for thus it was commanded, as we read in Deuteronomy 14:28. Though, then, the Israelites worshipped God apparently in the strictest manner, yet Amos declares that the whole was vain and of no worth, indeed, abominable before God, and that the more they wearied themselves, the more they kindled the wrath of God against themselves. The next verse is to the same purpose.

And burn incense with the leaven of thank offering. He speaks of peace offerings; sacrifices of thanksgiving were usually offered with leaven, but with other sacrifices they presented cakes and unleavened bread. It was lawful in peace offerings to offer leaven. However diligent, then, the Israelites were in performing these rites, the Prophet intimates that they were in no way approved by God because they had departed from the pure command of the law.

Some take leaven in a bad sense, as meaning a flawed and impure sacrifice, which the law required to be free from leaven; but this view does not seem suitable here. For nothing is condemned in the Israelites here except that they had departed from what the law prescribed: they had presumptuously changed the place of the temple and also raised up a new priesthood. They were in other things careful and diligent enough, but this falling away was the chief abomination. It could not then be that God would approve of such perversions, for obedience, as it is said elsewhere, is of more account before Him than all sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22). Proclaim, He says, נדבות, nudabut, voluntary oblations. What He means is, “Though you not only offer sacrifices morning and evening as you have been commanded, though you not only present other sacrifices on festivals, but also add voluntary oblations to any extent, yet nothing pleases Me.”

Bring forth then, and proclaim voluntary offerings; that is, “Appoint solemn assemblies with great pomp; yet this would be nothing else than to add sin to sin. You are acting wickedly for this reason—because the very beginning is impious.”

But the last part of the verse must be noticed, For so it has pleased you, O children of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah. By saying that the Israelites loved to do these things, He condemns their presumption in devising new forms of worship at their own will, as though He said, “I require no sacrifices from you except those offered at Jerusalem; but you offer them to Me in a profane place.

Regard then your sacrifices as offered to yourselves, and not to Me.” We indeed know how hypocrites always make God a debtor to themselves; when they undertake any labor in their frivolous ceremonies, they think that God is bound to them. But God denies that this work was done for Him, for He had not commanded it in His law.

“It has thus pleased you,” He says, “Vous faites cela pour votre plaisir et bien mettez le sur vos comptes.” We then see what Amos meant here by saying, ‘It has so pleased you, O children of Israel:’ it is as if He had said, “You ought to have consulted Me, and simply to have obeyed My word, to have regarded what pleased Me, what I have commanded; but you have despised My word, neglected My law, and followed what pleased yourselves, and proceeded from your own fancies.

Since, then, your own will is your law, seek a recompense from yourselves, for I allow none of these things. What I require is implicit submission; I look for nothing else but obedience to My law. Since you do not render this, but act according to your own will, it is no worship of My name.”

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You desire our life to be formed by the rule of Your law, and have revealed in it what pleases You, so that we may not wander in uncertainty but render You obedience—O grant, that we may wholly submit ourselves to You, and not only devote our life and all our labors to You, but also offer to You as a sacrifice our understanding and whatever prudence and reason we may possess, so that by spiritually serving You, we may truly glorify Your name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

But I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your borders; and ye turned not to me, saith Jehovah. God here expostulates with the people on account of their incurable perverseness, for He had tried to restore them to the right way, not only by His word but also by heavy punishments; yet He accomplished nothing. This hardness doubled the guilt of that people, as they could not be subdued by God’s chastisements.

The Prophet now says that the people had been punished with famine. I gave them, He says, cleanness of teeth. It is a figurative expression by which Amos means want, and he explains it himself by want of bread. The whole country then labored under want and a deficiency of provisions, though the land, as is well known, was very fruitful. Now since the purpose of punishment is to turn men to God and His service, it is evident when no fruit follows that the mind is hardened in evil. Therefore, the Prophet shows here that the Israelites were not only guilty but had also stubbornly resisted God, for their vices could not be corrected by any punishment.