"For they know not how to do right," declares the LORD. "They store up violence and destruction in their citadels." Sermons
The conception of Ames is remarkable for grandeur. He sees in prophetic vision the approaching siege of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, and poetically summons the Egyptians and Philistines to gather themselves together upon the surrounding hills, and to witness the tumults within the city, the assaults from without, and the impending ruin. But the moral significance of history, in the prophet's mind, transcends the pictorial interest; and in this verse he gives utterance to a profound and awful truth with regard to human nature. Wrongdoing corrupts the conscience and interferes with a correct perception of right and goodness. I. IT IS A LAW OF HUMAN NATURE THAT CONDUCT REACTS UPON CHARACTER. No doubt actions are the expression of the moral nature, the moral habits, of men. But, on the other hand, those who persevere in a certain course of conduct are by that very fact moulded and fashioned and even transformed. Thus it is that those who submit to circumstances and who yield to influences are affected even in their inmost moral nature by the experience they pass through. II. PASSION AND INTEREST WARP THE MORAL JUDGMENT. Nations which, like Israel, are guilty of luxury and of idolatry, which pillage their neighbours' goods, and wage unlawful war, involving widespread calamity, thereby blunt their sensibilities to right and wrong. They habituate themselves to regard all questions in the light of their own ambition, or their own aggrandizement and enrichment. As a consequence they are tempted to call evil good, and good evil. Especially are they liable to term a false judgment upon their own conduct. III. THUS WRONG DOING HAS A TENDENCY TO PERPETUATE ITSELF. They who by reason of abandoning themselves to evil courses have silenced the voice of conscience, lose the moral power to do better. Because they "know not to do right," they continue to do wrong. They reap as they have sown. They advance upon the road of sin by the momentum derived from past iniquity. - T. You only have I known of all the families of the earth. This is shameful ingratitude. The honour and blessing conferred on the Israelites gave the stain of ingratitude to every act of transgression of which they were guilty. It is direct rebellion. "You only have I known," so as to reveal to you My will. Iniquity in you is disobedience to express commands, revolt against My authority. It is a dishonour offered to God. The privilege of being called after the name of God brings with it the danger of profaning that name by transgression. The nearer in privilege, the nearer we are to judgment. Distinguished blessings are leading to distinguished reward, or to distinguished punishment. 1. We are taught here that the providence of God prepares good and evil for man. View what are called common mercies in their origin, and "understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." Evil is also prepared for the sinner, in the sense of calamity, judgment. 2. We are taught by the prophet's vindication of the doctrine of a special providence to be very earnest when affliction comes in, working together with God, that it may do us good. Remember that God intended that sorrow to come as it did come, and when it did come. 3. When the trumpet of God's Word is sounded by His ministers, let us give heed to the note of warning or exhortation. 4. When there is evil in the land, let us with reverence acknowledge the hand of God. 5. The Lord revealeth His secret to His servants the prophets.(1) He does this by giving them spiritual apprehension of the truths of His Holy Word, causes them to see terror in the threatenings thereof, sweetness in its promises, duty in its precepts.(2) Nothing is coming upon man that has not been revealed.(3) The Holy Spirit directs the thoughts and words of His ministering servants, so as best to suit the particular need of those whom they address. At all times the sincere preaching of the Word may be expected to give offence. See how dangerous is the conduct of those who despise, oppose, revile, and persecute men of God for telling them plain truth with faithfulness and honesty. See where the true strength of a faithful dispenser of God's Word lies. The strength of the servant lies in his conviction that he is doing his Master's will. () Here was this desert prophet, with keen, prayer-washed eyes, piercing through the shows of things to the unclean realities behind. He disinterred the moral corruption that lurked behind their whited professions. What answer did the people make to this rude child of the desert? He stood there, rude in speech and in dress, despised by the official priest, a mere field-preacher, proclaiming to the grandees of the metropolis that the moral corruption of the people was eating away the vital elements of the national strength and that in galloping consumption they were hastening on to a terrible and fatal retribution. What answer did they make? They fell back upon their belief in God. Their reply to the herdman was found in their doctrine of providence. What was that doctrine? It was this: Their nation was the favourite of the Lord. They were hedged about with peculiar sanctities. "We only are known unto the Lord. Only between us and the Lord is there the intercourse which implies security. Thy threats, O Amos, are as noisy nothings. They are meaningless and terrorless." Such was the refuge in which the people found their security. "We are the children of privilege. Privilege implies favour. Favour guarantees security." Such was their doctrine of election, and I am not altogether sure that their doctrine is banished from the minds of all men to-day. Now let us mark the answer of the Lord through the mouth of His prophet. We have heard the false doctrine of election; now let us hear the true doctrine which is enshrined in the words of our text. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore" — note the swift, piercing logic — "therefore I will punish you." The false doctrine ran thus — "You only have I known: therefore I will indulge you." The true doctrine culminates in fire — "You only have I known: therefore I will punish you." "You only have I known" — I marked you out for special office. I appointed you to discharge a special function. I elected you to special service. But the office has been prostituted. The function has been ignored. The service has been despised. "Therefore I will punish you." I singled you out from among men, that all men through you might be blessed. But ye have defiled your mission, and, instead of being a centre of saving health, ye have become a noisome pestilence. That is the expression of a Divine method of government which prevails in all time. Election does not mean security. Security is dependent upon the discharge of the duty which election creates. There is an aristocracy of the election, a chosen few, and these are they who have fulfilled the obligations of their election, and are therefore qualified to enter into the peace and joy of their Lord. Election therefore does not, in the first place, create security. It creates responsibility, and my security or insecurity depends upon the manner in which that responsibility is regarded. There is nothing which can ensure the protecting presence of the Most High God except moral agreement. "Can two walk together...?" cries the prophet in the verse which follows my text. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" If there is to be helpful and intimate companionship between two people, there must be profound agreement, and if I am to enjoy the companionship of the great God, with all that that companionship means of consoling and sheltering grace, if God and I are to walk together, we must be agreed, and my part of the agreement must be faithful and unconditional obedience to all His revealed will. Election; the prophet declared that it could only be found in the fact of obedience. They had been elected to duty; not in the election, but in the duty would they find the defences which are as invulnerable ramparts against their foes. Election means selection to service. The Lord's specialities are for the sake of generalities. An individual is elected that he may serve a nation. A nation is elected that she may serve a race. A call is not a self-securing privilege; it is the entrustment of an office. To evade my responsibility is to destroy my defences, and to bring down swift retribution from God. " You only have I known: therefore I will punish you." Election, then, means selection for special service. This doctrine of election is here applied to nations. Certain nations are specially known by God. He whispers to them peculiar secrets, that they may proclaim them upon the house-tops to the nations of the world. Greece was specially known by God. The warm breath of the Lord came upon her people, and endowed her with that exquisite sense of the beautiful which has made her distinguished among all the nations of time. She revelled in the joy of perception, and exulted in the creation of lovely forms. God opened her eyes to the holiness of beauty, and gave her a mission to the race. And "the Gentiles have come to her light." All the nations go to Greece to school. We go to the treasury of her graces for our own adornments. The Lord God elected her by special endowment, that by her election she might serve a race. Rome was specially known by God. She was His own handiwork. He fashioned her into special aptitude, giving her the endowment of a peculiar passion for order, a genius for polity, government, and empire. He breathed into her life the instinct of law, and by the speciality of her election He determined the speciality of her mission. "And the Gentiles have come to her light." The foundations of modern jurisprudence are laid in ancient Rome. She has been the schoolmistress to all the nations. Israel was specially known by God. He breathed into her life a special genius for religion, a rare instinct for the Unseen and Eternal. To her He whispered the sublime truth of the unity of God and the august verities of the moral law. "And the Gentiles have come to her light." Just as beauty is of the Greeks, and law of the Romans, so salvation is of the Jews! Israel was exalted, as a city set upon a hill, that the light of revelation might shine out upon the nation, yea, even upon them that were afar off. May it not be that the Lord has held secret communion with every nation, and whispered to her some peculiar message which makes her life distinctive and unique? It is along this line that I can travel with the least trembling when I contemplate the appalling divisions which distract the race. I gain some assurance from a broad application of this doctrine of election. Each nation has been specially elected. All nations are dependent upon each; each is dependent upon all. Because of the Divine distribution of gifts absolute severance is impossible. "The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you." Each nation is specially known of God, specially elected to unique and individual service. In this doctrine of the election of nations, which is an election to mutual service, and which entails mutual dependence, I base my hope of the ultimate practical comity of nations, and the realised brotherhood of the race. But now let us apply the prophet's doctrine to the life of the individual, as we have applied it to the life of the nation. The prophet's doctrine is this — election is not election to security, except through the discharge of obligation. Election is election to the service of o hers. How many of us, then, have been elected? Are there any exempt from the election? We are all known, all elected, all called — for the election is a call to individual faithfulness, and our response will determine whether the election shall issue in sunshine or in fire. Each life has its own peculiar mission. God appoints for each a special and individual task. My mission is my election. I may not know what my mission is. That matters not. God knows. My part is to discharge the duty that lies nearest, and then the next, and the next, and the next, and God will guide and control the connected purpose and mission. How can I turn the election into a glad consciousness of protecting providence and eternal security? By a spirit of obedience. By faithfulness in that which is least. () () In this chapter we have a denunciation of judgments against Israel, together with the grounds and reasons of it. Notice —1. The special regard God had to His people. It is as if He should say, "My heart has been set upon you, My thoughts of kindness have been peculiarly towards and concerning you. 2. The awful visitation which even God's regard to them engaged Him to bring upon them. "Therefore I will punish you." As to Israelites indeed, though God visits their iniquities with temporal judgments, it is with a design of love and of advantage to their souls. 3: The ground and reason of this, and that was their iniquities. "I will punish you for all your iniquities." I. WHAT HAVE BEEN GREAT BRITAIN'S EMINENT MERCIES? 1. Our temporal mercies, which purely relate to the things of this life. 2. Our mercies with regard to religious concerns, and to spiritual and eternal blessings. II. WHAT HAVE BEEN OUR ABUSES OF THESE EMINENT MERCIES? How have we rioted upon the bounties of providence! Has not our plenty been turned into means and occasions of feeding our pride and ambition, our intemperance, luxury, and debauchery? How unfruitful have we been under the means of grace. Has not the Holy Spirit, been grieved and provoked to withdraw from our solemn assemblies? And when we speak of religion, have we much more than the name? III. WHAT REASON WE HAVE TO FEAR THAT GOD WILL VISIT US WITH JUDGMENTS FOR ALL THESE INIQUITIES AND ABUSES OF HIS MERCIES. 1. Our provocations are exceeding great. 2. The honour of God, as the great Governor of the world, is concerned to show His righteous resentment against a professing people that are guilty of such exceeding high provocations. 3. The threatenings of God's Word give us reason to fear His bringing judgments upon us. 4. The examples God has made of other communities, and particularly of His professing people, for their iniquities, may justly raise our fears of His doing the same by us. 5. God has already taken up a controversy with us. IV. WHAT COURSE IS TO BE TAKEN FOR PREVENTING SUCH AWFUL VISITATIONS? Public national sins must be followed with public national breaking them off by repentance and returning to the Lord. When dangers lie at the door of kingdoms and nations, the only method of preventing them, according to God's ordinary rule of procedure in His government of this world, is national humiliation, fasting, and repentance for and departure from the provoking evils that have incensed His wrath against us, with earnest supplication and prayer for national forgiveness of national sins. () A nation's guilt and punishment are graduated according to the scale of its privileges.I. OUR PRIVILEGES. Knowledge, as it relates to God, signifies approval, love. Israel had been unto the Lord a peculiar treasure above all people. Is there not a remarkable parallel between our own position and that of ancient Israel? When we pass in review our own national history we may well stand amazed at God's marvellous dealings with us. To us, pre eminently and emphatically, beyond all nations of the earth, has the kingdom of God, taken from the Jews for their unworthiness, been given. Truly our privileges are as incomparable as they are priceless. II. OUR PENALTIES. Whether as a Church or a nation, we should be on our guard against unfaithfulness. We have the Word of the living God in our keeping. But are we as faithful to this trust as we ought to be? Do we not sometimes give a very halting and restricted testimony to the truth? () I. THE PRIVILEGE. So surpassing had been the tenderness of God, so intimate the relationship in which He had stood to them, that it appeared as if He had ignored all other nations to magnify His mercy to them. They alone had had the presence of God in their midst, with a Divinely appointed priesthood, and a law given by the mouth of God. Other nations were as worthy as they. It was only the mercy of God which had chosen them. God exalts His people now to the highest privilege. He reveals His truth and makes known His character to them.II. THE PUNISHMENT. This was a necessary result of their trangression. 1. Because theirs was no common sin. The clearest light, the richest mercy, the strongest warnings, the most awful threatenings failed to deter them from wandering into forbidden paths. Punishment is proportioned to privilege. Can we wonder, then, that Divine indignation should be kindled against those who multiplied trangressions? 2. It was necessary that God should vindicate His own character. He had taught them by warning and example how deeply He hated sin. The story of Achan, the history of the spies, the fate of the whole congregation of Israel showed that the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men. 3. To a certain extent the punishment was remedial. God hoped to awaken the people from the stupor into which sin had thrown them. () Homilist. : — Now it is a fact that some men are far more highly favoured by heaven than others. Some have more health, some more riches, some more intellect, some more friendships, some more means of spiritual improve ment.I. They are OFTENTIMES THE GREATEST SINNERS. Who of all the people on the face of the earth were greater sinners than the Israelites? Yet they were specially favoured of heaven. England is a specially favoured land, but where is there more moral corruption? It is true that civilisation has so decorated it that its loathsomeness is to some extent concealed; but here it is. The corpse is painted, but it is still a putrid mass. II. They are EXPOSED TO SPECIAL PUNISHMENT. "Therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities." It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, etc. Therefore "I will punish you." I who know all your sins, I who abhor all your sins, I who have power to punish you. III. They should, LIKE ALL PEOPLE, PLACE THEM SELVES IN HARMONY WITH GOD. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed? " 1. Agreement with God is essential to the well-being of all intelligent existences. No spirit in the universe can be happy without thorough harmony with the will and mind of God. 2. The condition of all sinners is that of hostility to the will of God. ()
People Amos, Israelites, JacobPlaces Ashdod, Bethel, Egypt, SamariaTopics Act, Acts, Affirmation, Citadels, Declares, Destruction, Devastation, Fortresses, Hoard, Houses, Indeed, Loot, Palaces, Plunder, Robbery, Says, Spoil, Store, Storing, Straightforwardly, Strongholds, Treasuring, Violence, ViolentOutline 1. The necessity of God's judgment against Israel.
9. The publication of it, with the causes thereof.
Dictionary of Bible Themes Amos 3:10 5907 miserliness
6183 ignorance, of God Library April 21 Evening
Enoch walked with God.--GEN. 5:22. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Having made peace through the blood of his cross . . . You, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.--In Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily PathWalking with God
Genesis 5:24 -- "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Various are the pleas and arguments which men of corrupt minds frequently urge against yielding obedience to the just and holy commands of God. But, perhaps, one of the most common objections that they make is this, that our Lord's commands are not practicable, because contrary to flesh and blood; and consequently, that he is an hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strewed'. These …
George Whitefield—Selected Sermons of George Whitefield On Public Diversions
"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?" Amos 3:6. It is well if there are not too many here who are too nearly concerned in these words of the Prophet; the plain sense of which seems to be this: Are there any men in the world so stupid and senseless, so utterly void of common reason, so careless of their own and their neighbours' safety or destruction, as when an alarm of approaching judgments is given, …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions Preparation for Revival
I trust that most of us who are here met in the name of Jesus, feel a deep, sincere, and constant agreement with God. We have been guilty of murmuring at his will; but yet our newborn nature evermore at its core and center knoweth that the will of the Lord is wise and good; and we therefore bow our heads with reverent agreement, and say, "Not as I will, but as thou wilt." "The will of the Lord be done." Our soul, when through infirmity she is tempted to rebellion, nevertheless struggles after complete …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 10: 1864 Whether God is a Cause of Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that God is a cause of sin. For the Apostle says of certain ones (Rom. 1:28): "God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not right [Douay: 'convenient']," and a gloss comments on this by saying that "God works in men's hearts, by inclining their wills to whatever He wills, whether to good or to evil." Now sin consists in doing what is not right, and in having a will inclined to evil. Therefore God is to man a cause of sin. Objection 2: Further, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether the Angels Know the Mysteries of Grace?
Objection 1: It would seem that the angels know mysteries of grace. For, the mystery of the Incarnation is the most excellent of all mysteries. But the angels knew of it from the beginning; for Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. v, 19): "This mystery was hidden in God through the ages, yet so that it was known to the princes and powers in heavenly places." And the Apostle says (1 Tim. 3:16): "That great mystery of godliness appeared unto angels*." [*Vulg.: 'Great is the mystery of godliness, which . . …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether by the Divine Revelation a Prophet Knows all that Can be Known Prophetically?
Objection 1: It would seem that by the Divine revelation a prophet knows all that can be known prophetically. For it is written (Amos 3:7): "The Lord God doth nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets." Now whatever is revealed prophetically is something done by God. Therefore there is not one of them but what is revealed to the prophet. Objection 2: Further, "God's works are perfect" (Dt. 32:4). Now prophecy is a "Divine revelation," as stated above [3663](A[3]). Therefore …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether a Good Life is Requisite for Prophecy?
Objection 1: It would seem that a good life is requisite for prophecy. For it is written (Wis. 7:27) that the wisdom of God "through nations conveyeth herself into holy souls," and "maketh the friends of God, and prophets." Now there can be no holiness without a good life and sanctifying grace. Therefore prophecy cannot be without a good life and sanctifying grace. Objection 2: Further, secrets are not revealed save to a friend, according to Jn. 15:15, "But I have called you friends, because all …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica Whether the Supreme Good, God, is the Cause of Evil?
Objection 1: It would seem that the supreme good, God, is the cause of evil. For it is said (Is. 45:5, 7): "I am the Lord, and there is no other God, forming the light, and creating darkness, making peace, and creating evil." And Amos 3:6, "Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done?" Objection 2: Further, the effect of the secondary cause is reduced to the first cause. But good is the cause of evil, as was said above [431](A[1]). Therefore, since God is the cause of every good, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica The Carcass and the Eagles
'Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! 2. Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? 3. Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; 4. That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture "But it is Good for Me to Draw Near to God: I have Put My Trust in the Lord God, that I May Declare all Thy
Psal. lxxiii. 28.--"But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works." After man's first transgression, he was shut out from the tree of life, and cast out of the garden, by which was signified his seclusion and sequestration from the presence of God, and communion with him: and this was in a manner the extermination of all mankind in one, when Adam was driven out of paradise. Now, this had been an eternal separation for any thing that …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Sovereignty of God in Reprobation
"Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God" (Rom. 11:22). In the last chapter when treating of the Sovereignty of God the Father in Salvation, we examined seven passages which represent Him as making a choice from among the children of men, and predestinating certain ones to be conformed to the image of His Son. The thoughtful reader will naturally ask, And what of those who were not "ordained to eternal life?" The answer which is usually returned to this question, even by those who profess …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God Letter xxxvi (Circa A. D. 1131) to the Same Hildebert, who had not yet Acknowledged the Lord Innocent as Pope.
To the Same Hildebert, Who Had Not Yet Acknowledged the Lord Innocent as Pope. He exhorts him to recognise Innocent, now an exile in France, owing to the schism of Peter Leonis, as the rightful Pontiff. To the great prelate, most exalted in renown, Hildebert, by the grace of God Archbishop of Tours, Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, sends greeting, and prays that he may walk in the Spirit, and spiritually discern all things. 1. To address you in the words of the prophet, Consolation is hid from …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux Divine Support and Protection
[What shall we say then to these things?] If God be for us, who can be against us? T he passions of joy or grief, of admiration or gratitude, are moderate when we are able to find words which fully describe their emotions. When they rise very high, language is too faint to express them; and the person is either lost in silence, or feels something which, after his most laboured efforts, is too big for utterance. We may often observe the Apostle Paul under this difficulty, when attempting to excite …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2 Christian Perfection
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect." Phil. 3:12. 1. There is scarce any expression in Holy Writ which has given more offence than this. The word perfect is what many cannot bear. The very sound of it is an abomination to them. And whosoever preaches perfection (as the phrase is,) that is, asserts that it is attainable in this life, runs great hazard of being accounted by them worse than a heathen man or a publican. 2. And hence some have advised, wholly to lay aside …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions Homiletical.
Twenty-four homilies on miscellaneous subjects, published under St. Basil's name, are generally accepted as genuine. They are conveniently classified as (i) Dogmatic and Exegetic, (ii) Moral, and (iii) Panegyric. To Class (i) will be referred III. In Illud, Attende tibi ipsi. VI. In Illud, Destruam horrea, etc. IX. In Illud, Quod Deus non est auctor malorum. XII. In principium Proverbiorum. XV. De Fide. XVI. In Illud, In principio erat Verbum. XXIV. Contra Sabellianos et Arium et Anomoeos. …
Basil—Basil: Letters and Select Works Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology The Instrumentality of the Wicked Employed by God, While He Continues Free from Every Taint.
1. The carnal mind the source of the objections which are raised against the Providence of God. A primary objection, making a distinction between the permission and the will of God, refuted. Angels and men, good and bad, do nought but what has been decreed by God. This proved by examples. 2. All hidden movements directed to their end by the unseen but righteous instigation of God. Examples, with answers to objections. 3. These objections originate in a spirit of pride and blasphemy. Objection, that …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion Use to be Made of the Doctrine of Providence.
Sections. 1. Summary of the doctrine of Divine Providence. 1. It embraces the future and the past. 2. It works by means, without means, and against means. 3. Mankind, and particularly the Church, the object of special care. 4. The mode of administration usually secret, but always just. This last point more fully considered. 2. The profane denial that the world is governed by the secret counsel of God, refuted by passages of Scripture. Salutary counsel. 3. This doctrine, as to the secret counsel of …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion The Prophet Amos.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. It will not be necessary to extend our preliminary remarks on the prophet Amos, since on the main point--viz., the circumstances under which he appeared as a prophet--the introduction to the prophecies of Hosea may be regarded as having been written for those of Amos also. For, according to the inscription, they belong to the same period at which Hosea's prophetic ministry began, viz., the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II., and after Uzziah had ascended the …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament "But Whereunto Shall I Liken this Generation?"
Matth. xi. 16.--"But whereunto shall I liken this generation?" When our Lord Jesus, who had the tongue of the learned, and spoke as never man spake, did now and then find a difficulty to express the matter herein contained. "What shall we do?" The matter indeed is of great importance, a soul matter, and therefore of great moment, a mystery, and therefore not easily expressed. No doubt he knows how to paint out this to the life, that we might rather behold it with our eyes, than hear it with our …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Second visit to Nazareth - the Mission of the Twelve.
It almost seems, as if the departure of Jesus from Capernaum marked a crisis in the history of that town. From henceforth it ceases to be the center of His activity, and is only occasionally, and in passing, visited. Indeed, the concentration and growing power of Pharisaic opposition, and the proximity of Herod's residence at Tiberias [3013] would have rendered a permanent stay there impossible at this stage in our Lord's history. Henceforth, His Life is, indeed, not purely missionary, but He has …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah Of the Incapacity of an Unregenerate Person for Relishing the Enjoyments of the Heavenly World.
John iii. 3. John iii. 3. --Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. IN order to demonstrate the necessity of regeneration, of which I would fain convince not only your understandings, but your consciences, I am now proving to you, that without it, it is impossible to enter into the kingdom of God; and how weighty a consideration that is I am afterwards to represent. That it is thus impossible, the words in the text do indeed sufficiently prove: but for the further illustration …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration Links Amos 3:10 NIV
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