Amos 3:13-15 Hear you, and testify in the house of Jacob, said the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,… The language of the prophet in this passage is severe in its import and graphic in its style. He foresees the approach of the invaders, the powerlessness of Israel to resist their attack, the completeness with which their work is destined to be done. In two directions especially the blow of vengeance is seen to fall I. IDOLATRY IS PUNISHED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF IDOL TEMPLES AND ALTARS. Departure from Jehovah was the radical offence of Israel. Beside the great altar set up at Bethel by Jeroboam, where the golden calves were worshipped, there seem to have been other sacred places, which were polluted by idol service and idol sacrifice. Heathenism was seen to encroach upon the territory consecrated to Jehovah. Altars were reared to deities, imaginary indeed, but endowed by popular superstition with characters altogether opposed to the pure and perfect character of the Eternal who had revealed himself to the ancestors of the Hebrew nation. It was most appropriate that retribution should fall upon the centres and the symbols of a worship so debasing as that which had been substituted for the service of Jehovah. The powerlessness of the so called "gods" to protect their sanctuaries and their altars was made manifest; the defeat of Baal was the triumph of Jehovah. II. PRIDE AND LUXURY ARE PUNISHED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MANSIONS AND PALACES OF THE GREAT. Whether we regard these "summer houses" as simply the upper apartments, or as country villas erected in rural retreats, the prophetic lesson is the same. Their destruction, and the destruction of the sumptuous residences decorated with ornaments of ivory, was a retribution upon those who esteemed the splendour and luxuriousness of their abodes more dear than the practice of virtue, of benevolence, of piety. No lesson is more frequently repeated in Scripture than the lesson that the Judge of all the earth delights to abase the proud, whilst he exalts the lowly. When the princes of Israel beheld their sumptuous dwellings razed to the ground, and when they themselves passed into exile, how could they fail to recognize the hand of a righteous and indignant God? - T. Parallel Verses KJV: Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,WEB: "Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob," says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies. |
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