Chapter 9:
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| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
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Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Joel Obadiah
Amos 9
Complete Concise
In this chapter we have, I. Judgment threatened, which the
sinners shall not escape (v. 1-4), which an almighty power shall inflict (v. 5,
6), which the people of Israel have deserved as a sinful people (v. 7, 8); and
yet it shall not be the utter ruin of their nation (v. 8), for a remnant of good
people shall escape (v. 9). But the wicked ones shall perish (v. 10). II. Mercy
promised, which was to be bestowed in the latter days (v. 11-15), as appears
by the application of it to the days of the Messiah, Acts 15:16. And with those
comfortable promises, after all the foregoing rebukes and threatenings, the book
concludes.
Verses 1-10
We have here the justice of God passing sentence upon a
provoking people; and observe,
I. With what solemnity the sentence is passed. The prophet saw
in vision
the Lord standing upon the altar (v. 1), the altar of
burnt-offerings; for the
Lord has a sacrifice, and multitudes must fall
as victims to his justice. He is removed from the
mercy-seat between the
cherubim,
and stands upon
the altar, the
judgment-seat, on which the fire of
God used to fall, to devour the sacrifices. He stands upon
the altar, to
show that the ground of his controversy with this people was their profanation
of his holy things; here he stands to avenge the quarrel of his altar, as also
to signify that the sin of the house of Israel, like that of the house of Eli,
shall
not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever, 1 Sa. 3:14. He
stands on the altar, to prohibit sacrifice. Now the order given is,
Smite the
lintel of the door of the temple, the chapiter, smite it with such a blow
that
the posts may shake, and
cut them, wound them
in the head, all of
them; break down the doors of God's house, or of the courts of his house,
in token of this, that he is going out from it, and forsaking it, and then all
judgments are breaking in upon it. Or it signifies the destruction of those in
the first place that should be as the door-posts to the nation for its defence,
so that, they being broken down, it becomes as a
city without gates and bars.
"Smite the king, who is as the lintel of the door, that the princes, who
are as
the posts, may
shake; cut them in the head, cleave them
down,
all of them, as wood for the fire; and
I will slay the last of
them, the posterity of them, them and their families, or the
least of
them, them and all that are employed under them; or, I will
slay them all,
them and all that remain of them, till it comes to the last man; the slaughter
shall be general." There is no living for those on whom God has said,
I
will slay them, no standing before his sword.
II. What effectual care is taken that none shall escape the
execution of this sentence. This is enlarged upon here, and is intended for
warning to all that
provoke the Lord to jealousy. Let sinners read it,
and tremble; as there is no fighting it out with God, so there is no fleeing
from him. His judgments, when they come with commission, as they will overpower
the strongest that think to outface them, so they will overtake the swiftest
that think to out-run them, v. 2. Those of them that flee, and take to their
heels, shall soon be out of breath, and shall not flee away out of the reach of
danger; for, as sometimes
the wicked flee when none pursues, so he cannot
flee away when God pursues, though
he would fain flee out of his hand.
Nay,
he that escapes of them, that thinks he has gained his point,
shall
not be delivered. Evil pursues sinners, and will arrest them. This is here
enlarged upon by showing that wherever sinners flee for shelter from God's
justice, it will overtake them, and the shelter will prove but a
refuge of
lies. What David says of the ubiquity of God's presence (Ps. 139:7-10)
is here said of the extent of God's power and justice. (1.) Hell itself,
though it has its name in English from its being
hilled, or
covered
over, or
hidden, cannot hide them (v. 2): "Though
they dig
into hell, into the centre of the earth, or the darkest recesses of it, yet
thence
shall my hand take them, and bring them forth to be made public monuments of
divine justice." The grave is a hiding-place to the righteous from the
malice of the world (Job 3:17), but it shall be no hiding-place to the righteous
from the justice of God; thence God's hands shall take them, when they shall
rise in the great day to
everlasting shame and contempt. (2.) Heaven,
though it has its name from being
heaved, or lifted up, shall not put
them out of reach of God's judgments; as hell cannot hide them, so heaven will
not. Though they
climb up to heaven in their conceit, yet
thence will
I bring them down. Those whom God brings to heaven by his grace shall never
be brought down; but those who climb thither themselves, by their own
presumption, and confidence in themselves, will be brought down and filled with
shame. (3.)
The top of Carmel, one of the highest parts of the dust of
the world in that country, shall not protect them:
"Though they hide
themselves there, where they imagine nobody will look for them,
I will
search, and take them out thence; neither the thickest bushes, nor the
darkest caves, in the
top of Carmel, will serve to hide them." (4.)
The
bottom of the sea shall not serve to conceal them; though they think
to hide themselves there, even there the judgments of God shall find them out,
and lay hold on them:
Thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite
them, the
crooked serpent, even
the dragon that is in the sea,
Isa. 27:1. They shall find their plague and death where they hope to find
shelter and protection; diving will stand them in no more stead than climbing.
(5.) Remote countries will not befriend them, nor shall less judgments excuse
them from greater (v. 4):
Thought they go into captivity before their
enemies, who carry them to places at a great distance, and mingle them with
their own people, among whom they seem to be lost, yet that shall not serve
their turn:
Thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them, the
sword of the enemy, or one another's sword. When God judges he will overcome.
That which binds on all this, makes their escape impossible and their ruin
inevitable, is that God will
set his eyes upon them for evil, and not for
good. His eyes are in every place, are upon all men and upon all the ways of
men, upon some for good, to
show himself strong on their behalf, but upon
others for evil, to take notice of their sins (Job 13:27) and take all
opportunities of punishing them for their sins.
Their case is truly
miserable who have the providence of God: and all the dispensations of it,
against them, working for their hurt.
3. What a great and mighty God he is that passes this sentence
upon them, and will take the executing of it into his own hands. Threatenings
are more or less formidable according to the power of him that threatens. We
laugh at impotent wrath; but the wrath of God is not so; it is omnipotent wrath.
Who knows the power of it? What he had before said he would do (ch. 8:8)
is here repeated, that he would
make the land melt and tremble, and
all
that dwell therein mourn, that the judgment should
rise up wholly like a
flood, and the country should be
drowned, and laid under water,
as
by the flood of Egypt, v. 5. But is he able to make his words good? Yes,
certainly he is; he does but
touch the land and
it melts, touch the
mountains and they smoke; he can do it with the greatest ease, for, (1.) He
is
the Lord God of hosts, who undertakes to do it, the God who has all
the power in his hand, and all creatures at his beck and call, who having made
them all, and given them their several capacities, makes what use he pleases of
them and all their powers. Very miserable is the case of those who have the Lord
of hosts against them, for they have hosts against them, the whole creation at
war with them. (2.) He is the Creator and governor of the upper world:
It is
he that builds his stories in the heavens, the celestial orbs, or spheres,
one over another, as so many stories in a high and stately palace. They are his,
for he built them at first, when he said,
Let there be a firmament, and he
made the firmament; and he builds them still, is continually building them,
not that they need repair, but by his providence he still upholds them; his
power is the pillars of heaven, by which it is borne up. Now he that has the
command of those stories is certainly to be feared, for thence, as from a
castle, he can fire upon his enemies, or cast upon them great hailstones, as on
the Canaanites, or make the stars in their courses, the furniture of those
stories, to fight against them, as against Sisera. (3.) He has the management
and command of this lower world too, in which we dwell, the terraqueous globe,
both
earth and
sea, so that, which way soever his enemies think to
make their escape, he will meet them, or to make opposition, he will match them.
Do they think to make a land-fight of it? He
has founded his troop in the
earth, his troop of guards, which he has at command, and makes use of for
the protection of his subjects and the punishment of his enemies. All the
creatures on earth make one bundle (as the margin reads it), one bundle of
arrows, out of which he takes what he pleases to discharge against the
persecutors, Ps. 7:13. They are all one
army, one
body, so closely
are they connected, and so harmoniously and so much in concert do they act for
the accomplishing of their Creator's purposes. Do they think to make a
sea-fight of it? He will be too hard for them there, for he has the waters of
the sea at command; even its waves, the most tumultuous rebellious waters, do
obey him. He
calls for the waters of the sea in the course of his common
providence,
causes vapours to ascend out of it, and
pours them out
in showers, the small rain and the great rain of his strength,
upon the face
of the earth; this was mentioned before as a reason why we should
seek
the Lord (ch. 5:8) and make him our friend, as it is here made a reason why
we should fear him and dread having him for our enemy.
4. How justly God passes this sentence upon the people of
Israel. He does not destroy them by an act of sovereignty, but by an act of
righteousness; for (v. 8), it is a
sinful kingdom, and the
eyes of the
Lord are upon it, discovering it to be so; he sees the great sinfulness of
it, and therefore he will
destroy it from off the face of the earth.
Note, When those kingdoms that in name and profession were holy kingdoms, and
kingdoms of priests, as Israel was, become sinful kingdoms, no other can be
expected than that they should be cut off and abandoned. Let sinful kingdoms,
and sinful families, and sinful persons too, see the eyes of the Lord upon them,
observing all their wickedness, and reserving the notice of it for the day of
reckoning and recompence. This being a sinful kingdom, see how light God makes
of it, v. 7.
(1.) Of the relation wherein he stood to it:
Are you not as
children of Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? A sad change! Children
of Israel become as children of the Ethiopians! [1.] They were so in themselves;
that was their sin. It is a thing to be greatly lamented that the children of
Israel often become as children of the Ethiopians; this children of godly
parents degenerate, and become the reverse of those that went before them. Those
that were well-educated, and trained up in the knowledge and fear of God, and
set out well, and promised fair, throw off their profession and become as bad as
the worst.
How has the gold become dim! [2.] The were so in God's
account, and that was their punishment. He valued them no more, though they were
children of Israel, than if they had been
children of the Ethiopians. We
read of one in the title of Ps. 7 that was
Cush (an
Ethiopian, as
some understand it) and yet a Benjamite. Those that by birth and profession are
children of Israel, if they degenerate, and become wicked and vile, are to God
no more than children of the Ethiopians. This is an intimation of the rejection
of the unbelieving Jews in the days of the Messiah; because they embraced not
the doctrine of Christ, the kingdom of God was taken from them, they were
unchurched, and cast out of covenant, became as children of the Ethiopians, and
are so to this day. And it is true of those that are called Christians, but do
no live up to their name and profession, that rest in the form of piety, but
live under the power of reigning iniquity, that they are to God as children of
the Ethiopians; he rejects them, and their services.
(2.) See how light he makes of the favours he had conferred upon
them; they thought he would not, he could not, cast them off, and put them upon
a level with other nations, because he had done that for them which he had not
done for other nations, whereby they thought he was bound to them, so as never
to leave them. "No," says he, "The favours shown to you are not
so distinguishing as you think they are:
Have I not brought up Israel out of
the land of Egypt?" It is true I have; but I have also brought the
Philistines
from Caphtor, or
Cappadocia, where they were natives, or captives, or
both; they are called the
remnant of the country of Caphtor (Jer. 47:4),
and the Philistim are joined with the Caphtorim, Gen. 10:14. In like manner the
Syrians were brought up from Kir when they had been carried away thither, 2 Ki.
16:9. Note, If God's Israel lose the peculiarity of their holiness, they lose
the peculiarity of their privileges; and what was designed as a favour of
special grace shall be set in another light, shall have its property altered,
and shall become an act of
common providence; if professors liken
themselves to the world, God will level them with the world. And, if we live not
up to the obligation of God's mercies, we forfeit the honour and comfort of
them.
5. How graciously God will separate between the precious and the
vile in the day of retribution. Though the wicked Israelites shall be as the
wicked Ethiopians, and their being called Israelites shall stand them in no
stead, yet the pious Israelites shall not be as the
wicked ones; no, the
Judge
of all the earth will do right, more right than to
slay the righteous
with the wicked, Gen. 18:25. His
eyes are upon the sinful kingdom, to
spy out those in it who preserve their integrity and swim against the stream,
who sigh and cry for the abominations of their land, and they shall be marked
for preservation, so that the destruction shall not be total:
I will not
utterly destroy the house of Jacob, not ruin them by wholesale and in the
gross, good and bad together, but I will distinguish, as becomes a righteous
judge. The house of Israel shall be
sifted as corn is sifted; they shall
be greatly hurried, and shaken, and tossed, but still in the hands of God, in
both his hands, as the sieve in the hands of him that sifts (v. 9):
I will
sift the house of Israel among all nations. Wherever they are shaken and
scattered, God will have his eye upon them, and will take care to separate
between the corn and chaff, which was the thing he designed in sifting them.
(1.) The righteous ones among them, that are as the solid wheat, shall none of
them perish; they shall be delivered either from or through the common
calamities of the kingdom;
not the least grain shall fall on the earth,
so as to be lost and forgotten—not the least
stone (so the word is),
for the good corn is weighty as a stone in comparison with that which we call
light
corn. Note, Whatever shakings there may be in the world, God does and will
effectually provide that none who are truly his shall be truly miserable. (2.)
The wicked ones among them who are hardened in their sins shall all of them
perish, v. 10. See what a height of impiety they have come to:
They say, The
evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. They think they are innocent, and do
not deserve punishment, or that the profession they make of relation to God will
be their exemption and security from punishment, or that they shall be able to
make their part good against the judgments of God, that they shall flee so
swiftly from them that they shall not overtake them, or guard so carefully
against them that they shall not prevent or surprise them. Note, Hope of
impunity is the deceitful refuge of the impenitent. But see what it will come to
at last:
All the sinners that thus flatter themselves, and affront God,
shall
die by the sword, the sword of war, which to them shall be the
sword of divine vengeance; yea, though they be the
sinners of my people,
for their profession shall not be their protection. Note, Evil is often nearest
those that put it at the greatest distance from them.
Verses 11-15
To him to whom all the prophets bear witness this prophet, here
in the close, bears his testimony, and speaks of
that day, those days
that shall come, in which God will do great things for his church, by the
setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah, for the rejecting of which the
rejection of the Jews was foretold in the foregoing verses. The promise here is
said to agree to the planting of the Christian church, and in that to be
fulfilled, Acts 15:15-17. It is promised,
I. That in the Messiah the kingdom of David shall be restored
(v. 11); the
tabernacle of David it is called, that is, his house and
family, which, though great and fixed, yet, in comparison with the kingdom of
heaven, was mean and movable as a tabernacle. The church militant, in its
present state, dwelling as in shepherds' tents to feed, as in soldiers'
tents to fight, is the
tabernacle of David. God's tabernacle is called
the tabernacle of David because David desired and chose to
dwell in God's
tabernacle for ever, Ps. 61:4. Now, 1. These tabernacles had fallen an gone
to decay, the royal family was so impoverished, its power abridged, its honour
stained, and laid in the dust; for many of that race degenerated, and in the
captivity it lost the imperial dignity. Sore breaches were made upon it, and at
length it was laid in ruins. So it was with the church of the Jews; in the
latter days of it its glory departed; it was like a tabernacle broken down and
brought to ruin, in respect both of purity and of prosperity. 2. By Jesus Christ
these tabernacles were raised and rebuilt. In him God's covenant with David
had its accomplishment; and the glory of that house, which was not only sullied,
but quite sunk, revived again; the
breaches of it were
closed and
its
ruins raised up, as in the days of old; nay, the spiritual glory of
the family of Christ far exceeded the temporal glory of the family of David when
it was at its height. In him also God's covenant with Israel had its
accomplishment, and in the gospel-church the tabernacle of God was set up among
men again, and raised up out of the ruins of the Jewish state. This is quoted in
the first council at Jerusalem as referring to the calling in of the Gentiles
and God's
taking out of them a people for his name. Note, While the
world stands God will have a church in it, and, if it be fallen down in one
place and among one people, it shall be raised up elsewhere.
II. That that kingdom shall be enlarged, and the territories of
it shall extend far, by the accession of many countries to it (v. 12), that the
house of David may possess the
remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen,
that is, that Christ may have them given him for his
inheritance, even
the
uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Ps. ii. 8. Those
that had been strangers and enemies shall become willing faithful subjects to
the Son of David, shall be
added to the church, or those of them that are
called by my name, saith the Lord, that is, that belong to the election
of grace and are ordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48), for it is true of the
Gentiles as well as of the Jews that
the election hath obtained and
the
rest were blinded, Rom. 11:7. Christ died
to gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad, here said to be those that were
called
by his name. The promise is to all that are
afar off, even as
many
of them
as the Lord our God shall call, Acts 2:39. St. James expounds
this as a promise
that the residue of men should seek after the Lord, even
all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called. But may the promise be
depended upon? Yes, the Lord says this, who does this, who can do it, who has
determined to do it, the power of whose grace is engaged for the doing of it,
and with whom saying and doing are not two things, as they are with us.
III. That in the kingdom of the Messiah there shall be great
plenty, an abundance of all good things that the country produces (v. 13):
The
ploughman shall overtake the reaper, that is, there shall be such a
plentiful harvest every year, and so much corn to be gathered in, that it shall
last all summer, even till autumn, when it is time to begin to plough again; and
in like manner the vintage shall continue till seed-time, and there shall be
such abundance of grapes that even the
mountains shall drop new wine into
the vessels of the grape-gatherers, and the hills that were dry and barren shall
be moistened and shall melt with the
fatness or
mellowness (as we
call it)
of the soil. Compare this with Joel 2:24, and 3:18. This must
certainly be understood of the abundance of spiritual blessings in heavenly
things, which all those are, and shall be, blessed with, who are in sincerity
added to Christ and his church; they shall be abundantly replenished with the
goodness of God's house, with the graces and comforts of his Spirit; they
shall have bread, the bread of life, to
strengthen their hearts, and the
wine of divine consolations to
make them glad-meat indeed and
drink
indeed—all the benefit that comes to the souls of men from the word and
Spirit of God. These had been long confined to the vineyard of the Jewish
church; divine revelation, and the power that attended it, were to be found only
within that enclosure; but in gospel-times the mountains and hills of the
Gentile world shall be enriched with these privileges by the gospel of Christ
preached, and professed, and received in the power of it. When great multitudes
were converted to the faith of Christ, and nations were born at once, when the
preachers of the gospel were
always caused to triumph in the success of
their preaching, then the
ploughman overtook the reaper; and when, the
Gentile churches were
enriched in all utterance, and in all knowledge,
and all manner of
spiritual gifts (1 Co. 1:5), then the
mountains
dropped sweet wine.
IV. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall be well peopled; as
the country shall be replenished, so shall the cities be; there shall be mouths
for this meat, v. 14. Those that were carried captives shall be brought back out
of their captivity; their enemies shall not be able to detain them in the land
of their captivity, nor shall they themselves incline to settle in it, but the
remnant shall return, and shall
build the waste cities and inhabit them,
shall form themselves into Christian churches and set up pure doctrine, worship,
and discipline among them, according to the gospel charter, by which Christ's
cities are incorporated; and they shall enjoy the benefit and comfort thereof;
they shall
plant vineyards, and
make gardens. Though the mountains
and hills drop wine, and the privileges of the gospel-church are laid in common,
yet they shall enclose for themselves, not to monopolize these privileges, to
the exclusion of others, but to appropriate and improve these privileges, in
communion with others, and they shall
drink the wine, and
eat the
fruit, of their own
vineyards and gardens; for those that take pains
in religion, as men must do about their vineyards and gardens, shall have both
the pleasure and profit of it. The
bringing again of the
captivity
of God's Israel, which is here promised, may refer to the cancelling of the
ceremonial law, which had been long to God's Israel as a
yoke of bondage,
and the investing of them in the liberty wherewith Christ came to make his
church free, Gal. 5:1.
V. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall take such deep rooting
in the world as never to be rooted out of it (v. 15):
I will plant them upon
their land. God's spiritual Israel shall be planted by the right hand of
God himself upon the land assigned them, and
they shall no more be pulled up
out of it, as the old Jewish church was. God will preserve them from
throwing themselves out of it by a total apostasy, and will preserve them from
being thrown out of it by malice of their enemies; the church may be corrupted,
but shall not quite forsake God, may be persecuted, but shall not quite be
forsaken of God, so that the gates of hell, neither with their temptations nor
with their terrors, shall prevail against it. Two things secure the perpetuity
of the church:—1. God's grants to it: It
is the land which I have given
them; and God will confirm and maintain his own grants. The part he has
given to his people is that good part which shall never be taken from them; he
will not revoke his grant, and all the powers of earth and hell shall not
invalidate it. 2. Its interest in him: He is
the Lord thy God, who has
said it, and will make it good,
thine, O Israel! who shall
reign for
ever as thine
unto all generations. And because he lives the church
shall live also.
Chapter 9:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Joel Obadiah
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
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