1.
Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
2.
The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
4.
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
5.
But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6.
Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
7.
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
8.
Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
THE REVELATION OF GOD
‘Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the Lord is His name.’
Amos 5:8
‘Seek the Lord, and ye shall live.’ But who and what is the Lord, when and by whom is He to be found? ‘Seek not Bethel,’ with its dumb and powerless idol calf, ‘seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion,’ etc.
I. Where is God revealed?—(1) God is revealed in the heavens. Amos was a shepherd, and many a brilliant starry sky had he seen when pursuing his nightly occupation of watching by the sheep-cotes under the cloudless Eastern heavens. Pleiades and Orion are mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Job, and in this passage only. Modern science has demonstrated that Alcyone, the brightest star of the Pleiades, is actually the centre of gravity of the solar system round which our universe revolves. This gives new meaning to the words of the text. (2) God is revealed in the lights and shades of human life. This expression ‘shadow of death’ cannot, by the usage of the words in the Hebrew, be applied to the mere alternation of day and night. It refers to the darkness of sorrow, trouble, death, and the grave, and to the darkness of sin. This is a picture of human history, whether of nations or men. God turns ( a) the darkness of trouble into the light of joy; ( b) the darkness of sin into the light of grace; ( c) the darkness of death into the morn of the resurrection. (3) God is revealed in His judgments. ‘That calleth for the waters of the sea,’ etc. The most probable reference is to the flood of Noah. (4) God is revealed in His name. Spell out the name of God from the Bible: ‘Jehovah is His name.’
II. To whom is God revealed?—God is revealed to the true seeker. ‘Seek Him’—(1) humbly, (2) prayerfully, (3) believingly. Then the astronomer finds Him in the heavens; the geologist in the rocks; the historian in the long roll of history; the theological student in the Bible. But without purity of intention and humility of spirit, one and all may return from the quest and say, ‘I have not found God in any of these.’
Illustration
‘Amos’ first call to Israel is but the echo of God’s to men, always and everywhere. All circumstances, all inward experiences, joy and sorrow, prosperity and disaster, our longings and our fears, they all cry aloud to us to seek His face. That loving invitation is ever sounding in our ears. And the promise which Amos gave, though it may have meant on his lips the continuance of national life only, yet had, even on his lips, a deeper meaning, which we now cannot but hear in it. For, just as to “seek the Lord” means more to us than it did to Israel, so the consequent life has greatened, widened, deepened into life eternal. But Amos’ narrower, more external promise is true still, and there is no surer way of promoting true well-being than seeking God. “With Thee is the fountain of life,” in all senses of the word, from the lowest purely physical to the highest, and it is only they who go thither to draw that will carry away their pitchers full of the sparkling blessing. The fundamental principle of Amos’ teaching is an eternal truth, that to seek God is to find Him, and to find Him is life.’
9.
That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
10.
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
11.
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12.
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13.
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
14.
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
15.
Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16.
Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
17.
And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
18.
Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
19.
As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20.
Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21.
I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22.
Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23.
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
24.
But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
25.
Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26.
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
27.
Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.