Amos 3:9-15

Amos 3:9

Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

 

Now one of the worst things that could ever happen to children of God.  God is now telling Amos to go to Ashdod and the palaces which would be the leaders of Egypt where Israel was freed from bondage.  The word “publish” in the Hebrew means “to cause to hear.”  Now the unbelievers in the surrounding nations are being summoned by God to assemble and to observe the judgment upon the ten northern tribes of Israel.  The tumults happening in the land is the great confusion, uproar and dismay which will be coming upon the ten northern tribes. Along with the confusion and dismay will come a time of oppression when the Assyrians will plunder not only all the material wealth of Israel but they will also plunder families and cause the children to be separated from  their parents to be sold as slaves or reared up in the pagan philosophy of the conqueror.

 

Amos 3:10

For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

 

The leaders of Israel were so sinful they became so spiritually blind to their own actions they had lost all understanding of how to do things right and proper.  They would do violence against their own people like Ahab did against Naboth when Naboth refused to sell him his vineyard since it was against the law of God to sell an inheritance.  The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.  (Leviticus 25:23)  Then there may be an implication here that the leaders were also helping themselves to the tithe money among other ways of robbing the people through unjust fines and stealing from the widows.  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.  (Matthew 23:14) 

 

Amos 3:11

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

 

Since the leaders and the officials had robbed and pillaged the people to increase their own wealth.  They thought that they would live well with all the accumulated wealth but here the LORD is warning them that all the accumulated wealth will come to nothing.  The Assyrians will surround them and not only take them into captivity but simultaneously they will also plunder all the wealth they have stolen from the people and it will all be gone.  Instead of the people serving them, they will now serve their captors for the rest of their lives.  Not even the king or any of the leaders will be exempt from the coming judgment.  Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:  (Acts 10:34)  God is no respecter of persons which means it does not matter what rank or position a person holds, if they come under God’s judgment it is for their crimes as in the case of Israel.

 

Amos 3:12

Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.

 

Here God is speaking to the fierceness of the coming invasion by Assyria.  When a lion attacks the sheep in a field, the shepherd will try to save the sheep but only a small part of the sheep will be able to be saved which means the sheep would be dead.  The two legs or the piece of an ear shows the thoroughness of the attack and the devouring of the sheep.  Just as the lion completely devours the sheep except for a small part which is left, the same thing will happen to Samaria.  What is in view here will be a remnant of the people who will be left behind and allowed to remain in Samaria.  Conquering nations would allow a very small remnant of people to remain behind to continue living there or else the area would be overtaken by beasts including roving lions and would be covered over with bramble bushes and plants like it.  They will be likened to poor people who rest on the edge of a bed especially those who are sick and weak which will be the ones the Assyrians will leave behind.  They will be the people who find their strength in Damascus but Damascus will also be pillaged and there will be no comfort there for anyone.

 

Amos 3:13

Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,

 

God is now addressing the people through Amos as he uses the word “ye” which means it is plural.  They are to testify to the things which will come upon Israel and these things are also to be told to future generations through them.  This is a command from the LORD GOD himself, the God of hosts, that is, the God who rules all the angels in Heaven and those on earth which include those that fell with Satan.

 

Amos 3:14

That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Beth-el: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground.

 

When God speaks about visiting the transgressions of Israel, it means he is speaking about inspecting them with the intention of bringing about judgment on their actions.  The place of Beth-el was where Jeroboam made two golden calves. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.  (1 Kings 12:28)  They also had altars in their pagan worship with the name of Baal on these altars and they actually had the name of God on these pagan altars because archaeologists have found these.  They also found that these pagan altars had the name of God on them on sixty percent of all the finds and forty percent had the name of Baal on them.  This shows how ingrained the worship of Baal was at that time.  God promised them that the days of their idolatry would now come to an end when we read that the horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

 

Amos 3:15

And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.

 

Here we see the affluence of the upper class who lived off the penury of the population they created by robbing and committing violence against them.  The winter house and the summer house may be two separate houses sort of like people here in New Jersey who go to Florida in the winter and live there till April.  There are also some archaeologists who believe that the term summer and winter houses refer to different apartments in the same house. The houses of ivory were not constructed of ivory but were adorned with things made out of ivory.  This showed the wealth of some of these leaders.  The great houses, that is, the house of the kings, princes, religious leaders and the magistrates will have a great end which means they will be no more.  The inhabitants will go into captivity and the houses will be destroyed in the onslaught by the Assyrians.  No one escapes the prophesied judgment of God, which also includes eternal damnation on the last day.

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