Amos 6:1-7
Amos 6:1
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!
First of all God pronounces a woe upon them which means
that many great sorrows are about to follow.
Those that are at ease in Zion means those who are living luxuriously and
they eat and drink and nothing seems to bother them because they believe that
they are living obedient lives to the Lord.
Zion here is referring to the city of Jerusalem where the king’s palaces
are. They somehow believed that
they were safe from invaders which normally came in from the north and that the
Samarians would protect them from any enemy.
Samaria and Jerusalem were considered chief cities of both the south and
northern kingdoms. The tribe of
Judah went to Jerusalem and the northern ten tribes went to Samaria.
Amos 6:2
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?
Calneh was a city in the land of Shinar.
And the beginning of his kingdom
was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
(Genesis 10:10) Hamath
was the head of the Syrian kingdom which was conquered by Tiglath-pileser.
Then Gath was the chief city of the Philistines which was conquered by
Hazael king of the Syrians.
Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and
fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
(2 Kings 12:17) God then
poses the questions to Israel asking if their borders are greater than these
three and if their kingdom is better than these three which were powerful
kingdoms yet were eventually laid waste.
Amos 6:3
Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of
violence to come near;
The leaders had put away the evil day of judgment to
sometime way in the future thinking that their lavish lifestyle would continue
to go on for many more years and in the meantime they continued their violent
ways dealing treacherously with the people.
The seat of violence means that violence would be well-entrenched in
their society. To sit down means
that something has been completed and they are soon approaching their fill of
sin and judgment will soon come down on them.
The Lord Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of God the Father after
his sacrifice was accepted because it was now completed forever.
But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
(Hebrews 10:12)
Amos 6:4
That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon
their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the
midst of the stall;
The divan on which the beds were spread or the frames on
which they rested were all inlaid and ornamented with ivory.
The wealthy stretched themselves on couches where they normally styed
when they feasted. They ate the
best of the lambs and probably picked out the best ones before they picked them
for sacrifices. Then they also ate
the best of the cattle in addition to the lambs.
The wealthy were eating in contrast to the fact the poor were starving
and they would not have beds to sleep on, they would sleep on straw or hay in
their one room houses. It is just
like today where the wealthy people live in mansions and many of the people are
in tents on the street.
Amos 6:5
That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to
themselves instruments of musick, like David;
They would be entertained by musicians who would play a
variety of instruments but that was not good enough for them they needed to
invent new instruments and have new types of music played to them.
They thought they would be imitating David who played the harp but their
songs were no doubt of a lude nature.
It is like the church today that is not satisfied with the godly hymns
handed down to us instead they have to bring in full teams of instruments and
play them at high decibel levels and removing the old hymns in favor of the
charismatic rock and roll which couldn’t edify a rock.
Amos 6:6
That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the
chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
They went beyond luxurious living in that they were
indulging themselves as gluttons and winebibbers.
They were not satisfied with drinking glasses of wine, they wanted it by
the bowl. In countries where there
was excessive heat, they had to keep refreshing themselves with aromatic
ointments to mask their body odors.
You could say that they were using a lot of deodorant and cologne and perfumes.
There were many problems brought on by the Syrians in the area of Joseph
which were the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim.
You recall Ephraim was where the idolatrous city of Beth-el was located.
None of the problems affected the wealthy as they just went on with their
lavish care-free living unconcerned about anything except their next feast.
Amos 6:7
Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that
go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.