Amos 6:8-14
Amos 6:8
The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the
God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore
will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.
Since there is no greater in this universe the Lord GOD
has sworn by himself and is also declaring once again that he is the LORD GOD of
hosts that is all the created angels.
To abhor means to detest or be repulsed by the excellency which is the
“majesty, pride, proud, the swelling” they exuded by their actions.
God even hated their palaces where all the feasting and sinning was going
on. God will then deliver the city
of Samaria soon and then in 135 years later he will deliver the city of
Jerusalem to be taken by the Babylonians.
Everything will be removed from the land.
Amos 6:9
And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one
house, that they shall die.
The siege of Samaria by the Assyrians took a total of
three years.
Then the king of Assyria came up
throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
(2 Kings 17:5) Even if
the king allows ten men to remain alive in one house, they would certainly be
dead after a siege of three years there would be no food or water for them to
survive. Even if they stayed alive
for a while, they would not escape the judging hand of God.
Amos 6:10
And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth
him, to bring out the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by
the sides of the house, Is there yet any with thee? and he shall say, No. Then
shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the
LORD.
If a man’s kinsman goes to the house with the ten men and
brings out one of the men who may be his relative he would burn him because it
would stop the pestilence from spreading.
However, even though all the flesh parts of the body would be consumed by
fire nevertheless the bones were to be taken and placed in a sepulcher as a
means of burial. Then the person
would be asked if there was anyone alive in that house and he would answer no.
Then he was to hold his tongue and not make any murmurings about the sad
situation which he found in the house.
They were not even to make mention of the name of the LORD because it
would be too late to seek him since it was past their time of being offered a
chance to return unto the LORD.
Amos 6:11
For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the
great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
God’s command was to both the big house and the little
houses, that is, the rich and the poor because both social classes partook in
the sins that brought Israel to this point.
What is being revealed here is that the destruction will be total and no
one escapes whether rich or poor.
The clefts were fissures or small cracks which would have been enough to break
down a cottage of a poor person.
The breaches were large openings or breaks in their wall which would be enough
to bring down the big house.
Amos 6:12
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with
oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into
hemlock:
The horses shall not run upon rocks unshod because they
will break their hooves and legs.
It will endanger the rider that the horse may slip and fall on the rider and
then kill him. No one would be able
to plow with oxen because one cannot plow in a field filled with rocks.
All the rocks must be removed before any tilling of the land could be
done. They have turned true
judgment into gall which is bitter.
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and
leave off righteousness in the earth,
(Amos 5:7) Gall and
wormwood are both very bitter.
Hemlock is a poison which kills and their righteousness has become sinful and
darkened and they are deceived into believing their righteousness would be
accepted by the LORD but it is nothing but hemlock.
Amos 6:13
Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we
not taken to us horns by our own strength?
And the king said
unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house
of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar.
(2 Samuel 9:4) The name
Lo-debar means “nothing” and this is what they rejoice in.
Then they took Karnaim which means “horns” and they thought it would be
by their own strength.
And in the fourteenth year came
Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in
Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
(Genesis 14:5) They were
basking in the belief that their own strengths have taken these places and they
were nothing to brag about because whatever cities or countries they took, it
was only because the LORD gave them the strength to do it.
Amos 6:14
But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O
house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you
from the entering in of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.