Home | What's New |
Mission Statement | Location|
Services | Calendar |
Lessons |
Committees | Activities |
Search | Links
Music, Search By: Hymnal / By Tune
/ Music Book |
Scott's Reference Library
Amos 7:7 through Amos 7:15 (NIV)
7This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been
built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. 8And the LORD asked me,
“What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I
will spare them no longer.
9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel:
“Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land
cannot bear all his words. 11For this is what Amos is saying:
“‘Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile,
away from their native land.’”
12Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah.
Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. 13Don’t prophesy anymore at
Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”
14Amos answered Amaziah, “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was
a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. 15But the LORD took me
from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 1-9
God bears long, but he will not bear always with a provoking people. The
remembrance of the mercies we formerly received, like the produce of the earth
of the former growth, should make us submissive to the will of God, when we meet
with disappointments in the latter growth. The Lord has many ways of humbling a
sinful nation. Whatever trouble we are under, we should be most earnest with God
for the forgiveness of sin. Sin will soon make a great people small. What will
become of Israel, if the hand that should raise him be stretched out against
him? See the power of prayer. See what a blessing praying people are to a land.
See how ready, how swift God is to show mercy; how he waits to be gracious.
Israel was a wall, a strong wall, which God himself reared as a defence to his
sanctuary. The Lord now seems to stand upon this wall. He measures it; it
appears to be a bowing, bulging wall. Thus God would bring the people of Israel
to the trial, would discover their wickedness; and the time will come, when
those who have been spared often, shall be spared no longer. But the Lord still
calls Israel his people. The repeated prayer and success of the prophet should
lead us to seek the Saviour.
VERSES 10-17
It is no new thing for the accusers of the brethren, to misrepresent them as
enemies to the king and kingdom, as traitors to their prince, and troublers of
the land, when they are the best friends to both. Those who make gain their
godliness, and are governed by the hopes of wealth and preferment, are ready to
think these the most powerful motives with others also. But those who have a
warrant from God, like Amos, ought not to fear the face of man. If God, that
sent him, had not strengthened him, he could not thus have set his face as a
flint. The Lord often chooses the weak and foolish things of the world to
confound the wise and mighty. But no fervent prayers, or self-denying labours,
can bring proud sinners to bear faithful reproofs and warnings. And all who
oppose or despise the Divine word, must expect fatal effects to their souls,
unless they repent.