Amos 4:1 - Meaning and Application

Here God foretells that oppressors will be brought low, and idolaters will be hardened in their sin. Proud oppressors will be humbled for the harm they have done, because those who do wrong will receive what they deserve. Obstinate idolaters, on the other hand, will be left to the hard path they have chosen.

Their sin is described in Amos 4:1. They are compared to the cows of Bashan, a breed of cattle known for being large and strong. Bashan was rich pasture land, and if these animals were fed on the hills of Samaria, they became even fatter and more unruly. Amos had once been a herdsman, so he uses a picture from farm life to describe the rich and powerful people of Israel, who lived in luxury and self-indulgence. Like those cattle, they were wild, would not stay inside their own pasture, and pushed aside anything weaker than themselves.

These people oppressed the poor and needy for their own gain. They used their power as judges and leaders to crush the helpless and strip them of what little they had. They took advantage of poverty and need to make the poor even worse off. In this way, they did not even spare those who should have been protected, and they treated justice like a tool for robbery.

They also joined hands with others who did the same evil. They said to their masters, the men who abused the poor and stole from them, “Bring more, and let us drink.” In other words, they were willing to enjoy the profits of oppression and then protect the oppressors in return. What people gain by extortion is often spent on pleasing their appetites, and greed for comfort makes them cruel to the poor. Their drinking and feasting helped bind them together in sin and hardened them against mercy.

Their punishment is also described in Amos 4:2, 4:3. God says he will take them away with hooks, and their children with fishhooks. This points to the Assyrian army, which would seize them like a fisherman dragging fish out of the water. The nation would be pulled out of its land, and one enemy after another would finish the work of destruction until nothing was left. They had thought themselves too strong to be taken, but God would show them that he has a hook for their nose and a bridle for their jaws (Isaiah 37:29).

When the enemy had taken Samaria, some would try to escape through the broken walls. They would rush out wherever the city had been breached, each one trying to save herself. The cattle that had once crushed others would then be crushed themselves. Those whom God has placed in a good land, if they grow proud in it, may justly be driven out of it. Anyone who will not stay within the hedge of God’s command will lose the benefit of God’s protection and will find the breaks in that hedge useless when judgment comes.

Others would try to hide themselves, or at least their valuable things, in the palace, because they thought it was strong and well defended. But what was gained by oppression could not be enjoyed in peace. The very place they trusted for safety would become a place where the enemy seized them. Unjust gain never stays sweet for long.

God confirms this sentence by swearing by his holiness. He had said it many times, and they had ignored him. They treated God and his prophets as if they were joking, so now he speaks with an oath. He swears by his holiness, the glory of his own holy nature, because his holiness is shown in the judgment of wicked people. As surely as God is holy, those who plow evil and sow wickedness will reap the same.

Then the prophet turns to stubborn idolaters in Amos 4:4, 4:5. “Come to Bethel, and transgress,” he says in irony. In effect, he is saying, “Go on then, keep multiplying your sacrifices if that is what you want. But what will you do in the end?” They were eager to serve their idols and willing to spend much on them, bringing sacrifices, tithes, and freewill offerings, hoping to be accepted by God. Yet all of it was an offense to him.

Their zeal for false worship should shame our half-hearted service of the true God. They also copied God’s own worship in their own way. At Bethel they had daily sacrifices like those at God’s altar, and they had thank offerings too. But they allowed leaven in them, which God had forbidden, because their priests preferred the bread to be more pleasant and less plain. They wanted holy bread, but only if it was tasty bread.

God also rebukes them for being pleased with these practices. “This is what you love,” he says to the people of Israel. They were attached to their own inventions and assumed that what pleased them must also please God. So the prophet speaks sharply to them: “Come to Bethel, come to Gilgal, bring your sacrifices yourselves, and even publish your freewill offerings.” The sense is clear, they had made up their minds to keep going, no matter what God said, and their prophets would not stop them because warning them had become useless.

Let no one argue with or rebuke his neighbor. Their foolish hearts would grow darker and more hardened, and they would be given over to strong lies and deception, so that they would believe what is false.

What would they gain by it? Let them come to Bethel and keep offering more sacrifices, and then see whether they are any better off. Let them find out what their sacrifices are worth when trouble comes. They would be ashamed of Bethel, the place they trusted in (Jeremiah 48:13).

Come, and keep sinning. Keep adding to your sins until you fill up the full measure of your guilt and are ready for ruin. In this sense, Christ said to Judas, "What you are going to do, do quickly." And to the Jews he said, "Fill up the measure of your fathers" (Matthew 23:32).