Amos 5:21 - Meaning and Application

The purpose of these verses is to show how little God valued their acts of worship, and even how much he hated them, while they kept living in sin. Their religion was a show, and God saw right through it.

Their feast days were held at Bethel, in imitation of the feasts at Jerusalem, and they acted as if they were truly rejoicing before God. They also held solemn meetings for worship, where they tried to look like serious worshipers, standing and sitting as God’s people did. They offered burnt offerings to honor God, along with grain offerings that the law required to be offered with them. They also brought peace offerings to ask for God’s favor, and they brought the best of their fat animals (Amos 5:21, 5:22).

They copied the temple music too. There was the noise of their songs and the music of their harps or viols (Amos 5:23), both singing and instruments, used to praise God. They hoped these services would make up for their sins and let them keep sinning. Because of that, their worship was not pleasing to God, it was hateful to him.

God says he hated and despised their feast days. He did not just see them as worthless, he saw them as an insult and a provocation. Nothing is more hateful than hypocrisy, pretending respect when the heart is far away. If a man praises his friend with a loud voice, it can count as a curse when his heart is not really with him.

God would not “smell” their solemn assemblies, meaning he found nothing in them that was pleasing. Their sacrifices were not a sweet aroma to him, as Noah’s sacrifice was (Genesis 8:21). He would not accept them or even pay attention to them. He would not listen to the melody of their instruments, because sin spoiled the whole offering. God’s message is, “Take it away. I cannot bear it.”

This teaches two things. First, sacrifice matters far less to God than moral obedience. To love God and our neighbor is better than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Second, the sacrifice of the wicked is truly hateful to him (Proverbs 15:8). Pretended religion is double sin, and it will be judged that way.

What God required for their sacrifices to be acceptable was this: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). That means, first, there must be a real change in the whole life of the people. Let religion, meaning God’s judgment and ways, and righteousness shape everything they do. Let it spread through the land like overflowing water, and let it sweep away vice and godlessness.

It also means justice must be carried out properly by rulers and judges. It must not be blocked by favoritism or bribery. It should come freely, like water flowing in its natural course. It should be clean, not polluted by corruption. And it should be strong, like a mighty stream, not stopped by fear of people. Everyone should be able to come to it and benefit from it, as trees planted by a river are nourished by it.

The main charge against Israel had been that they turned justice into bitterness like wormwood (Amos 5:7). So that was the first thing they needed to fix (Zechariah 7:9). This is what God wanted more than sacrifices (Hosea 6:6; 1 Samuel 15:22).

God also showed how little weight he placed on the law of sacrifices compared with moral commands (Amos 5:25). He asks, “Did you offer me sacrifices in the wilderness for forty years?” The answer is no, not in any full or steady way. For most of that time, sacrifice was often neglected because their life was unsettled. After the second year, the Passover was not kept until they came into Canaan, and other rites were also interrupted.

Yet God did not count that failure against them, because he desires mercy and not sacrifice. He kept caring for them and showing kindness. What stirred his anger was their murmuring and unbelief. The same God who accepted them when they were faithful in other things, even without sacrifices, will surely reject them if they offer sacrifices while turning away from him in other matters.

Still, this does not mean ritual sacrifices can simply replace spiritual duty. Even if a person lives with justice and honesty, that does not excuse the lack of prayer, praise, a broken heart, and love for God. Stephen uses this passage in Acts 7:42 to show the Jews that it should not seem strange if ceremonial law was set aside, since from the start it was not the main thing. Compare Jeremiah 7:22, 7:23.

They also had no reason to expect God to accept their sacrifices because they and their fathers had long been devoted to other gods. Some understand Amos 5:25 this way: “Did you offer sacrifices to me only? No, and so you did not really offer them rightly at all.” God’s law is that we must serve him only.

But they had carried the tabernacle of Moloch, little shrines they made to carry with them, like private pocket-idols for hidden superstition when they were afraid to worship openly. They had the images of Moloch, their king, perhaps representing the sun, which seems to rule among the heavenly bodies. They also had Chiun, or Remphan, as Stephen calls it in Acts 7:43 after the Septuagint, which is thought to represent Saturn, the highest of the seven planets.

Worship of the sun, moon, and stars was one of the oldest, most widespread, and most appealing forms of idolatry. They even made for themselves the star of their god, some particular star they treated as divine or gave their god’s name to. Israel had been drawn to this kind of idolatry from the beginning (Deuteronomy 4:19). Those who keep loving false gods cannot expect the favor of the true God.

For this stubborn idolatry, God says he will send them into captivity beyond Damascus (Amos 5:27). They had been led captive by Satan into idolatry, and so God would send them among idolaters. Since they were so fond of strange gods, he would drive them into a strange land. They would go beyond Damascus.

Their captivity under the Assyrians would be farther away and harsher than the earlier captivities by the Syrians. If lesser judgments do not bring people to repentance, God sends greater ones. Or, this may point to the fact that Israel’s captivity under Shalmaneser was far beyond the captivity under Tiglath-pileser, and much more severe and destructive, as was foretold in Amos 1:5.

Since the sins of God’s own professing people are greater than the sins of others, we should expect their punishments to be greater as well. We see the goods of Damascus and Samaria taken away together by the king of Assyria (Isaiah 8:4). Stephen says, “I will carry you away beyond Babylon” (Acts 7:43), even farther than Judah would be taken, so far that they would not return.

To make this judgment both more certain and more frightening, the one who speaks it identifies himself as the Lord, “the God of hosts.” That means the God who commands all armies and all powers. Since he has all forces under his command, he is fully able to carry out the sentence.