Amos 6:8 - Meaning and Application

In the earlier part of this chapter, we saw secure Israelites loading themselves with pleasures, as if they could never be merry enough. Here we see God loading them with punishments, as if they could never be miserable enough. Notice how firmly this burden is fixed. It cannot be shaken off by their pride or false confidence, because it is bound by the Lord God of hosts, his mighty hand that no one can resist.

It is also bound by an oath, which makes the sentence final. The Lord God has sworn, and he will not change his mind. Since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself. How dreadful the case of those whose ruin, even their eternal ruin, God himself has sworn, when he has the power to carry out his purpose and no one can turn it aside.

Now consider how heavy this burden is. God says, “I hate the pride of Jacob,” meaning all that they boasted in and trusted in, and all that made them think of themselves as the chief of nations. Their outward church membership, and the privileges that came with it, their temple, altar, and priesthood, were the glory of Jacob. But when these were polluted by sin, God hated them. He hated that empty form of religion that hypocrites keep up while they hate its power.

If he hates their temple because of the sin tied to it, no wonder he hates their palaces because of the injustice and oppression found there. Anything we prize so much that we make it a rival to God becomes hateful to him. He hates the houses of sinners because of the wickedness of those who live in them. “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked” (Proverbs 3:33). And if God hates them, the result is clear, he will give up the city and everything in it to the enemy, who will lay it waste and seize its wealth. Those whom God hates and leaves are ruined in every sense.

There will also be a great and widespread death among them. If ten men remain in one house after the enemy’s sword has passed, they will still die, by famine or disease. In hard times, people might hope at least some in a house would survive, as in the saying that one is taken and another left (Luke 17:34-36). But here, not one of ten will live long enough to bury the others. The judgment will be so severe that even the nearest relatives will have to wrap the dead and bury them with their own hands, because no one else will be available.

This also shows how the young will die first, since the uncle who remains is usually the older relative. The picture is of an uncle coming with the one who carries out the dead and asking, “Are there any left?” Then comes the answer, “No, this is the last one. The whole family has been cut off by death, and no root or branch remains.” What makes the judgment even sadder is that their hearts seem hardened under it. When one person tries to speak about God’s hand in the disaster, the others say, in effect, “Be quiet. Do not preach to us about this. We may not even mention the name of the Lord.”

They are so overwhelmed, or so hardened, that they will not speak of God’s name, even in their suffering. Perhaps some idolatrous king had forbidden mention of Jehovah, just as the law of Moses forbade mentioning the names of false gods. In any case, this shows a terrible hardness of heart. It is a miserable thing when people will not be brought to mention God’s name and worship him, even when his hand is plainly against them in sickness and death. Those who do not cry out when God binds them only store up more wrath.

Their houses will also be destroyed. God will strike the great house with cracks and the little house with splits. Both will be damaged, lose their beauty and strength, and move toward collapse. The palaces of princes are no higher than the judgment of God, and the cottages of the poor are no lower. Neither will escape. When sin has marked a house for ruin, God will find a way to bring it down. The breaches come by his order.

If we understand the matter rightly, we must say, “The Lord is righteous.” Their punishment is just. The methods God used to reform them had all failed. “Will horses run on the rock?” “Will one plow there with oxen?” Of course not, because there would be no profit to make up for the effort. God had sent his prophets to break up their hard hearts, like fallow ground. But they were as hard and stubborn as rock. The prophets could do no good with them, so God would no longer keep trying in the same way. They would not be corrected, so they would be left alone.

They had also abused their power to wrong and oppress many people, and the righteous Judge would not only set that right, but avenge it. “You have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.” It is painful to see those trusted with public justice crush fairness with the very power they should have used to defend it. They turned justice’s own force against itself. When our service to God is spoiled by sin, God’s dealings with us will rightly become bitter.

They had also mocked God’s judgments and trusted in their own strength, as if they were a match for almighty power. They rejoiced in something worthless, pleasing themselves with the idea that no disaster would come upon them, even though they had no solid reason for that confidence. They trusted in nothing that could truly support them.

They were saying, in effect, “Have we not won power and honor? Have we not beaten down our enemies and kept pressing forward in victory, all by our own strength, skill, courage, wealth, and military power? Why should we fear anyone? Why should we make room for anyone, even for God himself?”

Prosperity and success often make people feel safe and proud. Those who have done much begin to think they can do anything, even without God, and even against him. But anyone who trusts in his own strength is rejoicing in something empty, and he will find that out in the end. They may not have said this in so many words, but it was the language of their hearts and their actions, and God understands both.

The burden would be brought on them easily and effectively by the Lord God of hosts, that is, the Lord who commands all armies and all creatures. He can do whatever he pleases, and when he has work to do, he will never lack the means to do it. Though they were the house of Israel, he would raise up against them a nation they had not feared, the Assyrians, whom they had often wrongly trusted in. That nation would afflict them, press them hard, and bring pain from the entering in of Hamath in the north to the river of the wilderness, the river of Egypt, also called Sihor or the Nile, in the south.

The whole nation had shared in the sin, so the whole nation must expect the punishment. When people are used as tools of suffering against us, we should see God raising them up. They are in his hand, like a rod or a sword. The Lord had even commanded Shimei to curse David (2 Samuel 16:10-11).