Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Amos 8:11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
11. Behold, days are coming ] Amo 4:2.
words ] Read probably (with many MSS., LXX. Vulg. Pesh.; cf. Amo 8:12) the sing, “word,” the regular term for a particular communication from Jehovah.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11 12. Then, in the general distress, there will be an eagerness to hear that word of Jehovah, which is now scorned and rejected: men will seek everywhere throughout the land to find a prophet who will declare it to them, but in vain. The reference may be partly to Jehovah’s moral commandments, which, when it is too late, the people will be ready to obey; but chiefly, no doubt, it is to the counsel and advice which, in a national crisis, Jehovah was wont to send His people through the prophets.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Not a famine for bread – He does not deny that there should be bodily famine too; but this, grievous as it is, would be less grievous than the famine of which he speaks, the famine of the word of the Lord. In distress we all go to God. Rib.: They who now cast out and despise the prophets, when they shall see themselves besieged by the enemy, shall be tormented with a great hunger of hearing the word of the Lord from the mouths of the prophets, and shall find no one to lighten their distresses. This was most sad to the people of God; we see not our tokens; there is not one prophet more; there is not one with us who understandeth, how long! Psa 74:9. Even the profane, when they see no help, will have recourse to God. Saul, in his extremity, inquired of the Lord and He answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets 1Sa 28:6. Jeroboam sent his wife to inquire of the prophet Ahijah about his sons health 1Ki 14:2-3. They sought for temporal relief only, and therefore found it not.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Amo 8:11
Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land.
The uses of adversity
If adversity tried and sifted men, prosperity tried and sifted them much more. Where adversity slew its thousands, prosperity slew its tens of thousands. Poets and moralists had dwelt on the sweet uses of adversity: the misuses and abuses of prosperity would furnish a far more eloquent theme. Adversity was a bitter medicine, but it was in vain to think that health could be preserved unless it were administered at one time or another. And as it was with individuals, so was it also with large masses of men. The severest trial to the morality of a people was a long period of prosperity; the most efficient instrument in the purification of a people was the sharp attack of adversity. Such at least was the lesson enforced upon Israel in the days of Amos the prophet. Never since the secession of the ten tribes had the material welfare of the nation been greater. Under two vigorous monarchs it had recovered from all its recent disasters, and had attained to somewhat of its pristine greatness. The reigning sovereign, the second Jeroboam, had largely extended the frontiers by foreign conquests; his armies had everywhere been victorious; there was wealth and plenty at home. King and people alike might well have congratulated themselves on the present condition of the nation. It was just at this crisis that the prophet Amos appeared on the scene. But though it was in a season of unexampled prosperity, the prosperity of Israel was not the burden of his message; though the armies of Jeroboam had been signally triumphant, he poured out no congratulations over these triumphs. His whole prophecy was one prolonged wail, one unbroken elegy, the funeral dirge of a dying religion, a falling dynasty, and an expiring kingdom. For prosperity was then doing its work. Luxury, revelry, and pleasure were rampant; commercial morality was low, petty frauds in trade were rife; the laws were administered for the advantage of the powerful; the poor were ground down by the tyranny of the rich. A stern moralist might have found much to lament and denounce in the vices of the age; a far-sighted politician, drawing upon long experience, might have discerned from these elements of social disorder the symptoms of a disease which, if not arrested in time, would lead to the ultimate ruin of the state. But the prophet, with a keener eye and a wider range of wisdom, firmly and unhesitatingly pronounced the result–in the very midst of the triumph of armies, in the very flush of successful self-complacency, he announced the catastrophe as imminent–It shall come to pass, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear sky; and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor of thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Prosperity had carried away the hearts of Israel from the true religion of their God, and it needed the deep uses of desolation and captivity to chasten them and call them back. For, first, the worship of Israel had degenerated into a religion of political expediency, a religion of conventional life; it had adapted itself to the exigencies, ay, and to the vices, of the age. It looked complacently upon the luxury, the oppression, the indolence, the carelessness, the dishonesty which prevailed on all hands; it had no word of hope, no thought of remedy for the startling social evils of the time; the overflowing wealth here, the grinding poverty there. Secondly, the religion of Israel was formal and material; it was not thought of except in an outward and material sense in the days of prosperity; and when in their captivity and heavy trials their hearts turned to it seeking solace, instead of finding comfort and help, they saw only a vague and indistinct shadow.. The experience of Israel was the experience of all who worshipped after Israels manner. In the moment of trial they sought the Word of God, and could not find it. They did not seek their Fathers presence when their course was smooth and even, and in their hour of danger it was withdrawn from their eyes. Whatever some men might say, their factories, their workshops, their shipping, and their coalpits, even their museums and their lecture rooms, could not supply the deepest wants of men. The highest instincts of their nature were left hungering still. The church therefore rose up as a local centre, round which the spiritual affections and life of the neighbourhood gathered. God grant that a blessing might rest upon their work that day. (Bishop Lightfoot.)
Spiritual famine
Whether these words apply to the past, or refer to the future, their awful solenmity is undiminished; the existence of tremendous power is implied. These are the utterances of a Mind whose purposes are fully settled. There is an awful determinateness about this language. The Speaker, whoever He may be, is not to be trifled with. He asserts His sovereignty over the physical and the spiritual alike. He says, I will send a famine upon the land; every root shall be withered up, etc.
I. A revelation of the Divine will constitutes mans richest blessing. In the text it is referred to by implication as food. Its withdrawment is compared to a famine. Hence, also, Jesus Christ reveals Himself as the bread of life, the Bread sent down from heaven, and the meat that endureth to life everlasting. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. As this natural bread is fitted to sustain these physical functions, so the spiritual bread is indispensably necessary to the prolongation of this spiritual life. We are entitled, therefore, to argue that a revelation of the Divine will constitutes mans richest blessing. This is proved–
1. By the intellectual satisfaction arising from harmony with the Divine will. The mind can rest in God; short of God it is restless. In God it enjoys the serenest calm. The intellect finds in God all that its capacious powers demand.
2. By the moral purity arising from obedience to the Divine will. Moral purity is unattainable, except through this holy will.
3. By the inspiring views of the universe obtained through, the Divine revelation. Look at the universe apart from this Holy Book, and that universe is crowded with mysteries. But look at the universe through this Book, and at once it is flooded with celestial splendour, it is vocal with heavenly music.
II. The withdrawment of this revelation constitutes mans direst calamity. It is described in the text as a famine. Why is it so great a disaster?
1. Because man would be sundered from the central life of the universe. Sever his connection with this Book and you have severed his connection with God. Amputate a limb, and having sundered it from the vital heart that limb will rot. Excise the leaf from the tree on which it trembles, and sundered from the root it shrivels and dies. So with man; take this Book away from thy mind, desist from perusing this sacred page, and thou art sundered from the central life of the universe; the heart from which thou didst derive thy nourishment has ceased to communicate with thee. Thou shalt die of famine, and of thirst.
2. Because human happiness is the result of mental conditions, and these mental conditions can be formed and sustained alone by a Divine revelation. Pure happiness is not dependent on the external.
3. Because man would be left in ignorance of his Creators purposes. He would resemble a traveller in an unknown country, not knowing but his very next footstep will plunge him over a precipice, or that he might fall into the pit dug by the hand of the enemy. He would find himself, indeed, surrounded by memorials of gigantic power, but he would not know what the intent of that power is in relation to him.
III. Mans treatment of this revelation determines its continuance or suspension (Amo 8:4-10).
1. The beneficence of God in granting a revelation. When humanity fell from His favour He might have retired into the depths of everlasting silence, and never have spoken another word to a disloyal race.
2. The importance of making the best of our privileges. While the sun does shine, O toil in its light. In the years of plenty lay up for the years of scarcity.
3. The necessity of grateful appreciation on the part of the Church. It is through you who do appreciate this will that the revelation thereof is continued. But for you the world would be left in intellectual darkness, and would perish with moral hunger.
IV. The loss of this revelation will show men its preciousness. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it. We are continually realising this principle. We never estimate our privileges aright until we are in danger of losing them, or until they have vanished from our view. We see most of the birds beauty when the bird spreads its wings for flight. And so with our moral privileges, when they are vanishing from our sight we behold beauties that never impressed us before. You have a striking illustration of this in the case of Saul, the first king of Israel. When he was little in his own eyes, God spake with him; he was in continual communication with the Great Ruler of the universe. But when he waxed haughty, the heavens were as brass, and God answered him no more. Bring me up Samuel; give me some link that shall connect me with my God! Oh, the horror of this moral loneliness! Bring me up Samuel, my own teacher, that connected me with the Eternal and the Divine. Oh, for one glance of him, for one pressure of that warm hand, for one rebuke even from that stern voice!. . . Connect me with God is the desolate cry of the lonely spirit. The withdrawment, then, of this revelation will shew its preciousness. Two facts are clear–
1. We fail to appreciate blessings with which we are most familiar. Who cares for the rising sun? who cares for that setting orb? We may see it every day; familiarity has engendered indifference. Show men some little fireworks, and they will hurry in crowds to look at them. So with Gods Book. We have it so freely that we are in danger of its total neglect. Why, the fact that you have a book that professes to come from God ought to arouse you into the most intense solicitude. The fact that we have a book that you know has come from God ought to arouse your energies into an activity that will never weary, and your gratitude into a zeal that will never cool.
2. Our non-appreciation of these privileges is a sufficient reason for their withdrawment. Oh, you know not how near may be the loss of your most precious privileges.
V. The recovery of this revelation will eventually be found impossible. They shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, but shall not find it. God can retire. There are depths in the universe to which He can betake Himself, which are inaccessible to you. Spirits crying out in agony for that old family Bible, the very reading of which was so intolerable to them in the days of their youth; running to and fro to seek some man to guide them, but every man they address says, I am in search of the same blessing. They hear of some messenger of God in the far distance, with swift feet they run to him, and, alas! it is vanity–he has no message from God. They shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it. What is the picture? The human mind is a blank; that God-given brain a blank, every idea about God taken out of it. I have held My light, and you have refused; I have taken it away, saith God. I have spread My board, I have given a world-wide welcome, and ye refused. I have taken the viands away, and now you are running through the universe crying for God. But God has retired into depths to which you cannot penetrate. Such is the idea of my text. Men awakening to a sense of their privileges, when their awakening is too late. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Famine
Sin is an evil and a bitter thing. It is evil in its nature, and bitter in its consequences. It is evil with regard to God, and bitter with regard to us. Numberless are the miseries to which it has reduced individuals, families, nations, and the whole human race. Among these one of the most dreadful is famine. Yet there is a famine infinitely more dreadful than the famine of food: a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
I. The nature of this judgment. It takes in the loss of the Gospel as a dispensation administered by preaching. We may consider this famine–
1. As eternal. The means of grace and the ordinances of religion are exclusively confined to this life. If you die stranger to the power of godliness, you must continue. Your mistake will indeed be discovered, but it cannot be rectified in another world. Now is the accepted time.
2. As spiritual. Thus it refers to the state of the mind. It takes place when souls are reduced to such indifference and insensibility as to be morally or judicially incapable of improvement by the institutions of religion, even should they be continued among them. When a man can no longer use food, or turn it into nourishment, it is the same with regard to himself as if all provision was denied him,–death must be the consequence.
3. As doctrinal. It may then be occasioned by the removal of faithful ministers, and the succession of others of different principles. This is sure to cause a declension in the number and in the zeal of the members of churches. For the grace and truth of God always go together. When the leading doctrines of the Gospel are denied or concealed the Gospel is withdrawn.
4. As literal. This is the case when a people are deprived of the very institutions of religion, and are forbidden the assembling of themselves together according to their convictions. This may be done by the inroads and oppression of an enemy; by the encroachments of tyranny; or by the loss of liberty of conscience.
II. The dreadfulness of it.
1. Dwell upon the advantages derivable from the preaching of the Gospel. The generality of those that are called by Divine grace are saved by this instrumentality. And the usefulness of it continues through the whole of the Christian life.
2. Think of the importance of the soul and eternity. The body is the meanest part of our nature; and time is the shortest portion of our duration, by a degree no less than infinite. Our chief care ought to be, to gain spiritual wealth, spiritual honour, spiritual good,–for these regard man in his most essential claims and necessities.
3. The design of such a dispensation. Some judgments, though painful, are still profitable. They remove the human arm, but it is to lead us to a dependence on the Divine. Other judgments are in mercy, but this is in wrath. Other judgments are parental, but this is penal.
4. In estimating this curse, let us appeal to the sentiments of the righteous. In what terms does David deplore the loss of Divine assemblies?
III. The execution of this sentence. God has engaged to establish His Church universal, but this does not regard any particular body of professors.
1. Is not He who utters His threatening almighty, and so able to fulfil it?
2. Is He not just, and so disposed to fulfil it? A God all mercy is a God unjust.
3. Is He not faithful, and so bound to fulfil it?
4. Has not He who utters this threatening, fulfilled it already in various instances? The Jews are an eminent example. Our subject, then, demands gratitude. We have reason to bless God that we hate not had a famine of bread; but far more that He has not visited us with a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Let us be concerned to improve our privilege while we possess it. With Gospel means be concerned to obtain Gospel grace, and earnestly pray that the ministry of the Word may become the ministration of the Spirit. Finally, as it is so dreadful to be destitute of the Gospel, think how many of your fellow-creatures are in this deplorable condition. Pray that the Sun of Righteousness may arise, with healing in His wings, and comfort them with the knowledge of salvation. (William Jay.)
The dreadful consequences of spiritual famine
What an awful mystery envelops the subject of the origin of evil. It is enough for us to know that sin has entered into our world. And it is the moral murderer of mankind.
I. The statement of a privilege. Hearing the words of the Lord. The possession of the oracles of God and a faithful dispensation of the Gospel are privileges far surpassing every other description of good under the sun.
1. Glance at the Jewish dispensation. A dispensation means a dealing out. There are three great dispensations with regard to the children of men–the dispensation of the law, the Gospel, and judgment. The whole system of the Old Testament may be summed up in hearing the words of the Lord.
2. Look at the Christian dispensation.
II. The intimation of a famine. What constitutes a famine of hearing of the words of the Lord?
1. Where the means of instruction do not actually exist.
2. Where the means exist, but the instruction is not given.
3. Where the means of the instruction are unconnected with the Divine blessing.
III. The awful consequences of such a famine.
1. It presses upon the nobler principle of our nature.
2. It removes the great preventive of crime.
3. It dries up the only source of comfort.
4. It leaves man without a hope beyond the grave.
Learn–
(1) A lesson of gratitude for your distinguished religious privileges.
(2) Be humble before God for your abuse of such exalted privileges,
(3) The hearing of the Gospel will be of no avail without the teaching of the Holy Spirit. (Essex Remembrancer.)
Soul famine
I. The profoundest want of human nature is a communication from the eternal mind. This is implied in the Divine menace of sending a worse famine than that of want of bread and water. It was special communications from Himself, not the ordinary communications of nature, that Jehovah here refers to; and man has no greater necessity than this; it is the one urgent and imperial need. Two great questions are everlastingly rising from the depths of the human soul–
1. How does the Eternal feel in relation to me as a sinner?
2. How am I to get my moral nature restored?
II. The greatest disease of human nature is a lack of appetite for this communication. The vast majority of souls have lost the appetite for the Divine Word. They are perishing, shrivelling up for lack of it. The worst of this.
1. Men are not conscious of it.
2. It works the worst ruin.
III. The greatest misery of human nature is a quickened appetite and no supplies.
1. The appetite will be quickened sooner or later.
2. When the appetite is quickened, and there is no supply, it is an inexpressible calamity. (Homilist.)
The Word of the Lord
We are taught by this text the inestimable value of the inspired Word.
1. We are dependent on it for the regeneration of our souls. The facts, doctrines, promises, warnings, invitations, examples of the Word are employed by the Spirit in opening blind eyes, quickening dead sensibilities, subduing the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.
2. We are beholden to this Word for true enlightenment. A fierce war is at present raging round the Bible. We entertain no apprehension as to the result of the present controversies. The Bible has survived many a storm.
3. In the written Word are also found the springs of consolation. The Scriptures were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort thereof might have hope. The Bible was not written to furnish us with a cosmogony, to be a text-book of geology, or a manual of astronomy. It would have been a positive calamity if Divine revelation had superseded the active exercise of the human intellect by anticipating the results of modem science and research.
4. We are under obligation to the revealed Word for its power of protection in time of danger and temptation, and most deeply should we feel this obligation.
5. We must think of this Word in relation to our spiritual advancement. Many devices are being adopted for the strengthening of the faith, the kindling of love, the quickening of zeal. But I have the greatest confidence in the closer dealing of individual Christians with the Divine Word. Then let us learn to prize our privileges more highly than heretofore. (R. W. Forrest, M. A.)
Spiritual famine
There is no sign of the unthankfulness and ungratefulness of the heart of man more striking than the tendency to disparage and forget the commonest mercies, because they are common. It may be that God will teach us tile worth of privilege by depriving us of it.
I. The judgment denounced in this text. A famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. The Gospel of salvation, the Word that bringeth life and peace, is often beautifully figured under the emblem of water, purifying from all uncleanness, and refreshing and reviving the fainting spirit. So the Gospel is often figured under the simple symbol of bread. Jesus said, I am the living Bread which came down from heaven! The, bread and water of life signify all the rich blessings of salvation. The famine here threatened is a dearth of the heavenly manna. This famine we may trace in various gradations at different periods of the Church. Trace it in its lighter and less terrible visitations. When God withdraws the living power and influence of His Spirit, so that it does not accompany the Word. Then there is a barrenness, a blight, and a powerlessness in the ministry of the Word, and on the face of the Church. Trace it more manifestly in the corruption or abstraction of the great living doctrines of the Gospel of Christ. The dry morality of a Cicero or a Socrates may usurp the place of the living truth as it is in Christ Jesus. The same calamity may be inflicted upon a Church or people when the ministry of the Word is entirely suppressed or suspended. Thus it was in the Jewish Church of old, and in the Christian times designated as the Dark Ages.
II. The terribleness of the judgment thus denounced. A natural famine is a fearful visitation. The famine God here threatens is altogether more severe and terrible. The greatness of the calamity is seen because on the faithful ministration of Gods Word depends all that is moral, beautiful, great, glorious in a land or in a church. What does our own country owe to the liberty of prophesying? We take a higher view when we remind you that the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment. The soul is lost without the Saviour. It is by the foolishness of preaching that it pleases God to save them that believe. Let the free Gospel be withdrawn, and all would be darkness and death.
III. What may be occasions that provoke the great God to inflict such a calamity as upon a church or a people?
1. Neglect of and indifference to the precious oracles of God.
2. Making the Word of God into an idol. The Bible itself may come between the soul and the God it reveals.
3. Disregard of and forsaking the faithful ministration of the truth.
4. We may make too much of men, and too little of the Master; too much of human wisdom, and too little of Divine.
5. The supplementing and adding to Gods Word, as if it were insufficient; or the darkening or perverting it, as though mans interpretation were essential, and the Spirit of God were not His own interpreter.
6. The means and ordinances may be exalted to the depreciation of the foolishness of the preaching of the Word of God. Gods sacraments do not act as magical charms; the Spirit of God teaches man as a rational and responsible agent. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.)
Spiritual famine
It is a characteristic principle of Divine warnings, that the woes which they denounce upon guilty men generally consist in the mere withdrawal of abused privileges, and the desertion of men to gain their own ends in their own ways. There needs nothing for mans everlasting ruin, but that God should let him alone. If God exercise no positive energy of His grace to rescue him from destruction, all is done that need be done to make this destruction sure, and without a remedy. As a practical illustration of this principle, you find the Scriptures warning men of their dangers in an unconverted state, under the simple idea and shape of destitution and want. God departs from them, leaves them, hides His face from them, lets them alone; and they thus gain the punishment which their guilt deserves, as the harvest of their own sowing and the fruit of their own planting. This principle forms the point upon which the warning of our present text is rested. Famine, with all its attendant, multiform evils, is the simple result of continued want and deprivation. If God withholds His rain and His snow from heaven, all the horrors of famine come upon man without any direct effort or act on his part to confirm or increase it. So God proclaims to sinful men the result of their negligence of His grace and contempt of the spiritual mercies which have been long continued to them in vain. He will withdraw all direct spiritual interposition and leave them to the barrenness of their own nature.
I. The evils of spiritual famine. The Lord treats it as a curse and a punishment. Man lives not by bread only, but by the words which proceed out of the mouth of the Lord. Mans real life is fed by communications of Divine grace. Take from the soul of man its heavenly nourishment, and you leave it a prey to the gnawing of eternal want, and the mere vessel of eternal wrath and anguish. The full evils of this spiritual famine this world cannot display, nor can man, in his present state, apprehend them.
II. The facts which constitute a spiritual famine. These are facts of mans experience here. To constitute such a famine there is, sometimes, an entire removal from a people of all the ordinances and privileges of the Gospel, that only life-giving Word of God, Or there is found a withdrawal from a community who still retain the name, if not the external form of Christianity, the preaching of the Gospel in its peculiar truths. Or, though the truth of God be still proclaimed, there is no power communicated from above to carry it with life-giving efficacy to the souls of men.
III. The circumstances which lead to this spiritual famine. Some of these are on the side of the preacher of the Word. There may be; in the pulpit, a hiding of the light of the Gospel; or a spirit of sectarian division and controversy. Or a conformity among professing Christians to the course of this world. An unbelieving rejection of the spiritual claims of the Gospel, and a misimprovement of the mercies which a Saviour bestows, lead a people with certainty to this famine of the Word of the Lord. The habit of unmoved and heartless hearing of the Gospel prepares the way for the certain loss of all the blessings which the Gospel gives. And a neglect of the appointed ordinances and institutions of the Gospel leads to the same result.
IV. The way in which the evils of spiritual famine may be averted. Prize highly the faithful dispensation of the Word of God. And pray for the success of the Word of God. Its great object is the conversion of the ungodly, and the restoration of this fallen world to God. Let this object, in all its magnitude and importance, be kept before you. (T. S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
The worst starvation
One of the most ghastly tales in history is that of a king who condemned a prisoner to be starved to death in a palace filled with gold, silver, and the most precious stones in the world. For a while the sight of diamonds and rubies, any one of which would purchase provisions for a year, delighted the hapless victim. But when the fever of hunger began to burn, and the weakness and languor of starvation unnerved him, the very sight of the treasures maddened him. It is but a faint picture of the human soul, surrounded with all the earthly things that can be desired, yet famishing for love, for peace, for rest in God. (J. R. Miller.)
Religious sincerity
The sin of Samaria means the idolatry of Samaria. The words suggest a thought or two in relation to religious sincerity.
I. Religious sincerity is no proof of the accuracy of religious creed. Those Israelites seem to have been sincere in their worship of the golden calf. They swore by it. That dumb idol to them was everything. To it they pledged the homage of their being. A man is sincere when he is faithful to his convictions; but if his convictions are unsound, immoral, ungodly, his sincerity is a crime. The fact that thousands have died for dogmas is no proof of the truth of their dogmas. The words suggest–
II. That religious sincerity is no protection against the punishment that follows error. They shall fall, and rise no more. The sincerity of the Israelites in their worship in Bethel and at Dan prevented not their ruin. There are those who hold that man is not responsible for his beliefs–that so long as he is sincere he is a true man, and all things will go well with him. In every department of life God holds a man responsible for his beliefs. If a man take poison into his system, sincerely believing that it is nutriment, will his belief save him? (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. A famine in the land] The most grievous of all famines, a famine of the words of Jehovah; a time in which no prophet should appear, no spiritual counsellor, no faithful reprover, none any longer who would point out the way of salvation, or would assure them of the mercy of God on their repentance and return to him. This is the severest of God’s judgments on this side the worm that never dieth, and the fire that is never quenched.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Behold; note well what now I shall declare to you, and consider it.
The days come, saith the Lord God; surely, speedily, and according to the threats of God.
I will send a famine in the land; by a signal hand of Divine displeasure it shall appear to be from God, that such a famine cometh upon them of Israel.
Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water: a spiritual famine joined with a corporal famine; their bodies were pined with famine, destitute of bread and water; and this God sent too. but the famine of the soul is worse and more grievous.
But of hearing the words; either the written word which Israel had among them till their captivity, but afterwards should ever want both it and those who should interpret it to them, or else the word of prophecy; now they despise it, though they have it, but then they shall desire it, and have it not. They shall hunt after prophets, to tell them when their troubles shall end, though now they hate prophets who warn them, that their troubles might not begin: now Israel despiseth a prophets counsel, then they shall hunt for it, but not have a prophet to give them counsel, as Psa 74:9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. famine of . . . hearing thewords of the Lorda just retribution on those who now will nothear the Lord’s prophets, nay even try to drive them away, as Amaziahdid (Am 7:12); they shall lookin vain, in their distress, for divine counsel, such as the prophetsnow offer (Eze 7:26; Mic 3:7).Compare as to the Jews’ rejection of Messiah, and their consequentrejection by Him (Mt 21:43);and their desire for Messiah too late (Luk 17:22;Joh 7:34; Joh 8:21).So, the prodigal when he had sojourned awhile in the “far-offcountry, began to be in want” in the “mighty famine”which arose (Lu 15:14; compare1Sa 3:1; 1Sa 7:2).It is remarkable that the Jews’ religion is almost the only one thatcould be abolished against the will of the peoplethemselves, on account of its being dependent on a particularplace, namely, the temple. When that was destroyed, the Mosaicritual, which could not exist without it, necessarily ceased.Providence designed it, that, as the law gave way to the Gospel, soall men should perceive it was so, in spite of the Jews’ obstinaterejection of the Gospel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God,…. Which Kimchi interprets of all the days of the second house or temple after Malachi, when prophecy ceased; but it rather has respect to the time of Shalmaneser’s carrying captive the ten tribes, when they had no more prophets nor prophecy among them, or any to tell how long their captivity should last, or when it would be better times with them, Ps 74:9;
that I will send a famine in the land; which, in a literal sense, is one of God’s arrows he has in his quiver, and sends out when he pleases; or one of his sore judgments, which he sometimes orders to come upon a people for their sins: but here is meant,
not a famine of bread; or through want of that, which is very dreadful; as was the famine of Samaria, when an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and a certain measure of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver, 2Ki 6:25; and as were the famines of Jerusalem, when taken both by the Chaldeans and Romans, when delicate women boiled and ate their own children, La 4:8;
nor a thirst for water; which is more distressing and tormenting than hunger; and to be slain with thirst is to be destroyed in the most afflictive manner, Ho 2:3. Lysimachus is said to part with his kingdom for a draught of water; and the torments of hell are set forth by a violent thirst for it, Lu 16:24; but something worse than either of these is here threatened:
but of hearing the words of the Lord; the word of prophecy, and the preaching of the word, or explaining the Scriptures. Of this blessing the ten tribes were deprived at their captivity, and have been ever since; and the Jews, upon their rejection of Christ, have had the kingdom of God, the Gospel of the kingdom, the word and ordinances of God, taken from them, and remain so to this day; the seven churches of Asia have had their candlestick removed out of its place, and this famine continues in those parts to this time; and, by the symptoms upon us, we may justly fear it, will be our case before long. “The words of the Lord” are the Scriptures, which cone from him, and are concerning him; the doctrines of grace contained in them, the wholesome words of Christ: hearing them signifies the preaching of them, Isa 53:1; by which hearing comes, and is a great blessing, and should be attended to, as being the means of conversion, regenerations, the knowledge of Christ, faith in him, and the joy of it. Now, to be deprived of hearing the Gospel is a spiritual famine, for that is food, bread, meat, milk, honey, yea, a feast; it is food that is savoury, wholesome, nourishing, satisfying, strengthening, and comforting; and when this is took away a famine ensues, as when a church state is dissolved, ministers are ordered to preach no more in such a place, or are scattered by persecution, or removed by death, and none raised up in their stead; or when error prevails, to the suppressing of truth: all which is done, or suffered to be done, for indifference to the word of God, unfruitfulness under it, and contempt of it, and, opposition to it; which is a dreadful case, when such a famine is; for the glory, riches, and light of a nation, are gone; bread for their souls is no more; and the means of conversion, knowledge, comfort, c. cease and people in course must die, for lack of these things; see Isa 3:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And at that time the light and comfort of the word of God will also fail them. Amo 8:11. “Behold, days come, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, that I send a hungering into the land, not a hungering for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the words of Jehovah. Amo 8:12. And they will reel from sea to sea; and from the north, and even to the east, they sweep round to seek the word of Jehovah, and will not find it.” The bitterness of the time of punishment is increased by the fact that the Lord will then withdrawn His word from them, i.e., the light of His revelation. They who will not now hear His word, as proclaimed by the prophets, will then cherish the greatest longing for it. Such hunger and thirst will be awakened by the distress and affliction that will come upon them. The intensity of this desire is depicted in Amo 8:12. They reel ( as in Amo 4:8) from the sea to the sea; that is to say, not “from the Dead Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the west,” for Joe 2:20 and Zec 14:8 are not cases in point, as the two seas are defined there by distinct epithets; but as in Psa 72:8 and Zec 9:10, according to which the meaning is, from the sea to where the sea occurs again, at the other end of the world, “the sea being taken as the boundary of the earth” (Hupfeld). The other clause, “from the north even to the east,” contains an abridged expression for “from north to south and from west to east,” i.e., to every quarter of the globe.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Spiritual Famine Threatened; Judgments Threatened. | B. C. 785. |
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
In these verses is threatened,
I. A general judgment of spiritual famine coming upon the whole land, a famine of the word of God, the failing of oracles and the scarcity of good preaching. This is spoken of as a thing at some distance: The days come, they will come hereafter, when another kind of darkness shall come upon that land of light. When Amos prophesied, and for a considerable time after, they had great plenty of prophets, abundant opportunities of hearing the word of God, in season and out of season; they had precept upon precept and line upon line; prophecy was their daily bread; and it is probable that they surfeited upon it, as Israel on the manna, and therefore God threatens that hereafter he will deprive them of this privilege. Probably in the land of Israel there were not so many prophets, about the time that their destruction came upon them, as there were in the land of Judah; and when the ten tribes went into captivity they saw not their signs, there were no more any prophets, none to show them how long, Ps. lxxiv. 9. The Jewish church, after Malachi, had no prophets for many ages; and some think this threatening looks further yet, to the blindness which has in part happened to Israel in the days of the Messiah, and the veil that is on the heart of the unbelieving Jews. They reject the gospel, and the ministers of it that God sends to them, and covet to have prophets of their own, as their fathers had, but they shall have none, the kingdom of God being taken from them and given to another people. Observe here,
1. What the judgment itself is that is threatened. It is a famine, a scarcity, not of bread and water (which are the necessary support of the body, and the want of which is very grievous), but a much sorer judgment than that, even a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. There shall be no congregations for ministers to preach to, nor any ministers to preach, nor any instructions and abilities given to those that do set up for preachers, to fit them for their work. The word of the Lord shall be precious and scarce; there shall be no vision, 1 Sam. iii. 1. They shall have the written word, Bibles to read, but no ministers to explain and apply it to them, the water in the well, but nothing to draw with. It is a gracious promise (Isa. xxx. 20) that though they have a scarcity of bread they shall have plenty of the means of grace. God will give them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but their eyes shall see their teachers; and it was a common saying among the Puritans that brown bread and the gospel are good fare. But it is here a threatening that on the contrary they should have plenty enough of bread and water, and yet their teachers should be removed. Now, (1.) This was the departure of a great part of their glory from their land. This made their nation great and high, that to them were committed the oracles of God; but, when these were taken from them, their beauty was stained and their honour laid in the dust. (2.) This was a token of God’s highest displeasure against them. Surely he was angry indeed with them when he would no more speak to them as he had done, and had abandoned them to ruin when he would no more afford them the means of bringing them to repentance. (3.) This made all the other calamities that were upon them truly melancholy, that they had no prophets to instruct and comfort them from the word of God, nor to give them any hopeful prospect. We should say at any time, and shall say in a time of trouble, that a famine of the word of God is the sorest famine, the heaviest judgment.
2. What will be the effect of this (v. 12): They shall wander from sea to sea, from the sea of Tiberias to the Great Sea, from one border of the country to another, to see if God will send them prophets, either by sea or land, from other countries; since they have none among themselves, they shall go from the north to the east; when they are disappointed in one place they shall try another, and shall run to and fro, as men at a loss, and in a hot pursuit to seek the word of the Lord, to enquire if there be any prophets, any prophecy, any message from God, but they shall not find it. (1.) Though to many this is no affliction at all, yet some will be very sensible of it as a great grievance, and will gladly travel far to hear a good sermon; but they shall sensibly feel the loss of those mercies which others have foolishly sinned away. (2.) Even those that slighted prophets when they had them shall wish for them as Saul did for Samuel, when they are deprived of them. Many never know the worth of mercies till they feel the want of them. Or it may be meant thus, Though they should thus wander from sea to sea, in quest of the word of God, yet shall they not find it. Note, The means of grace are moveable things; and the candlestick, when we think it stands most firmly, may be removed out of its place (Rev. ii. 5); and those that now slight the days of the son of man may wish in vain to see them. And in the day of this famine the fair virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst (v. 13); those who, one would think, could well enough have borne the toil, shall sink under it. The Jewish churches, and the masters of their synagogues, some take to be meant by the virgins and the young men; these shall lose the word of the Lord, and the benefit of divine revelation, and shall faint away for want of it, shall lose all their strength and beauty. Those that trust in their own merit and righteousness, and think they have no need of Christ, others take to be meant by the fair virgins and the choice young men; they shall faint for thirst, when those that hunger and thirst after the righteousness of Christ shall be abundantly satisfied and filled.
II. The particular destruction of those that were ringleaders in idolatry, v. 14. Observe, 1. The sin they are charged with: They swear by the sin of Samaria, that is, by the god of Samaria, the idol that was worshipped at Bethel, not far off from Samaria. Thus did they glory in their shame, and swear by them as their god which was their iniquity, thinking that could help them which would certainly ruin them, and giving the highest honour to that which they should have looked upon with the utmost abhorrence and detestation. They say, Thy god, O Dan! liveth; that was the other golden calf, a dumb deal idol, and yet caressed and complimented as if it had been the living and true God. They say, The manner, or way, of Beer-sheba liveth; they swore by the religion of Beer-sheba, the way and manner of worship used there, which they looked upon as sacred, and therefore swore by and appealed to as a judge of controversy. Thus the papists swear by the mass, as the manner of Beer-sheba. 2. The destruction they are threatened with. Those who thus give that honour to idols which is due to God alone will find that the God they affront is thereby made their enemy, so that they shall fall, and the gods they serve cannot stand their friends, so that they shall never rise again. They will find that God is jealous and will resent the indignity done him, and that he will be victorious and it is to no purpose to contend with him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Here now the Prophet fulminates, for he denounces not temporal punishments, but final destruction, and what proves to be an evidence of reprobation, and that is, that God would deprive the Israelites of every light of truth, so that they would wander as the blind in the dark. It is indeed certain, that they had been before this time bereaved of sound doctrine; for falsehoods and superstitions prevailed among them; and we have seen that in the land of Israel the true and faithful servants of God suffered cruel tyranny. But yet God restrained the people, as it were, against their will; when they fled away from him, and withdrew themselves from under his government, he still goaded them, and tried as by force to restore them to the way of safety. God thus contended with the wickedness of the people for many years, to the time of our Prophet, yea, until the ten tribes were banished; for these, we know, were led to exile first, and at length the kingdom of Israel was abolished; but the Lord ceased not to stretch forth his hand. Now when he saw that the labor of his servants was vain and useless, when he saw that no fruit proceeded from his word, when he saw that his name was profaned and his kindness trodden under foot, he denounced final vengeance, as though he said, “I am now broken down with weariness, I have hitherto borne with your cries, and though by many kinds of punishment I have endeavored to restore you, I have yet observed a moderate course, that there might not be wanting some remedy for you. It has not, therefore, been my fault that your diseases have not been healed; for I have often sent Prophets to draw you to repentance, but without any success. I will now then take away my word from you.” But as celestial doctrine is the spiritual food of the soul, the Prophet rightly adopts this metaphor, that the Lord would send a famine. This figure, then is borrowed from the efficacy and nature of God’s word: for to what purpose does God send to us Prophets and teachers, but to feed us with spiritual food? As he sustains our bodies by bread and water, or wine, and other aliments, so also he nourishes our souls and sustains our spiritual life by his word. Since, then, spiritual doctrine is our spiritual aliment, the Prophet very properly says, that there would come a famine.
I will then send a famine, not of bread or of water, but of hearing the word of God. The antithesis amplifies or exaggerates the severity of the punishment, as though he had said, that it would be endurable to wander in hunger and thirst, and to seek roots on mountains, and to seek water in distant rivers: but a bodily famine, he says, is not what shall be grievous to them, — what then? They shall be in hunger and thirst, and shall seek the word of God, and nowhere find it. But that we may better understand the meaning of the Prophet, we must notice what Paul says, — that we are fed by the Lord as by the head of a family, when the word is offered to us, (Tit 1:3) for teachers go not forth of themselves, but when they are sent from above. As then the head of a family provides meat and sustenance for his children and servants, so also the Lord supplies us daily with spiritual food by true and faithful teachers, for they are as it were his hands. Whenever then pure doctrine is offered to us, let us know that the teachers who speak and instruct us by their ministrations are, as it were, the hand of God, who sets food before us, as the head of a family is wont to do to his children: this is one thing. And certainly since the Lord cares for our bodies, we must also know that our souls are not neglected by him: and further, since the earth produces not corn and other things of itself, but God’s blessing is the source of all fruitfulness and abundance, is not his word a much more precious food? Shall we then say that it comes to us by chance? It is hence no wonder that the Prophet sets here the deprivation of sound doctrine among God’s judgments; as though he said, “Whenever men are faithfully taught, it is a proof of God’s singular kindness, and a testimony of his paternal care. As God then has hitherto discharged towards you the office of the kindest father of a family, so now he will deprive you of meat and drink, that is, those which are spiritual.” Now, in the second place, we must observe, that when we abuse God’s bounty, our ingratitude deserves this recompense, that want should teach us that God ought not to have been despised in his benefits. This is generally true: for when we intemperately indulge in luxury when God gives us abundance of bread and wine, we fully deserve that this intemperance and excess should be cured by famine and want. But bread and wine are of no great value, and soon pass away: when therefore we abuse celestial doctrine, which is far more precious than all earthly things, what punishment does not such willfulness deserve? It is therefore no wonder that God should take away his word from all ungrateful and profane men, when he sees it treated with mockery or disdain: and this truth ought to be carefully considered by us at this day; for we see with how little reverence the greater part of men receive the celestial doctrine, which at this time is so bountifully offered to us. God has indeed in our age opened the wonderful treasures of his paternal bounty in restoring to us the light of truth. What fear there is now? What religion? Some scoff, some disdain, some indeed profess to receive what is said, but they pass it by negligently, being occupied with the cares and concerns of this world, and some furiously oppose, as the Papists do. Since then the perverseness or the wickedness, or the carelessness of the world, is so great, what can we expect, but that the Lord will send a much thicker darkness than that in which we have been before immersed, and suffer us to go astray and wander here and there in hunger and thirst? If then we fear God, this punishment, or rather the denunciation of this punishment, ought ever to be before our eyes. And the antithesis also, as it is very important should be carefully considered; for the Prophet by the comparison increases the punishment: it shall not, he says, be the want of meat and drink, for such a divine visitation would be more tolerable; but it shall be a spiritual famine. Inasmuch then as we are too much entangled by our flesh, these words ought to arouse us, that we may more attentively reflect on this dreadful punishment, and learn to fear the famine or want of the soul more than that of our bodies. When the sterility of the land threatens us with famine, we are all anxiety, and no day passes, in which this anxious question does not ten times occur to us, — “What will become of us? We now suffer from famine and want, and we are, as yet, distant from the harvest three or four months.” All feel anxious, and in the meantime we are not touched by any concern when the Lord threatens us with spiritual want. Since then we are so disposed to be overanxious for this frail life, it is the more necessary for us to take notice at the comparison mentioned by our Prophet.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
GODS ANTIDOTE FOR SKEPTICISM
Amo 8:11-13
THE Divine resources are never exhausted! God is never troubled over the question of the next step. The multitude of His opponents and their apparent successes leave Him undisturbed. He may grieve the fate and folly of men, but He never fears the final issue. He knows that the future is with Him, and not with His adversary. He may enjoin men to hold fast the faith once delivered but He does it for their sakes rather than His own. He has no alarm lest His truth fall from the earth, His revelation be blotted out and His Name forgotten. His concern, rather, is about the faith of men, lest it fail; about their knowledge of the Book, lest it be diminished; about their hold on the truth, lest it break, and they themselves be bruised by the fall. The real point of all inspired teaching, and the real purpose of all revealed prophecy, and the real intent of all biblical preaching is the salvation and sanctification of man, not the mere retention and defense of the truth.
Skepticism therefore, does not endanger the Bible; it endangers the people! It can never unsettle the throne of God, but it always has weakened and destroyed its own disciples and apostles.
The experience of Israel was the truth of yesterday; but it also is the truth of today. This text from Amos had its application to the Israel of the past; but it also has an application to the present. It involves three significant suggestionsthe Word-famine, the Wander-lust, and the Waiting-youth.
THE WORD-FAMINE
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord (Amo 8:11)
The world was never in greater danger of a wide-spreading, deadly, destructive famine than it is today. If wars continue and suck into their swirl every nation now steadily drawing toward the same, we shall have a complete fulfilment of Christs sentence, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines. The desperate wars being waged today are not one half so much the expression of hatred as they are the manifestation of fear; and the thing that is feared in time of war is not the flying machine, not the armored tanks, not the submarine; these create some alarm: but the terror of the nations is famine. Of all enemies that man has ever faced, famine has been the most destructive; and death at its hands is as pitiless as painful; and it never works save in wholesale.
But I am to speak of another famine, namely the Word-famine. This is being brought about by such a combination of circumstances as suggest nothing short of Satanic cunning. The state schools exclude the Scriptures; denominational schools discredit the Scriptures; the family and the individual neglect the Scriptures! It amounts to an onslaught against our Sacred Book.
The state schools exclude the Scriptures. Years ago my wife was a student in a state university. The Chapel was held every morning, and was opened by Scripture reading and prayer. Now few state schools are so privileged by the school powers, and still fewer so characterized by practice. In my own State, Minnesota, not a single public schoolteacher is permitted, either to read or recite any portion of the Scriptures in the presence of his pupils. Protestant leaders have pled with politicians and papists; but in vain! Even such excerpts as have to do with morals and ethics only, fail to receive the approval of schoolboards; and the very Book that gave to American civilization its foundations, becomes an increasingly unknown volume to American born or bred boys and girls.
Unfortunately, however, while Bible-loving professors are not permitted to voice the teaching of Scripture, Bible-hating ones are not denied the right of holding them to ridicule, and there are not a few state-paid instructors who exploit a skepticism calculated to create upon the childs mind the impression that the Bible is altogether an unscientific and unreliable book, and may be properly flung to the rubbish heap of superstition, credulity, myth, fables, and fetishism. The watchword of the present hour is Science not Scripture; and many a teacher who is none too well versed in either, makes the first contribute to a professional title, and the second to a professional titter.
The denominational schools discredit the Scriptures. The late Prof. Terry published a book entitled Moses and the Prophets to which he attached an Appendix that ought to have been submitted to the Mayo brothers of Minnesota and removed. It involved a diseased appendix, and the case was so advanced that in a short seasontwenty-five yearsthe Methodist denomination became a theologically gangrenous body. That appendix contained opinions from Dr. Bashford, President of Ohio Wesleyan University; Dr. Gobin of DePauw University; Dr. Plantz, President of Lawrence University; Dr. Raymond, of Wesleyan University, and Dr. Warren, President of Boston University. Even Dr. Terry himself expressed surprise that, with but one exception, the views of all these men should make up a remarkable unanimity of opinion, and the man who read them was not the less surprised, for they gave pith and point to Dr. L. W. Munhalls Breakers Ahead, or Methodism Adrift! There was not a one of them who believed in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch! There was not a man of them who believed in the infallibility of the Scriptures! There was not a man of them who believed in the omniscience of Christ. Dr. Plantz, for instance, declared: It seems to me very doubtful whether Christs knowledge extends to exact scientific and historical detail. Dr. Raymond, said, There must have been such a limitation of knowledge on Christs part as to put Him essentially under the conditions of ordinary men. Since this publication Methodism has drifted on the rocks of Rationalism.
If, in this matter, Methodism was alone, the future of the denominational school might be less discouraging; but, as a matter of fact, the appendix of Congregationalism has festered; while that of the Baptist denomination is in most perilous estate. The President of the most outstanding Baptist University, long since remarked, I shall never recommend to the Trustees of this University the removal of any professor on account of his theological opinions. No particular religious profession shall ever be held as a condition precedent to the election of any professor to a chair in this school. That school now has open atheists on its faculty. Presbyterianism, supposedly the most orthodox of sects, has amazingly slipped in matters of faith.
Many a youth, studying in our so-called Christian colleges, or taking courses in our so-called theological seminaries, dwells for years in an atmosphere frigid and prayerless; for years he listens to the Bible treated, in the language of Dr. Pell as if it were a literary patch-quilt in the course of renovation, and hears Christ spoken of as if He were an unidentified being.
A. J. Gordon, for twenty-five years Bostons outstanding Baptist minister, once remarked, The heresies which have afflicted the church have almost without exception, been invented by learned scholars, and the speculations which have blighted the faith of believers have generally been hatched and brooded in theological schools.
All of this is no argument against education! The finest religious atmosphere it has ever been my privilege to breathe, characterized the Presbyterian college from which I graduated; and the most scholarly and saintly men it has been my privilege to know, instructed in the theological seminary where I took my course.
But that was forty-five years ago! The wave of German rationalism was then beginning to beat upon our shores; now it has rolled from coast to coast, and only those men and colleges that have lived on the spiritual heights, near to God, have escaped its Scripture-discrediting, doubt-deluging effects.
The companion of these adverse movements, and in some instances the result of them, exists in the fact that the family and the individual are now neglecting the Scriptures.
We read of how the elder Spurgeon, Charles grandfather, was so absorbed in Scripture study that when a neighbor came to visit him, he arose from his study long enough to show the gentleman a chair; but, going straight back to his open Bible, he soon forgot the mans presence, and devouring sentence after sentence, as a hungry child might devour food, he was heard occasionally to mutter to himself, Wonderful! Wonderful! while the inner light radiated from every feature of his old face. Our forefathers in America were a Bible-loving, Bible-reading company; almost every day began with what is known as the family devotions, and they were never hurried. Now in ninety-nine homes out of a hundred, they are either spasmodically revived or left to lie in utter neglect.
The time was in England, and that not so far away, when human greatness was often accounted for by Bible Study; men believed themselves to bring from this Book Divine, wisdom. When a father consulted Earl Cairns as to what books his son should read in his preparation for the law practice, the great Earl answered, Let him begin with the Bible! There he will find the foundation of all law, as well as of all morality. Sir Matthew Hale declared There is no book like the Bible for learning, wisdom, and justice. Bacon, Blackstone, Lord Littleton, and Erskin, Wilberforce and Gladstone what great students of the Word they were! And what great souls they developed by steeping them in Scripture! What a strange contrast the present Englishman presents. Dr. G. H. Knight, in one of his volumes says, An allusion to a Bible story has more than once set half the House of Commons wondering where it came from.
If one visited Washington City and mingled with our national law-makers, and heard them talk on biblical subjects, he might feel as George Ade. Ade said, I hoped to see the day when I would represent the Tenth District in Congress. I have not realized my boyish ambition; but I have seen congress, and I am reconciled.
It is doubtful whether the English race, once putting aside the Bible, can ever duplicate the great names of the past. Ruskin was a remarkable soul and the flight of time can all too seldom see his accomplishments repeated; and John Ruskin wrote, All that I have taught of art, everything that I have written, any greatness that there has been in any thought of mine, whatever I have done in my life, has simply been due to the fact that when I was a child my mother daily read with me a portion of the Bible and daily made me learn a part by heart. The direst need of the American nation is not a navy or army; not colleges or commerce; it is not even a revival of religion, in the common employment of that phrase; but it is a revival of Bible reading. To be steeped in the sentences of this sacred Book lends an unconquerable strength to any people, insures an intellectual progress that is irresistible, and produces a religious revival that is both deep and far-reaching.
When God commanded Joshua to be a builder of a nation, he commenced with him by saying,
This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
THE WANDER-LUST
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and. fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
Strange how Scripture can express the relation between strenuous living and spiritual dying; between rapid transit and fading truth.
Our locomotion has become the enemy of our meditation. We shoot from place to place with such rapidity that even reason is upset, and spiritual meditation is made impractical, if not impossible. I think I never realized this fact more than recently when in one day I read the reports of the hardship endured sixty years ago by a boy who sought to gain an education, and those being experienced now by the lad mentally ambitious. The first related to A. J. Gordons college life, when as a lad it was decided he should go to school, and the place of his education was selected. His son writes In a suit of clothes made by his mothers hands from cloth, spun in the old mill, he started from home. A long walk truly, thirty-four miles, when one is baggage train as well as infantry. Yet, doubtless the bag in which he carried his clothes was not heavily loaded,a change of clothing, a Virgil, and an algebra. The country through which he passed was especially beautiful, Cardigan and Ragged mountains, round the base of Kearsarge and by Sunapee Lake into the town where the school was situated, in New London.
What a beautiful and suggestive description! It must have taken at least two days for the trip. What thoughts would surge through the boys soul as he climbed the mountainside, descended the valley, and trudged on to college! What meditations would fill the mind, when at night, in some country home, he lay in a deep feather bed, and with all the world shut out, faced God and thought about the future!
But those days are over! The lad who goes to college now, if he cross the continent, is whirled along on iron wheels; or, if wealthy, in a flying machine; the hum of human voices is in his ears in the instance of the first, and the roar of the engine and propeller in the second; if he go a shorter distance, he drives his car paid for by his father, and forgets the God above, and over-runs the pedestrians below.
A recent graduate was asked to tell of the hardships of his early education and he replied,I lived seven blocks from the Carnegie Library, and we had no automobile.
Ah, truly; They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
This strenuous living militates against Bible study. If only men would stop a while and sit down and open the Book, it would speak to them unless they were too tired to give attention to the tale it was telling. Too often, we fear, that is the case.
Old Horace Bushnell said, My experience is that the Bible is dull when I am dull; when I am really alive the text comes upon me with a tidal wave of living affinity. It opens up discoveries and reveals depths faster than I can make note of them.
But when do we stop long enough for tidal waves to even overtake us? The pace of the century is the ruin of Christianity. In Liverpool, one day, I went down to the Mersey River. I saw scores of vessels, many of which seemed shipshape; but all of them appeared stranded on the beach. I said to my walking companion, Why are so many of these vessels on the land; are they all in need of repair? He replied, No, they are in perfect repair; they are in to be loaded. You see, you do not quite understand! The Mersey River is running out to the ocean now, but tonight the tide will turn and the ocean will come into this river, flooding and filling its every part, and these freighted vessels will be lifted to places of power; and pulling out to sea, will ply their ways to the ends of the earth.
In reflecting upon the remark later, I said, It is a parable of spiritual life!
The reason so many of us are stranded and cannot go, is that the tide of spiritual life is running out. If only we knew how to use the closets of prayer or the curtains of night to find and face God, and let all the fullness of the Godhead flood us, and lift us, we would become vessels of power, and bear to the uttermost parts of the earth the golden truths of the Gospel of the Son of God!
When the Mersey River runs out to sea it sinks and grows shallow; but when the great sea comes into the river, it rises alike in volume and power.
It is a parable! When shall we cease from running to and fro long enough to read the Word of the Lord? When shall we know that no professional teaching can ever take the place of the personal perusal? More . and more this swiftly traveling, starving crowd are waking up to the fact that many of their journeys are in vain, so far at least as finding at the end of them either spiritual food or drink.
The non-Scriptural minister has produced a Scriptural famine. There are people in every city, and their name is legion, who travel from sanctuary to sanctuary, and wander from sea to sea, in search of the truth and never find it. The sanctuary in which they spend the Sabbath does not prove to be like the John Huss BethlehemThe House of Bread. Many of them are not even respectable lunch counters for the soul. The milk they serve is skimmed indeed, and their philosophical sandwiches have in them no meat of the Word,only a thin spread of Pseudo-Science, or questionable philosophy or history. Much of it reminds one of what happened nearly forty years ago in the Plymouth Church of Minneapolis.
Dr. John H. Elliott, later my co-laborer, had preached one night, and some interested souls had been taken into a side room to be prayed with by personal workers, and the sexton showed some impatience about continuing the lights; whereupon Dr. Elliott thought to engage him in conversation and keep him content until the instruction was finished. After a moment it occurred to him to ask the man if he was a Christian, to which he replied, No!
That is strange, said Elliott, and you a janitor of a Christian Church. How long have you been in this position?
About ten years, was the answer.
Well, why are you not a Christian?
Well, answered the sexton, I dont exactly know why; no one has ever spoken to me about it. What! said Dr. Elliott, has not the pastor spoken to you about being a Christian in these ten years?
No, said the sexton, I dont think Dr. C______ would like to talk on the subject of religion. We talk on a lot of other things, but he has never made any mention of that subject.
The pathos of the story is that it is a parable with increasing application.
We are sometimes compelled to question whether the Church of God, on the whole, has been profited by the exchange of a farmer preacher for the seminary output. That man of former days who divided his time between tilling the soil and steeping his soul in Scripture quotations and Scriptural thoughts, was no mean teacher. At his feet some of us grew up, and we have never ceased to thank God for the fact that while he talked to us in no terms of science, and his very tongue would have halted at the phrase, moral philosophy, he did know the Word of God; he did know the will of the Lord; he did dwell on the thus saith the Lord, and he did come from a sacred trysting place with the Most High; and he did make the impression that he was Gods man, with Gods message; and we were mightily moved by it; moved emotionally, moved morally, moved mentally, moved spiritually. We never went to the sanctuary in vain! When asking these fathers for bread, they did not hand us out a stone of so-called science; or if we asked an egg, they did not, for an egg, give us the scorpion of philosophy.
I am not asking that the preacher of the Twentieth Century be as unschooled as was his predecessor in the nineteenth; I am only declaring it is a profound pity that having become more schooled, he has become less Scriptural. I doubt if for him the times can ever even twist, much less change, the imperative sentence of Scripture, Preach the Word!
John Watson never said a saner thing than when he remarked, There are enough men to ventilate doubts without the preachers assistance. From him the world expects faith; and the dynamic of one man, believing with all his mind and all his heart, is incalculable. Doubt can be got anywhere; faith ought to be supplied by the pulpit.
And if the relation of the Wander-lust to the Word-famine is evident, then the relation of both to
THE WAITING YOUTH
is as logical as the connection of Scripture is here close and consecutive.
In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
Is that our day? Let us see.
Youth is still strongly characterized by spiritual desires and aspirations! The young convert comes as close to God now as he ever did. If he be truly regenerated he begins the Christian life with the same emotions which characterized his grandsires, though he has come to express them differently. His disposition to pray is the first proof of the Spirits work; and the disposition to know what God has spoken is in itself the sign of sonship. As the babes first word is commonly Mama or Papa so the new-born soul cries Abba Father, and listens to hear what the Father will say.
Some of us who are older, and whose emotional natures, like our joints, have become a bit stiff, may have forgotten, in part, how we used to feel in spirit, as we have also forgotten some of the exuberance of the flesh; but we may be assured that the race changes not, and that Christ is the same yesterday, and to day, and forever, and the young men and women who are coming to Him now, are just as restless as we were at their age, and just as anxious to know God as we were at their same point of experience, and just as thirsty for an additional portion of His Word, and for the Divine direction of His Spirit as we (who are now in advanced life) were when the great soul-decisions of fifty years ago were being made.
If I were a man of the world, and moved only in the social round or commercial realm, and were compelled to face from day to day the bloodless, worn-out society, of which John Watson speaks, I should well nigh lose confidence in all spiritual things. But my soul renews its youth when I stand in the midst of the four hundred young men and women now studying in the Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School, the majority of whom have come away from the farm, none of whom are far removed from the day of their regeneration and consecration, the most of whom are what Gordon once called the raw material ready to be hand-made for God.
When they pray I am carried on the wings of their petitions into the Divine presence. When they sing I am caught by the exuberance of their spirit and again reach the mountain-top. When they speak I am illumined by the very sparkle of their eyes and the joy of their faces; and in that illumination I see God!
Oh, what would be the pathos of the world without youth; and what would be the prospect of the Church without converted childrenFair virgins and young men thirsting for God!
With this company comes the Churchs greatest opportunity. Let teachers tread lightly here; it is holy ground! And yet, let them speak with alacrity; it is a gracious but fleeting opportunity.
I never look into the faces of this crowd of young men and women, the most of whom were converted but yesterday, many of whom are too well advanced in years to sit down in the high school with what they would call the babies. and the most of whom are too poor in purse to attempt the select or even state school; but I thank God for the privilege of teaching them; and I never look into their intelligent faces and mark the perfectly marvelous progress they make from week to week, without feeling a contempt for those people who can never be interested in any section of society save the upper-crust!
They are like the priests and Pharisees of Christs day, who, when the officers sent to arrest Him, returned, saying, Never man spake like this Mari, answered, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers * * believed on Him?
The longer I live the less am I concerned about the opinion of the ruling classes, for I know that this raw material, if rightly educated and trained for God, will, with the true Ruler, reign tomorrow.
Society is in eternal revolution. It is a depressing thing to see the top go down to the bottom. But, oh, to watch the other side! What an inspiration to see the bottom come to the top! And may I remind you that there is but one thing that can lift it, and that is the teaching of Christ expressed in the sacred Scriptures.
What then is the greatest spiritual movement of the century? You will dissent, I have no doubt, but I speak from the deepest conviction;
The modern Bible Conference, and the Bible and Missionary Training School. The first is a short course in Scripture. The second, a more complete training in the same. In them God has flung His lines of defense from sea to sea; and destructive criticism,the enemy that has come in like a flood, is finding the Bible Conference and the Bible Training School capable of both stubborn and successful resistence. Every state in the Union has its Bible Conference in multiplied numbers.
Thirty-five years ago Northfield stood almost alone in America, and Keswick was well nigh solitary in England; and forty years ago the Moody Institute was a solitary little sister, and looked upon with scorn by the mature and purse-proud theological schools of the land. But that God was in the movement can hardly be disputed when we recall the names of the Bible Conference and Bible School advocates,Spurgeon, Guinness, Meyer, Morgan and others of the Old World; Moody, Gordon, White, Horton, Torrey, Fowler, Gray, Davis, Adams, and other like men in the New World.
These Conferences and Schools are not the exponents of science, not the special advocates of philosophy, not the instructors in history; it is an age of specializing, and they have deliberately chosen to specialize in the knowledge of Gods Word. Tens and hundreds of thousands of ministers and laymen attend upon these conferences every summer, and Keswick in England, Cedar, Winona and Medicine Lakes in America, are now names that suggest two things,the study of the Word of God and the deepening of the spiritual life; and the Bible Schools established in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and other cities, are making greater strides, everything considered, than any class of schools that have ever sprung into existence. They have been the subjects of constant criticism, the objects of repeated ridicule; they have been characterized as educational short-cuts; their graduates have been spoken of as unscholarly and crude; but perhaps Dr. Gordons reply is significant, I prefer a little man with a great Gospel to a great man with a little Gospel.
Ours is a great Gospel! The people that best proclaim it are marked for progress; and those that most deny it are destined to perish!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
HOMILETICS
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Amo. 8:11. Famine] The light and comfort of Gods word shall fail; they despise now what they shall look for in vain then.
Amo. 8:12. Wander] Lit. reel, like drunken men. Seek] under pressure of calamity.
Amo. 8:13.] Hunger and thirst so great that the strongest give way and faint, how much more the weak (Isa. 40:30).
Amo. 8:14. Sin] The calves by which Samaria sins. God] The other golden calf at Dan (1Ki. 12:26-30). Liveth] Formula of the oath. Swearing by these objects shows that young men and maidens journeyed to Beersheba and worshipped idols. The ground of all their misery was forsaking God, who commands all appeals to be made to Himself as the Creator and Governor of all things (Deu. 6:13; Deu. 10:20).
A FAMINE OF THE WORD.Amo. 8:11-14
The prophet now predicts far greater evils than temporal judgments. A famine of the word, one of the saddest events that could happen a Divinely taught people. This is the last and sorest of all calamities. When God will not speak to men by his servants and word it is a sign that he will punish and reject them.
I. The word of God is the true nourishment of man. Every kind of life requires nutriment. Man has a higher life than appetite and sensation. His spiritual nature is sustained by the word of God alone. A real communication from God is essential to life. Man has ever longed for this. Speak, Lord! has always been the cry of humanity. God has spoken. His word satisfies the cravings of the heart and solves the problems of life. Here is wisdom for the ignorant and righteousness for the guilty; comfort for the sorrowful and redemption for the lost; milk for babes and strong meat for mature age. It is meat indeed and drink indeed. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Thy words were found and I did eat them.
II. Contempt of the word of God may bring a famine of the word. I will send a famine. God had raised up and sent prophets to the people; but they despised religious instruction, profaned Gods sanctuary, and persecuted his servants. God can withhold religious privileges and leave people in darkness according to his good pleasure. But when they despise the word he will withdraw it. He will cease to give when his gifts are scorned; to love, when his love is contemned.
1. With individuals there is often a famine of the word. A person for a long time enjoys gospel light and hears the Scriptures explained and enforced. He trifles with these advantages and heeds not the word. Circumstances change, business calls elsewhere, and in foreign lands or distant colonies he finds no provision. He is not fed with the bread of life. Many a sick chamber has been embittered and many a dying hour darkened by the remembrance of warnings despised. They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof (Pro. 1:24-31).
2. In the sanctuary there is often a famine of the word. When the gospel is rejected and ministers silenced; when the temple is profaned by worldly influences, and religious worship becomes a wearisome toil; God will take his blessings away, and men shall know the price by seeking them and shall not find them. The seven Churches of Asia Minor and the desolate shore of Northern Africa are solemn examples of this.
3. In the nation God can send a famine of the word. Unto the Jews were committed the oracles of God. They were highly exalted and Divinely instructed. But ungodliness crept into the temple, corruption tainted the king, and violence filled the land. Direction from God was a part of their blessedness. The want of that direction has now left them a wandering, helpless people. In their distress they cry as of old, We see not our tokens, there is not one prophet more, not one is there among us that understandeth any more.
III. A famine of the word is the sorest judgment upon any nation. It is a miserable state to cry for bread and have none.
1. A famine of the word is a greater evil than a famine of bread. The soul is superior to the body, and knowledge, love, and truth are more necessary than bread. Man does not live by bread alone. The mind requires food and cannot feed upon husks. If hunger and thirst be painful, how much more lack of spiritual sustenance! Men have hunger, though not always conscious of it. Appetite will be quickened in trouble, and like Saul they will be sore distressed. God is departed from me and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams.
2. A famine of the word will cause the strongest to succumb. The fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst. The beauty of the virgin and the vigour of youth decay without knowledge. All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field. But Gods word abides in its blessed nature and permanent results. Our choicest privileges and fairest sex, our education and wealth, are vain things. The withdrawment of God will cause them to wither away. Physical suffering will follow spiritual famine. Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed; yea, poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction.
3. A famine of the word will leave a nation in a deplorable condition.
(1) In a weak condition. When men faint and thirst they are helpless. Hungry within and scorched with the wrath of God without, who can stand? The wicked faint and sink under their burdens, and have not a shower of rain to quench their burning thirst (Eze. 22:24).
(2) In afallen condition. They shall fall. Fall into danger and the darkness of idolatry and superstition. Men who forsake God will eventually, like Saul, consult wrong sources of comfort and shall not find it.
(3) In a hopeless condition. Never rise up again. Without the word we are without bread and without strength; without comfort and without hope. When the word goes, God himself departs, and there is none to deliver us. God hath forsaken him; persecute and take him.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Amo. 8:11-12. The judgment.
1. Its Author. I will send.
2. Its certainty. Thus saith the Lord.
3. Its period. The days come, suddenly and presently.
4. Its consequences. (a) Hunger and thirst. (b) Exile and anxiety. (c) Unsuccessful search. 5. Its importance. Behold, calling attention to its direful and dreadful nature. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, &c.
Amo. 8:13. Natural strength falls far short of the strength God gives to his weak people (Isa. 40:29-31); it cannot endure nor carry us through calamities and judgments for sin. Young men shall faint, and those whose condition pleads for pity and respect shall not be spared. In this hopelessness as to all relief, those too shall fail and sink under their sufferings, in whom life is freshest and strongest, and hope most buoyant. Hope mitigates any sufferings. When hope is gone, the powers of life which it sustains give way [Pusey].
Amo. 8:14.
1. The calamity. They shall fall and never rise again. Though a man fall, if he has hope of rising again, it brings a certain degree of comfort and strength: but Israel fell into captivity and were not restored. If gentle means cure not, God will make a final end.
2. The reason of the calamity. Idolatry in the form of oaths and ascriptions of powers of life to the golden calves. They sware
1. By the sin of Samaria.
2. By the god of Daniel
3. By the manner of Beersheba. By strange gods which they had set up in these places. The whole land was infected by a popular, degrading system which they had set up, and which was the cause of their final overthrow.
The judgment of men and the judgment of God differ much. That which man calls here by way of honour a god, that God calls by way of dishonour and detestation a sin and abominable (Jer. 16:18; Jer. 44:4). Thus the world calls riches substance, goods happiness (Psa. 4:6), but the Holy Ghost calls them vanities, thorns, husks, unrighteous mammon. That which is highly esteemed in the sight of carnal, superstitious men is an abomination in the sight of God [Hall].
Fall fatally, irrecoverably, as old Eli did when his neck was broken, but first his heart. The ten tribes for their idolatry and contempt of the word never returned out of captivity. From the famine foretold what could follow but irreparable ruin, though for a time things might flourish (Pro. 29:1)? Of that spiritual famine let us be most impatient, and say as Luther did, I would not live in paradise without the word; but with it I could make a shift to live in hell [Trapp].
Two subjects in this chap. attract our notice.
1. Gods ordinances slighted. Let those who turn the Sabbath into a day of trade, and rob their fellow-men of their comforts by their extortions, as they rob God of his honour by their heartless worship, see their own portraits in the address of the prophet; blush for shame, and tremble at the destiny of those who continue in such a state.
2. Religious instruction withdrawn. It may not be now exactly with them as with Israel. They may not be wholly excluded from the warning voice of the prophets of God; but the time approaches when repentance will no more be preached to, or be available for, them. When no deliverer will be exhibited to their view, as exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins, their souls will die of an eternal famine. No bread of life shall be presented to them for food! No water of life shall quench the flame which guilt shall enkindle in their consciences [Cobbin].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Amo. 8:11-14. When Divine judgments come upon a race which has forgotten and forsaken God, the once despised and hated word is appreciated again. Men hunger and thirst for it, but often at first not in the right way. They desire as speedily as possible to hear of promises and consolations, and to these every ear is open. But it is in vain. We now need expect no new revelation from God. We have his word in the Scripture. But when this is a long time despised, it follows at last that there is no one to preach it, and without a living preacher it is finally lost. Or if it is preached it has no power to console, and men fail to find what they seek. Thus ensues a longing which is not satisfied. The result is otherwise only when men bow in penitence under the Divine threatening as deserved, and under the Divine Spirit inwardly blame themselves for previous apostasy. But who knows whether man will find room for repentance? Before he reaches that point, while he is in the midst of his vain longing for comfort, he may be snatched away [Lange].
Theres not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
DESCRIPTION OF JUDGMENTS PROPHESIEDSPIRITUAL FAMINE
TEXT: Amo. 8:11-14
11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.
12
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it.
13
In that day shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thirst.
14
They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, As thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, As the way of Beer-sheba liveth; they shall fall, and never rise up again.
QUERIES
a.
When did this famine of the words of Jehovah occur?
b.
Why would they run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah?
c.
Who is the god of Dan?
PARAPHRASE
Listen, the time is coming very soon when I am going to send a spiritual famine upon this land. People will be starving to death for Gods Wordnot physical food. People will be dying of thirst for the living water. And they will stagger all over the earth, running hither and yon to find a consoling word from Jehovah but they will not find it. Even young women and young men in the vigor of youth, the strongest and best equipped to stand adversity will grow weak and pant for the living water of Jehovahs Word. Those who put their trust in the calf-gods of Israel like the one located at Dan and those who make pilgrimage to Beersheba to engage in idolatrous worship shall fall never to rise again!
SUMMARY
One aspect of Gods judgment will be the spiritual famine resulting from Israels rebellion. When the flood of judgment comes, however, the people will desperately seek for the bread of life, the word of God. Their impotent gods and worship will not supply them with the food they need,
COMMENT
Amo. 8:11-12 . . . I WILL SEND A FAMINE IN THE LAND . . . OF HEARING THE WORDS OF JEHOVAH . . . THEY SHALL WANDER FROM SEA TO SEA . . . AND SHALL NOT FIND IT. They had forbidden Gods true prophets to bring to them the Word of the Lord (Amo. 2:12). They refused to know His Word (cf. Isa. 1:3; 2Ch. 15:3; Jer. 5:4). Hosea, a younger contemporary of Amos, describes the spiritual poverty of the nation in its death throes. He writes, . . . the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land . . . My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children, (cf. Hos. 4:1; Hos. 4:6). This famine of the word of Jehovah began when Israel rejected the law and grew worse until God took them into captivity where they had no prophets to declare to them His word, (cf. Eze. 3:26; Eze. 7:26). God turned away from Israel when He took them to the land of the Assyrians and caused the word of prophecy to cease. Chrysostom says, God did not speak to them through the prophets; He breathed not upon them the Spirit through which they spake. He did not appear to them, but is silent and hidden. There was silence, enmity between God and man.
In death, destruction and in exile from the land of their fathers, crushed by their oppressors, hearing only of gods more cruel than the heathen who make them, they will run to and fro, they will suffer a famine of truth, they will hunger and thirst for the God of Israel and some word from Him of His care for them and His fulfillment of the covenant made by Him, but they shall not find it. Hosea tells how the people of Israel, just before their downfall, sought revelation from idols, My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God (Hos. 4:12). Jerome writes, Such is the present condition of the Jews. They roam in restless vagrancy about the world and seek the word of God; but they find it not, because they have killed the incarnate Word revealed in the written word.
To those of Amos day and to those in every generation who reject the Word of God for some other philosophy, the message is the same. Inevitably, there will come the time when a word from God will be sought for like starving men seek for food. One writer warns, Try to imagine all the influence of religion taken out of your life, In trouble, sickness, loneliness, failure, try to imagine yourself cut off from God. This is what Amos prophesies . . . Think of the nations, RussiaChina, etc. which have rejected the word of God and remember how desperately hungry some within those enslaved lands are for the word of the Lord. In Moscow when Gene Dulin was asked to preach at the Russian Easter Sunday afternoon service, the minister said, Give a powerful sermon on the resurrection! Think of the ignorance, poverty and backwardness of the many nations where there has been a famine of the word of God or where His word has been kept secret by heretical priests and churches. Think of our own country where men are running to and fro preaching one panacea after another which are all doomed to failure because in large segments of this land there is a famine of the word of God!
Amo. 8:13-14 . . . FAIR VIRGINS AND THE YOUNG MEN FAINT FOR THIRST . . . THEY THAT SWEAR BY THE SIN OF SAMARIA . . . SHALL FALL, AND NEVER RISE AGAIN. Even young women and young men, in the vigor of youth, the best equipped to withstand these adverse conditions, will grow weak and hunger and thirst for some voice of authority and promise of help from Jehovah. It is true even today! Thousands and thousands of young people across our land, disillusioned and starved to death on the garbage of the contemporary intellectualism are running to and fro seeking a voice of authority, a sane standard of conduct, a life which consists of more than things. But, because the intelligentsia of our world have, for the most part, rejected the word of the Lord, our young people faint for thirst.
In Israel, in Amos day, the people were swearing by (putting their trust in) the golden calf which they worshipped at Dan and Bethel. They believed that all their prosperity, like that of their heathen neighbors, was due to their worship of these idols and other idolatrous forms of worship made toward Jehovah at Beersheba. In our day, we are no better! Israel worshipped the golden calf only because she was sure her prosperity came through this. We worship science because we are sure our prosperity comes through it. Anthony Standen, in his book, Science Is A Sacred Cow, says, What with scientists who are so deep in science that they cannot see it, non-scientists who are too overrawed to express an opinion, hardly anyone is able to recognize science for what it is, the great Sacred Cow of our time. Yes, we have rejected the Word of God which reveals to us the True Source of both material and spiritual well-being, for our own Sacred Cowscience! We have our own Bethels, Dans, and Beershebasour own priests and our own oracles. And if we continue to worship there and seek guidance there, WE SHALL FALL, AND NEVER RISE AGAIN!
QUIZ
1.
What were the conditions of Israel in relation to spiritual knowledge of God in the days of Amos and Hosea?
2.
When did God take His word away from Israel finally and completely?
3.
Is the prophecy, they shall not find it still being fulfilled in the unconverted Jews today?
4.
How does this section of Amos have relevance for our generation today?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
11-14. Some effects of the judgment. In the agony and despair of the judgment people will hunger and thirst for the word of Jehovah, but they will not find it.
The days come Better, are about to come (see on Amo 2:13; compare Amo 4:2); “the days” is identical with “that day” (Amo 8:9).
Famine thirst Calamities with which they were familiar (Amo 4:6-8); but this experience will be unique.
Hearing the words of Jehovah The ancient versions and some Hebrew manuscripts read the singular “word,” and this is to be preferred (Amo 8:12); it is the common expression for a communication from Jehovah (2Ki 3:12; Jer 27:18, etc.). The word which they seek is either the word of instruction this they desire to know, and they are willing to heed it, in order that they may escape further distress or the word of consolation, which they need and for which they long in their distress.
The intensity of the people’s yearning is depicted in Amo 8:12. Far and wide they seek it, but in vain.
Wander Literally, totter, or, reel (Amo 4:8). Though exhausted, they continue, with uncertain steps, their search, hoping that their efforts may yet be rewarded.
From sea to sea Since the prophet is concerned with the Hebrew people exclusively (Amo 8:14), this is best interpreted as meaning “from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean,” the southern and western limits of Israel (Joe 2:20; Zec 14:8; compare 2Ki 14:25).
From the north even to the east Literally, to the rising (of the sun). This completes the circle. The Dead Sea is called also the eastern sea (Zec 14:8). Though the four expressions are not exactly synonymous with “from north to south, from east to west,” that is their meaning. In every direction do the people seek for relief, but in vain.
Amo 8:13 is thought by many to be a later interpolation, chiefly because it seems to speak of physical thirst, while its immediate context, Amo 8:11-12, speaks of spiritual famine and thirst. Others, thinking that the prophet has in mind throughout material famine and physical thirst, omit Amo 8:11-12 or parts of these verses. Harper omits only “for thirst” in Amo 8:13, and thus brings Amo 8:13 in harmony with Amo 8:11-12. It may be asked, however, whether it is necessary to establish complete harmony between Amo 8:11-12 and Amo 8:13. May not Amo 8:13 introduce a new thought? If an emendation is thought necessary, that of Harper seems the most satisfactory; “for thirst” could easily have come in at a later time.
Fair virgins and young men The beauty and strength of the nation. Even youth, which ordinarily can endure severe strains, will be unable to stand up under this calamity. But if the strongest succumb what will become of the weak?
Thirst To be understood literally. It is mentioned rather than hunger because of the more intense suffering accompanying Amo 2:14.
They that swear Must be the “fair virgins and young men” (Amo 8:13; see on Hos 4:15).
Sin of Samaria The allusion is undoubtedly to the calf at Beth-el (see on Hos 8:5), which was the embodiment of Israel’s guilt (Hos 10:8). Samaria, the capital, stands for Israel, the people or the land. The fact that Amos nowhere else uses Samaria as equivalent to Israel is not sufficient reason for changing it into Beth-el; nor is it necessary to change the word translated “sin.” Most modern commentators, however, read “god of Beth-el.” The Israelites made their oaths by the calf of Beth-el rather than by Jehovah; and since men swear by that which they hold dearest, these oaths were evidence that the Israelites had transferred their affections to the calf.
Thy god liveth R.V., “As thy god liveth.” The common formula used in swearing an oath.
Dan Where Jeroboam set up the other calf (1Ki 12:29). The city was located near the northern boundary of Israel, at the foot of Mount Hermon, near the head of the main source of the Jordan River. It is now called Tel-el-Kadi. Its deity also was the calf.
The manner of Beer-sheba liveth Better, R.V., “As the way of Beer-sheba liveth.” “To swear by a way” has always impressed Bible students as a peculiar expression; hence way has been interpreted in the sense of worship, or, manner. But this does not relieve the difficulty.
As a result many emendations have been proposed. It is doubtful, however, if any one of these is more satisfactory than the present text, which is not altogether unintelligible. The sanctuary at Beer-sheba was undoubtedly expected by the common people to abide forever; therefore the road leading to the sanctuary might be thought to remain always; consequently it would not be so very strange that the pilgrims passing over it should swear by it. Even to-day Arabs swear “by the sacred way to Mecca”; and Mitchell quotes Ruckert’s Hariri, 1: 189, “By the pilgrimage and the height of Mina, where the pious host stone Satan.” Beer-sheba See on Amo 5:5. All those who have thus forsaken Jehovah will be utterly destroyed (Amo 5:2).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Amo 8:11. I will send a famine The prophet here foretels that it should come to pass, that when they were suffering by famine they should inquire for prophets from whom they might hear the word of God; but that no prophets should be found; or if there were any, they should have nothing to deliver them from God, who, during their calamity, would keep a profound silence. See Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
What an awful sound is here! And how dreadfully awful in that land, that parish, that people, that family, or person, in whom it is fulfilled. A famine of bread the common staff of life is distressing. But what is the life of the body to the life of the soul? This threatening was in part accomplished, when the Church was carried into Babylon. And what a dark season in after ages took place, from the close of prophecy to the coming of Christ ? And in our own land before the reformation, what a deplorable condition was this island in! Blessed Lord Jesus! grant that never more our candlestick may be removed out of its place, but let that sweet promise be our portion: though the Lord give the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not our teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but our eyes shall see our teachers, and our ears shall hear a word behind us; saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Isa 30:20-21 .
REFLECTIONS
READER! while we read the awful threatenings of the Lord to Israel of old, of turning the songs of the temple into howlings, and inducing a famine of the word of the Lord, more to be dreaded than all the famine of bread and water; while we trace the cause in Israel’s despising the Lord’s Sabbaths, is it possible but we must tremble, lest the crying sins of our British Israel should bring on the same judgments, and from the same causes? Was there ever a day like the present, when the Lord’s days were so profaned, or the pure and holy religion of the Lord Jesus so little regarded? Blessed Lord! look in mercy upon our Zion, and take thine own cause into thine own Almighty hand! Pour out upon the remnant of thy people that are left, in the midst of the present adulterous and sinful generation, a spirit of grace and a spirit of supplication. Enable them to Come with weeping, and with earnest cries for the Lord’s graciousness to be preserved to our land. And do thou Lord as thou hast said, and let that sweet promise be now fulfilled, which is now so much needed. Then will I turn to the people (thou hast said) a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent; and then will I take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty, because of my holy mountain!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
Ver. 11. Behold, the days come ] Behold it; for it is a just wonder. The Lord created a new thing in the earth when Israel should want the word; Israel, to whom were committed the oracles of God; Israel, to whom God had spoken “by the mouth of his holy prophets, which had been since the world begun,” in a sweet succession, Luk 1:70 . See my True Treasure. “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts and monuments to the children of Israel,” Psa 103:7 . Yet even these, who had the cornucopia of God’s word, shall now suffer a famine of it; they shall have cause to cry out, “We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet; neither is there among us any that knoweth how long,” Psa 74:9 . The word of God shall be precious, 1Sa 3:1 , and they shall be hard put to it to come by it. Amaziah and his complices shall not need to pack away the prophets, as Amo 7:12 , and to bid them go preach elsewhere; for God will, for a singular plague to an unworthy people, withdraw them; the law shall be no more, the prophets also shall find no vision from the Lord, Lam 2:9 .
That I will send a famine in the land
Not a famine of bread
Nor a thirst for water
But of hearing the word of the Lord
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Amo 8:11-14
11Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord GOD,
When I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water,
But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.
12People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD,
But they will not find it.
13In that day the beautiful virgins
And the young men will faint from thirst.
14As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria,
Who say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives,’
They will fall and not rise again.
Amo 8:11 This may be the OT origin of one part of Jesus’ beatitudes (cf. Mat 5:6) and possibly a reference to Mat 4:4, where Jesus quotes Deu 8:3. Israel thought she had all she needed, but what all of us really need is fellowship with God!
Amo 8:12 This shows a frantic but futile search for God. What a shocking metaphor! God has been seeking mankind in love, but there will come a day when they will not be able to find Him. Humans were created to need fellowship with God (cf. Gen 1:26-27). Hell is the removal of the possibility of being with Him!
from sea to sea For a speaker in Palestine, this would refer to the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. It is not very far physically, but it signifies from one end of the country to the other.
Amo 8:13 Even the young and strong will not be able to find God. Exhausted young people are a metaphor for YHWH’s judgment (cf. Isa 51:20).
Amo 8:14 the guilt of Samaria This refers to the golden calves (cf. 1Ki 12:28; Hos 8:5-6; Hos 10:5) set up at the cities of Dan and Bethel by Jeroboam I (922 B.C.). They were meant to rival the temple in Jerusalem as a worship site for YHWH. All of the kings of the northern tribes are condemned by the prophets because of these shrines.
There is another possible understanding of this text based on the Masoretic Text. It has the phrase, the Ashima of Samaria (cf. 2Ki 17:30). If so, this then would refer to the female fertility goddess of Canaan. Whichever reference is correct, it reflects the improper worship of the Northern Ten Tribes, Israel.
‘As the way of Beersheba lives’ This is an unusual reference. Beersheba is a city located in southern Judah. It was referred to earlier in Amo 5:5. Possibly the journey itself or the route with its cultic associations or the term way is idiomatic of a ritual or teaching. Exactly how or what is involved in this idolatry is uncertain.
It is just possible that a geographical emphasis is what is referred to (i.e., Dan to Beersheba, cf. Jdg 20:1; 1Sa 3:20), which would parallel Amo 8:12. These covenant people committed idolatry throughout the Promised Land, but now they will frantically seek for YHWH again throughout the land, but will not find Him!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos, App-6.
of hearing, &c. Compare 1Sa 3:1, Psa 74:9; Eze 7:26,
words, With ‘eth = the very words. Some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “word” (singular)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Amo 8:11-14
DESCRIPTION OF JUDGMENTS PROPHESIED-
SPIRITUAL FAMINE
TEXT: Amo 8:11-14
One aspect of Gods judgment will be the spiritual famine resulting from Israels rebellion. When the flood of judgment comes, however, the people will desperately seek for the bread of life, the word of God. Their impotent gods and worship will not supply them with the food they need,
Amo 8:11-12 . . . I WILL SEND A FAMINE IN THE LAND . . . OF HEARING THE WORDS OF JEHOVAH . . . THEY SHALL WANDER FROM SEA TO SEA . . . AND SHALL NOT FIND IT. They had forbidden Gods true prophets to bring to them the Word of the Lord (Amo 2:12). They refused to know His Word (cf. Isa 1:3; 2Ch 15:3; Jer 5:4). Hosea, a younger contemporary of Amos, describes the spiritual poverty of the nation in its death throes. He writes, . . . the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land . . . My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children, (cf. Hos 4:1; Hos 4:6). This famine of the word of Jehovah began when Israel rejected the law and grew worse until God took them into captivity where they had no prophets to declare to them His word, (cf. Eze 3:26; Eze 7:26). God turned away from Israel when He took them to the land of the Assyrians and caused the word of prophecy to cease. Chrysostom says, God did not speak to them through the prophets; He breathed not upon them the Spirit through which they spake. He did not appear to them, but is silent and hidden. There was silence, enmity between God and man.
Zerr: Amo 8:11. Famine of . . . words of the Lord. The people will have resisted the teaching of those who would have given them the truth (such as Amaziah against Amos, verses 12, 13) until God will cease to offer them such teachers. Amo 8:12. They will realize when it is too late what they have done, and will seek frantically to find some of the true teachers. However, it will be in vain because of the famine just predicted in which no spiritual food will be available.
In death, destruction and in exile from the land of their fathers, crushed by their oppressors, hearing only of gods more cruel than the heathen who make them, they will run to and fro, they will suffer a famine of truth, they will hunger and thirst for the God of Israel and some word from Him of His care for them and His fulfillment of the covenant made by Him, but they shall not find it. Hosea tells how the people of Israel, just before their downfall, sought revelation from idols, My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God (Hos 4:12). Jerome writes, Such is the present condition of the Jews. They roam in restless vagrancy about the world and seek the word of God; but they find it not, because they have killed the incarnate Word revealed in the written word.
To those of Amos day and to those in every generation who reject the Word of God for some other philosophy, the message is the same. Inevitably, there will come the time when a word from God will be sought for like starving men seek for food. One writer warns, Try to imagine all the influence of religion taken out of your life, In trouble, sickness, loneliness, failure, try to imagine yourself cut off from God. This is what Amos prophesies . . . Think of the nations, Russia-China, etc. which have rejected the word of God and remember how desperately hungry some within those enslaved lands are for the word of the Lord. In Moscow when Gene Dulin was asked to preach at the Russian Easter Sunday afternoon service, the minister said, Give a powerful sermon on the resurrection! Think of the ignorance, poverty and backwardness of the many nations where there has been a famine of the word of God or where His word has been kept secret by heretical priests and churches. Think of our own country where men are running to and fro preaching one panacea after another which are all doomed to failure because in large segments of this land there is a famine of the word of God!
Amo 8:13-14 . . . FAIR VIRGINS AND THE YOUNG MEN FAINT FOR THIRST . . . THEY THAT SWEAR BY THE SIN OF SAMARIA . . . SHALL FALL, AND NEVER RISE AGAIN. Even young women and young men, in the vigor of youth, the best equipped to withstand these adverse conditions, will grow weak and hunger and thirst for some voice of authority and promise of help from Jehovah. It is true even today! Thousands and thousands of young people across our land, disillusioned and starved to death on the garbage of the contemporary intellectualism are running to and fro seeking a voice of authority, a sane standard of conduct, a life which consists of more than things. But, because the intelligentsia of our world have, for the most part, rejected the word of the Lord, our young people faint for thirst.
Zerr: Amo 8:13. Virgins and young men are usually possessed of more reserve vitality than others, but the famine was to be so severe that even they would faint. Amo 8:14. The reference to Samaria and Beersheba is because of the idolatry that was set up and practiced in those places. Dan was one of the 10 tribes that formed this kingdom, and it had trusted in this false religion started in Samaria.
In Israel, in Amos day, the people were swearing by (putting their trust in) the golden calf which they worshipped at Dan and Bethel. They believed that all their prosperity, like that of their heathen neighbors, was due to their worship of these idols and other idolatrous forms of worship made toward Jehovah at Beersheba. In our day, we are no better! Israel worshipped the golden calf only because she was sure her prosperity came through this. We worship science because we are sure our prosperity comes through it. Anthony Standen, in his book, Science Is A Sacred Cow, says, What with scientists who are so deep in science that they cannot see it, non-scientists who are too overrawed to express an opinion, hardly anyone is able to recognize science for what it is, the great Sacred Cow of our time. Yes, we have rejected the Word of God which reveals to us the True Source of both material and spiritual well-being, for our own Sacred Cow-science! We have our own Bethels, Dans, and Beershebas-our own priests and our own oracles. And if we continue to worship there and seek guidance there, WE SHALL FALL, AND NEVER RISE AGAIN!
Questions
1. What were the conditions of Israel in relation to spiritual knowledge of God in the days of Amos and Hosea?
2. When did God take His word away from Israel finally and completely?
3. Is the prophecy, they shall not find it still being fulfilled in the unconverted Jews today?
4. How does this section of Amos have relevance for our generation today?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
but: 1Sa 3:1, 1Sa 28:6, 1Sa 28:15, Psa 74:9, Isa 5:6, Isa 30:20, Isa 30:21, Eze 7:26, Mic 3:6, Mat 9:36
Reciprocal: Pro 29:18 – there Isa 41:17 – seek Lam 2:9 – her prophets Eze 3:26 – and shalt Hos 2:3 – and slay Hos 9:4 – their bread Mic 2:6 – they shall not prophesy Mic 3:7 – no Zec 9:17 – corn Mat 5:6 – are Mat 12:43 – dry Joh 7:37 – If Act 16:6 – forbidden
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE USES OF ADVERSITY
Behold the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of bearing the words of the Lord.
Amo 8:11
I. If adversity tried and sifted men, prosperity tried and sifted them much more.Where adversity slew its thousands, prosperity slew its tens of thousands. Poets and moralists had dwelt on the sweet uses of adversity: the misuses and abuses of prosperity would furnish a far more eloquent theme. Adversity was a bitter medicine, but it was in vain to think that health could be preserved unless it were administered at one time or another. Prosperity was a pleasant draught, but a continuous indulgence in it was sure to affect the health and undermine the very constitution of the soul. In making worldly prosperity the sole aim of their life, men belied their own truest experiences of real happiness. They forgot that the happiest moments of their lives had not been moments of outward prosperity. For the most part, glorious revelations had come through some heavy trials when their heads appeared bowed down under the heavy judgments of God; it had been in the first hour of their loneliness, when a sudden bereavement had left their hearts vacant and sorrowing; it had been when they lay prostrate on a bed of sickness, or life trembled in the balance; it had been when an unforeseen disaster had shadowed some carefully-devised plan, or stripped them of some worldly advantage; it had been when they had forced themselves to some act of strong self-denial,then it was that their loss had been turned into gain, and they had been able to throw themselves down before the footstool of God, and feel the glory and joy of His Presence. Happy moments thesehappier far than weeks and months of their prosperous everyday life, for now the screen had fallen from the invisible, and heaven was no longer shut out from their view by the allurements and the delights and the successes of the present. As God dealt with Israel of old, so He had dealt with them. He had led them out of the land of bondage and brought them into the wilderness,the wilderness of shattered hopes, of bereaved affections, of bitter disappointments, and so also He had spoken to them comfortably, spoken with a fathers voice, spoken in accents of infinite tenderness and love. In this chastisement they had recognised His father-hand; for the first time, perhaps, He had revealed to them the privileges and the glories of their sonship.
II. As it was with individuals, so was it also with large masses of men.The severest trial to the morality of a people was a long period of prosperity; the most efficient instrument in the purification of a people was the sharp attack of adversity. The commercial depression and social disorganisations, with all their attendant miseries, were a discipline and a corrective of Gods hand, whereby He might recall them to their better selves. This chastisement is needed after a period of almost unexampled prosperity. But, however grievous it had been in the present, it had borne abundantly the fruit of righteousness, for during such a season of trial not a few of both masters and men learned sacrifice and self-restraint, which a whole lifetime of high wages and large profits would have been powerless to teach. Such at least was the lesson enforced upon Israel in the days of Amos the prophet. Never since the secession of the ten tribes had the material welfare of the nation been greater. King and people alike might well have congratulated themselves on the present condition of the nation. It was just at this crisis that the prophet Amos appeared on the scene. But though it was in a season of unexampled prosperity, the prosperity of Israel was not the burden of his message; though the armies of Jeroboam had been signally triumphant, he poured out no congratulations over these triumphs. His whole prophecy was one prolonged wail, one unbroken elegy, the funeral dirge of a dying religion, a falling dynasty, and an expiring kingdom. For prosperity was then doing its work. Luxury, revelry, and pleasure were rampant; commercial morality was low, petty frauds in trade were rife; the laws were administered for the advantage of the powerful; the poor were ground down by the tyranny of the rich. A stern moralist might have found much to lament and denounce in the vices of the age; a far-sighted politician, drawing upon long experience, might have discerned from these elements of social disorder the symptoms of a disease, which, if not arrested in time, would lead to the ultimate ruin of the state. But the prophet, with a keener eye and a wider range of wisdom, firmly and unhesitatingly pronounced the resultin the very midst of the triumph of armies, in the very flush of successful self-complacency, he announced the catastrophe as imminent. Prosperity had carried away the hearts of Israel from the true religion of their God, and it needed the deep uses of desolation and captivity to chasten them and call them back. But all this while Israel had not been without a religion; if they had not heard the words of the Lord, at least they had professed His name. It was not the object of their worship, it was only the character of their service which was at fault. For (1) The worship of Israel had degenerated into a religion of political expediency, a religion of conventional life; it had adapted itself to the exigencies, aye, and to the vices, of the age. It looked complacently upon the luxury, the oppression, the indolence, the carelessness, the dishonesty which prevailed on all hands; it had no word of hope, no thought of remedy for the startling social evils of the time; the overflowing wealth here, the grinding poverty there. (2) The religion of Israel was formal and material; it was not thought of except in an outward and material sense in the days of prosperity, and when in their captivity and heavy trials their hearts turned to it seeking solace, instead of finding comfort and help, they saw only a vague and indistinct shadow. The experience of Israel was the experience of all who worshipped after Israels manner. In the moment of trial they sought the word of God and could not find it. They did not seek their Fathers presence when their course was smooth and even, and in their hour of danger it was withdrawn from their eyes. It was in this sense that men could not live by bread alone, that the human heart cried for some more enduring food than the fruits of the earth could yield; that sooner or later, in this world, or in the next, the absence of this heavenly sustenance must be felt by them as a famine more gnawing than the famine of bread, and a drought more burning than the drought of water that had brought them together for the ceremony of that day. Whatever some men might say, their factories, their workshops, their shipping, and their coalpits, even their museums and their lecture rooms, could not supply the deepest wants of men. The highest instincts of their nature were left hungering still. The Church, therefore, rose up as a local centre, round which the spiritual affections and life of the neighbourhood gathered.
Bishop Lightfoot.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Amo 8:11. Famine of . . . words of the Lord. The people will have resisted the teaching of those who would have given them the truth (such as Ama ziah against Amos, verses 12, 13) until God will cease to offer them such teachers.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Amo 8:11. Behold the days come, saith the Lord This is spoken of events which were yet at some distance. That I will send a famine in the land, not of bread, &c., but of hearing the words of the Lord When Amos prophesied, and for a considerable time after, there were several prophets, and abundant opportunities of hearing the word of the Lord, in season and out of season: they had precept upon precept and line upon line. Prophecy was their daily bread; but they despised it as Israel did the manna in the wilderness; and therefore God threatens that he would hereafter deprive them of this privilege. It appears that there were not so many prophets in the land of Israel, about the time that their destruction came upon them, as there were in the land of Judah; and after the ten tribes were carried away captive, they saw not their signs; there were no more any prophets among them; none to show them How long; Psa 74:9. The Jewish church also, after Malachi, had no prophets for many ages. Now, 1st, This was the departure of a great part of their glory: what especially made their nation great and high was, that to them were committed the oracles of God: but when these were taken from them their beauty was stained, and their honour laid in the dust. 2d, This was a token of Gods highest displeasure against them: surely he was angry indeed with them, when he would no more speak to them as he had done; and had abandoned them to ruin, when he would no more reprove them for their sins, and call them to repentance by his messengers. 3d, This made all the other calamities that were upon them truly melancholy; that they had no prophets to instruct and comfort them from the word of God, nor to give them any hopeful prospect. We should say at any time, and shall be compelled to say in a time of trouble, that a famine of the word of God is, of all others, the sorest famine the heaviest judgment. It is not improbable that this threatening was intended to look further than to the judgment now referred to, even to the blindness which has in part happened to Israel, in the days of the Messiah, and the veil that is on the hearts of the unbelieving Jews. They reject the gospel, and the ministers of it, which God sends to them, and covet to have prophets of their own, as their fathers had; but they shall have none, the kingdom of God being taken from them and given to another people.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The silence of Yahweh 8:11-14
The few remaining Israelites would be silent as they disposed of the corpses of their fellows (Amo 8:3), but God would also be silent in that day of judgment.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
As part of His judgment, God would withhold His words from His people. This would be like a famine, not of physical food and drink but of spiritual food. God’s words provide spiritual nourishment and refreshment, so when they are not available people suffer spiritually (cf. Mat 4:4).
The Israelites had rejected the Lord’s words to them (Amo 2:11-12; Amo 7:10-13), so He would not send them to them any longer (cf. 1Sa 3:1; 1Sa 28:6). This is a fearful prospect. If we do not listen to the Word of God, we may not be able to hear the Word of God (cf. Luk 17:22; Joh 7:34). This does not mean that God would remove all copies of His Word from them but that when they sought a word of help, advice, or comfort from Him they would not get it (cf. King Saul). Prophets would not bring God’s words to them.