I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will not smell [a sweet odour] in your solemn assemblies.
Israel kept its religious calendar in full swing while its daily life ran the other way. God's answer is not a mild correction. It is open hatred of their worship. The question the verse forces on every reader is simple: what makes God refuse worship that looks correct?
The people were not irreligious. What they lacked was any reality behind the performance.
But the sons of Israel were in a very different spirit. They were superstitious and, as usual in such a case, distrustful of God. They talked piety, but there was no substance, no reality, in them... The pretence of honouring Him in sacrifice and feast-day, in song or harp, was hateful. All of it went together with self-will, with turning away from His word, and with setting up idols.
God turned down worship that was outwardly in place. The problem lay in the pretence behind it.
The Lord despised their outward worship. Their feast days and their different offerings did not please Him. It was all a hollow pretence of honouring Him, and all their songs were hateful to Him.
The refusal has a positive side. God names what He wanted from Israel instead, and He traces their failure back to its root.
The LORD took no pleasure in their offerings and sacrifices. He could not bear their solemn feasts. What He wanted was justice and righteousness. But the people had been the same from the start. In the wilderness they did not worship Him. They worshipped Moloch and Remphan, idols they had made for themselves.
The same principle was stated long before Amos. King Saul put sacrifice in the place of obedience.
For Saul, sacrifice is better than obedience; but, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry." Sacrifice without obedience is no better than idol worship. That is a solemn truth. The first attribute of faith is obedience.
Zeal was not what these people lacked. Their privileges made their case worse, not better.
They did not lack zeal in religion. They did look for a cure for the obvious troubles of their day. But their cures were worse than useless. Divine privileges only made their moral state more alarming and intolerable... their sacrifices, feasts, and assemblies were all the more hateful to the LORD. He felt that their feet defiled His courts, and He refused to hear their many prayers. There was no real repentance, no trembling at His word, but a religious veil over utter and shameless iniquity.
The same test applies to worship today.
Do you think the Lord likes a correct form and fine outward worship any better? Not if the heart is far from God, the hands are stained with sin, and the feet are not walking in the truth. We see so much around us that has the form of worship. But look closely, and you find it does not line up with the Word of God, and it does not obey His stated command.
Rejected worship is not the end of the story. The remedy starts with the worshipper.
God did not look on Cain's sacrifice (Gen. 4:5). It rested on the principle of "righteousness by works". Cain brought it without faith, and it ignored the death that must come before anyone can approach God. Amos had to tell the people of Israel that God would not accept their sacrifices because of their actions (Amos 5:21ff). If we have dishonoured the Lord we need to judge ourselves (1 Cor. 11:31). Then we can draw near to God again in worship.
- Cause. They kept the feasts alongside self-will, idols, and a turning away from God's word. The show of honour was only a pretence.
- Charge. They talked religion with nothing real behind it. Privilege made their state worse, not safer: a religious veil over open sin.
- Core. Sacrifice without obedience is no better than idol worship. To obey is better than sacrifice.
- Cure. If we have dishonoured the Lord, we judge ourselves first. Then we can draw near again.
- Call. What God turned down in worship, He still calls for in life: justice and righteousness.
For if ye offer up unto me burnt-offerings and your oblations, I will not accept [them]; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fatted beasts.
Israel's religious calendar was full and its altars were busy. God tells them He will not accept a single item of it. It raises a question that outlives Israel. What makes an offering acceptable, if the right gifts, brought the right way, can still be refused?
The verse names three offerings. The last one carries a name that can mislead. One writer explains what the Hebrew word behind "peace offerings" means:
In the Authorised Version this is called the peace-offering. It would be clearer if translated repayments, or recompenses, since that is what the Hebrew word Shelamim means. You can see in Leviticus 7:12, 16 that people brought it on private occasions, either for a vow or as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. It really has nothing to do with the idea of peace.
So the offerings God rejects here are the voluntary ones. They are gifts of thanks, vows kept, animals that cost the giver something. Generosity was not the missing ingredient.
The refusal is not a change of mind about sacrifice. It is a verdict on the lives attached to it. William Kelly names what their worship was mixed with:
Their pretence of honouring Him with sacrifice and feast day, with song or harp, was offensive. It was all joined with self-will, with turning away from His word, and with setting up idols.
Three things spoil the gift: their own will, their drift from what God had said, and their idols. Kelly sums up the people themselves in one line:
They talked piety, but there was no substance, no reality, in them.
Behind the rejection lies a question of who sets the terms. J. G. Bellett draws the line:
Clearly man is not to determine his own ways as a worshipper. Willingness in worship is right; wilfulness destroys it all. They brought their offerings of their own free will (Leviticus 1:3; 7:16), but they had to bring them in the way and at the place the Lord chose.
So a genuine, costly offering can still be turned away. The freedom to give never included the freedom to set the terms.
G. C. Willis presses the same question on worshippers today:
Do you think the Lord likes a correct form and fine outward worship any better? Not if the heart is away from God, the hands are defiled with sin, and the feet are not walking in the truth. The Lord says plainly, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22).
F. B. Hole describes the heart behind this kind of worship:
They were anything but poor in spirit. They were self-assertive, choosing their own ways and taking pleasure in detestable things.
The verse is a closed door, but not a locked one. William Kelly notes where God starts when He deals with people who have drifted:
When the Lord judges, He always goes back to the first sin. It is no different when grace works in our souls. Suppose a Christian has been living at a distance from God. To begin only with what he was doing today or yesterday is not enough: we must go back to the beginning… God's purpose in permitting a fall is to lead him to retrace his steps to the first point where he turned away from God.
Michael Hardt names the remedy:
God does want our daily lives and our worship to be consistent with His word. Otherwise He will not be able to accept what we offer… Amos had to tell the people of Israel that God would not accept their sacrifices because of their actions (Amos 5:21 and following). If we have dishonoured the Lord we need to judge ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:31). Then we can draw near to God again in worship.
What God refuses is not the offering but the split between the offering and the life. Close the gap, and the door opens again.
- Costly, not careless. The offerings refused here were the voluntary ones — thanksgivings, vows, fattened animals. Expense is not what makes a gift acceptable.
- Words without weight. Israel "talked piety, but there was no substance, no reality, in them." God read the life, not the liturgy.
- Three spoilers. Kelly names what made the worship offensive: self-will, departure from God's word, and idols set up alongside.
- Willing, not wilful. "Willingness in worship is right; wilfulness destroys it all." We may choose to give; we may not choose the terms.
- The door reopens. God goes back to the first sin, not just to yesterday's. Judge it, and we can draw near in worship again.
Take away from me the noise of thy songs, and I will not hear the melody of thy lutes;
God's word here is blunt: He asks Israel to stop the music. God does not condemn songs or instruments in themselves. The real question is why He refuses worship that looks and sounds religious.
Israel's worship was not thin. There were feast days, sacrifices, songs and harps. The problem lay in what went with them.
The pretence of honouring Him in sacrifice and feast-day, in song or harp, was hateful. It was all joined with self-will, with departure from His word, and with the setting up of idols.
The ESV calls the instrument a harp. Older translations read "viol" or "lute." One Hebrew word lies behind them all.
A stringed instrument. The word is nebel, and is often translated "psaltery." Its exact form is not known.
God calls their singing noise. Skill did not soften the offence; it sharpened it.
If they were not used for revelry, their sound would have been even less welcome in the ears of holiness. The studied strains of artificial melody stirred a fresh remembrance of deep hypocrisy. These people professed on the outside to love the places of God's honour, while their hearts were empty both of His fear and of His love (Amos 5:23; John 5:42).
Commentators apply this verse to Christian singing. A hymn can carry true words and skilled voices, and still offend God.
Psalms and spiritual songs may be sung without discernment and believing enjoyment of the One who is their theme. Sung that way, they are among the most offensive of the unacceptable offerings that fleshly irreverence brings, in its unholy rashness, into the courts of God (Amos 5:23 and following).
So the problem is not accuracy. It is coldness.
The heart therefore must be right before the Lord as well as the mind. Otherwise, though the expressions may be as clear as crystal, they will be as cold as ice.
God rejects the offering because of something outside the sanctuary: how these people lived. Yet there is a way back.
God does want our daily lives and our worship to be consistent with His word. Otherwise, He will not be able to accept what we offer... Amos had to tell the people of Israel that God would not accept their sacrifices. Their actions were the reason (Amos 5:21 and following). If we have dishonoured the Lord we need to judge ourselves (1 Cor. 11:31). Then we can draw near to God again in worship.
Self-judgment that stops at last week does not go deep enough.
When the Lord judges, He always goes back to the first sin. It is no different when grace works in our souls. Suppose a Christian has been walking at a distance from God. To begin merely with what he was doing today or yesterday is not enough; we must go back to the beginning. The Lord will have him look closely and judge, and see what was the root of such bad fruit. God's aim in allowing the fall is to lead him to retrace his steps to the first point of departure from Himself.
God is not against stringed instruments forever. One writer looks ahead to a day when the instruments He rejects here will please Him.
The melody of stringed instruments was once hateful, an ornament of deep and shameless hypocrisy (Amos 5:23). It shall be pleasant in Jehovah's ears when Israel's heart has truly turned to Him.
God does not stop at silencing the songs. The next verse asks for justice and righteousness. Commentators also read it as a promise for the day God blesses His people.
It is then that "justice shall roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24).
- Noise, not music. God calls their singing noise, not worship. Their show of honouring Him went hand in hand with self-will, departure from His word, and idols.
- Skill made it worse. Skilled melody did not hide the hypocrisy. These people claimed to love God's holy places, but had neither His fear nor His love.
- Crystal but cold. The same warning reaches Christian singing. Words can be clear as crystal and cold as ice. The heart must be right before the Lord, not only the mind.
- Life first, then song. God will not accept an offering that our daily life contradicts. The way back is self-judgment, then drawing near again.
- Songs restored. The instruments God refuses here will please Him again once Israel's heart turns back. Then justice rolls down like waters.
but let judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream.
Israel kept its religious calendar in full swing. At the same time its courts were corrupt and its poor were crushed. God does not ask for better festivals. He asks for something that runs through the whole national life like water. Commentators ask what that stream is, why it dried up, and when it will run. (Older translations render the first word here as "judgment" where the ESV has "justice.")
The verse comes after a run of refusals. God rejects their feasts, their offerings and their music. One writer looks at the people behind the ritual.
They were superstitious and, as usual in such a case, they did not trust God. They talked about godliness, but there was no substance, no reality, in them… Their pretence of honouring Him with sacrifice and feast-day, with song or harp, was hateful. It went hand in hand with self-will, with turning away from His word, and with setting up idols.
The verse is a contrast. God pushes their worship away, then names two things He wants in its place.
Jehovah took no pleasure in their offerings and sacrifices. He could not put up with their religious festivals. What He wanted was judgment and righteousness.
Earlier in the chapter Amos shows what was blocking the stream.
They were unrighteous and loved the ways of unrighteousness. If the judge at the gate gave a just verdict, they hated him for it. They could not stand anyone who spoke honestly. They trampled the poor into the dust and forced payments of grain out of them.
The gate is where Amos says justice belongs.
It is well known that in the East the gate is the seat of judicial authority. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom; that is, he became a magistrate or judge… "Establish judgment in the gate," we read in Amos 5:15.
Israel's rulers were meant to carry this justice to the people. One writer sets the verse against what they gave instead.
Instead of judgment flowing down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24), the land mourned because of the wrongdoing of its rulers. The shepherds, who should have cared for the Lord's flock, thought only of feeding themselves… The leaders of the people should have displayed God's own justice and mercy. Instead they had become rebels and companions of thieves.
God had just refused Israel's music. One writer carries that refusal over to singing today.
Psalms and spiritual songs have Christ as their theme. If they are sung without discerning Him and enjoying Him by faith, they are among the most offensive of the unacceptable offerings that the irreverence of the flesh rashly brings into the courts of God.
The way back is not better singing but honesty about the life behind it.
Amos had to tell the people of Israel that God would not accept their sacrifices because of their actions (Amos 5:21ff). If we have dishonoured the Lord we need to judge ourselves (1 Cor. 11:31). Then we can draw near to God again in worship.
The words are a demand, but commentators also read them as a promise waiting for its day.
That is when "judgment shall roll down as waters, and righteousness as an overflowing stream" (Amos 5:24). Jerusalem will be a peaceful home, for there "the mighty Jehovah will be for us a place of rivers."
The same turnaround reaches the music God once refused.
The music of the harps was once hateful, because it decorated a deep and open hypocrisy (Amos 5:23). It will be pleasant in Jehovah's ears when Israel's heart is turned to Him.
- Blocked — The stream stopped at the gate. Israel hated honest judges, could not stand honest speech, and trampled the poor into the dust.
- Diverted — Israel poured its energy into feasts, offerings and songs. There was no substance, no reality in them, so God refused all of it.
- Named — God said what He wanted: not sacrifices and festivals, but judgment and righteousness.
- Channelled — Justice was meant to flow through the rulers. Instead the land mourned because of their wrongdoing.
- Released — Judging ourselves reopens the way to worship now. In the coming day the same words become a promise: judgment rolling down like waters, and the music once hateful now pleasant in His ears.