And the high places of Isaac shall be desolated, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will arise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
God has just shown Amos a plumbline held against a wall. This verse is the verdict that follows: Israel's places of worship and her ruling family will both come down. It asks when God's patience with a people runs out, and what He strikes first when it does.
This verse ends the third of three warnings in the chapter. Each warning comes by a different instrument, and the last is a measuring tool:
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the last: first (verses 1-3) by the grasshoppers or creeping locusts, next (verses 4-6) by fire, and last (verses 7-9) by a plumbline, which showed the strict measure used to mark their sins. When patience had worn itself out, waiting longer would have meant taking the side of evil. These troubles seem to have come true in history under Pul, Tiglath-pileser and Shalmaneser, who finally swept the kingdom away.
The tool itself carries the point. The line that built the wall is the line that condemns it:
A simple device: a lump of lead, a stone, or another weight tied to a string. It tests whether a building or other structure stands upright. It pictures the exactness with which God brought judgment on Israel. God had built Israel up as a wall with a plumbline, and with a plumbline it would be pulled down.
The verse names two targets: the shrines and the royal house. Both fall by the same test:
He saw the Lord standing on a wall with the plumbline to see if the wall was straight. The test by God's Word and God's holy law shows that everything is crooked and must be condemned. So comes the announcement: "I shall pass by it no more." The false worship and the monarchy in Israel will be completely swept away by the judgment.
The shrines fall first, and that fits the whole book. One writer traces every other sin in Israel back to her corrupt worship:
"Hear this word" begins Amos 3, Amos 4 and Amos 5. All of them are warnings to His guilty people, whose false worship was the mother sin behind all their other sins. Amos 6 is a woe on the security they felt in themselves and on their luxury, like nations that do not know God. The Lord Jehovah had turned back destroying judgments at the prophet's prayer. Now He would take the measuring-line in hand and lay waste the people and the king (Amos 7).
Twice in this chapter Amos pleads, and God holds the blow back. At the plumbline, nothing turns Him aside:
God had long waited patiently. More than once He had been on the point of giving Israel up to judgment. The prayer of the prophet — that is, of the Spirit of Christ working in the prophets — had held back the punishment. But now Jehovah would rise up to judgment, with the measuring-line in His hand, and nothing would turn Him aside. With the house of Jehu, Israel would fall. That is in fact what happened. Israel had been raised up again after earlier falls, but not after the house of Jehu had fallen.
The sentence on the royal house landed on the last king of the line, and it landed where God had already said it would:
Zechariah, Jeroboam's son, was the fourth generation granted to the house of Jehu by the Lord (2 Kings 10:30). But Zechariah, the last link of this chain, is in fact already rejected. He reigns only six months. God then turns away from him and his successors, just as He had said: "I will not again pass by them any more" (Amos 7:8; Amos 8:2). Hosea says the same: "They have set up kings, but not by me" (Hosea 8:4).
The verse threatens the sanctuaries, and Bethel's own priest had a name for his shrine: the king's sanctuary. That one phrase gave the game away:
It is remarkable how his language betrays him. Religion in Israel was a political arrangement, despite their effort to copy God's ritual. So here Amaziah speaks of the king's sanctuary as naturally as of the king's court. In the same way, people name their religious groups after their country, after an invented system, or after a favourite doctrine. No one thinks of a divine source and authority, except as decoration for the structure — not as something the heart must submit to and obey.
- Measured. God built Israel as a wall with a plumbline, and He measures her by the same line. This judgment is not temper. It is exact measurement against His Word.
- Root. The shrines fall before the throne, because false worship was the mother sin behind every other sin in the book.
- Limit. Prayer held back locusts and fire. At the plumbline, patience had run out, and waiting longer would have meant taking the side of evil.
- Fulfilled. The sword reached Jeroboam's house in his son Zechariah. His six-month reign closed the line of Jehu, and Israel was never raised up again.
- Exposed. A religion run by the state has no room for God's authority. Bethel's priest spoke of "the king's sanctuary" as easily as of the king's court.
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel the land is not able to bear all his words.
Amos has just seen a plumbline set against Israel, and has announced judgment on the house of Jeroboam. The reply comes not from the king but from the priest at Bethel. Amaziah sends word to the palace that the prophet is a conspirator, and that the country cannot survive what he is saying.
The accusation follows three warnings already given in this chapter.
Amos 7 sets out three judgments on Israel, each heavier than the last: first (verses 1-3) by the locusts, next (verses 4-6) by fire, and last (verses 7-9) by a plumbline. The plumbline showed the strict measure applied to mark their sins. When patience had exhausted itself, further delay would have been sharing in the evil.
Amos had said the sword would come against the house of Jeroboam. Amaziah reports something different to the palace.
Amaziah, priest of the calf idol at Bethel, warns the king that Amos is prophesying against Israel. He adds that Amos had foretold the violent death of the king, and this was a lie. By this slander Amaziah was trying to rid himself of the prophet and have him sent away to Judah. He wanted this because the prophet was competing with him at Bethel.
Amaziah speaks one way to the king and another way to Amos.
The priest Amaziah tries to stir up the fears and jealousy of the king against Amos (verses 10, 11). At the same time he pretends to advise Amos for his own good. His aim was to get rid of the divine testimony, which he dreaded.
Amaziah tells the king the land cannot bear what Amos says. One writer traces that to the kind of religion Bethel had become.
A prophecy like this was out of place in the king's chapel. A religion arranged by the policy of man, without the fear of God, cannot endure the testimony of truth. Bethel was the house of the kingdom. The priest reports it all to the king. Let the prophet go away to Judah. There God still acknowledged Judah, and the truth could be preached; but Bethel was not the place for such unwelcome truths. The king was the ruler in all religious matters: man was master. But the LORD does not give up His own rights.
The same kind of charge appears again later in Scripture.
Amaziah, the apostate priest at Bethel, who had charge of the idol worship, accused the prophet falsely before King Jeroboam. It was a religious political accusation. The enemy accused Jeremiah in the same way (Jeremiah 37:14-15); he did the same with our Lord and His apostles.
Another writer sees the same treatment given to Elijah.
Elijah had to bear the charge of troubling Israel: "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" The more faithful someone is to God and His truth, the more open he is to this charge. If everything sleeps on in dead stillness, the god of this world will be well pleased and his territory undisturbed. But let one faithful person appear, and people are sure to treat him as a troubler and an intruder on peace and good order.
The king never answers the charge. One writer puts that down to what Jeroboam knew about the man who made it.
Men looked on Amos as a troubler of the peace of the kingdom. Amaziah the priest of Bethel told him to flee away to the land of Judah, "and eat bread there, and prophesy there," as if God's prophet were nothing more than a hired man like himself. He also accused the prophet before the king of having conspired against his life. Jeroboam seems to have paid little or no attention to this charge. He was perhaps too sensible a man to believe it, knowing the jealous, self-seeking spirit of the chief priest of the nation.
- Plumbline — Three judgments run through the chapter, ending with a plumbline set against Israel. God's patience had run out, and waiting longer would have meant sharing in the evil.
- Panic — Amaziah dreaded the prophet's testimony and wanted it gone. His report to the king and his friendly advice to Amos both serve that one aim.
- Perversion — A warning against the house of Jeroboam becomes a plot against the king's life. Writers call it a lie and a slander, told by a man defending his own position.
- Pattern — A religion arranged by human policy cannot bear the testimony of truth. The same religious-political charge later falls on Jeremiah, on the Lord, and on His apostles.
- Price — Faithfulness earns a man the name "troubler." The king here ignores the charge, and God does not give up His own rights.
For thus Amos saith Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall certainly go into captivity out of his land.
Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, reports Amos to the king, quoting him: the king will die by the sword, the nation will go into exile. Commentators show what he added to the report, what he left out, and why the palace treated a preacher's words as a crime.
Amaziah does not answer Amos. He goes over his head to the throne, and sharpens the message on the way.
Amaziah, priest of the calf-idol at Bethel, warns the king that Amos is prophesying against Israel. He adds a lie: that Amos had foretold the violent death of the king. By this slander Amaziah was trying to get rid of the prophet and have him sent away to Judah, because Amos was competing with him at Bethel.
Amos had prophesied against Israel. Amaziah turns that into a personal death threat against the king himself — the charge most likely to get a hearing at court.
This tactic did not begin or end with Amaziah. Others used it on later messengers from God.
Amaziah, the apostate priest at Bethel, who had charge of the idol worship, accused the prophet falsely before King Jeroboam. It was a religious political accusation. Thus the enemy accused Jeremiah also (Jeremiah 37:14-15); he did the same with our Lord and His apostles.
Amaziah claims the country cannot absorb what Amos is saying. The trouble was not the number of words. It was the system they exposed: worship arranged by royal policy.
A prophecy like this was out of place in the king's chapel. A religion arranged by human policy, without the fear of God, cannot stand the testimony of truth. Bethel was the house of the kingdom. The priest reports it all to the king. Let the prophet go away to Judah. There God acknowledged Judah, and the truth could be spoken there. But Bethel was not the place for such unwelcome truths.
The same reflex shows up wherever someone else decides what a believer may preach.
Today too, in many countries, believers suffer persecution. They are told what to preach and teach, and what subjects to avoid. In some places people are even trying to have the Bible classified as hate literature, because it states God's holy standards without compromise. Sinful man is ready enough for a religion he can invent and control himself, but he refuses to submit to God's standards.
Two moves run side by side here. Amaziah alarms the king, and he plays the friend to the prophet. Both serve one purpose.
The priest Amaziah works to stir up the king's fear and jealousy against Amos (verses 10, 11). At the same time he pretends to advise Amos for his own good. His aim was to get rid of the divine testimony, which he dreaded.
The king himself seems unmoved. The plot fails at the very point Amaziah aimed it.
Amos was seen as a troubler of the kingdom's peace... Amaziah also accused the prophet before the king of plotting against the king's life. Jeroboam seems to have paid little or no attention to this charge. He may have been too sensible a man to believe it, since he knew the jealous, self-seeking spirit of the nation's chief priest.
Whatever he twisted about the king, the second half of his report was true. Rossier ties it to the moment when God would no longer relent.
A terrible judgment must fall on these official men. They serve the world and its false gods, and they give those gods the name of the Lord. As for Israel, the people must certainly be carried away captive. From then on there would be no more repentance in God's heart toward them. The time had come; it was too late.
Amaziah repeated the verdict to get the messenger sent away. He never noticed that the verdict included him.
- Reported. Amaziah does not argue with Amos. He sends an edited version to the king, where words count as a crime instead of a message to answer.
- Twisted. Amos prophesied against Israel. Rossier calls the added claim — that Amos foretold the king's violent death — a slander meant to remove a rival at Bethel.
- Rebranded. Turning a message from God into a political threat is an old tactic. Gaebelein traces it from Jeremiah to Christ and His apostles.
- Resented. Amaziah said the land could not bear Amos's words. Darby names the real problem: a religion arranged by human policy cannot stand the testimony of truth.
- Realised. The half Amaziah quoted straight came true. Israel went into captivity, and the judgment fell on the priest who wanted the warning silenced.