# commentaries

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<p>They cry to Me, ‘My God, how we know You!’- See on 6:6 The knowledge of God. As Gomer claimed to "know" / be in relationship with Hosea, so did Israel with God. They drew near with their lips, but their heart was far from Him (<a href='B:290 29:13'>Isa 29:13</a>). Israel prayed intensely to God, but not from their heart (see on <a href='B:350 7:14'>Hos 7:14</a>). Prayer alone is not enough; we can pray, but not from the heart. Elijah prayed within his prayer- from his heart, beyond the words (see on <a href='B:660 5:17'>Jas 5:17</a>). And likewise knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. The very knowledge about Him of itself can lead us to assume that therefore we know Him in relationship; but this crucial difference needs to be realized by us. And the more knowledge we accrue, the more likely we are to be tempted to assume this is enough. In this lies the problem of defining fellowship with God on the basis of a set of theological propositions; fellowship / knowledge / relationship with God is a moral and not a solely theological issue.</p>


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<p>Israel has cast off that which is good. The enemy will pursue him- This is God’s answer to their prayer of :2. He says they have cast Him off, just as the Lord will reply to those who knock on the door at the last day by saying that He never knew them, i:e. they never ’knew’ Him (<a href='B:470 7:23'>Mat 7:23</a>):The&nbsp; LXX has "they have pursued an enemy"; by going to Assyria for help (:9), like Gomer chasing after her lovers, they were chasing after those who would later be their enemy. And by so doing they were casting off relationship with God who would do them good rather than evil; for He is "God who is good, and is always doing good" (<a href='B:230 119:68'>Psa 119:68</a>). There is an ambiguity in the text- they pursued their enemies, and the enemies pursued them, as threatened in the Mosaic curses for disobedience. By chasing after the Assyrians for help, they brought about the Assyrians chasing them.</p>


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<p>They have set up kings, but not by Me. They have made princes, and I didn’t approve- Jeroboam became king of the ten tribes after the revolt against the house of David and Judah. There is an allusion to his calves in :5. This was not God’s will; and yet He also brought the situation about as judgment upon His people, and it was according to His word that Jeroboam became king (<a href='B:110 11:37'>1Ki 11:37</a>). Likewise it was not God’s wish that Jerusalem be destroyed; and yet it was His prophetic word which brought it about. If we will not do God’s will, then He propels us further in that path; there is both an evil and a holy spirit which alike proceed from the Lord. But His propulsion of evil men in their path does not mean that He approves their actions.</p><p>Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off- As Gomer used Hosea’s wealth to hire lovers and serve idols. They "cast off" relationship with God (:3), and He in turn cut them off. The term for "cut off" is used of cutting / making a covenant; and they had despised God’s exclusive covenant and cut covenants with the Assyrians (s:w. <a href='B:350 10:4'>Hos 10:4</a>; <a href='B:350 12:1'>Hos 12:1</a>). Those covenants involved agreements to worship the idols of their lovers / helpers. The silver and gold they paid to the Gentile armies required them to make the idols of those peoples (<a href='B:120 16:17'>2Ki 16:17</a>).</p>


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<p>Let Samaria throw out his calf idol!- The calf idols of Jeroboam were to be destroyed anyway by the invaders (:6), so they were to throw them down now. We feel Hosea’s personal anger reflecting that of the God whose Spirit was inspiring him. We too need to throw away our idols for they shall be destroyed anyway by the Lord’s coming. Ahaz had ’thrown out’ the vessels of the temple (<a href='B:140 29:19'>2Ch 29:19</a> s:w:); Hosea was calling for a radical inversion of values. The call of the prophetic word is no less radical in our day. Again we see an intentional ambiguity in the Hebrew- it could read (as AV) that Samaria’s calf had led to her being thrown out / cast off by God; but that would not be the case if Samaria threw out her calf idol.</p><p>My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity?- The existence of the calf idols meant that purity was impossible for them. "Purity" has sexual overtones, and we again note that Gomer’s impurity was the basis of Israel’s idolatry. But even in this we see God’s power to restore; sexual impurity can be read as making the offender permanently impure. But God like Hosea could restore her to a former innocence, by the grace of His imputed righteousness and cleansing spirit of forgiveness. And in Christ we likewise can become a new creation (<a href='B:540 5:17'>2Co 5:17</a>), with the psychological effects of past sins dealt with and cleansed in God’s sight. Again we see a juxtaposition- God’s anger burnt, and yet at the same time He wished ["How long…?"] for their repentance and restoration. Hosea felt the same about Gomer</p>


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<p>For this is even made in Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God- The true God is not made with hands. The characteristic of idols is that they are humanly created. God alone is uncreate; but there is a constant tension within us between wanting to worship human works, and worshipping God. The desire to worship is coded within our natures; but it is for us to decide what we worship.</p><p>Indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces- Therefore, they were to destroy it now (:5). One reason why Israel wouldn’t destroy the calves was because they were such a long standing symbol of their argument with Judah; it would be rather like spitting upon the flag of one’s birth nation. But loyalty to God ought to have been stronger than these cultural, socio-historical loyalties.</p>


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<p>For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind- We would expect to read that they sowed to the flesh, and so of the flesh would reap a whirlwind of judgment (as in <a href='B:550 6:8'>Gal 6:8</a>). But sowing to the flesh is sowing the wind. They were wasting their lives, as Gomer did, on wind, on light things of no eternal moment. And for that, would reap the whirlwind of judgment. This repeats the great prophetic theme- that what might appear of little consequence in secular terms will result in eternal judgment and even now provokes the wrath of God. We live in a world which as never before sows the wind, glorifying the inane, vapid and meaningless. Social media, art and entertainment are full of it. We can spend our hearts and our time on it- and reap the whirlwind. Whatever we do, we are sowing. All human thought, action and living is a sowing, and we shall one day reap accordingly. We can take no time out from this sowing; life, every moment of it and every thought, has eternal consequence. The things of God’s ways are ’heavy’ and not wind; the Hebrew word for "glory" is literally "weight". The things of the eternal weight of glory are being prepared for us now (<a href='B:540 4:17'>2Co 4:17</a>). But Israel sowed the wind in their lives, and became themselves light, or vain and "worthless" (:8).</p><p>He has no standing grain; the stalk will yield no head of grain. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up- Israel had sowed, but sowed the wind. No grain would therefore be found upon them. They were as stalks without any head of grain. Their prayers and ritual obediences were but a stalk. The fruit of the Spirit was lacking. Any apparent spiritual fruit they had would be the food of the Gentiles, and not unto God. But ’swallow up’ really means ’to destroy’. They would be unable to spiritually cope with their judgment by the Gentiles, and any spirituality they might have developed would be destroyed by it. As Hosea gave Gomer grain (<a href='B:350 2:8'>Hos 2:8</a>), so God had enabled Israel to bear such fruit; but they had given it to the idols of the Gentiles.</p>


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<p>Israel is swallowed up- Again, the present tenses are used about future events. The word of judgment had gone forth, it was as good as done; but in the gap between word and fulfilment, they could repent and change God’s present reality. This is the time gap we too stand in, as Paul reasons in Romans. This gives intensity to our repentance and our grateful acceptance of the changed verdict. See on :1 and <a href='B:350 6:5'>Hos 6:5</a>.</p><p>Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing- Israel were "worthless" in that they had sowed the wind, they had been "light" rather than "heavy" (:7). The same Hebrew term is used of Coniah in <a href='B:300 22:28'>Jer 22:28</a>.</p>


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<p>For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself- Because they had sought help from Assyria, it was as if Assyria had already attacked and destroyed them (:8). As Gomer paid men for sex, so Ephraim hired "lovers", the help of flesh against their invaders. Menahem and Pekah paid huge sums of money to get their invaders to turn away from them (as noted in <a href='B:350 7:11'>Hos 7:11</a>)- instead of turning to Yahweh. Quietly trusting in human help was for God- adultery. And this principle comes down hard upon us in our age, where savings and human security are perhaps the equivalent. Seeking this help was likened to being "a wild donkey wandering alone". The allusion may be to a donkey in heat, wandering around looking for a female to inseminate (as in <a href='B:300 2:24'>Jer 2:24</a>). This would continue the connection between adultery / sexual infatuation and going to Assyria for help, instead of turning to God.</p>


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<p>But although they sold themselves among the nations- Like Gomer who paid men for sex, so Israel had given money to the nations around them for salvation (:9). But this was also a selling of herself; what she was given was apparent material support against her enemies. But what did Israel sell? What did Gomer sell? What does a prostitute sell? Her very self. Israel’s inner heart was not with God, as Gomer’s was not with Hosea. They gave it away to others. Anything less than a heart exclusively devoted to God is as prostitution. We therefore need to watch our heart, our mind, our spirit; for out of it are the issues of life eternal (<a href='B:240 4:23'>Pro 4:23</a>). We need to ask whether the visual images and sounds and words we willingly subject ourselves to are going to help us maintain that heart for God.</p><p>I will now gather them; and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones- In the LXX there is a juxtaposition of ideas: "Therefore shall they be delivered to the nations: now I will receive them, and they shall cease a little to anoint a king and princes". Repeatedly, God’s words of judgment contain within the same sentence or paragraph the promise of restoration. Those judgments were therefore not uttered in the blindanger of an offended deity. Yahweh was not like that. His love and pity are an intrinsic part of His anger with sin; "for the wrath of God is the love of God". The various aspects of our characters tend to manifest themselves at different times; one moment we are angry with someone, and then we cool down and pity them. But God is outside of time as we experience it; His characteristics are more holistically manifested, all articulated at the same time in His every word and action. According to the LXX, God’s hope was that after "a little [time]" they would again choose a Messianic king and be received again by God, having been regathered by Him. This was Hosea’s hope for Gomer. This is the two or three day period of <a href='B:350 6:2'>Hos 6:2</a> (see note there). But it didn’t work out like that for Hosea with Gomer, neither did it for God at the time of the restoration, when most of His people preferred to remain in exile from Him.</p>


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<p>Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning- The more possibilities we give ourselves to sin, the more we will. This applies today in terms of what we watch and with whom we mix. This all began with Jeroboam saying that Israel could worship Yahweh at the calf idol altars, rather than going up to the Jerusalem temple. That multiplication of altars, just two to begin with, in turn multiplied, and became "sin" (<a href='B:110 12:30'>1Ki 12:30</a>; <a href='B:110 13:34'>1Ki 13:34</a>). There was to be but one altar, and this was sternly emphasized (<a href='B:50 12:5-6'>Deu 12:5-6</a>; <a href='B:50 12:13-14'>Deu 12:13-14</a>). God foresaw what would happen; the tendency would be to serve God as they thought and wanted, rather than as He wanted, and to mix idolatry with worshipping Him. This tendency to worship idols in the name of God is strong to this day- we may seek a better kitchen, a holiday home, a nicer car... supposedly in order to serve God. But after all those things do the Gentiles also seek.</p>


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<p>I wrote for him the many things of My law- See on <a href='B:350 6:6'>Hos 6:6</a> The knowledge of God. I noted on :1 that the Mosaic law given at Sinai was the marriage covenant between God and Israel. As Gomer despised her marriage covenant with Hosea, so did Israel. "I wrote" is literally "I write"; the covenant was written in the handwriting of God. It could not have been a more intimate contract between God and Israel, and was as it were written for each member of Israel in an ongoing sense. "Many things" is the same word as "multiplied" in :11. They had many idols, whereas there were many things written in God’s law. Their obedience to those many things was precluded by their many idols; as if each Divine commandment had an idol precluding obedience to it. His commandments are designed to help us not have idols; if we obey them, then we will not serve idols.</p><p>But they were regarded as a strange thing- The Hebrew would be better translated: "They were woven / turned into a foreign / Gentile / adulterous thing". This speaks of how they worshipped idols in the name of Yahweh worship, claiming that their various idolatrous rituals were in fact obedience to God’s commandments. Thus the "many things of My law" became parallel with their "many" idols (:11). And again we have to note that this is our tendency- to justify wrong behaviour, be it gossip or materialism, as some kind of service of God.</p>


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<p>As for the sacrifices of My offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but Yahweh doesn’t accept them- Israel didn’t stop sacrificing to God, just as Gomer never ceased going through the motions of being married to Hosea. I noted on <a href='B:350 7:14'>Hos 7:14</a> that Israel prayed to God, even intensely, but their heart was not with them. Isaiah likewise condemns Israel for offering sacrifice whilst serving other gods. The motions of religious worship, attending meetings, sacrificing money, prayer to God... all this of itself is not what God seeks. Even fasting didn’t make God "accept them" (<a href='B:300 14:12'>Jer 14:12</a> s:w:). It is not accepted if our hearts are not with Him. If we have not the spirit of Christ, we are none of His. The same word is used of how if the returned exiles rebuilt a temple according to the specifications in Ezekiel 40-48, then Yahweh would "accept" their offerings (<a href='B:330 43:27'>Eze 43:27</a>); in this way He would "accept" the returned exiles as His people (<a href='B:330 20:40-41'>Eze 20:40-41</a> s:w:). Just as Hosea would have accepted back a repentant Gomer. But they didn’t build as required, and despised the temple they did build, according to Haggai and Malachi. There is a desire to worship and to sacrifice coded into human beings, a desire to give to a good cause. But this is not the same as acceptable sacrifice. He has all material things and needs nothing. What He seeks is the sacrifice of a broken, humbled and repentant spirit. And that is rarely offered to Him.</p><p>Now He will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins- The words of <a href='B:300 14:10'>Jer 14:10</a>. It’s not clear who was quoting who, Hosea or Jeremiah; or it could be that God inspired them both with the same words at around the same time. As noted on <a href='B:350 7:2'>Hos 7:2</a>, there is an assumption that if we forget our sins, then God does too. The passage of time and fading of memory thereby works a kind of pseudo atonement for us. But God remembers. And we must ever consider this in our hearts.</p><p>They will return to Egypt- They would return to Egypt and be derided there (<a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a>). God says this clearly in <a href='B:350 9:3'>Hos 9:3</a>; <a href='B:350 9:6'>Hos 9:6</a>. But just as clearly He says that they will not return to Egypt (<a href='B:350 11:5'>Hos 11:5</a>). Here we see how God’s changes of heart were so kindled, as were Hosea’s regarding Gomer (<a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>). He is not capricious, rather does He allow Himself to genuinely struggle within Himself over His people, wishing to save and so not wanting to condemn.</p>


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<p>For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and it will devour its fortresses- Israel and Judah were zealously religious for Yahweh (see on :13). But they forgot their maker because they trusted in human fortifications for defence rather than God (<a href='B:300 5:17'>Jer 5:17</a>); their heart was lifted up and therefore they forgot God (<a href='B:350 13:6'>Hos 13:6</a>). Again, it was a question of the heart. They forgot God, their hearts were not with Him in daily life. Their technical obedience and religion were of no account compared to that. They kept parts of the Mosaic law (:13), and yet they "forgot the law of your God" (<a href='B:350 4:6'>Hos 4:6</a>). External obedience is nothing if the covenant is not in our hearts. Forgetting God is associated with adultery in <a href='B:330 23:35'>Eze 23:35</a>; <a href='B:350 2:13'>Hos 2:13</a>. "Palaces" here is also translated "temples", which were the source of their literal and spiritual adultery. That God is our maker ought to be an imperative to ever remember Him and not forget Him; our very bodies are witnesses to Him as we are created in His image (<a href='B:50 32:15'>Deu 32:15</a>; <a href='B:50 32:18'>Deu 32:18</a>). This is where faith in the creation record strengthens our further faith in daily life; and vice versa.</p>


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<p>Don’t rejoice in jubilation, Israel, like the other nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor- Perhaps Hosea uttered this prophecy at some harvest festival. The "jubilation" was the joy of harvest, at the threshing floor (:2). Baal was a fertility cult. Blessings of good harvests, corn and wine, were promised to Israel for their loyalty to the covenant. But they prostituted themselves to Baal, trusting Baal for such harvests. And now like the other nations, in a year of good harvests, they joyfully thanked Baal. But the difference between them and the other nations was that they had thereby been maritally unfaithful to Yahweh. The apparent blessings of corn and wine were a reward not for their obedience to His covenant, but were the wages received for their prostitution with Baal. Hosea experienced the same with Gomer, who received payment in terms of food and clothing from her lovers, when these were what Hosea was obliged to give her as his covenanted wife.</p>


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<p>The threshing floor and the winepress won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her- Threshing floor and winepress are also figures for judgment. By rejoicing in the apparent fertility given by the Baal cult, probably sleeping with the cult prostitutes on the threshing floors, Israel were living out their own judgment. They would be threshed / judged for this.</p>


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<p>They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt- They would return to Egypt and be derided there (<a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a>). God says this clearly in <a href='B:350 8:13'>Hos 8:13</a>. But just as clearly He says that they will not return to Egypt (<a href='B:350 11:5'>Hos 11:5</a>). Here we see how God’s changes of heart were so kindled, as were Hosea’s regarding Gomer (<a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>). He is not capricious, rather does He allow Himself to genuinely struggle within Himself over His people, wishing to save and so not wanting to condemn. See on :6.</p><p>Another possibility is that returning to Egypt is meant to be understood as God saying that just as He had brought them out of Egypt and entered a marriage covenant with them at Sinai (see on <a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>), now He was sending them back to their land of origin- which was Egypt rather than Canaan. He was divorcing them, sending away His wife.</p><p>And they will eat unclean food in Assyria- God confirms men in the downward path they choose. Israel didn’t want to be obedient to God’s laws, and so they would go to Assyria where they would have to break those laws. Both an evil and holy spirit come from God, confirming us in the paths we choose. The next verse continues this theme.</p>


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<p>They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh, neither will they be pleasing to Him- As noted on :3, Israel didn’t want to be obedient to God, and so He sent them into a situation in exile where they could not properly offer to Him, as they had no temple nor acceptable altar. God confirms sinners in the downward spiral they themselves desire. The ten tribes had declined to go up to the Jerusalem temple and now in captivity they would be left without that possibility at all. If we don’t take our spiritual opportunities, they are taken away from us; it’s a case of use it or lose it. Their offerings were not "pleasing" to God whilst within the land(<a href='B:300 6:20'>Jer 6:20</a>; <a href='B:460 3:4'>Mal 3:4</a> s:w:); and they would now be put into a position where their offerings in exile could not "please" Him.</p><p>Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted. Their bread will merely be for their hunger, it will not come with acceptance as an offering into the house of Yahweh- "Bread of mourners", "like food eaten at funerals" (GNB) is literally the bread of aven, of sin, of idolatry. Their eating pagan sacrifices in the name of Yahweh worship had amounted to this; and their attempts to worship Yahweh in captivity would be seen likewise. The ten tribes hadn’t wanted to go up to "the house of Yahweh"; and so their attempts to consider that somehow their sacrifices offered in exile came into His house were not going to be acceptable. All too late they would wish to somehow have fellowship with His house; but too late. This is the tragedy of the rejected, that they will want all too late to enter God’s house, knocking on the closed door.</p>


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<p>What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?- As noted on :3 and :4, in captivity they would have no opportunity to acceptably keep the feasts. They had no temple nor functioning priesthood. But this was because they themselves had sacrificed to Baal in the name of Yahweh worship. "The day of solemn assembly" may refer to the day of atonement. They had not wanted to keep it as intended whilst they could, and in exile it wouldn’t be possible.</p>


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<p>For, behold, they have marched off to destruction; Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them- The references to death at Memphis in Egypt sound as if for sure, God would send them into captivity in Egypt. The GNB has: "When the disaster comes and the people are scattered, the Egyptians will gather them up- gather them for burial there at Memphis!". This was clearly stated in <a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a>; <a href='B:350 9:3'>Hos 9:3</a>; <a href='B:350 9:6'>Hos 9:6</a>. But just as clearly He says that they will not return to Egypt (<a href='B:350 11:5'>Hos 11:5</a>). Here we see how God’s changes of heart were so kindled, as were Hosea’s regarding Gomer (<a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>). He is not capricious, rather does He allow Himself to genuinely struggle within Himself over His people, wishing to save and so not wanting to condemn. We note the past tenses, when the threatened captivity was yet future. God’s word of judgment is sure, but in the gap between statement and fulfilment, we can repent and change it. This is the intensity of the human moment in which we live hour by hour.</p><p>Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver, thorns will come up in their tents- This may refer to the high places and tents set up for pagan rites on the high places of Israel. They would be abandoned and overgrown with nettles and thorns, the sign of the curse for sin in Eden.</p>


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<p>The days of visitation have come, the days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the inspired man to be insane- They considered Hosea to be mad. And indeed the stress within Hosea was so enormous that he may indeed have had some kind of breakdown; not only from his relationship with Gomer, but because he had real insight into God’s feelings for Israel. The psychological strengthening of the prophets (see on <a href='B:330 2:4-6'>Eze 2:4-6</a>) was absolutely necessary- for no human being can live in a constant state of inspiration without breaking. The composer Tchaikovsky commented: “If that condition of mind and soul, which we call inspiration, lasted long without intermission, no artist could survive it. The strings would break and the instruments be shattered into fragments” (Rosa Newmarch, The Life And Letters Of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky (New York: Vienna House, 1973 ed:) pp. 274,275). The whole tremendous experience of having God’s mind in them, sharing His perspective, seeing the world through His eyes, made the prophets appear crazy to others. There’s a marked emphasis upon the fact that they were perceived as madmen (e.g. <a href='B:300 29:24'>Jer 29:24</a>; <a href='B:300 29:26'>Jer 29:26</a>; <a href='B:120 9:11'>2Ki 9:11</a>). For us to walk down a street for even ten minutes, feeling and perceiving and knowing the sin of every person in those rooms and houses and yards, feeling the weeping of God over each of them… would send us crazy. And yet God strengthened the prophets, and there’s no reason to think that He will not as it were strengthen us in our sensitivity too.</p><p>Because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great- Like Gomer with Hosea, Israel would never have considered themselves hostile to God. But this is how He sees our behaviour. But perhaps there was indeed some level of anger with God, and anger with Hosea by Gomer. Like addicts, she came to hate Hosea, the very one who enabled her as a person, who alone had loved her truly (9:7,8). And yet Hosea loved her to the end. All this is of course a simple warning against sexual addiction, which is one of the most untabulated and significant addictions in our society. But for a man to love a woman like this is a marvellous picture of God’s love for His Israel, both then and now.</p>


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<p>A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God-The GNB captures the sense: "God has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel. Yet wherever I go, you try to trap me like a bird. Even in God’s Temple the people are the prophet’s enemies". God watches over His word to perform it (<a href='B:300 1:12'>Jer 1:12</a>). But He did so through Hosea and the prophets. Yet the people tried to trap him in his words and were openly hostile to him in the temple courts- just as happened to the Lord. Hostility in the temple would have come from the two tribe kingdom of Judah; despite the Mosaic rituals being observed there, the people opposed God’s word as represented by Hosea.</p>


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<p>They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah- The sin of Gibeah was the rape and murder of the Levites’ concubine, and the Levite sending parts of her body throughout Israel (Judges 19). The sin of Gibeah was performed by the Benjamites, and Hosea has just lamented the opposition he faced in the Jerusalem temple at the hands of Judah and Benjamin (:8).</p><p>He will remember their iniquity, He will punish them for their sins- As noted on <a href='B:350 7:2'>Hos 7:2</a>; <a href='B:350 8:13'>Hos 8:13</a>, there is an assumption that if we forget our sins, then God does too. The passage of time and fading of memory thereby works a kind of pseudo atonement for us. But God remembers. And we must ever consider this in our hearts. This is a basic theme in Hosea, arising no doubt from Hosea’s noticing and remembering all of Gomer’s unfaithfulness, even though she thought he hadn’t noticed.</p>


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<p>I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season- God fell in love with Israel in the wilderness, according to Ezekiel 16 and Jeremiah 2. This seems to imply that in the same way as God fell in love with Israel in the wilderness, even though they were worshipping idols even then, so Hosea did actually find Gomer attractive initially. The emphasis is upon how God "found" and "saw" them to be attractive at Sinai, and entered into a marriage covenant with them. But as Ezekiel 20 reminds us, they carried the idols of Egypt with them at this time, carrying the star of Remphan and the tabernacle of Moloch with them along with that of Yahweh. But despite that, God imputed righteousness to them and saw them as wonderfully attractive, just as <a href='B:40 23:21'>Num 23:21</a>; <a href='B:40 24:6'>Num 24:6</a> say that God did not see iniquity in Israel but saw them as beautiful trees. The idea of imputed righteousness was there in the Old Testament; it is part of love. In Hosea’s terms, God says He saw them as grapes and ripe figs, as if they had spiritual fruit when they did not. Grapes and figs don’t grow in the desert; but God saw them like this. We struggle to believe that God and His Son really see us so positively, "unblameable... without spot... in His sight". But this is what faith in the love of God is all about.</p><p>God ’finding’ Israel could mean, as suggested above, that this is how they appeared to Him, how He saw them. But it could equally mean that God searched for them and found them. God’s search for man is a repeated theme of the prophets. “He found him in a desert land… He encircled him, He cared for him, He kept him as the apple of his eye” (<a href='B:50 32:10'>Deu 32:10</a>). “I said, Here am I, here am I… I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people… I called, no one answered” (<a href='B:290 50:2'>Isa 50:2</a>; <a href='B:290 65:1-2'>Isa 65:1-2</a>; <a href='B:290 66:4'>Isa 66:4</a>). “I have found David my servant” (<a href='B:230 89:20'>Psa 89:20</a>). God is in search of man. If we are in search of Him, there is an electric moment when His search for us and ours for Him come to meeting point. And yet in another sense, we don’t so much as find God, as realize that He already is earnestly with us. Every man and woman is somehow a life “bound in the bundle of living in the care of the Lord” (<a href='B:90 25:29'>1Sa 25:29</a>). We come to realize that before we were formed in the womb, God knew us (<a href='B:300 1:5'>Jer 1:5</a>).</p><p>But they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing- I noted above that God saw Israel encamped in beauty and without sin, and the visions of Balaam state this clearly. But immediately after those visions, Israel sinned with Baal Peor and joined themselves sexually and spiritually to Baal (<a href='B:40 23:28'>Num 23:28</a>; <a href='B:40 25:18'>Num 25:18</a>; <a href='B:40 31:16'>Num 31:16</a>). So Balaam’s visions may be in view inHosea’s words. Israel were now being judged for the sin at and with Baal Peor, and we recall the comment of <a href='B:60 22:17'>Jos 22:17</a>, that "we are not cleansed from the iniquity of Peor even until this day". This was because the essence of that sin was continued in subsequent generations, including Hosea’s. Despite God looking so positively at Israel, imputing righteousness to them, yet they prostituted themselves to Baal and slept with the Moabite Baal prostitutes. This of course was reflecting exactly the situation between Hosea and Gomer.</p><p>And became abominable like that thing which they so loved- We become like what we worship. And we have a desire to worship coded within our natures. We must therefore make a conscious election as to what we will worship, knowing that we shall become like it in due course. We become like what and whom we love. If we are transfixed by the gracious salvation that is in the Lord, we will become like Him in thought and deed.</p><p>9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird- There was a tremendous sensitivity in Hosea to both God and to the sin of His people, honed and developed by his own relationship with Gomer. At the start of Hosea’s prophecy, Israel were prosperous. They worshipped Yahweh, and assumed He was with them. And yet Hosea discounts their worship of Yahweh as being effectively idolatry. Time and again Hosea accuses Israel of idolatry, using words to describe their idolatry which are word plays on language associated with Yahweh. He speaks of their kabod [glory] (<a href='B:350 9:11'>Hos 9:11</a>; <a href='B:350 10:5'>Hos 10:5</a>)- a word usually used about the glory of Yahweh. They worshipped lo’al (<a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a>)- and he uses al to refer to Yahweh in <a href='B:350 11:7'>Hos 11:7</a>. They worshipped sor (<a href='B:350 9:13'>Hos 9:13</a>)- the same consonants as sur, the “rock” of Yahweh (<a href='B:50 32:31'>Deu 32:31</a>). He calls Yahweh qados (<a href='B:350 11:9'>Hos 11:9</a>), but they worshipped qedosim (<a href='B:350 12:1'>Hos 12:1</a>). We tend to assume that Hosea’s denunciation of idolatry meant that Israel worshipped both Yahweh and various other images and idols of their pagan gods. But that seems to be an over-simplification. Archaeologists have actually not found much evidence of such gods as stand alone entities. Summarizing much research, Cogan concludes: “There is no evidence of Assyrian interference in the Israelite cult prior to the 720 BCE annexation of Samaria [after Hosea’s time]… Israel was free of any cultic obligation” (M. Cogan, Imperialism And Religion: Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries BCE (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1974) pp. 103,104). And yet, Hosea speaks for all the world as if there were shrines etc. to other gods all over the place. My conclusion is that the idols, shrines etc. to which Hosea refers were therefore actually understood by Israel as a form of Yahweh worship. But he points out to them that actually, their worship of Yahweh is a form of idolatry. And all this has relevance to us. For actually things like daily Bible reading, attending church, going through the formalities of a religion, can become a form of fetishism rather than parts of the dynamic, Spirit filled life which they ought to be a vital part of. Worshipping Yahweh in the “high places”, i:e. the pagan shrines, was Israel’s besetting sin. It’s rather like the way they turned the bronze snake of the wilderness into an idol. They, like us, never simply turned their back on the true Way. Rather did they mix it with the way of the flesh, the way of the world, and pronounced that as in fact Yahweh worship. And it was all this which Hosea was so deeply sensitive to, as demonstrated by the careful word plays he made, in order to demonstrate that their worship of Yahweh was in fact idol worship.</p><p>There will be no birth, none with child, and no conception- Gomer had no conception from Hosea, and became infertile, just like Israel were to God (:14).</p>


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As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird- There was a tremendous sensitivity in Hosea to both God and to the sin of His people, honed and developed by his own relationship with Gomer. At the start of Hosea's prophecy, Israel were prosperous. They worshipped Yahweh, and assumed He was with them. And yet Hosea discounts their worship of Yahweh as being effectively idolatry. Time and again Hosea accuses Israel of idolatry, using words to describe their idolatry which are word plays on language associated with Yahweh. He speaks of their kabod [glory] (<a href='B:350 9:11'>Hos. 9:11</a>; <a href='B:350 10:5'>10:5</a>)- a word usually used about the glory of Yahweh. They worshipped lo'al (<a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos. 7:16</a>)- and he uses al to refer to Yahweh in <a href='B:350 11:7'>Hos. 11:7</a>. They worshipped sor (<a href='B:350 9:13'>Hos. 9:13</a>)- the same consonants as sur, the &quot;rock&quot; of Yahweh (<a href='B:50 32:31'>Dt. 32:31</a>). He calls Yahweh qados (<a href='B:350 11:9'>Hos. 11:9</a>), but they worshipped qedosim (<a href='B:350 12:1'>Hos. 12:1</a>). We tend to assume that Hosea's denunciation of idolatry meant that Israel worshipped both Yahweh and various other images and idols of their pagan gods. But that seems to be an over-simplification. Archaeologists have actually not found much evidence of such gods as stand alone entities. Summarizing much research, Cogan concludes: &quot;There is no evidence of Assyrian interference in the Israelite cult prior to the 720 BCE annexation of Samaria [after Hosea's time]… Israel was free of any cultic obligation&quot; (M. Cogan, Imperialism And Religion: Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries BCE (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1974) pp. 103,104). And yet, Hosea speaks for all the world as if there were shrines etc. to other gods all over the place. My conclusion is that the idols, shrines etc. to which Hosea refers were therefore actually understood by Israel as a form of Yahweh worship. But he points out to them that actually, their worship of Yahweh is a form of idolatry. And all this has relevance to us. For actually things like daily Bible reading, attending church, going through the formalities of a religion, can become a form of fetishism rather than parts of the dynamic, Spirit filled life which they ought to be a vital part of. Worshipping Yahweh in the &quot;high places&quot;, i.e. the pagan shrines, was Israel's besetting sin. It's rather like the way they turned the bronze snake of the wilderness into an idol. They, like us, never simply turned their back on the true Way. Rather did they mix it with the way of the flesh, the way of the world, and pronounced that as in fact Yahweh worship. And it was all this which Hosea was so deeply sensitive to, as demonstrated by the careful word plays he made, in order to demonstrate that their worship of Yahweh was in fact idol worship.</p><p>There will be no birth, none with child, and no conception- Gomer had no conception from Hosea, and became infertile, just like Israel were to God (<a href='B:350 9:14'>:14</a>).</p>


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<p>Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!- It would seem from :12-15 that Gomer’s children were killed during one of the invasions, and she became infertile, with “a miscarrying woman and dry breasts” (:14). In Jewish terms of those days, to marry such a woman was pointless and absurd. But still, Hosea dreamt of the way when she would return to him in her heart and they could re-establish their relationship. She had nothing at all to offer him. Just like us with God. But such is His senseless love… “O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself: but in me is thine help” (<a href='B:350 13:9'>Hos 13:9</a>). Gomer’s sexual addiction was a reflection of the way she was crying out for love. The crying tragedy was that the love of Hosea, reflective as it was of God’s love, was just surpassing. And yet she didn’t perceive it, didn’t want it... and so her mad search for love led her to the chronic sexual addiction which destroyed her and left her barren. And finally, God would depart from them, but only because they had first departed from Him (<a href='B:350 7:14'>Hos 7:14</a> s:w:). This was the final "woe", that the most amazing lover had now gone. We wonder whether this was ever realized in Hosea departing from Gomer. We sense that he never did, just as God has never fully left His natural people.</p>


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<p>I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre planted in a pleasant place- The analogy with Tyre is perhaps because Israel had accepted the idols of Tyre into their worship, not least because Ahab and his descendants had married into the royal family of Tyre; Jezebel was from there. The appropriacy goes further, however. We see from Ezekiel 27 [see notes there] that Tyre presented itself as another Jerusalem, as the "pleasant place" [s:w. "holy habitation" of Yahweh, <a href='B:20 15:13'>Exo 15:13</a>; <a href='B:290 33:20'>Isa 33:20</a>], the city where in fact the true sanctuary of God was to be found. Ephraim would not go to worship at the Jerusalem temple, but instead chose Tyre. And this would lead to Israel’s children being slain as Tyre’s would be.</p><p>But Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer- I suggested on :12 that this was matched by Gomer’s illicit children being killed during one of the invasions or raids upon Israel.</p>


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<p>Give them--Yahweh, what will you give them? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts- As noted on :12, Gomer became infertile, the result of her idolatry and promiscuity. The children she had from her illicit affairs were killed by the invaders; so infertility was a curse with a slightly silver lining in her case. Hosea loved her all the same; but she would be a useless partner for him, in Hebrew terms. And the same was true of God’s love for Israel. Israel in this section is addressed as "Ephraim", meaning ’fruitful’. Ephraim was now to have the possibility of bearing fruit taken away, because they didn’t wish to bear fruit anyway. Again we encounter the idea of spiritual capacity and opportunity being removed from us unless we use it.</p>


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<p>All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them- The mention of Gilgal is difficult because we are unaware that there was any more idolatry there than elsewhere. But probably the reference is to the way that Israel’s demand for a human king at Gilgal was the epitome of their unfaithfulness to Yahweh; they thereby rejected Him as their king, master and husband; see on :17 and <a href='B:350 10:3'>Hos 10:3</a>. They of course claimed to still have Him as their king, just as Gomer protested she was still Hosea’s wife whilst having affairs with others. As Hosea went through flashes of hatred against Gomer, so did God. But His hatred was for a moment, because Hosea’s prophecies go on to declare His undying love for His people. See on <a href='B:350 10:9'>Hos 10:9</a>.</p><p>Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house!- This part of the prophecy is directed at Ephraim, the ten tribes who refused to go to the temple. Now, they were barred from it. But being driven out of a husband’s house is also a figure for divorce; the same language is used of how Hagar was driven out of her husband Abraham’s house. So often God and Hosea had these flashes of desire to divorce their partners, which given the gross adultery involved, they could have quite legitimately done. The protestation of God’s eternal love for Israel is the more meaningful and intense once we realize that He had these feelings of hatred towards them at times. Our sins likewise anger God, and His love for us must be seen in that context and against that background.</p><p>I will love them no more- It was because of his great love for Gomer that Hosea came to feel the passionate anger with her which he did at times; and in this his spirit was that of God toward Israel. “I will love them no more” has to be balanced against his later profession that “I will love them freely” (<a href='B:350 14:4'>Hos 14:4</a>). In the end, because he loved her, as God loved Israel, finally giving up this terrible woman proved impossible: “How shall I give you up?... My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of My anger…” (<a href='B:350 11:8-9'>Hos 11:8-9</a>).</p><p>All their princes are rebels- The "princes" were represented by the children of Gomer, whom we can assume rebelled against their quasi father Hosea. The princes of Israel and Judah are mentioned several times as rebellious.</p>


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<p>Ephraim is struck- God smote Israel in His anger (<a href='B:290 60:10'>Isa 60:10</a> s:w:); but the word is used of how God struck His children in order to discipline them (<a href='B:300 2:30'>Jer 2:30</a> s:w:). God smote them, but intended to bind them up at the restoration (<a href='B:350 6:1'>Hos 6:1</a> s:w:). His judgments are designed to elicit repentance and are not the outpouring of pure anger alone. We note the present tense: "Is struck", although they had not yet been smitten- see on :6.</p><p>&nbsp;Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb- As noted on :12 and :14, Gomer like Israel was to become barren; and the children of adultery were to be killed by the invaders. Here the figure is changed to a crop with a dry root and therefore no fruit. They had never borne fruit to God, as Gomer had not for Hosea; and so the opportunity for spiritual fruit bearing was taken away from them.</p>


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<p>My God will cast them away- God has been speaking in the first person in the previous verses. But Hosea’s feelings and spiritwere those of God. He now interjects with his own summary of the situation, and that too is inspired or in-spirited by God. He was no mere printing device pumping out a message. God did "cast them away", and yet finally "God has not cast away His people" (<a href='B:520 11:1'>Rom 11:1</a>), just as <a href='B:30 26:44'>Lev 26:44</a> had promised He would not, even though He send them into exile. I suggested on :15 that Israel’s sin in choosing a human king was there in view; this had been the ultimate action which epitomized their rejection of God as their king and husband. The same word for "cast away" is used in this context in <a href='B:90 10:19'>1Sa 10:19</a>; they thereby "rejected your God". Because they "rejected" [s:w. "cast away"] knowing God, having relationship with Him in the Hebraic sense of ’knowing’, He rejected them (<a href='B:350 4:6'>Hos 4:6</a>).</p><p>Because they did not listen to Him- If by this God meant ’They weren’t obedient to My specific commandments’, then a different word would have been used. God is not a casuist nor a legalist. The Hebrew for "listen" better means to perceive, to literally listen to a person, as one listens to the lover with whom you wish to develop a relationship. This is not to say that obedience to specifics is unimportant to God; but essentially He sought a relationship with Israel, as Hosea did with Gomer. But Gomer refused to ’know’ Hosea, perhaps sexually, but also in terms of relationship; and so it was with Israel toward their God.</p><p>And they will be wanderers among the nations- The same word has already been used in <a href='B:350 7:13'>Hos 7:13</a> for how Israel wandered from God, and went to the nations not only in idolatry but in seeking their help against their invaders, rather than God’s help. Always, the judgments upon Israel are only a reflection back to them of how they had been with God. Quite simply, all who truly with all their hearts "love His appearing" shall be saved (<a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>). If we don’t want to be in His Kingdom, then we will not be; if with all our hearts we do, then we shall be. If we wander off from God and prefer the world, then we shall go to the world and be "condemned with the world" (<a href='B:530 11:32'>1Co 11:32</a>). We make the answer now.</p>


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<p>Israel is a luxuriant vine that puts forth his fruit- This continues the imagery of <a href='B:350 9:10'>Hos 9:10</a> a few verses before; God in love saw Israel like this in the wilderness, imputing goodness to them, even though they did not have real spiritual fruit. "Luxuriant" rather than "empty" [as AV] seems the right reading, because the next clause talks of this vine’s abundant fruit. The prophecy concludes with a picture of Israel just like this in <a href='B:350 14:5-7'>Hos 14:5-7</a>. This is what they were capable of- repenting, and becoming the reestablished Kingdom of God as a blessing to others.</p><p>According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars- Baal was a fertility cult, and so the more God blessed them with good harvests, the more they worshipped Baal. This was the ultimate abuse of God’s love. Material blessing so often leads to something far worse than the spoilt child syndrome; it led Israel to Baal, because they abused the Divine blessings. The fruit on the vine however, as explained on <a href='B:350 9:10'>Hos 9:10</a>, was how God perceived them. The more He loved them and imputed beauty to them, the more they abused it. We are in a relationship with God whereby His love for us is far greater than ours for Him; and it is so easy for us to abuse that.</p><p>As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones- "Prospered" and "adorned" are the same word. The AV is better: "according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images". Baal was a fertility god. The more blessing Yahweh gave them in terms of good harvests, the more they made "good" idols to Baal. They attributed the good harvests to Baal and not Yahweh. This was all reflected in how Gomer took Hosea’s material blessings and offered them to Baal, and also received payment from the men she slept with. She attributed those ’blessings’ of payment to the blessing of Baal. The more God blessed His people by grace, the more they abused it.</p>


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<p>Their heart is divided, and so now they will be found guilty- Yet again, the essential guilt of Israel was because of the state of their hearts. Just as Gomer claimed to be married to Hosea whilst having affairs, so Israel’s heart was divided between God and idols. It is this state of division which is so painful to God and which is the basis for guilt. If we are in relationship with God, He absolutely must have our entire heart. A divided heart makes us far worse than those who are ignorant of Him. Perhaps James alludes here in soberly warning against having a double heart toward God (<a href='B:660 1:8'>Jas 1:8</a>; <a href='B:660 4:8'>Jas 4:8</a>). We stand before God’s judgment "now". Hosea realized the critical intensity of the moment; right now, they were found guilty in court before God. The judgment "will be" [demolition of altars, etc:]- and in that gap, they could repent. This is the intensity of our position before God. This is the crucial importance of life and living now.</p><p>He will demolish their altars, He will destroy their sacred stones- Presumably the invaders destroyed the gods of those they conquered. The Canaanite idols were not those of Babylon or Assyria.</p>


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<p>Surely now they will say, We have no king; for we don’t fear Yahweh; and the king we have, what can he do for us?- Often in Hosea, God appeals to Israel to let Him be their ‘king’ (<a href='B:350 13:10'>Hos 13:10</a>). But there is a Hebraism whereby a husband is called the ‘king’ of his wife. God’s appeal was reflected in Hosea’s desire for Gomer to as it were re-marry him, to let him truly be her king / husband. And yet she felt like Israel: “What then should a king do [for] us?”. She was so selfish that she didn’t see anything in it for her… when so much love was being offered to her. All this explains why God felt that Israel’s rejection of Him at Gilgal when they asked for a human king was the epitome of their marital unfaithfulness to Him (see on <a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a>). Israel in exile were without God as their king, and without the human king of their choosing. This is the indescribable agony of the rejected; they are left without that which they loved, and also without God.</p>


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<p>They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants- The preceding verse, as explained there, is in the marital context. Israel had despised their marriage covenant with God (see on <a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>) as Gomer had with Hosea. They had made a false oath. But they had likewise made false oaths in their secular lives, breaking the covenant they made with Shalmaneser (<a href='B:120 17:4'>2Ki 17:4</a>).</p><p>Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field- This continues the theme of Israel reaping what they had sown (see on <a href='B:350 8:7'>Hos 8:7</a>). By not being serious about their promises, the harvest was poisonous weeds ruining their crop. The result seems out of proportion, in secular terms, to ’just’ not being serious about their promises. But this again is a great theme of the prophets- that apparently ’little sins’ reap massive and eternal consequences. The mention of the furrows prepares us for :12. They had ploughed and sown, but to evil. Hosea will go on to appeal for them to do so to righteousness. "Poisonous weeds" is the same word used in Deuteronomy, of how Israel’s grapes (:1) would become poison because of their idolatry (<a href='B:50 29:18'>Deu 29:18</a>; <a href='B:50 32:32-33'>Deu 32:32-33</a>). The word is used of how the Lord Jesus on the cross was given such poison to drink (<a href='B:230 69:21'>Psa 69:21</a>); there, He carried the condemnation of Israel (<a href='B:300 8:14'>Jer 8:14</a>; <a href='B:300 9:15'>Jer 9:15</a> s:w:). All His sufferings were their judgments. In this sense He bore [the condemnation for] our sins.</p>


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<p>The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror because of the calves of Beth Aven- Beth Aven is how God and Hosea saw Beth El. The house of God had become the house of idols and sin. "Be in terror" is the same word translated "assemble themselves" [in prayer and worship] in <a href='B:350 7:14'>Hos 7:14</a>. The people loved their idols, and begged their gods that these idols not be removed from them.</p><p>For its people will mourn over it, along with its priests who rejoiced over it; because its glory has departed from it- See on <a href='B:350 9:11'>Hos 9:11</a> Glory. The people mourned the loss of their beloved calves and their removal by the Assyrians as a trophy for their gods (:6). This is the measure of idolatry; when the worshippers mourn when their idol is removed. They should have removed the idols, and so God does so- and they weep and pray that they be not removed. Again, God’s issue with Israel was not concerning individual acts of obedience or disobedience, but a general state of heart and direction in life.</p>


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<p>It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king- The golden calves were carried off by the Assyrians. As noted on :5, they ought to have removed them themselves, and so God removed them. And they were terribly upset about it. This is the measure of a man; if at the Lord’s return our idols of wealth, homes, cars, devices... are removed from us, will we like Lot’s wife look back in anger and sadness? Or count all such things as nothing that we might press on and be with the Lord? "A great king" is AV "Jareb", the avenger / defender. The idea is ’A present to the king (whom they looked to as) their defender / avenger’. They should have treated Yahweh as their king, defender and avenger. But they turned to Assyria for help, and now were destroyed by Assyria. In terms of the Hosea-Gomer relationship, the lovers turned against them.</p><p>Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel- Hitzig translates: "He (the Assyrian king) shall take away or carry off the shame of Ephraim; that is, the calf-idol". The calves should have been their shame, but instead they mourned for them (:5). They went where their calves went- to captivity in Assyria. We become like that which we worship. The calves were built by Jeroboam after "taking counsel" (<a href='B:110 12:28'>1Ki 12:28</a>); hence "his own counsel" refers to the calves. Yet Israel collectively are accused of Jeroboam’s sin; he "made them sin", but they did so willingly, and so we see clarified the principle that even if we are led into sin by others, we still remain responsible for our sin. And the person, such as Jeroboam, who led us into the sin is also as it were charged for it. See on :8.</p>


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<p>Samaria and her king will float away, like a twig on the water- The ten tribes and their king were taken captive; the Assyrian invasions are likened to an overflowing river which carried them away.</p>


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<p>The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars- Thorns and thistles are the punishment for sin, as clearly stated in Eden. Their altars would not be used by others, but would be left as ruins, covered by the judgment for sin. "Aven" or Beth Aven is how God and Hosea saw Beth El, no longer the house of God but the house of idols. Although Jeroboam built the shrine there and made Israel sin thereby, it was still "the sin of Israel", their sin. See on :6.</p><p>They will tell the mountains, Cover us! and the hills, Fall on us!- Instead of calling out to Yahweh in repentance as they were carried into captivity, Israel instead just wished to die; the hills or high places were associated with their sins, and they would choose death rather than repentance. They would prefer to die at the hands of their high places rather than repent. The Lord quoted these words to the women watching Him carry His cross, applying them to the Jews in AD70, whom He sensed would likewise be impenitent; His quotation from <a href='B:350 10:8'>Hos 10:8</a> is set in a context so appropriate to the situation He was in. Israel were a useless tree (:1), a twig cut off (:7):&nbsp; If they did these things to Him, the green and healthy shoot or twig, what would be done to the dry dead wood of Israel…? His concern was always with the sufferings others would experience rather than being lost in His own introspection. The Lord’s following words as He carried the cross were: "If they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?", and they are packed with allusion to O:T. Scriptures (<a href='B:330 17:24'>Eze 17:24</a>; <a href='B:300 11:16'>Jer 11:16</a>; <a href='B:300 11:19'>Jer 11:19</a>; Psalms 1; <a href='B:300 17:5-8'>Jer 17:5-8</a>). Without getting too deeply involved in the actual exposition, a simple lesson emerges: He was not so overpowered by the terrible physicality of His human situation that He ceased to be spiritually aware. His mind was full of the word, not just out of place quotations flooding His subconscious, but real awareness of the spirit of the Father’s word and its’ intensely personal relevance to Himself. In this He sets a matchless example.</p>


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<p>Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah, there they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah- The idea of the Hebrew could be ’More even than in the days of Gibeah’. "The battle" in view is based upon that against the Benjamites by the other tribes of Israel because of the rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine in Gibeah (Judges 18). That "battle" in judgment of their iniquity didn’t stop there, it didn’t "overtake them" or end there; because they continued the essence of that sin, sinning like that from that day onward, Benjamin was yet to suffer. Yet it is "Israel", the ten tribes, who addressed; and yet Benjamin, one of the two tribes of Judah, is also to be judged. This is another example of the two kingdoms being judged with the same judgment. The Divine hope that Judah would be more repentant didn’t come true. The Hebrew however is difficult here, and the GNB may be correct in suggesting a particular judgment against Judah at Gibeah, which was the home of Saul, the king / partner they chose after rejecting Yahweh as their king / partner / husband: "The LORD says,"The people of Israel have not stopped sinning against me since the time of their sin at Gibeah. So at Gibeah war will catch up with them". See on <a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a>.</p>


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<p>When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the nations will be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions- Binding them to their sins presumably means judging them for their sins. The two sins could refer to the two calves set up by Jeroboam; or to the equal sins of Israel and Judah; see on :9. But again we note that their judgment at the hands of the nations was intended as a chastisement, with the hope of reformation [s:w."correct","reform"]. Not of the generation who perished, but the hope was that others would be chastised by what happened at the invasion, and be reformed. Yet this intention and possibility didn’t really come about. The gathering of plural nations could be understood by the Assyrians and Babylonians using mercenaries from the surrounding nations; but as the Lord understood the judgment to apply to AD70 and the last days (see on :8), so these judgments look ahead to the final tribulation of Israel when"all nations shall be gathered"against them.</p>


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<p>Ephraim s a trained heifer that loves to thresh- The idea may be that they preferred the easier work of threshing than of ploughing. Ephraim had been trained or taught, but they refused to listen (<a href='B:300 32:33'>Jer 32:33</a> s:w:). But threshing is a figure of judgment, and the great prophetic theme is that Israel received the judgments which they themselves had lived out through their profligate living.</p><p>So I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck-"Her beautiful neck"reflects how much God loved Israel; even in putting them under the yoke, He saw her beauty and loved her. It seems that Hosea’s attraction to Gomer, even when she became barren, likewise continued despite all her unfaithfulness.</p><p>I will set a rider on Ephraim, Judah will plough, Jacob will break his clods- We note the parallel between the ten tribes and the two tribes. They had sinned together, and would both be judged, but it was the Divine hope that they would come together out of exile and reestablish God’s kingdom in the land. The rider upon them could be a Messianic figure; or it could be that their dominators in exile would be the means of their ploughing and sowing to righteousness rather than sin, as noted on :4. But the returned exiles didn’t really live up to this; the pain of God through Hosea was that so much potential was wasted by Israel’s short term outlook and desire for the immediate and the sinful.</p>


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<p>Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until He comes and rains righteousness on you- As noted on :4, they had ploughed and sown, but to evil. Now they were to do so to righteousness. This new approach to living, to sowing, was to be achieved whilst in captivity (see on :11). They were to realize their spiritual potential, their fallow ground, and seek Yahweh so that the Messianic rain of righteousness could come down upon them. The Messianic kingdom could have come then, but they would not, and so it has been delayed until God’s people truly seek Him. The faithful few such as Ezra encouraged the exiles to"seek Yahweh"(<a href='B:150 7:10'>Ezr 7:10</a>; <a href='B:290 55:6'>Isa 55:6</a> s:w:); but generally they weren’t interested."Rains"is also the word for"to teach", and has been used in :11 of how previously, Israel had been ’taught’ but had refused to listen. If they sought Yahweh, if they opened up their fallow ground, then He would teach them. We find God not by academic Bible study alone; it is the heart’s desire to seek God which results in Him teaching us. It’s not that God hides behind the pages of the Bible until we find Him. He comes to us and teaches us; but in response to our broken hearted seeking of Him.</p>


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<p>You have ploughed wickedness and you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies- See on :4."Lies"here effectively stands for idols. The"wickedness"they sowed was"the wind", a superficial life with a lighthearted approach to the heavy things of God’s glory; and they reaped the whirlwind (see on <a href='B:350 8:7'>Hos 8:7</a>)."The wind", the lighthearted attitude to God which characterizes so many in our age, is here"wickedness"and"iniquity". Again we see how such attitudes which are seen as totally excusable and understandable in secular terms are seen by God as great wickedness.</p><p>For you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men- Israel are repeatedly condemned in Hosea for hiring foreign warriors to defend them rather than turning to Yahweh for help. They trusted in those men, who were effectively"your way". The way of Yahweh is total trust in Him. To trust in human strength is to depart from His way; and this sets us a huge challenge, in an age where as never before there are all manner of schemes to apparently save us from the consequences of sin.</p>


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<p>Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces with her children- Shalman could be a contraction for Shalmaneser, the Assyrian king who destroyed the ten tribe kingdom. But Hosea here speaks in the past tense, and Shalmaneser destroyed Samaria forty years after Hosea. So there may here be reference to a historical incident which we don’t know about, by a king called Shalman. Or the reference could be to the first invasion by Shalmaneser (<a href='B:120 17:3'>2Ki 17:3</a>), when one border fortress at Beth Arbel was destroyed. Israel trusted in their fortresses (see on <a href='B:350 11:6'>Hos 11:6</a>), and they were intended to learn from the destruction of just one of them. God works in such a gentle way with us; we may see one aspect of our human defences destroyed, one bank fails, one insurance policy fails to cover us. And this should lead us to not depend upon the others we have and throw ourselves completely on Yahweh. The massacre at the otherwise unknown little fortress of Beth Arbel was intended to be a warning of judgment to come; and they could have avoided it if they had been perceptive. We too see dry runs of judgment to come, in our own lives and in the experiences of others we are aware of. And we are to take the lesson.</p>


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<p>So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness- Bethel and its shrine would bring about their judgment at the hands of the Assyrians (:14); their idols were the ones who were to destroy them, just as Israel had turned to Assyria and its idols for help, and then Assyria turned upon them and destroyed them.</p><p>At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed- This could have been literally uttered the night before the assassination or death of one of the kings contemporary with Hosea, perhaps Hoshea."In a morning"(Heb:) might mean ’suddenly, unexpectedly’. Or it could have been a prophecy whose fulfilment was delayed or even cancelled by repentance. Or again, the night of judgment is perhaps portrayed as daybreak because there is always the hope of reformation and the final dawn of the Messianic age hinted at in all the Divine threats of judgment. Just as Hosea intended to make Gomer suffer in order than she would quit her lovers and return to him.</p>


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<p>When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt- As noted on <a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>, God had entered into marriage covenant with Israel at Sinai. He had called them out of Egypt for that to be possible; but they had in their hearts returned to Egypt and thereby despised their marriage covenant. So often in Hosea, God seeks to remind Israel of their national beginnings, and the grace He showed. His calling of them was the sign of pure grace, Paul reasons in Romans. That call was not because they were righteous, just as Hosea didn’t call Gomer to marriage because she was righteous. The call is in the Gospel; we who have heard it only heard it by grace. So we should never doubt His grace and intention toward us.</p><p>These words are quoted about the Father calling Joseph and Mary to bring His Son out of Egypt (<a href='B:470 2:14-15'>Mat 2:14-15</a>). But that is hardly the context here. It is not necessarily so in Bible study of quotations that"context is king". The New Testament sometimes seems to quote the Old Testament without attention to the context- at least, so far as human Bible scholarship can discern. The early chapters of Matthew contain at least three examples of&nbsp; quotations whose context just cannot fit the application given: <a href='B:470 2:14-15'>Mat 2:14-15</a> cp. <a href='B:350 11:1'>Hos 11:1</a>; <a href='B:470 2:17-18'>Mat 2:17-18</a> cp. <a href='B:300 31:15'>Jer 31:15</a>; <a href='B:470 1:23'>Mat 1:23</a> cp. <a href='B:290 7:14'>Isa 7:14</a>. Hosea’s plans for Gomer ultimately failed, and so did God’s desires to save the Israel of Hosea’s days and subsequent generations. But this doesn’t mean that His word was falsified, nor that the objectives He has set in human history didn’t ultimately work out."Israel"here becomes the Lord Jesus; just as the"servant"prophecies of Isaiah were initially about Israel as a nation. They didn’t live up to them at the restoration, and so they were reinterpreted and reapplied to the Lord Jesus. He and then those in Him became the Israel of God, who did respond.</p>


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<p>The more I called to them, so they went away from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images- The more God revealed His word of call and invitation to Israel, the more they rebelled against Him. This is also how God’s word function now; it elicits either our response or our rejection. Hosea knew all this from his personal experience of being the vehicle of God’s call and word to Israel. The more he tried, both with Israel and Gomer, the more they turned away (<a href='B:300 2:27'>Jer 2:27</a>)."I called"is AV"They called", referring to the ministry of the prophets. God’s intention was that a reborn Israel, born again by the Spirit which would be given as part of the new covenant, would again as it were come out of Egypt to Him, and this had been Hosea’s hope of Gomer too (<a href='B:350 2:15'>Hos 2:15</a>)."They went away"is literally, ’they walked away from My face’. The Divine call to Israel was a revelation of His very face, an invitation to intimate relationship. But they turned away from it, telling Moses that they didn’t want to hear the voice of Yahweh nor come near to Him; they wanted mere religion instead, Moses going near and telling them what he heard. And Gomer likewise rejected Hosea’s desperate desire for an intimate, exclusive relationship with him.</p>


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<p>Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by his arms; but they didn’t know that it was I who healed them-&nbsp; God likens Himself to Israel’s father, teaching His little child to walk for the first time; or more precisely, teaching the child to walk despite a handicap that required healing and the strengthening of its arms. We noted the same on <a href='B:350 7:15'>Hos 7:15</a>. As the child ‘makes it’ into the Father’s arms for the first time, there must be a tremendous excitement for the Father. A few uncertain, jittering steps- and He is thrilled and telling the whole world about it with joy. No matter how clever or powerful that man is in the world. And so this is how God was with His people, it’s how it is with us too as we take our first unsure steps after baptism. He has the capacity for thrill and excitement, just as we do, who are made in His image.</p><p>Remembering how He had felt towards His child Israel in earlier days, God cries out in :8 with a stab of pain: “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?”. The memory of Israel’s childhood was just too much. It made God change His mind with regard to totally rejecting His wayward son. In preaching to Israel, we are beseeching the prodigal child to return to the desperately grieving Father... for His sake we do this. It is too much for me to think of God so hurt... we surely have to do something about it, to appeal to His people.</p><p>The strengthening of their arms was an act of ’healing’, and the same word is used of how God healed Israel as they left Egypt (<a href='B:20 15:26'>Exo 15:26</a>), so that there was not one feeble amongst all their tribes (<a href='B:230 105:37'>Psa 105:37</a>). They were not an attractive child, in this sense. But God loved them as His very own, just as Hosea did Gomer.</p>


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<p>I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift off the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him- This all continues the baby /&nbsp; toddler analogy; swaddled tightly in swaddling clothes, which were wrapped by"a man", when this was and is stereotypically a mother’s work. Likewise it is the mother who bends over to breastfeed. But it was God, who lifted the yoke of Egypt from them, who is presented as performing these classically feminine, motherly roles. It was all a most unusual image for the Israel of those days. But this was God’s most unusual care for Israel. <a href='B:510 13:18'>Act 13:18</a> emphasizes it:"For about the time of forty years, as a nursing father He carried them in the wilderness".</p>


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<p>They won’t return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent- Because of the memory of how He had saved them from Egypt, God now changes His planned judgment- instead of returning to Egypt, they would go to Assyria. God can change His plans, and He has emotions. He had earlier stated that they would return to Egypt and be derided there (<a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a>). God says this clearly in <a href='B:350 8:13'>Hos 8:13</a>; <a href='B:350 9:3'>Hos 9:3</a>; <a href='B:350 9:6'>Hos 9:6</a>. But just as clearly He now says that they will not return to Egypt but rather experience captivity in Assyria. Here we see how God’s changes of heart were so kindled, as were Hosea’s regarding Gomer (<a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>). But then in :11 He speaks as if they will go into Egypt. In all this we see an example of His terrible churnings of heart spoken of in :8. He is not capricious, rather does He allow Himself to genuinely struggle within Himself over His people, wishing to save and so not wanting to condemn.</p><p>For a man to be someone’s king was a Hebraism for being a husband to a wife. As Gomer committed adultery against Hosea, so Israel had done with the Assyrians. And so Assyria would be their king, the husband they had chosen. Exile there and becoming part of the Assyrian kingdom was therefore what they had chosen.</p>


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<p>The sword will fall on their cities, and will destroy the bars of their gates, and will put an end to their plans- Instead of trusting in Yahweh for help, Israel had trusted in their fortresses (see on <a href='B:350 10:14'>Hos 10:14</a>) and barred gates; and they had made clever plans to get help from other nations. But all such scheming would fail."The bars of their gates"can also be translated"their branches", continuing the allusions to Israel as a tree without fruit. Their very branches would be cut off, used as a figure of Israel’s rejection in <a href='B:520 11:17'>Rom 11:17</a>. They would now be unable to bear spiritual fruit, the possibility to be spiritual would be taken away from them. Similarly Gomer was made barren, because she would not bring forth fruit unto Hosea.</p>


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<p>My people are determined to turn from Me. Though they call to the Most High, they certainly won’t exalt Him-&nbsp; See on <a href='B:350 6:6'>Hos 6:6</a> The knowledge of God. They would not exalt Him in the way which true repentance requires. “Judah has not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly” (<a href='B:300 3:10'>Jer 3:10</a>). They did turn back to Yahweh- but not in their heart. Israel rejoiced in the light of John’s teaching- and he taught real, on-your-knees repentance. They thought they’d repented. But the Lord describes John as mourning, and them not mourning in sympathy and response (<a href='B:490 7:32'>Luk 7:32</a>). They rejoiced in the idea of repentance, but never really got down to it. Israel called both to Yahweh, but also to Egypt for help (<a href='B:350 7:11'>Hos 7:11</a> s:w:). They didn’t therefore accept Him as"the Most High". He was just another possibility to try. They prayed, they repented- but just on a surface level. This ability of human nature to display pseudo spirituality must provoke our endless self-examination. In Israel’s case, they did all these things whilst “determined to turn from Me”.</p>


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<p>How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?- God recognized that Israel and Judah and Jerusalem were as Sodom, as the prophets make clear (Judah particularly is likened to Sodom- <a href='B:290 1:10'>Isa 1:10</a>; <a href='B:290 3:9'>Isa 3:9</a>; <a href='B:300 23:14'>Jer 23:14</a>; <a href='B:330 16:46'>Eze 16:46</a>). But all the same, remembering their childhood (:1), He could not bring Himself to judge them as Sodom and her surrounding towns of Admah and Zeboiim; even though Jerusalem had sinned worse than Sodom (<a href='B:330 16:48'>Eze 16:48</a>). Jeremiah’s complaint that God had judged Jerusalem more harshly than Sodom (<a href='B:310 4:6'>Lam 4:6</a>) therefore totally failed to take into account His internal struggles. And those who too quickly accuse God of being too harsh or unfair likewise need to consider these passages in Hosea, which reveal just how God struggles over judging sin.</p><p>My heart is turned within Me, My compassion is aroused- The tension within God is apparent. This verse is one of the deepest insights into God’s internal struggle. God wants nothing more to do with His adulterous people; and then He pleads with them to come back to Him, breaking His own law, that a put away woman can’t return to her first husband. As Joseph’s heart was ’warm’ for his younger brother Benjamin, so the same word is used about how the heart of God is ’warm’ in yearning for His ungrateful people (<a href='B:10 43:30'>Gen 43:30</a> cp. <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>). This is the Divine emotion revealed as never elsewhere. And Jeremiah has something similar: “How can I pardon you… shall I avenge myself on a nation such as this? Shall I not punish them for these things?” (<a href='B:300 5:7-9'>Jer 5:7-9</a>; <a href='B:300 5:28-29'>Jer 5:28-29</a>). God reveals Himself as oscillating between punishing and redeeming, judging sin and overlooking it. God is open to changing His stated plans (e.g. to destroy Nineveh within forty days, to destroy Israel and make of Moses a new nation). He isn’t like the Allah of Islam, who conducts a monologue with his followers; the one true God of Israel earnestly seeks dialogue with His people, and as such He enters into all the contradictory feelings and internal debates which dialogue involves. ‘God loves the sinner and hates the sin’ has always seemed to me problematic, logically and practically. Love is in the end a personal thing; in the end love and hate are appropriate to persons, not abstractions. And the person can’t so easily be separated from their actions. Ultimately, it is persons who will be saved or condemned. The prophets reveal both the wrath and love of God towards His people, in the same way as a parent or partner can feel both wrath and love towards their beloved.</p><p>God’s threats to punish His people and His desire to forgive them don’t somehow cancel each other out as in an equation. They exist within the mind of God in a terrible tension. His many ‘repentings’ or changes of mind are “kindled together” (AV) as He struggles within Himself to give up His people as He has threatened. And this struggle was reflected within the emotions and through the speeches / writings / poetry of Hosea concerning Gomer. Therefore Hosea’s speeches have an air of turbulence and struggle about them, which reflected the spirit / mind of the God who inspired him. The very way he was told to marry, in marked contrast to Jeremiah who was told not to marry (Jeremiah 16), perhaps indicates the duality of God’s feelings toward Israel- a desire to marry them and yet not to do so. The extent of God’s wrath with Israel, and His harsh, angry language against her, was an outcome of His love for her."For the wrath of God is the love of God", wrote Emil Brunner long ago. It’s like when we see a child run out in front of a car and narrowly escape death; the mother is angry and shouts at the child. Whilst we the onlookers breathe a prayer of thanks to God in much calmer terms. And this may help explain to us what appears the harder side of God at times. See on 9:15 Love them no more.</p><p>Insofar as we realize that God is not passive, but has feelings toward us far more deep and passionate than we can ever know, so far we will realize that life with Him is a daily, passionate experience. It cannot be ‘the same old scene’. Consider the passion of God also in Isaiah 42 : “For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant”. The prophets are full of such passionate intensity. The prophets are not just predictions of the future. They reveal the passion of God’s feelings for His people. At the very time when He condemns them for their adultery against Him, their ingratitude, their worthlessness, He cries out His belief in the blessedness He will one day grace them with.</p><p>Almighty God struggled awfully with all this. The way He did it can be read as an omnipotent God bringing about tragedy. Yes, they were taken to captivity, but not without the acutest grief and pain of God Himself. The reality is, God can be aggrieved, hurt, feel rejected. Even though He is Almighty and could avoid all the situations that cause Him these feelings from arising in the first place. Or take <a href='B:300 31:20'>Jer 31:20</a>: “Is Ephraim my dear son?…for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him”. And the later grief and emotional breakdown of Jeremiah in Lamentations, sitting by the street with none to comfort him, tears dropping in the dust, clutching his hair with his hands… was an intended statement to Judah of God’s feelings for them.</p>


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<p>I will not execute the fierceness of My anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of you- &nbsp;See on <a href='B:350 9:11'>Hos 9:11</a> Glory. As discussed on :8, God struggles with His feelings; He has said He would destroy Ephraim and now He relents. He can do this, because He is God, the one true God, and not the stone faced gods of the nations, for whom any change of their apparent position was seen as a sign that they weren’t really gods. And yet finally God did not turn away His anger from His people, and destroyed them at that time (<a href='B:120 23:26'>2Ki 23:26</a>; <a href='B:300 4:8'>Jer 4:8</a>); but He ultimately will turn away His anger, due to the work of the Lord Jesus. See on <a href='B:350 14:4'>Hos 14:4</a>.</p><p>Hosea dreamt or fantasized about the day when, he hoped, Gomer [cp. Israel] would return to him. And we find God through the prophets doing this often, as an expression of His love for them. He dreamt of how Israel as His vineyard would again be fruitful: “In that day: A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!... I [will] guard it day and night; I have no wrath” (<a href='B:290 27:2-3'>Isa 27:2-3</a>). He had wrath, and yet at the thought of Israel’s blessed future with Him, He could say “I have no wrath”. And so here, the God who spoke of slaying Israel with thirst in Hosea 2 could then comment: “I will not execute my fierce anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man… and I will not come to destroy” (<a href='B:350 11:9'>Hos 11:9</a> AV).</p><p>God utters His word of judgment, but there is a gap between that point and the execution of it. It is in that gap that we can repent, and He can change His intended judgment. However it seems that during that gap, God also carries on thinking; and in this case, His memory of Israel as a child in the desert was so overpowering and choking that He Himself changed the execution of His threat, despite their lack of repentance.</p><p>He was still in the midst of them. And yet the visions of Ezekiel visually demonstrate His presence in the cherubim removing from Jerusalem. So even this relenting was still only temporary.</p><p>And I will not come in wrath- Perhaps Paul had this in view when he asks the Corinthians rhetorically whether he should come to them in judgment with the rod of wrath, or in the spirit of meekness (<a href='B:530 4:21'>1Co 4:21</a>). Or as AV"I will not enter into the city". This could refer to how Sennacherib appeared all set to enter Jerusalem, but this was averted; not simply by the prayers of the faithful remnant, but by God’s own change of plan. But finally God did, at the head of the Babylonian and Roman armies. So again we see God’s desire to relent, even His decision to relent, overturned by His need to judge rightly.</p>


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<p>They will walk after Yahweh, who will roar like a lion; for He will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west- The"trembling"in view here and in :11 is trembling in repentance;"When Ephraim spoke with trembling, he exalted himself in Israel"(<a href='B:350 13:1'>Hos 13:1</a>)."Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to His blessings in the last days"(<a href='B:350 3:5'>Hos 3:5</a>). The idea seems to be that when God roared upon the lands of their exile, which were imagined to be Egypt and Assyria, then Israel would repent, both Judah and Ephraim, and would return to Zion in repentance, ’walking after Yahweh’. Just as Hosea planned to make Gomer suffer so that she would then return to him completely, so it was God’s intention that the exiles in Babylon and Assyria would lead to a humbled people returning to Him spiritually and literally, to Jerusalem. He would judge their captors like a lion, and the Messianic Kingdom would have been established in the reestablished Kingdom of God in Israel. But this scenario didn’t happen, just as Gomer never really returned to Hosea.</p><p>"The west"here is the Hebrew word yam, which simply means"the sea". The reference could be to a second exodus from the Red Sea, which other prophets also envisage.</p>


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<p>They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, says Yahweh- This wasGod’s fantasy for Israel, as it were. He assumed that they will indeed go into captivity in Egypt, but He would bring them out of it. This never happened; see on :5. God twisted and turned within Himself (:8) as to whether to send them to Egypt in exile, speaking as if He would, imagining Him again bringing them out of there (:1) and remarrying them at Sinai (see on <a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>). They had gone to Egypt and Assyria for help as a dove without a heart (<a href='B:350 7:11'>Hos 7:11</a>); but He would bring that dove out again.</p>


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<p>Ephraim surrounds Me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit- Despite the amazing love of God for Israel, resulting in such torments in the heart of Almighty God (:8,9), Israel like Gomer just refused to perceive the amazing love and grace being shown to them. As Gomer lied and deceived, so Israel did to God. They surrounded God with these lies, perhaps alluding to a woman like Gomer hugging her husband, when she was in fact having an affair with others. But even in this there is hope and potential for repentance, for Hosea 12 will go on to demonstrate that Jacob / Israel was a deceiver who repented.</p><p>Judah still remains with God, and is faithful to the Holy One- But just two verses later: “Yahweh has also a controversy with Judah” (<a href='B:350 12:2'>Hos 12:2</a>). Hosea clearly knew that both Israel and Judah would fall together in condemnation for the same sins (<a href='B:350 5:5'>Hos 5:5</a>; <a href='B:350 6:4'>Hos 6:4</a>; <a href='B:350 6:10-11'>Hos 6:10-11</a>; <a href='B:350 12:1-2'>Hos 12:1-2</a>); and yet Hosea appeals to Judah to not sin as Israel had so that they would avoid that same condemnation (<a href='B:350 4:15'>Hos 4:15</a>; <a href='B:350 11:12'>Hos 11:12</a>). These positive words about Judah are therefore irrational, because Judah has so often been bracketed together with Israel in Hosea’s prophecies. But this desperate hope that the unfaithful beloved is in fact faithful, just as Hosea hoped for Gomer, speaks of the desperate love of God for His adulterous people. And God has shown this kind of desperate hope at other times, hoping against hope and His own foreknowledge that there would be different outcomes. For desperate hope is all a function of true love. Thus knowing the destruction that would come on all except Noah, God waited in the hope that more would be saved. He as it were hoped against His own foreknowledge that more would be saved (<a href='B:670 3:20'>1Pe 3:20</a>).</p><p>But the text can be translated: “and Judah vacillates still with God".</p>


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<p>Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind- As noted on <a href='B:350 8:7'>Hos 8:7</a>, Israel like Gomer gave their hearts to that which was light and vapid rather than to the heavy things of God. And for that, they reaped the whirlwind. The wind from the east may refer to Assyria (as in <a href='B:350 13:15'>Hos 13:15</a>), whose help they sought. But they were chasing or seeking help from a destructive wind that would itself turn and destroy them."Chases"translates the same word used in <a href='B:350 2:7'>Hos 2:7</a> of how Israel / Gomer"follow after her lovers"but find no support from them.</p><p>He daily lies more and more and multiplies his desolation- See on <a href='B:350 2:12'>Hos 2:12</a> Vines... fig trees. There is an upward and downward spiral in spirituality. Just as Gomer was sexually addicted, so Israel were in the grip of deceit, and they were unfaithful and dishonest in every department of life. Jacob the reformed deceiver is therefore quoted later in this chapter as their role model. Their lies involved deceiving Assyria.</p><p>&nbsp;They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt- See on <a href='B:350 9:11'>Hos 9:11</a> Glory. The reference is to <a href='B:120 17:4'>2Ki 17:4</a>, where Israel made a covenant with Assyria and yet sought help against Assyria from Egypt."Covenant"is the language of marriage. They were in covenant relationship with God (<a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>), and yet sought covenants with others, just as Gomer did. And they were not even faithful to those other covenant relationships they had made.</p>


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<p>Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah- Hosea was mainly speaking about the ten tribe Kingdom of Israel. Elsewhere in Hosea, God praises Judah’s faithfulness, imputing righteousness to them, despite the fact wicked king Ahaz was then in power (<a href='B:350 11:12'>Hos 11:12</a>). This is typical of how God changes His feelings just as Hosea oscillated between tender love and anger with Gomer. He says He will love Israel no more (<a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a>), and then that He will love them freely (<a href='B:350 14:4'>Hos 14:4</a>); that the city will not be entered into (<a href='B:350 11:9'>Hos 11:9</a> AV), yet also the city would be taken, according to multiple prophecies. They would return to Egypt (<a href='B:350 8:13'>Hos 8:13</a>; <a href='B:350 9:3'>Hos 9:3</a>); but He would not let them return to Egypt (<a href='B:350 11:5'>Hos 11:5</a>). This is God at His most vulnerable. The"controversy"is based upon the ’charge’ Hosea had against Gomer (<a href='B:350 2:2'>Hos 2:2</a> s:w:) for her adultery; it is legal language.</p><p>Hosea clearly knew that both Israel and Judah would fall together in condemnation for the same sins (<a href='B:350 5:5'>Hos 5:5</a>; plainHos 6:4; <a href='B:350 6:10-11'>Hos 6:10-11</a>; <a href='B:350 12:1-2'>Hos 12:1-2</a>); and yet Hosea appeals to Judah to not sin as Israel had so that they would avoid that same condemnation (<a href='B:350 4:15'>Hos 4:15</a>; <a href='B:350 11:12'>Hos 11:12</a>). And in similar vein, knowing the destruction that would come on all except Noah, God waited in the hope that more would be saved. He as it were hoped against His own foreknowledge that more would saved (<a href='B:670 3:20'>1Pe 3:20</a>).</p><p>And will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds He will repay him- Because Israel believed a lie, they lied and were generally dishonest (see on :1). The repentant deceiver Jacob is therefore held up as their pattern. Here and in <a href='B:350 11:12'>Hos 11:12</a>, God charges Israel with continuing the family characteristic of Jacob by being deceitful and untruthful. Abraham and Jacob especially were characterized by great dishonesty. The excursus about Jacob is perfectly in context with Hosea’s struggles with Gomer, and therefore God’s anguish with Jacob / Israel. Hosea saw the necessity of disciplining Gomer; she was as fickle with Hosea as Jacob had been with God. But Jacob was brought through all that to repentance and a desperate clinging on to God’s covenant grace; and this was always Hosea’s hope for Gomer, that she would follow the spiritual path of Jacob, fickle as he was for much of his life. Just as God became vulnerable to Jacob because He loved Jacob so much, and allowed Jacob to win because He let him… so Hosea’s love for Gomer left him vulnerable to her and eager for every and any sign of repentance.</p><p>But <a href='B:350 4:14'>Hos 4:14</a> uses the same word in declaring that “I will not punish…”. And so often the point is made that God did not punish Israel according to their sins (<a href='B:230 103:10'>Psa 103:10</a>). Here we see another example of how God in His passion, like Hosea in his, does not actually do the things He states He will do. Adam not dying in the day of his sin would be the first of many examples. It is this openness of God to change which is now exemplified in this chapter by the remarkable incident of Jacob prevailing against God and likewise not being punished ‘according to his ways’.</p>


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<p>In the womb he took his brother by the heel- <a href='B:10 25:26'>Gen 25:26</a> says that Jacob did this after the birth, and not within the womb. A baby in the womb enveloped in water cannot do this; this was counted to Jacob by God’s gracious imagination, just as Hosea fantasized about and imagined the repentance and faithfulness of the faithless Gomer. Likewise Jacob didn’t ’win’ his wrestling match with the Angel, but here he is spoken of as if he did indeed ’prevail’ over God. The power in view was that of God’s grace. The very weak ’power’ of a baby in the womb is paralleled with the ’power’ by which he struggled and prevailed with the Angel (:4). That power was very weak and practically non-existent- it was a function of God’s desperate love and sensitivity to him. This was reflected in Hosea’s love for Gomer. For true love means weakness and sensitivity to the beloved, and the imputing of rightness. For this reason, Jacob is here counted as having won the wrestling match when he lost it, and as having done in the womb what he could not have done in his own strength.</p><p>And in his maturity- The point may be that Jacob’s spiritual maturity was in resigning all human strength and clinging on to the blessing of grace. But the Hebrew word really means “strength” and recurs in 12:8, where Ephraim “found myself wealth” in his own strength:&nbsp; Jacob reached spiritual strength or maturity that night. To be that familiar with God that we can reason with Him, struggle with Him in prayer, seek to change His will over an illness or situation... this is spiritual maturity. This whole characteristic of striving with God was memorialized in his new name: Israel, implying ’striver and prevailer with God and men’. And this must be the characteristic of Israel after the Spirit too. There is a confusion in the Hebrew between‘striver’ and ‘prince’- for the struggle comes before the crown. Our relationship with Him, our attaining of salvation, is a struggle, a wrestling, a desperate, desperate clinging on, a pleading with tears. Yet this is almost the opposite of the spirit of organized religion; a comfortable drifting through life, attending the same round of meetings, largely hearing pleasant platitudes, no tears, no little real self-sacrifice, little realistic self-denial, little self-examination and daily struggle to be the more spiritual in the ’small’ things of life, hiding behind the institutionalization of spirituality which denominational history has inevitably resulted in... Yet Jacob that night really is a type of us all.</p><p>He had power with God- The reference to"maturity"could simply be in contrast to how he was as a baby; and"power with God"could just refer to his struggle with the Angel. Hence GNB:"When Jacob grew up, he fought against God". But this rather misses the wider picture presented in Hosea, of a God whose great love for us makes Him vulnerable and open to our prayers and desires, just as Hosea was hopelessly vulnerable to Gomer. The Angel who came to slay Jacob as Esau’s representative, as an Angel came to slay Moses, was turned away by Jacob’s wrestling in prayer. Esau came out to kill Jacob, but Esau changes his mind, by grace; and so Jacob comments that as he wrestled close up with the Angel that night, he saw Esau’s face in the face of the Angel (<a href='B:10 33:10'>Gen 33:10</a>). Hence the Angel’s comment that by holding his own in the wrestling match, Jacob had prevailed with both God and men, i:e. Esau (<a href='B:10 32:28'>Gen 32:28</a>).</p>


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<p>Indeed, he struggled with the Angel- The AV is better, “had power over”. The same word is used in <a href='B:350 8:4'>Hos 8:4</a> of how Israel “made princes” but not by God. Jacob is being read negatively here. And yet the idea of having power over God was only because God let him win, as a father playing a game with his son. God’s love is such that as with any true love, it makes the lover vulnerable, and gives power to the beloved. ’Israel’ is the most common title God uses for His people; and it can mean ’one who struggles with God and prevails’. This, therefore, will be the characteristic of all His people. Note the humility of God, the Almighty, in desiring to articulate our relationship with Him in terms of us struggling with Him and winning. <a href='B:350 12:4'>Hos 12:4</a> seems to emphasize this, by saying that Jacob in his prayer and pleading had power over the Angel:&nbsp; His strength was in his humility; by his strength he had power over God, but it was by his weeping and pleading that he did. This, then, was the true strength ’over’ God.</p><p>And prevailed- I explained on :3 that God and Esau’s intentions towards Jacob were changed by his prayer and repentance; and the Israel of Hosea’s day could have done the same, and averted the destruction which was heading for them just as Esau and his men were on their way to destroy Jacob. The idea that God’s purpose is signed and sealed unchangeably and the Angels are just putting it into practice militates against our faith in prayer. Jacob"had power over the Angel, and prevailed"- not physically, because the Angel eventually had power over him that way; but spiritually, through his wrestling in prayer, he succeeded."He wept, and made supplication unto Him... even the Lord God of Hosts (Angels)". Because the Angels do change their mind and God’s purpose is in many ways open-ended, we should be greatly encouraged in our prayers. God, like Hosea with Gomer, is open to dialogue and change. The intended judgment and result of sin will not come if we truly repent.</p><p>He wept, and made supplication to him- This is clearly behind the language of <a href='B:650 5:7'>Heb 5:7</a> about the Lord’s desperate prayer in Gethsemane. The Hebrew means ‘to bow or stoop towards’. Yet the same word is used in the account of that night of wrestling to record how God was gracious unto / bowed down to Jacob (<a href='B:10 33:11'>Gen 33:11</a>). We encounter here a wonderful mutuality between God and Jacob. Jacob bows down to God, throwing himself upon His grace as Esau approaches him to destroy him; and God as it were bows down to Jacob. This is why Jacob marvels in <a href='B:10 33:11'>Gen 33:11</a>, in reflecting upon that night, that God had bowed down to him. It also explains why the pronouns in these verses in Hosea are ambiguous- it’s not altogether clearwho is making supplication to whom. This is what happens in genuine reconciliation; each side stoops to the other. God’s love is such that it makes Him vulnerable enough to stoop before Israel His beloved. We recall how elsewhere He feels apparently guilty for having as it were forsaken His bride Israel, leaving her as a woman forsaken in her youth (<a href='B:290 54:6'>Isa 54:6</a>). He takes blame which He need not have taken at all; but this is what love leads to. And God deeply loves…</p><p>God dealt"graciously"(the same word here translated"supplication") with Jacob (<a href='B:10 33:11'>Gen 33:11</a>). At that time, God"recompensed"to Jacob according to his sins, and Jacob responded by"turning"(same word translated"recompensed") to his God (<a href='B:350 12:2'>Hos 12:2</a>; <a href='B:350 12:8'>Hos 12:8</a>). By the end of his life, this spirit of mutuality between him and God had become perfected. And so with us; we too can live our lives thinking that if we do this, that and the other, God will do this and that for us. The idea of a two-way relationship with Him, of His Spirit, with all that implies, dwelling in us, until our will is His will; all this takes time to develop.</p><p>He found him at Bethel- God had encouraged Jacob to return from Laban because He was the God of Bethel, i:e. what He had revealed there of His seeking, saving grace, He was going to continue (<a href='B:10 31:13'>Gen 31:13</a>). This is why Jacob later builds an altar in Bethel to the God who had answered his prayers in the “day of my distress”- a reference to Jacob’s prayers on the night he wrestled with the Angel as Esau approached him (<a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>). So we could fairly interpret “He found him at Bethel” as meaning that God had also found Jacob at Bethel, just as He ‘found’ Him in that night of wrestling. The same Hebrew word translated ‘found’ is used about how Jacob ‘found’ grace before both Esau and God that night (<a href='B:10 32:5'>Gen 32:5</a>). God found Jacob and Jacob found God; another example of mutuality and purposefully ambiguous pronouns. God is in search of man, and yet man is in search of God. When we meet, there is an indescribable mystery of communication, portrayed graphically for all time in Jacob and the Angel hugging each other as the wrestling match dissolves into an intense clinging on to each other, bowing to each other and blessing each other, the essence of Emmanuel, God with us.</p><p>And there He spoke with us- At Bethel, after the night of wrestling, God renewed the covenant with Jacob. Likewise Hosea was asking Gomer to renew their marriage vows, to enter a new covenant, just as Jeremiah and Ezekiel urge Israel to do with God. Bethel was where Israel were now worshipping idols; Hosea’s point is that in that very place, a spiritually weak Jacob had been found by God and repented. The Angel twice ’found’ Jacob in Bethel (<a href='B:10 28:11-19'>Gen 28:11-19</a>; <a href='B:10 35:1'>Gen 35:1</a>)."He spoke with us"in that Hosea’s audience could likewise have wrestled with God in prayer and repentance, and avoided the approaching destruction.</p>


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<p>Even Yahweh, the God of Armies; Yahweh is His name of renown!- As explained above, the approach of Esau with 400 men to destroy Jacob was also the approach of an army of Angels, Yahweh of armies, to do likewise. But this was averted by Jacob’s desperate prayer and repentance, his clinging on to God. This explains why the title"God of Armies"is used here.</p>


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<p>Therefore you also turn to your God- Hosea’s audience could likewise have wrestled with God in prayer and repentance, and avoided the approaching destruction. Biblical history is a living word. The historical incidents, such as Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel and obtaining grace, speak directly to us and urge us to act likewise; it is as if we were involved in those historical incidents. Thus David invites us to come and see the works God did at the Red Sea, commenting: “There did we rejoice in him” (<a href='B:230 66:5-6'>Psa 66:5-6</a>). He praises God for saving him in the language of Israel’s Red Sea deliverance, speaking of it as “the day of my trouble” (<a href='B:230 86:7-8'>Psa 86:7-8</a> = <a href='B:20 15:11'>Exo 15:11</a>). He saw how their circumstances and his were in principle the same; he personalized the Scripture he had read. When Israel kept the Passover, they were to say that this was the deliverance God had wrought “for me” (<a href='B:20 13:8'>Exo 13:8</a>). “You also turn to your God” as Jacob did in the struggles of his life.</p><p>Keep grace and justice, and wait continually for your God- These were the two things which Hosea dreamt f as being the basis of his remarriage to Gomer (<a href='B:350 2:19'>Hos 2:19</a>). They were seen by him as the basis of marriage. And so Israel are urged to repent as Jacob did, and like him, focus upon a life of grace and justice in covenant relationship with their God.</p>


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<p>A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud- As noted on :1, the worship of lies, the idols, led Israel to be dishonest in other aspects of life. They deceived the Assyrians as well as their God, and were also dishonest in their business dealings. And they ’loved’ this fraudulent life, just as the web of lies spun by Gomer became a lifestyle she loved. The same word for"defraud"is used in <a href='B:350 5:11'>Hos 5:11</a> of how Ephraim was defrauded; like Jacob before his conversion, the deceiver was deceived,"deceiving and being deceived... worse and worse"(<a href='B:620 3:13'>2Ti 3:13</a>), just as"he daily lies more and more"(:1). Gomer and Israel were caught up in treating others as they were treated; they didn’t allow grace and repentance to break the cycle which was leading them in an ever downward spiral.</p><p>"Merchant"is literally ’a Canaanite’. They were like the Canaanites rather than as God’s people; hence they are described in <a href='B:330 16:3'>Eze 16:3</a> as being Canaanites:"Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: Your birthplace is in the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite".</p>


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<p>Ephraim said, Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth- Alluded to in <a href='B:730 3:17'>Rev 3:17</a> about the new Israel. The very same words were said by those who later sold Judah into captivity (<a href='B:450 11:5'>Zec 11:5</a>). Gomer and Israel considered good harvests to be a result of their faithfulness to the Baal cult. See on <a href='B:350 9:1'>Hos 9:1</a>. They considered their wealth a sign that they were blessed by both Yahweh and the Baals. But this was wrong on both counts. And it serves to disprove the prosperity Gospel; material wealth is not necessarily a sign of blessing.</p><p>In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin- Israel were not without any religious conscience. But they had carefully analyzed their ways of acquiring wealth and concluded that they had not committed any sin. Yet God’s comment was that their wealth arose from unjust balances and loving to defraud (:7). But they had carefully worked out a justification for everything which they said left them without sin and guilt. This was casuistic legalism at its worst. Human nature has the propensity to justify anything, and we must bear this in mind in our self-examination.</p>


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<p>But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast- Having condemned Israel for their deceit and materialism in previous verses, we expect the Divine comment to be of judgment. Instead it is of grace, looking ahead to the day when God will enable them to keep the feast of tents, rejoicing in His grace. In wrath He remembers mercy; always, even in the heat of His despair with Israel, there is the hope that they will repent, and He focuses upon His own dream of their restoration. This is how much God wants human restoration, and His strongest will and blessing is therefore behind our every effort to preach it. The feast of tabernacles or tents kept by the exiles in <a href='B:160 8:17'>Neh 8:17</a> was a pathetically small attempt by them to fulfil this; the reality was that most preferred to remain in exile.</p><p>Hosea spoke in God’s Name. He would’ve known how that Name was a memorial of the characteristics of God, His pity, mercy, forgiveness etc. as outlined in <a href='B:20 33:19'>Exo 33:19</a>. And yet Hosea uses those very words in saying that now, God will not have mercy, pity or forgiveness toward Israel (<a href='B:350 1:6'>Hos 1:6</a>). But Hosea spoke in the Name of Yahweh; and predicted that the Yahweh who had been their elohim from the land of Egypt, would still be their God (<a href='B:350 12:9'>Hos 12:9</a>). In this we see Hosea’s personal involvement in the tension of God; for he spoke in God’s Name, with all that Name implied. And we too carry that Name, having been baptized into it. And we speak in that Name to this world, bearing within us the same conflict between the reality of future judgment, and the earnest grace of God to save this world.</p>


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<p>I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables- This may be God’s way of trying to back up Hosea’s credibility as a prophet, as we will see also in :13. He had always communicated with His people through prophets, starting with Moses and Aaron; and no less was He appealing through Hosea."Parables"is better"similitudes", literally"I was represented by the ministry of the prophets". Hosea’s hopeless marriage with the unfaithful Gomer was the greatest example of this in his day. Everyone would have known of her unfaithfulness; Hosea’s love, grace, anger and struggle would also have been the talk of many towns in Israel and Judah. The prostitute and the prophet would indeed have grabbed everyone’s attention. And God says that He was indeed represented by Hosea.</p>


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<p>If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls- Gilead and Gilgal were the eastern and western divisions of the ten tribe kingdom. Gomer became barren and therefore, in Hebrew male terms, worthless. But still Hosea loved her and sought to win her heart back to him. Just as Israel were useless for any labour but God still used them and loved them (<a href='B:330 15:2-3'>Eze 15:2-3</a>).</p><p>Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field- &nbsp;The allusion is to the way that stones were gathered out of the fields into piles. This connects with the reference to “Gilead” at the start of the verse; for the same word is used of how Jacob had called the heap of stones marking his departure from Laban ‘galeed’ (<a href='B:10 31:47'>Gen 31:47</a>). Gilead signified" "heap of witnesses" and Gilgal "heaping heap". The heap of stones celebrated a covenant; but Israel’s covenant was with idols, just as Gomer had covenants with both Hosea and other men.</p>


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<p>Jacob- The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often used together to show how God saw the Jacob as Israel, without forgetting he was still Jacob.</p><p>Fled into the country of Aram- Just as Jacob had to go into exile to bring about his turning to God, so Israel would have to go into exile towards Aram / Syria, just as Jacob had done.</p><p>And Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds- It was God and Hosea who paid so much to get a wife. By their experience in exile, Israel would learn how much sacrifice God had gone to in order to claim them as His own wife. At least, that was the intention; Israel as a whole didn’t respond, and we may assume that Gomer likewise didn’t. Speaking in the context of Israel’s punishment for idolatry (remember, in God’s eyes Israel = Jacob), we are told, apparently out of context, that Jacob served for a wife (singular), and for a wife he kept sheep. Yet this is in the context of :2, which says that God would punish Israel for their idolatry, according to their ways. The terrible 14 years of keeping the sheep which their forefather Jacob went through therefore represented their punishment for idolatry. As Jacob served for Rachel, so Israel served idols and would have to serve those idolatrous nations as an appropriate punishment. Keeping sheep in Gentile lands is the basis of the prodigal parable; the young man who left home, tricked his father, sidled past his hostile elder brother with what he was sure was his inheritance by rights, squandered it, kept sheep, and came back a new man. Clearly the Lord had His mind on Jacob, although that parable is full of reference to prophetic descriptions of the nation of Israel, too. <a href='B:350 12:4-6'>Hos 12:4-6</a>; <a href='B:350 12:12-13'>Hos 12:12-13</a> seem to say that Jacob’s humiliation at the hands of Laban is a type of the future suffering of Jacob, before their final homecoming.</p>


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<p>By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt- This is added surely as encouragement to Hosea. Hosea is being likened to a prophet like Moses- which of course is a Messianic title (<a href='B:50 18:15'>Deu 18:15</a>; <a href='B:510 3:22'>Act 3:22</a>). His saving passion towards Gomer was to be understood by him as representative of Messiah’s passion for Israel’s salvation.</p><p>“By a prophet (Moses) the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet (Joshua?) was he preserved [s:w. “keep”]” (<a href='B:350 12:13'>Hos 12:13</a>). Joshua and Moses were working and walking in harmony with an Angel in their work. For an Angel ‘brought Israel out of Egypt’ , and it was an Angel who ‘kept’ Israel (<a href='B:20 23:20'>Exo 23:20</a>). This shows how prophets and Angels were in tandem with each other. In the work of bringing out and ‘keeping’ a people for God’s Name, we too can have this sense of working in tandem with a guardian Angel every step of the way.</p><p>And by aprophet he was preserved- Literally, "kept", as a shepherd keeps his sheep. It is the same word used in :12 for how Jacob kept sheep. Again we see the mutuality between God and Jacob / Israel; they were to keep His sheep, and He would keep them.</p><p>Clearly we are intended to see Moses’ mediation as typical of the Lord’s. His freewill mediation was the basis of Israel’s salvation: "By a prophet (Moses: <a href='B:50 18:18'>Deu 18:18</a>), the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved". This last clause may be a hint that Moses prayed for the gift of life-preserving manna, and thus sustained Israel, all unbeknown to them. Likewise the intensity of his prayers and the supremacy of his willingness to sacrifice himself for them was tragically unknown to them at the time. But the preservation in view may specifically refer to a single incident and not general preservation in the desert; the reference may well be to Moses’ prayer for Israel to be forgiven of their idolatry and spiritual adultery against God, when God wished to destroy them and make of Moses a new Israel. This would be very relevant in the Hosea context. See on <a href='B:350 14:4'>Hos 14:4</a>.</p><p>It should be noted that Moses as a type of Christ was not the High Priest. He mediated for and thereby "preserved" Israel on a voluntary basis; not because he was under any duty to offer up their prayers or "preserve" them. Indeed, they didn’t make any prayers for him to offer up. He pleaded with God for them on his own initiative, rather than being asked by them to do so. And this is the basis of Christ’s mediation for us; he pleads for us even when we know not what to pray for, even when we don’t realize the need to beseech the Father. Moses’ mediation, not so much Aaron’s offerings, are the prototype which the New Testament uses to explain the Lord’s present work. In the Apocryphal Assumption of Moses (1:14), Moses is made to say of God: "He designed and devised me and he prepared me before the foundation of the world, that I should be the mediator". These words are alluded to in a number of NT passages.</p><p>The emphasis upon "by a prophet..." was surely to show that through heeding the words of Hosea the prophet, Israel again could likewise be preserved from destruction. He was prepared to try to act as Moses for them.</p><p>12:14 Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger- Just as Hosea was provoked to anger by Gomer; God "hated" Israel for their rejection of Him (see on <a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a>):&nbsp; We noted on <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a> the very deep provocations of feelings within God’s heart.</p><p>Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt- As noted on :13, Hosea is as the watchman prophet who is telling Israel what is coming upon them. Their blood is therefore no longer on his head but on theirs, according to the principle of <a href='B:330 33:6-8'>Eze 33:6-8</a>.</p>


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<p>Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger-</p><p> Just as Hosea was provoked to anger by Gomer; God &quot;hated&quot; Israel for their rejection of Him (see on <a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos. 9:15</a>).  We noted on <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos. 11:8</a> the very deep provocations of feelings within God's heart.</p><p>Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt- As noted on <a href='B:350 12:13'>:13</a>, Hosea is as the watchman prophet who is telling Israel what is coming upon them. Their blood is therefore no longer on his head but on theirs, according to the principle of <a href='B:330 33:6-8'>Ez. 33:6-8</a>.</p>


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<p>When Ephraim spoke with trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he became guilty in Baal, he died- The "trembling" in view here and in <a href='B:350 11:10-11'>Hos 11:10-11</a> is trembling in repentance; "When Ephraim spoke with trembling, he exalted himself in Israel" (<a href='B:350 13:1'>Hos 13:1</a>). "Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to His blessings in the last days" (<a href='B:350 3:5'>Hos 3:5</a>). Humility is the true exaltation. We can deduce that the second half of the verse therefore contrasts such "trembling" with the guilt of Baal worship; and exaltation with death / condemnation. Idolatry was and is therefore rooted in pride, the ultimate root of all sin and barrier to repentance. See on :16.</p>


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<p>Now they sin more and more- See on <a href='B:350 7:4'>Hos 7:4</a> Burning. As noted on <a href='B:350 12:1'>Hos 12:1</a>, Israel were in a downward spiral of sin, portrayed by Gomer’s sexual addiction.</p><p>And have made themselves molten images of their silver- The reference is to the golden calves of Jeroboam, so "silver" is better understood as ’wealth’. But the word strictly means "money", and is that used of how Menahem and other kings paid silver to the Assyrians rather than trusting in Yahweh (<a href='B:120 15:20'>2Ki 15:20</a>; <a href='B:120 16:8'>2Ki 16:8</a>; <a href='B:120 18:14'>2Ki 18:14</a>). This trusting in human strength and personal wealth was effectively idolatry.</p><p>Even idols according to their own understanding- The tabernacle was made by craftsmen with God given understanding (<a href='B:20 31:3'>Exo 31:3</a>; <a href='B:20 35:31'>Exo 35:31</a>; <a href='B:20 36:1'>Exo 36:1</a> s:w:). The images and idols are presented as a fake tabernacle; it was all idolatry performed in the name of Yahweh worship. And this is ur subtlest temptation today.</p><p>All of them the work of the craftsmen- There were two calves, but "all of them" sounds as if there were many. There were other shrines established, but it may also be that just as the singular calf in the wilderness was addressed in the plural (<a href='B:20 32:4'>Exo 32:4</a>), here too there was an element of plurality within unity. This was the pagan background for the false doctrine of the Trinity.</p><p>They say of them, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves’- Israel were famed amongst the Gentiles for the calves made by Jeroboam, to which they offered human sacrifice:&nbsp; It was observed as ironic that they kissed in adoration that which they sacrificed their children to. Child sacrifice was typically associated with Baal; but here, to the calves. So again we see that Israel were mixing Yahweh worship with paganism, rather than having shrines for Yahweh and separate shrines for the idols. See on :16.</p>


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<p>Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early in the morning, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney- Israel threshed themselves (<a href='B:350 10:11'>Hos 10:11</a>), they sowed the wind (<a href='B:350 8:7'>Hos 8:7</a>), chased the wind in going to Assyria for help (<a href='B:350 12:1'>Hos 12:1</a>), and were now driven by the wind in condemnation. The driven chaff is representative of the destruction of the nations around Israel in <a href='B:340 2:35'>Dan 2:35</a>. God’s apostate people are "condemned with the world" (<a href='B:530 11:32'>1Co 11:32</a>) in sharing that same fate. The arising of the sun is understood in <a href='B:460 4:2'>Mal 4:2</a> as the arising of Messiah at the restoration of the Kingdom. So the idea seemed to be that apostate Israel would be judged and destroyed, but this would usher in the Messianic kingdom. All this could have happened in some form when the exiles returned. But it was deferred and recalculated until our days.</p>


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<p>Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but Me, and besides Me there is no saviour- As in <a href='B:350 11:1'>Hos 11:1</a>; <a href='B:330 16:22'>Eze 16:22</a>; <a href='B:330 16:43'>Eze 16:43</a> and elsewhere in Hosea, God finds the memory of Israel’s youth and the beginning of His relationship with them in the marriage at Sinai (<a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>) a memory which causes Him great pain. Just as in the breakup of any human relationship, it is the memories of the early days which crack us up. We again see God’s humanity and the emotional nature of His being. All of Hosea contains allusion to Hosea’s marital relationship with Gomer. "Saviour", "king" and even "your God" were terms which in Hebraic thought were titles for a husband. And yet Israel like Gomer looked to other gods and nations as their saviour. The New Testament presents the Lord Jesus as our "only saviour", Yahshua, Yah’s salvation. Any practical, moral or intellectual turning to other saviours is tantamount to adultery. Despite all her adultery, Hosea was still Gomer’s husband, just as likewise Yahweh was still Israel’s God. They should "acknowledge" or "know" no other; and this too can be understood as a euphemism for the sexual act. To know other gods was adultery.</p>


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<p>I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought- Ezekiel 16 is likewise full of such Divine memories, of how fragile and desperate Israel were in the desert, totally dependent upon Him for food, clothing and water- the very duties of a Hebrew husband toward his wife. Yet Gomer sought these things from her lovers, as explained in Hosea 2. God’s ’knowing’ of Israel should have resulted in their exclusive ’knowing’ of Him (:4). The knowledge in view is in the Hebraic sense of relationship, not academic knowledge of theological propositions as enshrined in a statement of faith.</p>


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<p>According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted- As explained on :1, it is pride which leads us away from God and true repentance, and it is material blessing which often leads to pride; and it is humility which exalts before God. Israel "waxed fat and kicked" (<a href='B:50 32:15'>Deu 32:15</a>). As explained on Hosea 2, the parallel was with how Hosea provided Gomer with all she wanted, even giving her his entire wealth, quite simply because he loved her; but she used it on her lovers and idolatry, then claiming that the payment and apparent blessings she received from both her lovers and her idolatry were her own legitimate personal income.</p><p>Therefore they have forgotten Me- Pride is associated with forgetting God in <a href='B:50 8:14'>Deu 8:14</a>. This is where the prosperity Gospel is so wrong. The more human strength we have, the more likely we are to forget God. It’s why most believers have not been given wealth; because God doesn’t want us to forget Him.</p>


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<p>Therefore I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path- Lion, leopard, bear and wild beasts (:8) were all elements of Daniel’s prophecies concerning the powers who would dominate the land promised to Abraham. But God was behind all those powers:&nbsp; All these beasts are significant because of what they do to Israel; that is the territory and arena of their domination. But they are all acting as it were on God’s behalf, like the four beasts of the cherubim. There is no radical evil, evil out of control in the cosmos, with God’s people at risk from being dominated by it. God is completely in control, and even the terrible things done to Israel by the beasts are under His total control.</p><p>"Lurk" is literally ’to observe’ and the Hebrew word is soon used again when we read that God will observe His people for good on their reconcilliation and restoration (<a href='B:350 14:8'>Hos 14:8</a>).</p>


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<p>I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs- "Bereaved" is the same word used of how Zion would be bereaved of her children during the invasions which God would bring (<a href='B:290 49:21'>Isa 49:21</a>; <a href='B:300 18:21'>Jer 18:21</a>). God is saying that although He had brought the invasions and was totally identified with them, yet He was also totally identified with Israel in the suffering and pain they would bring. This is the other side to the complaint that God brings suffering into our lives; He does, but He is totally identified with us in that suffering and suffers with us and even, in His Son, for us.</p><p>And will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness, tear them like a wild animal- The language is extreme; but this is the extreme wrath of God at human unfaithfulness to Him, as so often mentioned in Hosea (see on <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>; <a href='B:350 12:14'>Hos 12:14</a>). The extent of the damage is fatal; surely the idea is that Israel would be killed by this bear. This is the force of <a href='B:350 6:1'>Hos 6:1</a> (see note there): "He has torn, and He will heal us". That ’healing’ was therefore nothing short of a resurrection from the dead, and this was the extent of power available to Israel in the miraculous restoration from exile which God potentially enabled. But Israel for the most part didn’t want to know.</p>


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<p>You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against Me, against the One who is your help- As noted on :8, God through the invaders had mortally ravaged Israel, and yet even from that desperate situation, He who had torn could also heal, restore and resurrect (see on <a href='B:350 6:1'>Hos 6:1</a>). But Israel didn’t want that help. Or we can read as AV: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help". Here we see grace even beyond grace. Although God had destroyed them through the wild beasts of the invaders (see on :7); yet still He offered them His help. And that amazing offer is there to this day for all Israel.</p>


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<p>Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes?’- Often in Hosea, God appeals to Israel to let Him be their ‘king’. But there is a Hebraism whereby a husband is called the ‘king’ of his wife. God’s appeal was reflected in Hosea’s desire for Gomer to as it were re-marry him, to let him truly be her king / husband. And yet she felt like Israel: “What then should a king do [for] us?” (<a href='B:350 10:3'>Hos 10:3</a>). She was so selfish that she didn’t see anything in it for her… when so much love was being offered to her. We noted on <a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a> that Israel’s desire for a human king was a rejection of God as their king / husband, and had been tantamount to adultery. This verse appears to be spoken to Israel at a time when they have no king (:11). It is hard to determine when that might have been during Hosea’s ministry (<a href='B:350 1:1'>Hos 1:1</a>); so this can be taken as a future prophetic word. We notetoo that Israel’s demand for a king as recorded in 1 Samuel graciously omits to record that they also asked for "princes", even though they had already had "judges" raised up by God. They wanted a king and a royal family, to be the equivalent to the Divine "judges" or saviours whom He had raised up. So often the Divine record reflects God’s grace.</p>


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<p>I gave you a king in My anger, and have taken him away in My wrath- As explained on :10 and <a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a>, Israel’s rejection of God for a human king made God "hate" them. It was effectively a divorce from Him; this is how seriously God sees our turning to visible human help rather than to Him. God so respected human freewill decisions that even when His wife wanted to go off with another man, He "gave" her this; and even worked through the system of human kingship in order to continue some level of relationship with Israel, such was His love for them. God sees a connection between His giving of a king, and His taking away of a king. Before they had a king, they were exclusively His. So the taking away of their king was in fact not simply a punishment, but in wrath He remembered mercy, and hoped that this would in fact be the path back towards their accepting Him as their king. So often we see God’s hope for restoration expressed within and next to His angry statements of judgment. His anger is therefore unlike human anger; there is always the love which seeks longer term restoration.</p>


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<p>The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sin is stored up- It was stored up within God’s memory. Often He seeks to remind Israel that He has not forgotten their sins. There is an assumption that if we forget our sins, then God does too. The passage of time and fading of memory thereby works a kind of pseudo atonement for us. But God remembers, and there has to come some form of judgment. And we must ever consider this in our hearts. Israel’s lack of self-examination is quite a theme; see on <a href='B:350 7:2'>Hos 7:2</a>; <a href='B:350 7:9'>Hos 7:9</a>.</p>


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<p>The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son; for when it is time, he doesn’t come to the opening of the womb- Male Israel are likened to a woman; the rather awkward grammar which is necessary for this to be expressed ["woman... him"] is to flag up the continued connection between Israel and Gomer. But Israel are likened to both the travailing mother, and the baby boy who refuses to be born. The travail of Israel in exile (<a href='B:300 22:23'>Jer 22:23</a>) was intended to bring forth new birth, making all her travail worthwhile; and if they had repented, they could have brought forth before they travailed (<a href='B:290 66:7'>Isa 66:7</a>). But most of them preferred to remain in exile, to remain within the womb; and those who did return were not spiritually reformed. And so it was pain and suffering all round, as there is in the lives of all those who refuse the birth of the Spirit and are left just with the pains of travail with nothing to show for it (<a href='B:500 3:3-5'>Joh 3:3-5</a>). They were "unwise"; and the word is only used again in Hosea in the final appeal of <a href='B:350 14:9'>Hos 14:9</a> to repent. This was the true wisdom, which would enable the birth of the reborn, restored Israel.</p>


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<p>I will ransom them from the power of Sheol, I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction?- This is quoted in the New Testament regarding resurrection from the dead at the last day. Resurrection is completely in line with the context here. As noted on :9, He who had torn Israel to the death could also heal, restore and resurrect (see on <a href='B:350 6:1'>Hos 6:1</a>). We noted on :13 that God’s intention was that the suffering community in exile would give birth to a man child at the restoration; and Ezekiel 37 speaks of resurrection to new life at this time. But most of the exiles didn’t return, and the child refused to be born (:13). The same was true of the revival of the remnant at the time of Hezekiah; there was no strength to bring forth the child (<a href='B:290 37:3'>Isa 37:3</a>). And so this promise of restoration to new life from the dead comes true in the birth of the Spirit in the hearts of a new Israel; for the promises of new life are part of the new covenant intended for the exiles in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And it comes to its final term in the resurrection of the body at the last day. Israel had been ransomed and redeemed from captivity (<a href='B:290 35:10'>Isa 35:10</a>; <a href='B:300 31:11'>Jer 31:11</a>). But although "I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me" (<a href='B:350 7:13'>Hos 7:13</a>). This ransom from death therefore became reapplied to the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus, resulting in our entry of the new covenant, the birth of the Spirit in our cleansed hearts, and finally the resurrection of the body from death. The power of death [its "plagues"] was finally destroyed in the work of the Lord Jesus- these words are clearly alluded to in <a href='B:650 2:14'>Heb 2:14</a>.</p><p>Compassion will be hidden from my eyes- AV "repentance". It could be that this is simply saying that although He has changed His mind over things, He would not do so over this. God knows He has changed His position on Israel to and fro, just as Hosea had with Gomer. He says that He will not change again; and yet such is His grace and eternal love for Israel, that He does change again. Likewise we read that "I have purposed it, and will not repent" (<a href='B:300 4:28'>Jer 4:28</a>); and yet God does. Such is His apparent humanity, the depth of His internal struggles between anger and grace, judgment and mercy, hate and love. The fact He as it were comes down on the side of "God is love", upon the pole of grace rather than anger, is not simply because that is how He is. He has come to that position through terrible internal struggle; see on <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>.</p>


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<p>Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness, and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. - As noted on <a href='B:350 12:1'>Hos 12:1</a>, the east wind was Assyria, whom Israel had once chased after for help, and which would now return as a whirlwind to destroy them. Their armies approached from the desert (<a href='B:110 19:15'>1Ki 19:15</a>). But God was intensely identified with that wind or spirit, it was as it were His very own breath. As noted on :7, the invaders of Israel were all totally identified with Yahweh, and yet He was also absolutely identified with His people in their resultant sufferings. "Ephraim" means ’fruitful’; the idea is that although he has been fruitful, yet he will "become dry". This exactly fits Gomer, who after her marriage to Hosea bore children to her lovers. We have noted earlier that these children were destined to destruction at the hands of the invaders, and she was cursed with infertility. Her fertility therefore was worthless; "though he is fruitful...".</p><p>He will plunder the storehouse of treasure- Perhaps a reference to the kings contemporary with Hosea using the temple treasures to buy off invaders or hire human help. Or the reference could be to the invaders plundering the wealth of Israel and Judah at the invasions; the inscriptions in Sargon’s palace at Khorsabad list the treasures taken from Israel. The wealth they had trusted in could not save them, and that is an abiding lesson.</p>


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<p>Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword- The same word for "guilty" is found in <a href='B:350 10:2'>Hos 10:2</a>, where as noted there, we also have the idea of God in court against His people. Finally, they are guilty. Despite their prayers and religious rituals, they had rebelled against Him, and so must "fall by the sword"- also judgment language. But "guilty" is the word used in :1; they had themselves made themselves guilty, and this final verdict was of their own choice. Sin is its own judgment, chosen by men and only confirmed by God.</p><p>Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open- Israel had offered their children to Baal and were famed for it (see on :2). Some of the infant slaying rituals involved not only burning the child but also dashing it to pieces. The invaders who "ripped open" the women would themselves be judged for what they did (<a href='B:370 1:13'>Amo 1:13</a> s:w:). But this was all part of the Divine ’tearing’ of His people (s:w. <a href='B:350 13:8'>Hos 13:8</a>). Yet even from that, on a communal level, they could be restored- if the remnant repented.</p>


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<p>Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin- Hosea on God’s behalf now makes his final appeal. They were to "return" in order to avoid the judgment to come. They didn’t, and so from exile they were also to "return" both spiritually and physically to the land of promise to reestablish the kingdom. But most of them didn’t want to do that either. They were to accept that their "fall" was due to their sin; whereas Ezekiel was clearly up against the attitude that the exiles thought their punishment was unfair, and they were unjustly suffering the effects of others’ sins. Their "fall" was ultimately because of their pride (s:w. <a href='B:350 5:5'>Hos 5:5</a>); this human weakness which is glorified or at best shrugged off by society was what prevented their repentance and brought about their fall.</p>


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<p>Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls- Perhaps the intention was that although Hosea knew Israel would go into captivity and be unable to offer sacrifice there, he wanted them to learn there that they could offer their lips and hearts instead of bulls and animal sacrifice. "Accept that which is good" is AV "receive us graciously". They were to cast themselves upon His grace, as their father Jacob had done (Hosea 12). What God wanted was not the bulls of animals sacrifice, but broken and contrite hearts expressed in words of repentance. By being cut off from a temple and sacrificial system, their judgment actually encouraged them towards this. We too may find ourselves cut off from the externalities of church and religious life for whatever reason; that we might make this same intended journey.</p>


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<p>Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods!’- They were to recognize that absolutely no human help could save them. They had asked Egypt for help before (<a href='B:120 17:3-4'>2Ki 17:3-4</a>), and that assistance was likely imagined in terms of horses and chariots. But they were to totally reject any human strength. All their idols were likewise a trust in the works of their own hands. And here we see the relevance to us, we who do not have literal idols of wood and stone. Quite simply, any trust in our works, money, wealth or health is idolatry.</p><p>For in You the fatherless finds mercy- See on 14:8 From Me you will acquire fruit. The prophecies of judgment and destruction consistently imply that there would be reformation and restoration arising out of those experiences. This was evidently not for those who were slain, but for the survivors and the orphans of the next generation. They would "find mercy", they would become the "Ruhamah" arising as it were as the resurrected form of Lo-Ruhamah, ’not finding mercy’, the name of one of Gomer’s adulterous sons who was to be slain by the invaders (<a href='B:350 1:6'>Hos 1:6</a>; <a href='B:350 2:4'>Hos 2:4</a>). And so the prophecy links back to its beginning. A repentant Israel were intended to "find mercy" when they returned from captivity (<a href='B:50 30:3'>Deu 30:3</a>; <a href='B:290 14:1'>Isa 14:1</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>; <a href='B:300 30:18'>Jer 30:18</a>; <a href='B:300 33:26'>Jer 33:26</a>). But most of them didn’t want to return. This is the tragedy. And so the promise comes to be reapplied to those of our day who accept the new covenant in repentance, and "find mercy" both now and at judgment day (Is 60:10; <a href='B:620 1:18'>2Ti 1:18</a>), and especially to repent Israel of the last days (<a href='B:330 39:25'>Eze 39:25</a>; <a href='B:520 11:31'>Rom 11:31</a>). Mercy being shown to those who had not found mercy (<a href='B:350 2:23'>Hos 2:23</a>) is applied to Christian believers today (<a href='B:520 11:30'>Rom 11:30</a>).</p>


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<p>I will heal their waywardness- Israel are portrayed in Hosea as having an endless, insatiable psychological proclivity towards other gods, just as Gomer became a sex addict. The healing in view is therefore psychological; it is the gift of a holy spirit, a new psychology and worldview.</p><p>I will love them freely- See on <a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a> Love them no more. The rent in God’s heart between anger and love, judgment and mercy, His internal struggle (<a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>), comes down finally on the side of loving them freely, despite feeling at times that He could "love them no more" (<a href='B:350 9:15'>Hos 9:15</a>). But the simple truth that "God is love" or "God loves Israel" was arrived at after the Divine struggles of heart and emotion which we cannot really enter into; although we see them reflected in Hosea’s struggles of emotion over Gomer.</p><p>For My anger is turned away from him- The same words are used of how Moses turned away God’s anger from Israel by his intercession and spirit of self-sacrifice (<a href='B:20 32:12'>Exo 32:12</a>; <a href='B:230 78:38'>Psa 78:38</a>). Israel’s "preservation" by Moses has been alluded to earlier; see on <a href='B:350 12:13'>Hos 12:13</a>. The mediator figure who ultimately does this is the Lord Jesus. God did not turn away His anger from Judah (<a href='B:120 23:26'>2Ki 23:26</a>; <a href='B:300 4:8'>Jer 4:8</a>) at that time; but He ultimately will, due to the work of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon- For Israel to be as a flourishing tree, it had to be planted. The idea was that the people of God would return from captivity and be planted in the land of Israel permanently, where they would become a blessing to the nations around them (:7).</p>


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<p>His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon- The language of branches providing shade (:7) is that of the restored Kingdom of God, providing shade and blessing to the surrounding world; Ephraim would indeed have fruitful branches (<a href='B:10 49:22'>Gen 49:22</a>). This could have come true after the return from exile (<a href='B:330 17:8'>Eze 17:8</a>; <a href='B:330 17:23'>Eze 17:23</a>), but it didn’t. The few who returned mixed with the nations, traded with them and in spirit became like them. They were not a blessing to them. And so the prophecy is to be fulfilled in the work of the Lord Jesus and His future Kingdom on earth (<a href='B:470 13:32'>Mat 13:32</a>), through which the Kingdom of Israel shall be reestablished (<a href='B:330 21:25-27'>Eze 21:25-27</a>).</p>


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<p>Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon- As noted on :6, this is the language of the restored Kingdom of God in Israel. The branches of natural Israel were broken off, and we have been grafted in (<a href='B:520 11:21'>Rom 11:21</a>). Right now, we should be a shade to people from all nations through sharing the gospel of the Kingdom with them. The ’revival’ could have happened in the time of Hosea (see on <a href='B:350 6:2'>Hos 6:2</a>). But the Israelites wanted to sleep with the Gentiles, pay them for help, deceive them and fight with them, as Hosea has explained already- rather than be a shade to them, an attractive scent to them, and giving them a foretaste f the Kingdom of God. So much potential was wasted, as it is in human life to this day.</p>


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<p>Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols?- The idea may be that Ephraim will say this in repentance, and God responds. But we can also read it as God’s address of Ephraim. As I have noted often, Israel were not so much building shrines to idols, but building altars to Yahweh and claiming that their idolatry there was in fact Yahweh worship. God for all time is marking that separation. No longer will His people serve their flesh under guise of serving Him.</p><p>I will answer, and will take care of him- Literally, I will show My face. God had turned His face away from Israel (<a href='B:50 31:17'>Deu 31:17</a>), now He will look toward them in response to their exclusive, whole hearted commitment to Him.</p><p>I am like a green fir tree- from Me you will acquire fruit- The dried up tree of Israel would become God’s own tree, and would again produce fruit; even though green fir trees don’t produce fruit but only seeds. But this one would give fruit, by a miracle. Instead of worshipping evergreen trees in the hope of fertility blessings, they would worship Yahweh alone, and receive fertility from Him. This is perhaps Hosea’s fantasy that somehow, this worn out woman with dry breasts and a miscarrying womb (<a href='B:350 9:14'>Hos 9:14</a>) would somehow one day still bear him children of their own, and that in him “the fatherless [a reference to Gomer’s illegitimate children] finds mercy” (14:3). This fantasy of Hosea’s, rooted in his amazing love for Gomer, love that was partly in pure and amazing obedience to God’s command that he love her (<a href='B:350 3:1'>Hos 3:1</a>), is a reflection of God’s dream for Israel; His hope for Israel, which is "the hope of Israel". Such love and grace is in the background of that term. Hosea died with his dream unfulfilled. We are left with the question as to whether this similar loving intention of God for Israel will in fact be fulfilled, or whether it was what was potentially possible for Israel; or whether His fantasy for them will be fulfilled through a new Israel. If the latter, and we are that new Israel, then we can imagine what passionate joy the Father finds in our bumbling attempts to respond to Him and be His loyal and faithful wife. Whatever, the simple fact is that it all reflects an amazing grace, an ineffable love… and this God is our God, and Hosea who reflected all this is truly a pattern for ourselves in daily life.</p>


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<p>Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; but the rebellious will stumble in them- The true ’prudence’ or wisdom was to repent; that was the true understanding. But Israel were not wise and so the exiled community didn’t come to rebirth (see on <a href='B:350 13:13'>Hos 13:13</a>). The very existence of such passionate love for us, love beyond reason, carries with it an inevitable warning as to our responsibilities. Faced as we are by a love like this, we simply can’t be passive to it. We shall either stumble, or walk in this love.</p>


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<p>The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel l, the son of Pethuel- There is no reference to this Joel in the historical books, no clue as to who Pethuel ["visions of God"] was, and no clear statement within Joel as to when exactly he lived and which invasion he was predicting. His references to Jerusalem and the temple suggest he was in Judah and predicting an invasion of Jerusalem. There is much internal evidence that Joel has in mind the Babylonian invasion, and he was living in Jerusalem and appealing desperately for repentance in order to avert it. This would mean that he was in Jerusalem whilst Jeremiah was imprisoned for uttering his similar prophecies; and that might explain the relative anonymity of Joel l, and why Jeremiah doesn’t specifically mention him.</p><p>But despite surface level similarities with some historical incidents, his prophecy doesn’t fit the Babylonian invasion. We are left with an open question as to whether his call for prayer and repentance was heard, and whether Jerusalem fell or not. The descriptions of the "northern army" being turned away and destroyed (<a href='B:360 2:20'>Joe 2:20</a>) have some similarities with the Assyrian retreat in the time of Hezekiah, but the location of their destruction doesn’t fit the historical record. There is much similarity between Joel’s language and that used of Babylon’s invasion. It could be that Joel lived just prior to the invasion and was urging a desperate repentance in order to change the outcome, in line with the appeals of Jeremiah. But these were unheeded, and so his prophecy applies to the final latter day invasion of the land; the potential salvation he predicted was not realized.</p><p>Commentators have offered various historical contexts for Joel, but they all seem to come unstuck on many verses in the prophecy. Harry Whittaker’s attempt to prove that it all refers to the unsuccessful Assyrian invasion of Isaiah’s time runs into difficulty with the repeated similarities between Joell’s description of the invader, and the language of Amos and others about the Babylonian invasion. If indeed Judah repented, as Joel appeals for, then the invader would have been destroyed, the Spirit poured out and the Messianic kingdom established. And that didn’t happen in Hezekiah’s time; he himself turned away from faith straight afterwards. And yet indeed there are some points of contact with the Sennacherib / Hezekiah situation. We must also give due weight to Joel’s insistence that the invasion was to be the unprecedented invasion of Judah, worse than anything before, and which would never be repeated (<a href='B:360 1:2-3'>Joe 1:2-3</a> cp. <a href='B:360 2:2'>Joe 2:2</a>). This would point to the Babylonian rather than the Assyrian invasion. But ultimately the invasion in view is therefore that of the last days, before the Lord’s return and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.</p><p>But why the points of contact with the invasions of Assyria and Babylon? I suggest that Joel l’s prophecy could have come true at those points, if Judah had repented as he appealed for. But they didn’t, and so the prophecy was rescheduled and reapplied to the last days. Likewise the passage about the pouring out of the Spirit is applied to the first century gifting of the Spirit (<a href='B:360 2:28'>Joe 2:28</a> = <a href='B:510 2:17'>Act 2:17</a>). But Israel did not repent then as they should have done, neither was the Messianic Kingdom established on earth then. It could have been; but Israel would not. Yet Joel l’s words shall come true in the last days. Although even then, whether Jerusalem falls is left by Joel an open question, depending upon Israel’s repentance. Other prophecies clearly show that Jerusalem will fall, Judah will not repent as required; but they shall do so finally, and Joel l’s Kingdom prophecies shall come true.</p>


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<p>Hear this, you elders, and listen, all of you inhabitants of the land- As so often in the prophets, the leadership and ordinary people are bracketed together and jointly appealed to. God’s call was and is to individuals; they were not to follow their leaders, and leave spiritual decision making to their leaders. This itself was a radical and unusual approach within the understanding of society in Joel l’s time. We can certainly learn from this; God’s word calls to us as individuals.</p><p>Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?- The idea of this sentence couple with the reference to "generations" of the future in :3 is that the situation was unprecedented, both in the past and future- and just this language is used in <a href='B:360 2:2'>Joe 2:2</a>. This is the "time of trouble" for God’s people which had never been and would never be repeated again; and that is unquestionably language of the very last days before the Lord’s return (<a href='B:340 12:1'>Dan 12:1</a>; <a href='B:470 24:21'>Mat 24:21</a>). As noted on :1, Joel’s prophecy could have potentially come true at various points in history, including his own time, perhaps just prior to the Assyrian or Babylonian invasion of Judah; but Judah did not repent as Joel appealed for, and so the prophecy has its main fulfilment in the last days.</p>


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<p>Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children tell another generation- See on :2. This may be a literary device meaning that the situation would not be repeated in future generations, rather than a literal appeal to pass on the details of the tragedy to future generations.</p>


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<p>What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten- The original words all refer to locusts but in various forms of their growth. Perhaps there was or will be a literal series of locust devastations of the land, designed to bring Jewry to repentance without the need for the bloodshed of an invasion; see on :7. But they will not be heeded. <a href='B:370 4:9'>Amo 4:9</a> uses the same language in an apparently literal sense concerning the situation in the land before the Babylonian invasion. We note that God therefore worked by all means to try to bring His people to repentance without the Babylonian invasion. He works likewise with us, having to up the intensity to bring our stubborn hearts to repentance.</p><p>However it is clear from <a href='B:360 2:25'>Joe 2:25</a> that the locusts represented "my great army which I sent among you". "Eaten" is the same word used for how the invading army would "consume" the land (<a href='B:360 2:3'>Joe 2:3</a>; <a href='B:360 2:5'>Joe 2:5</a>), and how the Babylonians would "consume" Judah(<a href='B:370 1:4'>Amo 1:4</a>; <a href='B:370 2:5'>Amo 2:5</a>; <a href='B:300 15:3'>Jer 15:3</a>). Whatever the possible potential historical application, locusts are used in Revelation as symbolic of the latter day invaders to come upon the land of promise; see on <a href='B:730 9:3'>Rev 9:3</a>; <a href='B:730 9:7'>Rev 9:7</a>. And that is the primary application. The numerical values of the terms for the various locus forms have been interpreted as referring to the number of years the various empires dominated Jerusalem. These however are questionable; the Romans dominated the area beyond AD70, but I include the claims for your perusal:</p><p>Palmerworm, Hebrew gazam, numerical value 50- Babylon 588BC - 538BC</p><p>Locust, Hebrew arbeh, numerical value 208- Persia 538BC - 330BC</p><p>Cankerworm, Hebrew yelek, numerical value 140- Greece 330BC - 190BC</p><p>Caterpillar, Hebrew hasil, numerical value 108- Rome 38BC - AD70.</p><p>The attraction of the suggestion, however, is that we as latter day readers would therefore be intended to understand that after the four dominations of Jerusalem as outlined in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, there was to be one last attempt in the last days. And that is the burden of Joel l’s material.</p><p>However there is no reason to think that the various kinds of locusts were consecutive, chronological invasions. Hebrew thought is not the linear thought of the Greeks and Western Europe. Jeremiah and Ezekiel described the Babylonian invasion as four-fold judgment (<a href='B:300 15:3'>Jer 15:3</a>; <a href='B:330 14:21'>Eze 14:21</a>), and this may be similar.</p>


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<p>Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth- The impression is that Jewry was obsessed with self-pleasure and luxury, and the invasion was to catch them unawares. This is precisely the Biblical picture we get of latter day Israel. The Lord’s return will be when some of His people are drunken (<a href='B:470 24:49'>Mat 24:49</a>). Such a scenario is hard to conclusively apply to the state of affairs in Jerusalem on the eve of the historical Babylonian and Assyrian approach to Jerusalem. It more aptly fits our last days, although there were drunkards in Judah prior to the Assyrian invasion (s:w. <a href='B:290 28:1'>Isa 28:1</a>; <a href='B:290 28:3'>Isa 28:3</a>). The ’weeping’ commanded was weeping in repentance; this is the great theme of Joel, that repentance could avert the otherwise inevitable destruction, as Nineveh averted theirs. See on :11.</p>


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<p>For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number- Joel appears to be speaking at a time when the invasion had already begun, although he may be using the present tense to emphasize that what God threatened was as good as done:&nbsp; If the invasion had already begun, the drunkenness of :5 was due to a stubborn refusal to accept the reality of Divine judgment; and that is a human feature we see all around us and within our own psyche. The only other usage of "without number" about soldiers is about the Babylonian army, who are likened to locusts innumerable, just as here in Joel (<a href='B:300 46:23'>Jer 46:23</a>).</p><p>His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness- Babylon and Assyria are both commonly likened to lions. <a href='B:310 2:16'>Lam 2:16</a> speaks of Jerusalem being devoured by the teeth of Babylon.</p>


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<p>He has laid My vine waste, and stripped My fig tree. He has stripped its bark- Judah was God’s vine and fig tree, but clearly Joel is speaking. This confusion of pronouns between God and His prophet is quite common in the prophets, reflecting how closely identified the prophets were with God. Their spirit was His Spirit; they shared His urgency, passions and feelings. And this was confirmed by the whole process of Divine inspiration. The past tenses may be an example of the ’prophetic perfect’, God’s word being so sure of fulfilment in the future that it is spoken as already fulfilled. Being "waste" or ’desolate’ was the punishment threatened at the hands of the Babylonians (<a href='B:120 22:19'>2Ki 22:19</a>; <a href='B:140 29:8'>2Ch 29:8</a>; <a href='B:140 30:7'>2Ch 30:7</a>; <a href='B:300 4:7'>Jer 4:7</a>). Clearly Joel is alluding to the Babylonian invasion, but appealing for desperate repentance to avert it. But this was not forthcoming; and so his prophecy becomes descriptiveof the latter day invasion of Israel which will be similar to the Babylonian invasion. The difference will be that it gives rise to Jewish repentance, the destruction of the invaders by the return of the Lord Jesus and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.</p><p>And thrown it away- "Cast away", which is what God did to Judah after the Babylonian invasion (<a href='B:300 52:3'>Jer 52:3</a> s:w:). And yet the paradox of God’s love is that He cast them away, but didn’t cast away His people (<a href='B:520 11:1'>Rom 11:1</a>). This paradox is developed in Hosea especially. God has real emotions, real anger and speaks words in anger, and yet grace and passion which seeks to always have the beloved back. And this God is our God.</p><p>Its branches are made white- Perhaps the idea is that the bark was stripped from the branches, leaving them white (as GNB). But the language of complete destruction of the trees is such that we are to conclude that they were destroyed, even though their branches had been made white. For this is the language of pruning, so that a better harvest might be received. The impression could be that God had tried pruning them, without effect, but in the end just allowed them all to be destroyed; see on :4.</p>


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<p>Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!- This was the intensity Joel hoped they would Joel have in repentance. The husband Israel married in her youth was God at Sinai (see on <a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>). As Hosea explains, she hardly remained a virgin, and lost her husband because she left Him for other gods. But here we have the situation explained in terms which provoke sympathy for the woman; it was as if God had died. Although God is immortal, He was so pained by Israel’s behaviour that He felt as if He had died. And that was how He could fully feel the death of His Son, whilst being immortal. <a href='B:290 54:6-8'>Isa 54:6-8</a> uses a similar analogy, with God even taking blame which He need not have taken: "Israel, you are like a young wife, deserted by her husband and deeply distressed. But the LORD calls you back to him and says:"For one brief moment I left you; with deep love I will take you back. I turned away angry for only a moment, but I will show you my love forever."So says the LORD who saves you".</p><p>The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house; the priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn- This could have been because they literally didn’t have corn and wine to offer (:9). Or it could be that we have the frequently used ’prophetic perfect’, whereby what is yet future is spoken of as having already happened. Judah are repeatedly condemned for mixing Yahweh worship with idol worship; their offerings were not pleasing to Yahweh (<a href='B:290 66:3'>Isa 66:3</a>; <a href='B:300 6:20'>Jer 6:20</a>; <a href='B:300 7:18-22'>Jer 7:18-22</a>). But the priests were so upset that they couldn’t offer them. Their offerings were mere religion, even though they were done apparently sincerely and with true emotion. This is a solemn warning to us; emotion and enthusiasm about our religion is no guarantee of sincerity before God.</p>


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<p>The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house; the priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn- This could have been because they literally didn’t have corn and wine to offer (:9). Or it could be that we have the frequently used ’prophetic perfect’, whereby what is yet future is spoken of as having already happened. Judah are repeatedly condemned for mixing Yahweh worship with idol worship; their offerings were not pleasing to Yahweh (<a href='B:290 66:3'>Isa 66:3</a>; <a href='B:300 6:20'>Jer 6:20</a>; <a href='B:300 7:18-22'>Jer 7:18-22</a>). But the priests were so upset that they couldn’t offer them. Their offerings were mere religion, even though they were done apparently sincerely and with true emotion. This is a solemn warning to us; emotion and enthusiasm about our religion is no guarantee of sincerity before God.</p>


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<p>The field is laid waste, the land mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the new wine has dried up and the oil wastes away- Their ’mourning’ was because they had lost their material blessings; Joel is urging them to instead mourn in repentance (:5,12). Oil, new wine and grain were the blessings for obedience; and these had been taken away.</p>


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<p>Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the wheat and for the barley and the harvest of the field has perished- AV "the field is wasted", which is a play on Hebrew words: shadeh shadad. The same word is used in Jeremiah of how even just before the Babylonian invasion, the land was "wasted" (<a href='B:300 4:13'>Jer 4:13</a>; <a href='B:300 4:20'>Jer 4:20</a>). This seems a case of the prophetic perfect tense; God utters His word and it is certain of fulfilment, but in the gap between the utterance and the fulfilment, there is the possibility of repentance and the changing of that word. This is what happened with Nineveh, and we too stand in that gap. It gives critical urgency and intensity to our repentance and prayers. And so the invitation to "wail" is to wail in repentance.</p>


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<p>The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered away; for joy is withered away from the sons of men- This is very similar to <a href='B:300 12:4'>Jer 12:4</a>, about the situation just prior to the Babylonian invasion. Although "joy" was withered away from the people, they were getting drunk (:5). God intends His obedient people to live in "joy"; and when their disobedience precludes that, they instead turn to fleshly joy. The withered state of the landwas directly reflective of the withered state of the people in the land. This parallel between land and people is common; the oft presented fecundity and prosperity of the natural creation in the Kingdom of God are all going to be reflections of the spiritual state of the inhabitants of the earth.</p>


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<p>Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar- The Levites and priests were called to repentance just as much as land owners and farm labourers (:11); continuing the theme of :2, that ordinary people cannot leave spirituality to their elders. All were to repent. By wearing sackcloth and admitting they had sinned, the priests could not wear their priestly clothing. This command was tantamount to asking them to seek forgiveness through the Mosaic rituals; instead they were to mourn in repentance and throw themselves directly upon God’s mercy.</p><p>Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house- The offerings were "withheld" in the sense that they were debarred, not accepted. As noted on :8, the idea could also be that the wine and grain were simply unavailable due to the famine or locust swarms. The temple was going to be destroyed and the sacrifices made impossible to offer in captivity- because even when Judah could have offered them, they did not do so acceptably.</p><p>"Your God’s house" recalls how the Lord spoke of the temple as "your house" and the feasts are described as ’feasts of the Jews’. They had hijacked God’s religion, and turned His house and feasts into their own. And organized religion always runs the risk of doing this. Especially has "the Lord’s table" been turned into "our table".</p>


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<p>Sanctify a fast- Joel prophesies how latter day Israel will be exhorted to howl in their prayers, clothing themselves with sackcloth; exactly as Jeremiah had pleaded with Israel in the last moments before the first Babylonian onslaught: "Gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl" (<a href='B:300 4:8'>Jer 4:8</a>). There will be a call to Israel to repent in the last days, and a remnant will respond in fervent prayer. This Elijah ministry [and maybe our present witness to Jewry prepares the way for this?] must occur “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord”. We could interpret the putting forth of leaves on the fig tree as the signs of an initial repentance and indication that real spiritual fruit is developing. The call to hold a fast and a solemn gathering could be a call to keep the day of atonement feast as it should have been kept; maybe it was even a call to keep such a feast outside of the law of Moses.</p><p>Call a solemn assembly- Judah had kept such solemn assemblies or feasts, but God was deeply irritated by them (s:w. <a href='B:290 1:13'>Isa 1:13</a>). Keeping external rituals without deep seated, desperate repentance is abhorrent to God. And all who are involved in attending religious meetings need to probe themselves deeply about this.</p><p>Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land- As noted on :2 and :12, the appeal was for all sectors of society to repent; for ordinary people to take full spiritual responsibility.</p><p>To the house of Yahweh your God, and cry to Yahweh- This was clearly spoken whilst the temple was still standing, and all Judah had the possibility of travelling up to Jerusalem. This would suggest that the Babylonian incursions were yet future. They are spoken of in the present tense because God’s words are so certain of fulfilment that they are spoken of as if they have already happened. And yet there is the chance to change them by repentance, in the gap between the words and their fulfilment. But Joel is talking of the need for true repentance, rather than a mere crying out to God in pain and desperate request for help in need. That is a reaction common to all men. But crying out in true repentance is different, and that is Joel l’s burden.</p>


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<p>Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will come as a destruction from the Almighty- Joel has just appealed to Judah to keep the feast or day of atonement (:13) with true repentance. The feasts were each "the day of Yahweh", and the final judgment will likewise be the ultimate "day of Yahweh". We might conjecture that the Lord will return on a Jewish feast day, but that is perhaps mere literalism. The more essential idea is that by keeping the Lord’s day or feast as asked, with deep repentance, then they would have a foretaste of the final day of the Lord. It’s why the breaking of bread service, the Lord’s feast of our times, is a preview of judgment day, an assurance of acceptance then if our souls are contrite before the cross now.</p><p>This verse is an exact repeat of <a href='B:290 13:6'>Isa 13:6</a>, which could support the idea that Joel was prophesying at the time of the Assyrian invasion in Hezekiah’s time. But I would suggest that the overwhelming inter-textual evidence is that Joel has the Babylonian invasion in view, and by quoting Isaiah he is pointing out that as the repentance of a remnant in Jerusalem averted destruction by the Assyrians, so it would be true with the Babylonian threat. Isaiah of course had told Hezekiah that although the Assyrian threat had been averted, Babylon would destroy Jerusalem. But even this clear word of prophecy could be changed, so sensitive is God to genuine repentance. The word for "destruction" is used of what the Jews had done to themselves by their’spoiling’ of their own brethren (<a href='B:330 45:9'>Eze 45:9</a>; <a href='B:350 12:1'>Hos 12:1</a>). Divine judgment was therefore a bringing upon His people what they themselves had done. Sin is its own judgment.</p>


text:
<p>Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?- Again we get the impression that there had been literal drought and locust swarms, leaving them without food and drink for the daily temple offerings. If indeed Joel was prophesying in the last days before Babylon took Jerusalem, then we can connect this with the chronic lack of food within the city recorded in <a href='B:300 37:21'>Jer 37:21</a>; <a href='B:300 38:9'>Jer 38:9</a>; <a href='B:300 52:6'>Jer 52:6</a>. "The house of our God" contrasts with "the house of your God" in :13. In any appeal for others to repent, it’s appropriate that we demonstrate our solidarity with them; and the prophets certainly did that. We think of Daniel fully identifying with Judah’s sins in Daniel 9. The old covenant promised "joy" at time of harvest for those who remained in the covenant (<a href='B:50 12:6-7'>Deu 12:6-7</a>; <a href='B:50 12:12'>Deu 12:12</a>; <a href='B:50 16:11'>Deu 16:11</a>; <a href='B:50 16:14-15'>Deu 16:14-15</a>). The lack of joy and harvest therefore implies they had broken covenant with God.</p>


text:
<p>The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered- The lack of harvest over a period of years (see <a href='B:360 2:25'>Joe 2:25</a>), to the point that barns had decayed through lack of use (s:w. <a href='B:240 24:31'>Pro 24:31</a>), all pointed to the withdrawal of covenant blessings explained on :15. "Desolate" is the word used about the curses for disobedience (<a href='B:30 26:22'>Lev 26:22</a>; <a href='B:30 26:31-32'>Lev 26:31-32</a>; <a href='B:30 26:34'>Lev 26:34</a>). The land was to lie desolate for 70 years (<a href='B:30 26:34-35'>Lev 26:34-35</a> cp. <a href='B:300 25:11'>Jer 25:11</a>). Again we have the impression that Joel is speaking just prior to the Babylonian invasion and the start of the 70 years.</p>


text:
<p>How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are confused because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate- The groaning of the animals because of lack of pasture was reflected in the crying of for the same reason (:18). The idea is that as the famine made the animals groan to God, so should the inhabitants of the land groan to God in repentance. But the word is often used of the groaning of the people of Jerusalem after the Babylonian invasion (<a href='B:310 1:8'>Lam 1:8</a>; <a href='B:310 1:11'>Lam 1:11</a>; <a href='B:310 1:21'>Lam 1:21</a>). They groaned to God about their situation, but not the groan of repentance. All spiritual practices and attributes have a fake appearance of the real thing; and repentance is particularly an example.</p>


text:
<p>Yahweh, I cry to you because the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned up all the trees of the field- Joel has been appealing for mass repentance and groaning to God in sorrow for their sins. He does so himself, perhaps hoping that the repentance of a minority would be acceptable to avert the destruction of Jerusalem, as it had been in the time of Hezekiah. The emphasis upon fire destroying the land is strange; the Babylonians burned Jerusalem with fire and some other towns afterwards, but there is no evidence they used a scorched earth policy upon Judah generally before the fall of Jerusalem. As noted on :1, Joel l’s prophecy could potentially have come true at the time of the Babylonian invasion, but it points ahead particularly to the last days. And it is likely that fire, perhaps as a result of nuclear warheads, will be used by the land’s latter day invaders.</p>


text:
<p>Yes, the animals of the field pant to You, for the water brooks have dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness- As noted above, "pant to you" suggests that the turning of the animals to God was to serve as a pattern for Judah’s panting to God in repentance. The description of the water sources drying up is very much the language of the situation in Elijah’s time; and again, the drought was intended to elicit repentance. The bush fires which broke out in the pasture lands were intended to provoke repentance, so that the fire of the Babylonians as they burnt Jerusalemand the temple would not have been necessary. God likewise works with us, seeking to elicit repentance from His hand in our lives, and then having to increase the intensity if we don’t respond. This would then explain <a href='B:360 2:3'>Joe 2:3</a> "A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns".</p>


text:
<p>Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of Yahweh comes, for it is near at hand- The trumpet summoned Israel to the day of atonement rituals, which have been alluded to in Joel 1. Yet the trumpet blasts also warned of approaching armies. As the enemy approached, there was to be a desperate keeping of the day of Atonement- whether or not it was the right time of year. Legal rituals became unimportant compared to the pressing need for repentance and forgiveness. The day or feast of Yahweh was to be for repentant Israel the day of Yahweh in the sense of judgment day. The whole ritual of the day of Atonement was an opportunity for Israel to have a preview of judgment day, and to be pronounced acceptable and cleansed, if they truly humbled their souls. This is "the day of Yahweh" here refers to both the feast of the day of atonement, and the judgment day of Yahweh. More literalistic minds could reason from this that the Lord’s return may be at the day of atonement, or another feast / day of the Lord. But the essence is that Israel were to repent; the inhabitants of the land were to tremble in repentance, not simply from fear of judgment to come. The verdict could be changed- that was and is the greatest reality in spiritual life.</p><p>"The day of Yahweh is near" is the very phrase used about the Babylonian invasion (<a href='B:330 30:3'>Eze 30:3</a>; <a href='B:430 1:7'>Zep 1:7</a>; <a href='B:430 1:14'>Zep 1:14</a>). It is also used in <a href='B:360 3:14'>Joe 3:14</a>, where the outcome of that day is the judgment of the nations opposing God’s people in a valley, and then the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom in the land of Israel. This didn’t happen after Babylon took Jerusalem; so we can conclude that the scenario Joel had in mind for Babylon and Judah didn’t work out. But the prophecy will be fulfilled in the last days. This is perhaps why "Babylon" is not named; another nexus of powers will fulfil the terms of the prophecy as a perfect fit, and will come to their end at the valley mentioned in other prophecies, at the return of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p>A day of darkness and gloominess- Literally, the light was being made into darkness. This is a reversal of creation, and speaks of judgment and as it were, de-creation. This verse is a repeat of <a href='B:370 5:20'>Amo 5:20</a> and <a href='B:430 1:15'>Zep 1:15</a>, where the Babylonian invasion is in view. <a href='B:370 5:18'>Amo 5:18</a>; <a href='B:370 5:20'>Amo 5:20</a> comment that this "day of Yahweh" was much sought after by Judah- but it would be a day of darkness and condemnation for them. Apparent enthusiasm for the second coming is not necessarily a sign of spirituality, nor acceptance at that day. Israel looked for light, but were given instead the gross darkness of the Babylonian invasion (<a href='B:300 13:16'>Jer 13:16</a>).</p><p>A day of clouds and thick darkness, like the dawn spreading on the mountains- The day of clouds and thick darkness speaks clearly of the Babylonian invasion and the beginning of the exile (<a href='B:330 34:12'>Eze 34:12</a>; <a href='B:430 1:15'>Zep 1:15</a>). But "clouds and thick darkness" is very much the language of Yahweh’s coming down in covenant with Israel at Sinai (<a href='B:20 20:21'>Exo 20:21</a>; <a href='B:50 4:11'>Deu 4:11</a>; <a href='B:50 5:22'>Deu 5:22</a>). Now that covenant was being abrogated, for Judah had broken it. But in all God’s judgments, there is the hope of final restoration. This day of thick darkness, presaging the arrival of a "great and strong" army of desolators, also seemed as the beginning of the dawn- an image used in <a href='B:460 4:2'>Mal 4:2</a> of the arising of Messiah and the restoration of the Kingdom of God in Israel. God’s wrath and judgment is therefore unlike human wrath, where the focus of the moment is solely upon punishment and retribution. God is grace and hope itself, and He is also outside our limits of time. So in wrath He remembers mercy. The Babylonian judgment and exile was intended to result in the restoration and reestablishment of the Kingdom under a Messiah figure. Although even that didn’t happen as potentially possible.</p><p>A great and strong people! There has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations- The Babylonian army were made seemingly invincible by God; and as noted on <a href='B:360 1:2'>Joe 1:2</a>, this invasion would never be seen again nor had it been seen before. This is unquestionably language of the very last days before the Lord’s return (<a href='B:340 12:1'>Dan 12:1</a>; <a href='B:470 24:21'>Mat 24:21</a>). As noted on <a href='B:360 1:1'>Joe 1:1</a>, Joel l’s prophecy could have potentially come true at various points in history, including his own time, perhaps just prior to the Babylonian invasion of Judah; but Judah did not repent as Joel appealed for, and so the prophecy has its main fulfilment in the last days.</p>


text:
<p>A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns- The fire that came before the Babylonians may refer to the wildfires resultant from the extreme drought of previous years; because Judah refused to allow that fire to bring them to repentance, the Babylonian fire came. See on <a href='B:360 1:19'>Joe 1:19</a>. So the forest fires were replaced by the fires left burning by the Babylonians.</p><p>The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and after them- like a desolate wilderness- I suggested on Genesis 1 that the eretz in view there is the land promised to Abraham, and that the land of Israel was effectively the garden of Eden. As sinful Adam was sent out of the garden to the east, so were God’s people. These words of Joel support that approach. Eden was as it were destroyed and turned into a wilderness like the rest of the planet.</p><p>Yes, and no one has escaped them- The Assyrians and Babylonians boasted of a series of victories against other peoples before they came against Judah. God is saying that he knows this; and their apparent victory over Yahweh was only apparent and not in reality. For He had even predicted that they would boast in this way. The same word is used in :32, where we learn that there could have been some who "escaped" Babylon’s invasion. So potentially, some could have "escaped"; and the word is used in <a href='B:330 14:22'>Eze 14:22</a> of how a remnant would survive the invasion. But that potential wasn’t realized, at Joel l’s time. All these failed potentials were and are so distressing to God. But the offer of salvation shall finally come true in our last days. It is for us to witness to Israel ahead of time so that they have the knowledge of Christ required for repentance.</p>


text:
<p>Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run- Locusts appearing as horsemen is without doubt alluded to in Revelation 9, which as demonstrated there concerns the latter day invasion of the land. The scenario could have been fulfilled during the Babylonian period; Judah could have repented, Babylon destroyed and the Messianic Kingdom established. But they didn’t repent, and so the prophecy was reapplied to our last days.</p>


text:
<p>Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array- The allusion may be to a locust swarm, with the rising sun glinting off their wings. We are given the picture of extreme military advantage and strength, and God’s people left powerless to resist. Whilst Joel has limited application to the Babylonian invasion, this doesn’t fit the text perfectly; see on :2. The main fulfilment will be in the latter day invasion, described in the locust prophecy of Revelation 9. Currently, Israel survives by keeping the technological, military advantage against their surrounding enemies. But this will not last. They will be left helpless before a vastly superior group of enemies. The enthusiasm for some Protestant groups about Israel’s military might is misplaced and quite against the Biblical picture of the last days.</p>


text:
<p>At their presence the people are in anguish. All faces have grown pale- "Presence" is Heb. ’face’. The Hebrew implies a face to face meeting between Jewry and her invaders; and her face becomes pale before them. The allusion may be to Jacob in his "time of trouble" meeting Esau face to face having wrestled face to face with the Angel whose face represented that of Esau (<a href='B:10 32:30'>Gen 32:30</a>; <a href='B:10 33:10'>Gen 33:10</a>). The unprecedented time of trouble of :2 is the time of Jacob’s unprecedented trouble of the last days (<a href='B:340 12:1'>Dan 12:1</a>), and Israel will likewise wrestle with God and man until they finally quit all human strength and repent. There is another Jacob allusion in :11.</p>


text:
<p>They run like mighty men, they climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course- Israel’s enemies have been ever characterized by disunity. But there will come a brief moment of total unity as they all strive together for the one thing which unites them- the capture of Jerusalem. "The wall" of Jerusalem wasJudah’s perceived great military and technical advantage, just as modern day Israel trust in such advantage against their enemies; but that shall be scaled.</p>


text:
<p>Neither does one jostle another; they march each one in his path, and they burst through the defences, and don’t break ranks- As explained on:7, the enemy will be focused upon the capture of Jerusalem and "Zion", the temple mount, in particular. They will overcome "the defences"; it is so emphasized that the apparent defensive technological advantage of the defenders will be overcome. This has clear appropriacy to latter day Israel.</p>


text:
<p>They rush on the city, they run on the wall, they climb up into the houses, they enter in at the windows like thieves- This continues the picture of :7; Jerusalem’s wall, the apparently invincible defensive technology of the Jews, will be totally breached. The houses and windows are those on the wall.</p>


text:
<p>The earth quakes before them, the skies tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining- This is language specifically applied to the last days in <a href='B:470 24:29'>Mat 24:29</a>; <a href='B:730 6:12'>Rev 6:12</a>; <a href='B:730 8:12'>Rev 8:12</a>. Earthquakes feature in several descriptions of the last days. Sun, moon and stars are specifically used as symbols of the leaders of Israel (<a href='B:10 37:9'>Gen 37:9</a>). Whatever application there may have been to Babylon’s actions, this was but a primary fulfilment.</p>


text:
<p>Yahweh thunders His voice before His army; for His forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys His command- The prophets repeatedly emphasize the invading armies were God’s armies; His people are not in the hands of radical evil, but rather all "armies" against them are totally under His control and command. See on <a href='B:470 22:7'>Mat 22:7</a> for another example. The same Hebrew phrase is used in <a href='B:10 32:2'>Gen 32:2</a> of Yahweh’s camp or "forces"- both of Angels and Esau’s soldiers (see on :6). Yahweh is Yahweh of hosts, both or Angelic and human armies whom those Angels control.</p><p>For the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?- The very words of <a href='B:460 3:2'>Mal 3:2</a> about the final day of Yahweh at the return of the Lord Jesus.</p>


text:
<p>Yet even now, says Yahweh, turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning- The judgments had been spoken and are even recorded in the present tense as if they had already happened, so sure were they of fulfilment. But in the gap between the Divine statement and earthly fulfilment, there is the possibility of repentance- "even now". We too stand in that gap, and it should impart an intensity and urgency to our living and repenting. God’s word is His word, and He doesn’t say that if they repent, He will change His word. That is implied as a possibility, but it is not to be expected as some kind of contractual obligation from Him if we repent. Hence :14 "who knows if...".</p>


text:
<p>Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God- A theme of Joel is that repentance can be on a merely surface level, and not the real thing. Joel 1 has described how Judah would cry out to their God- but they were urged to cry out in true repentance. The Babylonian judgment was to come upon Judah because when the Assyrian judgment was averted, Hezekiah had not repented from his heart; he tore his garments (same words in <a href='B:290 37:1'>Isa 37:1</a>), but not his heart. And they are being urged to learn that lesson. <a href='B:350 13:8'>Hos 13:8</a> describes the final Babylonian destruction as God rending or tearing the heart of Judah- again, the same words are used. They refused to tear their hearts, and so their hearts were torn in the condemnation process. If we will not repent, then we shall be forced to repent all too late in condemnation. John the Baptist used the same logic in appealing for repentance; it was a choice of fire, or the fire of condemnation.</p><p>For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity- The very nature of God’s Name, which is alluded to here, invites repentance. God had earlier repented Himself of the evil He planned to do to Israel (<a href='B:20 32:12'>Exo 32:12</a>; <a href='B:20 32:14'>Exo 32:14</a>; <a href='B:100 24:16'>2Sa 24:16</a>)- in both cases, because of the spirituality of a minority. Joel was hopeful that even if a minority responded to his appeal, the judgment could be averted. This is how God works; third parties are saved, or at least blessed with the aversion of judgment, for the sake of others’ spirituality. I suggested on <a href='B:360 1:1'>Joe 1:1</a> that Joel was contemporary with Jeremiah. Judah had not repented of their evil (<a href='B:300 8:6'>Jer 8:6</a>) and so God would not. Jeremiah more than any other prophet repeats this theme of God being willing to repent or relent from His stated position of bringing evil upon a nation (<a href='B:300 18:8'>Jer 18:8</a>; <a href='B:300 18:10'>Jer 18:10</a>; <a href='B:300 26:3'>Jer 26:3</a>; <a href='B:300 26:13'>Jer 26:13</a>; <a href='B:300 26:18'>Jer 26:18</a>; <a href='B:300 42:10'>Jer 42:10</a>). And Joel is making the same appeal. This feature of Yahweh, stating judgment to come but then repenting of it if there was repentance, was a unique feature unknown in any other god or religious system. Gods are typically presented in all religions as unchanging. The only unchanging feature of Yahweh is that the sons of Jacob are not consumed when they ought to be, because of His grace (<a href='B:460 3:6'>Mal 3:6</a>). And this God is our God today.</p><p>The characteristics of God’s Name are clearly alluding to His self declaration in <a href='B:20 34:5-6'>Exo 34:5-6</a>: "Gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness" is word for word what we read there. But "And relents from sending calamity" must therefore be the equivalent of what follows in <a href='B:20 34:7'>Exo 34:7</a>: "Keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin". God through Joel was now clarifying what that meant- it meant that His forgiveness was of such a deep reaching quality that even the consequences for sin could be forgiven. And we rightly gasp at such grace, such a God.</p>


text:
<p>Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God- "Who knows? He may turn..." may not in fact be leaving it as an open question; for in :13 we have just read the assurance that He does do this. The sense may therefore be: "The one who experiences this, will experience a God who turns and relents, and goes even further- He will restore you grain and wine. But you are to use that blessing of grace by offering it to Yahweh, your God".</p>


text:
<p>Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly- This repeats the call made in Joel 1, to hold a day of atonement style fast [the only ’day of Yahweh’ where fasting was prescribed]. Whether or not it was the right time of year was immaterial- the fact Joel calls for it to be held could imply it was not. But our spiritual desperation drives us beyond all mere legalism. "Solemn assembly" is definitely the language of the feasts, especially the day of atonement; and the trumpet was blown at that time to proclaim the year of release. But now the trumpet was being sounded also as a warning that the Babylonian armies were approaching (see on :1).</p>


text:
<p>Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth from his room, and the bride out of her room- Absolutely everyone was to be involved in this repentance; even children. For children can also sin. And no human situation was to be allowed to distract or excuse- if you had just given birth or were in the midst of your wedding, all the same, you needed to repent. And it is the experience of otherwise legitimate human experiences which often serves as an excuse for us not to repent, not to deeply engage with our sins. But the language is as ever hopeful; for Isaiah envisaged a repentant Judah as going forth as a bride from her room (<a href='B:290 49:18'>Isa 49:18</a>; <a href='B:290 61:10'>Isa 61:10</a>; <a href='B:290 62:5'>Isa 62:5</a>) into the Messianic kingdom. And this is Joel l’s vision. If they had repented, then the Messianic Kingdom could then have been established, as he goes on to describe. Male or female, elder or prole... all were guilty and needed to repent. For relationship with God is individual, and not predicated upon an eldership or priesthood.</p>


text:
<p>Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar- The offerings weren’t being offered because there was no grain or wine or animals left to offer, as Joel 1 has made clear. So the altar was to be approached with a different sacrifice- genuinely broken hearts in repentance, exactly as David had taught in <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>.</p><p>And let them say, Spare Your people, Yahweh- God had used this very word in saying that He would not "spare" His impenitent, rebellious people (<a href='B:300 13:14'>Jer 13:14</a>; <a href='B:300 21:7'>Jer 21:7</a>). The clearly stated purpose of God was open to change by repentance.</p><p>Anddon’t give Your heritage to reproach- Again, as noted above, God had stated that he would bring Judah "to reproach" (s:w. <a href='B:300 23:40'>Jer 23:40</a>; <a href='B:300 24:9'>Jer 24:9</a>; <a href='B:300 29:18'>Jer 29:18</a>). But Joelknew God well and closely enough to understand that His stated purpose could be changed by human repentance. If as suggested on <a href='B:360 1:1'>Joe 1:1</a> Joel was contemporary with Jeremiah, this would explain his repeated references to Jeremiah.</p><p>That the pagan nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’-&nbsp; Joel was clearly inspired by the reasoning of Moses, whose single handed mediation led to the "evil" planned by God being ’repented of’.</p>


text:
<p>Then Yahweh was jealous for His land, and had pity on His people- This section would be one of the clearest examples of the ’prophetic perfect’ tense; that which was yet future being spoken of as if it had already happened. At the time of the Babylonian invasion, Yahweh ultimately did not have pity on His people (<a href='B:300 13:14'>Jer 13:14</a>; <a href='B:310 2:2'>Lam 2:2</a>; <a href='B:310 2:17'>Lam 2:17</a>; <a href='B:310 2:21'>Lam 2:21</a>; <a href='B:310 3:43'>Lam 3:43</a>; <a href='B:330 5:11'>Eze 5:11</a>; <a href='B:330 7:4'>Eze 7:4</a>) in that the Babylonians showed no pity on the people (<a href='B:140 36:17'>2Ch 36:17</a>). The implication in Joel l’s context was that his appeal for repentance went unheeded. But ultimately, God would have pity, and would reestablish His Kingdom. For one day Judah would be repentant, and God’s intended Kingdom purpose would come true.</p>


text:
<p>Yahweh answered His people, Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations- Grain, new wine and oil were all required for the temple rituals. <a href='B:360 1:12'>Joe 1:12</a> had lamented that the grain and wine offerings couldn’t be offered because there simply was none left to offer. So the idea is that blessings would be given, so that they could be given back to God. And that principle remains to this day in our lives.</p>


text:
<p>But I will remove the northern army far away from you- The vast majority of the many Biblical references to the northern invader are to Babylon- not Assyria, let alone Russia. The Babylonian invasion which Joel sought to avert through his calls to repentance did actually happen. It was not ’removed’ let alone destroyed. But the latter day invader will be. There are reports of those living in the Jerusalem area describing the locusts swarms which descended upon them as "the northern army"; but locusts typically enter Israel from the south and not the north.</p><p>And will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea- The language of driving suggests the invader is a now cornered beast, with a head and back part. Daniel and Revelation have much to say of the latter day invader as a beast. The seas referred to are the Mediterranean and Dead Seas. This never happened historically, so again we conclude that Joel l’s prophecies concern the latter days. This presumably is the same location as the valley of decision of <a href='B:360 3:2'>Joe 3:2</a>; <a href='B:360 3:12'>Joe 3:12</a>; <a href='B:360 3:14'>Joe 3:14</a>. However, if the allusion continues to locusts, the idea may be that this huge swarm is driven into a deserted area and some are driven into the Dead Sea and others into the Mediterranean. But in this case, the language of "stench" is difficult to understand.</p><p>And its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise- Continuing the image of the invaders being as a locust swarm, which is now over and lay dead and decaying. The same word is used of the "stench" of the Edomite nations who are judged in the last days (<a href='B:290 34:3'>Isa 34:3</a>). The smell of the destroyed nations led by Rosh is likewise noted in <a href='B:330 39:11'>Eze 39:11</a> AV. The latter day "northern" invader will comprise all these groups.</p><p>Surely He has done great things!- The reference is to God, as repeated in :21. This is again an example of the future being spoken of in the past, as God’s word of gracious promise is ultimately so sure of fulfilment. This emphasis is given here in Joel because Judah did not repent, and the tendency would have been to wonder if therefore God’s purpose had totally failed.</p>


text:
<p>Land, don’t be afraid! Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things!- This confident exaltation is because Joel knows that even if his appeal for repentance is unheeded and Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, ultimately God’s purpose of establishing His Kingdom would come true. And even when faced with the reality of sin and the spiritual weakness of God’s people, and the inevitability of Divine judgment, those who are spiritual can see beyond that- to the wonderful reality of God’s Kingdom that shall ultimately come.</p>


text:
<p>Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength- The judgments described in Joel 1 are now specifically undone. The present tenses mean that what God had prophesied as happening ultimately was so sure of fulfilment, that it could be spoken of in the past or even present tenses. The future Kingdom is indeed "now but not yet". Joel could rejoice in the ultimate reality of the Kingdom, and encourage others to do so, even though on the eve of the Babylonian invasion of a Judah who had refused Joel l’s message that reality looked very distant.</p>


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<p>Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh your God; for He gives you the former rains in just measure, and He causes the rain to come down for you, the former rains and the latter rains, as before- As noted on :22, the immediate reality was bleak. Babylon was about to invade, and Judah had refused Joel l’s call to repentance; and so the potentially possible Messianic kingdom would not then come. But it would ultimately, so certainly that it could be spoken of in the present tense. And therefore Joel specifically addresses "you children of Zion", the faithful, repentant remnant within Jerusalem. For them, there could be joy in the ultimate hope. And for us too, when we recognize as Daniel had to that we shall maybe not see the Kingdom of God in our lifetime, and that God’s people are not as they should be and we individually and collectively have missed the realization of so much that could have been and should have been... yet all the same, the hope of the Kingdom is so certain.</p><p>"The former rains" can be translated "the teacher or righteousness", perhaps a reference to the Elijah prophet who could have arisen to prepare the way for Messiah in Joel l’s time, had Judah repented. But this promise will be delayed until the last days, and Malachi 4 confirms that such a figure will indeed appear in the last days before the Lord’s return. But former and latter rains may simply be read as meaning ’the blessings of the covenant as God intended’.</p>


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<p>The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil- The tenses change here to the future, perhaps to emphasize the previous usage of the prophetic perfect tense. The Kingdom of the future was as good as already there- even when Joel and the faithful remnant were at the low point of human experience. Their appeal for repentance had been unheeded for the most part, and God had chosen not to accept their personal repentance as enough to avert the destruction of His people and temple. But still, the Kingdom shall come. We see this same hope and approach in Habakkuk particularly.</p>


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<p>I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, My great army, which I sent among you- See on <a href='B:110 22:22'>1Ki 22:22</a>. Finally Israel will realize that the armies of invaders were sent by God. "The years" may need to be read as ’what your lost in the years…’, as GNB. This fits with the whole prophetic theme of restoration. The Kingdom of God on earth will be the restoration of the Kingdom of God as it was in Israel (<a href='B:330 21:25-27'>Eze 21:25-27</a>).</p>


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<p>You will have plenty to eat and will be satisfied, and will praise the name of Yahweh your God who has dealt wondrously with you- This clearly didn’t happen at the Babylonian invasion; it potentially could have done, but Judah didn’t repent and so it didn’t. But finally they shall, after the latter day Babylonian invasion. "Dealt wondrously" is the same term used of God’s actions in delivering Israel from Egypt (<a href='B:20 3:20'>Exo 3:20</a>; <a href='B:160 9:17'>Neh 9:17</a>), and in making His first covenant with Israel (<a href='B:20 34:10'>Exo 34:10</a>). If God had delivered Judah from the Babylonian invasion, He would have "dealt wondrously" for His people (<a href='B:300 21:2'>Jer 21:2</a>). In the last days, the deliverance from latter day Babylon will issue in a new covenant between God and His people.</p><p>And My people will never again be ashamed- This therefore refers to the final restoration of Israel, in the last days, at the Lord’s return and the establishment of the Kingdom. Any previous fulfilment was at best an initial, primary fulfilment.</p>


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<p>You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahweh your God, and there is no one else- If the restoration had happened as God potentially enabled, then the temple of Ezekiel 40-48 would have been built, and God’s presence found there; it would have been called "Yahweh is there" (<a href='B:330 48:35'>Eze 48:35</a>). This didn’t happen, and most of the Jews preferred to remain in exile. But it shall ultimately come true. As noted on :26, Judah are to enter a new covenant with God, and this will involve their recognition of His exclusive relationship with them and they with Him.</p><p>And My people will never again be ashamed- This therefore refers to the final restoration of Israel, in the last days, at the Lord’s return and the establishment of the Kingdom. Any previous fulfilment was at best an initial, primary fulfilment.</p>


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<p>It will happen in the last days, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions- Judah’s entry into a new covenant (:26) will result in the gift of the Spirit to them. <a href='B:300 31:33'>Jer 31:33</a> says that the new covenant will mean God operating directly upon their hearts, giving them a heart to know Him and be obedient to Him. The spirit refers ultimately to the heart and mind, and the gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of a new mind, a new pair of eyes, a new psychology. That this gift of the Spirit is part and parcel of the new covenant which even then was potentially possible for Judah is made explicit in <a href='B:330 36:27'>Eze 36:27</a>; <a href='B:330 37:14'>Eze 37:14</a>; <a href='B:330 39:29'>Eze 39:29</a>. As Acts 2 makes clear, the receipt of the gift of the Spirit is the very reason to be baptized and enter the new covenant. We are thereby washed not only in water but with the regeneration of the Spirit (<a href='B:630 3:5-8'>Tit 3:5-8</a>); born of water and the Spirit (<a href='B:500 3:3-5'>Joh 3:3-5</a>). The essential gift of the Spirit is of moral and spiritual cleansing, but in the first century it was manifested through the visible miracles. These were specific things for specific times, a visible manifestation of the internal gift which is such a major part of the Christian Gospel- which is the new covenant which Judah could have entered (<a href='B:650 8:8-13'>Heb 8:8-13</a>). They could have entered it if they had repented and averted the Babylonian victory over Jerusalem; but they didn’t. When a minority did repent in the first century, they entered the new covenant and received the Spirit. But the main fulfilment will be when the remnants of the Jewish people in Israel repent, whilst under the latter day tribulation. Then the Spirit will be poured out for their usage against their abusers, as we see hinted at in several passages in Revelation.</p><p>Many attempts to understand prophecy, not least the book of Revelation, have fallen into problems because of an insistent desire to see everything fulfilling in a linear chronological progression, whereas God’s prophecies (Isaiah is the classic example) ’jump around’ all over the place as far as chronological fulfillment is concerned. And this principle is not only seen in Bible prophecy. The historical records in the Old Testament tend to be thematically presented rather than chronologically (Joshua is a good example of this); and the Gospel records likewise. It especially needs to be recognized that in line with so much OT prophecy, neither the Olivet prophecy nor its extension in the Apocalypse can be read as strictly chronological. Thus <a href='B:490 21:8-11'>Luk 21:8-11</a> gives a catalogue of signs, and then v. 12 jumps back to the situation before them: "but before all these things..." (21:27,28; <a href='B:480 13:10'>Mar 13:10</a> are other examples). These principles are all brought together in the way Peter interprets Joel 2. The comments in brackets reflect the interpretation which Peter offers later in his address. He gives each part of it a fulfillment not in chronological sequence with what has gone before: "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel [i:e. you are seeing a fulfillmentof this prophecy before your eyes]: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy [fulfilled by the apostles after Christ’s ascension]... and I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath [the miracles of the Lord Jesus during His ministry]... the sun shall be turned into darkness [the crucifixion], and the moon into blood [also referring to an unrecorded event at the crucifixion?], before that great and notable day of the Lord come [the second coming; or the resurrection?]: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved [fulfilled by the crowd accepting baptism on the day of Pentecost]" (<a href='B:510 2:16-21'>Act 2:16-21</a>). Typical of the NT writers, Peter doesn’t quote from the Masoretic [Hebrew] text, but from the Septuagint, and in 2 there are significant differences. And yet Peter adds and changes things even from the LXX. The inspired writers don’t quote exactly, and often mix interpretation with quotation.</p><p>"The last days" is a phrase doesn’t have to necessarily refer to the last days before the Lord’s second coming. It could equally refer to the last days of some other period- in the case of Peter’s quotation of it in Acts 2, the Mosaic system. But the phrase is of course ambiguous- exactly because the Lord’s second coming could have occurred then in the first century, but the various required preconditions were not met. The LXX also has as the Masoretic Text: "Afterward". "The last days" would appear to be Peter’s inspired interpretation, choosing a minority reading of the Hebrew text [which the NEV follows].</p><p>&nbsp;"All flesh" shows that a prophecy apparently about "all" here has a specific fulfilment in a limited group. Other Biblical references to "all" must likewise be understood; from God’s perspective, the believers are "all things" to Him.</p>


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<p>And also on the servants and on the handmaids I will pour out My Spirit in those days- The servants / slaves and handmaids are emphasized. In order to see a fulfilment of this at that time of Pentecost, surely there were female believers who also began speaking in foreign languages- although that is not recorded. Often the NT quotes the OT selectively, omitting words and phrases which were not relevant to the fulfilment. The fact the "handmaids" and "daughters" (<a href='B:510 2:17'>Act 2:17</a>) are mentioned would surely mean that there were women also given the gifts at this time. The fact this is not specifically recorded is yet another example of how the records are so abbreviated. That women aren’t recorded as publically preaching at this time is no reason to think they did not. Likewise the fulfilment of the Joel prophecy meant that there were both old and young men preaching (<a href='B:510 2:17'>Act 2:17</a>). The "all" who were "together in one place" (<a href='B:510 2:1'>Act 2:1</a>) were those who received the gifts, all within the house; not just the apostles. However, <a href='B:510 2:7'>Act 2:7</a> records the impression that "all" who were speaking in foreign languages were from Galilee. The women / sisters in view were therefore presumably also from Galilee. Peter "and the eleven" stated that "these are not drunk" (<a href='B:510 2:15'>Act 2:15</a>)- rather than ’We are not drunk’. The use of "these" suggests that there were others apart from ’the twelve’ who were preaching with the Spirit gifts. It was a shameful thing for a Jewish man to talk publically to a woman, let alone for her to read the Torah, and for a woman to publically preach God’s word would have been nothing short of scandalous. In this we have a challenge to our own sense of inadequacy in witness; women, Galileans, the illiterate and poorly educated... were those used by God to make history’s greatest and most effective public witness to Christ.</p>


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<p>I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke- Blood, fire and smoke columns suggest Mosaic sacrifices, in which the blood had to be poured out and then the carcass burnt. God’s judgments are described as Him having a sacrifice (<a href='B:300 46:10'>Jer 46:10</a>), and in the Acts 2 quotation, the AD70 judgment of Jerusalem is surely in view. This is the language of <a href='B:470 24:5-7'>Mat 24:5-7</a> about the same event. But AD70 was but a preview of the last days, which is the burden of Joel l’s prophecy.</p><p>Thomson (Land and the Book, vol. 2, p. 311) suggests the allusion in this passage is to the whirlwind sandstorms, which are appropriate figures of Divine judgment: “We have two kinds of sirocco, one accompanied with vehement wind, which fills the air with dust and fine sand. I have often seen the whole heavens veiled in gloom with this sort of sandcloud, through which the sun, shorn of his beams, looked like a globe of dull smouldering fire. It may have been this phenomenon which suggested that strong prophetic figure of Joell, quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Wonders in the heaven and in the earth; blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. The pillars of smoke are probably those columns of sand and dust raised high in the air by local whirlwinds, which often accompany the sirocco. On the great desert of the Hauran I have seen a score of them marching with great rapidity over the plain, and they closely resemble ‹pillars of smoke”.</p>


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<p>The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes- This would confirm the allusion to sandstorms noted on :30. Sun and moon represent the leaders of Israel (<a href='B:10 37:9'>Gen 37:9</a>). In the primary application, Joel was speaking of the destruction of the royal family under Zedekiah. This had to be removed before God’s kingship in Messiah could be enthroned. But Judah’s lack of repentance precluded the outcomes which were then possible, and so we can understand this to refer to the bloody destruction of the Israeli leadership in the last days.</p>


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<p>It will happen that whoever- This clearly implies Gentiles. But that wasn’t how the early Christians understood it when this was quoted in Acts 2. They chose to understand the Lord’s universal preaching commission as meaning going out to preach to Jews of all nations, and they saw the response of Acts 2 as proof of this. And yet “all nations” is used about the Gentiles in all its other occurrences in Matthew (<a href='B:470 4:15'>Mat 4:15</a>; <a href='B:470 6:32'>Mat 6:32</a>; <a href='B:470 10:5'>Mat 10:5</a>; <a href='B:470 10:18'>Mat 10:18</a>; <a href='B:470 12:18'>Mat 12:18</a>; <a href='B:470 12:21'>Mat 12:21</a>; <a href='B:470 20:19'>Mat 20:19</a>; <a href='B:470 20:25'>Mat 20:25</a>). Such intellectual failure had a moral basis- they subconsciously couldn’t hack the idea of converting Gentiles into the Hope of Israel. They allowed themselves to assume they understood what the Lord meant, to assume they had their interpretation confirmed by the events of Acts 2… instead of baring themselves to the immense and personal import of the Lord’s commission to take Him to literally all. We too can read Scripture and assume we understand it, and thereby skip over massive implications for us.</p><p>Will call on the name of Yahweh- &nbsp;This seems to prophesy of multitudes calling upon the name of the Lord in the ‘last days’. The preliminary fulfillment of this in <a href='B:510 2:21'>Act 2:21</a> must surely be repeated in the ultimate ‘last days’; and there, the name was called upon by calling upon themselves the name of the Lord Jesus in baptism and faith. And it may be that it is multitudes of Diaspora Jews who respond in the last days, as it was in Acts 2… The description of "the remnant" being saved out of Jerusalem and mount Zion, the temple mount, may mean that they go into the temple area in the last days to seek safety as the Jews did in AD70 and at the time of Hezekiah, and this is where they are at the moment of the Lord’s intervention:&nbsp;2:32 could have had its primary fulfilment in the redemption of this remnant, and it therefore has an application to the salvation of the latter-day Jewish remnant out of Arab-occupied Jerusalem:&nbsp; "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord (i:e. truly pray for deliverance in faith, perhaps through calling upon themselves the Lord’s name through baptism into Christ) shall be delivered:&nbsp; for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem (cp. <a href='B:120 19:30-31'>2Ki 19:30-31</a> for the&nbsp; mention of those two terms) shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said (through Isaiah and his prophets), and in the remnant...":&nbsp;This passage is quoted in different contexts in <a href='B:510 2:21'>Act 2:21</a> and <a href='B:520 10:13'>Rom 10:13</a>, but this does not preclude its application to the faithful remnant in Jerusalem in the last days:&nbsp;This New Testament usage is regarding how a convert should eagerly call upon himself the Lord’s salvation / deliverance from sin in Christ. This should therefore be done with the same sense of urgency and desperate intensity as the persecuted remnant of the last days will do, like their counterparts within Jerusalem in Joel l’s time could have done.</p><p>The urgency we have in our witness isn’t only joyful; there’s an element of dead seriousness to it because of the very urgency of our task. <a href='B:360 2:32'>Joe 2:32</a> predicted that when Jerusalem was surrounded by her enemies at Joel l’s time , with all in Judah who could do so having fled into the city for safety, "It shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered [saved]: for in Mount Zion [the temple mount] and in Jerusalem &nbsp;there shall be deliverance [RV"those that escape"]". These words are alluded to by Peter when he stood near the temple mount and urged people to be baptized into Christ, to call upon themselves the Lord’s Name; and they are applied to all our witness by Paul (<a href='B:520 10:13'>Rom 10:13</a>). Those refugees fleeing before the Babylonian war machine are the people of this world whom we urge to accept deliverance and salvation through baptism into Christ.</p><p>Shall be saved- Initially, saved from the Babylonian invasion. But Peter guides us to understand these words as referring to eternal salvation in Christ.</p><p>For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape- Literally, "a remnant", although a different word to that at the end of this verse. The idea is that most of the Jews would be destroyed, but a remnant would escape and be saved by the appearance of salvation on Mount Zion. That could have happened if Judah had repented; the Babylonian army would have been destroyed, the remnant of Judah saved eternally, and the Messianic Kingdom established. But they didn’t repent, and so these promises were reapplied to all who would accept God’s salvation in Jesus. The same word was used in <a href='B:360 2:3'>Joe 2:3</a>, where we learn that there would be none that escaped Babylon’s invasion. But potentially, some could have been; and the word is used in <a href='B:330 14:22'>Eze 14:22</a> of how a remnant would survive the invasion. But that potential wasn’t realized, at Joel l’s time.</p><p>As Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls- This called remnant are different to those just mentioned, who were a remnant of natural Jews. The idea may be that if Judah had repented, the Babylonian invader would have been destroyed and a Messianic Kingdom established in Zion, and Yahweh would have called out a remnant from the Gentiles, perhaps a remnant from the invading armies, who could also have found salvation in the hope of Israel. This potential scenario didn’t happen, but it shall do in the last days.</p>


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<p>For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem- Joel so far has spoken of the possibility of repentance to avert the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. Had that happened, he foresaw that a Messianic Kingdom could then have been established, with blessings for even the repentant remnant of the invaders (<a href='B:360 2:32'>Joe 2:32</a>). He speaks in the prophetic perfect or present tense in Joel 2, of the Kingdom promises being so certain of fulfilment that they can be spoken of as present reality. He realized that this might not happen in the short term, but the Kingdom promises were certain of fulfilment in the long term. As noted on <a href='B:360 2:2'>Joe 2:2</a>, the scenario he predicted was the one final invasion of Judah and the establishment of the Kingdom. This didn’t happen in his time, and it seems in Joel 3 that he recognizes that, and instead now focuses on the fact that the Kingdom promises will come true and the invasion scenario will be reapplied to the last days. And he adds some more details concerning that latter day scenario, which otherwise would be impossible to snugly fit with what happened during the Babylonian invasion (especially <a href='B:360 3:3-10'>Joe 3:3-10</a>; <a href='B:360 3:19'>Joe 3:19</a>).</p>


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I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat- The &quot;valley&quot; in view is emphasized (<a href='B:360 3:12-14'>:12,14</a>), and is presumably located in the same area as the destruction of the invaders in <a href='B:360 2:20'>Joel 2:20</a>. This gathering of all nations [usually used about all the nations of the eretz around Israel] into a valley for final judgment is quoted in <a href='B:730 16:16'>Rev. 16:16</a> as applying specifically to the last days. But there we read of the valley of Megiddo, in northern Israel.</p><p>&quot;Megiddo&quot; and the descriptions of Sisera gathering his chariots and God drawing them into battle (<a href='B:70 5:19'>Jud. 5:19</a>) must link with the nations being gathered to Armageddon (<a href='B:730 16:16'>Rev. 16:16</a>). If this connection is valid, then &quot;the kings of the earth (land - of Israel?) and of the whole world&quot; which are gathered (<a href='B:730 16:14'>Rev. 16:14</a>) would primarily refer to the kings of the Islamic world within and around the earth / land promised to Abraham, Sisera of the latter days.</p><p><a href='B:730 16:14-16'>Rev. 16:14-16</a> and <a href='B:730 19:19'>Rev. 19:19</a> appear to be based upon the ideas of the 'gathering together' of Israel's local enemies outlined in the commentary on <a href='B:730 16:14'>Rev. 16:14</a>, and also upon <a href='B:450 12:3'>Zech. 12:3</a>. &quot;The kings of the earth&quot; can be interpreted as in <a href='B:450 12:3'>Zech. 12:3</a>; &quot;of the whole world&quot; may refer to the world in relation to Israel (as in Dan. 2), or possibly to the fact that all nations literally will be incited to attack Israel, kidded by the beast that some &quot;final solution&quot; to the Middle Eastern problem is necessary. 'Armageddon' meaning 'the valley of Megiddo', takes us back to <a href='B:450 12:9-11'>Zech. 12:9,11</a>: &quot;I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem... in that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as... in the valley of Megiddon&quot;. The conclusion from this is that although a minority within Israel have repented before their victory in the valley of Jehoshaphat, according to the typology of Jehoshaphat's victory in 2 Chron. 20 and other passages, their full realization of the enormity of their sin of crucifying Jesus only comes home to them on seeing His complete rout of their enemies. Thus their returning to Jerusalem with joy (<a href='B:140 20:27'>2 Chron. 20:27</a>) will be preceded by, or mixed with, tears of pent-up emotional release. The similarity of the 'gather together' language has led us to associate the following:- </p><p>-  The gathering together of Israel's neighbouring enemies against her at various times </p><p>-  The gathering of the Arab nations into a valley near Jerusalem (<a href='B:140 20:16'>2 Chron. 20:16</a>, A.V. mg.) for destruction in Hezekiah's time </p><p>-  Joel's prophecy of all nations being gathered into the &quot;valley of Jehoshaphat&quot; (<a href='B:360 3:2'>Joel 3:2</a>) </p><p>-  The gathering together of the Arab nations into the 'valley of Megiddo' (<a href='B:730 16:16'>Rev. 16:16</a>) to fight Israel in the last days.</p><p>It could be objected that the valley of Megiddo is in the North of Israel whilst that of Jehoshaphat is in the South, near Jerusalem. However, the other similarities of language and context are so great as to suggest that they must refer to the same place. It may be that Megiddo having been the scene of many previous Arab battles in Israel's history, it is being used symbolically in <a href='B:730 16:16'>Rev. 16:16</a> rather than as a literal geographical reference. Back in Rev. 16, the sixth vial has described how the nations will be gathered to their place of judgment in Armageddon. The seventh vial then records the destruction of Babylon, who receives &quot;the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath&quot; in the form of huge hailstones (<a href='B:730 16:19-21'>Rev. 16:19,21</a>). This equates the nations who are gathered to Armageddon with Babylon, which heads up the coalition elsewhere known as the beast. The cup of the wrath of God alludes to <a href='B:450 12:2-3'>Zech. 12:2,3</a>, where the peoples from the jihadist nations also are &quot;gathered together&quot; and have burdened themselves with Jerusalem are made to drink &quot;a cup of trembling&quot; by reason of doing so. The punishment with giant hailstones recalls how Israel's enemies were destroyed in the time of Joshua / Jesus (<a href='B:60 20:11'>Josh. 20:11</a>). This confirms our interpretation of 'Babylon' as having a Middle Eastern context.</p><p>But there is another possibility. The unclean spirits or teachings released from the beast and his publicity agents gather the nations together to Armageddon. &quot;Armageddon&quot; (<a href='B:730 16:16'>Rev. 16:16</a>) is from the Hebrew har-magedon. Har means 'mountain'. The assumption has been made that magedon´is the same as 'Megiddo'; but the problem is, Megiddo is a plain and there is no mountain there. Also, the word magedon would be spelt slightly differently if it were simply the place name Megiddo. The suggestion has been made and well argued that magedon is a form of the Hebrew mo'ed, and would literally mean &quot;the mount of assembly / gathering&quot;- the title of Jerusalem in <a href='B:290 14:13'>Is. 14:13</a> [see Meredith Kline, 'Har Magedon', Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39/2 (June 1996) pp. 207-222, available online. He explains the presence of the 'g' on the basis that the Hebrew consonant ayin is often represented by the Greek gamma]. Rev. 16 says that all nations are gathered to Armageddon, but elsewhere we read of all nations being gathered to Jerusalem. The two localities are surely identical, quite apart from the linguistic arguments. We can expect, therefore, far more focus specifically upon Jerusalem. For this is to be the centre to which all are gathered. This makes perfect sense if we see magedon as a Greek rendering of the Hebrew mo'ed- the nations are gathered to the mount of gathering. The king of Babylon / Assyria so wished to come to the &quot;mount of assembly / gathering&quot; (<a href='B:290 14:13'>Is. 14:13</a>), and it was that desire, and executing it, which was effectively his gathering to judgment. And so it will be with the Islamist obsession with Jerusalem- their gathering there will effectively be their gathering to judgment. Associating Armageddon with Jerusalem would more naturally fit with the upcoming description of &quot;the great city&quot;, Jerusalem, being judged by an earthquake (<a href='B:360 3:19'>:19</a>).</p><p> </p><p>And I will execute judgment on them there for My people and for My heritage Israel- AV &quot;Plead with them&quot;. God's pleading against Gog is the language of <a href='B:360 3:2'>Joel 3:2</a>, again about the destruction of Israel's latter day Arab enemies. Although indeed God is entering into a court case with Israel's abusers, His judgments are always an appeal or pleading for reformation, often on the part of those who observe the judgments rather than those who perish in them. In wrath He remembers mercy, and ultimately only seeks to save. This is His passion, and is to this day.</p><p> </p><p>Whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided My land- The scattering among the nations was primarily done by the Babylonians (<a href='B:190 3:8'>Esther 3:8</a>; <a href='B:300 50:17'>Jer. 50:17</a> s.w.) and Assyrians. It is hard to see how this will actually be done in the last days. But the latter day beast is the summary and composite of all the other, historical beasts; just as the image of Dan. 2 stands complete in the last days, for the various metals are all broke to pieces together. The previous behaviours of Israel's abusers will as it were be placed upon the latter day invaders, and they will be punished for them. Likewise, punishment for the persecution of all the prophets was visited upon the generation of first century Jewry (<a href='B:490 11:50-51'>Lk. 11:50,51</a>).</p><p> </p><p> 'Dividing the land' can be read as a metaphor for 'considering it is ours to inherit' (as <a href='B:40 26:53'>Num. 26:53</a>; <a href='B:330 47:21'>Ez. 47:21</a> and often). Perhaps the idea is that they got rid of the Jewish inhabitants and then considered it was theirs to inherit- a position which exactly fits the theology of Israel's surrounding Islamist enemies.</p>


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<p>And have cast lots for My people, and have given a boy for aprostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink- This sounds very much like the selling of Jewish captives in the time of the Maccabees and after AD70 by the Romans. I suggested on :2 that this doesn’t have to be literally repeated in the latter day invasion, but rather the entity of the last days known as"the beast"is seen as a composite of all Israel’s previous abusers and embodies all the previous abuses of God’s people.</p>


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<p>Yes, and what are you to Me, Tyre, Sidon and all the regions of Philistia?- These areas were confederate with Babylon. But they geographically refer to Lebanon and the Gaza strip- the very areas of hatred for Israel in the last days. They will have their judgment in the last day.</p><p>Will you repay Me? And if you repay Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head- This could allude to the radical Islamist usage of the Koran to justify their conquest and abuse of Israel and Jewish people on the basis that they are ’repaying’ Israel for their sins, on God’s behalf. Islamic theology has a lot to say in justification of Muslims giving a recompense to the Jews- e.g. Quran 5:60:"Say (O Muhammad to the people of the Scripture): "Shall I inform you of something worse than that, regarding the recompense from Allah: those (Jews) who incurred the Curse of Allah and His Wrath, those of whom (some) He transformed into monkeys and swines, those who worshipped Taghut (false deities); such are worse in rank (on the Day of Resurrection in the Hellfire), and far more astray from the Right Path". Or 2:191-193: “And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you [Palestine]; persecution is more grievous than slaying... such is the recompense of unbelievers... Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s”.</p>


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<p>Because you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried My finest treasures into your temples- This exactly fits what the Babylonians did to the temple vessels. The motivation for the latter day invasion will be "to take a spoil" (<a href='B:330 38:12'>Eze 38:12</a>).</p>


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<p>And have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border- This happened after the AD70 destruction of Jerusalem and to a limited extent during the invasions by "the king of the north" during the time of the Maccabees. But this will be the policy of the radical Islamists who will form the latter day Babylonian invader, following the teaching of the Quran that the Jews must be expelled from Palestine unless they accept Islam: “And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you [Palestine]"(2:191-193).</p>


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<p>Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head- As noted on :4, the"repayment"or recompense is defined as expelling the Jews from Palestine. And this is exactly the belief of latter day radical Islamists; see on :4,6.</p>


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<p>And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a distant nation; for Yahweh has spoken it-"Sheba"may simply be used here to denote the furthest part of the known world to Joel l’s hearers (<a href='B:470 12:42'>Mat 12:42</a>; <a href='B:300 6:20'>Jer 6:20</a>). It’s hard to imagine that this will literally be done in the latter day application. The idea may simply be that what Israel’s abusers did to them, shall be done back to them. This is a major theme of Revelation, where the seals speak of the latter day abuse of the land and people of Israel, and then the vials speak in similar terms of what is then done back to the abusers at the Lord’s return.</p>


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<p>Proclaim this among the nations: Sanctify war!- Literally,"sanctify". The proclamation of holy war against Israel by her neighbours is exactly the situation we see today, with the Islamic Jihadists using the Koran as justification for a holy war against Israel, justifying thereby any amount of deception and cruelty."The nations"in view are those around Israel; a fair case can be made for the view that Bible prophecy concerns the nations in the eretz promised to Abraham. These nations are specifically defined as the"surrounding nations"in :11.</p><p>Stir up the mighty men-"Stir up"is used of how God stirs up the spirits or minds of men to act according to His plan (<a href='B:140 21:16'>2Ch 21:16</a>; <a href='B:140 36:22'>2Ch 36:22</a>; Isa 1317; <a href='B:330 23:22'>Eze 23:22</a>). God can act directly on the hearts of men; and this, more positively, is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The word is used of how the latter day invader will be stirred up by God from the borders of the eretz promised to Abraham (<a href='B:300 25:32'>Jer 25:32</a>). His hand in history is leading Israel’s enemies into a psychological position whereby they will fanatically desire to attack her. And clearly radical Islam is being used by Him in this ’stirring up’. See on :12. It could be that in this section we have some words addressed to Israel’s invaders, and some to the weak remnant of Israel whom God will use against the invaders. They are to be stirred up and made strong, fighting a holy war ["sanctify war"] as they did against the inhabitants of the eretz under Joshua-Jesus.</p><p>Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up- Coming near and coming up are terms associated with sacrifice; coming near to the altar to offer a sacrifice which comes up to God. These nations are bringing themselves in sacrifice. And they are propelled forwards in this by God’s psychological action upon them through His Spirit.</p>


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<p>Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears- This will be specifically reversed after the Lord is established as king in Zion (<a href='B:400 4:3'>Mic 4:3</a>); as if there is a repentant remnant amongst the invaders who realize their error and wish to reverse it.</p><p>Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’-&nbsp; As Israel’s enemies make themselves strong, so the weak shall become “strong”- gibbor. As suggested on :9, I take this as a reference to the repentant and feeble remnant of Israel becoming strong, rather than [as we could read it] of weak Gentile nations becoming strong in the last days. Thus there will be a standoff between the ‘mighty men’ of the Gentiles (<a href='B:360 3:9'>Joe 3:9</a>) and the ‘mighty ones’ of God, the Angelic hosts working through the feeble remnant on earth whom they will make into ‘mighty ones’. Hence the many references in the prophets to the ‘mighty men’, the gibborim of the Gentiles, being slain in the last day. It will be the final showdown, screened world-wide, between the hosts of God and those of men- although we live it all out, we see it all, in our daily experience now.</p>


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<p>Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves together- Again as noted on :9 we see the Divine encouragement of men in the path they wish to go; that is consistently His way with us. The gathering together will be because of a common theological and psychological obsession with Jerusalem. And this is where jihadist theology is increasingly focused.</p><p>Cause Your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh- This may speak of God manifestation through Angels to destroy the latter day invader, the latter-day Sennacherib. The connection is with the"mighty ones"of :9, which could refer to the mighty ones of the surrounding nations, as if this is the ultimate clash between Zion and Babylon, human might and Divine. Or it could be that the"mighty ones"of :9 are the revived remnant of Israel, now repentant. And they are the vehicle of God’s manifestation or coming down.</p>


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<p>Let the nations arouse themselves- This is the same word translated"stir up"in :9. God stirs them up psychologically against Israel, but they do this to themselves. This is how the Spirit works, positively and negatively; we are confirmed in the mental path we ourselves wish to take. Anything else would be manipulation; anything less would leave human beings too weak minded to propel themselves to their chosen ends.</p><p>And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat- See on :2. The invaders in the Jehoshaphat context were the surround nations of the eretz.</p><p>For there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations- This may mean that God is as it were already enthroned in Zion when the nations come to Him. They come to destroy and capture Zion, but they are speeding to the judgment seat of Christ. Perhaps there is here the scenario of Psalms 2, where the Lord Jesus is enthroned in Zion when the invaders come; or even the Kingdom scenario of Ezekiel 38, with Israel dwelling without bars and gates when the invader comes, because the Lord is already enthroned in Zion.</p>


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<p>Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread- This is God bidding the surrounding nations to put in the sickle; but in reaping Israel in judgment they are reaping themselves. They will destroy and judge themselves in their attempt to judge Israel. Those bidden"come"are the surrounding nations who themselves wish to"come"and destroy Israel, and who are confirmed in this desire to"come"(see on :9,12). But they are coming to tread the winepress of their own judgment. They will judge themselves, just as God’s preferred method of destroying Israel’s historical invaders was by setting them against each other. And this is not unimaginable in the context of Islamic jihadism.</p><p>For the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great- The idea would be that their sin has come to the point where judgment must come. This concept is first enunciated in the context of the Amorites, the local inhabitants of the land, being judged once their iniquity was full (<a href='B:10 15:16'>Gen 15:16</a>).</p>


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<p>Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!-"Multitudes"is Heb. hamon. Clearly there is a connection with"the destruction of Gog and all his multitude in the valley of Hamongog"(<a href='B:330 39:11'>Eze 39:11</a>; <a href='B:330 39:15'>Eze 39:15</a>). I suggested on :12 that the aspect of things described here could be as in Ezekiel 38, when the Lord is enthroned in Zion and is attacked unsuccessfully, as in Psalms 2. What are we to do with all the prophecies of the latter day invasion when the details appear to clash with each other? Some have worked out detailed schemas and timelines whereby there are several invasions. But all those schemas seem to me to run into difficulties of harmonization somewhere. And they smack of literalism. My approach is to accept that prophecy is conditional, and may have various possible outcomes. Just as Joel could have had a fulfilment in his time, had Judah repented. This would mean that there are various possible outworkings; but they may not all come precisely true. The quicker Israel repent, the less of the judgment prophecies will need to be fulfilled. And God’s grace and love may cut short the days, for the sake of His love for the chosen (<a href='B:470 24:22'>Mat 24:22</a>).</p><p>For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision-"The day of Yahweh is near"is the very phrase used about the Babylonian invasion (<a href='B:330 30:3'>Eze 30:3</a>; <a href='B:430 1:7'>Zep 1:7</a>; <a href='B:430 1:14'>Zep 1:14</a>). It is also used in <a href='B:360 2:1'>Joe 2:1</a>; the day of Yahweh is the same day envisaged throughout Joel l. The outcome of that day is the judgment of the nations opposing God’s people in a valley, and then the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom in the land of Israel. This didn’t happen after Babylon took Jerusalem; so we can conclude that the scenario Joel had in mind for Babylon and Judah didn’t work out. But the prophecy will be fulfilled in the last days. This is perhaps why"Babylon"is not named; another nexus of powers will fulfil the terms of the prophecy as a perfect fit, and will come to their end at the valley mentioned in other prophecies, at the return of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>The sun and the moon will be darkened, and the stars will withdraw their shining- From <a href='B:10 37:15'>Gen 37:15</a> onwards, the heavenly bodies represent the leaders of Israel. This may be inserted at this point to remind us that although multitudes of Gentiles are to be judged (:14), the Israeli leadership also will as they are no better. <a href='B:360 2:10'>Joe 2:10</a> has used the figure to describe the eclipse of Israel’s leaders in the face of the invasion. But there may well be a literal element to all this, some kind of eclipse of the heavenly bodies. But that kind of literalism is not in accordance with the generally symbolic language being used in this section."Darkened"is the same word as in the description of the darkened skies in <a href='B:110 18:45'>1Ki 18:45</a> at the time of Israel’s repentance due to Elijah’s ministry. Another such repentance due to a latter day Elijah’s work may therefore also be in view. For repentance is a major theme in Joel.</p>


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<p>Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem- <a href='B:370 1:2'>Amo 1:2</a> says this will happen when Yahweh emerges to judge both Judah, Israel and her surrounding neighbours. And we have that idea here too- for in :14 we read of the judgment of the nations, and in :15 of the judgment of Israel. The idea of a thunderous roar likens Yahweh to a lion&nbsp; (as in <a href='B:730 5:5'>Rev 5:5</a>, in the person of the Lord Jesus); but the invader is likened to a lion in <a href='B:360 1:6'>Joe 1:6</a>. This is a standoff between two lions; just as Yahweh’s mighty ones face off against the mighty ones of the Gentiles (:9,11). This thunderous roar can be associated with the Lord’s return being with a great shout (<a href='B:590 4:16'>1Th 4:16</a>; <a href='B:500 5:28-29'>Joh 5:28-29</a>), the ’calling’ for the sword of judgment to fall upon the invaders (<a href='B:330 38:21'>Eze 38:21</a>; <a href='B:290 11:4'>Isa 11:4</a>). This is the"roar"of <a href='B:300 25:30'>Jer 25:30</a>, which Yahweh will utter as He treads the winepress, which is the context here too (:13). I suggested on <a href='B:360 1:1'>Joe 1:1</a> that was contemporary with Jeremiah and was giving Judah the same message as Jeremiah, so the many points of overlap with Jeremiah are to be expected.</p><p>The heavens and the earth will shake- As noted on :15, this would appear to refer specifically to Israel and particularly her leadership. Yahweh was to roar against them just as He would against their Gentile enemies; see <a href='B:370 1:2'>Amo 1:2</a> and context. The apostate Jewish leadership in Jerusalem had ’roared’ (s:w:) against the souls of ordinary people; and so this judgment was appropriate for them (<a href='B:330 22:25'>Eze 22:25</a>; <a href='B:430 3:3'>Zep 3:3</a>). Hence the next clause goes on to say that God’s true people, as opposed to the ’heavens’ of the rulership, would be saved.</p><p>But Yahweh will be a refuge for His people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel- I suggested above and on :15 that the leadership of Israel stand condemned, especially for how they ’roared’ against the ordinary people in their society and destroyed their spirituality. But a remnant amongst those ordinary people would find Yahweh as a refuge. The allusion is to how the faithful remnant had fled into Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time, and there been saved by Yahweh from the Assyrian invasion. And perhaps something similar may happen in the last days (<a href='B:290 4:6'>Isa 4:6</a> s:w:), when Yahweh will be a stronghold [s:w:] to"the poor... the needy"within Israel (<a href='B:290 25:4'>Isa 25:4</a>). Then, His people will literally find deliverance on His holy mountain (<a href='B:380 1:17'>Oba 1:17</a>).</p>


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<p>So you will know that I am Yahweh your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain- The"you"addressed is the faithful, poor remnant within Israel of the last days; see on :16. They may literally flee into Jerusalem for safety and there come to"know"by experience and in terms of relationship, that Yahweh is really there.</p><p>Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more- The implication is that Jerusalem in God’s eyes was not"holy"at Joel l’s time, and yet He still refers to Zion as"My holy mountain", here and in <a href='B:360 2:1'>Joe 2:1</a>. We have here an example of how God calls His people by status what they are not yet in reality; but His purpose is to make us in reality what we are by status. Romans 1-8 is all about this; He counts us righteous, and so His Spirit works to make us righteous in practice.</p>


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<p>It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters- These are the blessings for obedience to the covenant. There will be a super abundance of such blessings. The brooks of Judah only flowed with water intermittently, according&nbsp; to the season. But the picture is of permanence; no longer will spirituality be occasional, with occasional blessing. Rather will obedience and deep covenant bonding with God be continual and permanent, with the associated blessings.</p><p>And a fountain will come forth from the house of Yahweh and will water the valley of Shittim- As with the darkening of the heavenly bodies, we can understand this literally as well as figuratively. Clearly these words are alluded to in <a href='B:730 22:1'>Rev 22:1</a>, where a figurative river of water of life proceeds from the Lamb’s throne, the restored throne of David in Jerusalem, and meets the chronic thirst of a dry world."Shittim"is literally ’the acacias’, trees known to grow in dry areas. Various attempts to literally locate the"valley of Shittim"would all require a major series of topographic changes if a literal stream of water were to flow there from the temple. But Zechariah 14 suggests major earthquakes and topographical changes to the area around Jerusalem.</p>


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<p>Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the children of Judah; because they have shed innocent blood in their land- We wonder why Egypt and Edom are particularly selected for mention; the historical invader in view was Babylon, who was only assisted by mercenaries from Egypt and Edom in the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. Why are not the main culprits, Babylon and Assyria, mentioned by name? Perhaps because God was particularly angry that people on the sidelines watching a fight jump in with all the bloodlust imaginable, and start even further kicking down the losing party. And that loser, historically, was God’s people. The minor prophets are often billed, and rightly so, as"minor prophets with major messages". And that was never clearer than at this point.</p><p>We note likewise that the Jews murdered by them are called"innocent blood". But Joel and all the prophets emphasize that the entire society was guilty and the invasions were from God as deserved judgment. We need to connect this idea of"innocent blood"therefore with the final verse of the prophecy, where we learn that God has finally cleansed His people of their guilt (:21); and therefore, their murder was seen in retrospect as the murder of innocent blood, such was and is the extent to which God totally justifies and cleanses His people.</p>


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<p>But Judah will be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation- The contrast seems to be with Egypt and Edom being a perpetual desolation (:19) whereas Judah would be eternally inhabited. Yet we know from other prophecies that Egypt will have a definite part in God’s eternal kingdom on earth (<a href='B:290 19:25'>Isa 19:25</a>). We may again be exposed here to the Divine grace which changes His stated judgment purpose against people. Egypt indeed was to be an eternal desolation, just as God at times had promised to eternally destroy and disinherit Israel; but their repentance and His grace means that this will not be the final outcome, just as Nineveh was to be destroyed in 40 days, but it wasn’t.</p>


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<p>I will cleanse their blood that I have not so far cleansed: for Yahweh dwells in Zion- See on :19. The prophecy concludes not simply with the promise of eternal physical blessing for Israel, but with the most essential and important reality- all their guilt will be cleansed. That forgiveness and cleansing will be required, because Yahweh Himself will dwell in Zion; the kingdom of Heaven comes down to earth, as Revelation concludes. And Ezekiel concludes likewise with the promise that Zion shall be the place where"Yahweh is there"(<a href='B:330 48:35'>Eze 48:35</a>). God’s final dwelling with man involves our total and eternal cleansing."Cleansed"translates a Hebrew word which is equally translated"unpunished"(<a href='B:300 46:28'>Jer 46:28</a>; <a href='B:300 49:12'>Jer 49:12</a>). Israel were to indeed suffer for their sins, but that judgment and suffering was to bring about their cleansing. As ever, God’s judgments have spiritual intent, and are not simple statements in anger of an offended Deity. Rather they are part of His path towards the salvation of His people which is at the core of His very being.</p>


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<p>The words of Amos- The prophets typically begin with something like"The word of the Lord...". But here we have"the words of Amos", which were God’s words. This is a useful insight into the Divine-human cooperation which we now call"inspiration". They were the Lord’s words, but through the words of Amos; just like Paul’s letters to his friends were just that, and yet more than that, because they were inspired by God.</p><p>Who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa- A wilderness (<a href='B:140 20:20'>2Ch 20:20</a>). We have the impression that Amos was a very isolated individual who likely knew little about the national let alone international scene. And yet exactly such a person is chosen to be an international witness; for the threats of judgment upon the Gentile nations were presumably in order to give them the chance of repentance. This was a fact realized by Amos himself in <a href='B:370 7:14'>Amo 7:14</a>. We likewise are often chosen for service on the basis of our inadequacy rather than our secular, apparent qualifications.</p><p>Which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel- It seems Amos spoke mostly against the northern kingdom of Israel, perhaps stationing himself near the sanctuary at Bethel and condemning them. He was then expelled from Israel and took his message to Judah. Israel were prosperous in the days ofJeroboam II, hence the repeated criticisms of wealth. Amos, a poor herdmen, was the appropriate one to do this.</p><p>Two years before the earthquake- This earthquake is alluded to in <a href='B:370 8:8'>Amo 8:8</a> and is stated as actually happening in <a href='B:370 9:5'>Amo 9:5</a>. The prophetic word is so certain of fulfilment that it can be spoken of in the present or even past tenses, even though the fulfilment is yet future. And yet as happened with Nineveh, in the gap between pronouncement and fulfilment, there is the possibility of repentance and a change to God’s stated purpose (<a href='B:300 18:7-9'>Jer 18:7-9</a>, and the example of Nineveh and Moses changing God’s purpose of judgment about Israel).</p>


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<p>He said: Yahweh will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem- As the subsequent context makes clear, this will happen when Yahweh emerges to judge both Judah, Israel and her surrounding neighbours. And we have that idea in <a href='B:360 3:16'>Joe 3:16</a> too- for in <a href='B:360 3:14'>Joe 3:14</a> we read of the judgment of the nations, and in <a href='B:360 3:15'>Joe 3:15</a> of the judgment of Israel. The idea of a thunderous roar likens Yahweh to a lion&nbsp; (as in <a href='B:730 5:5'>Rev 5:5</a>, in the person of the Lord Jesus); but the invader is likened to a lion in <a href='B:360 1:6'>Joe 1:6</a> and often elsewhere. This is a standoff between two lions; just as Yahweh’s mighty ones face off against the mighty ones of the Gentiles (<a href='B:360 3:9'>Joe 3:9</a>; <a href='B:360 3:11'>Joe 3:11</a>). This thunderous roar in its latter day aspect can be associated with the Lord’s return being with a great shout (<a href='B:590 4:16'>1Th 4:16</a>; <a href='B:500 5:28-29'>Joh 5:28-29</a>), the ’calling’ for the sword of judgment to fall upon the invaders (<a href='B:330 38:21'>Eze 38:21</a>; <a href='B:290 11:4'>Isa 11:4</a>). This is the"roar"of <a href='B:300 25:30'>Jer 25:30</a>, which Yahweh will utter as He treads the winepress, which is also the context in <a href='B:360 3:13'>Joe 3:13</a>. Joel may have been contemporary with Amos and was giving Judah the same message as him, so the many points of overlap with Amos are to be expected.</p><p>And the pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither- <a href='B:370 3:12'>Amo 3:12</a> implies that Yahweh is the good shepherd to Israel, whereas they had many bad shepherds, as Ezekiel 34 also laments. The idea may be that the suffering of the people in their"pastures"was due to their bad shepherds, the spiritual leadership.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four- There are six surrounding nations mentioned, and then Israel and Judah, who could be counted as one. Seven judgments connect with similar series of seven judgments in Revelation, which I would interpret as likewise referring to judgments on the nations around Israel and also including Israel. It could be argued that the gravity of the offending increases, coming to a climax in the sins of Israel and Judah. They would have heard Amos’ prophecies and agree heartily that the Gentiles deserved punishment- but then the point is made that they have sinned even worse and will be punished along with the surrounding nations by the cataclysm of judgment which was and is to descend upon the eretz promised to Abraham. The seven nations to be judged connect with their sins of"three, yes for four", making seven- as if God notices and is sensitive to every sin, and all these nations had now filled up their sin to completeness, seven times. And so judgment would fall (<a href='B:10 15:16'>Gen 15:16</a>).</p><p>I will not turn away its punishment- As explained on <a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>, there is the possibility of repentance and the averting of Divine judgment. But that turning away of judgment is now not going to be possible because of the complete filling up of transgression to seven times, three plus four. The same Hebrew is used of how God’s people and the Gentiles refused to"turn away"from sin (<a href='B:300 44:5'>Jer 44:5</a>); and so He did not turn away from their punishment (<a href='B:300 30:24'>Jer 30:24</a> s:w:).</p><p>Because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron- LXX"Because they sawed with iron saws the women with child of the Galaadites". The actions of one Gentile nation against another were noted by God. They had cruelly abused those they conquered; and God noticed that extreme abuse of power, the weak over the strong and condemns them for it. God’s sensitivity to sin is huge; and how much more does He watch us, His people, with our far greater responsibility.</p>


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<p>But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it will eat up the palaces of Ben Hadad- God is sensitive to the opulence of Gentiles and their misuse of resources. Hazael means ’whom God looks on’, perhaps the develop this point. How much more then is He to His people. Assyrian obelisks describe their destruction of Hazael’s glory with fire.</p>


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<p>I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him who holds the sceptre from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir, says Yahweh- The way Gentiles trusted in their human strength and defensive military technology is noted by God. And these Gentiles were judged by other Gentiles, under God’s hand. He took away their kingdom / rulership because of this. His sensitivity to His people trusting in their human defences is therefore so much the greater.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away captive the whole community, to deliver them up to Edom- LXX"Because they took prisoners the captivity of Solomon". Being too cruel, even between Gentiles, registers with God and He counts over-reaction and seeking of revenge to be sinful. Did Israel ever go into captivity in Edom because of Gaza? Perhaps not. In this case, the thought of doing so was judged by God so severely. We are judged according to our thoughts and plans, rather than all we actually are in physical terms."The whole community"may mean that Gaza intended to get all the Jews into captivity when they supported the Babylonian invasion, when God intended only a third of the community to go into captivity (<a href='B:330 5:12'>Eze 5:12</a>). Punishing sinners more harshly than God intends is therefore presented as a serious sin. And this sort of thing often happens in church life; some sins are seen as deserving disproportionate punishment simply because they have offended deeply held human tradition.</p><p>Tyre is condemned for not honouring her covenant with Edom (<a href='B:370 1:9'>Amo 1:9</a>); Moab for being too harsh in judging Edom (<a href='B:370 2:1'>Amo 2:1</a>); Gaza likewise for being too cruel (<a href='B:370 1:6'>Amo 1:6</a>). Even amongst the Gentiles, God sees some as sinning more than others (<a href='B:330 7:24'>Eze 7:24</a>). And even amongst God’s people, some sins are “greater abomination” than others (<a href='B:330 8:13'>Eze 8:13</a>). This doesn’t mean that the ‘smaller’ ones don’t count. But it reflects God’s great sensitivity to human sin. The varying scale of sacrifices for various sins reflects this too. And of course our Lord Himself spoke of the man with “greater sin”, and of other men who owed varying amounts to the Father. The penal structure of the law of Moses itself reflects differing degrees of sin.</p>


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<p>But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will devour its palaces- Destruction of the wall and palaces by Divinely sent fire was exactly the judgment to come upon Samaria and Jerusalem. The judgments upon the surrounding Gentile nations were intended as a warning to Israel; and we too encounter others in life suffering judgments for sins which we too commit in essence. And we are intended to learn from those encounters.</p>


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<p>I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him who holds the sceptre from Ashkelon; and I will turn My hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord Yahweh- All Bible prophecy comes to its ultimate moment in the situation of the last days, just prior to the Lord’s return. Here in Amos 1, 2 we read of judgments upon Israel’s neighbours and upon them too. This is to happen in the last days, possibly in the same sequence. And so we note the focus upon Lebanon (:9), the Gaza strip (:7) and now upon the Philistines / Palestinians. That these very areas are today the centre of strong anti-Jewish sentiment and jihadist extremism must surely be highly significant. At no other time in history has the stage been set like this. But as noted on :7, Israel were and are intended to learn from the judgments on their neighbours, described as they are in identical terms to those used about judgments to come upon Israel- the sceptre removed, Yahweh’s hand turned against, their remnant perishing.</p>


text:
<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Tyre, yes, for four, I will not relent on its punishment; because they delivered up the whole community toEdom-"The whole community"may mean that Tyre like Gaza intended to get all the Jews into captivity when they supported the Babylonian invasion, when God intended only a third of the community to go into captivity (<a href='B:330 5:12'>Eze 5:12</a>). Punishing sinners more harshly than God intends is therefore presented as a serious sin. And this sort of thing often happens in church life; some sins are seen as deserving disproportionate punishment simply because they have offended deeply held human tradition.</p><p>And didn’t remember the brotherly covenant- This could refer to the effective covenant between Tyre and Israel first made in the times of David and Solomon (<a href='B:100 5:11'>2Sa 5:11</a>; <a href='B:110 5:2-6'>1Ki 5:2-6</a>; <a href='B:110 9:11-14'>1Ki 9:11-14</a>). Typically such covenants included a clause to the effect that it was binding upon their descendants. But it is typically human to shrug off the binding nature of an ancient covenant. But God takes covenant relationship seriously. And we learn from this that God’s wrath is upon those who despise their brotherly covenant with their brethren.</p>


text:
<p>But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will destroy its palaces- As noted on :7, destruction of the wall and palaces by Divinely sent fire was exactly the judgment to come upon Samaria and Jerusalem. The judgments upon the surrounding Gentile nations were intended as a warning to Israel; and we too encounter others in life suffering judgments for sins which we too commit in essence. And we are intended to learn from those encounters. The wall of Tyre was perceived as an invincible human defence. But all such human strength will be progressively be revealed as useless before God’s judgments.</p>


text:
<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword- Perhaps the focus is upon the word"pursued". Esau was indeed to live by the sword (<a href='B:10 27:40'>Gen 27:40</a>), and to break the yoke of Jacob from off his neck. But to pursue Jacob with the sword over the generations was going beyond. Again we see God’s particular wrath against those who punish sinners over severely; this is so against His own principles and way.</p><p>And cast off all pity- God understood that Esau / Edom’s anger with Jacob was understandable and legitimate. But what was wrong was to cast off all sense of compassion when Jacob was now under judgment. To be heartless is for God an awful sin.</p><p>And his anger raged continually, and he kept his anger forever- God was willing to understand the gut reaction of anger [in Esau / Edom’s case, over Jacob’s deception]; but He does expect us to work through the stages of it, not to be caught up on the ’anger’ stage of our reactions to loss and grief. This perhaps explains God’s ready overlooking of Job’s fist shaking against God. Again we see God condemning men not for being human and having human reactions, but for going too far in them. This is why Moab in turn is condemned not for attacking Edom, but for being sadistic against him (<a href='B:370 2:1'>Amo 2:1</a>).</p>


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<p>But I will send a fire on Teman, and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah- As noted on :10, this was to give Israel and Judah an example of the kinds of judgment to come upon them at the hands of the Babylonians and Assyrians.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border- Ammon would only have achieved a very small territorial advantage by attacking Gilead. They used disproportionate behaviour; abusing pregnant women was not proportionate even to a campaign motivated simply by greed. A noted on :11, God shows here that although He recognizes human weakness, He does see a gradation in sin, and there are things which are bound to call forth His definite judgment even in this life.</p>


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<p>But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its palaces- As noted on :10, this was to give Israel and Judah an example of the kinds of judgment to come upon them at the hands of the Babylonians and Assyrians.</p><p>With shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the whirlwind-"The whirlwind"was a common figure for the Babylonian and Assyrian judgment to come upon God’s people. For sowing the wind, living in a vapid, empty way... they would reap the whirlwind (see on <a href='B:350 8:7'>Hos 8:7</a>). But that same whirlwind of theBabylonian invasion was to shatter the Gentile nations too, and God’s people were intended to learn from this (<a href='B:290 17:13'>Isa 17:13</a>).</p>


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<p>And their king will go into captivity, he and his princes together, says Yahweh- This is precisely what happened to Judah; king and princes together went into captivity at the hands of Babylon. They were intended to have learnt the lesson from seeing the nations judged by Babylon; just as we are supposed to learn from the historical judgment of the nations, and the judgments of people who are brought into our lives for our observation and learning.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four- We may well ask why God bothered warning Gentiles of their judgment. Surely the point was that they could repent- as Nineveh did- and the proposed judgment would then not come. This is how open God is. For"three... yes, for four", see on <a href='B:370 1:3'>Amo 1:3</a>.</p><p>I will not turn away its punishment- The implication is that God states coming purpose or judgment, but is willing to change it in some cases. Nineveh would be the classic example. This is what gives intensity to prayer and repentance- outcomes which God has previously predicted can be changed, such is His sensitivity to human words and behaviour.</p><p>Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime- We gasp at the intense knowledge of God, noting the details of how Gentiles treat each other. Edom has been the subject of God’s own judgment in Amos 1; but He is saying that others do not have the right to abuse others, even if those others are the subjects of His wrath. When we see misfortune or judgment come upon our enemies or those who abused our own dear ones, we are tempted to shrug. But God isn’t like that. His sensitivity to the human condition is too great. He had condemned Edom for abusing His people (<a href='B:370 1:11'>Amo 1:11</a>), but He condemns Moab for punishing Edom too cruelly. See on <a href='B:370 1:11'>Amo 1:11</a>. Moab had made a covenant with Edom, and to break it with such impunity provoked God’s anger. Amos was obviously making the point that breaking covenant with God was therefore going to provoke His even greater wrath. Another reading for"the king of Edom"is"his son", in which case the reference would be to the king of Moab burning his son to Moloch (<a href='B:120 3:27'>2Ki 3:27</a>).</p>


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<p>But I will send a fire on Moab, and it will destroy the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet- This is similar language to that used about the judgments upon Israel and Judah [death with tumult = <a href='B:350 10:14'>Hos 10:14</a>]. Destruction of the wall and palaces by Divinely sent fire was exactly the judgment to come upon Samaria and Jerusalem. The judgments upon the surrounding Gentile nations were intended as a warning to Israel; and we too encounter others in life suffering judgments for sins which we too commit in essence. And we are intended to learn from those encounters. The king of Moab had used fire to judge others (:1), and yet his anger and judgment of others with fire was now to be used against him and his people. We have here a classic example of a man being judged as he judged (<a href='B:470 7:1'>Mat 7:1</a>).</p>


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<p>And I will cut off the judge from their midst, and will kill all their princes with him, says Yahweh- Again, as noted above, this is similar language to that used about the judgments upon Israel and Judah. Their king is also called a judge, whom they would lose (<a href='B:400 5:1'>Mic 5:1</a>); and as Ezekiel and Jeremiah state so often, the princes of Judah went into captivity. <a href='B:300 52:10'>Jer 52:10</a> uses this language to describe the killing of the princes of Judah. Truly, the judgments upon Israel’s neighbours were intended as their warning.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four- For"three... yes, for four", see on <a href='B:370 1:3'>Amo 1:3</a>. Amos prophesied at the time of Uzziah (<a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>) who was apparently a good king and held meetings where the Law was taught and obedience was encouraged. But the message is that beneath that religious veneer, Judah was seriously sinful. The same rubric ["For three... four"] is used about the Gentiles and also Israel and Judah. The point is that they were not radically different from the Gentiles.</p><p>I will not turn away its punishment- The great paradox is that God did turn away from the ultimate punishment of Judah (<a href='B:350 11:9'>Hos 11:9</a>) despite their impenitence. Yet their sins were three plus four, seven- complete sin. This highlights God’s extreme grace. As often seen in Hosea, God does change His mind about condemnation, even when He says He will not. This is the extent of His grace and passion for human salvation.</p><p>Because they have rejected Yahweh’s law, and have not kept His statutes- The word translated"rejected"is also translated"despised"and ’cast away’. The allusion is to where these words are used in <a href='B:30 26:43-44'>Lev 26:43-44</a>:"They have despised My judgments... yet for all that... I will not cast them away". They rejected / despised / cast away God, but He did not treat them as they treated Him. Despite this grace, judgment still had to come, as Amos explains. But that judgment is not the same as being ’cast away’.</p><p>And their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked- The reference is to idols. Any lie becomes an idol- that’s a penetrating psychological observation being made here. Yet Uzziah supposedly cleansed Judah from idols. That was therefore the kind of surface level repentance which we are all so prone to. We might consider that following the understandings of our fathers, and be led astray by untruths received by tradition... is wrong, but not that terribly wrong. But this is chosen as a reason for Yahweh’s wrath. He held them responsible for these things because He expects people to turn away from inherited untruths, not go with the flow, individuate from their fathers, and stand independently before Him. But that might just seem petty stuff to secular man; yet to God it is of critical importance.</p>


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<p>But I will send a fire on Judah, and it will eat up the palaces of Jerusalem- The fortifications of Jerusalem built by Uzziah (<a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>). As noted on <a href='B:370 1:10'>Amo 1:10</a>; <a href='B:370 1:14'>Amo 1:14</a>; <a href='B:370 2:2'>Amo 2:2</a>, the judgment of the palaces of the surrounding nations by the Babylonians was recorded so that Judah might reflect and repent. The"palaces of Jerusalem"could refer to the fortifications which they had trusted in rather than in God (<a href='B:300 17:27'>Jer 17:27</a>; <a href='B:350 8:14'>Hos 8:14</a>); or they could refer to the large houses of the wealthy, which the Babylonians burned with fire (<a href='B:120 25:9'>2Ki 25:9</a>). This would better fit the theme of social justice and condemnation of opulence which we find in Amos.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment- Significantly, seven (3+4) specific sins are now mentioned here for Israel; but the number of individual sins listed for the other nations doesn’t come to seven. I would suggest that seven is the number of completion, and the idea is that the sins of these nations had built up to a point where judgment had to come. The sins listed here seem nothing compared to the sins of the Gentile nations which have been enumerated previously. But the point is that sin is serious, and that things like opportunistic abuse of individuals is as huge in God’s sight as the most extreme murder and perversions of idol worship.</p><p>Because they have sold the righteous for silver- Justice was perverted for the sake of bribes. Or the reference could be to selling debtors into slavery, forbidden by the law and also criticized in <a href='B:370 8:6'>Amo 8:6</a>. We note that"the righteous"can still get into debt to the point that all they have to give is their bodies. Poverty, whether from unwise decisions or acts of God, still befalls"the righteous". This is another major problem for the prosperity Gospel’s claim that the righteous will always get wealthy.</p><p>And the needy for a pair of shoes- As noted above, this could refer to bribery, or to selling into slavery. But the point is, that is was done for very small gain, a pair of shoes (LXX"sandals"). And we see this principle today; for very small gain, in whatever way, those in power will cause long term hardship for the weak.</p>


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<p>They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed- The denial of justice would lead us to read :6 as referring to judging or accepting bribes in order to gain just a very small personal gain- a"pair of shoes"(:6). Not giving people justice is trampling on their heads. Only mourners have dust on their heads, so the idea may be that denying justice resulted in real pain, loss and mourning for the poor; but the feelings of others were despised as ’the strong’ pursued their agenda, with no thought for the collateral damage of their actions or how others would feel emotionally. These principles are not merely relevant to judges or those in authority. We are all called upon to make decisions, to show justice- especially in our family and church communities. In some contexts we are all ’the strong’ who must consider how we act toward ’the weak’. We are placed in these communities really for our testing. So often the denial of justice to another is for the ake of personal gain to us, in some way. And the gain is often petty. So often, believers judge one person one way and another differently, fellowshipping this brother but not that sister, even if they are morally and theologically identical; simply because they fear they might lose some kudos in the eyes of others. See on :13 and <a href='B:370 4:1'>Amo 4:1</a>.</p><p>And a man and his father use the same girl, to profane My holy name- The connection may be with their laying down on clothes beside the Baal altars (:8); for this was where men slept with the cult prostitutes. This is indeed in view here, but the context is about the abuse of the poor and injustice. As noted earlier on this verse, the strong were abusing the weak in that they cared nothing about the emotional or collateral damage down, just for the sake of very small gain- be it materially, or as in this case, the temporary ’pleasure’ of such illicit sex. They didn’t care for the girl’s feelings or humiliation- that was the point. This point is being made along with the obvious criticism of Israel’s idolatry. The abuse of the weak, the lack of justice which was part of using cult prostitutes, was every bit as bad as the idolatry itself.</p>


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<p>And they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge- As noted on :7, the condemnation of idolatry and sleeping with cult prostitutes has incorporated within it the injustice which was just as wrong. The clothes upon which they slept with the prostitutes were actually not theirs; they had taken them in pledge for debts overnight, which was specifically condemned in the law (<a href='B:20 22:26'>Exo 22:26</a>; <a href='B:50 24:12'>Deu 24:12</a>). It was lack of basic sensitivity to the needs of a poor person to keep their pledge overnight; for the person would have nothing warm to sleep in. And this was just as bad as sleeping with cult prostitutes.</p><p>And in the house of their God they drink the wine of the condemned- Paul alludes to this in 1 Corinthians 11. The Christians of Corinth were drinking condemnation to themselves; and the cup we take is likewise either of blessing or condemnation. This is part of the condemnation of Israel, the ten tribe kingdom. They didn’t worship at the temple, but rather at shrines. Their worship of Yahweh was performed as worship of the idols. Their sin was the worse, because they were justifying their idol worship as Yahweh worship. By so doing they were condemning themselves. But"the condemned"is literally ’the punished / fined’. The idea may be that they had demanded fines from the poor for insignificant violations, and were drinking the wine they had bought with this money. But they were drinking it as a drink offering to Yahweh, albeit performed as idol worship. As noted in earlier verses, the grossness of their sin was because their idolatry incorporated the abuse of the poor and injustice.</p>


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<p>Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath- They had worshipped the cults of the Amorites, and were to share their judgment. The Baal cult has been in view in :6-8. So far in this chapter I have alluded to the idea of the weak and the strong, and God’s condemnation of those who were ’strong’ for abusing the weak. This thought is made explicit here, where the pride, strength and human advantage of the Amorites is mentioned. The height and strength of the Amorites was what had caused a faithless Israel to want to return to Egypt (<a href='B:40 13:22'>Num 13:22</a>; <a href='B:40 13:32-33'>Num 13:32-33</a>). But now, Israel were acting like the Amorites, when they should have overthrown them in faith.</p>


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<p>Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite- All in :9-11 was specifically done by an Angel (cp. <a href='B:450 1:1-8'>Zec 1:1-8</a>). Angels would then have been the mechanism through which God gave motivation to some young people to become prophets and Nazirites. God makes His Angels spirits, and it is the Spirit which does the same today. This is all cited as a reason for Israel’s condemnation. They had been led out of the world, baptized in the Red Sea, led of the Spirit- and yet they rebelled against it.</p>


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<p>I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Isn’t this true, you children of Israel? says Yahweh- Apparently freewill decisions such as being a Nazirite are still influenced by God. For the Nazirites were"raised up"by God. Our freewill decisions for Him are confirmed by Him; such is the work of the holy Spirit on human hearts. This could refer to a specific raising up of Nazirites and prophets during the wilderness wanderings. God’s willingness to work upon human hearts must not be despised. The fact He so worked with Israel but they refused is being cited as the ground of their condemnation. We note that it was"young men","your sons", who were moved by God to offer themselves from the freewill devotions of being Nazirites or prophets. Youth is the time when temptation to use human strength and indulge pleasure is perhaps the most acute; and it is to youth that there is a special appeal by God, to give their best years to His service.</p>


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<p>But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Don’t prophesy!’- Their sin was in that they disabled others from achieving the spiritual future for them which God had enabled. Out of all the things God could have condemned His people for, causing others to stumble was paramount to Him. We need to give this due weight in all our decisions and attitudes and responses to others. Amos was one of those forbidden to prophesy (<a href='B:370 7:12-14'>Amo 7:12-14</a>), so we can assume that he was a young man when he began his ministry (:11). He gave his best years to the Lord’s service, in a thankless ministry of condemning the cult worship, materialism and injustice of his elders.</p>


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<p>See, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of grain- As they had crushed beneath their feet the poor and the feelings of those they dealt with unjustly; see on :7 and <a href='B:370 4:1'>Amo 4:1</a>. Grain must be stamped upon; the idea is of a cart on the way to the threshing floor, full of judgment imagery. By stamping on the poor (:7), they were condemning themselves; they too would be crushed at the threshing floor, as the chaff and not the grain. The grain perhaps speaks of the poor whom they had stamped upon; through condemning them, and the poor correctly responding to the abuse, they had been the vehicle which brought about the salvation of the poor in spiritual terms. And so it has been so often; the experience of abuse and condemnation by the strong leads to the weak’s salvation, through their correct response to it.</p><p>But another reading is as AV:"I am pressed [crushed] under you"; as if God identified with the oppressed poor of :7. What we do to others we do to God. And so again, we find minor prophets with major messages: God can be crushed in that He identifies with the crushed. This is the extreme sin of all abusive, crushing behaviour towards others. We note that Amos as a young (:12) country man is full of rural allusions.</p>


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<p>Flight will flee from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself- Again the analogy of the weak and the strong continues; the strong would be unable to flee from their condemnation at the hands of the invaders. They would have no place to run, although they would seek to do so;"flight"may stand for ’place of flight / to flee’. This is the awful picture of condemnation. Human might will then be revealed as weakness, and the weak saved. Only God’s deliverance through His Son will save; human might will not enable self deliverance.</p>


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<p>Neither shall he stand who handles the bow; and he who is swift of foot won’t escape; neither shall he who rides the horse deliver himself- As noted on :14, self deliverance is impossible when faced with Divine judgment; the strong in this life who used that strength to abuse others shall not be saved. The fulfilment initially was in Israel fleeing before their enemies as predicted for disobedience, and it will be the same for all who meet God’s wrath at the last day.</p>


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<p>And he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked in that day, says Yahweh- Again and again, the theme continues- the human strong and mighty will not be saved by their strength. Nakedness is associated with condemnation; they will flee, but have nowhere to run to (:14). The primary fulfilment was clearly in the flight of Zedekiah and his mighty men, and being overtaken by the Babylonians on the Jericho road.</p>


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<p>Hear this word that Yahweh has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family-"The whole family"refers to Israel and Judah. There is one body- this is a very common theme in the New Testament. But it has strong Old Testament antecedents. There was one chosen nation, one land, one tabernacle, one altar, one covenant, one temple- unity was God’s evident intention for His people even in Old Testament times. Israel were redeemed from Egypt as one family (<a href='B:370 3:1'>Amo 3:1</a>). The earliest anticipation&nbsp; of the one body was the fact that man and woman become one flesh / body in the marriage process (<a href='B:10 2:17'>Gen 2:17</a>). If we are all members of the one body, this fact requires us to strive for unity with each other. We can’t just sit back and think ’OK, so there’s one body’; rather like a married couple can’t just say they are ne because they are" one flesh". They must work on it if they want to be truly one. And likewise with the one body of Christ.</p><p>Which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying- Amos spoke against the background of the calf cult, built and presented by Jeroboam with clear allusion back to the golden calf, whom an apostate Israel had liked to believe had brought them out of Egypt (<a href='B:20 32:8'>Exo 32:8</a> s:w:). The point is that Yahweh and not the calves brought Israel out of Egypt. To reconstrue Israel’s national history wasn’t possible; and yet that is what is done by all who turn away from faith. They reinterpret God’s previous, clear involvement in their lives, shrugging it off as coincidence or tricks of the mind. Just as Israel reinterpreted God’s ’bringing them forth’ from Egypt as the work of the calves.</p>


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<p>You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins- This is the theme of Hosea. God was in exclusive relationship with Israel, having entered a marriage covenant with them at Sinai (see on <a href='B:350 8:1'>Hos 8:1</a>). As He was exclusively theirs, so they were to be for Him."Chosen"is yada, ’to know’, in the sense of relationship. And the sexual sense of a man knowing a woman is not completely out of view here. God’s exclusive commitment to us His people of itself has to elicit our similar response. He is not one enthusiasm out of many, one god in a pantheon; He is to our only God. And this is the huge force of the first commandment, that for us, in our hearts, there is to be only one God.</p>


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<p>Do two walk together, unless they have agreed where to meet?- The AV rendering"Can two walk together unless they be agreed?"has been misused by exclusivists to demand total agreement between fellow believers. But this is not the context here; neither is it required that there be total agreement before two can walk together. Both Old and New Testaments are full of examples of where believers had differing interpretations, and yet walked together toward the same Kingdom. And unity is not the same as uniformity. What is important here is that there must be an agreed meeting point before the journey can begin. And God and Israel had indeed met together at Sinai and there entered covenant relationship (<a href='B:370 3:1'>Amo 3:1</a>). They were being reminded therefore of their ongoing commitment to the covenant, and the need to continue to walk together with God. The idea is picked up in <a href='B:370 4:12'>Amo 4:12</a>, where Israel are told to"prepare to meet your God". This was no mere grim pronouncement of doom to come, but a desperately urgent appeal for repentance, for preparation and willingness to meet their God in renewed covenant relationship, as they had done at Sinai.</p>


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<p>Will a lion roar in the thicket, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing?- The lion represents Israel’s Babylonian and Assyrian enemies. They were roaring (see on :7). Israel were already caught; but there was a desperately brief window of repentance. Amos was appealing with urgency and intensity; Israel were already in the mouth of the lion (:12). But they refused to perceive their true position before God and the urgency of the need for repentance.</p>


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<p>Can a bird fall in a trap on the earth, where no snare is set for him? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when there is nothing to catch?- The original is difficult; the idea may be that a snare definitely works, and an animal or bird cannot trigger it without being caught in the jaws of the trap. Amos is addressing the deep psychological mentality that assumes that in fact we can sin and get away with it; somehow, we reason, in my case it will be different.</p>


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<p>Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city without the people being afraid?- The trumpet was being sounded by Amos; the invaders were at the gates, indeed in :12 we read that Israel were already being consumed. Amos struggled to express the intensity and urgency of their position, just as we do in our appeals to men and women.</p><p>Does evil happen to a city and Yahweh hasn’t done it?- This could be translated to the effect that if evil happens God will judge it. God will &nbsp;judge sin. This will be the terror of His latter day judgments. I would paraphrase <a href='B:370 3:6-7'>Amo 3:6-7</a> like this: ‘If there’s evil in a city, God will do something, i:e. He will punish it. But He now does nothing, but He reveals His future judgments to His servants the prophets’. In the context, Amos has been forth-telling judgments to come on various cities (<a href='B:370 3:9'>Amo 3:9</a>; <a href='B:370 3:12'>Amo 3:12</a>; <a href='B:370 3:14-15'>Amo 3:14-15</a>). The text however may be read as it stands; as <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> makes clear, evil in the sense of calamity comes from God. All is of Him, and there is no room therefore for the classical idea of a cosmic Satan figure responsible for all our calamities and negative experiences.</p>


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<p>Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless He first reveals His secret to His servants the prophets- This is not simply stating the obvious; the implied idea is that God reveals His intended behaviour to the prophets, who are intimate with God and know His ’secrets’; and they then reveal them to men. But the implication is that in the gap between the statement and the fulfilment, there can be repentance. And this was what Amos was appealing for.</p>


text:
<p>The lion has roared- who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken- who can but speak it forth?-&nbsp; Amos sees himself as the prophet (:7) who is the roaring lion. But the lion is a clear symbol of Israel’s enemies, Babylon and Assyria (:4). Through the prophetic word of judgment, Israel had the opportunity to repent. The word of judgment was therefore the roar of the approaching lion. The Hebrew for"Speak it forth"can mean to pray or appeal; the idea is that although God’s word of judgment is certain, in the gap between the statement and the fulfilment, there can be repentance; and God may then change His stated purpose, as He did with Nineveh.</p><p>Hebrew poetry rhymes according to the ideas presented rather than the assonance of the words. However, this doesn’t mean that in a couplet, the first part is directly equal to the second part. Subtle differences are set up in order to make a point. <a href='B:370 3:8'>Amo 3:8</a> is an example of this."The lion has roared: who shall not fear? God has spoken: who can but speak forth [AV ‘prophesy’, but not only in the sense of predicting future events]?". If a lion roars, so a man naturally fears as a result of it. God speaks, and just as naturally we can do nothing but speak it forth. Hence <a href='B:370 3:9'>Amo 3:9</a> goes on to exhort the hearers to publish God’s purpose to the Gentile nations around them. The lion roars, and man fears; and we are set up to expect: God speaks, and man should fear. But there is an intended dashing of this expectation. God has spoken, just as the lion may roar; but we are not to fear but rather to speak it forth to others. We come down, therefore, to something very basic, something in the foundation of our faith: that the Bible is the inspired word of God. But if we believe that, if we hear that voice of Yahweh, we will inevitably, axiomatically, speak it forth to others.</p>


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<p>Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them- Samaria was built on a hill, but that hill was surrounded by higher hills. God is judging Israel (see on :13), and He invites the Egyptians and Philistines to come and take their place seated on the vantage points around the city of Samaria, to view His just judgment of the Israel whom their influence had corrupted. They aren’t listed in the list of nations condemned in chapters 1 and 2; we can assume that the invitation was in order that they might learn from God’s judgment of Israel and repent. This is consistently the purpose of His judgments. Just as He had expected Israel and Judah to learn from the judgments upon the"palaces"of their neighbours in Amos 1, 2, so here God desires those who lived in the palaces of Ashdod and Egypt to learn from the judgment of the"palaces"of Samaria. God’s desire to save comes through so strongly, even during His judgment of sinners.</p>


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<p>Indeed they don’t know how to do right, says Yahweh, who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces- We noted on Amos 1, 2 that the"palaces"of the surrounding nations were destroyed by Divine judgment. Israel were intended to learn from this. The wealth they had gotten from abusing their brethren is described as"plunder and loot"because as they had plundered their brethren, so their wealth was to become"plunder and loot"for their invaders (:11). When sin is persisted in, sinners lose any taste for righteousness; they become incapable of knowing how to do right. Only the direct working of God’s Spirit on the human heart can change this. A new psychology is required.</p>


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<p>Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be plundered- Just as they had obtained their wealth and expensive gadgets by plundering their brethren (:11). The overrunning of the land clearly refers to the coming up of the Assyrians throughout the land. All human defences would be destroyed and shown to be just that- the pathetic hopes of the flesh, which before God were nothing at all. And again, the essence of this filters down to us in our age, with our tendency to trust technology, healthscience, bank balances, hoped for inheritances... rather than in the God who promises to supply our daily bread. See on :14.</p>


text:
<p>Thus says Yahweh: As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria- As explained on :4 and :8, Israel was already consumed, but they could avert this by intense repentance. Amos was a herdman (<a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>), and he may be alluding to the way the sheep were branded on their legs and ear. The brave shepherd wished to extricate these parts from the lion’s mouth to demonstrate simply that"this was mine". In this we see God’s hope for the tiny remnant; that they would be His, saved out of the mouth of the invaders, proven to be His. And yet the remnant didn’t repent and were not spiritually strong nor obedience at the time of the restoration. God is here presented as the shepherd, and yet Amos was a shepherd (<a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>). We observe again the closeness between God and His prophets.</p><p>On the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed- The idea was that the couch in the corner was the most desirable place. They who now lived in luxury at the expense of the poor were in fact in the mouth of the lion. Part of the prophetic mission was to persuade Israel of the seriousness of their position. And God’s word does likewise with us. Why spend our time and passions for that which shall fade away? If we are to spend eternity being spiritually minded and doing God’s work, then should we not be seeking to do this now? If we get even a glimpse of the extent of eternity, are we not to use this brief life to the maximum for the things of the Kingdom?</p>


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<p>Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob, says the Lord Yahweh, the God of Armies- This continues the sense that God has entered into judgment with Israel, and the Philistines and Egyptians were seated in the gallery as observers; see on :9. The invitation may be to Amos personally, or to the gathered Philistines and Egyptians.</p>


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<p>For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel- This repeats the prediction of the man of God against that altar in <a href='B:110 13:1-4'>1Ki 13:1-4</a>. Amos was making the same prophesy; perhaps he literally stood near Bethel or the altar and repeated the message.</p><p>And the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground- The horns were considered the place of certain refuge (<a href='B:110 2:28'>1Ki 2:28</a>). The repeated point is that what we consider to be our human strength and defence will surely be revealed as nothing before God’s judgment; see on :11.</p>


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<p>I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end, says Yahweh- We noted on Amos 1, 2 that the judgments of the"palaces"or grand houses of the surrounding nations were intended as warnings to the wealthy Israelites; for their similar houses would be destroyed unless they repented. But they didn’t learn the lesson from others’ judgments, and so the record of the invasions records that the great houses of Jerusalem and Samaria were indeed pulled down."Houses of ivory"refer to houses in which ivory was stored or where the decorations were of ivory. Ahab had such a house (<a href='B:110 22:39'>1Ki 22:39</a>). Instead of repudiating his apostate lifestyle, the Israelites had eagerly followed it.</p>


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<p>Listen to this word you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their husbands, Bring us drinks!- Having made clear that judgment was about to burst in Amos 3, Amos now desperately appeals for repentance. I noted on <a href='B:370 2:7'>Amo 2:7</a>; <a href='B:370 2:13'>Amo 2:13</a> that economic abuse of the poor and the weak by the ’strong’ is described as crushing them. But here we read that it was the obese women of Bashan who did this. The idea is that they demanded of their husbands a lifestyle that meant their husbands abused the poor. God sees all things, and every human motivation. And so they were all condemned for their part in the abuse. These obese women were"on the mountain of Samaria"; perhaps referring to the cult shrine there, just as the mountain of Zion referred to the temple. The drinks they demanded would have been wine offerings, drunk supposedly to Yahweh through their worship of the calves. Their sin was the worse because it was tied up with religious and pseudo spiritual justification.</p><p>Oppressing and crushing the poor and needy uses the same Hebrew words as found in <a href='B:50 24:14'>Deu 24:14</a> about not oppressing poor and needy people, including Gentiles living amongst them. And this was what Israel and Judah had done (<a href='B:330 22:29'>Eze 22:29</a>). It was appropriate therefore that it was Gentiles who would"oppress","crush"and spoil Israel(<a href='B:50 28:29'>Deu 28:29</a>; <a href='B:50 28:33'>Deu 28:33</a> s:w:). The motivation for not oppressing the poor was to be a continual awareness and reflection upon the fact that they had been the poor, needy and oppressed in Egypt, but had been saved from that by God’s grace, just as Messiah would save the poor and needy and destroy the oppressor (<a href='B:50 24:18'>Deu 24:18</a>; <a href='B:230 72:4'>Psa 72:4</a>). This is why Amos seeks to remind Israel of their spiritual beginnings and often alludes to the great salvation from Egypt (<a href='B:370 3:1'>Amo 3:1</a>). We too need to ever be aware of our salvation by grace alone, from our spiritual poverty. To oppress another will not come at all naturally if we are ever aware of our personal experience of grace. God is particularly sensitive to how we treat the poor or the weak in whatever sense. What we do to them, we do to Him; for he who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker (<a href='B:240 14:31'>Pro 14:31</a>). The"oppression"of Israel by the Assyrians was therefore just and appropriate (<a href='B:300 50:33'>Jer 50:33</a>); and yet <a href='B:290 52:4'>Isa 52:4</a> says that the Assyrians"oppressed them without cause". I take this therefore as the in-loveness of God, imputing righteousness and innocence to His disobedient people.</p>


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<p>The Lord Yahweh-"Lord"is adon, the same word used for"husband"in :1. Instead of being partners in abuse with their husbands, they ought to have had Yahweh as their lord.</p><p>Has sworn by His holiness that, behold, the days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks- Clearly a reference to the captivities at the hands of Babylon and Assyria, where hooks were placed in the bodies of the captives. This was the judgment upon Egypt, to be captured by hooks (<a href='B:330 29:4'>Eze 29:4</a>). They had acted as Egypt had towards them (see on :7) and so were to be punished as Egypt- all because they had oppressed the poor. Abuse of the weak by the strong, in whatever sense, makes us as the world, as Egypt; and such abuse is not limited simply to financial abuse. For we are all the strong in some contexts. But the original is difficult and the LXX offers:"And fiery destroyers shall cast those with you into boiling caldrons", which would explain why the same Hebrew word for"hooks"is used of the pot or cauldron which Jerusalem would become (<a href='B:330 11:3'>Eze 11:3</a>; <a href='B:330 24:3'>Eze 24:3</a>; <a href='B:330 24:6'>Eze 24:6</a>).</p>


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<p>You will go out at the breaks in the wall, each one straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon, says Yahweh- The"her"reminds us that the subject of these words are the obese women of :1, who had grown fat as a result of abusing the poor. This attempted escape through the breaches in the wall is exactly what happened when Zedekiah and the royal family sought to escape the Babylonian siege, and we can assume that something similar happened when the Assyrians surrounded Samaria. They were to go out"straight before", as if they were fattened calves being led out of their pens to slaughter. As explained on :1, they had fattened themselves for the slaughter by abusing others. The allusion to calves is appropriate because they had worshipped the calves of Jeroboam rather than Yahweh; they became like that they worshipped, and were judged appropriately. We become like what we worship, and the desire to worship something is coded within our natures. It’s a case of choosing to exclusively worship the Lord and being totally devoted to Him rather than anything else.</p><p>The LXX has:"And ye shall be brought forth naked in the presence of each other; and ye shall be cast forth on the mountain Romman". This could refer to a mountain in Assyria; where in scenes reminiscent of the holocaust, the Israelite women would be cast down naked. But (NEV)"you will cast yourselves"- they had done this to themselves.</p>


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<p>Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more- This could equally be read as meaning that this is what they had done. But we can also read it, as NEV, as God encouraging them in their sin. This is how He works; a holy spirit from Him encouraging us in righteousness, and an"evil spirit from the Lord"encouraging sinners in the downward spiral they delight in. This is why we can never take a break from our spiritual path; we are being propelled in constant motion, in the direction we choose.</p><p>Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days- We see here how the Israelites were mixing Yahweh worship with their paganism at the calf shrines of Bethel and Gilgal. For it was to Yahweh that morning and evening sacrifices were to be made; and the three yearly tithe is that referred to as due to Yahweh in <a href='B:50 14:28'>Deu 14:28</a>; <a href='B:50 26:12'>Deu 26:12</a>. This is the biting challenge of Amos and the situation he describes; we can mix Yahweh worship with our idolatry and consider that because we have a semblance of devotion to Him, then all shall be well with us. This is the danger of organized religion. The organized side of it is perhaps a necessary evil; but it can so easily take away from the true spirituality which is so essential to acceptable worship and relationship with God.</p>


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<p>Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings and brag about them: for this pleases you, you children of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh- As noted on :4, Israel were using elements of Yahweh worship in their devotions to the idols at Bethel and Gilgal. Yet they offered thank offerings with leaven, representing their malice and wickedness (<a href='B:530 5:8'>1Co 5:8</a>). They even liked to claim that they offered voluntary offerings to Yahweh, over and above those required. And it ’pleased’ Israel to do this, they liked doing it. It is no bad exercise to set ourselves the task of working out how we might do so today. Buying and boasting about luxury goods and homes, which we claim are part of our care for the needy when they are really for our own indulgence; proclaiming strict adherence to Divine principles as a means of shunning those we have a gut dislike of... and so we could continue the list.</p>


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<p>I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh- God had already tried to bring Israel to repentance. The threatened invasion was but the last of a series of attempts to bring them back to God. He had given them famine to try to make them"return", implying they had already as it were gone away from Him into Gentile lands from which they would have to"return"(s:w:) to God. Their exile and captivity was therefore but a reflection of their own distancing of themselves from God. We noted on :1 that the wealthy women were obese; and yet this was achieved during a time of want and famine in the land. Their abuse of the poor for their own luxury at such a time was therefore the more obnoxious.</p>


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<p>I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered- This selective rain was to recall how the Egyptians suffered some of the plagues but the Israelites didn’t. As noted on :1, God was seeking to remind Israel of their salvation from Egypt (see on <a href='B:370 3:1'>Amo 3:1</a>). They had been saved by grace, but by oppressing their brethren as the Egyptians had oppressed them, they were no better than the Egyptians. They had therefore reversed the exodus; they were now the Egyptians, because in their hearts they had returned there. The allusions to the Egyptian plagues continue in :9,10.</p>


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<p>So two or three cities staggered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh- The drought was intended to make the people go to God; but instead they went to try to get water from elsewhere. We wonder which city had water whereas the others didn’t; possibly it was a Gentile city, or a city where there were members of the righteous remnant."Staggered"or ’wander’ is the word used about Israel’s wandering away from God (<a href='B:300 14:10'>Jer 14:10</a>) and into captivity (<a href='B:370 9:9'>Amo 9:9</a>; <a href='B:310 4:15'>Lam 4:15</a>). The drought therefore gave them a foretaste of what condemnation and judgment would be like; but they stubbornly refused to perceive it. We also see such foretastes of judgment; in Scripture, in our lives and those of others. And it is for us to respond.</p>


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<p>I struck you with blight and mildew- Literally,"blasting"(as AV). Again the allusion is to Egypt, whose corn was likewise blasted (<a href='B:10 41:6'>Gen 41:6</a>).</p><p>Many times in your gardens and your vineyards-"Many times"reflects the multiple efforts of God with Israel. He so many times nudged them to perceive the similarities with Egypt.</p><p>And your fig trees and your olive trees have the swarming locust devoured: yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh- See on :7. Locusts were one of the plagues on Egypt; but the fig and the olive, the very symbols of Israel, were now being treated like the Egyptians. They were supposed to perceive these multiple prods and nudges, to join the dots and see the picture. But like so many today, they refused.</p>


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<p>I sent plagues among you like I did upon Egypt. I have slain your young men with the sword, and have carried away your horses; and I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh- See on :7. The"camps"were again to recall Egypt;"horses"typically came from Egypt, and were the symbol of human strength, which the law of Moses forbad the kings of Israel to use; see on:11. Already there had been incursions into the land, and young men and horses killed or carried away. By all means God had tried to prod and nudge Israel to repentance without an all out invasion and devastation of the land. The various seals of judgment upon the land and people of Israel in the last days, as detailed in Revelation, are intended to have the same effect; and will be augmented by our witness to Israel and Jewish people. For all these multiple nudges and opportunities to repent, Israel refused.</p>


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<p>I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to Me, says Yahweh- As noted on :10, there were incursions of the land before the main invasion in order to try to bring them to repentance. Hence"some of you". They were as Sodom, as Isaiah 1 makes clear; but were treated like Lot who was saved out of the burning by grace alone. This was undeserved grace. And yet still they didn’t learn; they were saved from rightful judgment but still they wouldn’t perceive God’s grace and repent. The historical situation is that of 2 Kings 13, where in the time of Amos,"The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben Hadad the son of Hazael, continually. Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for He saw the oppression of Israel, how that the king of Syria oppressed them. Yahweh gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before. Nevertheless they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked therein. There remained the Asherah also in Samaria. For the king of Syria didn’t leave to Jehoahaz of the people any more than fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing"(<a href='B:120 13:3-7'>2Ki 13:3-7</a>). We note here the destruction of their horses, which is mentioned here in <a href='B:370 4:10'>Amo 4:10</a>.</p>


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<p>Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel; and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel- Amos speaks of Israel’s final judgment as a day of their meeting their God, and he urges them to prepare to meet Him. This was no grim fatalism, as if an angry final statement. The language is shot through with allusion to how both Israel and Moses were told to prepare to meet Yahweh at Sinai (<a href='B:20 19:11'>Exo 19:11</a>; <a href='B:20 19:15'>Exo 19:15</a>; <a href='B:20 34:2'>Exo 34:2</a>). But that meeting involved a declaration of God’s Name, the foremost characteristic of which was that God is a God full of mercy and love for His people. Their preparation to meet God was therefore a call to repentance and moral preparation, so that the threatened judgments could be averted. It was because judgment had been pronounced and would surely happen, that Amos urges Israel to repent; because in the gap between pronouncement and actualization, there was the possibility of repentance which would as it were change God’s mind, as happened with Nineveh. This is the eternal intensity of the moments we now live in. The idea of meeting God is a development of the idea in <a href='B:370 3:3'>Amo 3:3</a> (see note there), where Israel are told that two (God and themselves) can walk together once they have an agreed meeting place; and God and Israel had"met"in covenant at Sinai. So the command to prepare to again meet God, just as they had ’prepared’ themselves to meet Him at Sinai by sanctification rituals, was no mere grim pronouncement of doom to come, but a desperately urgent appeal for repentance, for preparation and willingness to meet their God in renewed covenant relationship, as they had done at Sinai.</p>


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<p>For, behold, He who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought; who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth: Yahweh, the God of Armies, is His name- The armies of Babylonians and Assyrians were God’s armies. The very mountains around Samaria alluded to in <a href='B:370 3:9'>Amo 3:9</a> had been created by God. The God of endless physical ability has the same boundless abilities when it comes to matters of the spirit or"wind"; He who created all things knows the thought of man. And this was where repentance needed to occur. He could invert His creative work, making light into darkness; and He would destroy the"high places"of the land through the forthcoming invasion. The invaders typically destroyed the shrines of those whom they conquered; hence the God of those armies would as it were tread on their high places, just as they had trampled upon the poor (see on :1).</p>


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<p>Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel-"Lamentation"is literally a funeral lament. It was as if they were already dead, and now God and Amos were as it were lamenting at the funeral; although the lamentation was yet future (:16). But although the prophetic word of destruction was so certain, yet there was still space to repent. In this was the desperate urgency of the appeal Amos is making. Israel were being asked to"listen"to their own funeral lamentation. We too can try to fast forward in time and reflect what could legitimately be said about us.</p>


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<p>The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up- But the idea of the restoration was that God would raise up Israel. So terms like"no more"and"never again"are relative to that generation, at that time; see another example in <a href='B:120 24:7'>2Ki 24:7</a>. This is quite normal language usage within Semitic thought, but it can cause difficulties of understanding and interpretation for more literalistic Western readers. All the same, that generation would fall and die, their bodies cast out in the open (<a href='B:330 29:5'>Eze 29:5</a>; <a href='B:330 32:4'>Eze 32:4</a>); and they were being asked to imagine the scene of their death and the funeral lament over them- and repent to avert that judgment. The present and past tenses are used to bring home how certain are God’s words of fulfilment.</p>


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<p>For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel- As with the destruction of Jerusalem, there was always a remnant left. Samaria was to be left with just 10% of its former population; a majordestruction. And it was with this tiny remnant that God hoped to work. They were perhaps the tenth, the tithe, which were intended for God’s work. The idea of only a tenth surviving is repeated in <a href='B:370 6:10'>Amo 6:10</a>.</p>


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<p>For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: Seek Me, and you will live- We are frequently reminded in the prophets that the spiritual way of life is one which is seeking God. We are to seek His face (<a href='B:230 24:6'>Psa 24:6</a>; <a href='B:230 27:8'>Psa 27:8</a>)- which it is impossible to behold (<a href='B:20 33:20'>Exo 33:20</a>). Actually finding God in the ultimate sense is therefore unattainable in this life; but our whole mortal life must be lived in this spirit of seeking ultimate perfection. Seeking God is often defined in the prophets as forsaking our sins and desiring to be righteous (<a href='B:370 5:5'>Amo 5:5</a>; <a href='B:370 5:8'>Amo 5:8</a>; <a href='B:370 5:14-15'>Amo 5:14-15</a>). None of us are completely successful in our seeking of God in terms of quitting every sin and becoming perfect, and therefore it follows that none of is completely forsakes all our sinfulness. And yet righteousness is imputed to those who seek it, who love God’s ways but like Paul in Romans 7, allow themselves to be all too constrained by their human location. In Hebrew thought, to seek is to worship. God is worshipped by our seeking of Him. And thus the Kingdom blessing is for those who hunger and thirst to be righteous, even though they are not of themselves righteous (<a href='B:470 5:6'>Mat 5:6</a>).</p>


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<p>But don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba- Which required passing right across Judah. Judah too had her idol shrines in addition to Yahweh’s temple.</p><p>For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing- There is a word play here, as if to say"For Gilgal shall taste the gall of exile"-"Ha-Gilgal galoh yigleh". And likewise"Bethel", the house of God,"shall become an idolatry / idol house". No mention is made of Beersheba’s judgment, perhaps because there appeared more hope for Judah’s repentance.</p>


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<p>Seek Yahweh, and you will live-"Seeking"God is explained on :4.</p><p>Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel- Tiglath-Pileser first took into captivity all Gilead and Galilee, the majority of the territory of the ten tribes (<a href='B:120 10:32-33'>2Ki 10:32-33</a>); but didn’t touch the territory of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph. That earlier invasion had been a warning; the outpouring of wrath upon Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, could yet be averted. The fire had started, but it could still be quenched by repentance. But despite the message being so clear, they refused to repent; just as we can see the writing on the wall and refuse to note it. This blindness is a sad feature of human nature.</p>


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<p>You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth- This is the thought of <a href='B:370 6:7'>Amo 6:7</a>"But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness". Israel’s judgment was to be cast down to the earth (<a href='B:290 28:2'>Isa 28:2</a>; <a href='B:340 8:12'>Dan 8:12</a>), and wormwood was to be their condemnation (<a href='B:300 9:15'>Jer 9:15</a>; <a href='B:300 23:15'>Jer 23:15</a>; <a href='B:310 3:15'>Lam 3:15</a>). It was serving other gods which would lead to the bitterness of wormwood (s:w. <a href='B:50 29:18'>Deu 29:18</a>). But they are condemned here not for idolatry, but for injustice, abusing the weak so that they left them with a bitter taste in their mouth, just as we feel when we have been misused or ripped off. This was the essential sin, and it was the egoism and selfishness behind that abuse which led further to idolatry. By making others feel this bitterness, by refusing to show justice / righteousness [the two ideas are closely connected in Hebrew], the abusers were securing their own condemnation when they would taste as it were the bitterness of wormwood</p>


text:
<p>Seek Him who made the Pleiades and Orion- This is emphasized because Israel are rebuked for worshipping the star of Remphan in :26 (cp. <a href='B:510 7:43'>Act 7:43</a>). God had made not just one star but the"seven stars"(NEV"Pleiades"), all of them, and the entire constellation of stars seen in"Orion".</p><p>He who turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is His name- According to God’s Name / essential character, He would reverse the creation process. Darkness would become night, and the waters of the sea, representing the armies of the invaders, would be poured out by Him upon the surface of the eretz / land promised to Abraham, just as they were at the flood. The same imagery is used in Revelation, where judgments are poured out as if from bowls / vials upon the same geographical area.</p>


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<p>He who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress- The citadel of Samaria, their human strength and defence, would be destroyed. It would be sudden, in that they had previously trusted in their various alliances. This is the nature of divine judgment- to reveal all human strength as hopelessly weak, and it is for the faithful to perceive that before judgment comes. We live in an age when such human strength has been perfected and honed as never before, with insurance against every eventuality."The strong"refer to the group within Israel who were abusing the weak. The lesson for us is not simply regarding financial exploitation of the poor. We can all be strong in some contexts. You may be standing in line at a check out, and the person in front of you doesn’t speak the local language. You suddenly become the strong, and they the weak; it is not for you to be impatient and irritated with the weak. You may be an accepted member of a family or community; and an outsider comes within the circle. You are the strong, and they the weak.</p>


text:
<p>They hate him who reproves in the gate- Perhaps a reference to Amos who stood in the gate of Samaria or Bethel delivering his warnings.</p><p>And they detest him who speaks blamelessly- Insofar as Amos spoke God’s words. This detesting of Amos led to him being banned from Israel, as he records in Amos 7.</p>


text:
<p>Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes of wheat from him- therefore you who have built houses of cut stone will not dwell in them. You who have planted pleasant vineyards shall not drink their wine- The taxes demanded had to be paid in kind, in agricultural produce, because the poor had nothing else to give; see on <a href='B:370 7:1'>Amo 7:1</a>. And <a href='B:370 4:6-9'>Amo 4:6-9</a> has explained that this was at a time of famine. The strong took away what little food the poor had, just in order to continue their own opulent living. We live in a world where there is every opportunity to do this, and on a global scale. In time of famine, everyone had to go down a step on the ladder. But the motivation for taxing the hungry and therefore taking their little food from them was because it was unthinkable that the strong should take a step down on the ladder. And this again is a principle which cuts to the core of our society. When it comes to actually stepping down a peg and going without some aspects of our current lifestyle, all within us rebels against it. We may be generous, but only if our current level of living is not undercut. And if circumstances require us to downsize or downgrade in whatever way, it is human nature to do literally anything, at any cost to the weak, in order to save us from doing so.</p>


text:
<p>For I know how many are your offences, and how great are your sins- Israel like us were tempted to think that the apparent silence of God meant that He had as it were not noticed their sins. But God is deeply sensitive, and every offence was noted and felt, and the magnitude of it. But His sensitivity never turns off. What was apparently just an on paper series of offences are described here as"your mighty sins". What we may shrug off as just surface level failure are"mighty sins"to God.</p><p>You who afflict the just- We note it was the righteous who were abused, in this case. The poor are not always"the just", for poverty is no guarantee of spirituality of itself. So it was the righteous remnant who were being abused, and God was particularly sensitive to that.</p><p>Who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts- <a href='B:290 29:21'>Isa 29:21</a> uses the same phrase but adds that they turned aside the needy for"a thing of nothing". The bribes they received were very small, just as Judas betrayed the Lord for a mere 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave, that couldn’t even buy more than a small parcel of muddy, useless land. Amos has made this complaint elsewhere, that even for a pair of sandals, cheap shoes, the cause of the righteous was perverted (<a href='B:370 2:6'>Amo 2:6</a>; <a href='B:370 8:6'>Amo 8:6</a>). The allusion may be to <a href='B:40 35:31'>Num 35:31</a>, where bribes are forbidden to cover murder. By hating their brothers and abusing them, they had effectively murdered them. And the Lord confirmed in His teaching that hatred is as murder in God’s book.</p>


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<p>Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time- The reference may be to the righteous keepingsilent in respect of the rightness of Divine judgments (<a href='B:30 10:3'>Lev 10:3</a>; <a href='B:230 39:9'>Psa 39:9</a>). The"evil time"was to come because they had themselves sought"evil"(:14). Constantly we see that the judgments which came were essentially that which they themselves sought. See on <a href='B:370 6:10'>Amo 6:10</a>.</p>


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<p>Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say- They claimed that Yahweh was with them, when He was not (<a href='B:400 3:11'>Mic 3:11</a>). Hence they claimed to desire the day of Yahweh, when in fact it would be their condemnation (:18). The promises of the Kingdom, the comfort of God’s love, are often appropriated by passive believers in times of crisis. But these promises, and the active presence of God, are to be experienced in daily life now. And this requires a seeking of good, rather than of evil. The unjust profiteers and materialists would likely have objected to the charge of actively seeking evil; but this is how God sees anything other than seeking good.</p>


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<p>Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph- The prophets called upon men to “hate evil and love good”, to have some passion about our positions. As noted on :6, only the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh was left intact after the earlier Assyrian invasion. And if they repented, and loved good rather than evil and were just, then they could experience the grace of God’s plan to save a remnant. The essence of spirituality is not achieving perfection, but loving good, loving the things of the Spirit; and therefore all who love the Lord’s appearing, with all that requires, shall be saved (see on <a href='B:620 4:8'>2Ti 4:8</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Therefore thus says Yahweh the God of Armies, the Lord: Wailing will be in all the boulevards; and they will say in all the streets, ‘Alas! Alas!’, and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skilful in lamentation to wailing- As noted on :1, it was as if the lamentation was already in progress, so certain was it that Israel would perish in the judgment to come. But that future reality could still be changed by repentance, such was and is God’s sensitivity to human repentance."The farmer"seems to be used in order to give the impression that there would be mourning from city streets to country areas.</p>


text:
<p>In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you, says Yahweh- See on :1,16. The passing through the midst in judgment is the language of God’s judgment of Egypt on Passover night (<a href='B:20 12:12'>Exo 12:12</a>). Israel had returned to Egypt in spirit and were judged accordingly, as Egypt. The wailing or funeral mourning was in the vineyards because they were symbolic of the wealthy life (:11). But those vineyards had already been smitten by the drought (<a href='B:370 4:9'>Amo 4:9</a>). They ought to have learnt the lesson, that the wealthy life and symbols of opulence were already of no meaning. But they continued in their hope that their vineyards would again flourish. We too are at times given premonitions about the meaninglessness of wealth and opulence. And if we don’t take the lesson, that wealth will be removed totally at the last day.</p>


text:
<p>Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It will be darkness for you, and not light- This and <a href='B:460 3:1-2'>Mal 3:1-2</a> warn that just desiring the coming of the Lord isn’t enough; for what end will it be, if we don’t truly love His appearing? Yet Amos goes on to say that Israel “put far away” the reality of the day of the Lord, in their minds (<a href='B:370 6:3'>Amo 6:3</a>). And yet they desired it. We can study prophecy, but not really love His appearing in seriously preparing ourselves for that day. Indeed, we can subconsciously put it far from us. When we grasp for a fleeting moment how very near is the second coming for us; can we dwell upon it, retain that intensity? Or would we rather put it “far away”? This is surely why the Lord brings the list of signs of His coming to a close with some chilling parables concerning the need for personal watchfulness. It’s as if He could foresee generations of believers straining to interpret His words carefully, correctly matching them with trends in the world... and yet missing the essential point: that we must watch and prepare ourselves for His coming, whenever it may be for us. Having given so many indicators of His soon appearing, the Lord then says that His coming will be unexpected by the believers (<a href='B:470 24:36'>Mat 24:36</a>; <a href='B:470 24:44'>Mat 24:44</a>). Hewasn’t saying ‘Well, you’ll never properly interpret what I’ve just said’. He meant rather: ‘OK you’ll know, more or less, when my return is imminent; but all the same, in reality it will be terribly unexpected for most of you unless you prepare yourselves. You need to make personal changes, and be watchful of yourselves; otherwise all the correct prophetic interpretation in the world is meaningless’. Those described in <a href='B:520 1:32'>Rom 1:32</a> know the judgment of God; they know it will come. But they have a mind “void of [an awareness of] judgment” (<a href='B:520 1:28'>Rom 1:28</a> AVmg:). We can know, know it all. But live with a mind and heart void of it. <a href='B:630 1:16'>Tit 1:16</a> AVmg. uses the same word to describe those who “profess that they know God” but are “void of judgment”. We can know Him, but have no real personal sense of judgment to come. These are sobering thoughts.</p>


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<p>As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him- &nbsp;The allusion may be to the idea that the lion may spare its prostrate prey, but the bear will not do so. This idea may be incorrect, but God uses it here; if they had repented to God prostrate before the invaders, then the judgment could have been averted. But they did not, and so they faced the merciless destruction of a bear.</p><p>Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him- They may flee for refuge into their houses, so often criticized by Amos, but find no safety there either. Again, human wealth and strength is to be no refuge. The point is so repeated by Amos because we are so slow to accept it. See on <a href='B:370 6:9'>Amo 6:9</a>.</p>


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<p>Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness for you, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?- They were perhaps grabbing hold of the promises in Joel about the day of Yahweh being of bright light, a new dawn for Israel. But it would not be so for them. It’s rather like an uncommitted nominally Christian person grabbing hold of words of comfort about the future Kingdom of God coming on earth; the question is, will that day be of judgment or salvation for us? The question here, rather than a simple statement, is to desperately appeal for them to imagine what judgment day would be like, and change the outcome by their repentance.</p>


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<p>I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t tolerate your solemn assemblies- The feasts and related gatherings are repeatedly described as feats of Yahweh, assemblies of Yahweh. But Israel had hijacked God’s religion and made His table, His feasts, their own- hence"your feasts". The New Testament likewise describes the feats as"feasts of the Jews"and Yahweh’s temple as the temple of the Jews. By making the Lord’s table effectively ours, we are doing the same; taking over His house as our own, with all the house rules of our denominationalism. The same language is used of God’s anger at the sacrifices and feasts held in the Jerusalem temple in Judah (<a href='B:290 1:10-15'>Isa 1:10-15</a>). Again we see that the shrines and rituals of the calves in the ten tribe kingdom were imitations of the Jerusalem temple.</p>


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<p>Yes, though you offer Me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals- They had failed to appreciate what the New Testament makes apparent- that the blood of sacrifices, the performance of religious ritual of itself, was not a ground for acceptability. Rather was a contrite, repentant heart required, and the cleansing was from God’s response to that rather than for the sake of the blood itself. And as noted on :21, we see that they in the ten tribe kingdom were carefully imitating the Mosaic rituals of the Jerusalem temple. But they were doing so in worship of their calves.</p>


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<p>Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps- The same language is used of how God was angry with the songs and harp music of the Jerusalem temple (<a href='B:290 1:14'>Isa 1:14</a>; <a href='B:290 24:8'>Isa 24:8</a>; <a href='B:330 26:13'>Eze 26:13</a>). The calf shrines of the ten tribes were imitations of the Jerusalem temple worship. They were therefore the more irritating to God.</p>


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<p>But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream- In Hebrew, the word for justice is that for judgment. So we have here a double meaning; God was to send judgment upon Israel like mighty rivers, and such rivers are Biblical imagery for invading armies, Assyria especially (<a href='B:290 8:6'>Isa 8:6</a>). And yet this could be averted, if the country became awash with the justice which Amos so frequently appeals for.</p><p>"Mighty stream"suggests"Ethanim", the seventh month, just before the early rains, was called Ethanim, the month of the perennial streams. Perhaps the idea is that the final Assyrian judgment was to come in this month.</p>


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<p>Did you really bring to Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?- The historical record says that they did, so the idea is that although they did, God didn’t accept them because they were also offering to other gods. This is a biting, incisive challenge to all of us who perform religious rituals, such as collective meetings, prayer, breaking of bread etc. We can do all these things, but not do them as God accepts. Such things are all a natural and correct part of communal life together, but they are also part of organized religion, and human nature tends to seek justification through ritual and religion rather than heartbroken faith in the God who saves by grace.</p>


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<p>You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves- Right at their birth by the Red Sea, the Almighty records that"the people feared Yahweh, and believed Yahweh, and His servant Moses"(<a href='B:20 14:23'>Exo 14:23</a>). No mention is made of the Egyptian idols they were still cuddling (we don’t directly learn about them until Ezekiel 20). Nor do we learn that this"belief"of theirs lasted a mere three days; nor of the fact that they rejected Moses, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt."There was no strange god"with Israel on their journey (<a href='B:50 32:12'>Deu 32:12</a>); but there were (<a href='B:370 5:26'>Amo 5:26</a>). The reconciliation is that God counted as Israel as devoted solely to Him. The references are to Moloch [the planet Mars] and Chiun [Saturn]. Hence the emphasis that in fact God had created all the planets (:8).</p>


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<p>Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies- Quoted in the New Testament as"beyond Babylon", which is more relevant to Judah’s captivity than that of the ten tribes to Assyria. We see here how the New Testament ’quotes’ the Old Testament often with paraphrase. The idea is that the judgments upon Israel were in essence to come upon Judah; and Amos had a ministry to both Israel and Judah.</p>


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<p>Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria- As noted throughout Amos 5, the ten tribe kingdom of Israel had set up shrines to the golden calves, and a centre of worship in Samaria, which consciously imitated the Jerusalem temple which was in Judah. Judah were also apostate, and the abominations performed in the Jerusalem temple were in essence as those found at the calf shrines in Israel. This explains why Zion, the temple mount, is here paralleled with the central hill in Samaria where the idol shrine was located. Amos preached to both Israel and Judah, often with the same material; so we can better appreciate why he uses this parallel. The LXX suggests that the ten tribes were despising Zion, the mount of the Jerusalem temple, and considered that God had replaced it with the idol shrine in Samaria:"Woe to them that set at nought Sion, and that trust in the mountain of Samaria".</p><p>They felt"at ease"and"secure"because they kidded themselves that the coming day of Yahweh would be for their salvation (see on <a href='B:370 5:18'>Amo 5:18</a>). The latter day equivalent is in those amongst God’s people who say"peace and safety"when sudden destruction is about to come (<a href='B:590 5:3'>1Th 5:3</a>)."Secure"or ’trusting’ is the word used in warning Israel that the high walls and fortifications in which they would ’trust’ would be brought down (<a href='B:50 28:52'>Deu 28:52</a> s:w:). The word is often used by the prophets in their appeal for God’s people to"trust"in Him and not human strength (<a href='B:290 12:2'>Isa 12:2</a>; <a href='B:290 26:3-4'>Isa 26:3-4</a> etc:) and not trusting in idols (<a href='B:290 42:17'>Isa 42:17</a>; <a href='B:290 47:10'>Isa 47:10</a>; <a href='B:420 2:18'>Hab 2:18</a> etc:). Their trust in their idols was however understood by them as trust in Yahweh. They had mixed the flesh and the spirit to such an extent</p><p>The notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!- The idea is as GNB, reading"nations"as an intensive plural:"You great leaders of this great nation Israel, you to whom the people go for help!".</p>


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<p>Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Or is their border greater than your border?-"These kingdoms"would refer to Israel and Judah, or perhaps as in :1, to the"great nation Israel"(:1 GNB). The GNB therefore offers:"Go and look at the city of Calneh. Then go on to the great city of Hamath and on down to the Philistine city of Gath. Were they any better than the kingdoms of Judah and Israel? Was their territory larger than yours?". This is therefore a repeat of the appeal in Amos 1 and Amos 2, to reflect upon the destiny of Gentile nations around Israel, and to realize that unless they stopped acting like the Gentiles, then they would be judged as Gentiles."Calneh"had just been conquered by the Assyrians (<a href='B:290 10:9'>Isa 10:9</a>). Hamath had been conquered briefly by Jeroboam II in the time of Amos (<a href='B:120 14:25'>2Ki 14:25</a>), but Assyria had just captured it (<a href='B:120 18:34'>2Ki 18:34</a>). Gath had also been conquered by Uzziah king of Judah in the time of Amos (<a href='B:140 26:6'>2Ch 26:6</a>), but would also be conquered. The kings of Israel and Judah had not conquered Calneh and Hamath because they were"better than these kingdoms". Secular success is no certain sign that we are right with God; and here again we see the great error of the prosperity gospel.</p>


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<p>Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near- See on <a href='B:370 5:18'>Amo 5:18</a> Why do you long for the day of Yahweh?. They desired the coming of the day of Yahweh; but God’s word through Amos penetrates their deepest psychology. For deep in their hearts, they knew they had sinned and would be judged, but they were putting that reality far away. By doing so they were hastening the coming of judgment, as if that day was somehow flexible within God’s purpose. More positively, we can hasten the Lord’s coming. The final date is unknown because it will factor in both the ’hastening of judgment’ factor due to human sin, and the ’hastening of salvation’ due to the prayers of the righteous.</p>


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<p>Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall- This decadence was all the worse because a famine preceded the final invasion; and as noted on <a href='B:370 4:6'>Amo 4:6</a>, the wealthy only retained their extravagant standard of living by forcing the weak and poor to pay them taxes in the form of food. We note that they both worshipped calves and ate them. They became like that which they worshipped, and that message is taught time and again in the prophets. It has strong relevance to us today. Likewise ’stretching’ is the word used for ’pouring out’ as if in the libations of sacrifice. They justified their decadence as service to God. And we have that same basic human tendency today.</p>


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<p>Who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David did- I suggested on :4 and :6 that this decadence had overtones of religious worship. They claimed to admire the spirituality of David and to be continuing his style of worship. When really they were just enjoying a decadent meal accompanied by music. This mixture of flesh and spirit is really our acutest temptation:&nbsp; They drunk wine and anointed their faces with oil- the language of rejoicing in God’s blessings, assuming they were righteous, and that the wealth they had wrongly gained was in fact Divine blessing. Many a corrupt Pentecostal pastor must have done the same in our days. They looked back to the heritage of their spiritual ancestors (David), and on a surface level appeared to follow them. They chanted the temple songs at their shrines in Samaria and Gilgal, and yet there was no grief within them for the affliction of God’s people (:6).</p>


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<p>Who drink wine in bowls- This is the language of the drink offerings being poured out in bowls (<a href='B:450 14:20'>Zec 14:20</a>). As noted on :4 and :5, their decadence was performed with the appearance of religious worship to it.</p><p>And anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph- This could refer to this historical Joseph, whose affliction was caused by his own brothers, and they ignored it (<a href='B:10 42:21'>Gen 42:21</a>). The suffering, spiritual, innocent Joseph then becomes representative of the righteous remnant who were being abused. Or the reference could be to how the areas of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, wereto be afflicted, unless they repented; but those addressed were not grieved for that. They didn’t repent because of the suffering they saw their brethren passing through.</p>


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<p>Therefore they will now go into captivity with the first who go captive- The idea is that those who had gone into captivity first, during the early Assyrian incursions, were intended as a warning to them. But they had not taken that warning, and so they too would go into captivity as those who had"first"or earlier gone into captivity.</p><p>And the feasting and lounging will end-"Lounging"is Heb. mizrach, a word play with mizraq,"bowls", in :6."Will end"is the same word used in <a href='B:370 5:23'>Amo 5:23</a>, when God asks for their songs of worship to Him to be taken away or ended. Their feasting with bowls if wine was therefore performed as a feast to Yahweh. He ended it through the invasion, seeing they refused to stop. This is how obnoxious is self-gratification performed in the name of serving God.</p>


text:
<p>The Lord Yahweh has sworn by Himself, says Yahweh, the God of Armies, that I hate the pride of Jacob- For all the issues which the prophets could have condemned people for, pride was high on their list:&nbsp; Jeremiah wept in secret, his eyes running with tears, “for your pride” (<a href='B:300 13:15-17'>Jer 13:15-17</a>). Isaiah gets passionate about the way that Assyria thought that “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom” (<a href='B:290 10:13'>Isa 10:13</a>). Because Ephraim trusted in his wealth, the most awful words of judgment are pronounced upon him (<a href='B:350 12:8'>Hos 12:8</a>; <a href='B:350 10:13-14'>Hos 10:13-14</a>). We shrug when we see pride and trust in wealth. Rich or poor, we all tend to trust in money. Thinking that that’s life… under the sun. But the prophets went ballistic about this. We’ve developed established patterns of indifference to this kind of thing. But the prophet’s consciences were keenly sensitive to these patterns, and they openly challenged them. They weren’t just empty moralizers, bleating on about the state of the nation; their words are an assault of the mind and conscience.</p><p>And detest his fortresses. Therefore I will deliver up the city with all that is in it- As noted often, the fortresses were the human strength which Israel trusted in, rather than in God; see on :1. God hated, even detested, all such trust in human defences. We need to take that lesson. For we have so many temptations to trust in human strength. And it is bank balances, reserves, health plans etc. which God detests if they are used to replace trust in Him.</p>


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<p>It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die- We note again the reference of Amos to fortified houses, which the wealthy thought would be their defence against invaders. Such a large house must be in view, if ten men remained within it. Even if these houses were such a defence, God would send a snake on their walls inside to kill them (<a href='B:370 5:19'>Amo 5:19</a>). We really need to hear all this repetition- all human strength and defence is not so at all.</p>


text:
<p>When a man’s relative carries his body out of the house to burn it, he will ask him who is in the innermost parts of the house: ‘Is there yet any with you?’. And if he says, ‘No’, then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention the name of Yahweh’- The idea may be as in <a href='B:370 5:13'>Amo 5:13</a>. The righteous keep silent in respect of the rightness of Divine judgments (<a href='B:30 10:3'>Lev 10:3</a>; <a href='B:230 39:9'>Psa 39:9</a>), even if they fall upon their own relatives. And again, even the innermost, most fortified parts of their homes would not preserve them. The innermost parts, the very core, of our various human defence mechanisms will likewise be revealed as nothing before God’s judgment. It was the duty of the closest relatives to bury the dead; and AV"uncle"may imply that only an uncle was left in this family to bury the younger men. This relative was therefore the only one of the ten (:9) who survived in the house and family. This is mentioned also in <a href='B:370 5:3'>Amo 5:3</a>; Samaria was to be left with just 10% of its former population; a major destruction. And it was with this tiny remnant that God hoped to work. hey were perhaps the tenth, the tithe, which were intended for God’s work. To mention that Name of Yahweh was part of covenant relationship, but that was to be interrupted for the remnant who survived. They had called upon Yahweh as part of their idol worship; and now that was to be no longer possible. They would realize that they had in reality not called upon His Name at all.</p>


text:
<p>For behold, Yahweh says it, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits- Repeatedly Amos drives home the idea that their houses will not save them. Their fortified homes and hidden recesses within them were what they so trusted in, rather than turning to God. We too tend to have those hidden recesses of our own device.</p>


text:
<p>Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plough there with oxen?- The answer is obviously"no". But this was how utterly foolish they were being in being unjust and causing bitterness to those they abused. It ought to have been obvious. But that which is spiritually obvious is not perceived because of the way that sin distorts our vision. But the Hebrew is difficult. The GNB offers:"You brag about capturing the town of Lodebar. You boast, "We were strong enough to take Karnaim". The military victories earlier in the time of Amos, under Jeroboam II and Uzziah (<a href='B:120 14:25-28'>2Ki 14:25-28</a>), were to be now revealed as meaningless; such secular success was no reflection of spirituality. And they would realize that all too late.</p><p>But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness- See on <a href='B:370 5:7'>Amo 5:7</a>. Justice and righteousness are God’s intentions for His people; but just as a horse can’t run on rocky crags, so they had inverted the entire sense of spirituality.</p>


text:
<p>You who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’- The horns of the Jerusalem altar were thought to be the ultimate source of safety (<a href='B:110 1:50'>1Ki 1:50</a>; <a href='B:110 2:28'>1Ki 2:28</a>). It seems that the ten tribes had replicated this by adding horns to their calf statues, which were "a thing of nothing". They had created their own strength, rather than realizing their weakness and trusting in God’s strength. They were aware that a righteous Ephraim would push her enemies as with the horns of a unicorn (<a href='B:50 33:17'>Deu 33:17</a>), and as noted on :1, they were "at ease" with God, assuming they were righteous, appropriating the blessings of the righteous to themselves. Only condemnation would make them realize how wrong they were.</p>


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<p>For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, says Yahweh, the God of Armies; and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah- From the north to the south. The same terms of definition are used to describe the territory which Jeroboam II had recently recovered (<a href='B:120 14:25'>2Ki 14:25</a>). All that secular success was no sign at all of God’s blessing. All this so easily translates into our modern terms. We need not assume that nice homes and possessions are God’s blessing and His approval of our spirituality. Not at all. It can be that we merely blessed ourselves with those things. Those armies sent to take these things away were effectively God’s armies, totally under His control.</p>


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<p>Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: and behold, He formed locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s harvest- GNB "Just after the king’s share of the hay had been cut and the grass was starting to grow again". <a href='B:370 4:6-9'>Amo 4:6-9</a> has explained that this was at a time of famine. The strong took away what little food the poor had, just in order to continue their own opulent living, as explained on <a href='B:370 5:11'>Amo 5:11</a>. The king was chief in this offence. The punishment was therefore that locusts would eat up the harvest of the wealthy. However "the shooting up" may refer to the temporary revival of prosperity under Jeroboam II (<a href='B:120 14:25'>2Ki 14:25</a>) after it had as it were been mown down by the incursions of Hazael and Benhadad (<a href='B:120 13:3'>2Ki 13:3</a>; <a href='B:120 13:22'>2Ki 13:22</a>).</p>&nbsp;<p>It could be argued that the timing of the judgment reflects God’s grace- the first harvest had already happened, the King taking the best of the hay. Note how Uzziah, the King inAmos’ time, <a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>, "loved husbandry", <a href='B:140 26:10'>2Ch 26:10</a>; like us, he was tested at his weakest point. The grasshoppers [Heb. locusts] were prepared to destroy the secondary harvest which was not so crucial to survival. It could be that the locusts ate the grass but hadn’t moved on to the crops. God’s grace is seen in the midst of His judgments; He could have judged Israel far more severely, by destroying the primary harvest. The creation of a locust plague by God naturally alludes to the plague of locusts upon Egypt - which was ended by Moses’ mediation for Egypt just as Amos now interceded for Israel; see on :3. This is one of many examples of where God’s apostate people are treated as and spoken of in the language of Egypt / the world; the ultimate punishment for the rejected will be to be sent back into the world, the Egypt which they had preferred in their day of opportunity, and share their destiny. Hence Paul writes of being "condemned with the world". See on :4.</p><p>Note that God consciously "forms" locusts... He sends His rain on the earth, there’s a consciousness about every movement in the natural creation, a conscious expenditure of His energy and Spirit.</p><p>The LXX of <a href='B:370 7:1'>Amo 7:1</a> is interesting: "Behold, a swarm of locusts coming from the east; and, behold, one caterpillar, king Gog". Yet Amos intercedes: "Repent, O Lord, for this. And this shall not be, says the Lord". This would suggest that the Gog invasion was conditional and was forestalled by the intercession of Amos; thus not only Ezekiel 40-48 would be conditional prophecy, but Ezekiel 38, 39 also.</p>


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<p>It happened that when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beseech You! How could Jacob stand? For he is so small- The only other time we read of Jacob being "small" is when the same Hebrew word is used about Jacob being the "younger" son (<a href='B:10 27:15'>Gen 27:15</a>; <a href='B:10 27:42'>Gen 27:42</a>). God delights to work through the weak, the younger sons, the spiritually weak, the sinners... and Amos appeals to God’s grace, to continue working through the weak Israel. For how else shall Jacob "arise"- and the same Hebrew words are used of the historical Jacob ’arising’ and being saved by God’s grace from a just destruction for his sins (<a href='B:10 31:17'>Gen 31:17</a>; <a href='B:10 35:1'>Gen 35:1</a>). We can use these ideas to comfort those who feel they have fallen so far into sin that God has stopped working with them. His style is quite the opposite- to use such desperate situations to bring men and women to be His truest servants.</p><p>The historical fulfilment of this may be in that the incursions of Hazael and Benhadad into Israel could have destroyed them; but it was the prayer of Amos which saved those "locusts" from totally destroying the kingdom. There was still some space for repentance; hence the intensity of Amos’ appeal. And in the time allotted, Jeroboam II did restore much land to Israel (see on :1), but still there was no repentance.</p><p>The idea of prophets was well known in the world around ancient Israel. The idea of a prophet was that a person was caught up in some kind of ecstasy, transported into some ‘other’ world, and leaving behind their humanity. The true prophets were different. Their inspiration was about being attuned to the mind of God, they remained very much in the flesh and in the world, and the subjects of their prophecy related to very real, human things- injustice, a guy building an extension on his house without paying the labourers. Not flashing lights and ethereal coasting through space. The pagan prophets (e.g. the prophets of Baal in <a href='B:110 18:26-29'>1Ki 18:26-29</a>) worked themselves into a frenzy in order to reach a state of depersonalization and loss of consciousness, in the hope that then they would be filled with Divine consciousness. True prophets like Amos were absolutely different; the inspiration process required them to be fully in touch with their own consciousness and personality, and it was exactly through their humanity that the personality of God came through in the inspired words they spake and wrote. Amos perceived the Lord’s word, and then ‘butted in’ as it were, in full consciousness: “O Lord God, forgive, I beseech Thee! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” (<a href='B:370 7:2'>Amo 7:2</a>). This is the very opposite of the pagan prophets losing touch with their human senses and reasoning.</p><p>The relatively small amount&nbsp; of human repentance needed to make the Angel repent is shown here in Amos 7. Amos sees visions of the impending judgements on Israel. After each he prays for Jacob to be forgiven; and the answer comes: Yahweh repented for this. It shall not be, says the Lord". He repented for the sake of one intense prayer! Notice too Amos asking"Who shall stand for Jacob?". Michael the Angel stands for Israel in the court of Heaven (as the Angel ’God of Jacob’; <a href='B:340 12:1'>Dan 12:1</a>), and thus it appears Amos is pointing out that if Israel is condemned and punished they will have no Angel with them- and so the Angel / God changes His mind.</p><p>Although the prophets were onGod’s side as it were, sharing His spirit, speaking His words, they were also men, and they were largely Jews, members of the nation upon whom He was announcing His wrath. At times, they reason with God. Amos delivered God’s judgment against his people, and then pleaded with God about them, and He changed His mind. Other examples in <a href='B:290 6:11'>Isa 6:11</a>; <a href='B:300 4:14'>Jer 4:14</a>; <a href='B:230 74:10'>Psa 74:10</a>. This was how well the prophets knew God; and yet again, it shows that they weren’t merely impersonally reproducing a message from God. They were involved in it and highly sensitive to it.</p>


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<p>Yahweh relented concerning this. It shall not be, says Yahweh- There really were intended Divine judgments upon Israel at this time which didn’t happen thanks to a subsistence farmer praying to God to change His mind... Note the huge implications of the two words"for this"[NEV"concerning this"]. For those few words of Amos, Almighty God changed His mind. What’s amazing is that Amos had opened his prophecy by relaying the statement that God would not repent of His judgment of Israel. God is not the stone faced, unchanging Allah of Islam, nor the emotionless deity of the Greeks. He changes, just as He did over Nineveh. The only thing that is unchanging in Him is grace, whereby the sons of Jacob are not ultimately consumed when they ought to have been (<a href='B:460 3:6'>Mal 3:6</a> cp. <a href='B:300 10:25'>Jer 10:25</a>).</p>


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<p>Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me and behold, the Lord Yahweh called for judgment by fire; and it dried up the great deep, and would have devoured the land-"Called"raises the question ’to whom?’. Maybe to the Angels in the court of Heaven?"Contend by fire"(AV) suggests a reference to Elijah calling God to contend by fire against an apostate Israel.</p><p>Israel are likened to the sea, being burnt up by the heat of God’s wrath. But the sea is usually a symbol of the Gentile world- as in the notes on 7:1, apostate Israel are being likened to the Gentiles. God at that time would’ve burnt up all Israel- had not Amos interceded. This is exactly what happened with Moses. The idea of"part"of God’s land and people being burnt up by judgment is common in Revelation- the implication of the allusions back here to Amos could be that all God’s land / people aren’t destroyed in the last days because of intercession by third parties- ourselves?</p><p>Destruction by fire is more radical and total than a locust swarm. As explained on :2, the locust swarm was stopped from totally destroying the kingdom by Amos’ intercession. But still Israel didn’t repent, and so destruction by fire was promised. But Amos again interceded and even this was delayed- explaining how all the more desperately intense was Amos’ appeal for repentance.</p>


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<p>Then I said, Lord Yahweh, cease, I beg You! How could Jacob stand? For he is small- God is open to changing His stated plan due to the mediation of others. It would even appear that Amos believed God could forgive the sins of others because of his prayers rather than their repentance. For Amos doesn’t merely ask God not to execute His judgments, but to actually forgive Israel. There’s an obvious similarity with the intercession of Moses; the only other person to pray"Forgive, I beseech You"is Moses- the same Hebrew words are found on his lips twice (<a href='B:20 34:9'>Exo 34:9</a>; <a href='B:40 14:19'>Num 14:19</a>). Moses’ amazing example had been meditated upon by Amos as he did his agricultural work- and he rose up to the same level. He prayed the same prayer. We too should be motivated in our prayer lives by Biblical examples, even using the same words. So many Biblical prayers use the words of previous Scripture. God leads us to see the similarities between our situations and those of Biblical figures- e.g. by giving Amos a vision of judgment upon Israel in terms of a locust plague, which was intended to lead Amos to see Israel as Egypt and himself as Moses in making intercession to end the plague. Amos gets into the spirit of Moses by asking God to"cease", using the same word used to describe how the plagues"ceased"as a result of Moses’ intercession (<a href='B:20 9:29'>Exo 9:29</a>; <a href='B:20 9:33-34'>Exo 9:33-34</a>). Amos the humble herdsman rose up to the spirit of Moses, the figure set within Judaism as it were in stained glass as unapproachable and beyond imitation, to be revered but not copied. And we can rise up in the same way.</p>


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<p>Yahweh relented concerning this. This also shall not be, says the Lord Yahweh- Amos pronounced what the Lord had shown him: that the land would be destroyed by grasshoppers, and then by fire. But each time he begged Yahweh to relent. And “the Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord” (AV). Israel’s salvation was to some degree dependent on the love and prayer of Amos. God may have prepared great things potentially, which are only ‘released’ by our prayer for them:&nbsp; James reasons that because we have seen “the end intended by the Lord” (<a href='B:660 5:11'>Jas 5:11</a> NKJ) we ought therefore to do the maximum of our ability in prayer for others, and as Job praying for his friends, we can really influence the outcomes for third parties (see on <a href='B:480 2:5'>Mar 2:5</a>).</p>


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<p>Thus he showed me: Behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand- Measuring was an idiom for preparation for judgment, and like all prophecy, this will have its ultimate application in the last days (see on <a href='B:730 11:2'>Rev 11:2</a>). The idea may be that God had built the wall perpendicular, but Israel had built further upon it, and now He would assess precisely how far they had strayed. Every sin and failure led to others, just as building a wall with slight errors to begin with leads to the wall becoming more grossly out of shape as the building proceeds. This is the problem with considering that there are small sins, some ’out of line’ stuff in our lives that we shall just let be.</p>


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<p>Yahweh said to me, Amos, what do you see? I said, A plumb line. Then the Lord said, Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel. I will not again change My mind about punishing them- God is aware that He has changed His mind... elsewhere He warns that this time, His threatened punishment of Israel will not be as another echo in the mountains (<a href='B:330 7:7'>Eze 7:7</a>). But... He still doesn’t destroy them fully. <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a> describes His unbearable tension:"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together"(<a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>). This is the God whose word is ultimately firm still being open to changing it- such is the extent of His love for Israel; and us.</p>


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<p>The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword- We never read of Isaac having any idolatrous"high places", but all the patriarchs were amazingly weak at times and so it doesn’t surprise us. The point could be that the secret sins of God’s people, e.g. those of Isaac which by grace aren’t recorded in the Biblical record, will be revealed in the time of judgment. Hence the reference in 7:16 to"the house of Isaac". But Isaac had a vision from God at Beersheba and likely built an altar there (<a href='B:10 26:23-24'>Gen 26:23-24</a>). The apostacy of God’s people was in continually seeking to justify their idolatry by daubing it with references to true Yahweh worship; and Beersheba was one of the idol shrines (<a href='B:370 5:5'>Amo 5:5</a>).</p>


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<p>Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words- This was his commentary upon Amos preaching the word of :9, that the house of Jeroboam was to be destroyed. It would seem that Amos announced this word at Bethel, not Samaria. Perhaps he stationed himself there at the idol shrine and warned the people daily. As always happens, the words of the faithful are twisted; Amaziah implied that Amos was taking into his own hands to fulfil the prophecy against Jeroboam, and was plotting to murder him."Conspired"is literally"banded", as if Amos had built up a group of followers; perhaps indeed a minority did repent. And indeed the word of God could not be abided by Israel when it finally came to fulfilment; the same words are used in <a href='B:360 2:11'>Joe 2:11</a>.</p>


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<p>For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of hisland’- The implication is that Amos kept on saying this; and that although he was appealing for repentance, he recognized that the captivity was going to happen. To keep on giving an unpopular message is difficult; it’s one thing to whisper something once, but to keep warning is bound to make us unpopular. Amos is really an example to us.</p>


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<p>Amaziah also said to Amos, You prophet, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there-"Eat bread"may be an idiom to imply that he would be sponsored there, implying that Amos was just saying what his financial supporters wanted him to say. This would explain why his response is that he is not a professional prophet as they understood a prophet, i:e. a man just saying things for the sake of those who employed him (as in <a href='B:330 13:19'>Eze 13:19</a>); but rather was he just a humble herdsman and fig gatherer (:14).</p>


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<p>But don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!- This is typical of how money controls spirituality in apostate religion. Jeroboam had funded the sanctuary, it was his [and not Yahweh’s]; therefore Amos shouldn’t be condemning the king in the king’s sanctuary. The record is making the point that Bethel, the house of God, was no longer the house of God but the king’s house. Israel had hijacked God’s house, just as the Lord’s table has so often been hijacked by those who act as if it is their table, and decide who may or may not enter the Lord’s house / family. Telling the prophets not to prophesy was the sin of God’s people in <a href='B:370 2:12'>Amo 2:12</a>. Reading or hearing God’s word but not letting it bite us is just the same.</p>


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<p>Then Amos answered Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore figs- This was Amos’ answer to the implication he was a career prophet just saying what those who paid him wanted to hear (:12). He was not even the son of a prophet, probably referring to the"sons of the prophets"who had attended the schools of the prophets (<a href='B:120 4:1-2'>2Ki 4:1-2</a>). Amos was for whatever reason not within the mainstream and not apparently associated with the schools of the prophets. He was as he says, just a humble labourer. This is evidence enough that one can teach God’s word without any pedigree or theological education. Indeed it seems God prefers to work through outsiders such as Amos. He was poor- a herdsman who also gathered sycamore fruit, which was plentiful in Israel but inferior to figs.</p><p>When asked who he was, John’s reply was simply: “a voice”. Amos, in the same way, was told not to keep on prophesying; but he replies: “I am no prophet…the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy” (<a href='B:370 1:14-15'>Amo 1:14-15</a> RV). It’s almost contradictory: ‘I’m not a prophet… I am a prophet’. He was truly selfless, like, John, just a voice for God. Samuel also spoke of himself at a distance from himself when he told Israel: “The Lord sent Jerubbaal… and Samuel… and delivered you” (<a href='B:90 12:11'>1Sa 12:11</a>).</p><p>Amos stresses that speaking forth God’s word wasn’t at all what he wished to do or was cut out for. Likewise Paul says that because preaching God’s word was against his natural inclination, therefore a calling to preach the Gospel had indeed been given to him (<a href='B:530 9:17'>1Co 9:17</a>). Paul was sent to the Gentiles and not the Jews as he might naturally have preferred; the disciples were unlearned and ignorant men called to preach to the Jewish intelligentsia; womenweren’t accepted as legal witnesses and yet the Lord asks women to be the first witnesses of His resurrection; always in the preaching of His word does God use those who humanly aren’t qualified to do so. He doesn’t use slick presentation, but rather human weakness in order to convert others. Amos doubtless alludes to himself in <a href='B:370 3:8'>Amo 3:8</a> where he says that a prophet cannot but speak out God’s word- and this is alluded to by the apostles when they say they cannot but speak out what they have seen and heard of Christ.</p><p>Amos doesn’t actually answer the serious false allegation against him personally, but gets on with speaking forth God’s word. This is rather like Peter, who when forbidden to preach just continues to do so. Paul also was forbidden by the Jews to teach the Gentiles (<a href='B:590 2:16'>1Th 2:16</a>). Both Paul and Peter must have recalled Amos going through the same. Situations repeat within the lives of God’s children who are contemporary with each other, and also between our situations and those of Bible characters. This is the basis in practice for the unity of the Spirit. We are given real life examples of others who have walked this path before.</p>


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<p>And Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel’- The context is responding to the idea that he was only saying what men had paid him to say (see on :12). Amos seems to purposefully use the language used about David who was likewise taken from the flock to do God’s work (<a href='B:100 7:8'>2Sa 7:8</a>; <a href='B:230 78:70-71'>Psa 78:70-71</a>). David and Moses were seen as untouchable founding fathers of the Israelite culture and religion; for a humble labourer to act like Moses in mediating for Israel (as in :1-5), and now to see himself as David, was significant spiritual ambition. We too can rise up to these patterns rather than just admire them. The low status of Amos is therefore emphasized; he was a"herdman"(<a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>), a noqeed because he shepherded naaqaad, a stunted and ugly breed, leading to the proverb"viler than a naaqaad". Likewise he gathered not figs, but sycamore fruit, the cheapest, commonest and least tasty fruit (:14).</p>


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<p>Now therefore listen to the word of Yahweh: ‘You say, Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac’- To forbid the teaching of God’s word led to the serious condemnation of :17. And church politics today often lead to a similar forbidding of preachers, especially those considered to be outsiders like Amos. The same situation is criticized in <a href='B:400 2:6'>Mic 2:6</a>, where the command to stop others preaching was because those who forbad it didn’t want to"take shame". We can claim belief in an inspired Bible and yet refuse to be shamed by what we read, and effectively we are thereby shutting down God’s word. This shows that ’belief in an inspired Bible’ can never remain a mere theological tenet; it demands so much of us, and one can so easily deny it in practice despite giving lipservice to the theory.</p><p>The Israelites considered themselves the house / family of Isaac because they had transformed his shrine to Yahweh at Beersheba into an idol shrine, through which they claimed to worship Yahweh; see on :9. They thought their much proclaimed connection with Isaac somehow justified their sin, just as multi generational Christian believers can assume that their pedigree justifies their apostacy.</p>


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<p>Therefore thus says Yahweh: ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword- Imagine the nervous tone of voice in which Amos likely said those words, just as we imagine Joseph and Daniel summoning the courage to speak forth God’s word. We likely know that feeling. To call a man’s wife a prostitute was serious indeed. Presumably she would become such in order to placate the invaders, or because she simply needed to somehow get food in the desperate situation which was to come.</p><p>And your land shall be divided by line- Such division is characteristic of how God judges people (<a href='B:310 4:16'>Lam 4:16</a>; <a href='B:330 5:1'>Eze 5:1</a> s:w:). Those who divide themselves within God’s kingdom or people are thereby living out their own condemnation.</p><p>And you yourself shall die in a land that is unclean, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land’- The Israelites considered Gentile lands"unclean", and yet they had made their own land unclean by their sins (<a href='B:290 24:5'>Isa 24:5</a>; <a href='B:300 2:7'>Jer 2:7</a>). It was therefore appropriate that they be taken away to die in an unclean Gentile land. Clearly it was the hypocrisy of Israel in considering other lands"unclean"which was so obnoxious to God. And the people of God must ever struggle with the temptation to be no better in essence than those they claim to be separate from.</p>


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<p>Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit-"Summer"translates a Hebrew word very similar to that used for"end"in :2. These final visions in Amos may be in response to him being exiled from Israel as recorded in Amos 7. Israel had stated finally that they didn’t want God’s word, and so Amos now gives visions of the end, and yet concludes with the gracious hope of restoration.</p>


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<p>He said, Amos, what do you see? I said, A basket of summer fruit- The apparently obvious question was to help Amos be clear in his own mind. We too at times have to be asked ’What is this?’, because verbalizing the reply is helpful for our own understanding. The ’end fruit’ (see on :1) was the fruit of Israel’s behaviour. All our days and years are spent cultivating, and the fruit shall surely come. For Israel, the fruit they bore meant"the end"for them.</p><p>Then Yahweh said to me, The end has come on My people Israel. I will not again change My mind about them any more- Amos had successfully persuaded God to change His mind, but God says He will do so no more. And yet even then, there were changes in His plans, influenced always by His passionate desire to save at least some. The Divine statement here is proof enough that God does change His mind, as we see clearly in His altering of purpose regarding Israel’s destruction (<a href='B:40 14:34'>Num 14:34</a>) and that of Nineveh. He is only unchanging in His essential grace, in that the sons of Jacob are not consumed when they ought to be (<a href='B:460 3:6'>Mal 3:6</a>).</p>


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<p>The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day, says the Lord Yahweh- These visions seem particularly addressed to the ten tribes (:14), but most of Amos’ words also have relevance to Judah; for he prophesied to both kingdoms (<a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a>). I have noted earlier that the idol shrines of the ten tribe kingdom were conscious imitations of the worship at the Jerusalem temple; so"the songs of the temple"could refer to the musical worship at the shrine in Samaria. A historical fulfilment would have been in how the songs of Zion, the temple mount, became laments in Judah’s captivity (<a href='B:230 137:3-4'>Psa 137:3-4</a> s:w:). But the immediate context seems to concern wailing for the dead bodies in the temple / sanctuary.</p><p>The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out in silence- This"silence"is that spoken of in <a href='B:370 6:10'>Amo 6:10</a> (see note there). The bodies would be thrown out and not buried. Perhaps the reference is to what happened when the literal sanctuary at Bethel collapsed during the Assyrian invasion and destroyed those who had taken refuge there; see on <a href='B:370 9:2'>Amo 9:2</a>.</p>


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<p>Hear this, you who desire to swallow up the needy- The awful judgments of :3 were due to the abuse of the poor. We might have thought that the idolatry was the main reason, yet the sin which apparently angered God even more than that was the abuse of poor brethren. As they had swallowed up or devoured the needy (s:w. <a href='B:370 2:7'>Amo 2:7</a>), so they would be swallowed up by the invaders (s:w. <a href='B:290 42:14'>Isa 42:14</a>; <a href='B:330 36:3'>Eze 36:3</a>). To care for"the needy"was a major theme of the Mosaic law (s:w. <a href='B:20 23:6'>Exo 23:6</a>; <a href='B:50 15:4'>Deu 15:4</a>; <a href='B:50 15:7'>Deu 15:7</a>; <a href='B:50 15:9'>Deu 15:9</a>; <a href='B:50 15:11'>Deu 15:11</a> etc:). We have noted earlier in Amos that the poor were swallowed up for tiny amounts, such was the avarice of the wealthy.</p><p>And cause the poor of the land to fail-"Fail"is the same word as"sabbath"in the next verse. These"poor"were the ones left in the land by the Babylonians (<a href='B:120 25:12'>2Ki 25:12</a>; <a href='B:300 39:10'>Jer 39:10</a>; <a href='B:300 40:7'>Jer 40:7</a>) and it seems the Assyrians did likewise. There was no economic advantage in taking the dirt poor away into captivity. It was they who therefore remained in the land whilst she ’kept her sabbaths’ (<a href='B:140 36:21'>2Ch 36:21</a>). The word play is making the point that it was the abused who were the ones who would also ’sabbath’ in the land. It was this abused minority with whom God hoped to work and bring about a restored Kingdom.</p>


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<p>Saying, ‘Oh when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel large, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit- We marvel that whilst God’s people were involved in such major idolatry and abuse, they would bother to religiously keep the sabbath. But they did, and this is exactly the warning to the religious man and woman- that external observance of spiritual rites and even obedience to Divine commandments is no reflection of spirituality. It was the kind of apparently petty, hidden sin which clearly weighed heavier with God than the more evident sin of idolatry. For tweaking balances would have resulted in only relatively petty gain for the trader, otherwise it would have been noticeable and lacking in credibility. Likewise Paul begins his critique of the Corinthians by speaking of their divisiveness, and only later addresses their drunkenness at the breaking of bread, use of prostitutes, denial of the resurrection etc. Hosea lamented the use of the same"balances of deceit", and saw how this was all part of an attempt to even deceive God (<a href='B:350 11:12'>Hos 11:12</a>; <a href='B:350 12:7'>Hos 12:7</a> s:w:). Micah likewise (<a href='B:400 6:11'>Mic 6:11</a>). This secret tweaking of balances was noticed by God and it was a consistent issue He had with Israel; it was"an abomination unto Yahweh"(<a href='B:240 20:23'>Pro 20:23</a>), using the very word typically used for idol worship.</p>


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<p>That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the sweepings along with the wheat?’- As noted on :5, the deceit and abuse practiced was for very petty gain on each transaction. This is where greed leads. The poor were sold into slavery for"a pair of shoes", or sandals."Pay me what you owe me"was the attitude (<a href='B:470 18:28'>Mat 18:28</a>), and for petty amounts, the debtor was forced into slavery. And the Lord quotes this attitude as pertinent to us today if we do not forgive our brother from the heart. The chaff or left over grain of the wheat should have been left for the poor of the land; we recall Ruth gleaning such corn. But Israel swept it up and sold it to the poor. And remember that such attitudes are being cited as reason for"the end"finally coming upon Israel (:1,2).</p>


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<p>Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob- This could mean that the judgment was coming because of Jacob / Israel’s pride; or that He swore as the One whom Jacob / Israel were proud of. I have noted throughout Amos that the people were kidding themselves that they were Yahweh’s people and He would preserve them in the coming day of Yahweh; perhaps it was exactly because of this that He was so insistent that He would never forget or pass by judgment of their sins.</p><p>Surely I will never forget any of their works- There is within us all the tendency to assume that the passage of time works a kind of atonement for our sins; we forget them, or the reality of them fades, and we can assume that this is so likewise with God. But He doesn’t deal with sin like that. He doesn’t suffer from memory loss or the diminishing of felt reality simply due to the passage of time. Israel forgot God’s works, as the Psalmist laments, but God didn’t forget theirs. This is why it’s so critical to repent of our sins immediately, before the passing of time leaves us feeling that elapsed time has dealt with them, as if God operates some kind of statute of limitations. But He doesn’t. We need to throw ourselves upon God’s grace for past sins, and repent immediately when we sin. It is likewise important to realize that because God doesn’t forget sin, in terms of memory, then we must the more urgently throw ourselves upon His grace and believe we are saved due to our status in Christ.</p>


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<p>Won’t the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it?- This is the earthquake mentioned in <a href='B:370 1:1'>Amo 1:1</a> and <a href='B:370 9:5'>Amo 9:5</a> (see notes there). The things in view are the apparently lesser, secret sins of the previous verses. We would expect an earthquake in response to idolatry, but an earthquake for tweaking balances and demanding what is legitimately owed to us (:6)... ? In secular terms, it seems a disproportionate response. But this is the major message in the minor prophets; that it is exactly those sins which are so major to God. And they are the very sins we are likely to commit.</p><p>Yes, it will rise up wholly like the River; and it will be stirred up and sink again, like the River of Egypt- The allusion is to how the Nile rises and falls, spreading debris on its flood plain. Because they had trusted in Egypt, they would rise and fall like Egypt. And in physical terms this would refer to the literal rising and falling of the land as a result of the prophesied earthquake.</p>


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<p>It will happen in that day, says the Lord Yahweh, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the day time- Darkness is often associated in the OT with mourning. <a href='B:370 8:9-10'>Amo 8:9-10</a> speaks of earthquake and darkness at noon because"I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day", i:e. a funeral. The darkness at the cross was a sign of Almighty God mourning for His Son. The cross was the judgment of the Jewish world.</p><p>But the extinguishing of the noon day sun speaks of individuals and a society being cut off at the apparent zenith of their glory. The destruction of Israel was to be relatively sudden; they were to be cut down in the midst of the revived prosperity which had been brought about by Jeroboam II. There is every indication in Amos that their judgment would be unexpected by them. And so shall it be in the last day.</p>


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<p>I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day- The way Israel kept the Mosaic feasts and sung David’s temple songs in their idol shrines, mixing idolatry with the trappings of Yahweh worship, was so upsetting to God. The mourning in view is very bitter and intense, and looks forward to the mourning of the rejected in the last day. Then, too late, the rejected Jews will mourn for the crucified, only Son of God. They will then mourn for Him in repentance (<a href='B:470 24:30'>Mat 24:30</a>; <a href='B:730 1:7'>Rev 1:7</a>), but too late. They will see Him when resurrected to judgment and hail Him (<a href='B:470 23:39'>Mat 23:39</a>; <a href='B:470 26:64'>Mat 26:64</a>) but not be accepted by Him. See on <a href='B:470 16:28'>Mat 16:28</a>.</p>


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<p>Behold, the days come, says the Lord Yahweh, 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 Yahweh- Amos had been exiled from Israel because they didn’t want to hear Yahweh’s word from him (<a href='B:370 7:12'>Amo 7:12</a>). But they would desperately want to hear it later, just as Zedekiah earnestly sought to hear the word from Yahweh but too late. A literal famine had already been sent in the land, and this was to provide Israel with warning that just as they had gone around the land seeking for food and water in the time of Ahab’s famine, so they would spiritually. If we don’t accept God’s word now, and love it, then we shall desire to do so in the time of condemnation, but all too late. Now is the time to hear and apply ourselves to His word.</p>


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<p>They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh, and will not find it- This desperate seeking of God’s word is commentary upon the way that Amos had been forbidden to speak God’s word in the ten tribe kingdom (<a href='B:370 7:12'>Amo 7:12</a>). The day would come, as for all who reject God’s word, when they would desperately seek that which they had no time for or rejected."Sea to sea"may refer to the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, for the reference here is specifically to the ten tribe kingdom. North to east may refer to the location of their shrines. To seek and not find spirituality and salvation is going to be why the rejected bang their teeth as a result of their condemnation. It’s the foolish girls earnestly seeking to fill their lamps with oil, but all too late.</p>


text:
<p>In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst- The thirst is defined in :11 as a thirst for God’s word. Now, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled (<a href='B:470 5:6'>Mat 5:6</a>). The process of condemnation will not be met with indifference by those condemned; they will seek desperately to be righteous and to be accepted, but it will be too late. Life is the time to seek and serve the Lord. This is particularly directed by Amos at young men and women; the intellectual and physical energy of youth is intended to be directed to God’s word. And if it is not, then it may be too late at the last day.</p>


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<p>Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god, Dan, lives’- The golden calf is described as Israel’s sin (<a href='B:50 9:21'>Deu 9:21</a>)."The sin of Samaria"/ the ten tribe kingdom therefore refers to the golden calf at Bethel, rather than to the sin in Samaria. Yahweh is the only living God; that truth is repeated so often in Scripture. To claim that any idol is alive is to reject the one and only living God.</p><p>And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives;’ they will fall, and never rise up again-"The way"can be an idiom to mean a system of worship, just as Christianity was at times called"the way", i:e. the only, one and true way. Beersheba was in Judah, but it is repeatedly mentioned as being the place of sin for the ten tribes; and the references to Isaac in Amos (see on <a href='B:370 7:9'>Amo 7:9</a>; <a href='B:370 7:16'>Amo 7:16</a>) are because he had built an altar there, which had been taken over as an idol shrine. The particular sin at Beersheba for the ten tribes was perhaps in that they considered they could just hop over the border and sin secretly. The whole mentality of hopping off for secret sin was and is so abhorrent to God. I noted on <a href='B:350 4:15'>Hos 4:15</a> that Judah were condemned for having this same mentality.</p>


text:
<p>I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword- The altar at Bethel had been the subject of other prophecies of destruction (<a href='B:110 13:2-4'>1Ki 13:2-4</a>). I have suggested on <a href='B:370 7:12'>Amo 7:12</a> that Amos may have stood near the altar, or the entrance to it in Bethel, and condemned it and its worshippers. It could be that now Amos is literally commanded to smash it. But the command seems to be associated with the total destruction unto death of the people who worshipped there, and may therefore be the Divine command to the Assyrian invaders, presided over by the Lord standing beside the altar."The altar"is put for the sanctuary around it, which would collapse upon the heads of the worshippers. It recalls the destruction of the pagan Philistine temple by Samson in his death. Perhaps the Assyrian soldiers literally fulfilled this; the Israelites believed that the horns of that altar would provide salvation for them (see on <a href='B:370 3:14'>Amo 3:14</a>; <a href='B:370 6:13'>Amo 6:13</a>). They would have fled for refuge there in the final Assyrian onslaught; only to be crushed beneath the falling masonry as the sanctuary was brought down upon them. Their wrong beliefs therefore led them to literal destruction.</p><p>There shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape- But even here, God did remember mercy. A remnant did escape. As noted often on Hosea, God speaks in anger, quite legitimately, but His saving grace comes to dominate still. However, the reference may specifically be to the sanctuary built around the altar, which was to collapse upon the worshippers beneath it and kill them all.</p>


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<p>Though they dig into Sheol, there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to the sky, I will bring them down from there- This alludes to Psalms 139 which has already stated this and was likely one of the temple songs they sung. They knew the words and perhaps sung them, but overlooked their personal relevance. I suggested on :1 that the Israelites fled into the Bethel sanctuary for safety and deliverance from the final Assyrian onslaught, and those who did perished there beneath the falling masonry, perhaps triggered by the earthquake of :5 and <a href='B:370 8:8'>Amo 8:8</a>. It would seem that they dug bunkers there for safety; but it was but digging their own graves, digging into sheol. Perhaps they literally sung the temple songs as they cowered there; but their bodies were extricated and thrown out of the collapsed masonry in silence (<a href='B:370 8:3'>Amo 8:3</a>).</p>


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<p>Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there- As some would seek to hide in the sanctuary at Bethel, others in the northern Kingdom would flee to the top of Carmel. This was a known Baal shrine (<a href='B:110 18:19-20'>1Ki 18:19-20</a>). God searched and found them there at the hands of the Assyrian soldiers, and as explained on :5, through the earthquake that shook the land at the time of the final Assyrian invasion.</p><p>And though they be hidden from My sight in the bottom of the sea- The allusions to Psalms 139 make it clear that we can never be hidden from God’s sight. But here we have an example of the Bible speaking from the perspective of men. This was how Israel would feel; that like Jonah, they could somehow flee from Yahweh’s presence and be outside responsibility to Him. But it is impossible to flee&nbsp; His presence.</p><p>There I will command the serpent, and it will bite them- The idea is similar to that of <a href='B:370 5:19'>Amo 5:19</a> (see note there). Whatever their place of escape and human strength, God saw it and controlled small animals which could destroy them."The serpent"could refer to some aspect of the Assyrian or Babylonian invaders (s:w. <a href='B:290 14:29'>Isa 14:29</a>; <a href='B:300 8:17'>Jer 8:17</a>; <a href='B:300 46:22'>Jer 46:22</a>).</p>


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<p>Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them- It’s unclear the extent to which this happened. Large numbers of the ten tribe kingdom and of Judah were not killed in captivity, but instead prospered. As often noted in Hosea, God speaks at times in great and legitimate anger, as He did to Moses regarding His intended total destruction of Israel; and yet He relents and does not do according to the fierceness of His anger. This is all of His grace.</p><p>The parallel is with hiding on Carmel in the caves on the west side of the mountain (:3)- but still being discovered and judged. The idea may be that even going into Gentile lands didn’t mean that they were outside of God’s presence- a lesson Jonah had to learn. But again, in this judgment there is hope; for the comfort was that even in captivity, the presence of God could be with them, despite their lack of any temple and the opportunity to keep much of the old covenant. The cherubim moved from the Jerusalem temple to Babylon in Ezekiel’s visions, in visual representation of this truth.</p><p>I will set My eyes on them for evil, and not for good- This could imply that right up until the captivity, all through the idolatry and wickedness of the generations before it, God as it were focused His eyes upon doing them good. He really wanted to save them and to give them good in every way; this is the great blessing of being in covenant relationship with Him. He really wishes us good and is determined to achieve this; but He will not force us to accept it. His eyes may refer to the activity of the Angels.</p>


