Amos 7:3
So the LORD relented from this plan. "It will not happen," He said.
Sermons
The Repentance of JehovahJ.R. Thomson Amos 7:3
Intercession for Pardon PrevailingA. Shanks.Amos 7:1-6
Revelation and PrayerHomilistAmos 7:1-6
Revelation and PrayerD. Thomas Amos 7:1-6














Whatever it was of which the Lord is here said to have repented, the meaning, the lesson, is the same. The plague of locusts, the incursion of the foe, was stayed, and it was stayed in consequence of the prophet's intercession, and because of the pity and loving kindness of Jehovah.

I. NO CHANGE IS ASSERTED IN THE CHARACTER, THE GOVERNMENT, THE WILL, OF THE ETERNAL. In this sense the Lord is not a man that he should repent. Whilst all men are subject not only to vicissitudes of circumstances, but to variations in disposition, and even in principles of action, God is a stranger to all such mutability. "I," says he, "am the Lord that changeth not." Well for us is it that this is so; that we have not to do with a mutable, a capricious deity. Because he is the Lord that changeth not, therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed.

II. BUT ALL THE THREATS OF THE DIVINE JUDGE ARE CONDITIONAL UPON HUMAN CONDUCT. The whole of revelation bears out this statement. What God commands he enforces with the promise of reward and with the threat of punishment. This is in accordance with his character and position as the Moral Governor of his universe. He does not, as an earthly tyrant might do, take pleasure in inflicting punishment upon any of his dependent creatures. On the contrary, he desireth not the death of a sinner. If the threatened respond to the appeal of Heaven, if they turn from their wickedness, they shall surely live, and not die. He repenteth him of the evil, and is favourable and forgiving towards the penitent.

III. THE DIVINE REPENTANCE DEMANDS THE ADORATION AND THE PRAISE OF THOSE WHO OWE TO IT THEIR SALVATION. There is not one child of Adam who is not indebted to the repentance of Jehovah for the sparing of life, for long suffering, for the aversion of judgment. In fact, but for this, the original sentence against the sinner must have been fulfilled, and the race of mankind must have perished. Every successive interposition of Divine mercy has been the evidence of that relenting which exclaims, "How shall I give thee up?" And the advent and sacrifice of Immanuel, the mediatorial scheme, the redemption of mankind, the recovery of the lost, are all to be attributed to this same cause. The fountain of salvation must be discovered in the repentance of the Unchanging. It is a paradox; but it is a paradox honouring to God and life giving to man. - T.

By whom shall Jacob arise?
: —These words were used as a plea for Israel before God, and proved successful.

1. Jacob is fallen. And great was his fall. He stood higher than any other on the face of the earth. He was nearer to God than any other people were. Jacob, among the nations of the earth, was to God what Joseph was to his father among his brethren: the chiefest blessings invariably fell to his lot. "To whom pertaineth the adoption." The Jews as a nation were adopted by God into His family. And a dear son was Ephraim to God for a long-period. Alas, that we are now compelled to say of this once exalted people, Thou art fallen"! Many a downfall did Jacob experience " because of his iniquity." He descended into the land of Egypt. God raised him thence "with a stretched-out arm and great judgments." He again fell into Babylon, and once more did God graciously lift him out, and place him upon his feet; but of all his falls, this, the last, is the deepest and the heaviest. Hitherto he had but fallen backwards, as it were. This time he fell prostrate on his face. In all his former falls he had contrived to keep his hold of many promises, blessings, privileges. On this occasion he lost his grasp of all, — he is "without a king, and without a prince, and without an ephod, and without teraphim." He descended lower than did any nation, so that all look down now upon the Jew.

2. Jacob is unable to arise. Every movement he makes sinks him lower in the mire. Does he renounce the Talmud? It is but to embrace infidelity. No one has fallen among such cruel thieves as Jacob, and it is hard to pass by him continually, as the priest and Levite are said to have done. Extend a helping hand to Jacob.

3. Jacob is worth raising. True, Jacob has received a great fall, but the pit into which he descended is not bottomless. The grace of God is deeper than the fall of the Jew. The Christian Church has long acted towards the Jew as if it thought he was not fit to be raised. Our hearts appear to have been more tender to all than to the poor Jew. But Jacob is not so foul as that the blood of the Cross cannot cleanse him.

4. Jacob is to be raised. What a multitude of things there are that are worth raising, but of whose restitution we have no certainty. It may be questionable whether Jacob will again be restored to his own country, but there is not the shadow of a doubt as to his being raised into the Divine favour. It is by the instrumentality of the Gentiles that Jacob's restoration is to be accomplished. One great reason for extending the Gospel to us was that we might reach it to others, and "to the Jew first."

5. There is a large reward for raising Jacob. Once the Jews are brought to believe, the lever that is to move the whole world will have been obtained. The Jew is a wanderer in every land; he is found under the burning sun of Hindoostan, and among the eternal snows of Siberia; he can speak every tongue, so that, without any educational preparation, he is ready to preach the Gospel of Christ unto all the nations of the earth.

(David Roberts, D. D.)

The chosen people are in trouble and distress. They have forsaken the living God, and He is punishing their apostasy. But the prophet of the Lord, and the few faithful among his brethren deeply deplore the national sin, and earnestly invoke the Divine mercy. They will not rest, they cannot hold their peace till God pardon the iniquity of His people, and restore to them the tokens of His loving-kindness. At such a time how natural and significant the language of Amos. Often in the Church of Christ are there not seasons of declension, lukewarmness, discouragement, inefficiency, fightings without, and fears within, bitter partisanship, and uncharitable controversy, when all hands are feeble, and all hearts arc faint? And thus afflicted, what need we so much to know as our spiritual poverty and feebleness, and what so much to learn as the sufficiency of our Divine resources?

I. JACOB IS SMALL.

1. In numbers.

2. In substance.

3. In influence.

4. In religious knowledge.

5. In fruitfulness and efficiency.

II. BY WHOM SHALL JACOB ARISE? His helplessness conceded, who shall help him? Shall the civil ruler? Or the wealthy patron? Or by the popular orator? Or by the speculative theorist? Or by the partisan controversial st? Or by the sensational enthusiast? Nay, Jehovah-Jesus is our strength and salvation. The cause is His, and with Him is the residue of the Spirit. Year not for the future of the Church. God shall help her, and that right early. To the full extent of her necessity His plenipotence is hers.

(J. Cross, D. D.)

This was an appeal to the heart of God at a time when the judgments of heaven were bringing the chosen people to ruin. This is a question which might well have been asked in every age which the Church has yet seen. Her numbers have always been small in comparison with the ranks of the wicked. The Church, to this day, is but a drop in the ocean. And she is weak as well as small. When we look abroad over the world we behold a race of men dead in trespasses and sins, given over to the dominion of the selfish passions, chained down in ignominious servitude to the world; whom no motives can conquer, no means reclaim. To form such beings into materials for building up the Church, they must be made to undergo a thorough and wonderful transformation. Who shall accomplish this mighty change? The transformation must not only be begun, it must be continued and perfected. After men are set out on the heavenly course, they still have to contend with their original corruptions, and with a world full of objects fitted to inflame them. All these corruptions and temptations stand in the way of the growth of the Church. And the Church as a body has to contend with a world in arms. Every natural man is a foe. The whole bent of the natural heart in every age and country, in every family and individual, is against it. Leave man to himself for a single generation, and with all the means of civilisation and grace, the Church would become extinct. Our strength is wholly incompetent to preserve the Church a single hour, to add one to the number of her sons, to produce a single impression on a single heart. If no other helper is found we must sit down in tears, and give up all for lost. The Church is God's interest. This interest God has not committed to men; it is His own, His only portion. He has taken it into His own hands. The great end which He purposes to Himself in all His works is to bring out to view the riches of His nature, that creatures may see and acknowledge Him as He is, and for ever enjoy Him. It is the natural course of unbelief to put Him out of view. God is resolved to be acknowledged as the sole author and finisher of the whole. For this reason He studiously constructs the dispensations of His grace in a way to convince His people that it is " not by might nor by power, but by "His Spirit that the Church is enlarged. Then our hope is only in God. Let all other dependencies be given up; the Church must rise by God alone. This is our consolation in the darkest times.

(E. D. Griffin, D. D.)

Homiletic Monthly.
1. The first step is humiliation.

2. The second step is reformation.

3. The third step lies in the direction of religious duty. The path of duty must be again frequented. The cross must once more be carried. Duty must become, what it once was, the paramount consideration.

4. The spirit of prayer must be sought and exercised till the blessing comes.

(Homiletic Monthly.)

I. A SAD CONFESSION. "Jacob is small." If none but those who have been redeemed from a low life of flesh-love to a higher one of holiness may be classed under this term to-day, then is Jacob small.

1. Numerically.

2. In worldly esteem.

3. In material resources.

4. In political power.And alas! Jacob is small spiritually, in personal power. Faith, hope, and charity are small, so is our self-denial. All this diminutiveness comes as the result of being prostrate, down, low. For Jacob to be prostrate is a great reproach indeed. Jacob is, in too many cases, a self-made cripple.

(1)Unbelief has crippled him.

(2)So has sectarianism.

(3)So has inactivity.

(4)So has a stinting selfishness.

(5)So have internal bickerings.

(6)So has a dreary spirit of timidity.

(7)And ceremonialism stunts Jacob.

(8)Restrictionalism has almost strangled Jacob.

II. AN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. "By whom," etc. That he ought to arise is generally admitted.

1. Not by monarch's smile.

2. Not by decrees of State.

3. Not by the addition of a few more men of means.

4. Not by a larger supply of education and literature.

5. Not by increasing the number of our sanctuaries.What is needed is heaven's force and life. "By My Spirit." The Holy Ghost is Jacob's blessed Strength, Guardian, and Helper.(1) By convincing men of their own personal sin, and showing the Church's real worth, the Spirit prepares the way for Jacob's growth.(2) By the Divine Spirit regenerating men, and adding them to the Church. The healthier torte a Church has, the stronger will her offspring be.(3) By the richer adornment of Christian men with the sweet graces of a higher life, so that their rare moral beauty may arrest, and even charm the "enemy without the gate." How can we aid this lifting? This dignity is not the privilege of officers only. Every member of the rank and file counts for one. Manifold are the ways in which this end may be reached. Make commercial life brighter and sounder, and home life sweeter. Let life be readier spent and lost in others' need. Let the sense of stewardship for God be more than a sentiment.

(E. D. Green.)

People
Amaziah, Amos, Isaac, Jacob, Jeroboam
Places
Bethel, Brook of the Arabah
Topics
Changed, Changing, Mind, Purpose, Relented, Repented, Says
Outline
1. The judgments of the grasshoppers,
4. and of the fire are diverted by the prayer of Amos.
7. By the wall of a plumb line is signified the rejection of Israel.
10. Amaziah complains of Amos.
14. Amos shows his calling
16. and Amaziah's judgment.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Amos 7:3

     5036   mind, of God

Amos 7:1-6

     1120   God, repentance of
     6655   forgiveness, application

Amos 7:1-9

     1469   visions

Amos 7:2-5

     4847   smallness

Library
Whether Irony is a Sin?
Objection 1: It seems that irony, which consists in belittling oneself, is not a sin. For no sin arises from one's being strengthened by God: and yet this leads one to belittle oneself, according to Prov. 30:1,2: "The vision which the man spoke, with whom is God, and who being strengthened by God, abiding with him, said, I am the most foolish of men." Also it is written (Amos 7:14): "Amos answered . . . I am not a prophet." Therefore irony, whereby a man belittles himself in words, is not a sin.
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Scriptural Types.
1. The material world is full of analogies adapted to the illustration of spiritual things. No teacher ever drew from this inexhaustible storehouse such a rich variety of examples as our Saviour. His disciples are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city set on a hill. From the ravens which God feeds and the lilies which God clothes, he teaches the unreasonableness of worldly anxiety. The kingdom of heaven is like seed sown in different soils, like a field of wheat and tares
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The History of the Prophetic Sermons, Epistles, and Apocalypses
[Sidenote: Real character and aims of the prophets] To understand and rightly interpret the prophetic writings of the Old Testament it is necessary to cast aside a false impression as to the character of the prophets which is widely prevalent. They were not foretellers, but forth-tellers. Instead of being vague dreamers, in imagination living far in the distant future, they were most emphatically men of their own times, enlightened and devoted patriots, social and ethical reformers, and spiritual
Charles Foster Kent—The Origin & Permanent Value of the Old Testament

The River of Egypt, Rhinocorura. The Lake of Sirbon.
Pliny writes, "From Pelusium are the intrenchments of Chabrias: mount Casius: the temple of Jupiter Casius: the tomb of Pompey the Great: Ostracine: Arabia is bounded sixty-five miles from Pelusium: soon after begins Idumea and Palestine from the rising up of the Sirbon lake." Either my eyes deceive me, while I read these things,--or mount Casius lies nearer Pelusium, than the lake of Sirbon. The maps have ill placed the Sirbon between mount Casius and Pelusium. Sirbon implies burning; the name of
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Prophet Hosea.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. That the kingdom of Israel was the object of the prophet's ministry is so evident, that upon this point all are, and cannot but be, agreed. But there is a difference of opinion as to whether the prophet was a fellow-countryman of those to whom he preached, or was called by God out of the kingdom of Judah. The latter has been asserted with great confidence by Maurer, among others, in his Observ. in Hos., in the Commentat. Theol. ii. i. p. 293. But the arguments
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

On the Interpretation of Scripture
IT is a strange, though familiar fact, that great differences of opinion exist respecting the Interpretation of Scripture. All Christians receive the Old and New Testament as sacred writings, but they are not agreed about the meaning which they attribute to them. The book itself remains as at the first; the commentators seem rather to reflect the changing atmosphere of the world or of the Church. Different individuals or bodies of Christians have a different point of view, to which their interpretation
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World

The Essay which Brings up the Rear in this Very Guilty Volume is from The...
The Essay which brings up the rear in this very guilty volume is from the pen of the "Rev. Benjamin Jowett, M.A., [Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, and] Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford,"--"a gentleman whose high personal character and general respectability seem to give a weight to his words, which assuredly they do not carry of themselves [143] ." His performance is entitled "On the Interpretation of Scripture:" being, in reality, nothing else but a laborious denial of
John William Burgon—Inspiration and Interpretation

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