Ctbrarjo of Che 'theological ^etninarp PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY AVV //A W YVV* FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE REVEREND JOHN ALEXANDER MACKAY LITT.D., D.D., LL=D., L.H.D. “PjQ V Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/menunafraidfourpOOwalk » $ * f BOOKS BY PROFESSOR ROLLIN H. WALKER A STUDY OF GENESIS AND EXODUS STUDY OF JOHN’S GOSPEL STUDY OF LUKE’S GOSPEL A BOOK OF DRAMAS ON AMOS, HOSEA, ISAIAH, AND THE HERALD OF THE RESTORATION V NOV 14 is; MEN UNAFRAID ■« 5 Ip t'< 4s 5j- k» " FOUR PIONEERS OF PROPHECY A Study of AMOS, HOSEA, ISAIAH, AND THE HERALD OF THE RESTORATION “ Men divinely taught, And better teaching, in their majestic, unaffected style, The solid rules of civil government than all the orators of Greece and Rome.”- M ilton. BY ROLLIN H. WALKER THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1923 ROLLIN H. WALKER The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. In tl.c United States cn /. mar r-v To My Uncle WILLIAM R. WALKER WHO HAS BEEN IN THE PLACE OF A FATHER TO ME FOR MANY YEARS CONTENTS PAGE Preface . 7 To the Teacher . 9 Chronological Table . 13 Why Study the Prophets . 15 Amos — The Times of Amos . 19 Amos the Man . 25 The Message of Amos . 35 Hosea— The Times of Hosea . 45 Hosea the Man . 50 The Message of Hosea . 55 Isaiah— The Literary Peculiarities of the Book . 65 Isaiah’s Diagnosis of the Conditions in Judah at the Beginning of his Ministry. Chapters 2-5 . 71 Isaiah’s Inaugural Vision. Chapter 6 . 79 The Invasion of Judah from Northern Israel and Damascus. Chapters 7 and 8 . 86 The Prophecies of the Coming of Christ . 91 Principles of Interpretation. The Immanuel Prophecy. 7. 1-17. The Wonderful Child. 9. 1-7. The Supreme Judge and Deliverer. 11. i-io. The Sure Foundation. 28. 14-22. The Ideal Social Order. 32. 1-5. 5 6 Contents PAGE The International Outlook of Hebrew Prophecy. Chapters 13-23 . 1 1 5 The Invasion of Sennacherib. Chapters 22, 33, 36, 37. 701 B. C . 124 The Herald of the Restoration — The Yosemite .Valley of the Old Testament. Isaiah 40-66 . 139 The Announcement of the Return. Chapters 40-48 .... 143 The Suffering Servant of Jehovah. Chapters 49-53. . . 149 The Ideal Jerusalem. Chapters 54-66 . 156 PREFACE After one has caught the vision of the greatness of the Hebrew prophets all his attempts to expound them seem to him like an attempt to render the oratorio of “The Messiah” with “the vile squealing of the wry- neck’t fife.” When he is done he feels an impulse to look around for a priest to confess his sins. The hope of the writer is that the young people who read this book may catch something of the enthusiasm that glows through its imperfections, and may supple¬ ment it by their ready and vivid imaginations. Then they, too, in turn, will know what it means to feel more than they can express and, like dumb Zacharias, will be able only to make signs that they have seen a vision. But this vision of the greatness of the prophets will only come after patient reading and rereading of their words. The only way to get the real inspiration that comes from the study of these ancient seers is to be¬ come a little like them in their invincible concentration of mind. A class that plans merely to take a hasty glance at Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah is doomed to disap¬ pointment. That would be like a hurried attempt to build a bonfire out of a deeply lying coal mine. The prophets are not pine boxes for kindling wood; they are 7 8 Preface unmined anthracite. But any young person who wishes to lay in fuel for the winter storms of life, and to get help for the stern tasks of reform and social betterment, will find in them enough coal for all his needs. There is enough fuel in the Hebrew prophets to heat the furnaces of eloquence for a thousand years. I am under much obligation to the little group of teachers of the English Bible with whom I have the honor of working day by day. In particular, Miss Goldie McCue has made valuable suggestions which I have been glad to accept. : TO THE TEACHER The one task of the teacher is to devise means to keep his class reading and rereading the Biblical text in search for the ideas which the prophets themselves were most anxious to impress. The commonest snare into which a Bible teacher falls is the snare of giving a course about the Bible rather than in the Bible. But sustained enthusiasm is secured by bringing the class into direct contact with the great writers themselves. The Search Questions on the Biblical Text which fol¬ low each section of this book are designed for this pur¬ pose. They are constructed on a plan that has been found successful with many hundreds of students. The teacher who does not use the Search Questions as lesson assignments will miss the best contribution of this book towards keeping up interest in the study of the prophets. References to chapters are usually given in order that the student may not be sent on too long and discourag¬ ing a hunt, but the verses are not given in order that he may have an opportunity to exercise his discrimination. The teacher will often find it advantageous to use the Search Questions as a program for the class discussion. They are arranged with a definite outline of classroom work in mind. Often, however, the teacher will wish to give the class a chance to answer the Search Ques¬ tions rapidly, and then to pursue his own way after¬ ward. In many of the lessons there are more questions 9 IO To the Teacher than the average student can be persuaded to look up. In these cases it will be wise to hand out some of the questions at the close of the previous lesson as special assignments to individual members of the class. In this way all of them can be covered. Students should be told that in case they cannot do both, it is much better to look up the answers to the Search Questions than to read the lesson discussion. The reading matter in this book is meant to be simply a tonic to increase the student’s appetite for the reading of the prophets themselves. Certain parts of the book will be found somewhat difficult for young people, but it will be noticed that the questions in the lesson assignments are carefully adapted to them, and an enthusiastic teacher will be able to inspire even the younger members of the class to find out for themselves by independent studv the answers to most of the questions. Some teachers would doubtless have preferred that the writer had ignored the results of the modern scien¬ tific scrutiny of the Bible. But such a course is fraught with great peril to the faith of the rising generation. If we who believe in the Bible do not take these matters up with them someone who does not believe in the Bible will. Scientists tell us that certain disease germs feebly developed under unfavorable conditions, like a low temperature, gradually weaken in their destructive power, and finally become vaccines against the disease. On the basis of long experience in the classroom labora¬ tory the writer is certain that the germs of Biblical criticism, which have been developed in this book To the Teacher i i under the “detrimental environment” of a vivid sense of God, are vaccines that tend to render the student immune to that destructive criticism which has been such a blight to the church. The teacher should constantly encourage the class to bring in analogies to modern literature. A quotation, for instance, from one of Whittier’s anti-slavery poems, would enrich the discussion of Amos’ words against selling the needy for a pair of shoes. The method pursued by the teacher must be deter¬ mined by the nature of the class and the number of meetings that can be given to the work. The lists of Search Questions on the Biblical Text are fifteen in number. If for any reason it seems impracticable to try to hold the class together for more than say eight sessions, it is suggested that the class attempt to cover the lessons on Amos and Isaiah, omitting “Isaiah’s Diagnosis of the Conditions in Judah at the Beginning of His Ministry” in view of the fact that they are so very similar to those which Amos described in northern Israel. An enlarged outline of the map found on page 164, and also of the chronological table on page 13, will be a help to the teacher if they are kept hanging before the eyes of the class. Some member of the class is usually willing and able to produce such helps quite success¬ fully. Little dramas of about fifteen minutes in length have been prepared on each of the prophets studied in this book, and issued by the same publishers under the title “Fearless Men.” It will add to the enthu- 12 To the Teacher siasm of the class if the students are preparing to present them while they are studying this course. LITERATURE A full list of the literature can be found in the Bible dictionaries. The following will be helpful for general use: AMOS AND HOSEA Driver, S. R. — Joel and Amos, The Cambridge Bible; New York: Macmillan. The most usable popular commentary on Amos. Eiselen, F. C. — The Minor Prophets, Whedon’s Commentary; New York: Methodist Book Concern. Smith, J. M. P. — Amos, Hosea and Micah, The Bible for Home and Schools; New York: Macmillan. Smith, George Adam — The Book of the Twelve Prophets, Vol. I, The Expositor’s Bible; New York: Doran. ISAIAH Skinner, J. — Isaiah, The Cambridge Bible; New York: Macmillan. McFadyen, J E. — The Book of the Prophecies of Isaiah, The Bible for Home and Schools; New York: Macmillan. Smith, George Adam— Isaiah, The Expositor’s Bible; New York: Doran. For a general survey of the prophets discussed in this book, “The Beacon Lights of Prophecy,” by Pro¬ fessor A. C. Knudson (New York: Methodist Book Concern), is helpful. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 765-745 ? 750-736? 745 740 735 721 701 607 604-561 586 538 Prophecies of Amos. Prophecies of Hosea. Accession of Tiglath-pileser and the renewal of Assyrian ascendency. Death of Uzziah, king of Judah, and call of Isaiah. Invasion of Judah by Damascus and Israel. Capture of Samaria, chief city of Israel, by the Assyrians. Invasion of Judah by the Assyrians under Sennacherib. The Fall of Nineveh, and the end of Assyrian domination. Reign of Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon. Fall of Jerusalem and the beginning of the Exile. Cyrus, the Median, captures Babylon. 13 WHY STUDY THE PROPHETS A college student with no pronounced interest at the beginning of a survey of the prophets later surprised the teacher by saying, “The value of this course is the light it sheds on the now." And then, looking up into the face of the teacher, he asked with sudden emotion, “Do you believe the United States can continue to exist if we go on as we are doing?” The prophets had done their work with the lad. He was right in feeling that when these men said the things that were true in their own day they were saying also the things that always had been true and always will be true. The prophets saw with unusual clearness the condi¬ tions of their own time, and announced the eternal prin¬ ciples of divine providence which would operate when¬ ever those conditions were present. Like great chem¬ ists in the laboratory of life, they discovered for all time that the combination of certain social elements under certain conditions would bring about certain inevitable results in human life. Given, for instance, at any time in the world’s history highly centralized wealth in the hands of a godless and unprincipled few, a discouraged and discontented working class, and a formal and paganized religion, and we have a high social explosive as certain as TNT, and far more deadly. If we really understand these ancient seers in the light of their his¬ torical situation, and if we take the trouble to know our 1 6 Why Study the Prophets own day, we can have the word of God for our genera¬ tion. But this is not the only advantage from the study of the prophets. Back of the prophetic message stands a great personality. If we but pay the price of intel¬ lectual effort we can soon see the bronzed glow in their cheeks, catch the glint of their eyes, see the furtive smiles and tears that play across their sensitive counte¬ nances, and at last add them as personal friends to the group of those we love. As we come to know these men something of their spirit will become our own. Our thinking will become more vital, our imagination more active, our speech more impressive, our championship of the oppressed more vigorous, and our sense of God in human life more real. Furthermore, the example of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah will make us brave to face the disapproval of the majority and keep us from discouragement when the current goes against us. Finally, as the result of our study of the great divine process leading up to Jesus, his position in history will seem more august and assured, and his teachings more luminous and sug¬ gestive. AMOS From a Copley print. Copyright. 1898, by Curtis & Cameron, Publishers, Boston. AMOS THE TIMES OF AMOS Political and Social Conditions At the very beginning of our study it should be said that the Hebrew prophets are not exactly what one might call eating apples, but they are famous cooking apples. Apply the heat to them by laboriously working your way back into the historical situation, simmer them on the fires of meditation, and they will become great sources of inspiration and helpfulness. We must therefore ask the reader to go back with us to the eighth century before Christ and learn something of the conditions which Amos faced. After the death of Solomon the ten northern tribes of Israel revolted under Jeroboam, and thereafter for over two hundred years, until they were carried away captive in 721, there were two separate kingdoms, the kingdom of Judah in the south and the kingdom of Israel in the north. Jeroboam the Second, in whose reign Amos prophesied, ruled Israel from about 782 to 741. Hj was a great conqueror. The borders of Israel had been extended to the boundaries which had been laid out by the enthusiasm of the prophet Jonah (2 Kings 14. 25), and men might well say in the face of all this prosperity that God was indeed with Israel, that theirs was the age to which the seers had pointed, and that the high tide of divine favor had now set in. It is likely that if a modern tourist, with an eye for the esthetic rather than the moral aspects of life, could l9 20 Men Unafraid have visited Israel at this time, he would have sent back a glowing account of its splendid civilization. Life was full of the beautiful. The country was dotted with palaces. Men decorated their abodes with ivory; they invented “for themselves instruments of music, tike David”; they lived “at ease in Zion” (6. i, 4, 5). But the prophet Amos, coming to these self-satisfied and ease-loving people, looked beneath the surface of this outward magnificence and saw the corruption of their inner life. Every crime against which the merciful land laws of Israel sought to guard seems to have been in vogue. Wealth was centralized. Men stored up violence and robbery in their palaces (3. 10), and the natural result followed. Ease soon degenerated into corruption. Society was rotten at the top. They drank wine not in wine glasses, but in big bowls (6. 6). The fashionable women were coarse and drunken, and the prophet reminded them that in spite of their elegant attire and fine ways they were living low, animal lives. He addressed them roughly as “kine of Bashan” (4. 1), or, as we would say, “fat Durham cows.” Imagine such a word from a fashionable modern pulpit! The rich nobles were evidently dominant in the time of Jeroboam II. It is likely that this ascendency was partially due to the great monarch’s military program. While the common people fought for their country, shrewd nobles at home devoured their living. The wretchedness of the poor may also have been due in a measure to the drouths, insect ravages and pestilences through which the nation had recently passed (4. 6-11). Such times have ever been a supreme opportunity for Amos 21 the wealthy to swallow up the possessions of the poor. (Compare Genesis 47. 13-26.) The method of the modern monopoly had already been learned, and the poor were forced to buy the refuse of the wheat at ex¬ orbitant prices (8. 4-6). In spite of the strong hand of Jeroboam th re were not a few uprisings among the common people (3. 9, 10). These were doubtless speedily suppressed, but the prophet saw in them signs that the day of reckoning was at hand. He of course knew that a soldiery which must be recruited from the peasant class could not be counted on to fight with spirit for a government that oppressed them; and he knew that even if they would fight, a drunken and licentious nobility could never lead them to victory. And yet for the time being, things seemed to be going very well. A recent misfor¬ tune of Damascus, their great rival, at the hands of Assyria had made the prosperity of Israel all the greater. It was similar to the prosperity that America enjoyed during the European war. Religious Conditions From various references in the prophecy we plainly see that the religious ceremonies were elaborate. The rude prophet from the south seefned out of harmony in their midst (7. 12). The worship of Jehovah was en¬ riched with music (5. 23). Men were so enthusiastic in their religious zeal that they far exceeded the de¬ mands of the law, and brought their sacrifices every morning and their tithes every three days (4. 4, 5). It is likely that the priests used the ancient and beauti- 22 Men Unafraid tul forms of worship just as many a fashionable congre¬ gation clings to the time-honored and sacred formu¬ laries of the church. And doubtless many of them were conscientious. As usual where there is a state religion, the priests were the champions of the rulers who were responsible for the bad social conditions among the people (7. 10-12). And there are dark hints that the places of worship had become places of gross immorality (2. 7, 8). As Davidson says, they were “worshiping Jehovah after a heathenish fashion.” Prophecy of the true sort was distasteful to the people (2. 11, 12). Youthful enthusiasm that felt the stirrings of the Divine fire was smothered out by popular disap¬ proval. The young Nazirites who, in protest against the prevailing luxury and vice, gave themselves to stern self-denial like modern athletes in training, were ridiculed and surrounded by enticements to drink. And although men scrupulously observed the Sabbath and other holy days, such times were a weariness to them, for they kept saying, “When will the new moon be gone that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit?” (8. 4-6.) There was much cant in the conversation of the people. They said sanctimoniously, “The Lord is with us” (5. 14). They professed to be longing for the day when Jehovah would come and vindicate his right¬ eous cause (5. 18), but they always thought of this “day of the Lord” as a time of increased prosperity for themselves and vengeance upon their enemies, and Amos 23 never as a time when justice should “roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (5. 24). SEARCH QUESTIONS ON THE BIBLICAL TEXT 1. What does the book of Kings tell us concerning the character and exploits of Jeroboam the Second, who was king of Israel in the times of Amos? See 2 Kings 14. 23-29. (Many students who desire to see the times of Amos in their re¬ lation to the general course of Jewish history will be glad to begin at the first chapter of the book of Kings and read the first fourteen chapters.) 2. What light upon the moral condition of the surrounding heathen nations do we get from Amos’ indictment of them in 1. 1 to 2. 3 ? 3. Where in Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 have we plain evidence that in the times of Amos the poor suffered bitter injustice and op¬ pression? 4. What indication do we find in Chapter 2 that this oppression of the poor was causing them to begin to rise in protesting mobs and disorder? 5. Where in Chapters 3 and 6 do we find evidence that the rich lived in idle and selfish luxury on their ill-gotten gains? 6. Where in Chapter 6 are we told that the rich would not be¬ lieve that punishment was coming upon them for their sins? 7. Where in Chapter 4 do we find rough words addressed to the fashionable ladies of Samaria which indicate that they were leading low, animal lives, and by reason of their demands upon their husbands were at least partly responsible for the oppression of the poor? 8. We find in Chapter 3 what evidence of gross social vice among the people, and that this vice was practiced even in the precincts of the sanctuaries? 9. What evidence do we find in Chapters 4 and 5 that in spite of all this immorality the people were fastidious in the observance of the outward forms of worship, and liberal in their gifts to religion? 10. What indication do you find in Chapters 2,5, and 7 that the age was one which opposed the prophet and the reformer, and dis¬ couraged the Nazirite who gave himself to the simple and abstemious life? 11. To what modern conditions would Amos’ words concerning the oppression of the poor be applicable? A slight change in the form 24 Men Unafraid of these words often makes them very vivid portrayals of prevailing conditions. 12. Of what modern conditions does Amos’ description of the hollow religious formalism of his day remind you? 13. Do you know of any modern instance where oppression of the poor and immoral greed have been associated with a fever of re¬ ligious activity and zeal? AMOS THE MAN His Call Amos is especially interesting to us because he is the first of the prophets whose message has come down to us in written form. And the fact that his prophecy is held in honor after these twenty-eight hundred years makes us eager- to know something about the man. He tells us himself that he was a herdsman of Tekoa, a little place about six miles southeast of Jerusalem, in a rocky region overlooking the valley of the Dead Sea. In his book we find many illustrations which betray the eye of the man who is accustomed to follow the flock. He says, for instance, that the fate of Israel shall be as when “the shepherd rescueth out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear” (3. 12). This herdsman of Judah became a foreign missionary, for he was a prophet to the people of Israel, the north¬ ern kingdom. We have no definite description of the call of Amos, but from his own words we know that it was of over¬ powering intensity. He was driven to his task by his conviction as a cannon ball is driven from a cannon. His message of doom was so unwelcome to Israel, and seemed to them so preposterous, that they would of course constantly call it in question; and he needed to have, like Saul of Tarsus, an experience of unquestion¬ able authority. The force that carried him along was so overwhelming that he thought everybody ought to 25 26 Men Unafraid recognize it as a divine power. Do you think, he seems to say, that I would bring you this offensive message that keeps me in constant battle with you if there was not back of it the urge of God himself? “The Lord Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy?” (3. 8.) In reply to the skepticism of the crowds as to his divine authority Amos asked them a series of questions: “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no gin is set for him?” In these uneasy times, when everyone fears an inroad, will the sudden wild blare of the trumpet be heard in a city and not cause the people to shudder? Will calamity come upon a town save by the permission of Jehovah (3. 3-6)? Nothing happens without a cause, and every cause has its sure effect. Can you not see, he seems to say, the sins that cry for judgment, and the judgments that proclaim the dis¬ approval of God? You ask for the proof of my call. For a man who believes in a good and just God everything he sees is a call to proclaim the coming punishment. Amos called out dramatically for the nobles from heathen cities to come and look down upon Samaria, and behold what tumults and oppressions were therein (3. 9)! Even a heathen, he suggests, would see that judgment must come upon Israel. It did not require the insight of a prophet. Every time he looked at a group of despairing and plundered peasants this sight said in loudest tones, They will not fight against the foreign invader, for they have nothing to fight for. And every time he beheld the drunken and effeminate Amos 27 nobles their faces showed him unmistakably that if a foreign invader should come they would not be able to lead the people against him. He knew instinctively that God always has a flock of vultures for such a de¬ caying condition. Just as soon as Amos sensed the designs of the great and powerful Assyrian empire upon western Asia he saw that the coming of the doom was inevitable. And he said to the people, I am simply calling attention to what God is saying in all your ears if only you would listen. All voices, those which whis¬ per in my inner soul and those which clamor like a fire- bell in all that I see in the world about me, unite to speak one mighty word of God — doom! Of course the prophet hoped for some extraordinary repentance of Israel that would lead to a supernatural deliverance. That this repentance might be brought about was the aim and object of his startling prophecy. But if the people continued as they were he thought that anyone ought to see the inevitable result. In this feeling that the truth he proclaimed ought to be per¬ fectly obvious to the people, he was like Jesus, who said: “Ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and the heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret this time? And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right” (Luke 12. 56, 57)? The wonder to Amos was not that he could see the impend¬ ing invasion, but that the people were blind to it. Amos and the High Priest When Amos went up to the great sanctuary at Beth-el and, among the crowds of pilgrims that doubtless were 28 Men Unafraid assembled there, began to tell them of his visions of coming wrath, Amaziah, the chief priest, said unto him: “O thou seer, go, flee thou away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house” (7. 12, 13). If Amos had not been getting a following Amaziah would scarcely have taken the trouble to rebuke him. Perhaps the temple offering was beginning to fall off. The high priest, like the other priests and prophets of his day, was mercenary, and he could conceive of no other motive for Amos’ preaching than the desire for gain. So he addressed him as though he were a com¬ mon street fakir who wished to attract a crowd and gather some money, and he told him that the sanctuary at Beth-el was no place for such wandering creatures. Amos resented the insinuation that he was a mere hire¬ ling. “I was no prophet,” said he, “neither was I a prophet’s son.” That is, I was not trained in the prophetic guilds; I have no connection with them. “Jehovah took me from following the flock, and Je¬ hovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel” (7. 14, 15). Doubtless the prophets of that day were not in good standing with the common people as sincere and unselfish men, and Amos did not want to have his message discounted by having a “Reverend” before his name. Furthermore, he was not a trained prophet, but only a herdsman propelled by the divine thrusting on, and he wanted to stand in his true char¬ acter. Amos 29 Watchful Expectancy At the root of Amos’ prophetic conviction we find this great assumption, “Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except he reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets’’ (3. 7). He believed in a God of love who minutely and tenderly cares for his people. If a man will tell a friend whatever would be good for him to know, much more, thought Amos, will the good Father in heaven continually reveal himself to those who are listening for his message. More than this, Amos be¬ lieved that God would reveal himself in plain and simple ways. He assumed that divine ingenuity was being exhausted in the attempt of Jehovah to make himself known to the people. All that God did was to Amos the word of God. And this assurance that the word of God is found not in the exceptional alone, but also in the ordinary, tended to make him a veritable incarnation of sagacity and common sense. But while Amos dwelt upon the obvious in religion and in morals, there is nevertheless about him a great element of mystery. The prevailing religious concep¬ tions of the times were the shallowest and the most perverted. And yet here is this marvelous creative genius, the very mouthpiece of God. How did this humble shepherd succeed in thinking so deeply and so solidly, and in laying a foundation so broad and so deep that when Jesus came after the long centuries he could build upon it the everlasting and heaven-reaching structure of his gospel? The most natural explanation is that which the ages have given: Amos was inspired of God. 30 Men Unafraid How Amos Was Educated But this assertion that Amos was inspired by God is taken by some to mean that his mind did not work according to ordinary laws and that he did not fulfill ordinary conditions for mental growth. This, however, is far from the truth. His insight did not come in one great flash. Amos was doubtless a man of most extraordinary mental concentration. The ancient prophets were not diverted by the thousand interrup¬ tions that tend to keep the modern mind in a state of scattering confusion. The artificial light which makes possible to us so much desultory and profitless amusement was denied them, and they were -forced to spend their evenings out under the open sky in wonder and in worship. They spent many long hours in that meditation which Ian Maclaren says is a lost art. Then, too, Amos, like all of the prophets, received constant inspiration from nature. Whenever his at¬ tention was especially attracted to some natural ob¬ ject he seemed to hear God saying, “Amos, what seest thou?” Scientifically he knew vastly less about nature than the modern man of education, but he was doubt¬ less much more awed by it. Nature was to him a reminder and a revealer of the thought of God, a sacra¬ ment of his truth. One of the chief explanations of Amos’ insight is found in his habit of prayer. He does not obtrude upon us the fact that he lived a life of prayer, but it shines out through his prophecy. He prayed against the doom that he pronounced. He centered his mind intensely and painfully upon the needs and sufferings Amos 31 of the downtrodden and the outraged (8. 4-7), and the burden of their woe became so great that he was driven to avail himself to the full of the inspiration and the light of God. And then Amos was supremely brave and self-sacri¬ ficing in the utterance of his message. And the courage with which, even at the risk of his life, he instantly proclaimed the convictions that came to him opened his mind to floods of new truth. As he was bravely loyal to the one talent of truth that was given to him, God rewarded him by giving him ten talents. His eye was “single,” and therefore, according to the promise, his “whole body was full of light.” Furthermore, the prophet insisted on looking at life as a whole. He would not be a narrow provincial Judaean, but bore the burden of the woes and the sins of all the surrounding peoples with whom he was acquainted. He seems to have been chemically pure from Jewish arrogance. He even hears the Lord asking, “Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel” (9. 7)? Or, as we would put it, You and a Negro look both alike to God. Again he hears Jehovah saying, “Have not I brought up . . . the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir” (9. 7)? God’s merciful hand has been in the migrations of all the peoples, not merely in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. By this insistence that nothing human should be foreign to him, Amos opened the windows of his soul to floods of heavenly light and sanity. 32 Men Unafraid Was Amos Unsympathetic? Some people find no expressions of sympathy in the prophecy of Amos, and they say he must have been a man of harsh and unloving nature. But because a surgeon does not weep over his patient is no sign that he is not tender. Indeed a man is never heroic and un¬ selfish without love. It is not unlikely that the proph¬ et’s temperament was somewhat stern, but there were flowers growing over the granite ledge. It should al¬ ways be remembered that one of the chief springs and motives of Amos’ denunciations was his indignation over the oppression of the poor. If he had a tongue like a whip for the oppressor, it spoke out of a heart of love for the oppressed. He was fierce because he was loving. We may say of him as Whittier said of another: Not for thyself, but for the slave Thy words of thunder shook the world; No selfish griefs or hatred gave The strength wherewith thy bolts were hurled. From lips that Sinai’s trumpet blew We heard a tender under song; Thv v^ry wrath from pity grew, From love of man thy hate of wrong. The nation had drunk deep of the opiate of sin, and Amos conceived it to be his part to shout in its ears and handle it with that same roughness which men use to waken a loved one out of the stupor produced by a drug. His prophecy is molten metal heated in the furnace of pity. Amos 33 SEARCH QUESTIONS ON THE BIBLICAL TEXT 1. What do you learn from Chapter i as to where Amos lived? Was this town in Judah or in northern Israel? 2. What evidence can you find in Chapter 7 as to Amos’ way of earning a livelihood? Having found this passage, find a passage in Chapter 3 where the figures of speech which he uses would be natural to one of such an occupation. 3. Where in Chapter 2 do you find evidence that the prophet was thrilled by the great hero tales of Israel’s conquest of Palestine? 4. In what words in Chapter 3 does Amos show that he lived in perfect confidence that God would reveal to sensitive and eager souls what he was intending to do in the world? Compare John 16. 12, 13, for Jesus’ assurance to his disciples that they likewise need not be taken by surprise, but could be prepared for things to come. 5. Where in Chapter 3 do you find evidence that Amos believed that God’s world was a place where nothing happened by chance, and where what God did was to be interpreted by wise and eager men as the voice of God? Do you think Amos’ call came only from an inner impression, or also from observing the happenings around him? 6. See Luke 12. 54-56 for a passage in which Jesus also suggests that outward events and tendencies are voices of God which should be heeded and understood by all sincere men. 7. Where in Chapter 3 do you find the suggestion that Amos’ call to proclaim the word of God had come with a powerful intensity? 8. Where in Chapter 3 do we hear the prophet suggest that while his commission to speak had come overpoweringly, really the conditions against which he was called to protest seemed so obviously bad that he thought even the people of the heathen Philistine cities ought to see that something dreadful must happen to Israel? 9. Can you imagine anything that might account for the bitter¬ ness of Amos’ reference to the way in which young prophets were dis¬ couraged in Israel? 10. Where in Chapter 7 do you find indications that Amos came into collision with the high priests, and that they evidently regarded him with contempt as a dangerous fanatic who was seeking to eke out a living by his prophecies? For a parallel encounter in the life of Jesus see Luke 20. 1-20. 11. Where in Chapter 7 do you find indications that Amos did not wish to be classified with the mere professional prophets of his country, but rather wanted to be known as a common, hard-working 34 Men Unafraid man who had been impelled by the burning conviction withiti him to speak the word of God to the people? 12. Some great scholars say that Amos was a man of cold and unsympathetic temper. (1) What evidence do you find in Chapter 7 that Amos, instead of taking a fierce delight in pronouncing doom upon the people, was accustomed to pray piteously to God to avert the disasters which he foresaw? (2) Can you find evidence in Chapter 6 that Amos even con¬ sidered it a sin not to mourn over the troubles of the poor and dis¬ tressed people of the land? (3) What is the cause of his fierce wrath? insults to himself personally, or wrongs done to the peasants? (4) When a man flames with wrath because the poor man is turned away from his just due, is it right to call him unsympa¬ thetic and hard? 13. What indication do you find in Chapter 9 that Amos was singularly free from the racial arrogance of the Jews, and: believed that God’s merciful hand had been in the history of the other nations? 14. What evidence do you find in the first part of the prophecy that Amos had an international outlook and felt called upon to utter prophecies concerning the future not merely of his own country, but also of all the nations round about? 15. What evidence do you find in the book that Amos had a very vivid imagination, and knew how to express himself with picturesque force? THE MESSAGE OF AMOS “Is not my word like fire? saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” — Jeremiah. 23. 29. The prophecy of Amos was uttered “two years be¬ fore the earthquake” (1. 1). Anyone can preach about a calamity standing upon the ruins, but it takes a prophet to proclaim it while the flowers are blooming and all the people are in gala attire. Amos did for his day exactly what a prophet of 1900 would have done if, in the heyday of prosperity that men were then re¬ joicing in, he had proclaimed with burning certitude the awful calamity of the World War. He deemed it to be his task to tell why the calamity was coming upon the people, and what they might do to avert it. He began by taking up one by one the nations bor¬ dering upon Israel, and pointing out the sins for which they were to be punished. It is noticeable that he did not rebuke them for failure to obey the Jewish law which they did not know, but for sins of inhumanity against which the conscience of any savage would nor¬ mally revolt. Mostly they were to be condemned for cruelty in time of victory, and that not merely after victories over Israel but over one another. Moab, for instance, was condemned for atrocities committed against Edom, Israel’s worst enemy. In this Amos shows his impartial attitude and makes good his claim to be a spokesman for God. The modern, of course, would say that the memories of these ancient wrongs 35 36 Men Unafraid committed against one another made the tribes of western Asia, like the tribes of the Balkans to-day, incapable of co-operating in time of danger, and thus assured their defeat. But the prophet after his more religious and vital fashion emphasizes the direct hand of God in the coming punishment. For Amos to begin with these denunciations of woe upon the surrounding nations was very tactful, and doubtless the audience responded with fervent Amens. When he turned to Israel, however, his message was startling and unexpected. “Hear this word that Je¬ hovah hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities” (3. 1, 2). One of the most sig¬ nificant “therefores” in history, that! His hearers expected him to say, Therefore will I be lenient with your sins. But Amos takes the position of Jesus, “To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be re¬ quired” (Luke 12. 48). This principle is one of the fundamental presuppositions of Amos’ prophecy. Amos had a thrilled sense of Israel’s mighty past and of the great mercies of Jehovah toward his people. “Yet destroyed I 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” (2. 9). And to the mind of Amos God’s great deliverance in the past made their present disloyalty seem all the worse. The heart of Amos’ indictment of the nation is his Amos 37 condemnation of inhumanity. They “buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes” (8. 6). They “trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him of wheat” (5. 11). Or, as we would say, they corner the wheat market. “They turn aside the needy in the gate from their right” (5. 12), that is, they corrupt the courts. They turn “justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood” (6. 12). The priests were very much more afraid of neglecting the appro¬ priate sacrifices than they were of overlooking justice and kindness. But Amos insisted that “to do right¬ eousness and justice is more acceptable to Jehovah than sacrifice” (Proverbs 21. 3). He knew that the one fatal sin of the people was to be found in the greed of its ruling classes and their indifference to the sufferings of the poor. A profiteer, from Amos’ point of view, seemed a far more dangerous man than a thrower of bombs. The extreme luxury of the rich, in view of the oppression which it cost, was criminal in his sight; and he deemed the fashionable ladies of Samaria quite as guilty as their lords, because by their demands they well-nigh forced them to make greater extortions. This ancient message seems like a special dispatch to the luxurious life of our own day, for evervone knows the close relation between the wife’s costly demands for fashion and show and the husband’s temptation to become a profiteer. If there was one thing that made Amos fiercer than the oppression of the poor it was the hollow, formal worship of Jehovah practiced at Beth-el and Gilgal. If they had been indulging in their brutal inhumanity 3» Men Unafraid and not at the same time making a pretense of Jehovah- worship, they would have known that they were a god¬ less nation. But they stupefied their consciences bv being all the more zealous in their worship. Amos called out ironically: “Come to Beth-el, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three days; . . . for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah” (4. 4, 5). In his wrath against the priests who were responsible for this condi¬ tion Amos resembles Jesus in his fierce words against the Pharisees and Sadducees, who devoured widows’ houses and for a pretense made long prayers. One of the final visions of Amos is a dream wherein he sees the people gathered together in the temple, and hears God command his angel to break in the roof upon them that they all might be slain (9. 1). This picture of future doom grows out of his sense of the sure enforcement of the moral law. Amos felt that a man could not get away from it any more than he could run away from his skeleton. How vividly he expressed this! “As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him” (5. 19). Hear his picturesque words: “Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall my hand take them; and though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and it shall bite Amos 39 them” (9. 2, 3). To Amos the moral law was as ines¬ capable as the law of gravitation. We wonder that in that early day Amos was able to see deeply enough into the laws of life to realize that there was a close connection between the materialism of the people and the dying out of the fires of prophecy. They said to their prophets, Prophesy not! and they impatiently wished for the end of the Sabbath day so that they could plunge again into their mad quest for money. And the outcome, says Amos, will be exactly fitted to their sin. He warns them that a time is coming when they will gladly give all their gold if they may only have again the comfort and guidance of a man of God. But it will be too late. There will be a famine “of hearing the words of Jehovah. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Je¬ hovah, and shall not find it” (8. 12). The circle of spiritual illumination which Christianity has drawn is much wider than that which we see in the prophet Amos, but the circle of Amos is still in the center. To Amos religion without righteousness was inconceivable. To seek God was to seek good. And that, of course, was the message of Jesus. Amos’ mes¬ sage as over against that of Jesus is like a rough char¬ coal sketch compared with a rich hued and glorious landscape in oil. The wonder is, however, that when the great Painter came he needed to make so little change in Amos’ drawing. The outline was correct. He only needed to add, and scarcely at all to alter. The world will never get away from the great fact that the 4o Men Unafraid very essence of religion is justice and humanity, and from the fact that all religious worship which is divorced from a decent life is an abomination in the sight of God. The gospel is and forever will be founded upon the principles which Amos laid down. History is increas- ingly proving him to be right, and every time the clock strikes in the steeple it registers the passing of an hour in which the logic of events has added one more proof of the eternal rightness of his message. SEARCH QUESTIONS ON THE BIBLICAL TEXT 1. The prophet pronounces doom upon the surounding nations not because they did not offer sacrifices according to the Jewish law, but because they had committed moral outrages that the universal conscience condemns. What is the nature of these outrages? See i. i to 2. 3. 2. Where in Chapter 9 does the prophet say that God looks upon all races and nations alike as his children, and thus suggests that Israel need look for no special leniency? Compare Jesus in Matthew 8- U:3- 3. Where in Chapter 3 does he even insist that the special privi¬ leges of Israel mean special responsibility, and that their sins will be visited upon them all the more severely? 4. In what words in Chapter 3 does the prophet, in order to make their ingratitude seem more blameworthy, remind Israel of the great things God has done for them in the past? 5. Where in Chapter 4 does the prophet show that the sin of Israel is all the more serious because the nation has hardened itself against the afflictions that were sent to remind them of their helpless¬ ness and graciously to influence them to return to God? 6. Find the places where the prophet predicts punishment for Israel on account of injustice and oppression. This is the very heart of his message. 7. What in Chapter 4 is the message of Amos to the rich ladies of Samaria? 8. Where in Chapters 3, 4, and 6 does Amos show that oppression of the poor rouses him to all the greater wrath because it is associated Amos 4i with such luxury on the part of the ruling class? Compare Jesus in Luke 12. 13-21; 16. 19-31. 9. Where in Chapter 4 does the prophet ironically call the people to their worship at the sanctuaries in Beth-el and Gilgal, where they seek to make up for the lack of common honesty and decency by special zeal in sacrifice and offerings? Where in Chapter 5 does he plainly exhort them to keep away from these places? Compare Jesus’ words to the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 23. 23-26 for a close analogy to Amos’ attitude toward the corrupt religionists of his day. 10. Where in Chapter 9 does he see in a vision the destruction of heaven coming upon the people at the very time they were gath¬ ered in the temple engaged in the paganized worship of Jehovah? 11. Where in Chapter 8 does the prophet show that the ma¬ terialism of the people and their gross misuse of the Sabbath will be punished by a scarcity of real men of God to give them comfort and guidance when the punishment comes upon them? 12. Where in Chapter 9 does the prophet with great vividness show how inescapable will be the judgment of Jehovah? 13. Do you find any other places where with unusual pic¬ turesqueness and dramatic power the prophet proclaims coming judgment? 14. When were Amos’ words fulfilled? See 2 Kings 18. 9-12. 15. What modern applications can you justly make of Amos’ words against oppression and a paganized worship of Jehovah? I HOSEA From a Copley print. Copyright, 1898, by Curtis