Exposition of Amos 4-9, Part 2 · Section 10
VERSE 10.
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
THere are two great impediments that keep men from Repentance. The one is a low conceit of God; The other is an high conceit of themselves. The first the Prophet removed Verse 8.9. by setting before them the glorious Majesty of God. The second hee comes to remove in this and the following verses, by setting before them their sin and misery, that so (if possible) hee might fit them for mercy.
In this Verse wee have a second sin and cause of Israels ruine, and that is obstinacy and hating of reproof. This was their sinning sin which helpt to ruine them with a witness; the Lord in great mercy sent Physitians to them, but they abused them, and like frantick Patients threw the physick to the walls, they hated to bee reformed, and cast Gods words behinde them.
The words admit of some difficulty. The question is, Of whom doth the Prophet here complain, whether of the Rulers, or of the people?
Answ. Of both. 1 Of the people, They hate him that reproveth in the gate; that is, they hate the Judges who executed judgement in the gate; they hate him who thus censureth and judgeth them for their sin; for there is a double reproof, 1 A civil reproof given by the Magistrate, his just sentence upon the wicked is a real reproof of his wickedness, and that Magistrate which faithfully and impartially thus reproves men in the gate, must look to bee hated by the wicked of the world, so was Iob that renowned Magistrate, Iob 30.1, 10.
2 And most genuinely, it is taken for spiritual reproof, by the Prophets who were wont to reprove open sins openly: They hate him that reproves in the gate, that is, in the public and open Assemblies; for the gates of the City were places where usually was much concourse of people, Prov. 1.21. and 8.3. There the Judges kept their Courts of Judicature, and erected their seats of Judgement for the administration of Justice, and determining of causes, as appeareth, Gen. 34.20. Deut. 21.19. and 22.15. Ruth 4.1. Iob 5.4. and 29.7. Psal. 127. ult. They had Justice in the gates.
1 For the ease and convenience of the Citizens, that they might follow their suits without impediment to their other affairs.
2 That Country-men might have justice easily and freely before they entred the City.
3 That the Judges might take heed of doing unjustly, since they had so many to see and hear what they did.
4 To shew the equality and indifferency of Justice from which none were excluded, but as the gates of the City were open to all, to go in and out at pleasure, so should the Courts of Justice.
5 To intimate that the chiefest strength of Cities, and safety of States doth consist in the due execution of Justice, which is as gates and bars against sin and wickedness. Take away this, and gates of brass cannot preserve a City from destruction.
Here sometimes the Prophets did preach Gods word, and publish their Prophesies to the people, either in the gates of the Temple, as Ier. 7.2. or in the Gates of the City, as Ier. 17.19, 20. and 19.2. and 22.2. and 26.10.
2 Here is an Aggravation of their sin, They abhor him that speaketh uprightly, Integrum abominantur verbum.or that speaketh what is sincere and right; that is in plain English, they abominate that man, and abhor that Minister that faithfully declares the counsel of God unto them without halting or halving, and this is made a Periphrasis of a faithful Minister,Senes & judices loco Dei positos, ad judi candum sedentes, oderant, non ferentes eorum correptiones. Pari insaniâ perfectè loquentem, i. e. veros Prophetas qui solum & perfectissimum Dei serm…n…n annunciabant. Mercer. hee is one that doth not blend, nor mix the word of God, but hee delivers his will plainly and sincerely to his people. They hated the Iudge, but they abhorred the Minister; now abhorrency is the height of hatred.
The people could not bear the censures of their Rulers, but neither Princes nor people could indure the plain and powerful reproofs of the Prophets; and therefore the Prophet here chargeth the Judges, and the great ones more especially (as appears by the context, verse 7.11, 12, 15.) for hating the Prophets which reproved them in the gates. These great ones had acted their unjustice openly in the gate,Est hoc extrem… corruptionis argumentum, quando illic loci correpti… nulla admittitur, ubi disciplina publica maximè regnare debet. Gualter. and for any one to bee so bold as to come there and reprove their unrighteousness, they could not bear it.
Great men love to live as they list, they love not bands of restraint, they must do what please themselves with a non-obstante, without controle.Videmus, & reges, & quicunque in mundo potestate aliqua praediti sunt, velint esse sacro-sancti, nec ullam admittant reprehensionem. Calvin. Though they do unjustly, yet none must tell them of it, for they have eyes, but they neither can nor will see, they have ears, but they will not hear, for their hearts are hardened to their own destruction, Isa. 6.9, 10.
OBSERVATIONS.
1 Open sinners must bee openly reproved.
Those that sin before all, must bee reproved before all, that others may fear, 1 Tim. 5.20. These Judges who acted unrighteously in the gate,See my Com. on 2 Tim 4.10. p. 421. must bee reproved by the Prophets in the gate.
2 Obs. It is a sad aggravation of mens sins to hate those, whom God hath authorised and commissioned to reprove them for their sins. To lay snares for him that reproveth in the gates, Isa. 29.21. To devise devices against plain-dealing Ieremies, and with Ahab to hate Gods faithful Micaiahs, and to seek their death and destruction, who labour to bring us to life and salvation, is the heighth of wickedness, Gen. 19.9. 1 King. 22.24, 26. Ier. 38.6. Matth. 14.3. Act. 7.54. and 9.29.
Truth breeds hatred, and light is irksome to the sore eyes of wicked men. They draw the Curtains, and cannot endure the light that reproves them;Amant lucem splendentem, non redarguentem. and it is worth observing that the viler men have been, the more they have hated plain reproofes, as the Sodomites, Pharaoh, Ahab, Herod, &c. they were all reprehension-proof. But the better men have been, the more submissive to reproofs, as David, when Abigail stopt him on one hand, and Nathan on the other, hee blesseth the one, and loves the other. So Hezekiah when the Prophet Isaiah told him that hee must lose all▪ hee receives it meekly, with a Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken, Isa. 39 ult. So Constantine and Theodosius, how tractable and submissive were they to the Ministers of Christ, when the Roman Caesars (most of them) persecuted to the death such as opposed them in their Tyrannical practises, they were punished as seditious and troublers of the State, that did in the least trouble them for their sins.
See Hildersham on Psal. 51. Lect. 9. p. 52. &c.And this is the great sin of England, and bodes some judgement approaching, that we cannot endure a plain-sound-soul-searching-Ministery: wee must have smoothe things, or nothing, Isa. 30.10. The Idolater must not be told of his Idols, the superstitious man of his ceremoniousness, nor the incontinent man of his Herodias, &c. Men love such as will daub over their vices, and give them such service or starvis as will not bite them, Missa non mordet. It is observed that the French Reformed Churches some years before that bloody massacre, did affect a frothy, flashy kinde of preaching, not regarding that which touched the conscience. Whether this be not our case, let the Reader judge.