Exposition of Amos 4-9, Part 4 · Section 9
VERSE II.
For thus saith Amos, Jeroboam shall dye by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their owne Land:
IN this Verse Amaziah the Priest labours to make good his Charge against Amos, to this end he produceth a double accusation against him.
1 He chargeth him as an enemy to the King, and that hee had conspired against him, saying, Ieroboam shall dye by the sword; this was a manifest untruth, for Amos never said, the King shall dye by the sword, but that God would rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword, vers. 9. and so he did, for though we do not read that Ieroboam himself dyed by the sword, yet Zachariah his Son was slaine by Shallum in the sight of the people, which put an end to the Stock of Iehu, according to what the Lord had threatned against the house of Iehu, viz. that in the fourth generation his Stock should cease; so that Amaziah reports Amos his Doctrine to the King, not fully, but fraudulently, applying that to the Father, which Amos spake against the Posterity. Thus wicked men, like their Father the Devil, adde and detract from Gods Word, and mens words, so as may best suit with their owne designes.
2 He chargeth him with disheartning the people, in saying, that Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their owne Land. This was true, but so farre from being a Crime, that it was Amos his glory, that he faithfully and freely delivered the Message that God commanded him to deliver to his people; and here we may observe, that when this false Prophet recites Amos his words to the King, there he alters the words, and makes things worse; but when he comes to speak of the people, then he can speak truth.
He had used all his Oratory to perswade the King to punish Amos, but Ieroboam knew that he was a Man of God, and therefore durst not doe his Prophet any harm; and the rather, because he had observed that God had sharply punished Ieroboam the first with a withered arme, and Ahab, and other his Predecessors that had opposed his Prophets; their harms made him wise. The context shewes that the King was cold in the cause, for we read of no answer that the King gave to Amaziah, peradventure he might discerne his falshood and his flattery, and so sleight him; this is very probable by that which followes in the next verse, where Amaziah falls to flattering Amos, since by force he could not hurt him.
OBSERVATIONS.
1 It is an old trick of the Devil and his agents, to wrest and mis…recite the words of Gods servants.
When they can finde nothing justly against them, then they fall to belying them, and to devise devices against them.See more in my Com. on 2 Tim. 3.3. The Devil is termed Diabolus, he hath this name given him because he is a violent, and virulent Calumniator, and belyer of the Saints, and so are his followers, and therefore they also are called (foreign, Calumniatores) by their Fathers name, false-accusers. So Iob 1.9. Acts 6.11, 13. Rom. 3.8.
2 It is the property of false Prophets to mingle some truth with their lyes, the better to deceive the simple.
So doth this Priest of Bethel here, and so doe Mass Priests. As the Fowler mixeth some Wheat with his Chaff, and sticks some Corn upon his Lime-twiggs to catch the sooner: so Satan puts a fine gloss upon his false wares that they may sell the better. He and his can produce Scripture for a need, they can transforme themselves into Angels of Light,Epicurus aut Deos fi…git otiosos, aut nullos, Minut. Faelix, who lived in the third Century. and can cite Scripture to draw you from Scripture, and tempt you to irreligion by religious Arguments mis-applied. Epicurus that was licentious in his Life, and lewd in his Opinions, holding that there were no Gods, or else that they were idle, and cared not for governing the World,V. Ross his Confut. of Browns vulgar errours, ch. 16. p. 255. yet sometimes he commends the pleasures of the mind, that so he might vend his Epicurean pleasures the better.
3 That Princes usually are more indulgent to Gods Prophets than Idolaetrous Priests.
Amaziah the Priest would have Amos put to death for a Traytor,Figulus invidet figulo, & faber fabro. but the King spares him. It is observed, that the greatest hatred is usually amongst men of the same profession; it is not the King, but the Priest of Bethel that prosecutes Amos. Thus it was with Ieremy, when the Priests were inraged against him, and sought his life, then the Princes plead for him, and save him, Ier. 26.8, 16. and after when the Princes cast him into the Dungeon, then the King released him, Ier. 38.10. So our King Edward the Third preserved Wickliffe from the fury of Simon Sudbury Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and after the Duke of Lancaster became his great Patron against the persecuting Prelates of those times.