Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Amos
Book: Amos
Chapter: 9
Overview:
The ruin of
Israel.
(1-10) The restoration of the Jews and the
Gospel blessing.
(11-15)
1-10 The
Prophet, in
Vision, saw the
Lord standing upon the
idolatrous
Altar at
Bethel. Wherever sinners flee from
God's
Justice, it will overtake them. Those whom
God brings to
Heaven
By his
Grace, shall never be cast down; but those who seek to
climb thither
By vain confidence in themselves, will be cast
down and filled with shame. That which makes escape impossible
and ruin sure, is, that
God will set his eyes upon them for
evil, not for good. Wretched must those be
On whom the
Lord
looks for evil, and not for good. The
Lord would scatter the
Jews, and visit them with calamities, as the
Corn is shaken in a
sieve; but he would save some from among them. The astonishing
preservation of the Jews as a distinct people, seems here
foretold. If professors make themselves like the world,
God will
level them with the world. The sinners who thus flatter
themselves, shall find that their profession will not protect
them.
11-15 Christ died to gather together the children of
God that
were scattered abroad, here said to be those who were called
By
his name. The
Lord saith this, who doeth this, who can do it,
who has determined to do it, the power of whose
Grace is engaged
for doing it. Verses 13-15 may refer to the early times of
Christianity, but will receive a more glorious fulfilment in the
events which all the prophets more or less foretold, and may be
understood of the happy state when the
Fulness both of the Jews
and the
Gentiles come into the
Church. Let us continue
Earnest
in
Prayer for the fulfilment of these prophecies, in the peace,
purity, and the beauty of the
Church.
God marvellously preserves
his elect amidst the most fearful confusions and miseries. When
all seems desperate, he wonderfully revives his
Church, and
blesses her with all spiritual blessings in
Christ Jesus. And
great shall be the
Glory of that period, in which not one good
thing promised shall remain unfulfilled.