“Therefore thus I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.
Parallel Translations
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“Therefore thus I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel.
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Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
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Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Amos 4:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape. But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.
- James 4:1-10 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
- Amos 9:1-4 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape. Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down. Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good.
- Mark 13:32-37 But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is. “It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch. Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he might find you sleeping. What I tell you, I tell all: Watch.”
- Ezekiel 13:5 You have not gone up into the gaps or built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in Yahweh’s day.
- Isaiah 47:3 Your nakedness will be uncovered. Yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and will spare no one.”
- Amos 5:4-15 For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live; but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth: seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name, who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts. Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
- Luke 21:3-36 He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.” As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said, “As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.” They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?” He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them. When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. It will turn out as a testimony for you. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake. And not a hair of your head will perish. “By your endurance you will win your lives. “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.” He told them a parable. “See the fig tree and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near. Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that God’s Kingdom is near. Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things are accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. “So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
- Matthew 24:44–25:13 Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards, the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn’t expect it, and in an hour when he doesn’t know it, and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be. “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. Those who were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘What if there isn’t enough for us and you? You go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Most certainly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
- Luke 14:31-32 Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an envoy, and asks for conditions of peace.
- Ezekiel 22:30 “I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.
- Hosea 13:8 I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.
- Amos 4:2-3 The Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that behold, “The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks. You will go out at the breaks in the wall, everyone straight before her; and you will cast yourselves into Harmon,” says Yahweh.
- Matthew 5:25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him on the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.
- Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If therefore you won’t watch, I will come as a thief, and you won’t know what hour I will come upon you.
- Amos 2:14 Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Amos here declares, in the person of God, that…
Amos here declares, in the person of God, that the people in vain hoped for pardon, or for a modification, or an abatement, or an end to their punishment; for God had in vain made the attempt, by many scourges and chastisements, to subdue their extreme arrogance: therefore, he says, thus will I do to you. What does this particle כה, ke, thus, mean? Some think that God here denounces on the Israelites the punishments they had before experienced: but the Prophet, I doubt not, means something much more grievous. He now removes the exception which he lately mentioned as though be had said, that God would execute extreme punishment on this reprobate people without any mitigation. This will I do to thee, Israel: “Thou hast already perceived with how many things I armed myself to take vengeance on the despisers of my law; I will now deal more severely with thee, for thy obstinacy compels me. Since, then, I have hitherto produced no effect on you, I will now bring the last punishment: for remedies cannot be applied to men past recovery.” Thus, then, he says, will I do to thee Israel.
And because I will do this to thee, etc עכב, okob, means often a reward or an end: this place may then be thus rendered: ‘I will at length surely do this to you;’ but the sense the most suitable seems to be this, Because I will this do to you, prepare to meet thy God. The passage may be explained in two ways: either as an ironical sentence, or as a simple and serious exhortation to repentance. If we take it ironically, the sense will be of this kind, “Come, now, meet me with all your obstinacy, and with whatever may serve you; will you be able to escape my vengeance by setting up yourselves against me, as you have hitherto done?” And certainly the Prophet, in denouncing final ruin on the people, seems here as though he wished designedly to touch them to the quick, when he says, “Meet now thy God and prepare thyself:” that is, “Gather all thy strength, and thy forces, and thy auxiliaries; try what all this will avail thee.” But as in the next chapter, the Prophet exhorts again the Israelites to repentance, and sets before them the hope of favor, this place may be taken in another sense, as though he said, “Since thou seest thyself guilty, and also as thou seest that thou art seeking subterfuges in vain, being not able by any means to elude the hand of thy judge, then see at last, that thou meet thy God, that thou mayest anticipate the final ruin which is impending.” The Prophets, we indeed know, after having threatened destruction to the chosen people, ever moderate the asperity of their doctrine, as there were at all times some remnant seed, though hidden. And similar passages we have seen both in Joel and in Hosea. It is not, therefore, improper to explain the words of Amos in this sense, — that though the people were almost past hope, he yet exhorted them to anticipate God’s wrath. Prepare then thyself to meet thy God, as though he said, “However worthy thou art of being destroyed and though the Lord seems to have closed up the door of mercy, and despair meets thee on every side, thou can’t yet mitigate God’s wrath, provided thou prepares to meet him.”
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But this preparation includes real renovation of the heart: it then takes place, when men are displeased with themselves, when with a changed mind they submit to God, and humbly pray for forgiveness. There is then an important meaning in the Prophet’s words, Prepare thyself. With regard to meeting God, we know what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9: ,
‘If we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged by the Lord.’
How comes it, then, that God deals severely with us, except that we spare ourselves? Hence this indulgence, with which we flatter ourselves, provokes God’s wrath against us. We cannot then meet God, except we become our own judges, and condemn our sins and feel real sorrow. We now see what the Prophet means, if we regard the passage as not spoken ironically.
But that he might rouse careless men more effectually, he then magnificently extols the power of God; and that he might produce more reverence and fear in men, especially the hardened and the refractory, he adorns his name with many commendations. As it was difficult to turn the headstrong, the Prophet accumulates many titles, to move the people, that they might entertain reverence for God. “God,” he says, “has formed the mountains, and created the spirit,” and further, “he knoweth hearts, and men themselves understand not what they think of, except as far as God sets before them their thoughts; God maketh the morning and the darkness, and walketh in the high places of the earth; and his name is, Jehovah, God of hosts.” Why were all these encomiums added, but that the hearts of men might be touched, who were before void of thought and sunk in blind stupidity? We now understand the Prophet’s object. But what remains to be said on the words will be added in tomorrow’s lecture.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Turn to him by repentance.
Turn to him by repentance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Amo 4:12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee,…
Amo 4:12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: [and] because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
Ver. 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel] Thus? how? Non nominat mala ut omnia timeant, saith Ribera. He tells them not how, that they may fear the worst; even all that is written and unwritten. It was the very policy of Julius Caesar never to extenuate or deny to his soldiers the danger of an enemy, but rather to raise up thoughts of valour by aggravating the contrary forces: and this way he did (not seldom) hyperbolically rhetoricate saith the story. Now the Lord need not do so; since his judgments are a great deep, neither can any man know the power of his anger, Psa 90:11 : let a man fear it never so much, he is sure to feel it a great deal more if he once fall into his fingers. Is it nothing to drink the dregs of God’s displeasure, when it is eternity unto the bottom? Is it nothing to launch into an infinite ocean of scalding lead, and to swim naked in it for ever? Oh, do anything rather than be damned; and as Lewis, King of France, cast the pope’s bulls into the fire, saying, he had rather they should burn than himself fry in hell for obeying them; or as Mary, Queen of England, restored again all the ecclesiastical livings assumed to the crown, saying that she set more by the salvation of her own soul than she did by ten kingdoms; so "let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him; and to our God, that he may multiply pardon," Isa 55:7.
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And because I will do this unto thee] Which (had I not wished thee well) I would never have told thee. But God loves to forewarn; and therefore threateneth evil that he may not inflict it ( Ideo minatur ut non puniat): he would gladly be prevented by our humble addresses unto him, and by our entreaties of peace. Hear him else.
Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel] Turn and try; thou canst not likely lose thy labour; or if thou shouldest, yet thou hast lost many a worse. Let Ephraim but bemoan himself, and God will soon melt over him, Jer 31:20. Let God’s prodigals return to their merciful Father and he will meet them half-way, and receive them with all sweetness. Tantum velis, et Deus tibi praeoccurret. Do as those, Jer 3:17. Alexander’s Macedonians, being sensible of his displeasure, laid by their arms, put on their mourning attire, came trooping to his tent, where, for almost three days, they remained with loud cries and abundance of tears, testifying their remorse for offending him, beseeching his pardon, which at last they gained. And Guicciardin tells us, that Lewis XII of France (when he entered Genoa in his triumphant chariot with his sword naked), resolved to make a prey of their riches, and an example of many of the chief among them, and to leave the rest to his soldiers’ mercies. But being met first by the chief, afterward by the multitude, making great lamentation for their folly, with abundance of tears and cries, his wrath was appeased toward them. The like we read of Henry VII, emperor, toward the citizens of Cremona; of our Edward III toward the inhabitants of Calais. And in Cade’s conspiracy here, after that twenty-six of the chief rebels were executed, the multitude, naked in their shirts, met the king on Blackheath, humbly praying mercy; which they obtained.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Therefore, because none of my former methods have succeeded,…
Therefore, because none of my former methods have succeeded, as in reason might have been expected,
thus will I do unto thee, in some more terrible manner will I now proceed against thee, O Israel; you of the ten tribes.
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Because I will do this unto thee, and therefore my last advice to you is to consider it well; if you think well of it, possibly you may see and prevent the threatened evil.
Prepare to meet thy God; if you humble yourselves, and so return, it will be mercy to you; but if you proudly and sinfully refuse to return, know ye that you must perish, for you can never make good your cause against God, and yet you must meet him, for he will ere he hath done with you end the controversy.
Thy God; who once was thy God, and whom thou still ownest for thy God, and who would yet be thine if thou repent.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel,....…
Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel,.... What he would do is not expressly and particularly said; it is commonly understood to be something in a way of judgment, and worse than what he had done, since they had no effect upon them; or these things should be done over again, until an utter end was made of them; or the reference is to Amo 3:11; and the following words are usually interpreted, either, ironically, since the Lord was coming forth as an enemy to issue the controversy with them; they are called upon to meet, him in a hostile way, and muster up all their forces, exert all their power and strength, and make use of their best weapons and military skill, and see what would be the consequence of all this; feeble worms set in opposition to the mighty God; thorns and briers he can easily go through, and burn up quickly: or else they are seriously addressed, and exhorted to meet the Lord in the way of his judgments, by humiliation, repentance, and reformation; not knowing but that after all he may be gracious and merciful to them, and turn away the fierceness of his anger from them; see Amo 5:15; but I rather think the words are a promise or intimation of doing something to Israel in a way of special grace and kindness, notwithstanding their conduct and behaviour, and the ineffectualness both of judgments and providential mercies; for the words may be rendered, as the same particle should be in Hos 2:14; "notwithstanding", or "nevertheless, thus will I do unto thee" (w); what I have from all eternity purposed and resolved to do, and what I have promised again and again, by the mouth of all the holy prophets, from the beginning of the world, I would do; namely, send my Son to be thy Saviour and Redeemer:
and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel; the Messiah that was then to come was God, and so equal to the work of redemption and salvation he was to do; and the God of spiritual and mystical Israel, even all the elect, Jews and Gentiles, to be redeemed by him; was to be their Immanuel, God in their nature, and therefore to be met with the utmost joy and pleasure; see Zac 9:9; for this meeting him is not to be understood in a hostile way, and as spoken ironically to the enemies of Christ to oppose him, encounter with him, and mark the issue of it, who in time would cause them to be brought before him and slain, as some interpret the words; but in a friendly manner, as he was met by those that were waiting for his coming, such as Simeon and others; and by those John the Baptist called upon to prepare the way of the Lord; and as he was by his own disciples, who embraced him by faith, received him with joy, and left all and followed him; and as all such are prepared to meet him who are made truly sensible of sin, and of their own righteousness as insufficient to justify from it, and have seen the glory, fulness, and suitableness of his salvation. Christ is to be met with in his house and ordinances; and men are prepared for it when the desires of their hearts are towards him, and their graces are exercised on him; which preparation is from himself: he will be met at his second coming by his spiritual Israel; and they will be prepared for it who believe it, love it, and long for it; have their loins girt, and their lights burning, and they waiting for their Lord's coming; see Mat 25:1; and so at the hour of death, which is the day of the Lord; a preparation and readiness for which lies not in external humiliation, outward reformation, a moral righteousness, or a bare profession of religion, and submission to ordinances; but in regeneration, in faith in Christ, and spiritual knowledge of him; in a being washed in his blood, and clothed with his righteousness; for which readiness all truly sensible sinners will be concerned, and which is all from the grace of God; see Mat 24:43. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read it, "prepare to call upon thy God"; and the Targum paraphrases it,
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"to receive the doctrine of the law of thy God;''
rather the doctrine of the Gospel; but the former sense is best; for the confirmation of which it may be observed, that when God is said to do a thing to any, it is usually in a way of grace; and that when preparation is made to meet a divine Person, it is always meant of the Son of God; and that it is a common thing in prophecy, that when the Lord is threatening men with his judgments, to throw in a promise or prophecy of the Messiah, for the comfort of his people.
(w) "nihilominus tamen". Vid. Noldium, p. 507.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Therefore - In a more terrible manner will I…
Therefore - In a more terrible manner will I now proceed against thee.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee]…
Verse 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee] I will continue my judgments, I will fight against you; and, because I am thus determined,-
Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.] This is a military phrase, and is to be understood as a challenge to come out to battle. As if the Lord had said, I will attack you immediately. Throw yourselves into a posture of defense, summon your idols to your help: and try how far your strength, and that of your gods, will avail you against the unconquerable arm of the Lord of hosts! This verse has been often painfully misapplied by public teachers; it has no particular relation to the day of judgment, nor to the hour of death. These constructions are impositions on the text.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Amo 4:12-13. Therefore thus will I do unto thee…
Amo 4:12-13. Therefore thus will I do unto thee — I will continue to send these several judgments upon thee till I entirely destroy thee. And because, or, forasmuch, as I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel — Expect that he will come to take full vengeance upon thee, and consider whether thou art able to contend with him; (so the expression of meeting an adversary is understood, Luk 14:31;) or if that be impossible, endeavour to avert his anger by confession of sin, humiliation, repentance, and reformation, before it actually break out upon thee. For lo, he that formeth the mountains, &c. — For lo, I am he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind — I am the former of all things, both those which are seen, and those which are so fine and subtle as to escape the discernment of man. And declareth unto man what is his thought — Who can search into the very thoughts of man, and declare what they are before they are put into execution, or are expressed in words. That maketh the morning darkness — The Vulgate reads, Forming the morning cloud. Houbigant and Grotius, however, with some others, read, He that maketh the morning, and the darkness, namely, the day and the night, or, as the latter interprets it, gives prosperity to the godly, and adversity to the wicked, as the Chaldee here explains it. And treadeth upon the high places of the earth — That is, says Grotius, Who treadeth under foot the proud: in other words, who can humble the great and mighty, and overthrow the strongest fortresses, or places of strength. The Lord, The God of hosts is his name — Whose sovereign power all creatures obey, and act for or against us as he willeth. Let us humble ourselves before this God, and give all diligence to make him our God. For happy are the people whose God he is, and who have all this power engaged for them!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Therefore thus will I do unto thee - God…
Therefore thus will I do unto thee - God says more by His silence. He had enumerated successive scourges. Now, with His hand uplifted to strike, He mentions none, but says, “thus.” Rib.: “So men too, loth to name evils, which they fear and detest, say, “God do so to me, and more also.” God using the language of people” Jerome, “having said, ‘thus will I do unto thee,’ is silent as to what He will do; that so, Israel hanging in suspense, as having before him each sort of punishment (which are the more terrible, because he imagines them one by one), may indeed repent, that God inflict not what He threatens.”
Prepare to meet thy God - In judgment, face to face, final to them. All the judgments which had been sent hitherto were but heralds, forerunners of the judgment to come. He Himself was not in them. In them, He passed no sentence upon Israel. They were medicinal, corrective; they were not His final sentence. Now, having tried all ways of recovering them in vain, God summons them before His tribunal. But although the judgment of the ten tribes, as a whole, was final, to individuals there was place for repentance. God never, in this life, bids people or individuals “prepare to meet Him,” without a purpose of good to those who do prepare to receive His sentence aright. He saith not then, “come and hear your doom,” but “prepare to meet thy God.” It has hope in it, to be bidden to “prepare;” yet more, that He whom they were to prepare to meet, was “their God.” It must have recurred full often to the mind of the ten tribes during their unrestored captivity of above seven centuries before the Coming of our Lord; a period as long as the whole existence of Rome from its foundation to its decay; as long as our history from our king Stephen until now.
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Full oft must they have thought, “we have not met Him yet,” and the thought must have dawned upon them; “It is because He willed to “do thus” with us, that He bid us “prepare to meet” Him. He met us not, when He did it. It was then something further on; it is in the Messiah that we arc to meet and to see Him.” Jerome: “Prepare to meet thy God,” receiving with all eagerness the Lord coming unto thee.” So then, is this further sense which lay in a the words , “he (as did Hosea at the end) exhorts the ten tribes, after they had been led captive by the Assyrians, not to despond, but to “prepare to meet their God,” that is, to acknowledge and receive Christ their God, when the Gospel should be preached to them by the Apostles.” Rib.: “God punisheth, not in cruelty, but in love. He warns then those whom He strikes, to understand what He means by these punishments, not thinking themselves abandoned by God, but, even when they seem most cast away and reprobate, rousing themselves, in the hope of God’s mercy through Christ, to call upon God, and “prepare to meet their God.” For no one’s salvation is so desperate, no one is so stained with every kind of sin, but that God cometh to him by holy inspirations, to bring back the wanderer to Himself. Thou therefore, O Israel, whoever thou art, who didst once serve God, and now servest vilest pleasures, when thou feelest God coming to thee, prepare to meet Him. Open the door of thy heart to that most kind and benevolent Guest, and, when thou hearest His Voice, deafen not thyself: flee not, like Adam. For He seeketh thee, not to judge, but to save thee.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain These. He mentions not what, to keep them in…
These. He mentions not what, to keep them in greater suspense and dread; (St. Jerome) or he will put in execution what he had threatened before, ver. 2. --- Meet. Septuagint, "beseech." Aquila, "oppose," or to receive the Messias. (St. Jerome) --- Prepare by repentance to find mercy. (Calmet) --- After long captivity, Christ will save some. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Therefore--as all chastisements have failed to make thee "return…
Therefore--as all chastisements have failed to make thee "return unto Me."
thus will I do unto thee--as I have threatened (Amo 4:2-3).
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prepare to meet thy God--God is about to inflict the last and worst judgment on thee, the extinction of thy nationality; consider then what preparation thou canst make for encountering Him as thy foe (Jer 46:14; Luk 14:31-32). But as that would be madness to think of (Isa 27:4; Eze 22:14; Heb 10:31), see what can be done towards mitigating the severity of the coming judgment, by penitence (Isa 27:5; Co1 11:31). This latter exhortation is followed up in Amo 5:4, Amo 5:6, Amo 5:8, Amo 5:14-15.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12, 13. The sentence. The corrupt nation must bear…
12, 13. The sentence. The corrupt nation must bear a heavier blow.
Therefore — Because previous judgments have failed.
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Thus — How? One would expect a description of the threatened judgment, for the words point to something not yet mentioned, but no description is given. This very indefiniteness suggests the worst.
This — Points to the same thing as thus.
Because — Because this terrible and indescribable judgment is about to fall.
Prepare to meet thy God — Who is coming in judgment. The words cannot be interpreted as an exhortation to repentance, except in the sense in which “every prediction of disaster was in itself an exhortation to repentance.” They are addressed to the whole nation; but Amos, when delivering this discourse, evidently no longer expected national repentance (but compare Amo_5:4 ff.). They are rather an appeal to prepare for the worst. However, this does not exclude the possibility of repentance on the part of isolated individuals (Amo_5:15). 13. The fulfillment of the threat is assured by the character and power of Him who inspired it.
For — The transition is abrupt; there is an ellipsis in thought. The connection may be expressed thus: “Prepare to meet thy God. Do not mock or disregard this announcement, for he who formeth the mountains… , the almighty Jehovah, is the author of it.” Amo_4:13, therefore, serves a purpose similar to that of Amo_2:3-8, to win a reverent hearing for the prophet’s message. The verbs are participial forms throughout, and may be translated, without the relative construction, “He formeth… he createth.…”
Formeth the mountains — The verb is one used of the occupation of the potter. Jehovah finds it as easy to fashion mountains as it is for the potter to fashion a vessel (Gen_2:7-8; Gen_2:19; Compare Psa_104:8).
Createth — While the verb does not imply the making of “something out of nothing,” it is used in the sense of producing something fundamentally new by powers transcending the ordinary powers of man.
Wind — Not “spirit”; may include all the “unseen but mighty forces of nature.”
What is his thought — Not the thought of Jehovah, but the thought of man. It requires greater powers to discover the secret thoughts of man than to make known one’s own thoughts to another. Jehovah possesses the greater power; that he can do the other is assumed throughout the Old Testament. The ancient versions present different readings, each one going its own way.
Maketh the morning darkness — Or, maketh darkness into morning. The last word is literally dawn. He does this by his sudden appearance in a storm cloud (Psa_18:9), or by the natural change of day into night, or night into day. Some interpret it, with less probability, of the transformation of spiritual darkness into light.
Treadeth upon the high places of the earth — Jehovah is described frequently as riding upon the clouds; in doing so he treads upon the high places, the mountains of the earth (Psa_18:10; Mic_1:3; compare Jdg_5:4-5).
Jehovah, The God of hosts — The mention of this title would in itself call attention to the majesty and power of Jehovah (see on Hos_12:5; compare Amo_3:15). On the authenticity of Amo_4:13, and the similar passages Amo_5:8-9; Amo_9:5-6, see Introduction, pp. 217ff.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. The sentence. All warnings have passed unheeded: no…
12. The sentence. All warnings have passed unheeded: no amendment is visible in the people; Jehovah must therefore proceed now to still more extreme measures. What these measures are, however, is not explicitly stated,—in order, doubtless, that Israel, roused to alarm by the prospect of unnamed but not therefore unimaginable evils, may be moved the more effectually to penitence.
Therefore thus will I do unto thee] By thus the prophet points his hearers forwards to the threatened, but unnamed, judgments still impending.
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prepare to meet thy God] as He approaches, viz. in judgement. The implication is, prepare thyself to meet Him, so that thou mayest be acquitted; a last chance of amendment is offered to the heedless nation,—or at least to those members of it whom the five-fold chastisement has spared; if they will but avail themselves of it, the Judge may be moved to mercy, and the sentence be mitigated.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) Thus will I do.—What is he about to…
(12) Thus will I do.—What is he about to do? It is left in awful uncertainty, but the doom is wrapt up in the boundless possibilities of the Divine judgment involved in the drawing very near of the Lord Himself, to execute what He has said and sworn by His Holiness in Amo_4:2-3. All that had previously been done in famine, drought, blighting pestilence, and earthquake, was not final, and had failed in its effect. The summons to meet God in some other unknown form than these is very solemn.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Therefore. Because all previous judgments have been in vain,…
Therefore. Because all previous judgments have been in vain, therefore will I send upon them something more terrible still. Thus. God says not how; he leaves the nature of the coming chastisement in mysterious uncertainty, that the very suspense may work fear and repentance. Because I will do this (pointing back to the mysterious "thus" above) unto thee; because I am ready to bring on thee still heavier punishment. Prepare to meet thy God; Septuagint, jEtoimazou tou ejpikaleisqai ton sou, "Prepare to call upon thy God." Make ready to meet thy God in judgment, turning to him with changed heart, if perchance he may forgive thee and withdraw his heavy hand. Another explanation, derived from Symmachus and adopted by a Lapide, Schegg, and others, "Praeparare ut adverseris Deo tuo an ironical encouragement to them to withstand God deprives the following verse of its suitability to the context. For the prophet would hardly invite them to this contest by expatiating upon God"s almightiness.
The great preparation.
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thus will I do unto thee, O Israel," etc. Here an important duty fathers itself on a stupendous fact. An omnipotent God is in judgment with sinful Israel. His wrath has expressed itself in bolt after bolt of judgment already hurled. But these measures are far from embodying all his punitive resources. In the failure of these to bring repentance there are woes unnamed, because unutterable, still in store. If Israel, then, would have the heaviest artillery of retribution kept out of action, they had need bestir themselves in the matter of a duty the further neglect of which must precipitate disaster.
I GOD AND MEN LIVING APART. The enjoyment of God"s presence was paradise, (Gen_3:8) and will be heaven; (1Th_4:17) that privilege lost is death, (Gen_3:24) and will be hell. (Luk_16:26)
1. The wicked neither have Gods presence nor desire it. "God drove out the man," when he became a sinner; and all men, as sinners, are "afar off." Purity and impurity are incompatible, and there can be no fellowship between them. Righteousness and unrighteousness are antagonistic, and cannot come together without coming into collision. Man"s instinctive consciousness of this led him to anticipate expulsion from God"s presence by trying to run away. (Gen_3:8) The separation between God and the sinner is thus by consent, and in the nature of the case, and so inevitable during the status quo.
2. The righteous enjoy it in the imperfect measure in which they desire it.
The need of Divine fellowship, universal with men, becomes conscious when they become spiritual. (Psa_42:2) As supply everywhere meets demand, (Php_4:19) and measures it, the drawing near of God is synchronous with the springing of desire for it, (Mat_5:6) as well as proportioned to its strength. (Rev_21:3) To each of us God comes when we desire him, and as we desire him. If the presence be intermittent or incognizable, it is because appreciation is inadequate, and the longing for it irregular or weak. (Isa_57:15 Isa_43:22)
3. To desire it perfectly and possess it fully is heaven. "Heaven is endless longing accompanied with an endless fruition" (Maclaren). In it there is perfection of the faculties which commune with God. There is perfection of opportunity for their exercise. Accordingly, there is perfect attainment of the normal result. We are "with Christ," and "know even as also we are known.
II CERTAIN OCCASIONS ON WHICH THEY NEVERTHELESS MEET. The wicked fear God (Rom_8:15) and bate him, (Rom_8:7) would be miserable in his presence, (Rev_6:16) and so do all they can to keep away from it. (Job_22:17 Job_21:14) But:
1. They meet him in the dispensations of providence. He is their King. He rules their life. All the events in it are of his disposing. He is where he operates, and so in each operation of which they are the subjects they meet him. Especially does he come to them in his judgments, which they are provoking every day. Misfortune, sickness, death, these in their order, for a widening circle, and at ever closer quarters, are occasions of meeting God which none would choose, yet none can shun.
2. They meet him in the influences of his grace. "No one"s salvation is so desperate, no one is so stained with every kind of sin, but that God cometh to him by holy inspirations to bring back the wanderer to himself" (Jerome, in Pusey). The strivings of the Spirit are unnoticed often, and resisted often (Luk_19:44; Act_7:51) and so are in the end withdrawn; (Gen_6:3) but, so far as we know, they are universal. As truly as he met the Prophet Balaam in the way does God meet men in the exercise of constraining or restraining grace.
3. They shall meet him in the judgment day. "Before him shall be gathered all nations." This meeting is sure, and will be unutterably momentous. All other meetings are preliminary and preparatory to it. It will gather up and declare and finally administer their cumulative results, The wicked shall be finally banished from God"s presence, and the righteous be finally admitted to it; and so for each it shall be the great meeting and the last meeting.
III THE PREPARATION NEEDED FOR SUCH ENCOUNTERS. Israel was evidently deficient in this; not expecting the meeting and not furnished for it. In making it we must:
1. Prepare a character. To meet God satisfactorily men must be like him. To see him on the one hand, or relish him on the other, or be capable in any sense of holding communion with him, a man must be pure (Mat_5:8; 2Co_6:14) He must bring to the meeting a character in sympathy with God"s, if he would bring a blessing away.
2. Prepare a case. Man before God is a criminal, guilty, condemned, and sentenced. He wants all this reversed, and he must be able to show reason before it can be done. And what are the elements essential to his ease? Clearly the penalty he was under must have been exhaustively endured; (1Pe_2:24) the Law he is under must have been perfectly obeyed; (Isa_42:21) both these things must have been done with theapproval and by the appointment of God; (Heb_5:4, Heb_5:5) and the man must be intelligently resting his case on these facts. In other words, there must be Divine vicarious obedience and death, divinely recognized, and rested in by faith. Any appearance before God apart from these must end in confusion.
3. Prepare an advocate. Man cannot plead his own case. lie has no locus standi. He can approach God only through a mediator. (1Jn_2:1) This mediator, to be admissible, must have Divine recognition; (Heb_5:4, Heb_5:5) to be efficient, must have Divine power (Psa_89:19; Mat_28:18) and to be available, must have Divine sovereign love for men. (Eph_5:2) These conditions meet, and meet only, and always met, in Jesus Christ. He is the one Advocate of every dispensation. Access into the antitypical holiest of all has been one thing and by one way always. (Heb_9:8 Heb_10:19-22) It is and was and shall be only spiritual and through the Son of God.
4. Prepare at once. To Israel a meeting in judgment had been long foreshadowed, and was now overdue. It might be any time, and must be soon. A surprise and in like circumstances it is the same with all was probable, and would be disastrous. (Rev_3:3) To prepare immediately was, therefore, a duty as urgent as it was clear. (Mat_24:44) It is ill beginning to dig a well when the house of life is already on fire.
IV THE CONSIDERATIONS THAT MOVE US TO PREPARE. In the context these are written large. There is:
1. An implied promise. "It has hope in it to be bidden to prepare" (Pusey). The person so enjoined is not yet given up. The menaced doom is not yet inevitable. The way in which God shall be met, and so the result of the meeting, is still capable of being modified. Every call to action is an implicit promise of the result to which it naturally leads. There is also:
2. An explicit threat. "Thus will I do unto thee." There is a vagueness here that is far more terrible than the most explicit denunciation. A series of woes already sent has just been named. But there is a woe that is unutterable in reserve, and already on its way. This, because words are too weak to express it, is left to the imagination to picture. "Thus will I do unto thee," he says, and attempts to particularize no further, where the sentiment is too terrible for words. And so it is with the woe in store for all the impenitent wicked. It cannot be literally defined, and so is suggested by figures such as "the blackness of darkness", (Jud_1:13) "the worm thatdieth not, and the fire that is not quenched". (Mar_9:48) But, however figuratively represented, the woe is real, is prepared, is being kept in store, is incomparably great, and shall fall as God is true.
3. Whether we are prepared or not, the meeting with God must come. "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." There is a needs be in the case. The purpose of God must be fully carded out in issuing all the matters that go down unsettled to the grave. The righteousness of God must conclusively be vindicated in meting out to all rewards according to their works. The truth of the Divine Word, pledged in promise and in threat, must be established forever in the answering of event to explicit prediction. The meeting may be a joy to us or a shame, as we choose to have it; but it must be a fact.
4. A feeling of unreadiness is a necessary step to preparation. The measure of a sinner"s fancied readiness to face his Maker is the measure of his ignorance as to what real fitness implies. The man who has been brought to say, "I dare not face God," has made one step in advance. He is disillusionized. His eyes are open and his conscience awake. Self-deception and false security are at an end. (Rev_3:17, Rev_3:18) The first step toward grappling with the facts has been taken when once we have fairly faced them. Realize that you are sinners, and the grace of God that bringeth salvation will find appreciation and an open door.
Prepare to meet thy God.
Forbearance has its limits, and probation is not forever. Discipline itself is temporary, and, when the purposes of God concerning men are fulfilled, will come to an end. There is a time for preparation, and then after that comes the time for reckoning and for recompense.
I THE PERSONS DIRECTED TO PREPARE FOR THIS MEETING.
1. Especially the disobedient, the threatened, the chastened. The previousverses make it evident that it was to these that the admonition was particularly addressed. The people of Israel, as a whole, had departed from God, and had been censured and chastened by God. It seems to have been in consequence of their impenitence and obduracy that they were addressed in the solemn language of the text.
2. Yet the appeal has surely reference to such as were learning the lessonsso powerfully though so painfully inculcated by Divine providence. There were individuals disposed to profit by the awful dispensations that were befalling the nation, and by the faithful admonitions addressed by inspired prophets.
II THE EVENT DESCRIBED AS A MEETING WITH GOD.
1. It is not to be supposed that there is ever a time when God is not inimmediate contact with his creatures. We meet him at every turn, we meet him at every moment. His eye is ever upon us, his hand is ever over us. "Whither shall we flee from his presence?" To the pious soul this thought is grateful, congenial, welcome. To the irreligious soul this thought should be productive of sincere humiliation and penitence.
2. There are, however, occasions appointed by the providence of Godupon which the sons of men are constrained, manifestly and unmistakably, to meet their God. Nations meet God in national crises, in solemn conjunctures of incident, of probation, of destiny. Individuals meet God in critical events in human life, in remarkable experiences of the inevitable incidence of the moral law of God.
3. All Scripture declares that there is a future judgment, when all theintelligent and accountable shall be summoned into the Divine presence and before the Divine tribunal. "After death the judgment;" "Then shall every man give account of himself to God." We are directed to keep this day of account before our view, and to live in prospect of it.
III THE PREPARATION HERE ENJOINED.
1. In character it must be thorough and sincere. Nothing hypocritical orsuperficial can suffice. For the meeting anticipated is with him who is the Searcher of all hearts.
2. In nature it must consist of true repentance and true faith. A turning ofthe heart from evil, and a turning unto God, these are essential. Unfeigned repentance and cordial faith are indispensable.
3. In manifestation it must be in conformity with Divine requirements. Ifthou wouldst meet God with holy confidence, then must thou "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God. T.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND Ver. 12.
Prepare to meet thy God.
The threats which precede this summons are very indefinite. Designedly so; for the prophet wished to arouse a genera/foreboding of retribution amongst the careless people, which would have its fulfilment in national disasters, but its final consummation in another world. Such indefiniteness also makes it possible to apply his words to men of every age and country. All responsible beings must at last meet their God, and may wisely be urged to "prepare." From the time of man"s fall the all-merciful Father has been calling men to return from their evil ways. Adam was encouraged to hope in his mercy. The antediluvians were faithfully warned through Noah, the preacher of righteousness. Israel was constantly being exhorted by the inspired prophets. John the Baptist had as the burden of his preaching this same word "prepare;" and it has come ringing down the centuries to make itself heard among us also.
I THE JUDGMENT FORETOLD. It is clear that the reference is to a summons to the tribunal of God, the Judge of quick and dead. There is a sense in which we may meet God in the study of his wonderful works in nature; in the strange and sometimes startling events of his providence; in the pages of his Word; in earnest supplication at his footstool. But another special and more solemn occasion is alluded to in our text even that day when the great white throne will be set, and every man will have to give an account of all the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad.
1. That judgment is certain to come. Even nature seems to point onward to some crisis in the future of our race. Conscience warns us that sin cannot always go unpunished, for the world is governed by a God of righteousness. Scripture constantly affirms that he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world by that Man whom he has ordained.
2. It is quite uncertain when it will, come. "Of that day and of that hour knoweth no man." It will come suddenly and unexpectedly, as a thief in the night. Death will end our time of probation, and no one knows where and when it may meet him. Therefore "prepare to meet thy God.
3. When it comes the trial will be thorough and final. All actions, together with their motives, are under the Divine cognizance. None will escape his notice. No false excuses will avail; and, on the other hand, no mere errors will be condemned as if they were wilful sins. The good will be severed from the evil, as our Lord teaches us in the parables of the dragnet and the tares of the field.
II THE PREPARATION NEEDED. We should not be urged to "prepare" unless by nature we were unprepared. It is merciful of our Judge to give us warning, counsel, and opportunity. He willeth not the death of a sinner, but would rather that he should repent end live. Had it not been possible for us to make ready, had he wished us only to hurry onward to a certain doom, we should not have heard this exhortation. But he gives us forewarning in many ways, and at certain seasons with peculiar force; e.g. when death enters our family, or some accident befalls ourselves.
1. We need self-examination. "Know thyself" was the advice of a heathen philosopher; but it is worth heeding by us all. We want the illumination of God"s Spirit and the instruction of God"s Word to aid us. "The candle of the Lord" must throw its rays into the recesses of our hearts.
2. We need confession and repentance. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
3. We need faith in the atonement of Jesus. It is said of all sinners who safely pass the great tribunal and enter into the heavenly world, "They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
III THE REASONS URGED. These appear in the next verse.
1. God is omnipotent. "He formeth the mountains." The mightiest cannot resist him; the most subtle will not escape him.
2. God is omniscient. "He declareth unto man what is his thought." He is the Searcher of hearts (Psa_139:2; Jer_17:10) Nothing eludes his notice. There is warning in this thought for the wicked; and there is comfort for the righteous, because these may reflect that their unspoken prayers, and their secret self-denials, and their unfulfilled purposes, are all recognized by him. They are represented by our Lord (Mat_25:37-40) as being surprised at reward coming for acts which they thought little of or had quite forgotten. "God is not unfaithful to forget your work of faith and labour of love.
Apply the words of the exhortation to the careless. A.R.
Vers. 12, 13.
Preparation for meeting God.
"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel," etc. "All the means that had been employed to reform the Israelites having proved ineffectual, they are here summoned to prepare for the final judgment, which was to put an end to their national existence. To this judgment reference is emphatically made in the terms jk, "thus;" and jaz, "this." There is a brief resumption of the sentence delivered in vers. 2 and 3." We raise three observations from these words.
I MAN MUST HAVE A CONSCIOUS MEETING WITH GOD. "Prepare to meet thy God." I shall see God," says Job: "whom I shall see for myself, and not another." Yes, we shall all see God. All men ought ever and everywhere to see him, for he is the great Object in the horizon, nearer to them infinitely than aught besides. But they do not. Their spiritual eye is so closed that they see him not; they are utterly unconscious of his presence. But see him they must one day. All must be Brought into conscious contact with him, and in his presence they will feel the greatest things in the universe melt into nothing- The atheist who denies his existence shall see God; the worldling who ignores his existence shall see God; the theologian who misrepresents his existence shall see God. We must all see God.
II THIS CONSCIOUS MEETING WITH GOD REQUIRES ON OUR PART PREPARATION.
1. To meet him; reconciliation is needed. Practically we are at enmity with him. How shall an enemy stand in his presence? Who does not feel uneasy and even distressed when he confronts a man he hates, although the man may have no disposition and no power whatever to injure him? How will the soul with enmity in its heart then confront him? "I beseech you then in Christ"s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2. To meet him, moral purity is necessary. How will a consciously corrupt soul feel in the presence of absolute holiness? How are the flames of hell kindled? By the rays of Divine holiness falling on corrupt spirits.
Eternal Light, eternal Light, How pure the soul must be, When, placed within thy searching sight, It shrinks not, but with calm delight Can live and look on thee!
III THE PROCEDURE OF GOD IS AN ARGUMENT FOR THIS PREPARATION.
1. His procedure is terribly judicial "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel." He was approaching the sinner in judgment, moving towards him judicially. He was coming towards the Israelites as an Avenger. And so he is ever coming towards wicked men. Prepare, therefore, to meet him. He is coming as a Judge slowly it may be, but surely and terribly.
2. His procedure is overwhelming grand. "Lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his Name." This magnificent description of Jehovah is given in order to urge the call to preparation.
CONCLUSION. The one mighty, loud, unceasing voice of God to man through all nature, history, and special revelation is, "Prepare to meet thy God. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Prepare to meet thy God.
Amo_4:12
Prepare to meet thy God.
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Preparation for judgment
We will endeavour to enforce the exhortation of the text in a series of arguments, illustrating the reasons why due obedience and attention should be given to this command of the great Omnipotent.
1. Because we shall most certainly be summoned to His tribunal, a We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. Do you believe this awful fact? You shall meet God, to give an account of every thought, word, and deed. Are you seeking a preparation for this dreadful period? The very idea of standing before the judgment-seat of Christ should so overpower the mind with its awfulness that every moment should be busily employed in preparing for that hour.
2. Because we shall then receive our everlasting destiny. Then we shall know our irreversible fate. The condition after judgment is unchangeable.
3. Because our time on earth is short and uncertain.
4. On account of the promised blessedness and happiness of heaven. The reward of glory, honour, and eternal life awaits those who have made due preparation to dwell in the celestial kingdom. (J. M. Burton.)
A call to remember God
To prepare to meet Him implies a firm belief of His approach, and careful consideration in what way best to receive it. This precept is often applied to the idea of meeting God in another world. But we may, apply the lessons of this teaching to what goes on in this world. How may we prepare to meet our God as He comes near to us?
I. During our probation on earth.
1. In the way of repentance. God reveals Himself to us as willing and waiting to be gracious; He calls on the careless and impenitent to meet Him in mercy, and tells them to do so--
(1) Quickly.
(2) Carefully.
(3) Decidedly.
2. In the way of temporal blessings. Then we should meet Him in a spirit of gratitude and praise.
3. In the way of temporal sorrow. Sorrow is often represented in Scripture under the idea of the clouds, the whirlwind, and the storm.
(1) Endeavour to turn judgment aside by humble prayer.
(2) Bear it as coming from God.
4. In the use of the means of grace, Men often lose much from not preparing to meet God in His own ordinances. Prepare to meet Him--
(1) With reverence and godly fear.
(2) With earnest expectation.
5. In the works of righteousness.
II. After the time of our probation is over.
1. Very solemn and awakening is the thought of meeting God at that moment, when every earthly prop will have been taken away from the soul, and the veil of flesh removed, and every delusion will have vanished for ever. Remember this in the midst of the engrossing concerns of this uncertain life. Realise that you are only,, strangers and pilgrims here.
2. After death comes judgment, when we must be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ. Prepare for that day. Judge yourselves now. (Vincent W. Ryan, M. A.)
The great meeting
I. God meets us now, and we meet him at sundry times and in divers manners. If in His own appointed ordinances we draw nigh to Him, it is our privilege to feel assured that He will most certainly draw nigh to us. But there must be antecedent preparation. God meets us in the time of trial, and we should prepare to meet Him. We should carefully and honestly examine ourselves--search, as before Him, our thoughts, feelings, opinions, and habits. There are temporal blessings in which God meets us, and in which we should prepare ourselves to meet Him, by habitually cherishing a contented and thankful spirit.
II. God meets us hereafter. That meeting is certain. The doctrine of a future judgment is, no doubt, peculiar to Divine revelation, but it receives the strongest confirmation from the natural conscience. It well-nigh overwhelms the mind to think of the disclosures of the great day. The final inquisition shall be spiritual. We all admit that the character of an act is determined by the motive in which it originates. God will then make manifest the counsels of our hearts. There is in this much call for alarm, but there is also abundant consolation. To the ungodly there cannot but be something terrible in these words, Prepare to meet thy God. How unbearable is the thought when it flashes even for a moment on the guilty conscience, Thou God seest me! We must remember that our Probation is limited to this present life. We must prepare to meet our God now or never. (R. W. Forrest, M. A.)
Prepare
How often have these words been turned into words of terror; how many noble discourses have been preached from this text which had no relation whatever to its meaning! This is the voice of love. All punishment, has failed--what now is to be done? Something larger, nobler. Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare: there is forewarning. When God forewarns He means to give us every opportunity of repentance; if He were not determined upon giving us every opportunity He would plunge upon us without warning, and carry us away as a flood in the night-time, The very word prepare, so used in,, this relation is itself a Gospel term. Prepare to meet thy God. Still it is thy God. Men give up God, but does God give up them? They forget that there is a double relation. Imagine not that God is moved by your fickle changefulness. You may have renounced God, but God has not renounced you. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Reverence and preparation
The words of Amos, as they are understood by Christendom, bidding us prepare for a final and extraordinary meeting with God, appeal to our sense of prudence and to our sense of justice. The words rouse these original instincts of the human soul to a new activity. Behind the sense of justice and of prudence there is in the soul of man another feeling, more indefinite, yet not less real than these--the sense of awe or reverence. Fear, love, and admiration enter into reverence in different proportions, but it cannot be identified with any one of them. It is the virtuous emotion whereby the soul of man sincerely acknowledges the presence of greatness. Reverence is not in any sense a fictitious sort of virtue. Some think reverence is the upshot of artificial circumstances, of artificial and stinted convictions, a fruit of narrow associations, of subjection to characters and to traditions of a particular type. But, reverence, like all virtue that deserves the name, is based on truth. And it is not exclusively, or even chiefly, ecclesiastical excellence. It is true that the Church of Christ is the great school of reverence, because, within it, the highest and most commanding greatness is continually presented to the soul of man. But reverence, as a human excellence, is older than the Church, older than Christianity, older than revelation; it is as old as the idea that there is anything in existence that is greater than man. The first school of reverence which has been provided for us is the natural world around us. I an feels, behind nature, a higher power of some kind, which appeals to his sense of greatness. In the absence of revelation, the mystery of the natural world has led to abundant error and degradation. Nature is, in a way, Gods first revelation to man. It is our first teacher of that practical sense of a higher greatness which we call reverence. The lesson is learned more effectively from man himself. Man becomes an object of reverence whenever a higher greatness than his own rests upon him; and it may do this in one of two ways, as the greatness of office, or the greatness of character. High office, always and everywhere, is a shadow of the majesty of God. But character commands reverence more than orifice. Office is in a sense outside a man, character is himself. Conspicuous goodness, in every age, compels reverence. Aristides, by his justice; Scipio, by his chastity; Cato, by his inflexibility. Nor is reverence less due to great names because it has been exaggerated. Exaggeration becomes impossible when we remember that the true object to which reverence is due is nothing in the man himself, as it is not anything in nature herself. It is that higher greatness which in both may be discovered beyond. Reverence is no mere inoperative sentiment when it is sincere. It carries with it practical consequences. Hence the extreme importance that the objects of reverence should be, as far as may be worthy of it. That one human form, one human character might command a boundless reverence, the Infinite Being submitted Himself to bonds, and appeared among us m a created form, that in Him all Christian reverence might centre. Below the throne of Jesus Christ reverence is always paid to a greatness distinct from and beyond the object which immediately provokes it; it is paid to God. Behind nature we find the omnipotence of God; behind human office the authority of God; behind human character, in its highest forms, the holiness of God. We do not vet see God, we feel God. Amos knows the difference between that sort of apprehension of God which is common among men; between talking about Him as men do, and meeting Him. Israel was irreverent, and Amos bids Israel prepare to meet its God in quite a different sense to that in which He had been met either at Bethel or Samaria in the prosperous days which were drawing to their close. Israel was to meet Him in suffering. Suffering strips off from the eye the conventional films which hide out God; it brings us face to face with Him. So, too, with us Christians as to death and judgment. How are we to be educated for the sight of God after death? Chiefly by worship. Religion is neither morality nor worship. It is the relation which binds the soul to God, of which religion morality is a necessary symptom, and worship a necessary exercise. But who ever heard of anything that could be called religion which was without a worship? Worship is the highest expression of reverence. Worship is an education for the inevitable future, a training of the souls eye to bear the brightness of the everlasting sun. (Canon Liddon.)
Prepare to meet God
Mere belief in the existence of the Deity may be the belief of the basest sinner. If my faith in God is not influencing my heart and my conduct Godward, so far as my spiritual condition is concerned, I might just as well have been born a heathen. Why should you prepare to meet God?
1. Because you must meet Him. There are a thousand things we can refrain from doing. Men can refuse to pray; refuse to repent and reform their ways; refuse to make confession of Christ: but there is one thing they cannot refuse to do,--they cannot refuse to meet God. The call of death all must hear and obey.
2. Because you may have to meet Him soon. The time is uncertain. Delay in other matters is sometimes prudence; but in all that relates to the safety of the soul, delay is dangerous, and indifference is inimical to the highest well-being of man.
3. Because you will have to meet Him alone. We meet in crowds now; but as individuals then. We must all die alone; we must all meet God alone. 4 Because to meet Him unprepared will be the greatest calamity, of your being. How will you meet your Maker if you neglect the preparation. What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel? (Enoch D. Solomon.)
The solemn warning
I. An interview between god and man is inevitable,
II. preparation is necessary to make these meetings salve and happy
1. A preparation of sincere repentance.
2. A preparation of faith in the Lord Jesus.
3. A preparation of regeneration.
4. The preparation of good works.
Not works of merit; but works of goodness, produced in us by His Holy Spirit. Works of devotion to God, and beneficence and compassion to men.
III. Urge the admonition of the text.
1. Prepare scripturally.
2. Prepare earnestly.
3. Prepare immediately.
4. Let all prepare. (J. Burns, D. D.)
Preparation for meeting God in the afflictions and judgme
nts of His hand:--
I. Prepare to meet thy God, o Israel, acknowledge who it is that is come out against thee. Stop not at second causes--dwell not and trifle not about petty and subordinate excuses. Acknowledge God to be the author of the calamity. It is His providence--His hand--His voice.
II. Acknowledge thy inability to meet him. How can man meet and bear and endure and sustain the judgments of his Creator? Our weakness being too great--our guilt too apparent--our folly too monstrous.
III. the abasing of ourselves before god in true penitence. Abase thyself before Him--return from all thy transgressions--cast away your idols--return unto God, and seek His face.
IV. We must cast ourselves upon his grace and mercy in jesus christ. Prepare to meet thy God by throwing thyself at the foot of the Cross--and by relying on justification and acceptance in the atoning blood and meritorious propitiation and sacrifice of the eternal Son of God. (D. Wilson.)
Gods message to Israel
Our consideration is called to the coming of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, as God manifest in the flesh. In the language of Scripture, the design of Almighty God in any way to bless or to punish mankind is often represented by the declaration of His coming among them for that purpose. In His own existence God necessarily fills all space, and is at all times equally present in every portion of the universe which He hath formed. Yet He speaks of Himself as dwelling among His people, departing from them, etc. All these forms of expression arise from the peculiar government which He exercised over the Israelites, often called a theocracy. Because every instrument, either of good or evil, was powerful and effectual only as employed by Him. God is also said to have personally done that which was done by His permission. While God warns His people of His approach, either for purposes of mercy or judgment, He commands them also to prepare for His reception; to be ready to meet Him with that reverence and gratitude and submission which comported with His high authority, and with their dependence upon His power. It seems that the afflictions of Israel had not been allowed by them to produce their proper effect, in bringing them to repentance. God threatens them therefore with further execution of His determinations for punishment, and solemnly admonishes them to be prepared for His coming.
I. The events which may be referred to as the coming of God. Two great events referred to under this peculiar designation. The advent of God in His Incarnation, for the redemption of His people. And the second personal advent to judge the world in righteousness.
1. The first advent of God, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, in some of its aspects, may be considered as a past event. But, in regard to its final object, the accomplishment of mans salvation, it must be considered as enduring until every ransomed soul has been brought home, converted from the world, and fully devoted to God. The great purpose of this coming He is affecting every day. But to the heart yet unchanged, the real advent of Christ, for mans salvation, is as much a future event as it was to Abraham.
2. The second advent is, for all who live now, a future event; and it will be for the full salvation of His people, for the universal judgment of the world, and for the final settlement of His glorious and everlasting kingdom. How far removed this day is neither men nor angels know.
II. The state of mind which is implied in this call for preparation.
1. In regard to His first advent, a Divine messenger was sent to make ready His way. The same work of preparation must be finished before your hearts can find peace with Him. The world and self are to be forsaken and denied. Your own righteousness, as a ground of hope, is to be relinquished.
2. In regard to the second coming of Christ, the exhortation of our text becomes still more solemn and important. What progress in holiness shall be too large a preparation for that momentous hour of the souls existence? What life of faith can be too elevated? What heavenliness of character can be too exalted? Personal holiness and active beneficence constitute the whole amount of pure and undefiled religion, as exemplified in the character which is required of the people of God. And though no worth can appertain to either, as proceeding from an imperfect and sinful being, yet undoubtedly, the higher are our attainments in both, the more full of peace and comfort will our souls be, at the coming of our God. In all the duties of a holy, active life, the spiritual Israel is to be prepared to meet their God.
III. The character under which God will come to his spiritual Israel. Thy God. Whether He comes in His first, or in His second advent, He comes as a Saviour who is welcome to His people; He is their God.
1. God the Saviour is ours, by His own election of us to be His people. When we knew Him not, He called us to receive the fulness of His grace.
2. By a voluntary donation of Himself for us. By this donation of Himself, He purchased for Himself a peculiar people, who shall glorify Him on the earth, and become partakers of His glory in heaven.
3. By our voluntary acceptance of His mercy.
4. By the personal consecration of ourselves to His service. This is the fourfold ground of that reciprocal property which subsists between God and His people. But we must consider Him, not only as theirs, but as their God. We may be joyful in our King, because of the glorious character of the Being whose coming is proclaimed.
IV. What will be the results of his coming to them?
1. His first advent is to their hearts, with the demonstration of the Spirit, and with Divine power, and its result is, that they are born again and made new creatures in Christ Jesus. The acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the great offices which He exercises for men, is the characteristic distinction of the people of God; the grand discriminating mark of converted souls.
2. Then, being redeemed, there will be nothing disheartening or terrible in His second coming to finish His purposes of love for us. The text having thus far been applied to spiritual Israel, may now be applied to idolatrous Israel.
To this class it is the solemn warning of an approaching judgment.
1. This text, as a warning, was addressed to those whose service and affections had been voluntarily withdrawn from the living God, and devoted to objects prohibited by Him. The Israelites had openly established idolatrous worship in the land; and had secretly withdrawn their hearts from God, even while professing outwardly to serve Him. Every unconverted man is really an idolater. The covetousness of the world is idolatry. The proud, the vain, the envious, are all idolaters. It is the voluntary idolatry of mens hearts which forms the guiltiness of their unconverted state.
2. The exhortation of this text was addressed to those who had experienced many chastising visitations from Almighty God without effect. Every painful providence dispensed to man is either a blessing or a curse. If it merely hardens us in a state of sin, it is a punishment.
3. The warning of the text was addressed to those who had been the peculiar objects of Divine forbearance, without repentance.
V. What will render the day of Gods coming intolerable to those who have done evil, and who must be judged for the evil which they have done.
1. In that day of Gods coming, you will think of the clear and inestimable manifestations of Divine love which you have neglected.
2. You will think of the laborious and expensive system which was devised and executed for your redemption.
3. The recompense of that dreadful day of Gods coming will be further aggravated by a clear view of the dignity of that holy and merciful Being who has been thus despised.
4. You will reflect upon His long-continued forbearance, which has been abused and exhausted by your perverseness in sin. Then I entreat you to look at the character of your own lives, and see if you are prepared to meet your God. Whatever be the outward habits of your lives, whatever the opinions which men entertain of your characters, without the power of godliness in your souls renewed by the Holy Ghost, you are weighed in the balance, and found wanting. Acquire, then, this spirit of true religion. Consider the value of your eternal interests. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)
Preparation to meet God
Is this to be considered the language of irony or of seriousness? We view the words seriously. Not as an insultation over their weakness, but as an expression of kindness designed to hinder the misery it foretold. The Divine threatenings are always conditional; either stated or implied. If God ever takes a sinner by surprise, it is after the rejection of a thousand warnings addressed to him. God strikes before He destroys, and He speaks before He strikes.
I. God is coming. Coming to apprehend, and to punish, without repentance. This may be applied to any of His awful dispensations. To destroy nations, in ways of spiritual judgment. Gods coming to judgment is rendered reasonable and probable by the testimony and terrors of conscience. And this coming to judgment is rendered certain by the Word of God. Here is an event in which we are not to be mere spectators, but parties deeply concerned.
II. We ought to be prepared to meet him. Attend to three questions.
1. Can you escape?
2. Can you contend with Him?
3. Can you endure Him?
III. There is a preparation which will enable us to meet him in safety and peace. The Bible tells us what we should do, and assures us of full provision for all that we are required to do.
1. You must go forth with the world behind your backs.
2. With tears in your eyes,
3. With ropes upon your necks.
4. With a petition in your hand.
5. With Christ at your side.
Go forth thus to meet Him, and He will fully pardon you and welcome you. (William Jay.)
Preparation to meet God
I. To whom may this command be considered as addressed? All who have made no preparation for meeting God.
1. Those who have designedly crowded the whole subject from their minds.
2. Those who have deferred the subject with an intention to prepare at a future time. They have some sense of the importance and necessity of making preparation.
3. Those who spend their time in preparing for other things, so as to crowd this subject out, though without any specific or settled intention to do so.
4. Those who have given some slight attention to the subject, but have settled down on that which will, in fact, constitute no preparation when they come to appear before God. They are relying on some delusive views and hopes, some erroneous doctrine or opinions; some vague, unsettled, and unsubstantial feelings. These classes embrace a large portion of the human family.
II. Why should preparation be made to meet God?
1. Because it is to be our first interview with Him face to face.
2. Because we shall meet Him in very solemn circumstances.
3. Because we go there on a very solemn errand.
4. Because God has solemnly commanded such preparation.
5. Because when we are brought before Him, it will be too late to do what is necessary to be done.
III. What is necessary to be done in order to be prepared to meet god? Mere bravery or courage is not a preparation to meet God. Not more is he prepared to meet God who bids defiance to death. Nor is studied insensibility in death the proper preparation.
1. It is necessary to be reconciled to God. No one is prepared to meet Him to whom He is a stranger or a foe.
2. To be born again; to be renewed by the Holy Ghost.
3. There must be true repentance for sin, and true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The sum of what I say is this,--To be prepared to meet God, we must comply exactly with what He requires. We must meet His terms. No one need ever to have made any mistake on this point.
IV. When we should prepare to meet God. We must attend to it to-day; we must defer it no longer. The Bible requires it to be done at once; it demands that everything else should give way for it; that this day may end your probation; and that there is slender probability of preparation being made on a dying bed. (A. Barnes, D. D.)
The advent message
These words contain the two elements of all advent thoughts, the promise of a coming, and the exhortation to prepare for that coming. The one great difference between Christianity and all other forms of life and thought is, that the former has an advent in it, and that the latter have not. Christ taught men to look forward. In other life there is no such definite spirit of anticipation. The plans of those who consider themselves progressive men are often more destructive than constructive. All true progress, either conscious or unconscious, voluntary or compulsory, can be defined as God and man meeting together. To some advent lessons of preparation for meeting our God let attention be given. There is always a generation that is growing up, preparing for the world, as we say. But what is this for which they are preparing? Prepare to meet thy God presents a very different ideal It supposes that the world of men and women, of events and circumstances, was made and is controlled by God. He is in it. Behind all its more evident aspects He exists as a great power which is unlimited in its plans, and unmeasured in its force. Into such a world we are called to enter, and for preparation toward such a destiny are needed spiritual acquirements,--the power of patience and self-denial, the accurate perception of what is for and what is against Gods glory, the possession of firm principle and courageous faith to resist the wrong and to assist the good. How many men have failed in the world for want of just those things! The whole moral aspect of life was obscured to them. The advent message brings back the true ideal. Its message is--Before us is God. Do not treat life as an earthly and insignificant thing; but at every step be sure that there is present the power of God, demanding our most complete preparation for what it lays upon us. The preparation for such daily meetings with God is a wide one. It neglects none of the ordinary preparations, in body, mind, and spirit; for every emergency requiring wisdom and power, it adds to that, it crowns it all, with that preparation of spirit, trained by intercourse with God Himself, in the closet, in the Church, by prayer, and by meditation, that we may be able to recognise His coming, and to do His will. Prepare to meet thy God is a command which, when we have once heard it clearly in Christian revelation, can be heard re-echoed from all the surrounding points of human life. The words of the text also relate to death. Religion did not make the grave; it only found it, and declared how it could be received. Something besides earth claims us, and we must go forth to meet it. It is the Gospel which says, Prepare to meet thy God. Let that day not come upon you unawares, as a thief in the night; refuse to be snared by and identified with that bodily life which must fail you; live by the power of Him who came from heaven, and took flesh upon Him, only that by that life in the flesh He might do the will of His Father, and call men back to Him. (Arthur Brooks.)
Preparation to meet God
The whole business which we have in the world is this, to prepare to meet God. This is the meaning of the whole Bible, to warn us that we must meet God, and to afford us every assistance and encouragement in this preparation. It is this in which mankind differs from all other creatures of God which we know of. Angels have not this call made to them. Brute creatures have not to appear before Him. Every man that is born must at last come into His presence. Who may abide the day of His coming? Our Lords warning is, Be ye ready! What it will be to meet our God no heart of man can conceive; for what thought of man can ever understand what God is? But we may come to know Him even in this world far more than we think we can, as He is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The thought of meeting God is of itself so awful, that we might have been disposed to sit down in despair at the contemplation of it, were it not for this access to the Father which we have in Jesus Christ. It is of infinite consequence that we should be prepared, lest that day should overtake us unawares. And we know in what way we are to be prepared, what the things are which will be required of us. We cannot undo the past, which must all come before the all-seeing eye of the Judge; but during the little time that remains to us we can earnestly ask forgiveness, with lastings, and prayers, and tears, for the sake of Christ; and thus we may, with Gods mercy, gain some hope and comfort before we die. (Plain Sermons by Contribution to Tracts for the Times. )
Preparation for eternity
I. To whom this command applies. It is applicable to all those who have not made any preparation.
1. There are those who have not made religion a personal matter.
2. Those who defer the subject with the intention of preparing at some future time.
3. Those who are so engrossed with other matters as to banish this subject from their minds.
4. Those who have given some attention to religion.
II. In what does such preparation consist This is an important question. It does not consist in courage or bravery. Not in infidel stoicism. Not in beauty, wealth, etc. Not in amiability, honesty, justice, a fair character. Two great difficulties stand between a sinner and heaven: a legal one--man is a condemned sinner; a moral one--man is unholy. Justification will remove the legal difficulty; and regeneration will remove the moral one. Justification is that which God does for us; regeneration, that which He does in us.
III. Some reasons for preparing to meet god. (J. D. Carey.)
Preparation for heaven
Every one knows that this life is but the childhood of existence. A great many, and not such as pass for bad men either, are making no sort of preparation for another life. In all that respects this worlds gain, the eye of the lightning is not sharper than theirs. And nothing can exceed the thoughtfulness and attention they bestow in preparing the comfort of their declining years. But take one of these deliberate and sagacious men, ask him what duty he is doing because Christianity requires it; ask him if he makes a point of doing, not what pleases himself, but what will please God. If he tells the truth, lie will reply that he thinks of no such things. He is contented if he preserves a good moral character, and does not materially injure others. He is quite easy as to his last account with God. But after giving all the praise due to this conduct, the great question returns, What is there in all this that you can call preparation for another existence? All this begins and ends with the present world. In all this there is nothing serious, nothing devoted, nothing high, nothing which could not be done as well without Jesus Christ as with Him. So many are in error. They are moving on in the voyage of life as if they were sure of drifting to the right harbour. What is the preparation required? Devotion and benevolence constitute the preparation;--in better words, the preparation is to love God with all the heart, and our neighbour as ourselves. Devotion does not consist in solemnity. The solemnity Christianity wants is that of a heart deeply engaged, interested, busy in its duty. I call that man devout who feels, and tries to feel, the presence of God; who is not afraid nor unwilling to have the eye of God upon him. Such a man prays, to make his requests known unto God; praises, because praise is the feeling of his heart; and his greatest endeavour is to bring his thoughts and deeds into subjection to the Christian law. Devotion means devotedness, readiness to do and suffer everything that pleases God. Devotion means something more than prayer. I would judge of the devotion by the life, and not of the life by the devotion. And the benevolence that makes part of the preparation is an active desire to do good to men. Mark the words active desire; for the mere desire is nothing. Very often there is a selfishness in the midst of benevolence. There are those who are willing to do good, but will to do it in their own way. Even the benevolent must be on their guard; they are far too apt to take as much with one hand as they give with the other. Mere feeling will do good as long as it is pleasant, and no longer. Principle is something worth having; it is patient, not easily discouraged, and enduring. (W. B. C. Peabody, D. D.)
Gods voice to humanity
I. There is a period to dawn upon mankind when they shall come to a particular contact with God. This period is--
1. Certain. Nature teaches the fact. Conscience indicates the same truth.
2. Uncertain, as to its time.
3. The greatest of all periods of importance.
Then the actions of the life will be brought to the test.
II. This period which is to dawn upon mankind requires preparation on mans part.
1. Man, in his natural state, is not in a condition to meet God.
2. Man is in a state of possibility to prepare.
3. Mans agency is necessary to his preparation.
III. God feels deep interest in the worlds preparation. He desires the salvation of the world.
1. From what He has done for humanity.
2. From what He is doing in man.
3. From what He has promised to do for us in future.
Attention to Gods voice will secure our everlasting happiness. (J. O. Griffiths.)
Preparation for judgment
I. Every one of the human family must stand before God. In the world of spirits we shall all meet God.
1. When the soul is dislodged from the body.
2. In the judgment at the last day. Note--
(1) The awful character and appearance of the Judge.
(2) The surrounding changes which will take place.
(3) The innumerable multitude that will then be assembled.
(4) The suddenness of the summons.
(5) The trial, or testing, through which every one must pass.
II. The nature of the preparation necessary to enable us to meet god with comfort.
1. The justification of our persons.
2. The sanctification of our nature.
3. The improvement of the talents entrusted to our care.
III. The necessity of attending to this important precept. Consider--
1. The awful character of God.
2. The mighty purposes for which this meeting is convened.
3. The vast importance of this duty, compared with the utter insignificance of all earthly pursuits.
4. The means of attaining this great end are abundantly supplied.
5. We beseech you to act upon this advice, from the assurance that on it depends your everlasting happiness or misery.
Address--
1. Those who have made no preparation for leaving this world.
2. Those who see the need, but delay.
3. Those who are diligently making preparation.
The more they arc like God, the better prepared they will be to meet Him. Only by a diligent attendance on the means of grace can this be secured. (R. Treffry.)
The great interview
The Jews were incorrigible. God had tried for their correction, captivity, famine, too much rain, too little rain, universal sickness, lightning, and war, No good result. He now tells them that greater judgments are to come. With God we must meet.
1. In the misfortunes of life. Times of sickness, disaster, etc.
2. In the bereavements of life. We cannot escape then, unless man stands all alone--fatherless, motherless, brotherless, sisterless, childless.
3. An interview of this kind will take place in our last hour.
4. We must meet God in the great day. Common sense teaches us that there must be a judgment-day. How are we to prepare to meet God? Two words will tell you. Repent. Believe. That is, give up your sin, and be sorry for it. Take Christ for your Saviour. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
Face to face with God
The late Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, one of the most serious minded and earnest men whom England has produced in this century, was suddenly summoned to meet death and judgment. In the midst of perfect health he was attacked with spasm of the heart, and learned that in a moment he would be called into the infinitely holy presence of his Maker. He knew what this meant; for the immaculate purity of God was a subject that had profoundly impressed his spiritual and ethical mind. He felt the need of mercy at the prospect of seeing God face to face; and as he lay upon his deathbed, still, thoughtful, and absorbed in silent prayer, all at once he repeated firmly and earnestly: And Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed. (W. G. T. Shedd.)
Ready to meet God
He who simply trusts the Saviour, he who faithfully performs every known duty, he who keeps a clear account with conscience, is always ready to enter heaven. There is deep truth in John Ruskins words: The only place where a man can be nobly thoughtless is on his deathbed. There ought to be no thinking left to be done there. Yes, we know how to die if we know how to live. (Sunday Companion.)
We have to do with our Maker
As a cathedral built in the heart of a great city rises with the other buildings round about it, keeps company with them a certain distance, and then leaves them all behind, soars away skyward, and at last, solitary and alone, looks up into the infinite spaces, so every man lives among men. He rests with them upon the same political and social foundation; he stands with them in a wide and important fellowship; he rises with them in a certain way, and then he goes beyond them all, and the last look and reference of his spirit is to the Eternal. We draw our being from God, we live and move and have our being in God, and at death we breathe back our life into Gods hands. The first thing in our existence is our Maker, and when we have done with all others we have still to do with Him. (G. A. Gordon, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain THREATENED EVIL ESCAPED BY RETURN TO GOD.—Amo_4:12
THREATENED EVIL ESCAPED BY RETURN TO GOD.—Amo_4:12
“When he has said, ‘This will I do to thee,’ he is silent as to what he will do, in order that whilst Israel is left in uncertainty as to the particular kind of punishment (which is all the more terrible because all kinds of things are imagined), it may repent of its sins, and so avert the things which God threatens here” [Jerome]. The words indicate—
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I. An expression of anger. “Therefore,” since ye persist in rebellion, regardless of former judgments and respites, “thus will I do.” Judgment must follow judgment until there is a full end. God’s hand is still lifted up, and the threat is the more severe, because nothing is mentioned. If a smitten people continue impenitent, and will not be corrected nor reclaimed, God will prosecute his work and inflict more plagues. His judgments are sadder or lighter according to our conduct under them, and terrible are those strokes which follow inflicted chastisement. “Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped nor remained” (Lam_2:22).
II. An exhortation to repentance. When God is about to strike he waits to be prevented. Though hardened in sin, and insensible under Divine correction, men may repent, and are exhorted to return to God. Repentance is not impossible. Set about it, prepare to meet God, and he will pardon you. “If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant.”
III. A motive to reconciliation. God can still be met—though punishment is threatened, God’s design and feelings may be seen in it. He chastens to restore. Sins may abound, but “His mercy endureth for ever.” He is willing to be thy God. He waits to be gracious and to be reconciled to thee. “Noah, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” Josiah endeavoured to ward off the threatened judgment by humiliation before God. But some foresee impending evil and escape not (Pro_22:3). There is a hiding-place in Christ. Let chastisements awaken you from slumber, and urge you to lay hold of the hope set before you. “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
PREPARATION TO MEET GOD
I. The solemn event. Not an ordinary event, not the meeting of man with man, but of man with his Maker. We have to meet God on earth, and especially at the judgment-day, when the atheist and the scorner, the righteous and the wicked, each one will see him for himself and not for another.
II. The needful preparation. If in judgment, prepare, for how can we contend against him? If in penitence, prepare, for he will meet us in forgiveness. A preparation of heart and life are necessary. The sinner must be reconciled; the soul must be renewed and the life be holy. “Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
III. The motives to enforce the preparation.
1. The greatness of God. If he be such as here described, what folly to oppose him, and what an argument to make our peace with him.
2. The providence of God. “Because I will do this, therefore prepare;” that is, God’s providential dealings with us are a motive to urge preparation to meet him. God comes near in judgments and great events. We should consider our ways. The doctrines of the gospel and the providences of life often fail to rouse attention. Men sleep unconscious of the presence of God and the impending danger. If we do not meet him as a Friend we shall have to meet him as a Judge. “Prepare to meet thy God.”
PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD.—Amo_4:12-13
Man forgets God. Scripture denounces this, and the great aim of its precepts, history, threatenings, and promises, is to produce and cherish the habit of remembering God. The text calls to remember God, is often applied exclusively to the meeting of God in another world; but from the context it applies to what goes on in this world also. Consider, therefore, how to meet God as he comes near.
I. During our time of probation on earth. It is common for those who dispute the reality of God’s coming to assert that he is too highly exalted to notice insignificant creatures. But in Scripture God’s greatness and man’s littleness often combine to illustrate this truth.
1. In the way of repentance. A sinful course is turning back from God, fleeing from a God of mercy to a God of anger. He calls the careless and impenitent to meet him.
(1) Quickly. Now a day of grace in which outward calls combine with inward connections. This time is precious, and will be succeeded by “a night wherein no man can work.”
(2) Carefully. “Let us search and try our ways.” Rush not carelessly and without thought to the throne of God. “Take with you words.”
(3) Decidedly. With the firm conviction that in no other way can peace and salvation be found.
2. In the way of temporal blessings. It may please him to let our life pass peaceably on—to keep off apprehended danger—to make the cup of sorrow pass from us, that we drink it not. Awful accidents and fearful calamities may have plunged others into misery, but we go on from day to day in security and peace. Meet God in a spirit of gratitude and praise.
3. In the way of temporal sorrow.
(1) Endeavour to turn judgment aside by humble prayer (Amo_7:2-6).
(2) To hear it as coming from God. We do not meet God if we look to second causes; nor profit if we do not see his hand and will
4. In the use of the means of grace God meets his people. There is no peradventure like Balaam’s in the believing use of means. Special blessings rest upon family worship, social and public worship, and when we obey the injunction “this do in remembrance of me.” But we lose much from not preparing to meet God in ordinances. Prepare with reverence and godly fear, and with earnest expectation.
5. We meet God in the works of righteousness (Isa_64:5). Thus we see it our duty to meet God during the time of probation. In Christ we meet him in repentance, and find him reconciled—in prosperity he calls for gratitude and praise—in judgment we bow with submission and endeavour to turn it aside—in the means of grace we should meet him with glad reverence, and earnest expectation of good things from his Fatherly bounty.
II. Prepare to meet him after the time of trial is over.
1. Very solemn and awakening is the thought of meeting God then. Here we meet him in his works and ways, there we shall meet God himself. Remember this in the engrossing concerns of uncertain life. Eternity, and not time, is the stage of our existence.
2. After death cometh the judgment, when we must “be made manifest” before the tribunal of Christ. Some will meet God in anger, and cry for rocks to fall on them; others will meet a God in mercy. No righteousness will stand them but “the righteousness of God.” Have we that righteousness? Is the thought of that day a part of your daily meditation? Give diligence to be found in him in peace and security. “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” This waiting frame of mind will be one of the greatest helps to prepare, and one of the surest signs that you are prepared to “meet your God” [Ryan].
THE DISPENSATIONS OF PROVIDENCE CARRYING OUT THE DESIGNS OF GRACE.—Amo_4:13
In true repentance we must have right views of God and his claims. The prophet here describes God in the resources of creation and the wonders of providence to induce Israel to think of him and prepare to meet him. “For” if mercy move not, let majesty. God is great, and can carry out his designs of love—
I. By his mighty power in creation. “He that formeth the mountains,” &c.
1. Power in the past. Before the mountains were brought forth God was. He created the solid parts of the earth, and reared the everlasting hills. “Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains.” They owe firmness and stability to him. The Alps and the Andes are “girded” and preserved from falling down by his power.
2. Power in the present. “And createth the wind.” The heathens believed in an inferior God, whom Jupiter appointed a store-keeper to raise and still the winds at pleasure. But God “bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries” (Jer_10:12). The winds and the seas obey him. “He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.” The most solid and the most subtle, the mildest and the most terrific, agents were created by God. If we read rightly we see not only power but mind in the works of God. Men are thus encouraged to flee unto him. The salvation expected from the hills typifies deliverance from sin and protection in Christ (Psa_89:11-12). Control over winds sets forth his dominion over minds. All creation manifests his beneficence to men.
II. By his unceasing activity in providence. “That maketh the morning darkness.” God not only created, but governs all things according to the counsel of his will. He is unceasingly active for the good of his creatures. “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.”
1. Literally God makes the morning dark. He spreads the clouds and overcasts the sky. He creates light and darkness, and gives day and night.
2. Providentially God makes the morning dark. The morning of joy and prosperity is turned into the night of sorrow and distress. The sunshine of Divine favour may be followed by retributive judgments. It is folly to trust in any means of deliverance but his. Our expectations may be darkened by unlooked-for changes. Everything that is joyous and beautiful may be effaced by darkness. “Seek him that … turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night.”
“For we have also our evening and our morn.”
III. By his omniscient presence with men. “And declareth unto man what is his thought.” He can read the heart and understand the thought afar off (Psa_139:2). We hide our sins and do not wish to know our hearts; but “God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” He reads and reveals us to ourselves and sets our sins in order before us. “The thought of God as a Creator or Preserver without,” says Pusey, “affects man but little. To man a sinner, far more impressive than all majesty of creative power, is the thought that God knows his inmost soul. God knows our thoughts more truly than we know ourselves.” There is no deceiving him in our conduct. We have to do with One who searches the heart. “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins” (Jer_17:10; Psa_7:9). The moral government of God is ever administered on the principle that man is accountable for his thoughts. The law of God weighs the purposes of men and the dispensations of God. “Give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”
“On human hearts he bends a jealous eye.”
IV. By his supreme control in all things. “The Lord, the God of hosts, is his name.” Not only the God of Israel, but the supreme Ruler of men and Disposer of all things.
1. He is supreme in the universe. “The Lord of hosts.” Head over all principalities and powers in heaven and earth. He has being in himself, and is the fountain of being and blessedness to others. “Who is over all, God blessed for ever.”
2. He makes all things subservient to his purpose. “Treadeth upon the high places of the earth.” He walks on the sea (Job_9:8), and on the wings of the wind (Psa_104:3). He subdues the proud and dethrones the mighty. Whatever is eminent and exalts itself against him he will put down. He reigns above all creatures, controls the highest spheres of power, and everything around him stands ready to execute his will. Thus the prophet sees in the course of nature the will of God, links the physical with the moral events, and makes the one find its loftiest end in the other. National calamities are revelations of God’s wrath. But these only endanger the material welfare of a people. A God of transcendant greatness sends them to draw us to himself. Nothing will avail before him but righteousness and truth. Prepare to meet him with joy and not with grief.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Amo_4:12-13. The Rev. Mr Madan was desired one evening, by some of his companions who were with him at a coffee-house, to go and hear Mr John Wesley, who they were told was to preach in the neighbourhood, and to return and exhibit his manners and discourse for their entertainment. Mr M., educated for the bar, went with that intention, and just as he entered the place, Wesley named his text, “Prepare to meet thy God,” with a solemnity of accent which struck him, and which inspired a seriousness that increased as the good man exhorted his hearers to repentance. Mr M. returned to the coffee-room, and was asked, “if he had taken off the old Methodist?” “No, gentlemen,” said he, “but he has taken me off;” and from that time he left their company and became a converted man [Whitecross].
Amo_4:13. “I never had a sight of my soul,” said the Emperor Aurelius, “and yet I have a great value for it, because it is discoverable by its operations; and by my constant experience of the power of God, I have a proof of his being, and a reason for my veneration” [Whitecross]. Let us incessantly bear in mind, that the only thing we have really to be afraid of, is fearing anything more than God [Book of the Fathers].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
God continues to speak to the people of Israel.
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prepare to meet your God
God says this to warn the people of Israel that he will judge them. AT: "prepare to meet me, your God" (See: First, Second, or Third Person and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
he who forms the mountains ... reveals his thoughts ... is his name
It is not clear whether Amos is speaking about God, or God is speaking about himself. If God is speaking about himself, it can be translated with the words "I" and "me." AT: "I who form the mountains ... reveal my thoughts ... is my name" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
makes the morning darkness
Possible meanings are 1) God causes the day to be very dark with thick clouds. AT: "makes the morning dark" or 2) God causes time to pass, so every day becomes night. AT: "makes morning and evening"
treads on the high places of the earth
God ruling over all the earth is spoken of as if he walks on the highest places of the earth. AT: "rules over all the earth" or "rules over even the highest places of the earth" (See: Metaphor)
Yahweh, God of hosts, is his name
By declaring his full name, Yahweh is declaring his power and authority to do these things. Your language may have a way for people to do this.
translationWords
Israel
God
reveal
high place
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:12 This is one of the two great thematic…
4:12 This is one of the two great thematic verses in Amos (the second is 5:24). Since Israel would not repent, it must meet . . . God in judgment.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.