THE SECOND GROUP OF WOES This group of woes, representing the final part of the third sermon, include woes by God to Israel for: 1- Their deceiving sense of security 1 – 7 2- Their arrogant life 8 – 11 3- Their rejoicing in vanity 12 – 14 1- THEIR DECEIVING SENSE OF SECURITY: “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, and feel secure in Mount Samaria, the notable persons of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes” (Amos 6: 1) He probably presents the woe to the great, the elite, and all the civil and religious leaderships in Judah and Israel, who were at ease and were feeling secure in Zion and Samaria, leading a spoiled and loose life; Especially as having been counted the notables of the foremost and the firstborn of the nations! Zion was known for their towers and bulwarks; according to the Psalmist, who says: “Walk about Zion, and go all around her. Count her towers; Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; That you may tell it to generations following” (Psalm 48: 12, 13). It embraced the thrones of the house of David (Psalm 122: 5). As to Mount Samaria, it became the center of the religious life in the Northern Kingdom. The notable persons in those two regions felt at ease and secure; having got in their hands both the civil and the religious power, feared by the Gentiles, and to them came the house of Israel. This is the state of the soul that takes refuge in someone other than God; feels secure because of her temporal success or her religious reputation; and feels at ease, seeing everyone look at her with honor and admiration; It foolishly feels at ease and secure, instead of the perpetual strife and growth in the Lord! To provoke the people of Zion and Mount Samaria to repentance, he presents to them examples of great cities of the old, that perished, after having been well famed for a long time; As ‘Calneh’ that was built by Nemrud in the land of Shinar (Genesis 10: 11), then utterly destroyed; ‘Hamath’ in Syria, whose gods, Sennacherib boasted wiping out (2 Kings 18: 34; and ‘Gath’ of the Philistines, that was lately destroyed by Hazael (2 Kings 12: 17) … Are Zion and Mount Samaria better than those cities; Or are her territories greater than theirs?! It is indeed befitting of us to take a lesson from what befall the others. If sin has caused the destruction of great men, and slothfulness has corrupted kingdoms, It is befitting of us to reject sin, and to stop walking slothfully; lest we become a lesson to others as well! Israel never took a lesson from what happened to the nations around her; nor cared for God’s threats and warnings; indulging in her oppression, even in the courts of justice; counting chastisement far from being applied to her: “Woe to you who put off the evil day, and bring near a reign of violence” (Amos 6: 3) That life of evil and violence, and of not caring for the warnings of God, was supported by leading a life of pleasures and lusts; For which God rebukes them, saying: 63 “Who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on your couches, eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall” (Amos 6: 4) They know no spiritual strife or seriousness. Instead of putting on sackcloth on account of their sins, they stretch on their beds of ivory; And instead of fasting and humiliating themselves, they eat gluttonously. As the apostle Paul says about some evil teachers: “For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly” (Romans 16: 18); and, “Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – which set their minds on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3: 19, 20). They live for the sake of their own belly, and walk as earthly men, seeking temporal pleasures. “Who chant to the sound of the harp, and like David improvise on musical instruments” (Amos 6: 5). In their distorted minds, they imagined themselves chanting like David on the sound of the harp, and improvising on musical instruments; But far from it; For David chanted divine and heavenly praises; while theirs were corrupt songs accompanied with equally corrupt music of their own composition! During their fun, they probably sung some religious songs, not for worshipping, as much as for scoffing; like the Babylonians who asked the children of Israel in captivity to sing one of the songs of Zion; to which they said in response: “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land!”. Whereas those people, sung the lord’s songs amid their fun and drinking wine, in an atmosphere foreign from the Lord Corruption prevailed on their whole life, whether when sleeping, eating, drinking wine, having fun, or anointing themselves with the best anointments: “Who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the best anointments” (Amos 6: 6) St. Clement of Alexandria, commenting on these verses, says: [The Holy Spirit, on the tongue of the prophet Amos, proclaims the misery of the rich for the sake of their life of luxury1; Those who, according to the scholar Tertullian: have indeed found their comfort, honor, and glory, in their riches; against which the psalm warns us, saying: “Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; For when he dies he shall carry nothing away; his splendor shall not descend with him” (Psalm 49: 16, 17); And, “If riches increase, Do not set your heart on them” (Psalm 62: 10); And here, on the tongue of prophet Amos, the Lord utters woe against the rich who sets his heart on pleasures2]. St. John Chrysostom says: [See how God judges the rich, not on their greed, but merely on their extravagance: Behold, You eat with gluttony, while Christ does not have the necessities; You eat cakes, while Christ does not have the bare bread; You drink the wine of Thasian, and you deny Christ a cup of cold water through the thirsty; You lie on a smooth embroidered bed, while he dies of cold! 3] The Lord goes on describing those people who lead such a loose and idle life, by saying: “But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph” (Amos 6: 6) “Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives; And those who recline at banquets shall be removed” (Amos 6: 7) What is such sin that makes them worthy of being the first to go captive, and to be removed from the the banquets, at which they reclined? 1 Paed. 2: 2. 2 Adv. Marc. 4: 15. 3 In Matt. Hom. 48: 8. 64 ‘Joseph’, probably refers to Israel as a whole; It is as though those notable men, had their hearts drawn toward a life of luxury and fun, away from the affliction, through which Israel is passing; the same way those in prosperity, forget the grieves and sorrows of the church. “The affliction of Joseph” reminds us of the chief cupbearer who got his job back and stood before Pharaoh, forgetting all about Joseph in his prison (Genesis 40: 21, 23). It is a horrible portrait that reveals the selfishness of man, who when, living in comfort, forgets all about those who suffer and are in need, and cuts himself off from his fellowship of the holy congregation! Many fathers connect this expression: “not grieved for the affliction of Joseph”, with what came in Micah 1: 11: “The inhabitant of Zaanan does not go out to mourn on the place close by – (according to the Septuagint version)”; saying that, although what has befallen Israel (Joseph), and the neighbors of Zaanan, are allowed by God for the sake of their chastisement; Yet, if we refrain from partaking of their grief, It will be counted as a sin on our part. And as said by St. John Chrysostom: [Although they are justly chastened, Yet, it is not befitting of you to gloat on their suffering! God wants you to show compassion on them. If we, being sinners, when we punish one of our servants, we get angry to see another one laughing, and pour our wrath on that scoffer; How much more would God do in such a situation1?! He who says on the mouth of His prophet Hezekiel: “I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies”. Therefore, you should follow the lead of your Lord; As he who acquires such a good grief, gathers for himself a great profit2! 2- THEIR ARROGANT LIFE: God, uttering woe on Israel, who has fallen in pride, says: “The Lord has sworn by Himself; The Lord of hosts says: I abhor the pride of Jacob, and hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city, and all that is in it” (Amos 6: 8) He will deliver the city He loved and called His name on it, with all it palaces, and all that is in it, because of its vain pride and haughtiness. He abhors it and delivers it to chastisement with a vow, for all to believe that His verdict Is irreversible. St. John El-Dargi says: [Pride is the work of the devil; a denial of God, a despise of men, a mother of condemnation, a sign of a barren mind, an alienation from God’s help, a fountain of wrath, a door to hypocrisy, a help for the demons, a keeper of sins, a kinship of the cruelty of heart, an ignorance of compassion, a bitter auditor, an unjust judge, an adversary to God, and the origin of blasphemy]. And he also says: [Wherever there is a fall, there, pride has been dwelling; Because the presence of one is a warning of the dwelling of the other3]. Having fallen into the deadly pride, God kept chasing them with successive chastisements; If only ten remained in a house, they shall die! To give a portrait of their state, He shows an uncle carrying the body of his niece; when it is expected that man carries the bodies of his father or uncle, and makes a burning to honor them (Jeremiah 34: 5; 2 Chronicles 16: 14; 21: 19). Asking whether there is anyone left in the house, and finding out that all are dead, his heart frets against the Lord (Proverbs 19: 3), and dare not mention the name of the Lord. So would be the devastation over the houses of Israel that 1 In Matt. Hom. 79: 4. 2 Conc. Stat. hom. 18: 9. .4 ،1 :23 ،( 3 یوحنا السلمي: السلم إلى الله (تعریب رهبنة دیر مارجرجس الحرف، 1980 65 no one remains to mention the name of the Lord. It is amazing how the Lord would break the great house into bits, and the little house into pieces; how He destroys, and more violently so, the great before the little, on account of its increasing pride! 3-THEIR REJOICING IN VANITY: The third cause for their fall under woe, is: “You who rejoice over Lo Debar, who say, ‘Have we not taken Karnaim for ourselves, by our own strength?’ (Amos 6: 13) Amid their spoiled life of luxury, they rejoice, leaning upon their own strength, as though nothing would ever befall them, or that anything said to them in the form of warning, was nothing but vain words; ... The secret of their failure, is that they shut on themselves all ways of escape; He says: “Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? Yet, you have turned justice into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood” (Amos 6: 12) It is as though the Lord says to them: I have sent to you My prophets carrying warnings for the sake of your repentance and your returning to Me, to find out that your hearts have turned into rocks, on which no horse can run, or oxen can plow; You have turned the ordinances into poison and bitterness; You have taken the benefit away from the righteousness and truth! … Then He ends His sermon by saying: “I will raise up a nation against you O house of Israel’, They will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the valley of the Arabah” (Amos 6: 14) He will raise up nations to afflict them, from all sides: from the North (the entrance of Hamath), and from the South (the Valley of the Arabah), south of the Dead Sea.
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