Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
Amos was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, and his decided message went to both houses of Israel. He recognized the responsibility placed upon him and faithfully warned the wicked kingdoms of Israel and Judah to turn from their sins, put away their idols, and worship God. He told them of pestilences and sure destruction that would certainly follow their course of sin, and how offensive their doings were in the sight of God. He delivered it in simple, straightforward speech, rich in rural figures, as what the Lord Jehovah had shown him.
The verse is the prophet's plea for God to cease and spare the coming judgment, because Jacob, meaning Israel, is too small and weak to survive it and unable to recover by his own strength. It voices the question that comes when everything looks forbidding to any great advance, by whom shall Jacob arise when he is small. It describes God's people as small and their work as having a small beginning that others may think hardly worthy of mention, yet God answers by making the mountain of apparent difficulties a plain before His chosen builder and bringing forth the completion with shoutings of grace. Every great work of God on earth grows steadily and continually from such a small beginning into large proportions. Such a small beginning was a new era in publishing the great truths of the third angel's message, bringing new courage and much rejoicing to the little flock and new impetus to the work.
Applied to the church in its Laodicean condition, the question asks who can raise God's people from their weakened state, and their hope is in God, who is able to save and deliver. Their recovery requires faith in Him, wholehearted consecration, humility, self-examination, and obedience to His counsel.
Amos was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, and his decided message went to both houses of Israel. He recognized the responsibility placed upon him and faithfully warned the wicked kingdoms of Israel and Judah to turn from their sins, put away their idols, and worship God. He told them of pestilences and sure destruction that would certainly follow their course of sin, and how offensive their doings were in the sight of God. He delivered it in simple, straightforward speech, rich in rural figures, as what the Lord Jehovah had shown him.
The verse is the prophet's plea for God to cease and spare the coming judgment, because Jacob, meaning Israel, is too small and weak to survive it and unable to recover by his own strength. It voices the question that comes when everything looks forbidding to any great advance, by whom shall Jacob arise when he is small. It describes God's people as small and their work as having a small beginning that others may think hardly worthy of mention, yet God answers by making the mountain of apparent difficulties a plain before His chosen builder and bringing forth the completion with shoutings of grace. Every great work of God on earth grows steadily and continually from such a small beginning into large proportions. Such a small beginning was a new era in publishing the great truths of the third angel's message, bringing new courage and much rejoicing to the little flock and new impetus to the work.
Applied to the church in its Laodicean condition, the question asks who can raise God's people from their weakened state, and their hope is in God, who is able to save and deliver. Their recovery requires faith in Him, wholehearted consecration, humility, self-examination, and obedience to His counsel.