The Stench of Self Regard Text: Amos 6:8-11
Introduction: The Divine Allergy to Arrogance
We live in a therapeutic age, an age that has convinced itself that the great cosmic problem is low self esteem. Our entire educational and psychological establishment is geared toward convincing every last soul that they are special, that they are wonderful, and that their greatest virtue is the celebration of self. But when we come to the Scriptures, we find that God has what can only be described as a severe, violent, and holy allergy to this very thing. What our age calls self esteem, the Bible calls the pride of life, and it is not a virtue to be cultivated but a cancer to be mortified.
The prophet Amos is sent to the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II. On the surface, things had never been better. The economy was booming, the military was victorious, and the nation was enjoying a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity. They had great houses, ivory furniture, and fine dining. They saw their success as a clear sign of God's favor. They were God's people, after all, and they were flourishing. But they had made a fatal miscalculation. They mistook God's patience for His approval. Their wealth had made them arrogant, their comfort had made them complacent, and their religion had become a self congratulatory exercise. They loved their citadels, their accomplishments, their national prestige. And in this passage, God tells them precisely what He thinks of it all.
This is not a gentle word of correction. This is a sworn oath from the God of Heaven's Armies. He is declaring war, not on the Assyrians, but on the arrogance of His own people. What they esteemed, God abhorred. What they celebrated, God hated. This is a foundational lesson for the church in every age, but especially for a comfortable, prosperous, Western church. We must learn to see our accomplishments, our strengths, and our pride from God's perspective. For if we do not, we will find that the very things we hold up as evidence of His blessing are the very things that provoke His wrath.
The Text
Lord Yahweh has sworn by Himself, Yahweh God of hosts has declared:
“I abhor the lofty pride of Jacob
And hate his citadels;
Therefore I will deliver up the city as well as its fullness.”
And it will be, if ten men are left in one house, they will die.
Then one’s uncle, or the one who burns his bones, will lift him up to bring out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” And that one will say, “No one.” Then he will answer, “Keep quiet. For the name of Yahweh is not to be mentioned.”
For behold, Yahweh is going to command and will strike the great house to pieces and the small house to fragments.
(Amos 6:8-11 LSB)
The Irrevocable Oath (v. 8)
The passage opens with the most solemn declaration possible.
"Lord Yahweh has sworn by Himself, Yahweh God of hosts has declared: 'I abhor the lofty pride of Jacob And hate his citadels; Therefore I will deliver up the city as well as its fullness.'" (Amos 6:8 LSB)
When a man makes an oath, he swears by something or someone greater than himself to guarantee his word. But when God makes an oath, there is nothing greater He can appeal to. So, as the author of Hebrews tells us, "He swore by Himself" (Heb. 6:13). This is the ultimate guarantee. The judgment that follows is not a possibility; it is a divine certainty. It is as fixed as the character of God Himself. The one making this declaration is "Yahweh God of hosts," the commander of the angelic armies. Israel's pride was in their military might, but God reminds them who the real general is. He is about to turn His armies against His own people.
And what is the charge? "I abhor the lofty pride of Jacob." The word "abhor" is visceral. It means to detest, to loathe, to find utterly disgusting. This is not mild disapproval. This is a holy revulsion. What Israel saw as their national glory, their exceptionalism, God saw as a spiritual stench. Their pride was not just a minor character flaw; it was an abomination to Him.
Notice what He targets: "And hate his citadels." Why the buildings? Because the citadels, the fortified palaces, were the tangible expression of their arrogance. They were monuments to their self sufficiency. They trusted in their wealth, their military engineering, and their political power. Their security was in their stuff, not their Savior. God hates it when we build things to hide from our need for Him. He hates the fortresses we construct around our hearts, whether they are made of stone, or of stock portfolios, or of academic credentials. Anything that becomes a substitute for simple trust in God becomes an object of His holy hatred.
The verdict is therefore simple and total: "I will deliver up the city as well as its fullness." The entire enterprise, the whole system built on pride, will be handed over to destruction. God is going to pull the plug. The city and everything that fills it, the people, the wealth, the culture, will be given over to the enemy. This is covenantal judgment. God is not an absentee landlord; He is a husband, and His bride has become a proud adulteress.
The Silence of Annihilation (v. 9-10)
The prophet then paints a grim, detailed picture of the totality of this judgment.
"And it will be, if ten men are left in one house, they will die. Then one’s uncle, or the one who burns his bones, will lift him up to bring out his bones from the house, and he will say to the one who is in the innermost part of the house, 'Is anyone else with you?' And that one will say, 'No one.' Then he will answer, 'Keep quiet. For the name of Yahweh is not to be mentioned.'" (Amos 6:9-10 LSB)
The destruction is relentless. A house that has already suffered so much that only ten men remain will not be a pocket of survivors. It is a death trap. The plague, or the famine, or the sword will find them. There is no hiding from a judgment that God has sworn to execute. The security of the "great house" is an illusion.
The scene then becomes even more macabre. Normal society has completely collapsed. Proper burials are a luxury of the past. It falls to a near relative, an uncle, who is also the "one who burns his bones," to handle the dead. This is a task of desperation. He enters the house, a makeshift cremator, to clear out the bodies. He calls into the back room, looking for the last survivor, and finds one man hiding in the darkness. "Anyone else with you?" The answer is a hollow "No one."
And then comes the most chilling line in the entire chapter: "Keep quiet. For the name of Yahweh is not to be mentioned." Why this terrified silence? This is not the silence of atheism; it is the silence of terror. They know exactly who is doing this. Their previous casual and presumptuous use of God's name in their songs and festivals has been replaced by a superstitious dread. They are so aware of the raw, holy power of Yahweh that they dare not even whisper His name, lest it draw His attention and bring another wave of judgment down upon the last survivor. They have moved from treating God as their national mascot to being utterly terrified of Him as their executioner. This is the end point of religion without repentance: a holy God, a guilty people, and no mediator. All that is left is fear and a dreadful silence.
Comprehensive Ruin (v. 11)
The final verse of our section summarizes the scope of the coming wrath.
"For behold, Yahweh is going to command and will strike the great house to pieces and the small house to fragments." (Amos 6:11 LSB)
God's judgment is sovereign. He simply "is going to command." As He spoke the world into existence, He will speak this nation's destruction into effect. His word is performative. When He commands ruin, ruin is the result.
And this ruin is not selective. It will strike "the great house to pieces and the small house to fragments." The pride of the elite in their citadels had infected the entire nation. The judgment, therefore, will be comprehensive. The wealthy will not be able to buy their way out, and the poor will not be able to hide in their insignificance. When God judges a nation for its corporate sin, the judgment falls on the entire social structure. Both the great and the small, who participated in the national arrogance, will face the consequences. God's demolition project is thorough. He will level the whole thing.
From Terrified Silence to Bold Speech
This is a hard word. It is a terrifying word. And it is a word for us. We are just as capable of the pride of Jacob as ancient Israel was. We build our citadels of financial security, of political influence, of intellectual respectability, of moral uprightness. We take the blessings of God's common grace and fashion them into idols of self-sufficiency, and then we have the audacity to thank God for helping us to be so wonderful.
God's disposition toward this has not changed one bit. He still abhors the lofty pride of man. The end of all this self-regard is a cowering silence in a dark room, afraid to even speak the name of the God who is dismantling your world.
But this is precisely where the gospel of Jesus Christ shines with such blinding brilliance. The terror of Amos 6 is the terror of facing a holy God with nothing but your sin and your pride. But we are not in that position. God, in His mercy, has provided a mediator.
The great house of God's own Son, His physical body, was struck to pieces on the cross. The fullness of the city of God's wrath was delivered up and poured out upon Him. He bore the abhorrence that our pride deserved. He endured the silence of the tomb so that we would not have to cower in a terrified silence forever.
Because of His sacrifice, the name of Yahweh is no longer a name to be feared, but a name to be treasured. It is the name of our salvation. We are not told to "keep quiet." We are commanded to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations... teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20). We are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). The choice before us is the same choice that was before Israel. We can trust in our citadels and end in terrified silence, or we can abandon our pride, trust in the crucified Christ, and have our mouths filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy.