Ivory
Ivory as a Symbol of Blessing, and as a Heartbreak When the Unrighteous Have It Taken Away from Them
Ivory the world over is a sign of opulence and beauty. Because of its beauty and rarity it is often in the hands of kings, therefore it has come to connote power and status. In Amos 3, we see a sobering passage in which the sons of Israel will be upended, and their opulent houses with them, as a result of their iniquities:
Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, ‘You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together, except they be agreed?’ . . . For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled. Thus saith the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch. Hear ye, anad testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the trans-gressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Beth-el: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. (Amos 3:1-3, 10-15, KJV)
This chilling passage ends with the great houses of ivory perishing due to the iniquities of the sons of Israel. God uses an adversary to bring down the sons of Israel, even the whole family of Israel that had been rescued from out of Egypt by God. The rebellious sons of Israel were not in agreement, as it were, with the LORD God of Israel, therefore they were uprooted from their ivory houses. They were kicked out of their winter house and kicked out of their summer house, indeed wrenched from their opulence by a ruthless enemy that would rip them apart as a lion rips up its prey. The sons of Israel in Samaria and Damascus clung in vain to their furniture as their enemies roamed about and sacked their opulent houses. Obviously, ivory is beautiful and inspiring when it is the symbol of national strength and prosperity, when the summer palaces and winter palaces are intact; but when a people are visited with the judgment of God, their former symbols of prosperity (such as ivory keepsakes and ivory houses) act as heartbreaking reminders of the heights from which they have fallen.
In Amos 6, we see an elaboration on the same theme:
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border? Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. The Lord GOD hath sworn by himself, saith the LORD the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and hate his palaces: therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein. And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. . . . For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. . . . Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entering of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness. (Amos 6:1-9, 11, 13-14, KJV)
Clearly, the LORD was offended by the way in which the house of Israel, indeed the very chief of the nations, was filled with people who put off the thought of God’s judgment; lied down on ivory beds; languished on comfortable couches; feasted on the choicest fare; chanted to the sound of the viol and drank wine by the bowl; trusted in the mountain of Samaria and in their own strength, rather than trusting in God; and grieved not for the affliction of Joseph. The LORD hated the palaces of this smug and prideful people, who grieved not for the afflicted and the poor, but rather served their own vain desires and comforts. The more the sons of Israel put off the thought of God’s judgment, the closer the judgment of God got. A shepherd from the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos warned those in the northern kingdom of Israel with the above message between 760 and 750 B.C. Of course, from history we know that the leadership of the northern kingdom of Israel did not listen to Amos, or to Isaiah after him, and sure enough, Israel was sacked by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Amos’s words were true, yet they were generally not heeded.