Why does the Lord refer to the nation as a virgin? Certainly it's not because she has been faithful to Him! I think perhaps it's because no other nation has ever had its way with her. There have been times when other nations laid siege to various cities and captured them, although some were later recaptured and in Amos' day much territory had been taken back during the reign of King Jeroboam II. But at no time has the nation completely fallen to an enemy and in that sense Israel has never been ravished by anyone.
When the invader comes, no one is going to rush to Israel's aid, so the Lord says she has "no one to lift her up". You'll recall from our study of the kings that when the Assyrian Empire began subjugating Israel and forcing the people to pay tribute, King Hoshea of Israel decided to rebel along with several other nations that were being oppressed by Assyria. Hoshea sent envoys to Pharaoh So of Egypt to ask for his help. But Egypt was on the downswing and So lacked the resources to effectively come to Hoshea's aid, later voluntarily subjecting himself to Assyria by making a personal gift of some of Egypt's finest horses to King Sargon II of Assyria.
The Lord cautions the people against trusting in their army to defend them. "This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel: 'Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left.'" (Amos 5:3) No matter how many men they have, it won't be enough. In other passages of the Bible we've seen the army of Israel winning decisive battles when they were outnumbered but that was before they forsook the Lord. With Him on their side, it didn't matter how few soldiers they had. But if they don't repent He won't be on their side and even if they send millions of men to battle it won't make any difference.
How can this terrible catastrophe be avoided? By forsaking idolatry and turning back to Him. "This is what the Lord says to Israel: 'Seek Me and live; do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. Seek the Lord and live, or He will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.'" (Amos 5:4-6)
Bethel was the primary site of worship in the northern kingdom of Israel. It was one of two locations with a golden calf (the other being at Dan) and was the location to which the kings brought their offerings and sacrifices. Bethel and Gilgal were locations where old altars were still present. After a central location of worship was set up in Jerusalem, that was the only God-authorized site for offerings and sacrifices. But when the ten northern tribes split away from the two southern tribes, the people of the northern kingdom no longer journeyed into the southern kingdom of Judah to worship. This led to people customizing their religion in their own ways instead of worshiping the Lord in the ways prescribed by Him. This led to bowing down to images intended to represent Him when He had expressly forbidden such images. This, in time, led to bowing down to heathen idols because making any representation of the Lord reduces Him in the eyes of mankind. The idols intended to represent Him were so similar to the idols of the heathen nations that many of the people began to regard Him as just one of many deities rather than the only God.
As we've discussed before, idolatry in modern-day highly developed countries looks different than it did in Amos' day. Idols are dressed in disguises now. Many, if not all, Christians would allow themselves to be martyred before they would bow down to the image of a false God but how many of us have given far more thought, time, and attention to other things than to the Lord? Of course the Lord expects us to fulfill our responsibilities and He wants us to enjoy wholesome recreational pursuits but He also wants everything in our lives to revolve around Him. If He isn't the bedrock of our lives, something else or someone else will be.
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