“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God,” Amos 9:11-15.
What a happy future prospect for his fellow Israelites Amos, a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea, is inspired to predict as his final words. His book begins with judgment pronounced upon nations surrounding Israel and on Israel itself.
“Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes,” Amos 2:6.
Dark times
The days during which he prophesied were dark times indeed. Isaiah, his fellow prophet, reveals that to us.
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers,” Isaiah 1:1-7.
Yet despite the dreadfulness of the days in which he lived, Amos could look forward to a future day of blessing for his nation!
There are those who would believe that the blessings referred to in our text are blessings that will fall upon the ‘Church of Christ’ and not upon the nation of Israel. They believe that because it is their view that God has finished with Israel as a nation and they have been cast away by Him forever and that being so, these blessings belong to those, ‘spiritually’ referred to as ‘Israel’, to whom the Lord turned when He rejected Israel following the crucifixion of the Saviour by Israel. In other words Gentile believers!
I do not believe that to be so, and that for a number of simple reasons.
1. When the Lord speaks of ‘Israel’ He is speaking of that nation which He chose as His special people. David said this of that act of amazing grace by the Lord: “O LORD, there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt? For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, LORD, becamest their God,” 1 Chronicles 17:20-22.
Please note the words: “For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for ever; and thou, LORD, becamest their God.” If they mean anything they mean that Israel, though presently under judgment, are still the chosen nation!
2. Again, what the Lord says of ‘Israel’ here cannot possibly refer to the ‘Church’! “Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD,” Amos 9:8.
That CANNOT referred to the blood-washed saints of God to whom the Lord gave the promise: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” Hebrews 13:5.
But it is said of Amos’s generation of the nation of Israel, which had forsaken the Lord and would therefore be forsaken of Him.
Paul said: “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel,” Romans 9:6. Dr John Gill explains these words thus: “That is, they which are the descendants of the patriarch Jacob, whose name was Israel; or who are of the Israelitish nation, of the stock of Israel, belonging to that people; they are not all לארשׁי תא, ‘the Israel,’ by way of emphasis, as in Ps 25:22, or the ‘Israel of God,’ Ga 6:16, the Israel whom Jehovah the Father has chosen for a peculiar people; which Christ has redeemed from all their iniquities; which the Spirit of God calls with an holy calling, by special grace, to special privileges; the seed of Israel who are justified in Christ, whose iniquities are so pardoned and done away, that when they are sought for they shall not be found, and who are saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: or in other words, though they are ‘Israel after the flesh’.”
Judas Iscariot was a true Israelite BUT he was not one of the elect from amongst that nation, chosen of God unto eternal salvation through the redeeming blood of Christ!
So we can emphatically say that the ‘Israel’ spoken of in Amos 9:8 is not a reference to the ‘redeemed’ of the New Testament era but is, as is plainly stated, the sinful, defiant ‘nation’ of Israel, to whom in Amos is revealing what will be theirs in future days!
3. In anticipation of this erroneous view of such promise to Israel, the Lord forcefully and clearly states His mind of this matter. Heed the inspired words of Paul.
“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal,” Romans 11:1-4.
As in the days of Elijah, the Lord has reserved a ‘remnant’ of Israel and it is they who will enjoy the promises spoken of in our text.
Jeremiah spoke of a future day when God will deliver His ‘elect’ Jews from under the tribulation of Antichrist’s persecutions and will bring them into the blessings revealed by Amos.
“For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid,” Jeremiah 30:5-10.
The precise portion of the Jews that shall be delivered in the “the time of Jacob’s trouble” is given us by Zechariah.
“And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God,” Zechariah 13:8-9.
These are but some of the reasons that I believe that Amos in writing of the nation of Israel means the nation off Israel!
Quickly consider just what it is the Lord promises to future Israel.
I. HOW GRACIOUS ARE THESE PROMISES, GIVEN ISRAEL’S LONG HISTORY OF REBELLION!
1. The nation of Israel was born at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion,” Psalm 114:1-2. But sadly, within days of that wonderful escape they were complaining and defying the Lord. Consider these verses.
“And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness,” Exodus 14:10-12.
“And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger,” Exodus 16:1-3.
“And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” Exodus 17:1-3.
And so that spirit of complaining against God’s providence continued all their days. Ezra, in a day of like complaining and rebellion said: “Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day,” Ezra 9:7.
Hezekiah had to say the same! “For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs,” 2 Chronicles 29:6.
The Old Testament ends with these words. “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?” Malachi 3:7. Defiance and rebellion was the predominant feature of Israel!
Of course, we today cannot boast of being better! “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us,” 1 John 1:8-10.
We fool ourselves and make the Lord a liar if we do think ourselves better!
2. The ultimate act of rebellion by Israel was the rejection of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said of their rejection, when he preached at the temple after the healing of the lame man: “Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses,” Acts 3:12-15.
Such is the final and inevitable end of continued rejection of God’s truth — we become guilty of the rejection and murder of the Saviour!
3. It is for this reason that Israel today is under the judgment of God. Hosea prophesied of the times. “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim,” Hosea 3:4. All that Israel has today of the former blessings they enjoyed but ultimately despised is ‘the wailing wall’, the few stones that are left of the foundation of the ancient temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.
Back then, as never before, the Jewish people were scattered amongst the nations and remain largely so today. It is reckoned that there are some fifteen million Jews worldwide, half of which reside within the borders of the restored nation of Israel.
Since that dispersion some 2000 year ago, the poor Israelite has suffered much under the Gentile nations. Indeed, there appears to be a present-day renewing of that persecution, as frequent news reports indicate.
Of the days of persecution, the Lord said: “And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life,” Deuteronomy 28:63-66.
These terrible words, pronounced upon rebellious Israel are a stark reminder of the awful consequences of rejecting Christ!
II. BUT AMOS REVEALS THAT GOD HAS A PURPOSE IN MERCY FOR HIS ANCIENT PEOPLE
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen”.
1. Please note that the day of restoration has been appointed. The day so often referred to in the Bible under the phrase: “In that Day . . .”, is the day of Christ’s return in glory and great power.
“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins,” Romans 11:26-27.
The terms of the ‘covenant’ Paul refers to he sets down more fully in Hebrews 10:16-17. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
This is a quotation from the writings of Jeremiah. “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD,” Jeremiah 31:33-37.
As I said earlier in this article, the prophets ever set before the people, especially in days of distress and trouble, the words of this wonderful hope.
Dear preacher, ought not this to be practice of God’s servants today? There is no greater comfort and support than to be reminded of what the Lord has promised to be revealed to His redeemed people, Jew and Gentile, in the day of the Saviour’s return!
2. I would have you note that the blessings of that ‘day’ are permanent! “And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God,” Amos 9:15.
These are words that the people of Gaza, the Hamas terrorists, the Syrians, the Iranians, the Iraqis and all the pro-Palestinian protesters of today should read!
The land IS Israel’s and the Lord will restore it to their full and unchallengeable possession one day, that day of Christ’s return!
3. These times are not the times of our eternal rest in heaven but the days of Christ’s reign on earth. It is referred to in Revelation 20:6. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
Six times in this passage is the term ‘a thousand years’ mentioned. How can it be understood as anything other than that number of years?
Again the prophets frequently referred to the blessings of this era. As well as the words of Amos in verse 13, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt”, you have many parallel portions.
Here is one such passage.
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there,” Isaiah 35:1-9.
Eternal blessings
As I have stated, this blessed time referred to by Amos and his fellow prophets is not a reference to our eternal blessings in heaven but to a time on this earth. The reference to sowing, reaping, building waste cities, planting vineyards etc., these are EARTHLY pursuits.
It is after these ‘thousand years’ are ended that there will be, “A new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea,” Revelation 21:1. It is there that we will enjoy: “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book,” Revelation 22:1-7.
III. THESE DAYS OF BLESSING MAY BE DESCRIBED AS WHAT THE LORD INTENDED ISRAEL TO HAVE ENJOYED BUT WHICH THEIR SIN ROBBED THEM OF
1. Please note: ‘In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof’.
David and later Solomon and some of the later kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah, enjoyed a little of the fruits of obedience but such times were short-lived because of disobedience and sin.
I believe that what the Lord would have had Israel enjoy they will when ‘Jesus Is King’!
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers,” Isaiah 2:2-6.
This is the glorious order which shall be instituted when the Saviour comes to reign on the earth. “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 11:15.
“All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name,” Psalm 86:9.
Common experience
We ought to understand the ‘spiritual yo-yoing’ seen in the record of Israel for it is the experience of all of us! This is what Paul wrote of in Romans 7.
“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin,” verse 14-25.
Sadly, we know all too well that our times of experiencing God’s blessing are sadly short-lived, not because of God’s ceasing the blessing or failing us but because of our sinful inclinations robbing us of such! It is clearly recorded as the common experience of the people of God throughout the New Testament times. The epistles of the New Testament are testimony enough to the early departure of the early church. The Ephesian church is a typical example.
“And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent,” Revelation 2:3-5.
This explains the state of the Free Presbyterian Church today! We enjoyed a time of revival blessing in the past but we no longer do, because of our departure from the ‘old paths’!
There is a time coming when we will be delivered from such failings and short-comings, praise the Lord! That is what Amos is speaking of, particularly to a future redeemed Israel.
There will yet be seen “days of heaven upon the earth,” Deuteronomy 11:21. Our prayer is that of John: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Saturday, 23rd November, 2024.