Fallen and Rebuilt

Amos ends with a picture of great judgment followed by a picture of incredible grace and restoration. Once again, the prophetic ministry is rehearsed wherein God punished strongly but restores most graciously. 

Amos 9:1 (ESV) I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape.

The Lord standing beside the altar is a striking image. Amos has already decried the empty religious practices of the nation. 

Amos 5:21–22 (ESV) “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them...

They might have assumed the Lord was there to bless them for their empty rituals. He was not. He was there in judgment. When God shows up, it's not always a happy event. In fact, for unbelievers, it is always terrifying. 

Notice the searching out of sinners in this case by the Lord. As judgment ensues, they people will think they can flee and hide from God.

Amos 9:2–4 (ESV) “If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. 3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search them out and take them; and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. 4 And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall kill them; and I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.”

We have here the counterbalance to the words of Psalm 139, which in loving and gracious terms describes the omnipresence of God who is there in the pit and on the mountain top. 

Ironically, the same God who seeks to save is the Lord who seeks to judge. As Hebrews 4 says, 

Hebrews 4:13 (ESV) And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The prophetic judgment ends with an announcement of seeming total destruction:

Amos 9:9–10 (ESV) “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth. 10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

Notice the phrase, "all the SINNERS of MY PEOPLE"... God knows those who are not truly among His people by faith but only by religious pretense, and the judgment seat always reveals the difference. 

From verse 11 onward, the prophet turns his tone to a note of incredible hope:

Amos 9:11–12 (ESV) “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the LORD who does this.

What day is "THAT day"? When will David's booth rise again and be rebuilt? Some suggest that these points point to a third Temple being rebuilt on the Mount in Jerusalem, leading to the seven-year Tribulation period. That could be true. I see it as a picture of the Church, the true people of God, from both Jew and Gentile who love both David and his Son, Jesus Christ. And what are we to do? Possess the nations. We bring about that possession through the preaching of the Gospel, taking people from all walks of life and making them members of the eternal family of God. 

We do this with the Power of the Holy Spirit, bringing a plentiful harvest about that overtakes even the initiating efforts of evangelism as pictured in verse 13. 

Amos 9:13 (ESV) “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

And Yes, God has a plan for Israel along the way. 

Amos 9:14–15 (ESV) I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

Israel is in their land, and by the looks of it, they will not be uprooted again. God's promise to the natural nation stand as an Earthly testimony to the reliability of His spiritual promises to us. Amen and amen.