Hope Restored (Amos 9:11–15)

Amos has faithfully exercised a sobering and straightforward message of God’s irrevocable punishment upon the covenant-breaking people of Israel. It has overwhelmingly been a hopeless message. However, as we saw in 9:9–10, amid the irrevocable judgement, God would save a remnant. Though he would burn the chaff, he would spare the graced grain of his own people. This introduces an element of hope in these remaining five verses.

Informed Christians observe “the wrath of God” being “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). This can be deeply discouraging, tempting us to lose hope. Yet we should remember what precedes that declaration: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (v. 16). Contemplating God’s gospel restores our hope. This is precisely the message of Amos 9:11–15. Christian, I hope today that your hope will be restored. If you are not a Christian, then I hope that today you will become a Christian and join with us who, by God’s grace, have had hope restored.

We will look at this passage under two main headings:

Amos concludes his written prophecy pointing to a better day, a day when God will do a work of repair and restoration in raising up what is currently fallen down—the house of David.

“That day” is not a specific day but rather a time period of judgement. And “that day” would be paralleled with a period of God’s gracious salvation. It is important to note the repetition of “I will” (vv. 11, 14–15). This is not a mere hope-so optimism but rather a know-so certainty. As certain as is judgement (cf. “I will”—9:1–4, 8–9), so certain is rescue, rebuilding, and restoration. Characteristically, the grace of hope shines the brightest when things are the darkest.

Perhaps our day is such a time. Amid so much false teaching, amid so much man-centred worship, amid discouragements of false professions and apostacy, we need the solid hope grounded in God’s gracious election.

The word “booth” can mean “tent,” a fragile dwelling place. In chapter 8, I argued that God’s judgement was pronounced upon the nation of Israel as they celebrated the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles. I think that same thought/image is here. Let me explain.

As we have been repeatedly reminded, the first king of the Northern Kingdom was Jeroboam I. Importantly, the first counterfeit feast that Jeroboam instituted alongside his counterfeit Judaism was the Feast of Booths (1 Kings 12:32–33). This effectively marked the end of the kingdom of David. The kingdom was officially divided; there was no united monarchy. The booth had fallen. The next couple of hundred of years simply brought about steeper decline, preparing Israel for the inevitable wrath of God. But now God offers a word of hope for those who would survive the sifting (vv. 8b-9).

Because God keeps his promises, he has always had his remnant of true Israel. For this reason, he promises that he will “raise up,” “repair,” and “rebuild as in the days of old.” He will “restore” (v. 14) his kingdom and, most significantly, will restore his King.

Again, things looked pretty bad at this point in history. The house of David, the palace of David, the kingdom of David was a mere booth that had “fallen.” It was defeated, divided, and in disrepair. Apparently, the division between Judah and Israel was such that it would never come right. But, of course, appearances can be deceiving, for with God nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

We should know that the “David” of whom God speaks was not merely the historic King David. That David is definitely in view, but he is in the rearview mirror. The ultimate David, however, is in view as we look ahead. It is one thing to know where you have come from, it is quite another to know where you are going. The restoration promised is much more glorious than merely repeating what occurred “in the days of old.” It includes that and yet so much more! This is clear in what follows in v. 12.

Verse 12 presents a radical departure from what was historically true of the kingdom of David.

Under the united monarchy, Edom was perhaps Israel’s most vicious and vengeful enemy. In fact, the next book (Obadiah) is a sobering denunciation of this people.

Edom descended from Esau and was a continual thorn in Israel’s side. This remained true until the time of Jesus with the Idumean King Herod as public enemy number one. Remember Matthew 2!

From what follows, the prophecy is clearly about a multiethnic kingdom over which God rules as king. And when you consider God’s denunciation of the nations (1:2–2:3) this might, but for the grace of God, seem incredible.

God declares that, in “that day,” a “remnant of Edom” would be included in God’s people. In fact, other Gentiles (“nations”) would also be “called by” the “name” of the Lord.

The phrase “they may possess the remnant of Edom” is not with reference to Israel’s military conquest; it refers to a spiritual “conquest.” The “LORD” would do this!

The proof of this interpretation is found many centuries later when leaders of the early New Testament church met in Jerusalem to discuss the phenomena of Gentiles becoming followers of the Jewish Messiah. There they were, debating the inclusion of Gentile believers with what appeared to be a predominately, if not exclusively, Jewish church (see Acts 15:1–21).

After Peter reminds the council of apostles and elders how, through his ministry, the gospel door was thrown demographically wide open to include the Gentiles—proven by their receiving the Holy Spirit upon conversion, just like the Jewish converts—Barnabas and Paul then spoke up. They also saw the same phenomena. Finally, James spoke up and, in doing so, quoted Amos 9:11–12 (from the Septuagint) to confirm that the kingdom of King Jesus includes Jews and Gentiles.

A lot could be said about this but, for our purposes, it is important to understand that God is clearly promising that the kingdom of David will be much bigger than a mere strip of land along the Mediterranean.

Remember that, at this time, a really bad king of Israel was opposing God’s word (7:10–13). For this reason, the “booth of David” was in ruins and in need of massive repair. But what might have seemed impossible was, to the faithful, a word of hope. So it should be to the faithful of our day. So it should be to each member of BBC.

God has his people within a people.

When Israel chose rebellious apostacy over obedience, they broke covenant with God and he, in return, recognised this. But God is a covenant-keeping God who keeps covenant with true Israel. It is for this reason that, after destroying an entire generation (except for Joshua and Caleb), God renumbered the people of Israel (Numbers 26ff). Though his wrath had fallen, God was faithful to his purposes, to his promises, and to his predestined people.

Therefore, God would not completely destroy Israel when time and again she rebelled. He remained faithful to his chosen remnant.

We see this in the Olivet Discourse (and in Revelation) where Jesus makes clear that his church—at that time, a Jewish church—would be spared during the Jewish wars of AD 67–70.

This is why, for centuries—despite setbacks, unfaithfulness, false teaching, counterfeit confessions, and apostate attacks from within the “church”—the Lord continues to build his church. God has his people—Jew and Gentiles—and therefore, despite ruin, he continues to redeem, raise up, rescue, reform, and revive.

“Declares the LORD God who does this” is key to it all. The sovereign, covenant-keeping God does his work and no amount of unbelief, apostacy, or opposition will thwart his purposes. For this reason, we should be—must be—hopeful. We must be hopeful when churches fail and fall, when church leaders fail and fall, when we see the problems in the larger landscape of the “church,” and when evil seems so strong. We must not despair. We must not cave to temptations to change either the message or the means of God’s mission—the local church.

Consider the words of the beloved Christmas hymn:

We need to remember, “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to men.” As Luke makes abundantly clear, God’s “goodwill” is shown to those whom he graciously saves.

God’s equitable judgement falls on every sinful kingdom. This is clearly the introductory point in chapters 1–2. This is reiterated in the preceding passage (9:7–8). But the flip side is equally true: God saves his people regardless of their ethnicity. In fact, we might say because of their ethnicity (Revelation 7:9–10).

God elected the nation of Israel as a means towards the elect among all the nations being saved. This leads to our final verses.

A Restored Paradise

Second, and finally for the book of Amos, we read of a restored paradise.

“The days are coming” when fruitless frustration (4:6–10) for faithless Israel will be replaced with faithful Israel experiencing fruitful flourishing. They will experience this to such a degree that it will be Eden restored. What a day that will be! When will it be? I have no idea. But that it will be is as certain as the faithfulness of the God who “declares” it. His assurance is clothed with the certain promise “I will” (v. 14).

In 4:6–11, God pronounced covenantal curses upon Israel (Leviticus 26:14ff; Deuteronomy 28:22–24ff). But here we have a reversal of that curse. Here we read of covenantal blessing (Leviticus 26:3–5). This is because, in Christ, the effects of the fall are rolled back. This is the storyline of the Bible.

When created mankind—Adam and then Eve—he placed them in a garden in Eden. It was a flourishing, productive environment in which to worship God.

Adam and Eve, our representatives, were in a position in which there would never be drought or pestilence and certainly no famine. Plants would grow abundantly and it would literally be a place that flowed with milk and honey. Fruitfulness would flow in an environment of faithfulness, both man’s and God’s.

Eden was a perfectly plumb (7:7–8) temple in which God’s people were to serve him. From this secure and sumptuous land, blessings would flow to all the globe. But then sin entered.

Separation resulted (man from God; man from man; man from himself; and man from his environment). Struggle and sorrow characterised all of these relationships (3:16ff). The earth would still produce crops, but with a lot of trouble and uncertainty. Because sinful man chose spiritual death over spiritual life, now making a living would take precedence over making a life. This fallen worldview was not fit to abide in Eden. Mankind was banished to live east of Eden. Was there any hope?

After thousands of years of mankind’s failed efforts to flourish in sin and a sin-soaked world, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to conquer sin and death; to replace faithless futility with faithful flourishing. Jesus did this by being perfectly faithful. He fulfilled the Father’s will, living a sinless life. He then substituted his sinlessness for the sinfulness of those who will repent and call upon his name for merciful salvation. Jesus died in their (our) place and rose from the dead for their (our) justification. He invites all to come to him to be reconciled to God, to be reconciled with one another, to be renewed within and to await the day when the sinful wilderness of the world will be transformed to a godly garden in which humanity will forever flourish in fellowship with the triune God. This is referred to by Christians as the consummation.

One day the Lord Jesus will return and all will be made right. Evil and evildoers will be punished and God’s people will be glorified, as will be the earth (Romans 8:18–25). The curse will be lifted once for all and the earth will yield its fruit as God first intended. God’s creation will bring forth after its kind—after its blessed flourishing kind. This is what Amos is referring to. God will “restore the fortunes of” his “people,” including the flourishing fortune of their “vineyards” and of their “gardens.”

Though I am of the view that this can be interpreted literally, it also points to flourishing in general. When God redeems, restores, and rebuilds his people, he does so bountifully in every area. This day will arrive with Jesus’ second advent.

Friends, God’s prophetic promise through Amos is both “already and not yet.” Jesus has come to redeem his people and we experience a foretaste of what one day will be ours more fully. By his death, burial, and resurrection, repentant believers have been reconciled to God. We have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, the down payment of a perfectly flourishing future—no more sin, no more brokenness, no more sad sorrow but rather the sweet wine of restoration from our fallen folly. We anticipate that day when we will be transformed into the perfect image of Jesus Christ. The fullness of his life will be on full display in our lives; the fruit of his character now manifested in our lives. That, my friend, is the Eden for which our hearts long!

Thomas Watson insightfully observed that, for the godly person, heaven is in them before they are in heaven. In other words, the faithful believer lives on earth in accordance with the way he or she will eventually live in “heaven”—that is, in glory. And this, of course, has an influential impact on those around them. This is the “already” aspect that awaits the not yet fullness of this glorious reality.

We should realise that, to the degree that we flourish individually, familially, and congregationally, the flourishing of Eden is spread.

We must ask and answer, is this prophecy exclusively for ethnic Jews, those who are called “my people Israel”?  That is a fair question which must be carefully considered.

The context makes clear that, since vv. 11–12 speak of “all the nations who are called by my name, declares the LORD [Yahweh] who does this,” we can confidently deduce that whatever else “Israel my people” means it certainly includes all of those who are in covenant relationship with the Lord—regardless of ethnicity. This is why Paul in Galatians 6:16 refers to all believers—Jewish and Gentile—as “the Israel of God.”

However, this does not exhaust the meaning and implication of this prophecy. Scripture indicates that there is coming a day when ethnic Jews will be saved in large numbers (see Romans 11). When that happens, a couple of things will attend that blessing.

First, this will lead to greater spread of the gospel with more Gentiles being converted (11:11–16). This is what many Reformers and later Puritans envisioned as the “Golden Age” of the church for which they prayed and laboured.

Second, when a massive number of ethnic Jews are converted, this will, by “gospel default,” have a blessed effect on geopolitical Israel. The land will be a shining light and will function like the salt of the earth. This is true of every nation that experiences a massive spiritual awakening.

For example, the eighteenth-century Great Awakening spared Britain from the septic-overflow of the godless French Revolution. In Wales an effect of the revival (1904–5) was that the mules became confused and disoriented because their drivers stopped using profanity and beatings. The awakening in the New Hebrides/Vanuatu resulted in cannibals converted to loving rather than eating their neighbours! Throughout history, family life, morality, work ethic, etc. dramatically improved by the power of the gospel.

In summary, while appropriately throwing out the dirty bathwater of unbiblical dispensationalism we need to beware of not throwing out the Jewish baby!

Rather, pray for their conversion. There is something special about a Jewish person being converted. It is no more precious than a Gentile conversion but it is unique, special, and significant for God will not fully and finally cast off his people (Romans 11:1–6).

Don’t confuse political questions of Israel and Palestine with biblical promises. The blessings which Amos records are gospel blessings, not solution arising from Washington DC—and particularly not arising from Donald Trump.

This brings us to the next and last aspect of paradise restored.

This promise is to “them.” Who are “them”?

They are those who survived the sieve of God’s wrath. They are the elect remnant of God’s ongoing sifting. But in accordance with the text, this will include, as we have argued, not only ethnic Jews but it will also encompass believing Gentiles.

The reference to the “land” should not be dismissed as merely figurative language, for it can be (and I believe should be) interpreted and applied literally. After all, this prophecy of Amos has emphasised Israel being defeated by a foreign nation by which many will be carried away. Such a captivity of course will also be the fate of Judah, the southern kingdom, at the hands of the Babylonians one hundred fifty years later. If that was literal then this should be taken literally.

Some argue that this was fulfilled when Judah returned after seventy years in Babylon. Others argue for the time when the Maccabees defeated the Greeks in 164 BC recapturing Jerusalem. But since in neither case was the conquest permanent, since they were subsequently “uprooted,” this cannot be the fulfilment of this promise. And who knows about Israel’s present situation? And even if Israel is in the land permanently now, the prophecy in Amos is focused on believing Israel, not today’s predominately unbelieving Israel.

In other words there is little reason for encouragement simply because unbelieving Jewish people are setting in Israel. We should be encouraged when we hear that they repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rather, this promise speaks of an eternal security. It speaks of God’s permanent possession of a whole lot of people—his sheep (John 10:16, 29–31). Be hopeful that their will be a final and eternal inheritance upon the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this promise of permanence applies to every Christian, whether Jewish or Gentile, for it applies to the church of all ages, those who by God’s grace have been saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word “irrevocable” has been used a lot in these studies in Amos. The book emphasises God’s irrevocable, irreversible judgement upon his unbelieving people. But as we close our study, we need to focus on something else that is irrevocable—the gracious salvation of God. Paul writes to the Roman church,

God has his true Israel—all believers—including true Israel within Israel. He will save them as promised.

This permanent restoration to paradise is the birthright of everyone to whom the Lord says, “I am the LORD your God.”

As we have seen, this final chapter opens with God addressing Israel as Adonai, the universal name for God as the master of the universe rather than Yahweh God’s covenantal name. Because of her apostacy that covenant had come to an end. But here God returns to his covenantal designation because by his sovereign and saving grace a people have become his people.

This promise of “permanence in paradise” belongs to everyone who can say, “I am your people and you are my God.” And how can this be?

By repenting of our sins, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting him alone for forgiveness of our sins and for reconciliation with God.

In other words, realising that, because of your sin, you have been banished from paradise, look to Christ alone to be redeemed, and then enjoy forever the hope of glorification being restored. This is the only way for hope to be truly, and fully restored.

AMEN