Has there been times in your life whenever your world seemed dark? Illness, pandemics, finances and loss kept you captive. Yet, you kept hoping until clouds appeared with silver linings.
Much of Amos makes you feel this way. However, throughout the book, you receive glimpses of hope. Do this and the destruction won't happen. At the end of this chapter, God through Amos tells his people that he will plant and no one can uproot. He will give them their land for a perpetual dwelling place.
Although the promise still awaits Israel, when Christ returns, the land will belong to them as long as the earth lasts.
Brief Introduction to Chapter 9
In this last chapter of Amos, we have the destruction of Israel.
This occurs in B.C. 722.
Judgment is threatened and the sinners shall not escape
(Amos 9:1-4)
The judgment is deserved because of their iniquities
However, not all will be lost (Amos 9:8)
A remnant of good people will escape (Amos 9:9)
The wicked ones will not make it (Amos 9:10)
The mercy shown will happen in the latter days (Amos
9:11-15)
It will be in the days of the Messiah that mercy will be
shown (Acts 15:16)
Vv 1 – 10 God’s Judgment Unavoidable
V 1 “I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He
said, “Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, and
break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest of them
with the sword; they will not have a fugitive who will flee, or a
refugee who will escape.”
The altar is the one in Israel. I hadn’t mentioned before,
but Israel is often referred to as the 10 lost tribes after their fall in B.C.
722. I did mention before that the country was never known by a separate name
after the exile from Babylon. Although some of them would resettle after the
return from Babylon, Israel is one country from then on, not divided.
The thresholds represents the ones who should be the pillars
of the earth for the spreading of God’s love and mercy. However, because of
their corruption, they will be slain.
Since the Lord is standing by it (upon it KJV), there is
going to be a sacrifice for sins. God’s punishment of Israel will be the
sacrifice for their sins. His standing on the altar is to show that the ground
around has been profaned by his people. They have sacrificed to other gods,
relied on foreigners and mistreated the poor rather than depending on him.
Further, his presence on the altar would show that a
sacrifice cannot be offered for them.
Amos is told to smite the capitals or lintels or the doors of the temple. Destroy the temple because God isn’t going to live here. He’s going out from it. Kill the princes and leaders by smiting them on the head with a sword. The rest of the leaders will be slain, also. None of these who have sinned against me will escape.
V 2 “Though they dig into Sheol, from there will My
hand take them; and though they ascend to heaven, from there will I
bring them down.”
Regardless of where they go, I will find them and slay them.
There will be none of the sinners who escape. Many did flee to Judah and other places to survive the onslaught from
Assyria. These were the favored ones of the Lord who hadn’t committed the
atrocities mentioned in the chapters above.
V 3 “Though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I
will search them out and take them from there;
and though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, from
there I will command the serpent and it will bite them.”
Mt. Carmel was the highest point of elevation in the area.
Even from there God will find those who flee to the mountains. There will be no
escape.
Regardless of where the one who has broken faith with the
Lord tries to hide, God will find him. He/she will be punished for his/her
sins.
God knows each and every heart. He knows where you and I
live. He knows the intent of our hearts. However, he only sees you as safe in
Jesus!
V 4 “And though they go into captivity before their
enemies, from there I will command the sword that it slay them, and I
will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good.”
Even if these sinners are taken captive, I will find them
and slay them with the sword. The ones scheduled for destruction shall not
escape.
Vv 5 – 10 The Conditions of the People
V 5 “The Lord God of hosts, the One who touches the
land so that it melts, and all those who dwell in it mourn, and all
of it rises up like the Nile and subsides like the Nile of Egypt.”
We’ve seen this language before in the previous chapter.
Like flooded land around the Nile river, the enemy will swarm over your land.
When it resides, everything in its path will have been swept away.
V 6 “The One who builds His upper chambers in the
heavens and has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, he who calls
for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the
earth,
The Lord is His name.”
The almighty, sovereign one, whose habitation is the
heavens, who places a dome of protection, our atmosphere, over the earth, how
can one escape one so powerful?
God created the firmaments over the earth. We learn this in Genesis 1 and 2. He places his dome of protection over the earth. Without it no one on earth can survive. Is he powerful or what?
He even calls the waters of the seas to rise. Consider the
tsunami that struck Japan a few years ago if you will. If he has the power to
execute these things, who in Israel can escape his wrath?
V 7 “Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me, O
sons of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Have I not brought up Israel from the
land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?”
Not that Ethiopia was any more lost than other countries,
but they were foreigners who did not have the Law of God as did the sons of
Israel. Since he made the dome above the earth, do they think that he doesn’t
control the inhabitants of the earth down here? That is his reference to the
countries above.
V 8 “Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful
kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; nevertheless,
I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.”
Although he will destroy the enemies of his sovereign law,
he will not destroy the good ones, too. A remnant will be left. He always
leaves a remnant! However, his destruction of them will not be by his sovereign
will but his righteousness.
V 9 “For behold, I am commanding, and I will shake
the house of Israel among all nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, but
not a kernel will fall to the ground.”
God is planning to shake Israel as one does wheat through a
sieve. The good kernels will remain while the chaff and bad kernels will fall
through the sieve. The very part the merchants have been selling to the poor
using a false scale will perish.
Ironic that God uses this language to describe the guilty, isn’t
it?
V 10 “All the sinners of My people will die by the
sword, those who say, ‘The calamity will not overtake or confront us.”
There is coming a day of reckoning. The ones who have been
testifying that they are secure in their land will face a calamity that they
can’t imagine.
Vv 11 – 15 The Restoration of Israel
V 11 “In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of
David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and
rebuild it as in the days of old.”
Remember that previously we said the “In that day” usually
referred to the tribulation period and the Millennial reign of Christ, here we
see the reference. Although the whole of Amos to this point has been about
their negative behavior and the punishment that will befall they and the nations
around them, the book ends with great spiritual hope.
Read Isaiah 66! Also Isaiah 64 is a good reference to the
promises above.
God will restore the house of David. He will restore Israel
to its former glory, yes, even beyond.
V 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.”
The countries around them will serve Israel once again. They
will swarm to Jerusalem to worship the One True God. They will bring sacrifices
and offerings to their God, and long life for the worshiper of God shall be as
long as the life of a tree (Isaiah 65:22).
V 13 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the
Lord, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of
grapes him who sows seed; when the mountains will drip sweet wine and
all the hills will be dissolved.”
The land will bear so profusely that in Israel it will seem
like harvest time and planting time all occur at the same time. They will
harvest such a huge crop that it will seem as though they harvest from the time
the ground is sown until harvest time comes at the same time.
V 14 “Also I will restore the captivity of My people
Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; they
will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat
their fruit.”
The day is coming when my peoples will rebuild the cities.
They will dwell in these cities. Their sowing and reaping will be abundant.
They will live in peace.
V 15 “I will also plant them on their land, and they
will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given
them,” says the Lord your God.”
Since they will live and honor me, they shall
never be removed from their land. They will live perpetually in my presence.
Their salvation will come from me.
Questions
Chapter 9
Amos
What’s the purpose of the Lord standing on the altar?
________________________________________
_____________________________________________________.
The lintels are the
__________________________________________________________________.
The thresholds represent
____________________________________________________________.
Where can the sinners go to escape?
______________________________________.
What is the “vaulted dome?”
_______________________________________________________.
What does this dome show Israel about God?
_______________________________________________,
What is God’s reference to Ethiopia, Caphtor, Kir and Aremeans
above? __________________________
________________________________________________.
What’s ironic about God using a sieve to find the guilt ones?
__________________________________.
What does “in that day” give reference?
__________________________________________________.
What will sowing and harvest be like?
____________________________________________________.
Howard
PSS: Our first novel, The Red-Haired Master Shepherd, has been published. The novel is fiction about a little known Biblical character who meets Jesus. Check it out here. Or you can email us for your copy.
Who You Are Isn't Based on Performance with God. Who You Are Should Have A Direct Bearing on How You Perform.
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