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Scripture Reading: Amos 6; Amos 7; Amos 8; Amos 9
Amos 3:1—9:10 covers Jehovah’s contending, His verbal fighting, with the house of Jacob. As we saw in the previous message, in chapters three through five we have Jehovah’s three reproofs to Israel. In 6:1—9:10 we have the plagues of the five signs seen by Amos, and in 9:11-15, a word concerning the restoration of the house of Israel with the rebuilding of the fallen tabernacle of David for the kingdom of Christ.
Amos 6:1-14 is an introduction to the plagues of the five signs.
In this introduction Israel, especially the high class, is described as living at ease a life of luxuries and pleasures but turning justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood, rejoicing in things of vanity, and boasting of taking horns for themselves by their own strength (vv. 1-6, 12-13). They boasted that they enjoyed everything and had everything by their own strength and through their own capability.
Because of this, Jehovah’s punishment would be meted out through the enemy‘s oppression, captivity, killing, and destruction (vv. 7-11, 14).
The plague of the first sign was that of the locusts eating the herbage of the land (7:1-3). The locusts symbolize the enemy’s army.
When the prophet saw that the eating of the herbage of the land was complete, he prayed, “O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech You! How will Jacob stand, for he is small?” (v. 2). Some of the punishments ordained of God have not taken place because some of God’s loving ones, the prophets, prayed for Israel, warning God that Israel might not endure.
When Jehovah heard Amos’s prayer, He repented and stopped the plague (v. 3).
The second plague was that of fire to devour the great deep (the deep water) and the land (v. 4).
The prophet prayed that the Lord would stop it, for Jacob was small and could not stand (v. 5).
Jehovah repented and stopped the plague (v. 6).
The plague of the third sign was that of a plumb line in the Lord’s hand (v. 7).
The Lord was holding a plumb line to measure Israel in order to determine what part had to be destroyed and what part had to be retained. Here the Lord was like a surgeon, knowing what should be cut off and what should remain.
The Lord told Amos that He was now setting a plumb line in the midst of His people Israel (v. 8a). He said, “The high places of Isaac will be desolated, / And the sanctuaries of Israel will be made waste; / And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword” (v. 9). The “high places” were the places where Israel worshipped the idols on the mountains. The expression “sanctuaries of Israel” refers not to the sanctuary in the city of Jerusalem but mainly to the sanctuaries in Bethel, in the northern kingdom of Israel. God would make them waste; He would attack the house of Jeroboam (one of the kings of Israel) with a sword.
The Lord said that He would not pass by the people of Israel again anymore (v. 8b).
In verses 10 through 17 we see the frustration by Amaziah the priest of Bethel, a false priest. In Bethel, in the northern kingdom of Israel, they had built a kind of temple and had their own priests.
Amaziah spoke to Amos, trying to frustrate him from prophesying (vv. 10-13).
Amos answered, “Jehovah said to me, Go, prophesy to My people Israel” (v. 15b), and he prophesied against Amaziah and against Israel (vv. 16-17).
The plague of the fourth sign, the sign of summer fruit, is covered in chapter eight. The summer fruit signifies that the time is ripe and the end has come upon Israel. The fruit of the fig tree is ripe for someone to pick it.
The Lord will not pass by the people of Israel again anymore (v. 2b).
Verses 3 through 10 indicate that there will be tragedy among Israel.
Verses 11 through 13 indicate that there will be the lacking of the word of Jehovah. Our lacking of the word of Jehovah is a kind of punishment from Jehovah. For example, after Abraham took Hagar to produce Ishmael, God did not speak to him for thirteen years (Gen. 16:15—17:1). In the northern kingdom of Israel, the same thing happened. Because of their sins against the Lord, He would not speak to them.
Amos 7:14 says that the worshippers of the calf of Samaria and of the idols in Dan and Beer-sheba would fall and not rise up again.
The plague of the first sign was the locusts; the plague of the second, fire; the plague of the third, the plumb line; and the plague of the fourth, the summer fruit. Now the fifth sign is the Lord standing upon the altar (9:1-10), signifying that the Lord is ready to destroy Israel.
Verses 1 through 4 speak concerning the shaking and slaying.
In verses 5 and 6 we see Jehovah as the judging One.
Verses 7 through 10 reveal that the Lord’s destruction of Israel the sinful kingdom would not be an utter destruction of the house of Jacob. The Lord would cause them to suffer but would not allow them to be utterly consumed because He has a purpose. If there had been no Israel left on earth, how could Christ have been born of them? For the purpose of incarnation God had to preserve a remnant of Israel.
The restoration of the house of Israel with the rebuilding of the fallen tabernacle of David is covered in verses 11 through 15.
“In that day I will raise up / The fallen tabernacle of David, / And I will wall up its breaches / And raise up its ruins / And build it up as it was in the days of old; / That they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations which are called by My name, declares Jehovah who does this” (vv. 11-12). This portion of Amos is quoted by James in Acts 15, when the apostles and the elders were gathered together to solve the problem of circumcision.
The tabernacle of David is the kingdom and the royal family of David. In ancient times it was hard to separate the royal family from the kingdom. Actually these two things are one. David’s kingdom was David’s royal family. That kingdom, that royal family, fell when Nebuchadnezzar came to capture the nation of Israel, devastate the land, burn the city, destroy the temple, and carry off the king. That was the fall of the kingdom of David and the royal family of David. However, in Amos God came in to promise that some day He would come back to restore the fallen kingdom of David. In that day the kingdom of David and the family of David will be restored, and all the nations will be called by the name of Jehovah.
This prophecy in Amos indicates that one day Christ will come back to be the real David. When Christ comes back, in His last appearing He will be the real David to restore His kingdom and His royal family. That will be the millennial kingdom, in which all the nations will be called by the name of Jehovah, that is, all the nations will belong to God. It was based on this that in Acts 15 James told the Jewish believers not to be bothered by Peter’s and Paul’s going to the Gentiles, because in the restoration all the Gentiles will belong to God, just like the Jews.
Christ will come and restore the fallen kingdom of David to set up His kingdom for the restoration of the entire universe. At that time all the nations will become God’s people. This is a great item in Amos’s prophecy.
Amos 9:13 says that days are coming when the plowman will overtake the reaper, and the grape treader, him who sows the seed. The mountains will drip sweet wine, and all the hills will melt (cf. Joel 3:18a). This indicates that in the restoration the produce from the earth will be abundant. There will be plenty of food for everyone.
Amos 9:14 tells us that Jehovah will turn the captivity of His people Israel. They will build the desolated cities and inhabit them. Also, they will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them, and make gardens and eat the fruit from them.
Amos concludes his prophecy by saying that Jehovah will plant the people of Israel upon their land, and they will not be plucked up again from their land, which He has given to them (v. 15).
