Be Concerned - Amos - Destruction and Restoration

The Lord God gave to the prophet Amos five special visions of the divine judgment that was going to come on the northern kingdom, the nation of Israel. Amos 7:1-3, Amos saw the locusts coming to devour the land, and Amos cried out and said, "Oh God, don't do this. Oh that Jacob may stand, for he is small," and God relented.

Then God showed him the fire in Amos 7:4-6. And then in Amos 8:1-14, Amos had his fourth vision, the vision of the summer fruit; as the basket of summer fruit had ripened, so Israel had ripened for judgment and God says, "the end has come."

Now in Amos 9:1-15, we have the fifth of these visions of judgment: "I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said: 'Strike the doorposts, or the capitals of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, and he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.'" Now the people of Israel thought that because they were the people of Israel, they would somehow get away with what they had done.

Amos 3:1-15 of Amos the prophet said: "Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt." Now not just Samaria, that is Israel the northern kingdom, but this includes Judah the southern kingdom. "You only have I known," or chosen, elected, "of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities."

Now their theologians said, "We are the only nation God has chosen, therefore we can get away with our iniquities," but Amos says just the opposite. Responsibility is involved here. Privilege always brings responsibility; to whom much is given, much shall be required.

Now in Amos 9:2-4, the prophet says that God said to him, "I will search." Now can't you just see the people running? The temple comes down, the Assyrians move in on the nation, and people are going to run and hide. God uses a Gentile kingdom, Assyria, to chasten His own people, Israel. You know, God is free to do that. God can use any whip He wants to use; He can use any means of discipline He wants to use in order to bring His people to that place of surrender and submission.

Some are going to try to hide away from the earth, Amos 9:2: "Though they dig into hell," and the Hebrew word is Sheol, meaning the realm of the dead, "from there My hand shall take them." Some are going to go higher: "Though they climb up to heaven," now nobody can do that, but they're going to try, "from there I will bring them down." There's no place in all the universe where God can't find us.

In Amos 9:3, we have them trying to hide in various places on the earth: "And though they hide themselves on top of Carmel," now Mount Carmel was a beautiful mountain, still is; some say it has some caves, and they may have thought, "Well, we'll go up on top of Mount Carmel and we'll find some cave someplace." "From there I will search and take them," says the Lord.

Well, let's try another extreme again: "Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea," now of course they weren't able to do that, but they might try. I've not been there, but they tell me it's very dark down there. "God will not find us down here in the bottom of the sea." "From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them." God says, "I have servants all over the place. You won't serve Me, but I've got some servants down there in the depths of the sea. I'll just command one of those sea creatures to take care of you."

In Amos 9:4, some of them say, "Let's run off to Gentile territory." Now some of the Jews had the idea that when you left Jewish territory, you left God behind. They couldn't quite realize that God is the God of all the earth. God doesn't just reside in Jerusalem or Bethel or some place in Israel or Judah; God is everywhere.

He is God in the Gentile lands, He is God in the Jewish land, He is God in heaven and on earth. Amos 9:4: "Though they go into captivity before their enemies, from there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them." You see, God can even tell the Gentiles what to do and they will do it.

Captivity is one of the major themes of the book of Amos. Amos 4:2-3: "The Lord God has sworn by His holiness: 'Behold, the days shall come upon you when He will take you away with fishhooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.'" Just like leading a herd of cattle off to the slaughter—put a ring in their nose and tie a chain to the ring and off they go. God said, "I'm going to take you off to captivity just like a herd of cattle."

Amos 5:5 He talks about it: "But do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor pass over to Beersheba," these were their holy places, "for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity." He repeats this in Amos 5:27: "Therefore I will send you into captivity."

Now Amos, at the close of this book, says, "All right, they go off into captivity, but now they're safe. The enemy will care for them." Oh no. No, the enemy is going to slay them with the sword. You'll recall that Amos gave that message to Amaziah the priest, Amos 7:17: "Your wife shall be a harlot in the city," why? Because Amaziah would not be there to take care of her. "Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword," the enemy kills in the city. "Your land shall be divided by the survey line; you shall die in a defiled land."

"I'm going to deport you, and they'll kill you when you get to that other land. I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good." Now usually when God puts His eye upon His people, it is for blessing and care. Now He said, "My eye is going to be on you, not for good, but for harm. I'm going to keep watching you until My judgment catches up with you." I will strike, I will search. Judgment begins at the house of the Lord.

The third affirmation, Amos 9:5-10: "I will destroy." He's the God of creation. "The Lord God of hosts," that means the hosts of heaven and it also means armies; He's the Lord God of armies. "He who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell there mourn; all of it shall swell like the river." Now He used this same image back in Amos 8:8. I think He may be talking about an earthquake. "And subside like the River of Egypt."

He's talking here about the God who can speak and the earth burns up, the God who can speak and the earth just swells up and subsides like the tide of a river. He's the God of creation: "He who builds His layers," or His lofty palace, "in the sky, and has founded His strata in the earth." He's the God of heaven. He's the God of earth. "Who calls for the waters of the sea," He's the God of the sea, "and pours them out on the face of the earth."

He may be talking here about a rainstorm; the waters come up from the sea and are brought into the clouds and then down they come. "The Lord is His name." He's the God of creation, He's the God of history.

Amos 9:7: "Are you not like the people of Ethiopia to Me, O children of Israel? says the Lord." Now they would have answered, "No, of course not. The children of Ethiopia are a bunch of Gentiles; we are Jews. You never called the Ethiopians; You never gave them all the blessings You gave to us."

God is saying to them, "I have to treat you like the Gentiles because you're living like the Gentiles. You know the true God; you worship false gods. You know how to live so as to please Me, but you won't do it. So I have to treat you the way I treat the Ethiopians."

"Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt?" Oh yeah. But He said, "I brought up the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir." He said, "I have been in charge of the movements and the migrations of the peoples of the earth."

"Now you Jews think that because you participated in the Exodus, you can get away with anything that you want to do. Oh no. No, your Exodus is like the movement of any other nation now. You see, when we live in sin, we ruin our own privileges."

Here was the nation privileged to be chosen of God. He said, "I have to treat you like the Gentiles." Privileged to be delivered in mighty power from Egypt. He said, "Well, that was just like any other migration, just like when the Philistines came up or when the Syrians came up." I'm the God of creation, I'm the God of history, I will destroy.

But it's interesting in Amos 9:8-10, He says He's also the God of mercy. The God of mercy. "Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom," that means Israel and Judah I believe, "and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the Lord."

You see, there were godly people. There was a godly remnant. And God said, "Though I destroy the nation of Israel, that is Samaria, the northern kingdom, though I destroy the kingdom of Judah, I will not destroy the house of Jacob." He had made covenants to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to Israel through them, and He's going to keep His covenant.

And so this time of captivity would be a time of sifting; a remnant would come back. It's a good thing a remnant did come back, because after Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom and then Babylon took the southern kingdom into captivity—Judah—there was a remnant that came back, and from that remnant we received some of the Word of God and then the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, the Savior of the world was born.

You see, God was working out His perfect plan. Every time Israel and Judah disobeyed God, they were doing damage to themselves, and more than that, they were hindering the working of the Lord in the world. His plan was to use the people of Israel to bring the Savior into the world.

"And so I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among the nations. All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword." Be sure your sin will find you out. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. "Who say, 'The calamity shall not overtake us nor confront us.'" False assurance. Amos 6:3: "Oh, the day of doom is far away. I will destroy." And He did.

But the prophets often end on the positive note of hope. And so in Amos 9:11-15, we have His fourth affirmation: "I will restore." I will restore. I will strike, I will search, I will destroy, I will restore. "On that day," talking about the future day, "I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom," their enemy, "and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does this thing." He's saying here that He will restore the royal line of David that had fallen.

Now this word 'tabernacle' does not mean the tabernacle in the wilderness, it doesn't even mean a beautiful big tent; it's the word for a hut, a booth, a tent. In Isaiah 11:1, the family of David is compared to a stump that is just cut down to the ground. Now He said, "I'm going to raise it up. I'm going to restore Israel and Judah and I'm going to repair the damage." What damage? The split in the nation. "I'm going to repair the damage done and the nation will be one. It's going to be as before."

Notice what it says: "I will rebuild it as in the days of old." Now as in the days of old means that there was a literal kingdom on the earth, there was a throne, there was a king. He's not talking here in spiritual terms.

Now there's a spiritual lesson here for the church today; this is the passage that was quoted by James in Acts 15:1-41. You'll notice in Amos 9:12 that the nation of Israel—Israel, Judah restored and put together again—would conquer their enemies. But the amazing thing is there would be an open door for the Gentiles. He said, "When I set up this future kingdom, it will be open to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles will come."

Now this is quoted in Acts 15:1-41, so we had better look at that. In Acts 15:1-41, you have the church leaders getting together to discuss the question: must a Gentile become a Jew to become a Christian? How is a Gentile saved?

Now the Pharisaical crowd, the legalistic crowd said, "Oh, it's not possible to be saved just through faith in Jesus Christ; they have to practice the law of Moses." Now anybody who adds anything to God's grace is asking for judgment. Galatians 1:1-24 makes that very, very clear. Now the gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and He was buried and He arose again, and anybody who trusts in Him will be saved. It's faith that saves us.

Now in Acts 15:1-41, Peter gets up in Acts 15:7 and tells about the past; God called him to go to the Gentiles and these Gentiles were saved by faith. That's recorded in Acts 10:1-48. Paul and Barnabas got up in Acts 15:12 and told about the present, how that God was doing signs and wonders among the Gentiles.

Paul and Barnabas had gone among the Gentiles and started churches, and these people were saved by faith; they were not keeping the law of Moses. Now if what the Pharisees in the church were saying, if what these legalizers were saying was true, then all the people that Paul and Barnabas had led to Jesus Christ were not saved.

Then James gets up and he ties the whole thing together, Acts 15:13: "Men and brethren, listen to me. Simon," that's Peter, "has declared how God at the first," at the beginning, "visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree."

Now notice what he says: he doesn't say "this fulfills the prophecy of the Old Testament." He says "what the prophets say agrees with this that God is doing," namely that the Gentiles are now joining with us Jews in the church.

Now keep in mind the salvation of the Gentiles is not a secret; it's all over the prophets. Isaiah talks about it, Jeremiah does, Amos talks about it, it's mentioned by Moses, it's mentioned in the Psalms. The salvation of the Gentiles is no secret. The fact that Jews and Gentiles would be together in one body, the church, that was a secret hidden and it was not revealed in the Old Testament. Ephesians 3:1-21 tells us this.

Now he quotes from Amos. Here we look now at Acts 15:16: "After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things."

Now what is the argument here? Well, James is saying, "If in the future kingdom God includes the Gentiles with the Jews, why should He not include the Gentiles with the Jews in the church?" He is calling out from the Gentiles a people for His name. After this, after He has called out these Gentiles, then He will return.

Now the Lord hasn't returned yet. He will rebuild the tabernacle of David; He hasn't done that yet. He will rebuild its ruins and then the Gentiles can come and share in the kingdom. His argument I think is rather obvious: if the Lord in His prophets has said there is a future in the kingdom for the Gentiles, why is there not a place for the Gentiles in the church?

Now remember in Acts 15:1-41, Paul had not yet written Galatians or Ephesians or these letters that tell us about this beautiful truth that Jew and Gentile believing on the Lord Jesus are one in one body in the church.

So this takes us back now to Amos 9:1-15. God says, "I will restore." Restore what? The fallen line of David. I will restore the kingdom as it used to be and even better, because in Amos 9:13 He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed."

That's some kind of harvest, isn't it? "The mountains shall drip with sweet wine; the hills shall flow with it." You find so many of these promises in the scriptures; Joel talks about this, Isaiah talks about it in Isaiah 9, Isaiah 11, Micah talks about it. When there's going to be a restoration of the royal line, the restoration of the kingdom, the restoration of the land.

"I will bring back the captives of My people Israel," they're scattered all over. "They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them." It's going to be a time of fruitfulness and blessing.

Amos 9:15: "I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them, says the Lord your God." They're settled, there is security, there is peace, there is harmony. I am your God, you are My people. Notice that Amos 9:15, "the Lord your God," Amos 9:14, "My people." Now today, God cannot call them "My people"; they are not "My people" because they have rejected Him. But one day they will be His people when He restores and rebuilds and brings blessing.

And so Amos closes his prophecy on a very high note of hope. He's telling us that there is a great future ahead for the people of God. And we should look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not looking for a land, I'm looking for a Lord. I'm looking for not a temple, I'm looking for a city; the whole city is a temple. I'm looking for the Lord to come back. I'm not looking for signs, I'm looking for the Savior.

And now we have completed the book of Amos and the lesson that comes to us is so plain: God sees what the people are doing. God knows how we're harming and hurting each other. God warns that judgment is coming. Judgment shall begin at the house of the Lord. And yet God invites and says to us: come, trust, believe, obey, and I will forgive and I will restore.