Jesus Christ, the Land of Blessing
1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape. 2Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down. 3Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 4Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good. 5For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, is he who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt. 6It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth; Yahweh is his name. 7Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 8Behold, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says Yahweh. 9“For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth. 10All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake nor meet us.’ 11In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; 12that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this. 13“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. 14I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit. 15I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says Yahweh your God.
An artist pours everything into a work, as if bringing a child into the world. When it turns out as they hoped, they are so happy they feel they could fly. We cannot fully grasp what an artist wrestles with from first conception to completion, but a work born of such labor is so alive it seems to breathe. This world is God’s masterpiece, made with all his heart. He created human beings in his own image, blessed them, and gave them authority to use the rest of his works as they saw fit. But people handled God’s work carelessly and spoiled it, until they had turned it into a cursed land where even they themselves could not live. In the cursed ground thorns and thistles sprang up, clean water turned foul, and hearts that had once feared God were filled with evil and sin.
When people ruined what God had created, God felt no further need to be patient, and he resolved to destroy the world. He sent the judgment of the flood on the people and the world he had cherished most, and with his own hand he discarded the creation he had once looked on with such satisfaction and called good. The cost of not treasuring what God had made was enormous. In every nation that grew from the sons of Noah, natural disasters keep people from enjoying peace and rest.
If we are not grateful for the grace God has given, we come to long for the world and to love ourselves more, and so we fall into the sin of idolatry to satisfy our greed. God created human beings to share his glory with them, and he nailed his Son to the cross to rescue fallen people from death. Yet people were not grateful for that sacrifice. When sin blinded their eyes and they turned toward the world, God at last had no choice but to bring the judgment of his wrath upon them.
Amos 9:1
1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake; and break them in pieces on the head of all of them; and I will kill the last of them with the sword: there shall not one of them flee away, and there shall not one of them escape.
God’s judgment began at the temple. Israel, whom he had loved as his own child, disappointed him by its corruption, and he was so angry that he would pursue them to the end and slay them. How great his love for Israel must have been, for him to be this angry! Look closely at this account of Israel’s judgment and you will see that God did not punish their betrayal at once but waited until their sin had reached its full measure. His patience did not mean he had forgiven Israel; while he gave them a chance to turn back, he was also waiting patiently as the sin of the wicked piled up.
What came back to those who forsook God and chose the world was judgment. When God strikes the tops of the pillars beside the altar and makes the thresholds shake, he is announcing that the judgment has begun with the destruction of the temple he had held dear until then. The destruction of the temple speaks of a complete judgment. Israel did not repent even as God himself was breaking his own beautiful work to pieces. There are no greater and lesser sins. Whether we sin once or ten times, God sees it all as sin, so we have to give up the thought that this much will be all right. A white garment must be washed whether much muddy water has splashed on it or only a little; in the same way, because God hates sin, we must repent every day.
Because God has said he will single out Israel for punishment, not one of them can flee or hide from his eyes. Just as an architect knows every detail of a building, the Creator will find people out even if they flee to Sheol or to heaven. Nor must we forget that while God rebukes sin, he also commends the saints who obey his word. Just as he finds the sinner wherever they hide, God never forgets the good deeds of his faithful people, and he rewards them.
Psalms 66:7
7He rules by his might forever. His eyes watch the nations. Don’t let the rebellious rise up against him. Selah.
God rules by his great might. Because his eyes are on his people, he meets the needs of those who strive to live by faith and protects them from evil. It is utter folly, then, to stand against those under God’s watchful care, as the downfall of the nations that invaded Israel makes plain.
When Israel sinned like the idol-worshiping nations, God judged them too, without mercy. If Israel were to reflect on what kind of life had brought them blessing and when they had been rebuked, they would see how great a sin they are committing now.
When the psalmist says that the rebellious must not rise up in pride, he means that those who live wickedly must not comfort themselves with the thought that judgment will never really come, like a calf that will not heed its owner, stubbornly digs in its heels, and gets a beating for it. If someone who defies God’s will robs the poor and is content with it, that evil will not be forgiven. The wicked must not forget that God never takes his eyes off them for a moment but watches their every move. It is unnerving enough when a person keeps watching us; that God watches us without ever looking away can be a blessing to the faithful but a woe to the wicked. Israel was chosen by God as a nation set apart for the salvation of humanity, so had they lived even a little more uprightly, they would have been greatly loved.
Parents see their children’s strengths as bigger than their weaknesses, so that a child who does only a little well becomes their parents’ pride and joy; in the same way Israel would have become God’s. Because God’s love for his people has no end, it is an absolute love that strikes and then binds up, casts away and then embraces again. God waited right up to the end for them to repent.
Ecclesiastes 9:10
10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
The ancient Hebrews thought the world was divided into three parts: the heavens where God dwells, the earth where people live, and the region beneath the earth where people go when they die. That region beneath the earth they called Sheol. Since this verse says there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, they seem to have believed that death ends everything. Because nothing can be done in Sheol, they thought they must carry out the word and the plans God had given them while they were still alive.
Now, God does not save us on the basis of our works. But a person whose conduct does not change for the good may be said to have no faith. The reason is that when we believe with the heart and are made righteous, the deeds of faith show themselves naturally. Only when we lay down our own opinions, love our brothers and sisters in the faith, love our neighbors, and live faithfully so that many may receive God, do we fulfill our calling as God’s children. People like this must not think, when war breaks out, that all that matters is the safety of themselves and their own families, nor be confident that their family has somewhere to hide.
This is because God has said that if they dig into Sheol, his hand will take them from there; if they climb up to heaven, he will bring them down; if they hide on the top of Carmel, he will search and take them out there; and if they hide at the bottom of the sea, he will command the serpent to bite them. Those who treat the lives of others as trivial or look down on them, and live only for their own lives and their families’, have nowhere to hide from God’s eyes.
Israel heard Amos’s warnings and still did not believe, telling themselves that there could hardly be a war, and that the judgment could hardly reach them. But war came, and all who had spoken so proudly died. Nothing in God’s plan fails to be fulfilled. Whether people believe his word or not, it will be fulfilled, and those who spoke rashly will all die by the words they themselves had spoken. The people who had envied their corrupt leaders and wicked rulers were judged as well, every one of them, for the sins they themselves had committed.
Amos 9:7-8
7Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says Yahweh. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 8Behold, the eyes of the Lord Yahweh are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth; except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says Yahweh.
Israel was utterly crushed by a powerful foreign nation.
The suffering Israel endured, slain and dragged away into captivity for having despised the word of God, was more wretched than words can describe. Yet even in the midst of that judgment, God called the remnant of Israel back from the nations and began the work of restoring Israel. Because Israel was the chosen people, he punished their sin, but in the end he restored them in order to save both them and the Gentiles.
The Ethiopians were descendants of Ham. Seeing that Israel’s wicked heart would not change, any more than the dark skin of the Ethiopians turns white, God judged them, yet even in that judgment he remembered the house of Jacob and showed the grace of preserving it. This is the privilege Israel enjoyed as the people called to be God’s own. For though he was angry because he could not pardon their sin, his love for Israel never changes.
It is like parents who rebuke their child and grow angry when the child does wrong, yet in their hearts are working out how to help. God judged Israel because he hated sin; judgment itself was never his aim. God raised up the tent of David that is fallen, closed up its breaches, and worked so that the remnant would receive God’s inheritance.
Ezekiel 37:19
19tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand.
Now God has said that Israel and Judah will be restored as one. He has said that he will not abandon the promise he made to David, that David’s house and kingdom would be established before him forever and his throne would stand firm forever. He assured Ezekiel, who was living in captivity, of this promise. In verse 12, God says he will have them possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by his name.
Edom stands for all the nations hostile to Israel. Yet God said that even Edom would become an heir and receive a share within the promise made to David. Since Edom was a Gentile nation, this means that all the Gentiles will belong to God and receive his blessing. God chose Israel because he wanted to bring salvation to the Gentile nations, and he desired that the Gentiles be saved just as Israel was.
Isaiah 9:6-7
6For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
Isaiah prophesied that Jesus Christ would come from the line of David. Isaiah and all the prophets alike proclaimed that the Messiah, a son of David, would come and bring salvation to all peoples. The apostle James, who understood God’s purpose, quoted Amos 9:11-12 at the Jerusalem council as proof that Gentiles did not need to be circumcised or live like Jews in order to be saved. While Jerusalem was still under persecution and the church was not yet settled, James cited the words of Amos to declare that the Gentiles would have a share in Christ’s Kingdom. As we watch Scripture come to pass like this, without one thing left out, the promise that you are saved through faith in Jesus Christ will also come to pass.
Once the judgment is over and God lifts every curse and blesses the land of Israel, from then on they will receive the reward of their labor, and they will become a people kept safe under his care and living in peace. Afterward the Gentile nations will go on sinning by worshiping idols, but Israel, having suffered through judgment, will serve Yahweh faithfully, because they know how secure God’s protection is.
Amos 9:13
13“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills.
The land of Israel, under God’s protection, will become good soil, plowed without pause, and the vines planted on the mountain slopes will bear so heavily that sweet wine will flow in abundance. Israel, which had suffered for lack of water and food under judgment, came to have plenty of everything through the blessing God gave. Those who fear God can live in such abundance; it is because people cannot let go of their greed for the world that they suffer.
When God said that he would bring his people Israel back from captivity, he meant that the people of Israel would come to the end of their exile in Babylon and return to the homeland they had longed for. They would come back, rebuild the ruined cities, build houses to live in and great cities besides, and tend their vineyards, eating the fruit of what they themselves had planted and harvested. There is no greater blessing than receiving in full the reward of your own sweat. While they lived as captives in a foreign land, we can imagine them vowing that if only they could go home, they would serve God well and live by faith. Having once lost everything to foreigners, Israel would have known, when their captivity ended and they came home, how much there was to be thankful for in simply living and eating together as a whole family.
Amos 9:15
15I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says Yahweh your God.
God promised to protect Israel so that they would never again be carried off captive. He promised that no other nation would attack them again, and so Israel had only to rely on the name of Yahweh their God alone and keep faith.
God rebukes the proud, but when they repent and return, he shelters them as an eagle gathers its young under its wings. The blessing of the remnant who returned to Israel was truly astonishing, because God blessed them abundantly, regardless of time or place. This prophecy of blessing was actually fulfilled: in BC 538, the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, Cyrus issued the decree for the first return of Israel, and in BC 537 the people came back to Jerusalem. After the return from exile in Babylon, the walls of Jerusalem were built under the leadership of Nehemiah, giving them the strength to keep out invaders, and the people worked hard and defended their nation.
When God is with us, no one can tear us down; when he hides us, no one can find us. So you who are in Christ are safe. You have seen the God who in judgment is so terrible that he seems about to destroy every one of them, yet who, when the time comes, calls his people back and gathers them to himself. When the time God appointed arrived, he forgave them and restored them. What, then, is the heart of this God?
Israel rejected the word of God, who through the prophet Amos called them to repent, yet they are the chosen people whom God specially called. So that Israel, as his people, would proclaim the gospel to the nations, he gave them the law and shielded them from the attacks of every nation. Even so, when Israel betrayed the purpose God had for them, he was fiercely angry; yet he could not abandon his children, and he gathered them to himself again.
Friends, children may abandon their parents, but parents cannot abandon their children. We too scold our children sternly, yet the moment they seem to turn even a little, we take them back into our arms. When we see that in ourselves, we can understand this heart of God.
God hoped that Israel, as his people, would proclaim the gospel to the nations, and that through Israel’s witness the Gentiles would become God’s people. The people who brought the gospel to us were Jewish apostles, and this shows us that God desired to save all humanity through the Jews, and that he accomplished it. Jesus came into the world as a Jew, and his Jewish disciples proclaimed the gospel at the risk of their lives; because of that the gospel reached the whole world, and God’s will was fulfilled. Through their self-giving we Gentiles have come to know the love and sacrifice of Christ, and have learned that there is an eternal Kingdom. Now it is our turn, we who have become Christians, to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Just as Israel’s sin stood in the way of the gospel, the sins of believers hinder the spread of God’s Kingdom; as we look at Israel, then, we must hold fast to our faith and live wisely.
Now we come to the end of these sermons on Amos. You have watched Amos labor to make known the will of God, and you have watched Israel hear the word of judgment and still be judged in the end. And now, in our own day, we are watching war break out in Israel and many lives being lost, not only in Israel but in many nations. Before the world suffers even greater affliction, we must proclaim the gospel while we have the opportunity, and carry God’s love to them.
May you search out the heart of God, who gave Israel both judgment and restoration, and become, like Amos, people whom God approves. And may you love life, as the God who loves life does. May you receive the gift of peace he gives, and live always in joy.