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.
There is Good News at the end of this prophet’s story! It is not all doom and gloom. After all these chapters of warning and judgement, Amos ends with a message of hope! Eventually God will restore His people and make them great again! In Amos 9:8, Amos assured God’s people that God would never “utterly destroy the house of Jacob.” You see God wants to redeem – not punish! John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” But when punishment is necessary, God doesn’t withhold it. Like a loving father, God disciplines those He loves in order to correct them. “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines” (Hebrews 12:6).
In the judgement of Israel, God disciplined them through reducing the house of David to a fallen house – it was broken! God’s covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7 said that one of David’s descendants would always sit on the throne. This now looked impossible as God’s people were dragged off into exile. But even in such brokenness, Amos gives God’s people a ray of hope. “In that day” (Amos 9:11), God would raise up and restore the kingdom to its promised glory and splendour. Through the promised Messiah, Jesus would renew the spiritual kingdom and rule over Heaven and earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! God would keep his Word and fulfil his promise.
Amos finishes his message by looking forward to this fulfilled promise, to the coming of Jesus and the hope and restoration that He will bring to people’s lives. It will be a time of great fruitfulness. It will be a time of rebuilding. It will be a time of restoring (Amos 9:11-15). But how will Jesus bring such hope and restoration in the midst of so much destruction? The kingdom of Israel was broken!
This is how. The brokenness that Israel experienced, the ruin and destruction they experienced because of their sinful rebellious hearts, the judgement that Israel received, and the judgement that we also feared and deserved, was poured out on Jesus on the cross. Jesus paid the price. Jesus took the ultimate judgement of a holy God on the cross for the sin of the whole world. As he bore our sins, He was forsaken and abandoned by his Father so that we would never need to be abandoned or forsaken again. As he bore our sins, he was punished and condemned so that we would never have to be again.
One of my favourite older hymns is “Rock of Ages” written by Augustus Toplady mainly because of the story behind it. Augustus Toplady was in a field when suddenly a storm hit with thunder and lightning. He ran towards a large rock face and when he got to it he saw that the rock had been split open and there was a crack just big enough for him to fit in. As he waited for the storm to pass, he thought of God’s coming judgement that we all must face, but he also thought of Jesus, the Rock of Ages who was broken by God so that sinners like me, who hide ourselves in Him, might be safe and secure. That I might be restored. He took out a little playing card and wrote on the back of it, “Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.”
There is only one remedy and one hope for a world and for a person who has experienced brokenness, pain, sorrow and ruin like the Israelites to whom Amos spoke: Come back to the Lord! Seek the Lord and live! Hope is found in seeking God. In times of difficulty, seek God. In times of temptation, seek God. In times of discomfort and struggle, seek God. In times when you know you have sinned, seek God. When you see others struggling, encourage them to seek God. “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6).