AMOS: GOD'S URGENT CALL TO REPENT

XIII: God's Restoration Of Israel In The Millennial Kingdom

(Amos 9:11-15)

I. Introduction

A. When God needed a messenger to the Kingdom of Israel as it was at the height of its rebellion against Him, the Lord sent Amos, a layman from Judah, to go north to Israel to voice severe judgment against that nation.

B. Following God's prediction in Amos 9:1-10 of Israel's inescapable punishment for idolatry, Amos 9:11-15 predicts God's final and lasting blessing for Israel in the Messianic Kingdom due to His gracious fulfillment of His Abrahamic Covenant. We view this passage for our insight and application (as follows):

II. God's Restoration Of Israel In The Millennial Kingdom, Amos 9:11-15.

A. Back at Amos 9:8 in the midst of His pronouncement of certain national punishment, God had predicted that He would not utterly destroy the house of "Jacob," referring to Israel's forefather to whom and to whose "seed" God had applied the Abrahamic Covenant when Jacob was fleeing from his brother Esau in Genesis 28:10-14.

B. Accordingly, Amos 9:11-15 described God's gracious renewal and reconstruction of the fallen kingdom of Israel following her national punishment that God might fulfill His Abrahamic Covenant to her (as follows):

1. In the coming Millennial Kingdom, God will raise up the literal "booth" of David that had fallen down, repair its broken places, raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, Amos 9:11 ESV; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1451. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had split from the Southern Kingdom of Judah with its Davidic king Rehoboam (1 Kings 12), and with this split had fallen the "protective canopy over the people of Israel" that needed to be repaired for Israel to enjoy God's full blessing, Ibid.

2. In that restoration, Edom, representing all of Israel's past enemies, would participate in the promises to David and all the rest of the Gentile nations "will be brought under the dominion of the Davidic King, for they too will bear God's name" as believers in Christ, the Messianic King, Amos 9:12; Ibid. This fellowship between Jews and Gentiles will fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant whereby God said in Genesis 12:1-3 that He would bless all the families of the earth through Abraham and His "seed," Ibid.

3. God then described the blessings to occur to believers in that Messianic Kingdom, Amos 9:13-15:

a. First, there will be lavish agricultural blessings in the Kingdom, Amos 9:13:

i. When God restores Israel in the Kingdom, the land "will be so productive . . . that the plowman who starts in October will have to wait for the reaper who should have finished in May," Amos 9:13a; Ibid. The reapers will need to work five more months than usual to harvest all the bounty!

ii. The "one who treads grapes in July will find the planter still sowing new seed into the ground broken by the long-delayed plowman" who had to delay his work for months, Amos 9:13b; Ibid.

iii. "The grapes will drip and flow (lit., "melt") with new wine," and "(s)o much juice will drip from the vines or overflow from the vats that the mountains will appear from a distance to be 'dissolving' as softened mud will ooze down the slopes," Amos 9:13c; Ibid.

b. There will also be great social blessings in the Messianic Kingdom, Amos 9:14-15:

i. The horrors of war will be past so that God's people will rebuild entire ruined cities and live in them, and instead of seeing foreign invaders possess their land and consume their agricultural products, "they will drink and eat and take pleasure in the labor of their hands," Amos 9:14; Ibid.

ii. In the future Millennial Kingdom, God will figuratively plant His people on their own land never again to be uprooted and exiled by foreign invaders from the land God had given them, Amos 9:15a; Ibid. They would enjoy complete national security.

iii. These blessings will surely come to God's people, for the Lord had always been and always would be Israel's God, Amos 9:15b; Ibid.

Lesson: In Israel's Messianic Kingdom, God will reunite the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah under their Davidic King, Jesus Christ. Believers of all Gentile nations will be God's people and they will live under Israel's dominion enjoying her blessings with her. Those blessings will include vast agricultural bounty and national security, and Israel will never be uprooted from her land by invaders under her only, eternal Lord.

Application: (1) May we rejoice in anticipating the fact that we believers in Christ will participate in the Messianic Kingdom. (2) May we devote our lives to living for the Lord and for eternity rather than living for this current world, for this world is at enmity with God where the world to come will enjoy His full blessing. (1 John 2:15-17)