Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Amos 9:11-15 | Date: February 25, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Series Introduction and Context

Amos chapter 9. We continue our series on Messianic prophecy. I’m trying to hit the more prominent ones in the Old Testament. This could go for a very long time, but I’m trying to limit it to the more prominent ones. Last time we looked at Hosea. Today we look at Amos. I said I was going to track these in chronological order; actually, Amos is maybe three decades ahead of Hosea. I don’t remember why I chose to do Hosea before Amos, but this one is just a little bit earlier, but they are somewhat of contemporaries.

If you’d like just to think ahead now, this is the end of February, so I’ll be back for the evening services in April, and I intend then to look at prophecies from Micah, I think. I think I can deal with the Micah prophecies in one lesson, so we can keep moving along. And then after that, we’ll get into Isaiah. We’ll look at Isaiah 4. We’ll look at the Immanuel prophecy at Isaiah chapter 7, the famous—what we call the Christmas prophecy. Isaiah chapter 9: “Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given.” We’ll look at Isaiah 11. We’re going to be looking at the servant songs that Pastor Boyd introduced this morning: Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 53, and we’ll probably take a good long time with those. I’ve begun just some intensive research into that and my soul is just full and I can’t wait to get to it.

But anyway, that’s looking ahead in this series. Tonight, the prophet of Amos—and there is the gospel here—the prophet Amos chapter 9. Let’s begin; let’s just read verses 11 through 15, the very last verses of his prophecy.

“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the Lord who does this. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed. The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. They shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land. They shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.”

Amos the prophet was an 8th-century prophet—8th century BC—that is, just prior to the prophecy of Isaiah. As I mentioned, he dates his prophecy for us in chapter 1 and verse 1. It is during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam in the north. So he’s an older contemporary of Hosea. Unlike Hosea, who was from Judah, Amos is sent by the Lord to prophesy to the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam there was a very prosperous king, but he was corrupt, as was the entire nation. It was a complete apostasy. Amos is sent to warn them of their unbelief and their infidelity, their unfaithfulness to the covenant, and to announce warning after warning of what God will do if they continue in their unbelief. Of course, they did continue in their unbelief and those judgments came.

Overview of the Book of Amos

For a brief overview—and I’m trying to do this with the minor prophets; well, I think I’ll do it with Isaiah as well—but I’m trying to give an overview of the book as well so you see it in its setting. What we have in Amos, then, coming to an apostate nation in the north, is basically an announcement of judgment. When we come to the very end, we have a note of hope that we will see connected with this Messianic prophecy. But from the get-go, it’s a message of judgment.

If you look back at chapter 1 and verse 2, this note of divine judgment is introduced in terms of a lion metaphor. So you’ll see it there, chapter 1, verse 2: “The Lord roars from Zion.” That’s not a happy thing. It sounds like the Lord is angry, and he’s like a lion terrifying his prey before he pounces on them. That’s the idea there, and it’s meant to instill a chilling sense of fear in those who hear it in the northern kingdom. It’s like a roaring lion coming to pounce on his prey. So it’s a prophecy of impending judgment.

In chapters one and two, we have, I think, what’s a fascinating—if I can call it this—rhetorical technique that Amos uses here. You see it somewhat in the other prophets, but here in a dramatic kind of way. He’s prophesying to the northern kingdom, but he begins rhetorically addressing the surrounding nations. And he announces judgment on them for their sinfulness. God will judge them as well. He’s not just the God of Israel; he’s the God of all the nations. And so he announces judgment, and it is all introduced in the same way.

If you look at chapter 1 and verse 3, verse 6: “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke punishment.” Verse 9: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” Verse 11: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” Verse 13: “For the three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” Chapter 2, verse 1: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” Verse 4: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.”

So you get the idea here: he’s counting up the sins of all of the nations, and he’s naming them one by one. I’ve kept track of your sins, and for three—no, for four—and the idea there is: I’ve been keeping track, and I’ve been very patient, but you’ve crossed the line. “And for three transgressions of—no, for four” of Damascus, the same for Gaza, for Tyre, for Edom, for Ammonites, for Moab, for Judah. For each of them you’ve sinned and the judgment has to come. So there’s a multiplicity of sins accumulating this verdict that must come and God will come in judgment. So each nation is called into account.

I think this is a very important passage for another reason, and that is it demonstrates that God is the God of all of the nations, and all the nations, as nations, are accountable to God—something our Congress will never recognize, it seems. But God has kept accurate books, and finally, the nations are indicted, and their judgment now has become inevitable.

Well then, if you look back through these same verses for each of their nations, the judgment then is assigned. So verses 4 and 5 of chapter 1: “For three transgressions and for four of Damascus, I will not turn away your punishment. So I will send a fire on the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-Hadad.” Verses seven and eight, this is for Gaza: “I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour her strongholds.” Verse 10, for Tyre: “I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour her strongholds.” Verse 12, for Edom: “I will send a fire upon Teman, and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.” Verses 14 and 15, the Ammonites: “I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour her strongholds.” Chapter 2, verses 2 and 3: “I’ll send a fire on Moab.” Verse 5: “I’ll send a fire on Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.”

And then chapter 2, verses 13 through 16, speaking now to Israel, the northern kingdom: “Behold, I will press you down in your place as a cart full of sheaves presses down. Flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the mighty save his life. He who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself. Nor shall he who rides the horse save his life, when he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, declares the Lord.”

So one by one, then, God is calling these nations to the bar. He’s assigning the punishment that they will receive. And as I say, one of the interesting features of this is the rhetorical effect that it has on them. He starts out with the more distant neighbors, the foreign powers: Syria, Philistia, and Phoenicia. Then chapter 1, verses 11 and following, we have some of the—what we might call the “cousin nations” of Israel. We have Edom, Ammon, and Moab. For three sins, yes for four, he’ll get it; for three sins for four, they will get it; for three sins for four, they will get it.

And you can just hear Israel hearing this message in the northern kingdom. “Oh, so Syria is going to get it. We like that. Go get them. Oh, Philistia is going to get it. Go get them. We like this message. Amos, you’re a good preacher.” And then it’s Phoenicia. “Oh yeah, go get them. We love this. Amos is a great preacher. We love him.” And then we have Edom. “Oh, it’s an ancient enemy, a cousin, but yeah, go get them. This is good preaching.” And then it’s Ammon, and then it’s Moab, and then it’s Judah down to the south. “Whoa, Judah’s gonna get it. Yeah, go get them.” And then it’s Israel. “Oh,” and it’s like, “Okay preacher, you’ve quit preaching now and you’ve gone to meddling, and we don’t like this.” But that’s the effect. He’s circled around with other nations, and he comes closer and he comes closer, and then it’s Judah, and now he hits home. Israel, you’ll be judged as well.

Well then, Amos 3 through 6, there is this focus now on the kingdom of Israel. Again, there’s an arraignment. Their sins are enumerated, judgment is pronounced. There’s social injustices of various kinds, religious apostasy, and the emphasis here is on the justice of God in his judgment. He will bring judgment, but it is only because Israel deserves it.

And then we come to Amos 7. In chapter 7 through 9—that is, chapter 7, verse 1, through chapter 9, verse 10—we have a series of five visions. And the sins are enumerated, judgment is pronounced. These visions of judgment that are coming. God will, as he uses the language here, he’ll sift Israel with the sieve of the nations. There’ll be no escape. And then he says even Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed. So now we’re talking Judah.

We have leading themes then in this prophecy, and that is of course God’s rule over the nations. As I’ve mentioned, their accountability to him as a people and as a people group and as a nation. The justice of God in his judgment—that’s a heavy concern in the scriptures, that God is just in his judgment of people and of nations. Another emphasis: there’ll be no escape from God’s judgment. And there’s this unswerving justice of God that will come, and he’ll be impartial in judgment, and all who have opposed him will be destroyed.

Now, as with the prophets generally, also in Amos, the judgment that is pronounced has a prospective nature to it. And so historically the judgment on these nations came, but with each of them there’s a prospective element. It’s looking ahead to a greater day of judgment when God will come in the end. It’s called the “day of the Lord.” And in each of these, there’s the samplings of the day of the Lord. He came, and Damascus got it. And he came, and Edom got it. And he came, and Israel got it. And all of these are samplings of the day of the Lord, and they all point ahead to the day of the Lord that will come in the eschaton, and the days to come when God will come, and all of the nations will be brought to the bar before God, and it’ll be a day of judgment.

Well, all of that then lies in the background when we come to this prophecy in verses 11 to 15 of chapter 9. Here we have judgment again, but also in hope; warning, but also a promise for future blessing. Let’s start back at verse 1 of chapter 9. We have the announcement of judgment. “I saw the Lord standing beside the altar. He said, ‘Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake and shatter them on the heads of the people. And those who are left of them, I will kill with the sword and not one of them shall flee away. Not one of them shall escape.'”

Verses two to four, he emphasizes here that there’ll be nowhere to hide. “If they dig into Sheol, from there my hand will take them. If they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. If they hide themselves on top of Mount Carmel, from there I’ll search them out and take them. If they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent and it will bite them. And if they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword and it shall kill them. And I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.”

And then verses five and six emphasize God’s power and authority in all of this. “The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile and sinks again like the Nile of Egypt, who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth. The Lord is his name.”

And then verses 7 to 10, there’s this warning that comes, kind of a chilling warning against false assurance and a false sense of security on the Israelites. “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel? declares the Lord. Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir? Behold, the eyes of God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, declares the Lord.” As the south, Judah. “For behold, I will command and shake the house of Israel among the nations as one shakes a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake us.'”

You have this false sense of security up there in the north that “we’re okay, we’re not like the Cushites that God will deal with, we’re not evil like them.” Yeah, your time is coming as well. Don’t comfort yourself in a false way. Now there is this brief note of hope in verses 8 and 9, that God will utterly destroy the northern kingdom, but Judah in the south will be spared. That then transitions us to verses 11 to 15 in this promise of future blessing. Let’s read these verses again. Well, let’s start with verse 11. Let’s read them all.

“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as the days in old that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the Lord who does this. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed, the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. They shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.”

You’ll notice a couple of things here before we get into it. Notice the expression, “declares the Lord.” You have it in verse 7, verse 8, verse 12, verse 13: “declares the Lord,” “declares the Lord.” This is the typical way the prophets frame their declarations. It’s a divine affirmation, and then at the end of it all we have another one at the end of verse 15: “says the Lord your God.” A divine affirmation and a verification that what he says is so, and if he has said it, it will come to pass.

Now verses 11 to 15 have two major segments to them. Verses 11 and 12: He will restore the Davidic kingship. Here’s our Messianic prophecy. This is the new David of the prophets. It’s a familiar theme in the prophets, particularly in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that David will come, or obviously this is a reference back to 2 Samuel chapter 7, God’s promise to David that his greater son will rule. This is picking up on that. “I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen and repair its breaches.” So 11 and 12, we have—he will restore the Davidic kingship. Verses 13 to 15 then, he’ll restore the fortunes of Israel. “I’ll secure her and her land, I’ll give her prosperity” and so on.

Now within that, those verses 11 to 15, notice another expression. We have it three times. This prophecy is built around three “I will” statements. We have it in verse 11: “I will raise up the booth of David.” Verse 14: “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel.” Verse 15: “I will plant them in my land.” So three prophecies within this one stated that way.

Restore the Davidic Kingship

Now let’s work our way through it. Verses 11 and 12, then, we have the restoration of the Davidic kingship. “I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen.” That’s the essence of this Messianic prophecy. David’s son will rule. It doesn’t look like it. He’s going to fall. There’ll be a lot of years where it looks like it’s gone, but “I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen.”

Now some definitions here: the “booth,” that’s a tent, a temporary shelter, a hut, kind of a thatched hut, a booth—you’ve heard of the Feast of Booths when they’d come and they’d build their little shelters to live in for the week and so on. David’s—you remember the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7: David’s house will be blessed and David’s house will have a son who will rule. Well, David’s house now is just a little hut. It’s a thatched temporary dwelling of some kind. It’s dilapidated. That’s the idea here. And that’s why he says, “the booth or the hut of David that is fallen.” It’s just seemingly collapsed, and that of course is the judgments that we found earlier in the prophecy of Amos. And what he says is, “I’ll raise up the booth of David that has fallen.” So David’s house, the Davidic kingship, well, seems like it’s collapsed. And God says, “I’ll raise it up.” There’s our Messianic prophecy. David’s son will rule.

Now that’s explained for us here in verse 11 in three clauses. We need to see them, and this is some detail here, but it’s important for understanding it. “I’ll repair its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old.” So we have three clauses here: I’ll repair its breaches, raise up its ruins, rebuild it as in the days of old. Now the details here are important. As many of you know, who have studied different languages—if you’ve studied some of the Romance languages, the Latin languages, and others as well—you know that some of the nouns have a gender assigned to them. They’re not male and female; they’re masculine, feminine, or neuter. Not biological gender; it’s a grammatical gender. You understand that, right? Masculine, feminine, and neuter. And we have to notice that here, plus the singular and the plural as well.

So pay attention here. “I’ll repair its breaches.” That is a feminine plural. I’ll repair their breaches. Now, this kind of thing is difficult to bring into translation without it sounding awkward, and that’s why we have “its breaches,” but we have to be specific here to get the meaning of the passage. I’ll repair their breaches—plural, feminine plural—that has to refer to the northern and southern kingdoms. David’s divided house. So Amos is thinking of the announced judgments on Israel and Judah. He’s looking ahead and says there’ll be a reunited kingdom. Their breaches will be repaired. That’s a common theme in the prophets. Ezekiel, we find it. In Ezekiel 37, we saw some of it last time in Hosea chapter three. Familiar theme in the prophet of the reuniting of the nations.

Next: “I’ll raise up its ruins.” It’s masculine singular. I’ll raise up his ruins. That’s David’s ruins. David’s dynasty seems to have collapsed. God will raise it up. David’s promised son will yet arise to bring the promised expectations to fulfillment.

And then last: “I’ll rebuild it.” That’s feminine singular. I’ll rebuild her, that is the fallen hut, the booth. So again, now the restoration of the Davidic house. And then it says, “I’ll repair their breaches, raise up his ruins, rebuild the hut—her—as in the days of old.” That is, as it used to be. So it’s pointing back to the glory days of David and Solomon and saying that will come again just as God promised to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. So again, we have a dilapidated Davidic house and the promise is that God will reestablish that kingdom and that dynasty with a reunited Israel under her king. David’s son will yet arise over the kingdom just as promised.

Verse 12 then tells us God’s purpose in this restoration. “That”—there’s your purpose signal. He’ll raise up the Davidic house. Why? “So that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name.” Now, Edom is probably singled out here because it’s Israel’s blood relative, going back to Esau, the notorious adversary of Israel. And you might recall, if you’re familiar with Amos’ prophecy back in chapter 1, verses 10 and 11, there’s the prophecy of Edom’s judgment. But here, “so that, I’ll raise up the booth of David, so that it may possess the remnant of Edom.”

Now you might think that that indicates military subjugation, but it doesn’t look like it. Notice the rest of the verse: “that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name.” So he’s not saying he’ll conquer all the nations in a military way, but these that are called by my name. That’s covenant kind of language, saving language, that Edom and the nations will be his in a saving relationship. So they’ll be incorporated into the kingdom of Messiah. David will have an international rule. It will include not just a reunited kingdom, but it’ll include Edom and all the nations of the world.

Now, Acts chapter 15 picks this up, and I don’t have time to go there. This is just a mountain of literature that has been on this passage and in Acts chapter 15, the way it’s interpreted there. It’s one of those battleground passages between different schools of interpretation and things. I don’t think it’s one that needs to be that way, and I’ll show you why in a minute. But James cites this, and there’s a different reading in Acts 15 because he’s following a different manuscript, but the difference is substantively the same. He doesn’t spiritualize it; he reads it the same way that I’ve just interpreted here, that this is not a military subjugation, but a saving kind of kingdom that he will have over all the nations.

All right, so I think what we have in Acts 15, as well as when it quotes Amos 9, as well as here in Amos 9, is a prophecy of a reunited Israel and the Gentile nations indissolubly linked together in the rule of the king in the kingdom of God. They’ll all have a share in the covenant made with David, and they’ll enjoy his rule together. By the way, in Acts 15, the issue that brought this passage up was there’s that dispute within the church that these Gentile converts—do they need to be circumcised? That is, do they need to become Jews? And James then cites not only what Peter has experienced with the conversion of the Gentiles, but he cites then the Amos prophecy as confirmation of that, that this is what is said here in the prophet Amos: “Booth of David will be restored that it may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations called by my name.”

Restore the Fortunes of Israel

Now then, verses 13 through 15, we have the characteristics of that promised kingdom. Verses 13 and 14 speak of the prosperity that will come. “The plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes to him who sows the seed. The mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. They shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.”

So here we have a picture of the fields producing so fast that the plow overtakes the harvester, that the grapes are producing such a lush supply of wine that there’s a flow of wine down the hills like a river of wine. Obviously, this is doubtless hyperbole. But he is using what we find elsewhere in the prophets, and that is new creation terminology. Peace, prosperity, blessing in the new heaven and new earth. It’ll be a time of prosperity.

Verse 15 speaks then of restoration and permanence. “I will plant them on their land. They shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them.” So here we have Israel restored. Again, it’s a familiar note in the prophets. One example I’ll give you here is Jeremiah 12:15: “After I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them; I’ll bring them again, each to his heritage and each to his land.” Now in context here, this marks a reversal from the earlier warnings. We find it several times through the book of Amos, especially most recently here, Amos 9 verse 8: “Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob.” Or Judah, the kingdom to the south, declares the Lord. North, it’s gone, but I won’t utterly destroy Judah. So we have then in verse 15 a promise of that being reversed. The judgment that has come—God has said it won’t utterly destroy Judah, but it will receive judgment, and that judgment will be reversed.

So in summary then, we have in these prophecies, these statements: one, the dilapidated Davidic dynasty will be restored. It’ll be restored under the Messiah. Common theme in the prophets, the new David who will come—we find it in Isaiah 11, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, we saw it last time briefly in Hosea—the dilapidated Davidic dynasty will be restored, and it will be restored under the Lord Jesus Christ. And then secondly, in summary, the kingdom entails all the nations. That’s the point here. We have this reunited Israel, but it’s not just Israel. It’s plus all the nations: “Edom and all the nations who are called by my name.”

So we have an ideal king, we have a prosperous kingdom of peace, never to be overthrown. Another prophecy that reads like this, Zechariah 14 verses 9 to 11: “The Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.”

When and How It Will Happen

All right, all of that I think is just reading the text and then the next question is, of course, when will this happen and how will it happen? And at that point, of course, there are some differences of opinion. Verse 11 tells us when it will happen. It will happen “in that day.” “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen and repair its breaches.” “In that day” in the prophets, “that day,” just like “the latter days,” regularly in the prophets it refers to the Messianic age.

Now, what is the Messianic age? Well, you’ve heard me a hundred times say that the Messianic age is the age to come, and the age to come has been brought into this age. There is the “now” and the “not yet.” It has been inaugurated in this time, and so when we come to passages like this, we have to discern what’s it talking about. Is it talking about in the inaugurated phase of the kingdom, or in the fulfilled and climactic stage of the kingdom, or is it both? In any case, Amos is pointing beyond the day of the judgments that are described in chapter 7 to 9, and he’s saying, “In that day to come, after these judgments are over, in the Messianic age, this kingdom will reach all that it was promised to be.” The Davidic dynasty will be restored under Messiah, and it will be an international kingdom. That’s a regular feature in the prophets that we have here, that there is this hope that has come right on the heels of the warning of judgment to come.

All right, verse 11 says, it will be “in that day.” By the way, in James, in Acts chapter 15, James’ reading of this passage, he deliberately changes. He’s not reading a different text or anything like that, but he doesn’t read, “in that day”; he says, “after this, I will rebuild, raise up the booth of David” and so on. That may be significant as well.

Verses 13 to 15 provide, I think, a clue as to what that day will look like. What will that day of the restoration of the Davidic dynasty in view here look like? And the answer in verses 13 to 15: Israel restored, cities rebuilt, there’ll be prosperity, the hills are flowing with wine, this kind of prosperity language that’s used, new creation terminology, new heaven and new earth—it seems like it’s putting it into the eschaton.

Now then, how do we interpret it? Well, as you can imagine, there have been some various approaches to this among interpreters. The older Reformed post-millennialists in particular—the Puritans, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, people like that in the Reformed tradition—would read these prophecies of the restored Israel pretty much at face value, that there will be a restored Israel at the culmination of this age, and in their view, prior to the return of Christ. Wilhelmus à Brakel, the 17th-century Dutch Reformed theologian, goes to great lengths to argue this as well. And in fact, this week I stumbled on a quote from the Geneva Bible.

The Geneva Bible, as it implies, was translated by men from Geneva. You have to know the history back here. We have Bloody Mary in England. She’s on the throne, and we have a lot of these towering Protestant Reformed theologians fleeing for their life. Many of them went to Geneva, where Calvin was fine, and they have their liberty there, and there they learn under Calvin and Beza. And many of these who had come from Britain to Geneva produced then an English Bible. It’s called the Geneva Bible. It’s—I think I’m right on this—it’s the world’s first study Bible. It’s got notes, marginal notes at the bottom and things like that. And you guys know if that’s right? Is that accurate? It’s the first study Bible? I think it is. This is the Bible of Oliver Cromwell. The Geneva Bible is the Bible of the pilgrims who came to America. Very popular use; finally was overtaken, of course, by the King James Bible some years later. But this is a 1580 edition of the Geneva Bible. And it’s a comment from Romans 11: “The blindness of the Jews is neither so universal that the Lord has no elect in that nation, neither will it be continual, for there will be a time in which they also, as the prophets have foretold, will effectually embrace that which they now so stubbornly, for the most part, reject and refuse.”

You have the same kind of statements in the Savoy Declaration of the 17th century, things like that. So I mention that to say that there is a prominent idea today that dispensational theologians have invented this idea of a restored Israel. It’s just not true. The older Reformed believed that quite a bit. In fact, you read their arguments and it reads just like some of the 19th and 20th-century dispensationalists in approaching the question. The dispensational approach to it, dispensational premillennial approach, is pretty much the same. He speaks of a restored Israel under Messiah, only with them it is after the return of Christ, not prior to the return of Christ.

The more popular Reformed view today is the amillennial view, and in that view, this prophecy—verses 13 and following, of the prosperity that will come—is interpreted in terms of the church age. So the language of the hills flowing with wine and the prosperity and the rebuilding of Israel and all of that is interpreted in terms of the blessings of the church age. That seems to me to fall really short of what’s being described here. Verse 11 says all of this will happen “as in the days of old.” I don’t think that fits that. Even if we, in verses 13 and following, interpret all of this figuratively, I just don’t see how that fits the demands of the passage.

Now, having said that, recall how the New Testament treats the question of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God in the New Testament—the big announcement of the apostles and of Jesus—is that kingdom age, promised in the age to come, has dawned. It is here. Now, it’s not here in its fullness. And that’s the big teaching of Matthew 13, the mystery aspect of the kingdom. This is a time when there’ll still be persecution. There’ll be time with the growth of the kingdom. There’ll be time at the end when it comes to its climax. And we find that often through the New Testament. Certainly today, Christ’s kingship has been established. The kingdom has been inaugurated. Certainly today, Gentiles are being included in the kingdom. I think that’s what Amos is saying. I think that’s what James says in Acts 15 when we read it there, but I think it’s short of what we find in verses 13 and following. I think it’s something beyond that as well.

A common, in my view, a common mistake that is made in interpreting prophecy—and this is a mistake I think that’s made by both sides—dispensational theologians often and amillennial theologians often will take one part of the picture and hold it up as the whole. And I think it’s simplistic. I think we have to see a “both/and.” I don’t see why we can’t see in this passage a fulfillment now, as the amillennialist will argue, and then also a fulfillment later in the eschaton where it is fulfilled in its fullness.

Well, so much for that. Like last time, I reserved the interpretive parts for the few minutes at the end, and we go from there. What is clear here, and what all sides have to agree, is that we have in Amos’ prophecy a promise that the Davidic kingship will be restored. It will be restored in Jesus; he’s the king, he’ll establish the kingdom, and that kingdom will be international in its scope. And that kingdom is not just through military subjugation of these enemies—there will be that. But the language that’s used here is that of a saving kingdom, where we have willing subjects, those who are called by his name, bow before him and acknowledge the king the world over. Reunited Israel, establishing of the nations, all coming together and worshiping the same king together.

All right, so we’ve been told now from the very beginning—we started at Genesis, and we saw that there will be, God has appointed a human king over the earth. In Genesis 3, it was promised that he would come, he’ll be the champion. We saw that picked up with the Judah prophecy in Genesis 49. We’ve seen it with the Balaam prophecy in Numbers 24. We’ve seen it with Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2, particularly then in 2 Samuel 7 with the promise to David that his son would rule. We’ve seen it picked up in Psalms, that this great king will come, David’s greater son, he’ll rule the world over. And here we have Amos picking up on the same thing and telling us here not just through a defeat of his enemies, but there’ll be a saving kingdom that reaches over the entire world.

You’ll see this in some of the Psalms, you see it in some of the prophets as well, and if you can just imagine it, imagine the day when the nations—not just scattered people throughout the nations as we have today, but when the nations as the nations sing the praise of King Jesus together—and I think that’s what’s in view here. A great day to look forward to.

All right, let’s stand then and be dismissed in prayer.