Amos 9:15

RESULTS OF JUDGMENT PROPHESIEDSECURITY-PEACE-PROTECTION RESTORED

TEXT: Amos 9:15

15

And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God.

QUERIES

a.

When did God plant them upon their land?

b.

Were the Jews ever again plucked up out of their land?

PARAPHRASE

And I, the Lord God, will establish, sustain and protect this new kingdom of David. The citizens of this kingdom will be guarded by Me and no one shall ever pluck them out of their inheritance which I have given them, says the Lord thy God.

SUMMARY

God is the builder, sustainer and protector of the Messianic kingdom. Its citizens are safe and secure.

COMMENT

Amos 9:15. I WILL PLANT THEM. AND THEY SHALL NO MORE BE PLUCKED UP. This, of course, is within the context of what we have been discussingthe ultimate fulfillment of God's covenant by the restoring of the Davidic throne with the attendant blessings as a consequence of that restoration. Here the emphasis is on the victory, peace and security that will come when David's throne is raised up. We want to share with our readers certain comments here from Lange:

. God will magnify Israel by establishing a new condition of prosperity. directly mediated through the action of the judgment. This judgment. operates. in a purifying direction. the divine grace shows itself in this, that after the destruction of the ungodly elements, first and chiefly in the ten tribes, but also in Judah, there arises a single but prosperous and powerful kingdom of Israel under the legitimate monarchy, which attracts to itself all the elements spared and refined by the judgment, including those which belonged to the existing ten tribes.

Again, Lange says:

The threatening, as well as the promises of prophecy, find their complete fulfillment first in the New Testament, yet not in the literal Israel, but in the people of God represented by Israel in so far as it is apostate.
A certain fulfillment was no doubt experienced in the restoration accomplished by the Jews who returned from exile. But this was by no means -the Messianic salvation,-' the consummation of God's kingdom in Israel. The Messiah came in the person of Jesus Christ,

What therefore was promised to Israel passes over by virtue of the new covenant to all who belong to Israel through faith in Christ and form the people of God. And we are not at all to expect a literal fulfillment of these engagements to a national Israel, and in the shape of temporal blessings on the stand-point of the Old Testament. For, if we did, it would follow that there must be a literal possession of the -remnant of Edom.-' But the boldest realist will hardly conclude that in the future Edom will again exist alongside of Israel.

We may here appropriate in substance the observations of Keil, who says that -the raising up of David's fallen hut commenced with the coming of Christ and the founding of the Christian Church by the Apostles(as to which we refer, e.g., only to Luke 1:32-33, where Jesus is represented as the restorer of David's throne, and one whose kingdom shall have no end).and the possession ofEdom and ofall the other nations upon whom the Lord reveals his name, took its rise in the reception of the Gentiles into the kingdom ofheaven set up by Christ. The land which will flow with streams of divine blessing is not Palestine, but the domain of the Christian Church. The people which cultivate this land is the Christian Church, so far as it stands in living faith and produces the fruits of the Holy Spirit.-'

Andwe may addso far as the Jews are converted to Christ and incorporated into the Christian community, there is -a bringing back of the captives.-' Still this -bringing back-' is not limited to Israel after the flesh. Its fulfillment is to be sought more generally in the freedom which Christ has brought, in consequence of which believers in Him are no longer prisoners under the control of an alien power. They -poses the glorious liberty of the children of God,-' through their enjoyment of communion with God.
... this promise for the people of God first began to be fulfilled at the appearing of the Messiah and in the domain of the Christian Church. Its complete fulfillment is to be expected at the parousia of Christ; and then the spiritual blessing, the spiritual power and greatness, the spiritual freedom which the people of God now enjoy, will obtain a corresponding outward sensible manifestation.

The promise of God that in Messianic days He would establish a kingdom so securely that it would never be conquered or plucked up, is found in a number of places in the prophets (cf. Jeremiah 24:6; Jeremiah 31:28; Isaiah 60:21; Ezekiel 37:25). One should read the entire chapter of Ezekiel 37 to get the full impact of prophetic expression. Notice in Ezekiel 37:24-28 that the resurrected dynasty of David is central! Isaiah spoke gloriously of the peace and victory that was to come when God's covenant would be fulfilled (cf. Isaiah 25:1 to Isaiah 26:6).

Old Testament prophecies were viewed by New Testament authority to have been fulfilled in spirit. Yet, the attendant physical phenomena were not recorded. Obviously they did not accompany the fulfillment of the principle, or real content of the prophecy. This does not invalidate the prophetic ministry of the prophets. Rather it illustrates that the physical descriptions were literary devices used to express a truth that otherwise would have defied description.

Pre-millennial literalism in seeking physical fulfillment in a physical Jewish nation misses the whole point of the prophetic message and, in our opinion, is completely out of harmony with plain, unequivocal New Testament teaching as to its fulfillment. Lange finds it worthy of note that a Hebrew with the background and hopes such as James would have failed to see a literal fulfillment of these closing words of Amos. Lange says, ... it is remarkable that James, who was so pronounced a representative of the Judaistic tendency, should regard such a promise as we have in Amos, as fulfilled, so far as regards its meaning, in the appearance of Christ and the spiritual blessings thence resulting, without even once referring it to the second coming of the Saviour. Even he therefore is a patron of the so-called spiritual interpretation of the prophecies; and if the theological explanation here finds itself in agreement with a disciple of the Lord, and him a man of strong Jewish-Christian feeling, that is a proof that it is on the right track, and has so much the more reason for disowning the doctrine of a future glorification of the national Israel as guaranteed by the prophets.

This last verse of Amos reminds of Jesus who said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand (John 10:27-29). It also reminds of Romans 8:31-39read this passage again. The peace, security, fruitfulness, blessing which we find in Christ, God planned ages and ages ago and revealed it to the minds and hearts of stalwart men of God like Amos to deliver to those who would take comfort in it. Those men, in turn, master artists all, each in his own way, splashed in variegated hues, now bold and arresting, now shaded and peaceful, using hyperbole, simile, metaphor and parable as their paints, one glorious picture after another of God's holiness and love working for man's redemption in every historical event.

We would like to know more about this great spokesman of God. But here our association ends until it is renewed, we trust, in that day when what he preached and predicted shall be consummated. Amos, man of holy conscience, unselfish motives, unshakable courage and uncompromising conviction was not a prophet by profession or training. He was a simple rustic, a sheepherder, whom God charged with delivering to his countrymen the Lord's message of judgment, repentance and redemption. He received a divers portion of the message of God and communicated it in divers manners. Every Christian today, even the least in the kingdom, is greater than Amos in the sense that God has spoken to the Christian in these last days Son-wise. The least the Christian can do is seek to exemplify Amos-' holy conscience, unselfish motives, unshakable courage and uncompromising conviction.

QUIZ

1.

What is the emphasis in Amos 9:15 as it is connected with the whole context?

2.

How are we to interpret the whole passage? Where is it fulfilled?

3.

Where else in the O.T. prophets is the principle of Amos 9:15 found?

4.

What is remarkable about the fact that James interprets the context as fulfilled in Christ?

5.

Where in the N.T. do we find the principle of security, peace and victory pronounced?

6.

How should Amos, the man, become an example for the Christian?