Project 119: Amos 9
| Project 119
Today's devotion is written by Tyler Kerley, who serves in our Christian Life Center. Tyler is a student at Beeson Divinity School.
“I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel…” –Amos 9:14, ESV
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” These famous opening words from Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, portray the complicated setting of Amos’ ministry and the climax of Amos’ prophecy. Amos 9 is a tale of two cities.
The first city is described in verses 1-10. It is a city of human self-security. Its motto is, “Disaster shall not overtake or meet us” (Amos 9:10, ESV). Jeroboam II in the north and Uzziah in the south, the kings during Amos’ ministry (see Amos 1:1), were used by God to save Israel from its enemies (see 2 Kings 14:25-28; 2 Chronicles 26:6-15). On the surface, the city was secure. It was the best of times.
But despite their worldly success, kings Jeroboam and Uzziah both, in the end, worshiped false gods (2 Kings 14:24, 2 Chronicles 26:16) and oppressed their nations’ poorest members (Amos 2:4-8, 8:4-6). Ungodly, selfish worship leads to ungodly, selfish living. It was the worst of times.
And we, too, often take security in our perceived worldly success. We—like Jeroboam, Uzziah, and Israel—think that our worldly success is proof that God is blessing us. “If we are doing okay in the world,” we think, “then we must be doing okay with God.”
But we should never take our perceived worldly success as proof that God is blessing us. The first city should not feel secure, Amos says—they should not say, “Disaster shall not overtake or meet us”—because they will be destroyed for their idolatry, hypocrisy, and false sense of security (Amos 9:8, 10). Far from being a sign of God’s blessing, worldly security can sometimes sadly be a sign of God’s judgment.
But simply because we should never find security in our perceived worldly success does not mean that we have no security in this life. The second city, described in verses 11-14, points us to the place where and to the One in whom we can find our security.
God says that he will rebuild the cities (Amos 9:11) and restore the fortunes of Israel (Amos 9:14). The true security of Amos 9:11-14 began in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “booth of David” that had fallen, and he is the “booth of David” that was raised (Amos 9:11). Jesus lived Amos’ “Tale of Two Cities.”
But while you are secure in Christ in this life, you still have a greater security ahead. There is another time, a greater time when God will again restore the fortunes of his people (Amos 9:14). There is another city to come, a New Jerusalem, in which God will restore not only His people, but His whole creation. And not even death will be able to remove you from the land and the life that God has given you (Revelation 21:1-5).
If you are in Christ, then you are secure. If you are in Christ, then your security is not found—as Jeroboam, Uzziah, and Israel believed—in your perceived worldly success, but your security is found in your heavenly Savior and eternal destination. There will be a day when there will no longer be any worst of times, but it will forever only be the best of times.
Amos 9 (ESV):
The Destruction of Israel
1 I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said:
“Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake,
and shatter them on the heads of all the people;
and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword;
not one of them shall flee away;
not one of them shall escape.
2 “If they dig into Sheol,
from there shall my hand take them;
if they climb up to heaven,
from there I will bring them down.
3 If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search them out and take them;
and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.
4 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.”
5 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;
6 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.
7 “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?
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom,
and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground,
except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
declares the LORD.
9 “For behold, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
The Restoration of Israel
11 “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 in the days of old,
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the LORD who does this.
13 “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.
14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and 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.
15 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.