Day 28: Amos 9:7-15
7 “Are not you Israelites
the same to me as the Cushites?”
declares the Lord.
“Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor
and the Arameans from Kir?
8 “Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord
are on the sinful kingdom.
I will destroy it
from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy
the descendants of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.
9 “For I will give the command,
and I will shake the people of Israel
among all the nations
as grain is shaken in a sieve,
and not a pebble will reach the ground.
10 All the sinners among my people
will die by the sword,
all those who say,
‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’
11 “In that day
“I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
I will repair its broken walls
and restore its ruins—
and will rebuild it as it used to be,
12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations that bear my name,”
declares the Lord, who will do these things.
13 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
and flow from all the hills,
14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.
“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant Israel in their own land,
never again to be uprooted
from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
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To grasp this passage from the prophet Amos we have to remember first that the people of Israel were, in fact, God’s chosen people. The problem was they had allowed their identity to go to their heads and had begun to behave in ways that were displeasing to God. So the message Amos delivers to the people is a difficult one for them to hear. God first tells them that maybe they aren’t quite as special as they think they are—reminding them that He delivered them from Egypt but that He also delivered other nations and peoples (verse 7). He also gives them the sobering reminder that Israelite sinners will be destroyed, just like all other sinners (verse 10).
But God—the Redeemer—closes this message to His children on a restorative note. The inheritance He has promised Israel remains. The hope of the new tomorrow is the hope of a land lush with health and productivity, where the crops grow so quickly that the harvester follows just behind the sower.
Israel’s fate was not sealed—and neither is yours. There is a promised inheritance, hope for a renewed world, for those who depart the life of sin and surrender to the Creator God.
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Brad Taylor | Executive Pastor, Lima Community Church