Dave Burnette's Commentary

Amos Chapter 9

Written By: God through Inspiration
Penned By: Amos
Date Penned: BC 760-750
Overview: Everyone Answers to God (c 1-9)
Theme: Visions of Judgement (c 7-9)
Message: Israel will be Destroyed (v 1-10) Israel will be Restored (11-15)

Amos: Chapter 9 Commentary
     
(9:1) Judgement would begin at the altar, the center of the nation's life, the place where the people expected protection and blessing. This judgement would cover all 12 tribes. Commentators disagree concerning this altar, some think it was the altar at Bethel, more likely it was the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem. God would destroy their base of security in order to bring them to himself, but in verse 11 he promises to restore his renewed people.

(9:2-4) No one can escape God's judgement. This was good news for the faithful but bad news for the unfaithful. Whether we go to the mountaintops or the bottom of the sea, God will find us and the judgement of the wicked as a sea serpent, relentlessly pursuing the condemned. For God's faithful followers, however, judgement brings a new earth of peace and prosperity. Does God's judgement sound like good news or bad news to you?

(9:7) Ethiopia, south of Egypt , was a remote and exotic land to the Israelites. Caphtor is Crete, where the Philistines originally lived, God would judge Israel no differently than he judges foreign nations. He is not just the God of Israel, he is God of the universe, and he controls all nations. 

(9:8) Amos assured the Israelites that God would not "utterly destroy" Israel, in other words, the punishment would not be permanent, God wants to redeem, not punish. BUt when punishment is necessary he doesn't withhold it. Like a loving father, God disciplines those he loves in order to correct them, If he disciplines you, accept it as a sign of his love. 

(9:9) Although Assyria would destroy Israel and take the people into exile, some would be preserved. This exile had been predicted hundreds of years earlier (Deuteronomy 28) Although the nation would be purified through this invasion and captivity, not one true believer would be eternally lost. Our system of justice is not always perfect, but God's is Sinners will not get away, the faithful will not be forgotten. True believers will not be lost.

(9:11,12) God's covenant with David stated that one of David's descendants would always sit on his throne (2 Samuel 7) The exile made this seem impossible. But "in that day" God would raise and restore the kingdom to its promised glory. This was a promise to both Israel and Judah, not to be fulfilled by an earthly, political ruler, but by the Messiah, who would renew the spiritual Kingdom and rule forever. James quoted these verses (Acts 15) finding its fulfillment in Christ's resurrection and in the presence of both Jews and Gentiles in the Church. When God brings in the Gentiles, he is restoring the ruins, After the Gentiles are called together God will renew and restore the fortunes of the new Israel. All the land that was once under David's rule will again be part of God's nation.

(9:13-15) The jews of Amos's day had lost sight of God's care and love for them. The rich were carefree and comfortable, refusing to help others in need. They observed their religious rituals in hopes of appeasing the Lord, but they did not truly love him. Amos announced God's warnings of destruction for their evil ways. 

 


Dave Burnette's Life Application


Loving Discipline

 

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue with the book of Amos with Chapter 9. In our text today we see Lord destroying and restoring Israel showing that God disciplines those He loves. Our Lord is not a mean judgmental God looking for you to make mistakes so he can pounce on you but rather a loving father who lovingly disciplines His children. How about you? Do you see your Lord as a loving Father? Let us learn from our text today and the example of Israel to see that our Lord loves us and disciplines us just as a Loving Father disciplines His Children. 

 

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Amos 9

Amos 9

 1I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

 2Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

 3And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:

 4And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

 5And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

 6It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.

 7Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

 8Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.

 9For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

 10All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.

 11In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

 12That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

 13Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.

 14And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

 15And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.