Amos 9

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.’ 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.

Charles Spurgeon, that great preacher of yesteryear, once envisioned himself walking inside of a prison. Hear what he says:

I feel as if I were walking along a corridor, and I see a number of cells of the condemned. As I listen at the keyhole, I can hear those inside weeping in doleful, dolorous dirges. “There is no hope, no hope, no hope.” I can see the warden at the other end, smiling calmly to himself, as he knows that none of the prisoners can come out as long as they say there is no hope. It is a sign that their manacles are not broken and that the bolts of their cells are not removed.[1]

Imprisoned…by a lack of hope.

Amos is a book that is heavy on judgment. I do not say this as a criticism of the prophet. He was a faithful conveyor of God’s word and I certainly am not critical of God! If you think the Lord’s words have been too severe, go back to the beginning of the book and consider again the shocking severity of Israel’s sin! God was merciful to warn them at all. He did not have to. They were begging for judgment.

Yes, the book is a heavy book, a book of judgment, a book of woe. One is tempted to give up hope when one hears the searing, jarring, unrelenting words of judgment on its pages. After all, does our sin not deserve the same severity?

But as we conclude this book, I would like to address those of you here this morning who, like Spurgeon’s despondent prisoners, have no hope.

I would like to address the hopeless.

I would like to address the “I have done too much damage!”

I would like to address the “My family would be better off without me!”

I would like to address the “If they knew how I have messed up, they would never forgive me!”

I would like to address the “Hell awaits me, and I have no hope of heaven!”

I would like to address the “Maybe I will just end it all.”

I would like to address the fearful.

The condemned.

The “I have got it coming!”

The “God must hate me!”

The “I hate myself!”

And I would like to say this to you, on the basis of Amos 9 and on the basis of the whole of scripture and on the basis of the cross: In the darkest night of your own doom, there is yet hope! There is still hope! That tiny little flicker is there if you will look for it: that is hope! It is not over yet! Hell need not be your destination! God’s love is still offered to you! There is hope!

Three little words. Three little words in Amos 9 that dare to give us hope. In the midst of all these words of judgment, three words call to us to hope!

“Except”: A Remnant Family

The first word that gives us hope is the word “except.” That word is in verse 8. To appreciate how surprising it is, you need to walk slowly through the terrors of verses 1 through 7, which are verses of devastating judgment. Let us hear these chilling first verses as we prepare for the “except.”

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?

It is difficult to describe how intense these verses are! We might paraphrase them like this: “Judgment is coming and there is nothing, nothing, NOTHING you can do to escape it! You cannot run. You cannot hide. You cannot escape what is coming! I, the Lord, have spoken it and I, the Lord, am mighty enough to accomplish it!”

Imagine the people hearing these words. What would they think? Some might scoff, it is true, but behind their sneers would be quaking hearts. It is no small thing to have the God of the universe say that He is coming for you to take you down!

Imagine the fear. Imagine the hopelessness of having these words spoken of you. And verse 8 seems to be continuing this sense of woe…at first. But then, midway through the verse, we find our word: “except.” And that word, “except,” beckons us to dare to believe that we might yet be saved!

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.

My goodness! What? “I will destroy [the sinful kingdom] from the surface of the ground…except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob.” Judgment is coming! It is all going to burn…except not all of it!

How unexpected, given all that was said before! How shocking, given the extreme judgment language preceding it. And yet…“except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob.” There will be a remnant out of the sinful kingdom that is saved and that remnant will be a family: the house of Jacob.

Robert Alter (and others) see this qualification—“except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob”—as so strange, so unexpected, that he “suspects that the mitigation of the prophecy of destruction is an editorial addition—especially since this entire sentence does not scan as poetry.”[2] In other words, some simply believe that somebody else had to have added this to the book of Amos later because it simply does not fit.

A later addition? I do not think so! Surprising, yes, but this is no addition. Time and time and time again in scripture we see this phenomenon: Judgment is coming! You are all going to face the wrath of God! Except…not all of you!

“Dum spiro spero! While I breathe, I hope!” The God who judges is the God who saves! Do not give up hope! Do not end your life! Do not despair of the love of God! Turn to Him now! Repent of your sins! Receive the love of God in Christ!

“Will”: A Certain Restoration

There is another word that allows us to hope. That word is “will.” It is used three times in verses 9 through 14.

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.’

This is a statement of judgment, yes, but also a statement of salvation. When grain was harvested in Israel it was threshed in order to separate the grain that could be eaten from the plant or the straw. And, in a final action, the grain would pass through a sieve to separate it from any other debris. So this would be something like an ancient strainer where the grain would be thrown in and shaken out. The edible grain would fall out to be gathered up, but stones and pebbles would stay in the sieve and be cast out. God is saying that He is going to do this to the nations. The pebbles will not pass through. They will remain in the sieve, be gathered, and be destroyed. But the grain will survive. In other words, even with the coming judgment there will be a harvest of God’s people. The wicked, “the sinners,” those who say, “Disaster shall not overtake or meet us,” will be destroyed. But the saved will be saved.

Then there is another “will” in verse 11.

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.

“I will raise up the booth of David.” This is likely a reference to the restoration of God’s people in worship in Jerusalem where the Feast of Booths is observed. God will bring all of His people together again and worship will be restored. God will cause His people to prosper! And their prosperity will be amazing! The “plowman shall overtake the reaper.” Tchavdar Hadjiev explains:

This can mean that the seed grows so quickly it has to be reaped well before the usual harvest time; while ploughing is still going on…It makes more sense, however, to see the overtaking differently, as an image of the abundance of the harvest, not the speed of its growth. The fields have produced so much that the reapers have not been able to collect it all by the autumn when ploughing for the next year has to start…[3]

In other words, the blessings of God will be as overwhelming and bountiful for His people as His judgment will be for the wicked! God “will” do this!

And then one more:

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.

God “will” do this too! He will restore the fortunes of my people Israel! He will bring back days of happiness and blessing! God “will” do this! Will!

These three “will”s are very important!

• God will judge the wicked but save those who are is (v.9).
• God will restore the unity and true worship of His people (v.11).
• God will bless His people again (v.14).

Not “might”…will!

Are you hopeless? Are you despairing? Are you afraid? Do you feel like you have done too much? Gone too far? Caused too much damage? Here the word of the Lord: God will save those who come to Him in repentance and faith!

One of the most beautiful “will”s in the New Testament is found in Romans 10:

⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Did you hear that! “You will be saved!” God will forgive you if you come to Him! God will save you if you come to Him! It is not over, not yet, though one day it will be. You could come to Him now and be saved!

“Never”: An Unending Salvation

And there is another word, a powerful word, a beautiful word that is in the final verse of Amos: “never.” Listen:

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.

When God saves you, when God brings you into His kingdom, when Jesus saves you, “you will never again be uprooted.” God will never change His mind about you. God will never abandon you. In Hebrews 13, we read:

⁵ …“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

There is great power in that “never.”

Have you cried out to Jesus for salvation? He will never not be your savior!

Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? He will never judge you!

Has He given you the Holy Spirit? He will never cast you out.

We began with Spurgeon’s vision of the prisoners imprisoned by their lack of hope. Let us hear now the entire statement from Spurgeon.

I feel as if I were walking along a corridor, and I see a number of cells of the condemned. As I listen at the keyhole, I can hear those inside weeping in doleful, dolorous dirges. “There is no hope, no hope, no hope.” I can see the warden at the other end, smiling calmly to himself, as he knows that none of the prisoners can come out as long as they say there is no hope. It is a sign that their manacles are not broken and that the bolts of their cells are not removed. Oh, if I could look in! I think I can. I think I can open the gate just a little and cry, “There is hope!”

The fiend who said there is no hope is a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and the father of lies (John 8:44). Yet, there is hope since Jesus died. There is hope anywhere except in the infernal lake. There is hope in the hospital when a man has sickened and is within the last hour before his departure. There is hope, though men have sinned themselves beyond the pale of society; hope for the convict, though he faces execution; hope for the man who has cast himself away. Jesus is still able to save.

“No hope” is not to be said by any member of the mariners’ life brigade while he can sight the crew of the sinking vessel. “No hope” is not to be said by any one of the fire company while he knows there are living men in the burning pile. “No hope” is not to be said by any one of the valiant army of the Christian church while the soul is still within reach of mercy. “No hope” is a cry that no human tongue should utter, that no human heart should heed.[4]

Do not give up hope! You are alive and Jesus is alive and His arms are open to you! So here, now there is hope!

Is judgment real? Yes! Very much so! Both Amos and Jesus and all of the scriptures make this clear. It is a terrible thing to reject the Lord Jesus Christ! You will have no hope if you reject Him. You will have no hope if you die in your rejection of Jesus.

But you are not dead! And there is nothing you have done that He will not forgive! And there is no stain of sin that His blood cannot wash clean. And there is no terror of Hell that the cross of Jesus Christ cannot vanquish.

Except…you can be saved!

Will…He will save all who come to Him!

Never…He will never abandon His people.

 

[1] Spurgeon, Charles H. God’s Joy In Your Heart (pp. 100-101). Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.

[2] Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible. Vol. 2 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019), p.1279n8.

[3] Hadjiev, Tchavdar S. Joel and Amos. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Vol. 25 (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020), p.192.

[4] Spurgeon, Charles H. God’s Joy In Your Heart (pp. 100-101). Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.