Amos 9:11-15 – Hope is the Last Word

If God’s judgment is inevitable when covenant is broken and sin abounds, it does not necessarily mean that judgment is God’s final word. -Bruce Birch

CATCHING UP ON THE STORY: 15 I will plant them upon their land, With an air of finality Amos announces the and they shall never again be plucked up certain end of the northern nation of Israel. Like out of the land that I have given them, a wall built out of plumb, Israel must be taken says the LORD your God. down. Israel is like a basket of ripe fruit that will soon turn rancid in the summer heat. She is SPECIFIC DISCUSSION here today but tomorrow will be no more. The QUESTIONS: destruction of Israel will not come by locust or fire but by the sword. Opposing nations, led by Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to the hand of God, will be the agent of Israel’s yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were undoing. While Israel’s destruction will be very unfamiliar with the story. final, and she will not come back as a nation, death and destruction are not the last word. 1. Take some time to review Amos. What are some of the themes that are THE TEXT: AMOS 9:11-15 prevalent through the course of the book? How has God spoken to you 11 On that day I will raise up through this book? the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, 2. What is the dominant reason for Israel’s and raise up its ruins, destruction? and rebuild it as in the days of old; 12 in order that they may possess the remnant 3. The northern nation of Israel never gets of Edom restored in the same way as Judah does. and all the nations who are called by my Why then do we have this picture of name, restoration at the end of Amos? says the LORD who does this. 13 The time is surely coming, says the LORD, 4. What does it mean when it says in verse when the one who plows shall overtake 13 that “the one who plows shall the one who reaps, overtake the one who reaps?” and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed; 5. Throughout the bible, we get the picture the mountains shall drip sweet wine, of God as always working toward and all the hills shall flow with it. restoration and healing but often only 14 I will restore the fortunes of my people after there has been punishment or Israel, destruction. How have you seen this and they shall rebuild the ruined cities pattern in your own life or the life of and inhabit them; others? they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

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6. Is it possible to say with confidence that fullness of life once the punishment has run on the other side of punishment is its course. The kind of picture of life and always restoration? Why or why not? hope that we find at the end of Amos can Can you think of a time when only happen for those who have moved punishment may not followed by through disobedience to punishment and restoration? sometimes destruction. God’s move is

SO WHAT? always toward restoration.

The last words are always life and hope. The last word is life because God is always working to move us from death to life, even when we seem bent on our own destruction, even after we have achieved our own destruction! The last word is hope because no matter how far gone we are, no matter how much we have suffered, no matter how much we have been destroyed, God remains ready to replant us so that we might grow again.

What’s important for us to understand, in the light of the entire book of Amos, is that this picture of hope and life, of replanting, comes after destruction has already taken place. The words of life and hope that Amos speaks do not spare us from the consequences of our own continued unfaithfulness. To use again the image of the wall that was out of plumb, the only choice for God when confronted with the out of plumb Israel was to take down the wall so that a fresh start could be given.

I think the image of disciplining a child can help illustrate what God is doing here. Those of us who are parents understand that we must meet the disobedience of our children with consequences of some kind. That may take the shape of punishment we hand out to them, taking away the keys to the car, or some other privilege. Or, it may take the shape of having to deal with the natural consequences of an action. Our move as parents is always a move toward the restoration of relationship that enables the child to continue to experience the

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