Peter, always bold, claimed a lot for his generation: “Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days” (Acts 3:24). All of them? Really?
Perhaps he had talked to the two disciples who walked in defeat to Emmaus after Jesus’ crucifixion. The risen Lord had rebuked them, saying, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” Their hearts burned within them as “beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).
Peter believed all the prophets had foretold events in his days. They didn’t all speak about the last days of history, the final judgment, or the eternal state. Instead, they foretold the Messiah coming to establish a new age of salvation.
So far in this series, we’ve verified Peter’s claim regarding Moses, Samuel, Obadiah, and Joel. Our inmillennial framework of prophecy has helped us along the way.1
If Peter was serious (and right), we should find something about the apostle’s generation in Amos. That is the goal of this article.
Amos prophesied in the mid-700s BC during the reigns of Uzziah2 in Judah and Jeroboam in Israel. He lived about the same time as Obadiah, Joel, Hosea, and Jonah. Like these prophets, he warned about God’s soon-coming judgment on Israel through the Assyrians (722 BC) and Judah through the Babylonians (587 BC).
Of Amos’ 146 verses, 141 (97%) deal with these judgments, causing the other 5 to radiate glory! They describe the complete restoration of Israel after judgment (Amos 9:11–15). The apostles used them to rule on an issue that threatened to fracture the early church—whether believing Gentiles must receive circumcision (Acts 15:13–18).
Peter and the other apostles explained how events in their generation were fulfilling Amos’ prediction. These happenings were fulfilling God’s promise to restore Israel. Each verse in Amos provides an element of that restoration.
The Plan of Restoration
God gave Amos the plan of restoration: “On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11).
The word tabernacle signifies a “booth; a figure of a deposed dynasty.”3 The kingdom God promised David through Samuel would lie in ruins. God said, “I will raise up its ruins.” Elsewhere, this word can signify resurrection (e.g., Isa 26:19; Dan 12:2; John 11:24).
God said he would “not utterly destroy the house of Jacob” (Amos 9:8). This resurrection would occur after a “famine … of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). After the period of famine, God would act to restore David’s kingdom.
As we know from the Biblical record and history, that dearth lasted about four hundred years, from Malachi to John the Baptist.
In Amos, God said the resurrection would occur “in that day.” The apostle James gives the infallible interpretation. Amos meant God would execute his restoration plan “after this”—after the judgments in Amos’ day and after the famine of hearing the words of God.
God emphasized His role in this restoration: “I will raise up.” He mentioned no other actor. How would He do it?
The Purpose of Restoration
God announced the purpose of this restoration: “‘That they [i.e., Israel] may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’ says the LORD who does this thing” (Amos 9:12).
Herein lies how God intended to resurrect David’s kingdom—by allowing Israel to possess all the Gentiles. As we saw in Joel, He means the elect among the nations (cp. Joel 2:32; Acts 2:38–39); not all Gentiles without exception, but all without distinction.
The Jerusalem council confirmed this purpose. Peter declared how God used him to bring the gospel to Cornelius’ Gentile household. Barnabas and Paul told how God had also worked through them among the Gentiles (Acts 15:6–12). Then James quoted our passage in Amos to support their testimony. God calling the Gentiles into the church was God restoring David’s kingdom.
The apostles understood the term “Israel” in the only sense that matters in the messianic age. Paul gave their definition:
He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. (Rom 2:28–29)
The purpose of the restoration was to allow Israel defined this way, to possess the Gentiles.
The Prosperity of Restoration
God described the prosperity of the restoration:
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.” (Amos 9:13)
“These images are purposeful exaggerations, intended by their extremity to assure the lack of want the new age will bring.”4 God used similar images in the Exodus (e.g., Lev 26:5–7). We should not interpret them literally.
The same is true for the mild cosmic collapse language in this verse. Amos used such terms to describe the judgment coming in his near future (e.g., Amos 1:2; 5:20; 8:8–9; 9:5). Here, he uses it positively: “The melting of the hills is to be understood as dissolving into streams of milk, new wine, and honey.”5
God thus spoke of the messianic age in which we live.
The Place of Restoration
God showed where the restoration would occur: “I will bring back the captives of My people Israel.… I will plant them in their land” (Amos 9:14–15a).
The apostles knew Old Testament Israel—Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18)—was a type (or picture) of God’s spiritual nation (cf. Gal 6:16; 1 Pet 2:9).
The same is true for warfare. During the Mosaic age, Israel fought with physical weapons. However, this is not true for Israel in the messianic age (cf. 2 Cor 10:2–6).
Ditto for the “land” of restoration: Old Testament Israel had a physical land, but New Testament Israel holds citizenship in a far better place. We have “a better country, that is, an heavenly” (Heb 11:16). “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20).
Did God say we would sing about our “strong city” in the messianic age (Isa 26:1–2)? Yes, so now we say, “Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal 4:26).
God is rebuilding the tabernacle of David in a heavenly land.
The Permanence of Restoration
God said this restoration would be permanent: “I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them” (Amos 9:15).
The apostles understood God would never again make a transition like this one. Concerning events in the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age, Paul6 quoted from and explained Haggai:
He [God] has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Heb 12:26–27)
The Lord removed the temporary things of the Mosaic age soon after Paul wrote these words. The permanent things of the messianic age will now remain forever.
David’s tabernacle now stands secure under the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Once again, Peter said the right words: Amos spoke about events in his generation. God fulfilled His promise to “resurrect” David’s kingdom. He “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6).
He has commanded us to make disciples of the nations once outside David’s domain (Matt 28:18–20). May God give us a heart for the mission.
Footnotes
- Please consider becoming familiar with the inmillennial view of prophecy. You can read a summary version here or tackle the full book-length version here. The title of the book—Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days—hints at the reason for my suggestion. This model says the “last days” are identical to Peter’s “these days”; both terms refer to the “last days” of the Mosaic age. This perspective will shed light on the prophets as we work through them.
Also, consider watching the sermon I preached related to this material at Hopewell Primitive Baptist Church in Opelika, AL, on July 2, 2023. You can watch it here. - The image in this post is King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy by Rembrandt (1635). It is in the public domain and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
- The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Amos 9:1, margin.
- Douglas Stuart, Hosea–Jonah, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 31, eds. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word, 2002), 399.
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, The Book of Amos, in vol. 10 of Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, trans. M. G. Easton (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 335.
- Many Christians debate Paul’s authorship of Hebrews.
