Amos 9:11-15 Fruitfulness

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.

(Crops in Israel today)

Thoughts: The tent of Israel was falling.  It had already fallen spiritually- by the people turning to other gods.  It had already fallen morally- neglecting the poor, neglecting the Sabbath (rest- yes that was a moral not just a religious problem), neglecting holiness.  It had been shrinking in physical power, but Amos foresaw that it would fall physically as well.  But Amos does not end with the fall of Israel, or even the hope of heaven.  But Amos ends with hope-  hope for this life.  God will one day restore Israel, just about like popping back up a tent that had been collapsed.  Amos gives them a vision of fruitfulness- when the harvest grows so quickly that it overtakes the one planting seeds at the other end of the field.  In some ways it sounds like "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" sung in the Great Depression (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6kv_eGSGZ4).  One would almost have to be blind to think that Israel today isn't a partial fulfillment of this. 
     Nations rise and fall, but God is in charge.  God blesses and withholds blessing.  We can trust and rely on Him.

Prayer: Help me to trust in you, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.

10/19/11 Amos 9:1-10

I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake.  Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword.
Not one will get away, none will escape. ² Though they dig down to the depths below, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens above, from there I will bring them down.
³ Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them.
Though they hide from my eyes at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.
⁴ Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. “I will keep my eye on them for harm and not for good.” ⁵ The Lord, the LORD Almighty— he touches the earth and it melts, and all who live in it mourn; the whole land rises like the Nile,
then sinks like the river of Egypt; ⁶ he builds his lofty palace in the heavens and sets its foundation on the earth; he calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—
the LORD is his name. 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.’

(Grain Sieve)
Handel "Thus Saith the Lord...I will shake"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8RmuvkwGrI

Thoughts: Jesus said that in the end God will separate the wheat from the weeds and the bad fish from the good fish.  Here Amos says a similar thing- that God will separate as with a grain sieve the true believers from the false ones.  God knows the heart- and He alone can truly separate.  Not one bad grain will be left (not one piece of bone in the chicken salad).  The purification of the church does not come until God makes it come.  Too many try to find or make the perfect church here, when we should try to make a gracious church that pursues holiness together.   


Prayer: Help me to trust in your separation, and your shaking.  The holiness of the church depends, Lord, not on my separating myself from sinners, but your making your church pure.