WE come now to the last revelation of God through Amos to the faithful in Israel. The truth is that even in the worse scenario of the church, there is always some whom God preserves unto eternal life. When Elijah fled from the wrath of Jezebel, after the killing of all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, God spoke to him on Horeb. Elijah claimed that Israel had killed all the prophets, and he was the only one left. God replied that although Elijah seemed to be alone, this was not true because God had "reserved seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal." The fact is that God's purpose in redemption and grace never fails, and all God's chosen from before the foundation of the world will be saved, and those living in the darkest spiritual times will be preserved everlastingly by God's purpose of grace towards them.

For this faithful remnant the message given to Israel by Amos must have come with the darkest of foreboding. Hadn't God chosen Israel to be his chosen people? If God was going to cast off Israel, that is the ten tribes of the Northern kingdom, does this not mean that God's plans have failed, and God was failing to keep his promise to Abraham! The answer which these closing verses of Amos gave this faithful remnant was the assurance that God had not forgotten his promise to Abraham, and that promise was not going to fail, because he had all things in hand. This truth is a golden thread that runs through the Bible. God's plan of redemption in Christ, first promised to Adam and Eve after they had been thrust out of the garden of Eden, reaffirmed to Noah and then to Abraham, is seen to be held true until the promised seed, Jesus Christ, came, and worked eternal redemption for all who believe on him; and is still working in the gathering in of God's elect from the four corners of the earth.

Having said this, these last few verses of Amos, with their wonderful message of restoration are not easy to expound, and as I write and study them, I feel totally inadequate for the task of explaining and expounding them. The message of hope, and glorious restoration is plain for all to read, but the exact interpretation of the prophecy is not so clear. I am bound to be faithful to the word of God, but I can't see as clearly as I would like the exact interpretation of all that is here.

The first problem that presents itself is the fact that these verses are so different to all the rest of the prophecy of Amos. We have traced our way through a progressive revelation of God's anger against Israel's sin, and his promise of judgement, ending with the dreadful promise of the final blotting out of the nation of Israel, the ten northern tribes. Then we have a totally different type of prophecy where all is changed from total disaster to the promise of restoration. History tells us that the ten tribes of Israel, known as the northern kingdom of Israel, have totally disappeared. They simply do not exist now. Indeed the history of the Old Testament continued only with the southern kingdom of Judah, and the hope of Israel was transferred only to them.

Because of this many commentators reject these last verses as a genuine part of the prophecy of Amos, and talk of these verses having some other sort of origin. This is not an approach which the faithful Christian can take, for one of the characteristics that define us is that we believe that all Scripture was given by the inspiration of God, and so these last verses are just as much inspired as all the rest of Amos, and there is no valid reason for supposing that these last verses were not given to Amos when he wrote his prophecy, and God meant the faithful in Israel to be comforted and assured by them. So we believe these verses are a valid part of the prophecy of Amos, and must be taken and believed as such.

Having made this clear, the next question which presents itself is as to how this message of restoration is to be interpreted. Is it to be interpreted totally literally, and say that this is a prophecy of a time in the future when Israel will be resurrected, and the land of Palestine be given back to them. A time when they will possess the remnant of Edom, or be dominant of their gentile naighbours, and have time of wondrous earthly prosperity. This is certainly an understanding many have, and has been held strongly by many all down history. They will point to other passages of Scripture which seem to make a similar promise. They look forward to some time in the future when the future of the Jews will be totally changed, and when they will not only return to the promised land, but also they will have a time of peace and prosperity, and dominate and possess the Gentiles around them

On the face of it this seems to be what the prophecy is saying, but this of itself presents problems. Such an understanding would involve a spiritual renewal of the whole nation of the Jews, for otherwise they would be back to the situation which brought God's final judgement in the Old Testament. Then there is the problem that this restoration, if it is taken literally is refering to the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, which have disappeared, and to say that it was simply a message to the southern kingdom of Judah is not according to the prophecy of Amos who was sent to the northern kingdom of Israel. Undoubtedly God's power is almighty and so it would be wrong to doubt that he could raise up the lost tribes in a miraculous way, but there is no example of such a miracle as this in the Scriptures. Further the original promise to Abraham, as it refered to the children of Jacob, was to the united kingdom, as it was before the split after the reign of Solomon and his son, Rehoboam.

Some feel that the return of the Jews to Palestine in the 20th century was the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy, but the religious and spiritual life of the present nation of Israel gives not credence to any spiritual revival, or return to the ways of Jehovah. Then further the advent of the Christian Church and the passing away of all the Jewish ritual because it was fulfilled by Christ, who the Old and New Testament sets forth as the promised Messiah, so fulfilling the promise in Genesis 3 and to Abraham, would deny any restoration of the nation, because such an eventuality would leave the question as to the place of the Christian church, which the whole of the New Testament sees as permenant to the end of time. Further to this is the fact that the promise of God to Abraham and to his seed always included the inclusion of the Gentiles, so where would this fit in to a purely restoration of the Jewish people.

That this prophecy of Amos would have been seen at the time as a hope for the nation of Israel is undeniable, but this does not mean that it is the right interpretation. The fact is that there was no other way in the minds of the people of Israel at this time for this prophecy to be understood. Further, because the prophecy was given when all the promises of God seemed to be centred in the nation of Israel, Amos would have had no other terms to express the revelation given him by God. Then there is no doubt in my mind that the warnings of judgement up to this point end with a final judgement where the prophecy is of a final destruction of the ten tribes of Israel. We saw this in our last sermon, where the prophecy was of no grain being found in the crop, and so all was worthless, and this was refering to the nation of Israel.

It seems to me that the only right interpretation of this promise of restoration has to be understood spiritually, and in terms of the restoration being found in the founding of the Christian church, where both Jews and Gentiles are gathered into one people, and are the true descendents of Abraham in a spiritual and eternal sense, because this body follows the faith of Abraham, which was the basis of the promise to Abraham.

This does not alter the fact that there are still difficult problems of understanding which are not thereby solved, but as the New Testament consistedly speaks of the true Israel as being those who follow and hold fast to the faith of Abraham, and that Paul tells us in Romans that all Israel are not Israel, showing that the true Israel was not to be found in the nation as such, but in those who follow the faith of Abraham, this is a strong indication of the spiritual understanding of this prophecy at the end of Amos.

The truth of the matter is that God's favour was shown to Abraham as being centred in faith in the promised seed, that is Christ. Paul makes it clear that those who have this faith, faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah who saves his people by dying for them, and so gaining their acceptance with God by taking responsibility for the sins of his people, and satisfying God's holiness and justice on their behalf, are the true children of Abraham, and these are the only ones who are accounted righteous in God's sight, and raised to new life to live in righteousness.

What seals the rightness of this spiritual interpretation is the fact that James interprets Amos 9: 11-12 in such a way, as being fulfilled by Christ and the advent of the redeemed people which made up the new Israel, the church.