AND ROSES WILL BLOOM
AMOS 9:1 - AMOS 9:15
Responsive Reading: Lev. 26:1 - Lev. 26:13
Scripture Reading: Amos 9:1 - Amos 9:15
Introduction:
It has been a long haul studying the book of Amos.
Some of you are probably wondering if there is any good news in this at all.
It seems as if all Amos can talk about is a cloud of death and destruction.
So many ways Amos tried to get his message to the Israelites, the talk, the sermons, finally the personal visions he had for himself.
In all of this Israel would not listen.
They had wandered so far away from God, that they could not find their way back.
And they further deceived themselves into thinking that because they were God’s people, that He would threaten judgement but not carry the threat through.
How mistaken they would be!
They forgot that one of the recurring themes of the book is the Sovereignty of God.
Essentially, that is what troubles me more about North American churches that anything else.
With a loss of reverence to the power of God, comes a loss of dependancy on Him.
We think we can do it all on our own.
We devise our own idols, and our own centres of worship.
Think about it.
We decide that on Sunday Night instead of going to Church and worshipping God, we are going to go to a ball game.
The center of worship ceases to be in the church but the ball field.
Worship of God is placed in second place to a baseball game.
And what’s worse, we are making a public witness that it is all right to do so.
I have shown you through the study the many similarities between the people of Israel and the people of North America today.
The ultimate conclusion is that if the people of Israel were to see judgement for their transgressions, how can the North American church fail to expect deservedly that same judgement?
An even greater question is how do we take a book that is so negative and find the roses that are planted in it?
I would suggest to you that we have a forgotten element of judgement.
Judgement and punishment has traditionally been seen as negative. We want people not to do a certain activity, and so we punish them if they do.
Children may be able to recognize that we love them when we punish them, but their view of punishment is still not to do a certain thing.
There is an element of restoration that happens as a result of punishment or judgement.
Just as parents, God disciplines or judges His people to bring them back into a good relationship with Him.
That is an important role in God’s judgement.
In judgement God can show his sovereignty, can correct the political, religious, and cultural conditions that allowed for the people to turn from God, and shows that He still wants a relationship with His chosen people.
We were introduced to the idea of reconstruction last week.
And we are going to continue with theme today.
In Amos chapter nine we are going to see three things.
1. The Sovereignty of God Amos 9:1 - 9:10
2. The promise of restoration Amos 9:11 - 9:15
3. The agent of the restoration. Amos 9:11 - 9:15
The Sovereignty of God: Amos 9:1 - Amos 9:10
The first part of this chapter we looked at last week.
It was the fifth in the series of visions God gave to Amos concerning the ultimate judgement of Israel.
Amos knows why the judgement is to come.
It is in this vision that God shows Amos the extent of the judgement.
The very foundations of Israel are to be destroyed.
All of the people were involved.
Their land, their buildings, all were involved and destroyed.
Why?
One reason is that it establishes the sovereignty of God.
It is just as a child will test a parent to find out who’s the boss.
The child challenges the parents authority.
If the parent does not answer the challenge by discipline then the child does not fear the parents authority.
How the parent exercises that discipline can effect the challenge.
With my niece a good strong word or a time on the couch would be good enough.
For others that would do no good at all.
For some, nothing short of a spanking will do.
They see the type of discipline as either a strength or weakness on the part of the parent.
Discipline to be effective must present the parent in a sovereign position over the child, and not visa-versa.
The same is true of God.
He does not send judgement just for the sake of judgement.
He sends it to exert His sovereignty on a people who have challenged it, or no longer believe in it.
He allows us to know who is really in control of this world, that it is the creator, not the created.
Amos chapter 9 begins by establishing the sovereignty of God.
He shows this in the vision of His judgement in the first four verses.
He is pictured by the altar with a sword in his hands.
There is no defensive armor mentioned.
He would not need defence.
He was to attack as the sword is only an offensive weapon.
After He destroys the temple, God then continues His judgement on the survivors.
They could not hide in the center of the earth, or in caves.
They could not hide on the mountains.
They could not hide in the depths of the sea.
The sovereign God would find them wherever they hid.
Amos continues to describe the sovereignty of God in verse five.
He identifies God as the Lord, the Lord almighty.
God who can control the actions of the earth and the water.
We have seen this before: with Noah and the flood
with Moses and the Reed Sea
We have countless example of where God shows his sovereignty through the elements.
Having established His sovereignty, we then look at verse seven.
In this verse God establishes the fact that He considers Israel to be the same as the Cushites.
God has in the past delivered countries that were not His chosen people out of captivity.
They would not recognize it, but Amos does here.
But in verse eight is the first glimmer of hope for Israel.
The sovereignty of God is established in His righteous judgement.
God is also to destroy Israel from the face of the earth.
Israel is recognized as evil by God.
They also show no signs of repentance by the leaders.
But in His destruction God makes a promise not to totally destroy Israel, or the house of Jacob.
One cannot just talk about the destruction of Israel without looking at its restoration.
In fact, the only time we can speak of judgement without restoration is the great white throne judgement.
It is here that we see the bud of the roses start to develop.
The Rstoration of Israel:
God has promised in verse eight that He will not destroy the house of Jacob.
This means, while a great number will be destroyed, as we know from verses 1-4, that not all the Israelites will be destroyed.
This leads us to two interesting questions.
Who will be destroyed and who will be the remnant?
And why?
To understand the reason for destruction in judgement we need to look historically at what led up to this judgement.
The history of this judgement goes back to the death of Solomon and the division of the twelve tribes into two countries.
Jeroboam, the king of the northern country, Israel, wanted to make sure that the countries stayed divided.
To do this, he introduced idol worship to Israel, so that they would not go to Jerusalem and make sacrifices to God.
From then on things went downhill.
A series of successive kings did not look to God for leadership, trusting rather in their own power to lead Israel.
This is the foundation of their problems.
They challenge the sovereignty of God in that they say they can lead God’s people better than God can.
It is also at this time that they develop a false sense of independance.
They had the sacrificial system that they could fall back on.
If they did everything according to the law then they would be all right to do anything they wanted.
Their worship became mechanical not authentic.
They would make sacrifices to God, and then turn around and worship idols.
The people in power found they could take advantage of the poor.
Justice and position could be bought by those who had money.
If the poor needed money, the rich would take advantage of this, as the poor would sell themselves into slavery for a pair of sandals.
They did not take care of the poor.
So evil had infected all aspects of Isreal for literally hundreds of years.
God would not stay His judgement forever in light of this.
It is also important to realize that not all the Israelites bowed to Baal.
They would all be part of the judgement, but God would protect them.
God also left an opportunity for individual repentance even though the country would be judged.
With this background we know who is to be judged:
1. the religious leaders for their allowing idolatry
2. to the political leaders who wouldn’t look to God
3. to the wealthy for how they abused the poor.
4. to the judical leaders for abusing the system of justice
5. to the people who followed these leaders.
Those who repent or have not turned their backs on God, those born while in captivity, although they go through the judgement, will be the remnant.
Verse eleven and twelve tells us that God will restore the fallen tent of David.
That God will repair its broken places and restore its ruins.
He will bring about a new nation that is stronger and more powerful than what was there before.
This is a new day of the Lord.
One that is not brought forth in judgement, but in liberation.
This is a day where the people can once again enjoy the goodness of the relationship with the Lord.
Look at verse 13 and 14.
The reaper will overtake the plowman.
The planter with the one treading grapes.
New wine will flow from the mountains and hills.
They will rebuild their cities
They will make gardens and eat their fruit.
All of the talk of judgement at this point turns to restoration and hope.
How will this restoration take place.
The Agent Of Restoration: Amos 9:11 - Amos 9:15
It is not enough to know that restoration was to take place.
We must also know how that restoration will take place.
The restoration for Israel would come in two ways.
One is immediate: This would be their return under Nehemiah and Ezra.
The other is a future restoration when Christ comes back:
Let’s deal with the immediate restoration first.
What happened when Israel was in captivity?
Several things.
First, all of the buildings in Israel were destroyed.
This is significant because with the destruction of all things, any reference to idol worship were also destroyed.
The places where the idols worshipped were gone.
The idols themselves were gone.
Any place that could bring back any memory at all of the infection of their idol worship was gone.
Also with that total destruction, any illgotten gains made by the rich were destroyed.
They would start with a clean slate as they returned.
As they rebuilt they would work as equals, ther was no division of classes.
It was to be a new start for God’s people with a new relationship with God.
Sacrifices and worship would be authentic and re-established under the law.
But the future restoration God brought about was even more reconstructive that just a return to an existing form of worship.
The form of worship had to change for throughout Israel’s history, they showed that they repeatedly turned from God while under the Law.
They could not keep all of the law, therefore they could keep none of it.
For Israel’s restoration to be complete they would have to have a new way to worship
That new way of worship would come with Christ.
He came to complete the law.
With Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection God completed the restoration of the law.
The restoration of the law was the doctrine of grace.
The doctrine of grace wrestled control of religion from the hands of mortals, and placed God in control.
It was no longer a system, a bunch of rules and regulations that man could follow, like directions on a road map.
Salvation was now a gift that was open to everyone.
It was based on what God can do for man, a gift that God and God alone could give.
With Christ, the restoration of Israel was complete.
Christianity was to become the new Israel.
Israel was restored to worship under the Lordship of Christ.
We are part of the restored Israel.
One day we will be in the land never again to be uprooted as we join Christ in glory.
What a great day that will be for those who are a part of the restored kingdom.
Conclusion:
The nation of Israel was to be restored just like a rose garden that had been let go for a long time can be restored.
First the garden had to be purged of all that was hurting it.
The weeds all had to go, none could be left.
In Israel, all the weeds of idolatry, injustice, faulty alliances would have to be ripped out of the country.
Not a trace of these things could be left, as they could grow again.
Then the existing rose bushes needed to be examined to see if they were still healthy.
Some of the bushes are diseased the only cure for it could be to pull it out of the garden so the other plants will not be effected.
They are judged.
The same is true of the Israelites.
The judgement separated those who were healthy in their relationship with God, and those who were not.
But they all had to go through the judgement.
Today, we see good christian people, caught in the midst of a world that is heading for judgement.
They are like the Israelites who would not bow.
Christians will still be the victims of the judgement of a people who reject the Sovereign God, and are trying to do it on their own.
Just at the time when our lives seem bleakest a most wonderful thing will happen.
A restoration of the garden will occur.
New rose bushes will be planted that are whole, healthy, and fully in bloom.
All by the grace of the gardener as the roses could not do this themselves.
The same is true for us.
When things are terrible for us now, let’s always be aware of the restoration.
They will not be bad forever.
Our lives will be restored just as Job’s life was.
And we will be stronger and healthier than when we went through the trial.
Our lives will be restored by the grace of God because we haven’t turned our eyes from Him.
Let us then walk the difficult times ahead that we shall see as a result of a continent under judgement.
Let us walk confident that we can call on the grace of God to see us through the dark times of restoration.
Then we will see a new life that is strong and free.
Then we willsee the roses bloom again.
