The Grand Finale - Out Of Ruin YHWH Will Produce The Fulfilment Of All His Promises (Amos 9:11-15).
These verse are not to be seen as something tacked on to the prophecy as a kind of postscript, but as the end to which the whole of Amos's prophecies have been directed. Coming as he did from Judah he was firmly imbued with the idea of YHWH's promise to David of the everlasting continuation of his house and of its everlasting rule over the whole of Israel/Judah (2 Samuel 7:4-16). Thus to him all YHWH's judgments could only have that in mind. It was only because of his determination not to soften the idea of that judgment that he had refrained from speaking of these promises until now (even though he had David in mind - Amos 6:5). The message here was, however, an essential final element in his prophecy, and could not in the end be omitted. It is indeed inconceivable that a Judean prophet would not have had this in mind.
Furthermore his view of the Davidic dynasty as depicted here is very much in line with 2 Samuel 7. As a farmer his thought was not set on the Temple and the Jerusalem cult (he never mentions Israel's desertion of the Temple), but on the pre-temple ‘booth of David', before all the later intrusions on that simplicity (‘ the booth of David') had begun to break in an spoil things, and thus on the true house of David. There was to be a restoration of past glory based on that simplicity, the golden era as it was before it had become distorted by Solomon and his descendants. Amos saw Jerusalem as a place were Judah were sinfully ‘at ease' (Amos 6:1), simply mimicking David (Amos 6:5), and he had little time for temples (Amos 8:3; Amos 9:1). (Kings sees things in the same way. To the prophetic author of Kings the reign of Solomon precipitated the long slide downwards that followed his pockmarked reign). And this view of things is equally true if we translate scth as Succoth rather than booth.
It will also be noted that in chapter 1 Amos had laid great emphasis on the evil of Edom (Amos 1:6; Amos 1:9; Amos 1:11-12) as one who influenced the nations in the enslavement of Israel. Edom was very much involved with the nations. Now what remained of Edom was to be ‘possessed', and the position therefore reversed, and included in that possession would be ‘all the (other) nations'. We have a reflection here of the ideas in Psalms 2. Note also that while the cities will necessarily be restored as centres of administration and places of refuge, it is the agricultural side of things that is pre-eminent. Not for Amos the glory of Jerusalem. His ideal Israel is based on the idea of the rural communities connected with local centres.
“In that day will I raise up the booth (or ‘Succoth') of David which is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name, says YHWH who is doing this.”
Much depends in our interpretation of these words on how we interpret the words ‘the booth (scth) of David which is fallen'. A number of suggestions have been made:
1) That it refers to the destruction and restoration of the Temple. But it is very unlikely that the Temple would be thought of in terms of a booth (a rough shepherd's or agriculturalist's hut) when other words indicating its temporary nature could have been used which would immediately connect with the Temple. Nor does such an interpretation explain the ‘they' which follows.
2) That it refers to the condition into which dynasty of David had fallen, indicating that his house had become a broken down booth. But Amos was speaking in the days of Uzziah when the house of David was prospering, and we would therefore have expected that any reference to his house at this stage would have referred to it proudly as the ‘house of David'.
3) That it refers to the once united but now divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah whose unity had collapsed and who had sunk into sin and depravity. This would tie in with the need for its breaches to be restored, and for it to be rebuilt as in the days of old. It would also explain the use of ‘they'. But it could be argued that had the two kingdoms been thought of in terms of ‘the booth of David' in Amos's mind we might have expected some reference to their connection with the house of David earlier.
4) That it refers to the idea of the simplicity of David's early life (when he dwelt regularly in booths, firstly as a shepherd and then as a refugee from Saul, and also when he went out to battle - consider 2 Samuel 11:11) and thus of his early kingship before he established Jerusalem and lived in palaces. There is no question but that Amos would have seen the extravagant ways of Israel and Judah as indicating that they had fallen into moral ruin as compared with earlier better days, a situation which needed to be reverted.
5) That the letters scth refer to Succoth, a town in Transjordan from which David had possibly conducted operations against his enemies (consider the possible translation of 2 Samuel 11:11 as referring to Succoth). Succoth was at this time probably still somewhat broken down as a result of the activities of the Aramaeans (2 Kings 10:32-33), so that the need for it to be rebuilt would be apparent. Its rebuilding would indicate going back to the secure times of David, along with the ideas that went with that of its being an important centre for activity among the nations.
What seems most likely to us is that there is here a somewhat idealistic reference to a return to the ‘simple' life prior to the establishment of great fortresses and temples when the eyes of kings and of men were on YHWH. It was in booths (or Succoth) that David's men dwelt when they were serving YHWH in the field, the place where a malingering David should have been (2 Samuel 11:11). It was to his shepherd's tent that David took the armour of Goliath. YHWH too was content to dwell in a tent and informed David that He wanted nothing more ‘sophisticated' (2 Samuel 7:6). This could then be seen as incorporated with the idea of the need for the restoration of Israel/Judah. Amos could thus be seen as prophesying the restoration of the idealistic days of David's purity, with a new David ruling over God's new people in accordance with the ideal pattern.
But while speaking idealistically Amos would be well aware that people would not actually go back to living in booths, so that he might well therefore have pictured YHWH as rebuilding the ‘booth of David' in terms of houses and regional centres without it involving the setting up of a major bureaucratic centre. (He was not an economist).
‘I will close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.' While this would aptly tie in with the interpretation that considers that scth means Succoth, it can equally aptly be seen simply as a practical acceptance of what would be involved in the establishment of a king in the pattern of the ideal David. The idea is indeed that Israel as a whole will be restored to a simple lifestyle, under the coming king of the house of David, and thus to being what it was originally ideally intended to be, (and as it idealistically was when it lived in booths in the wilderness), living under the scion of the house of David in accordance with the Law of Moses and the covenant with David as a witness to the nations.
‘That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by My Name, says YHWH who does this.' ‘Called by My Name' may well have in mind the nations of Chapter s 1-2, the nations who either dwelt in the land given by YHWH to Abraham and Israel, and had themselves been brought there by YHWH (Amos 9:7), or who had been allocated land because such land had ideally been allocated to their founders by YHWH as a result of their relationship with Abraham (Deuteronomy 2:5; Deuteronomy 2:9; Deuteronomy 2:19,. And the idea would be that what remained of these nations who lived within YHWH's inheritance, but had previously oppressed Israel/Judah, would now be brought under their sway, and respond to their teaching of the Law. All these nations, including Edom (1Sa 14:47; 2 Samuel 8:11-14; 1 Kings 11:21-22; 1 Kings 11:25), had continually harassed Israel/Judah when they were in a position to do so (as Chapter s 1-2 make clear), or had indeed at times even been harassed by them. But one day all of them would be possessed by the house of David as one great kingdom under YHWH (as they had been theoretically in the days of David). Alternatively we might see the nations ‘called by My Name' as being all nations worldwide who would respond to the call of YHWH. Either way the central thought is of a great kingdom of peace under the rule of the coming ideal David.
“Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that the ploughman will overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed, and the mountains will drop sweet wine, and all the hills will melt.”
When that time comes, said YHWH, there will be prosperity and fruitfulness in a way never known before. So productive will be the land that the plougher will follow rapidly on the heels of the reaper (there will be no need to wait for the ‘proper season', for it will always be the proper season, and the rain will be there when needed), the treader of grapes on the heels of the one who sows the seed from which the vineyard will grow (which would normally have taken four years to mature). Even the remote mountains will be full of vineyards dropping sweet wine, and the hills will seem as though they are melting as the wine flows down them. Although this is clearly not intended to be taken literally the picture is of continual fruitfulness and abundant harvests, an agriculturalist's heaven.
Such times of prosperity would indeed come to Israel at various times after the different exiles had occurred, when Israelites would return through the activities of such as Cyrus, and the land would again bloom and blossom, but the final idea in mind is undoubtedly the everlasting ideal kingdom, pictured in the terms of those days.
“And I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel, and they will build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink their wine. They will also make gardens, and eat their fruit.”
The exile of YHWH's people Israel would be reverted. They would be restored to their land and would rebuild their ruined cities, and inhabit them. They would re-plant their vineyards and drink their wine. They would make ‘gardens' and eat of their fruit. Once again we have the agriculturalist's Paradise. And once again it would have partial fulfilment after the Exiles, but is pointing finally to the ideal state.
“And I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, says YHWH your God.”
And once this replanting of His people on the land had taken place they would never again be plucked up out of their land, the land which He had given them. And this was the word of YHWH their God. It is an eternal promise, and can in the end only relate to the eternal kingdom.
So Amos is promising the fulfilment of God's promises to Abraham in the fullest possible ideal way. This has, of course, never literally taken place, and indeed if we are to accept Hebrews 11:10-14 (where we learn that Abraham and his descendants looked for the fulfilment of the promises of the land in a new ‘heavenly country', that is the new heaven and the new earth) will not be. We should remember that Amos's words here were spoken of YHWH's refined people, ‘the righteous', the only ones, we have been told earlier, who would survive. This has nothing to do with a modern man-made group of people who have taken to themselves the name of Israel in Palestine who are mostly no more true descendants of Abraham than the best of us. It refers to the righteous remnant of Israel through whom YHWH would establish His Kingly Rule. And as the New Testament tells us, that righteous remnant was made up of the Apostles, and the other disciples, and the Jews who responded to their Messiah through their message, and then to the Gentiles who were incorporated into the new Israel by adoption in accordance with the Law of Moses, in other words to Christ's new ‘congregation' which was and is the true Israel, that is, the true people of God made up of all true believers (John 15:1-6; Matthew 16:18; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 11:17-28; Galatians 3:29; Galatians 4:21-31; Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:11-22; 1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 2:9; James 1:1). Thus Amos here, without of course knowing the full facts, is speaking of the coming Kingly Rule of God established in Christ Jesus, which will enjoy such privileges here on earth, but which is looking with Abraham for their final fulfilment above (Hebrews 11:10-14).