Scripture Daily

Context No. 3789 of 4322 · Amos

Context · Reflection

Amos 9:1-15: in context

1I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, “Strike the tops of the pillars, that the thresholds may shake. Break them in pieces on the head of all of them. I will kill the last of them with the sword. Not one of them will flee away. Not one of them will escape. 2Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down. 3Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out from there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 4Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for evil, and not for good. 5For the Lord, the GOD of Armies, is he who touches the land and it melts, and all who dwell in it will mourn; and it will rise up wholly like the River, and will sink again, like the River of Egypt. 6It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth—the LORD is his name. 7Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, children of Israel?” says the LORD. “Haven’t I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 8Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the surface of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says the LORD. 9“For behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least kernel will fall on the earth. 10All the sinners of my people will die by the sword, who say, ‘Evil won’t overtake nor meet us.’ 11In that day I will raise up the tent of David who 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, 12that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” says the LORD who does this. 13“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the one treading grapes him who sows seed; and sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and flow from the hills. 14I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat their fruit. 15I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

Amos begins with a solemn vision of judgment from which there is no escape: though they dig down to Sheol or climb up to heaven, though they hide on the mountaintop or the sea floor, God's hand will find them. There is no hiding from the God who made the heavens and touches the earth.

Yet even this fearsome word carries mercy: I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, God says; he will sift Israel among the nations as grain in a sieve, but not one good kernel will be lost. And the book ends in glorious hope: in that day I will raise up the fallen tent of David, repair its ruins, and restore my people, planting them again in their land, never to be uprooted. Two truths stand together. No one escapes the God who sees all, a sobering reality for the unrepentant. And this same God, who could not be evaded in judgment, is the God who restores, rebuilding what has fallen and keeping every faithful kernel through the sifting. The God from whom we cannot hide is also the God who will not let his purposes of restoration fail.

Do I live before the God from whom nothing can be hidden, and do I trust that this same God, who sees all, is also the one who restores what has fallen and keeps every faithful soul through the sifting?

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