Amos 9:14 Sermons: I 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 the fruit of them.

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I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

Sermons

The Restoration of the True Moral Theocracy	D. Thomas	Amos 9:11-15
The Golden Age	J.R. Thomson	Amos 9:13-15

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics

The Golden Age

Amos 9:13-15

J.R. Thomson

Nothing short of inspiration can account for such a close to such a book. Throughout his prophecies Amos has been exposing national sinfulness, threatening Divine chastisement, picturing the degradation, the desolation, the captivity of the kingdoms of Israel and of Judah. How comes it that he is able to transcend this distressing representation? to look beyond these gloomy clouds? to discern, whether far or near, the vision of a smiling earth, a happy people, a splendid prosperity, an eternal joy? It is not the force of human reasoning; it is not the impulse of delusive hope. No; it is the presence of the Divine Spirit that has purged the prophet's spiritual vision, so that he sees the glory yet to be; it is this that touches the prophet's tongue, so that the wail of sorrow and distress is changed into the shout of triumph and the song of joy.

"The world's great age begins anew,
The golden years return;
The earth doth, like a snake, renew
Her winter weeds outworn;
Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream."

I. THE PICTURE OF PROSPERITY. The inspired poet presses into the service all the resources of nature laid open to him by long years of observation and of fellowship. We notice as depicted:

1. The fruitfulness of the soil. The crops of corn, the summer vintage, follow each other in quick succession. From the laden vineyards and adown the sunny slopes flow rivers of delicious wine. The boughs of the trees are weighed down with fruit. For the tillers of the soil and the dwellers in the cities there is "enough and to spare."

2. The peopling of the towns and villages. The banished ones have returned. The once-silent streets resound with the noise of traffic, with the voices of men, with the songs of the happy.

3. Security and perpetual possession. No longer do the dwellers in the fenced cities arm themselves and man their walls against the foe; no longer do the husbandmen dread the incursions of marauders. Quiet resting places and a sure habitation are secured by the goodness of Providence. Earth seems transformed into primaeval Paradise.

II. THE REALITY WHICH THIS PICTURE REPRESENTS.

1. By many interpreters this vision of peace and happiness is deemed predictive of national prosperity still awaiting the scattered children of Israel. The land of promise shall again flow with milk and honey. Jerusalem shall again be the seat of a mighty kingdom. The hills of Judah and the plains of Ephraim shall again be tilled by the children of Jacob. A converted Israel shall - from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, and from the Jordan to the desert, from the heights of Lebanon to the river of Egypt - witness to the faithfulness of the Eternal, to the Messiah long rejected, but now and henceforth to be held in honour and to be served with devotion. Planted, and no more to be plucked up, the chosen people shall flourish like the green bay tree, like the cedar in Lebanon.

2. Other interpreters pass straight from this vision of prosperity and gladness to the spiritual prospect which it opens up to the eyes of the believers in God's Word, of the disciples of Christ. There is peace of which the seat is the conscience, the heart, of man. There is plenty for the satisfaction of man's deepest wants. There is a sure abiding place for the faithful in the care and love of the Eternal There is a kingdom which is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." There is a city of Which every renewed man becomes a denizen, nay, an immortal citizen. There is prosperity in which the poor, the feeble, the despised may share. And there are songs of gladness and of thanksgiving in which all the redeemed and saved shall join. - T.

Biblical Illustrator

Behold, The days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper.

Amos 9:13

A revival sermon

: — God's promises are not exhausted when they are fulfilled, for when once performed they stand just as good as they did before, and we may await a second accomplishment of them.

I. EXPLAIN THE TEXT AS A PROMISE OF REVIVAL.

1. Notice a promise of surprising ingathering.

2. The idea of amazing rapidity.

3. Notice the activity of labour which is mentioned in the text. One sign of a true revival is the increased activity of God's labourers.

4. A time of revival shall be followed by very extraordinary conversion.

II. WHAT IS TAUGHT US BY A REVIVAL? That God is absolute monarch of the hearts of men. God does not say here if men are willing, but He gives an absolute promise of a Messing. If it were net for this doctrine I wonder where the ministry would be. Adam Old is too strong for young Melanchthons.

III. THE TEXT SHOULD BE A STIMULUS FOR FURTHER EXERTION. The duty of the Church is not to be measured by its success. It is as much the minister's duty to preach the Gospel in adverse times as in propitious seasons. Recollect that even when this revival comes an instrumentality will still be wanted. The ploughman is wanted even after the harvest. The ploughman shall never be so much esteemed as when he follows after the reaper, and the Sower of seed never so much valued as when he comes at the heels of those that tread the grapes. The glory which God puts upon instrumentality should encourage you to use it.

IV. A WORD OF WARNING TO THOSE WHO KNOW NOT CHRIST.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

The vision of Obadiah.

Obadiah 1

The Divine purpose in relation to humanity

Joseph Parker, D. D.

A voice thundering at midnight is the voice of Obadiah. It was the voice of a stranger. His age, his country, his parents, his cradle, his grave, are all unknown. Yet his was a prophet's voice, — deep as the boom of thunder, and penetrating as the lightning it fell upon the fortressed host of Idumea, and destruction was in every shivering note. He had been standing on some high pinnacle, on which he hoard a "rumour from the Lord," and with the fidelity of incorruptible righteousness he breathed that fiery rumour across the doomed nation, — the sword was bared against Edom, and whoso sought to turn it aside was cleft by the gleaming blade. The prophecy is short but terrible in its fulness. It is a single shout, but the cry rends the rocks of Edom. The Edomites were famed for sagacity, prudence, and general mental skill, but God here comes forth (ver. 8) as the monarch of mind, and says He will destroy their wisdom and understanding. The high priests of wisdom come together to take counsel against the Lord, and the Lord blows upon their brain, and their counsels are confounded; the Lord touches their tongue and they babble the jargon of insanity. Looking at this vision as affording a glimpse of Divine purpose in relation to humanity, we may take our stand on two distinct facts.

1. Divine superintendence of human history. He is a shallow historian who records only the undulations of the social, political, and ecclesiastical surface. As a student of the universe, I wish to know not only the stupendous, palpable existences — the sun, moon, stars, seas, mountains, — but I wish to know their birth-forces. He who takes me to the earliest germ of national life is to me the true historian; but he who finds that earliest germ in anything short of Divine volition is unfit to guide me through the black ravines, or the temple corridors, or the mountain grandeurs of the world's entrancing story. In all Bible history we find God upon the circle.

2. Divine sanctification of human history. This vision of Obadiah is summed up in words which might well form the concluding sentence of the history of the whole world. These words are: "And the kingdom shall be the Lord's." As we look at this as the ultimate object of Divine government we see that a great sanctifying process is in reality continually operating in human history. God is working in the midst of her moral gloom, and He will work until the last shadow has for ever departed. We see but a scattered and struggling light; we hear but a voice here and there; we wonder how the heavens can become flooded with splendour, and how the air can be filled with one glad and undying song; and we should despair could we not lay our trembling hand upon the recorded oath of Omnipotence, and see in the van the "dyed garments," and hear at midnight the war-shout of Immanuel. This leads us to the inspiring truth, that all our hopes are founded in Jesus, and all our energies sustained by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit.

(Joseph Parker, D. D.)

The tragedy of Edom

W. S. Elmslie, D. D.

In later times Edom came to he the supreme antipathy and the typical enemy of Jewry. So when the actual Edomites ceased to be, the name was transferred, first to tyrant Rome, and then to persecuting Christendom, and the impassioned words of Obadiah became a favourite vehicle for the expression of the national and religious hatred. That is a misunderstanding and a misuse of the book. The prophecy is, indeed, instigated by indignation against Edom, and the retributive destruction of that people is its theme. But the subject is worked out in a large fashion that precludes the suspicion of petty vengefulness, and justifies the book's place in the record of revelation. The motive is not the gratification of national spite, nor is the aim to either warn or edify the Edomites. The seer speaks out of the need of his own heart, and to the hearts of the people. What creates his vision and compels his utterance is an indestructible sense of the eternal justice and fidelity, and of the Divine destiny of Israel in building up the kingdom of God on earth. The tragedy of Edom is but a part in the great drama. It is therefore presented on a vast stage, and has the world's history for its background. Very real and concrete to the prophet, no doubt, are the antagonisms of Israel, and his enemies, but none the less really and consciously, even if in a fashion grand beyond his conceptions, it is the collision of universal forces and everlasting principles that is embodied in them. Limited and material the presentment of those issues may be, but they carry in their bosom the consummation of the ages. Within the rivalry of Edom and Israel there was wrapped the eternal anithesis of truth and falsehood, good and evil; and the vision of an earthly kingdom on Mount Zion is finding its fulfilment in the silent, slow, but sure advent of the kingdom of God and of our Christ.

(W. S. Elmslie, D. D.)

God and bad men

Homilist.

I. THAT GOD MAKES A REVELATION CONCERNING BAD MEN. Here is a revelation concerning Edom, the enemy of God and His people. Isaac had two sons by Rebecca, Esau and Jacob; Esau was called Edom, because he robbed his brother of his birthright (Genesis 25.).

1. The forms of the revelation.(1) As a vision. "The vision of Obadiah." The prophet was a seer. The Eternal revealed Himself to the eyes of his soul. He who would be a true minister of God must see the thing before he speaks it — "That which we have seen and handled," man has a faculty for seeing the invisible.(2) As a report. "We have heard a rumour from the Lord." He heard as well as saw. The soul has ears to catch the echoes of eternal thought.

2. The character of this revelation, a message. "An ambassador is sent among the heathen." God sends His messages to the nations in many ways and by many agents.

3. The subject of the revelation. "Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle." The object of the message was to stir up the Assyrians and afterwards the Chaldeans against Edom. But our proposition is, that God makes a revelation concerning bad men; and the subject of that revelation embraces at least two things.(1) That their sins will ruin them. "The wages of sin is death."(2) That evangelical repentance will save them. "Let the wicked forsake his way," etc.

II. THAT GOD PUNISHES BAD MEN BY BAD MEN. He now sent a messenger amongst the nations, — what for? To stir up the Assyrians and Chaldeans — both bad people — to wreak vengeance on corrupt Edom. Why does He employ bad men for this awful work of retribution?

1. He reveals in the most powerful way to the victim the enormity of his sin.

2. He reveals His own absolute power over the workings of the human heart. Thus "He maketh the wrath of men to praise Him," etc.

(Homilist.)

Call to the battle against Edom

G. G. Tomlinson.

The stream of prophecy may be compared to the stream of a river. At its fountain it is inconsiderable, and reveals none of its future greatness. There is nothing in Scripture more clearly revealed than the ultimate triumph of the religion we profess.

1. What persons were originally represented by "Edom," and the cause of the Lord's enmity against this people. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, who sold his birthright for a momentary gratification. The Edomites seem to have assisted the Chaldeans in their work of devastating Jerusalem, and to have instigated their utmost fury against Israel, the chosen of God.

2. What is to be understood by "the heathen" — showing that we are called upon to rise up against Edom, and that we have nationally responded to that call.

3. To adduce some reasons that we should continue to propagate the Gospel, notwithstanding the objections which are urged against that duty.

4. Make the inquiry of each individual-To which of the two parties will you join yourself? Shall it be Edom or Israel? Shall it be Baal or Christ?

(G. G. Tomlinson.)

People

Amos, Aram, Assyrians, Cushites, David, Ethiopians, Jacob, Syrians

Places

Caphtor, Carmel, Edom, Egypt, Kir, Nile River

Topics

Bring, Build, Building, Built, Captivity, Changed, Cities, Desolate, Drink, Drunk, Eat, Eaten, Exiled, Fate, Fortunes, Fruit, Gardens, Inhabit, Inhabited, Plant, Planted, Planting, Rebuild, Restore, Ruined, Taking, Thereof, Towns, Turn, Vine-gardens, Vineyards, Waste, Wine

Outline

1. The certainty of the desolation.
11. The restoring of the tabernacle of David.

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Amos 9:14

     4240   garden, natural
     4438   eating
     4468   horticulture
     4538   vineyard
     8257   fruitfulness, natural

Amos 9:11-15

7233 Israel, northern kingdom

Amos 9:13-14

4435 drinking
4510 sowing and reaping

Amos 9:13-15

4824 famine, spiritual
9145 Messianic age

Amos 9:14-15

     4207   land, divine gift
     4209   land, spiritual aspects
     7216   exile, in Assyria
     7259   promised land, later history

Library

A Revival Sermon
But, my dear friends, while this promise will doubtless be carried out, and every word of it shall be verified, so that the hill-tops of that country shall again bear the vine, and the land shall flow with wine, yet, I take it, this is more fully a spiritual than a temporal promise; and I think that the beginning of its fulfilment is now to be discerned, and we shall see the Lord's good hand upon us, so that is ploughman shall overtake the reaper, the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all he hills …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 6: 1860

The Prophecy of Obadiah.
We need not enter into details regarding the question as to the time when the prophet wrote. By a thorough argumentation, Caspari has proved, that he occupies his right position in the Canon, and hence belongs to the earliest age of written prophecy, i.e., to the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah. As bearing conclusively against those who would assign to him a far later date, viz., the time of the exile, there is not only the indirect testimony borne by the place which this prophecy occupies in …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Letter ix. Meditation.
"Meditate upon these things."--1 TIM. 4:15. MY DEAR SISTER: The subject of this letter is intimately connected with that of the last; and in proportion to your faithfulness in the duty now under consideration, will be your interest in the word and worship of God. Religious meditation is a serious, devout and practical thinking of divine things; a duty enjoined in Scripture, both by precept and example; and concerning which, let us observe, 1. Its importance. That God has required it, ought to …
Harvey Newcomb—A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females

The Twelve Minor Prophets.
1. By the Jewish arrangement, which places together the twelve minor prophets in a single volume, the chronological order of the prophets as a whole is broken up. The three greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, stand in the true order of time. Daniel began to prophesy before Ezekiel, but continued, many years after him. The Jewish arrangement of the twelve minor prophets is in a sense chronological; that is, they put the earlier prophets at the beginning, and the later at the end of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Interpretation of Prophecy.
1. The scriptural idea of prophecy is widely removed from that of human foresight and presentiment. It is that of a revelation made by the Holy Spirit respecting the future, always in the interest of God's kingdom. It is no part of the plan of prophecy to gratify vain curiosity respecting "the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Acts 1:7. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God"--this is its key-note. In its form it is carefully adapted to this great end. …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

The Prophet Amos.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS. It will not be necessary to extend our preliminary remarks on the prophet Amos, since on the main point--viz., the circumstances under which he appeared as a prophet--the introduction to the prophecies of Hosea may be regarded as having been written for those of Amos also. For, according to the inscription, they belong to the same period at which Hosea's prophetic ministry began, viz., the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II., and after Uzziah had ascended the …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Gospel Feast
"When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?"--John vi. 5. After these words the Evangelist adds, "And this He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do." Thus, you see, our Lord had secret meanings when He spoke, and did not bring forth openly all His divine sense at once. He knew what He was about to do from the first, but He wished to lead forward His disciples, and to arrest and …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

Redemption for Man Lost to be Sought in Christ.
1. The knowledge of God the Creator of no avail without faith in Christ the Redeemer. First reason. Second reason strengthened by the testimony of an Apostle. Conclusion. This doctrine entertained by the children of God in all ages from the beginning of the world. Error of throwing open heaven to the heathen, who know nothing of Christ. The pretexts for this refuted by passages of Scripture. 2. God never was propitious to the ancient Israelites without Christ the Mediator. First reason founded on …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Power of God
The next attribute is God's power. Job 9:19. If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong.' In this chapter is a magnificent description of God's power. Lo, he is strong.' The Hebrew word for strong signifies a conquering, prevailing strength. He is strong.' The superlative degree is intended here; viz., He is most strong. He is called El-shaddai, God almighty. Gen 17:7. His almightiness lies in this, that he can do whatever is feasible. Divines distinguish between authority and power. God has both. …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Doctrine of the Last Things.
A. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. B. THE RESURRECTION. C. THE JUDGMENT. D. THE DESTINY OF THE WICKED. E. THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAST THINGS. Under this caption are treated such doctrines as the Second Coming of Christ, the Resurrection of both the righteous and wicked, the Judgments, Final Awards, and Eternal Destiny. A. THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. I. ITS IMPORTANCE. 1. PROMINENCE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 2. THE CHRISTIAN HOPE. 3. THE CHRISTIAN INCENTIVE. 4. THE CHRISTIAN COMFORT. …
Rev. William Evans—The Great Doctrines of the Bible

Baptism
Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them,' &c. Matt 28: 19. I. The way whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemptions, is, in the use of the sacraments. What are the sacraments in general? They are visible signs of invisible grace. Is not the word of God sufficient to salvation? What need then is there of sacraments? We must not be wise above what is written. It is God's will that his church …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

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