After countless hard truths concerning Israel’s sure judgment, Amos’s prophecy ends on a positive note. Judgment was sure to come (8:2-3) but so was blessing. This blessing was tied to the “booth” or “shelter” of David (Amos 9:11-12) which is a reference to the dilapidated condition of David’s dynasty in the present.[1] Back when King David purposed to build God a house, a temple for worshipping Him, God responded that instead He would build David a house (2 Sam. 7:11). This is then interpreted as a lasting dynasty of sons (7:12-16). In fulfillment of this covenantal promise, the Kingdom of Judah would always have a ruler from the line of David, even throughout the divided kingdom.
In Amos’s time, the nation had split into Israel and Judah respectively. In this way it paled in comparison to the days of David’s reign. Furthermore, the Davidic king had no reign in the northern part of Israel. Israel, Amos’s primary audience, had rejected the Davidic dynasty. As such in Amos’s day the “house” of David, this wonderful lasting lineage was merely a shelter, booth, or tent. It was rubbish compared to the glorious days of David and Solomon.
Thankfully, this isn’t the end of the story. God says of a future day of hope, “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old” (Amos 9:11). This was later interpreted to be fulfilled in the rulership of Christ who extends His reign even over the Gentiles (Acts 15:16-18). Christ is the descendant of promise being both the son of David and the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1).
In Christ, the promises of the Davidic covenant are fulfilled. He is David’s final son. The one to whom every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess (Phil. 2:10-11). He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the culmination of the Davidic dynasty that will reign eternally. Likewise, He is the son of Abraham, the one who fulfills the promise within the Abrahamic covenant, “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18).
In Christ, the blessing of God comes not only upon Israel, but upon the Gentiles (Gal. 3:14). In Christ comes the hope of new creation. In Christ all the good promises of God that were made under the old covenant are fulfilled. Amos describes a day, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed” (Amos. 9:13). Essentially the harvest will be so good that they can’t even keep up with it! What a contrast from the soon coming destruction that they would see in 722 B.C. in Israel. This future day of blessing has been inaugurated with Christ’s first advent and we await the blessing of that final day on the Kingdom’s culmination in His second advent.
[1] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Ac 15:16.
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