The Tabernacle of David

Introduction 

The farm boy from Tekoa comes to the conclusion of his prophetic word for the prosperous and proud Israelites. As surprising as it has been that a hick from Southern Judah would come and rebuke the elite of Northern Israel, Amos has a few more surprising prophetic words for them.

The Text

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. […] 

Amos 8:4-9:15

Summary of the Text

The Israelites had come to view the festivals and Sabbath feasts as a burden (8:5); they wanted to get the Sabbaths over in order so they could get back to exploiting the poor and trampling the needy (8:4, 6). The judgement for this injustice and indifferent impiety? Lights out for Israel (vs. 7-9). The jubilant feasts which God had blessed them with––which they begrudged––were going to turn from joyful blessings to bitter curses, from gladness to sorrow, from feasts to funerals (8:10).

Moreover, the feasts and Sabbaths which they begrudged were to be replaced by a famine of not hearing the Word of the Lord (8:11). The covenant Word––“Hear, O Israel (Deut. 6:4),”––would be heard no more. Though it would be sought for, it wouldn’t be found (8:12). This is a weighty implication: famine instead of feasts, roaming instead of rest. God is annulling the covenant promises of Deuteronomy (Cf. Deu. 4:29).

The young men and fair virgins would be weak and faint (8:13), which is precisely the opposite of the attendant blessings which were to be poured out upon a faithful Israel (cf. Psa. 144:12-13). The blessings of God’s feast would be turned “inside out”. Scattering. Deafness. Infertility. Famine.

Idolatry is really at the root of their indifference and injustice (8:14). God swore (in Deut. 4:31) to not forget the covenant he had made with Israel’s fathers. But now Israel has sworn by the gods of the nations, and worshipped the two golden calves in Dan and Bethel (Cf. 1 Kings 12:28-29).

When God, as a roaring lion (1:1) begins the hunt, His prey will be unable to escape (9:1-4). The once verdant land will melt into a devastating flood (9:5). There should be no question that God Almighty is behind all this judgement upon the sinful nation (9:6-10). But the prophecies of Amos close with an inconceivably glorious surprise (9:11-15).

A Deliberate Descent into Deafness

It is a dangerous financial strategy to get a low-balance notification, and to keep spending like nothing is wrong. Likewise, it is foolish to notice the check engine on your dashboard, and keep driving. But the gravest danger you can ever be in is to deliberately ignore your own sin and think that you can hide it away in some sealed compartment of your heart without it infecting your whole man. That’s like injecting venom in your pinky toe and thinking it won’t effect the rest of you. 

Amos, along with the other prophets of his time, labored to awaken Israel to her sins. Warning after warning came, and Israel deliberately ignored the prophet’s voice. Even told him to go away (7:12-13). The prick of conviction you feel when you sin in some way, while uncomfortable, is not a sign that something is wrong. It is a sign that your ears are still open to hear what the Spirit says to the church. However, what Amos is warning Israel about here is that if they keep stopping their ears, God will make sure they stop hearing. There is a judicial blindness (Rom. 1), or in this text a deafness, to hearing the Word of the Lord which is a sign of God’s judgement. The most frightful thing would be to coast along, dutifully attending church each week, and convincing yourself that none of this applies to you. You don’t need to humble yourself. You don’t need to confess anything. You don’t need to make restitution. You don’t need to change anything.

Lewis says there are two sorts of people in the end, those who say to God, “Thy will be done” and those to whom God says, “Thy will be done.” A good example of this is in the arguments over abortion. You can provide all the evidence that the fetus is a human made in the image of God from conception and deserving of equal protection under the law, and still people will insist on the right to murder the unborn. Their conscience is seared. In other words, there is something worse than the embarrassment and discomfort of humbly confessing your sin and making things right with those you wronged. God can give you over to delusion. He can send a famine of hearing His Word. He can leave you in your little make believe world where you think you can ignore all His warning signs that you’re heading for a cataclysmic crash, and still pull out of your tailspin before going splat into the ground. It is a fearful thing when the alarms stop going off.

Death & Resurrection

There are a few surprises for us here in this book. In the first part of Amos, he began with oracles of judgement against the nations. He begins with Israel’s neighbors (Damascus, Gaza, Tyre). Then moves on to the sins of Israel’s relatives (Edom, Ammon, Moab). Then the sins of her sister, Judah. And then the surprise, he lumps Israel in with the heathens. 

The second surprise is found here in Chapter 8. The verdant blessings of a restored Eden, which was to be the defining feature of the Promised Land is reversed. The deuteronomic blessings will decompose into the deuteronomic curses. The Shire will become Mordor. The water will run dry, the sun will cease to shine. The Lord who once fought for them as a man of war, to deliver them from Egypt, will fight against them, treating them as a new Egypt. Amos’ message is not one of sunny optimism, but of a total devastation of God’s just wrath upon an idolatrous and unjust, covenant breaking people.

But rather than drawing the curtains closed on a tragic scene of utter sorrow and devastation, Amos has two more stunning surprises. Like a phoenix from the ashes, Amos surprises us with reversals of the first two surprises. The first reversal is that God would rebuild Israel, by restoring the Tabernacle of David, and the surprise here is that Edom and all the heathen (9:12) would join Israel in that restoration. The second surprise reversal is that by means of this restored davidic tabernacle, the earth would burst with a fruitfulness of grain and wine. The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Worship

But another surprise is here. Instead of Amos foretelling of a rebuilt temple, he foretells the restoration of the the tabernacle of David. That tabernacle was a house not filled with the smoke of burnt sacrifices but with the songs of prayer and praise. It is this house of song which Amos foretells will be the sign of a restored and recreated Israel. James, presiding at the Jerusalem counsel, declared that the ingathering of Gentiles, due to the apostolic ministry of Paul and Peter, was the fulfillment of Amos’ prophecy (Cf. Acts 15).

This is the great surprise of the New Covenant. Our worship, the worship of the church of Jesus Christ, is the fulfillment of Amos’ vision. By Christ’s death and resurrection this glorious reversal is made possible. Christ is that tabernacle of David, and this means that the church is that house, composed of all the nations, tribes, and tongues, made clean by the blood of the everlasting covenant which Christ established.

Here, in our worship, is how God is renewing and remaking the world: by a hot Gospel that your sins are many, but God’s grace is abundant. Our worship, then, is a potent thing. As we worship, with clean hands and pure hearts, we are a testimony unto all nations of the glorious restoration which God, through Christ is bringing about. Our service to God here is, by the Spirit, made potent out there. As you work on spreadsheets and fitted sheets, homework and housework, it is undergirded by the covenant Word proclaimed, praised, and partaken of here. This is the great surprise. God is taking over the world in the most unexpected way. A house filled with songs. A house where the Living Word is heard with open ears. A house whose door is cleansing water. A house which hosts a banquet of bread and wine.