Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb Line.

Amos has 3 visions. The first two – the locusts 🦗 and the fire 🔥 – are so bad that Amos intercedes,

“Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭7‬:‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

And twice the LORD relents.

Let’s pause here for just a moment to appreciate the magnitude of this.

Amos is a shepherd. A herdsman who has a side hustle of picking fruit to sell at the farmer’s market. He’s an uneducated country boy. But he has been obedient to the Lord’s call to speak on His behalf. And the Sovereign Creator of the Universe relents – changes His plan, switches methods – just because Amos asked Him to.

Friend, you don’t have to be “a prophet or the son of a prophet” in order to make an appeal to heaven. The course of Israel’s history changed because one simple man interceded. Satan would like nothing more than for you to believe that your prayers accomplish nothing.

The only prayer God can’t answer is the one that is left un-prayed.

If the people of God ever figure out that we can change the course of 🌎 world history by our prayers 🙏 , there would be no trouble getting people to pray more.

Don’t be afraid to pray big, 🧨 bold prayers over nations and international situations.

Sometimes I just get to an “I’ve had it” moment and I go charging boldly before the throne of grace and proceed to tell all of Heaven “how the cow 🐮 is gonna eat the cabbage 🥬 ” (as my sister says). I have yet to be struck dead 💀 for this. And I know for a fact that the Lord has responded to those prayers and directions have been rerouted. ⤴️

I’ve milked goats 🐐 and picked fruit 🍓 to sell at the farmer’s market too. But I don’t think they are requirements for intercessory prayer.

🙏

So… God shows Amos “Plan C,” the Plumb Line.

The Lord shows Amos a Plumb Line. God is checking His people to see how straight they are; or if their house has shifted off its foundation and become crooked.

But this last bit of the plumb line prophecy gets him in trouble:

“The pagan shrines of your ancestors will be ruined, and the temples of Israel will be destroyed; I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to a sudden end.”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭7‬:‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Just like in Jesus’ day, prophesying temple destruction is a sure way to ruffle feathers.

Amaziah “the priest of Bethel” (which means the phony priest doing Levitical-ish sacrifices before the golden calf idol in Bethel)… he reports Amos to King Jeroboam II then tells Amos to go back to Judah and take his prophecies with him.

THE 4th VISION – A Fruit Basket

🍏🍊🍋🍎🍐🍌🍉🍇🍓🫐🍒🍑🥭🍍🥝

In order to grasp the meaning of this vision we have to get out of our 21st century, American thinking. We go to a lovely, air-conditioned grocery store and think nothing of purchasing a piece of fruit grown on the other side of the planet that was picked green, chemically ripened, and has been hybridized and genetically modified to be huge and sweet and juicy and beautiful a full month after it has been picked.

This is not natural.

Stop buying that fruit. Find something local.

If you imagine a basket of today’s 1st-world frankenfruit, this vision will not make sense.

Think of fruit you have picked yourself- perhaps ripe warm strawberries or some wild blackberries. How long do they last after you’ve picked them?

Not very long. A couple days maybe.

“What do you see, Amos?” he asked. I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.” Then the Lord said, “Like this fruit, Israel is ripe for punishment! I will not delay their punishment again.”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭8‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The time has come.

Sort of.

That’s the thing about Heaven. The clocks are different.

🤔 What time zone are they in?

Let’s call it HST – Heaven Standard Time.

After the death of Jeroboam II, it will be 40 more years before Samaria falls to the Assyrians. That seems like a “delay” to us. But not from Heaven’s perspective. The LORD gives the word without delay, but it takes 40 years for it to fully unfold in the natural realm.

And this ripe fruit judgement is the reason you have a gap between the Old Testament and the New Testament in your Bible. There are 400 years of history between the last page of Malachi and the preaching of John the Baptist.

“The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭8‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When the people kick out the prophet and don’t want to hear the Word of the Lord, that is what the Lord will give them. Silence.

THE 5th VISION – God Beside the Altar

Amos sees a vision of the Lord standing beside the altar; which altar is unclear. It could be the brazen altar or altar of incense in the Temple. But, since Amos is prophesying against the northern kingdom, it may be the altar in the temple in Bethel where one of the golden calves were, or perhaps the temple in the capital of Samaria.

The Lord tells Amos to strike the capitals of the pillars so that the very threshold shakes and shatter the pillars them upon the heads of those in the temple. I tend to picture Amos with a huge heavenly sledgehammer taking one slow-motion swing. And at the moment of impact the temple pillars just shatter into a million pieces like glass.

Yahweh is determined to end this. No matter where His people try to hide, He is going to find them and destroy them. It is passages like these that help us form a healthy fear of God. But notice who isn’t being destroyed:

““I, the Sovereign Lord, am watching this sinful nation of Israel. I will destroy it from the face of the earth. But I will never completely destroy the family of Israel,” says the Lord. “For I will give the command and will shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost. But all the sinners will die by the sword— all those who say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to us.’”
‭‭Amos‬ ‭9‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The proud and arrogant are doomed. Everyone is about to be shaken. But there are a few “true kernels” who will be spared.

And after this tiny glimmer of hope, we get a promise of restoration that seems impossible in their current situation:

“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:” Amos‬ ‭9‬:‭11‬ ‭KJV‬‬

The “tabernacle of David” was the special tent that David pitched in his back yard for the Ark of the Covenant.

😲 David put THE Ark of the Covenant in a tent in his back yard?!

Yes.

😯 So… God did a back yard camp out? 🏕️

Yeah. You could say that.

🤔 Did they roast weenies and marshmallows? 🌭

I don’t think those are Kosher.

But they did sing songs by firelight. 🔥

😄 That is SO cool!

Yes it is. And we actually know what this prophecy is about thanks to Jesus’ brother, James. When Paul and Barnabas arrived in Jerusalem after their missionary trip, there was some serious debate about whether or not Gentiles could be part of the Church.

“After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,

‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭15‬:‭13-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

James quotes Amos 9:11-12, but if you compare your OT to this text in Acts 15, there are some big differences. But, not if you compare the Septuagint. James is quoting the Septuagint version of these verses. And he says that this prophecy of Amos is referring to the Church. The Tabernacle of David is a picture of the Church because:

• No blood sacrifices, instead sacrifices of praise and thanks
• No curtains excluding access, every priest and Levite and even David could be in the presence of God
• No high priest hierarchy, every worshiper had direct and equal access

After all the destruction happens, the Lord is going to rebuild the Tent/Tabernacle of David. There are 2 meanings here.

After the destruction of the Assyrian captivity of Israel and the Babylonian captivity of Judah, Jesus comes and the Lord restores the fallen tent of David as The Church. There are no more blood sacrifices. Instead, we gather to offer sacrifices of praise and thanks. Every member is a priest with direct and equal access. The whole space is the Holy of Holies and the Lord dwells among His people. And to this Tabernacle of David 2.0 the Gentiles come.

But we can’t talk about a Tabernacle without thinking about the future fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles when…

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

At some point, the picture that was the Tabernacle of David will be writ large in the whole world. Instead of a tent in a back yard, it will be God’s holy city in the back yard of planet earth. And God will camp out among His people.

🙂 And then will we roast weenies and marshmallows?

I wouldn’t be surprised.

I know for sure there will be campfire songs.