After these things I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which is fallen, and will rebuild its ruins, and will set it up,
James is speaking at the council in Jerusalem, where the church was arguing over one question: must Gentile believers take circumcision and keep the law of Moses? James answers by quoting the prophet Amos, and those words look ahead to a rebuilt house of David and to nations that bear God's name.
Why would a prophecy about David's fallen house settle a dispute about circumcision? Because of what it promises the nations.
This is the well-known principle James applied at the council in Jerusalem: under the gospel God has the right to accept Gentiles without circumcising them. His argument is that they do not need to become Jews in all but name to get the blessing of God and to bear His name. To be circumcised is, in practice, to stop being a Gentile and to become a Jew. But now God is really making not Jews but Christians. So forcing circumcision on Gentiles who believed was a complete mistake.
Commentators differ over how much the tent itself carries here. One writer holds that James's point lay in the words that follow it.
In the words James quotes (and he quotes them from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament), the point is this: "all the Gentiles upon whom My name is called." So they were not to trouble the Gentiles. As for "the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down," that has nothing to do with why he quotes the passage.
What exactly had fallen? Older translations, which these writers quote, say "tabernacle" where the ESV says "tent".
The word 'tabernacle' sometimes means a temporary dwelling place, which can be new — see Matthew 17:4. At other times it means a dwelling place in ruins. That is the sense here. The 'house of David' has 'fallen', that is, it has fallen into ruin. David's descendants lived under Roman occupation, they had no king, and so on. But God would rebuild 'its ruins'.
The promise reaches further than repair work. It joins a divided kingdom into one, and it closes every gap the years had opened.
God would not allow Judah and Israel merely to flourish as separate powers. He will reunite them and establish the rights of the united kingdom. He will wall up their breaches, for the breaches were many, some from weakness inside and some from violence outside.
The order of events is part of the message. Verses 14-18 set out what God is doing now and what comes next.
Note in verses 14-18 the four important steps: 1. God visits the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His Name. This is the purpose of the present age. The called people constitute the church, the body of Christ. 2. After this I will return. This means the second Coming of Christ. When the Church is complete and all its members have been added to that body, Christ comes again — first, as later revealed, for His saints, and then with them. 3. The Restoration of Israel follows after His Return. The Tabernacle of David will be built again and will be set up. 4. Then all the Gentiles will seek after the Lord.
Some read this verse as saying the church is the repaired ruins of Israel. Commentators here answer that no such rebuilding has happened yet.
The book of Acts is not a history of the Church as such, but of the change from Judaism into Christianity. James does not quote this scripture to prove that the tabernacle of David had been rebuilt. It certainly is not rebuilt yet. He quotes it to show that Gentiles come within the blessed purposes of God's grace. In other words, this passage says nothing about the Church.
Amos said the tent would be rebuilt "as in the days of old." Those words are missing here, and what is coming is more than a restored past.
The 'tabernacle of David' will be built up to a state far better and higher than 'in the days of old'. This will be under the thousand-year reign of Christ, when He has put down every enemy and reigns in righteousness and peace.
The rebuilt house has a rightful ruler, and He is why any nation is blessed at all.
He quotes Amos 9:11-12, which shows that Gentiles would be blessed by having God's name called on them, and that this goes with the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David. Of course, Christ is the true Prince of the house of David, and in Christ alone Gentiles as well as Jews find blessing.
- Ruin. The "tent of David" is the royal house in collapse: no king, foreign rule, rubble where a throne belonged.
- Return. God first takes a people out of the nations for His name. Then He returns.
- Rebuild. Only after that does He raise the fallen house, so the church is not the repaired ruins of Israel.
- Room. Amos speaks of Gentiles who bear God's name, so no Gentile ever had to become a Jew to be blessed.
- Reign. What rises will surpass "the days of old," because the true Prince of David's house will reign in righteousness and peace.
so that the residue of men may seek out the Lord, and all the nations on whom my name is invoked, saith [the] Lord, who does these things
James has just heard Peter, Barnabas and Paul debate one question: must Gentile believers — non-Jews — be circumcised? He answers from the prophets, and his case rests on one phrase: Gentiles who bear God's name.
James quotes Amos from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. The clause that decides the debate is not the rebuilding of David's fallen tent, but the words that follow it.
In James' citation (and he is quoting from the Septuagint), the point is, "all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called"; so they were not to trouble the Gentiles. As for "the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down," this has nothing to do with his object in quoting the passage.
If God's name can rest on nations while they stay nations, then no one has to become a Jew first.
Here is the well-known principle James applied at the council of Jerusalem. He applied it to God's right to recognise Gentiles under the gospel without circumcising them. His argument is that they do not need to become Jews in effect to receive God's blessing and to bear His name. For to be circumcised is in practice to be no longer a Gentile, but to become a Jew. Whereas God is now really making not Jews but Christians. So forcing circumcision on Gentiles who believed was a complete mistake.
This promise attaches God's own name to people outside Israel. That was new.
Before this they had no connection with the name of God — that is, the Jehovah of Israel (Isaiah 63:19). Yet Amos (Amos 9:12) prophesied of Gentiles who would be called by His name. Acts 15:14, 17 shows how that part of the prophecy found a measure of fulfilment when Peter baptised Cornelius and his household.
Some read the verse as a prophecy of Jew and Gentile joined in one body, the church.
It is an error to suppose that these last words allude to the mystery of forming believing Gentiles with faithful Jews into one body, the church. Romans 16:25-26 and Ephesians 3:5-6 do refer to that mystery, but our text does not. It simply speaks of God's gracious recognition of those of the nations who believe as His own, though they are still Gentiles. This is true under the gospel now and in the future kingdom. Union with Christ the Head as His body goes much further, and it is said of Gentiles now as of believing Jews. But no Old Testament prophet reveals it.
The promise looks past the Gentiles believing then. It reaches a day when whole nations bear God's name and stay nations.
James draws from the testimony of the prophets the principle that Gentiles, as Gentiles, have the Lord's name called on them; the one prophet he cites proves it. The nations were so far from having to accept circumcision that the prophet speaks of all the Gentiles. This will be in the days of the kingdom, as no Jew could deny. They will not become Jews any more than the Jews will become Gentiles; both will be blessed of the Lord in their respective positions when the Messiah reigns. It was absurd, therefore, to object to God's grace toward the Gentiles now.
Read with the two verses before it, this verse sits inside an order of events. That order runs from today to the day the nations seek the Lord.
Note in verses 14-18 the four important steps: 1. God visits the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His Name. This is the purpose of the present age. The called people constitute the church, the body of Christ. 2. After this I will return. This means the second Coming of Christ. 3. The Restoration of Israel follows after His Return. The Tabernacle of David will be built again and will be set up. 4. Then all the Gentiles will seek after the Lord.
The Greek wording of this clause is not the same as the Hebrew of Amos.
James quotes a passage whose scope has nothing to say to the matter. The Septuagint reads, "that the residue of men might seek after the Lord." The Hebrew reads, "that they may possess the remnant of Edom."
(The older translation reads "the residue of men"; the ESV has "the remnant of mankind.")
- Name. The heart of the verse is the phrase "called by my name." God's name rests on Gentiles. That is the one thing James had to prove.
- Not Jews. The name can rest on nations as nations. So no believer has to become a Jew first. God is now making Christians.
- Not the church. God here owns believing Gentiles as His own. This is not the union of Jew and Gentile in one body. No prophet revealed that.
- Not yet. "All the Gentiles" reaches forward to the kingdom. Then Jew and Gentile are each blessed in their own place under the reigning Messiah.
- In order. A people gathered now. Then His return. Then Israel restored. Then the nations seeking the Lord. Four steps, in that order.