In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David which is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old
Amos ends with God judging a kingdom built on sin. He sifts the nation, yet not one grain perishes — and then He speaks of rebuilding. Two questions follow: whose collapsed shelter is this, and when does God raise it?
The rebuilding does not cancel the judgment. It follows it, and starts among the survivors.
The nation as a whole must go in judgment, "all of them," down to the very "last of them" (Amos 9:1). Only the election of grace will be preserved, and of these "not the least grain" shall perish. Among these preserved ones "the tabernacle of David" will be raised up. God would end the state of things then existing under Uzziah and Jeroboam II. He would go back to David, and secure permanency for what is according to His own heart.
Notice which royal line God names here — and which one He passes over.
In that day (that is, in the day of Jehovah's final judgment) He would not raise up the tabernacle of the Jeroboams and of the Jehus, though He had given them a place for a time during His patient government. Instead, fulfilling His own purposes of grace, He would raise up the tabernacle of David His elect, and rebuild it in its glory. He would raise it up from its ruins completely. In this way His seed would possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations that are brought to know the name of Jehovah.
Commentators call this fallen shelter David's "tabernacle". The word can describe a shelter that is new, or one that has collapsed. Here it is the second: a family that still existed while its throne did not.
The word 'tabernacle' is sometimes used for a temporary dwelling place (which can be new — see Matt. 17:4) and at other times for a dwelling place in ruins. So it is here. The 'house of David' has 'fallen' into a state of ruin: David's descendants lived under Roman occupation, they had no king, and so on. But God would rebuild 'its ruins'.
Repairing the breaches means more than patching walls. The split between Judah and Israel is one of the gaps God closes.
He would not permit merely a flourishing state of Judah and of Israel as separate powers. He will reunite them and establish the rights of the united kingdom... That rude booth or hut looked weak in itself, and it was a fallen thing too. Yet God would raise it up in the day when the strong and high and haughty must fall. He will wall up their breaches, for they suffered many breaches from internal weakness and outside violence.
One New Testament quotation of this promise drops the phrase about the days of old. The omission takes nothing away.
This promise is based on the prophecy of Amos (Amos 9:11). But note that Amos says it will be rebuilt 'as in the days of old', whereas Paul omits these words. In fact, God will build the 'tabernacle of David' up to a state far better and higher than 'in the days of old'. This will be under the millennial reign of Christ, when all enemies will be subdued and He will reign in righteousness and peace.
Acts 15 quotes this verse in a discussion about Gentiles. The quotation settles a principle. It does not announce that the prophecy had come true.
Verses 11, 12 of this chapter are quoted in Acts 15. The point was not to show that the prophecy had then come to pass. It was to prove that God had all along determined on having a people from among the Gentiles. The language of the prophets therefore agreed with what Simon Peter had been relating of what God had done in his days. It is not the fulfilment of a prophecy, but the establishing of a principle by the mouth of the prophets.
It also rules out treating the rebuilt shelter as a picture of the church.
On the other hand, Jehovah has not yet raised up the tabernacle of David; nor is this at all suggested by James's quotation of the passage. Neither he nor any other apostle ever says that the church of God is the same thing as the booth of David... this error lowers our own dignity, and robs the ancient people of that hope for which God's providence keeps them despite their present unbelief.
Every human effort at this house has ended in decay. Commentators point past the ruins to one Builder.
Here, too, our thoughts are carried off to Christ, the true David, as the Man of God's counsels. From the beginning, God's choice has been set on Him. Everything here has fallen into decay, and every man who has lived has contributed to the ruin. But when the appointed time comes, what God has purposed will be established by Christ. None but He can do this.
- Fallen. David's house is a collapsed shelter, not a standing palace — a line with descendants but no throne.
- Preserved. God sifts the nation but loses no one He has chosen. The shelter rises among those survivors.
- Raised. God returns to David, not to Jeroboam. He walls up the breaches and makes the divided kingdom one.
- Widened. Acts 15 uses this verse to prove one principle: God always meant to have a people from among the Gentiles.
- Permanent. Only Christ, the true David, builds it — and He builds it higher than the days of old, in righteousness and peace.
that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations upon whom my name is called, saith Jehovah who doeth this.
Amos ends with promise instead of judgment: God rebuilds the fallen shelter of David, and His people then hold Edom and nations that carry His name. Two questions follow — why Edom, and how foreign nations come to be called by God's name.
Verse 12 gives the purpose of verse 11. God is not restoring two separate kingdoms. He restores one kingdom under David's line. And the verse ends by naming who does it: the LORD Himself.
He would not allow only a flourishing Judah and Israel as separate powers. He will reunite them and establish the rights of the united kingdom... That rough shelter looked weak in itself, and it had fallen too. Yet God would raise it up on the day when the strong, the high and the proud must fall.
Edom came from Esau, the older brother of Jacob. Commentators read Israel's possession of Edom as an old word about those two brothers finally coming true.
But still, "the elder shall serve the younger." That promise is certain and sure. Amos witnesses to it for us when he says that Israel will possess Edom (chapter 9). And our prophet, Obadiah, is another witness of the same. He tells us that one day saviours will come to Zion and judge the mount of Esau... Edom celebrated on the day Jacob was taken captive. He looked at his brother with malice and self-congratulation "in the day that he became a stranger." He was glad when Jerusalem fell to the sword of the Babylonians.
The second half of the verse reaches past Israel. Until then the nations had no share in the name of Israel's God. Amos says that will change.
Until then they had no connection with the name of God — that is, the Jehovah of Israel (Isaiah 63:19). Yet Amos prophesied here of Gentiles who would be called by His name. Acts 15:14, 17 shows how that part of the prophecy began to come true when Peter baptized Cornelius and his household.
The early believers argued over one question: must non-Jews be circumcised? James answered by quoting this verse. He wanted one clause in it, and he took it from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament.
In James' quotation (and he is quoting from the Septuagint), 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 quoted the passage.
The prophecy looks ahead to the reign of the Messiah, and that decides the question.
They will not become Jews, any more than the Jews will become Gentiles. The Lord will bless both, each in their own place, when the Messiah reigns. So it was absurd to object to God's grace toward the Gentiles now, under the gospel, and in the church, where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, but Christ is all and in all.
Because James quoted Amos, some have read the rebuilt shelter of David as the Christian church. Commentators here reject that. The mistake, they say, robs the church and Israel alike.
Neither he nor any other apostle ever says that the church of God is the same thing as the booth of David. The whole system that identifies the two is foreign to Scripture and against it... This error lowers our own dignity. It also robs the ancient people of the hope God keeps for them, in spite of their present unbelief... This is the mark of the coming day of the kingdom, when all Israel will be saved, and will inherit the remnant even of their bitterest enemy as well as of all the Gentiles.
So Acts 15 gives an order of events. God is at work among the nations now. The restoring of David's house comes after that.
The passage in Acts teaches us that during this age God visits the Gentiles to gather out from among them a people for His Name (the Church). When that work is finished, the Lord returns. His return brings the restoration of the tabernacle of David: that is, God will give the kingdom back to His people.
- Named — the verse turns on one phrase: "called by my name." God puts His name on peoples who had no claim to it before.
- Rebuilt — the name comes through a restored house of David, not through Israel's own strength. God raises the fallen shelter on the day the proud fall.
- Reversed — Edom came from the elder brother. Now the younger brother's people possess him, and an old promise comes true.
- Widened — James used the verse to prove that non-Jews can bear God's name without becoming Jews. So the council did not require them to be circumcised.
- Waiting — commentators here say the tabernacle of David is not the church, and God has not yet raised it. That promise waits for the kingdom day. Today He gathers a people for His name.