Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop new wine, and all the hills shall melt.
Amos closes a book of judgment with a picture of a land so rich that harvest and sowing run into each other. Has this ever happened, who did God promise it to, and what could make the ground behave that way?
One test of this promise is history. Writers who follow the end of Amos through Israel's story say that nothing like it has happened yet:
It is clear that the blessings promised here, and in the two paragraphs before it, were not fulfilled when the exiles came back from Babylon. Each one describes a restoration under the Lord's blessing, with lasting happiness and holiness. Israel has never yet enjoyed that.
Normal farming cannot do this. Sowing follows so close on the last harvest that the seasons overlap. One writer explains what makes the difference:
The land will yet bring forth richly, for the curse will be removed, and Jesus will be there. In that day "the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed." It is a very remarkable statement. But it is simply God's way of showing how fruitful everything is to be in the day spoken of here.
The change in the soil reaches back to the first pages of the Bible, and to a sentence that still stands:
The curse will be removed from the earth. When Adam fell the ground was cursed on his account. Whatever relief came in Noah's day, that sentence is not fully cancelled until Messiah reigns. The psalmist accordingly sings, "Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us." (Ps. 67:5-6.)
Amos was not the first prophet to promise flowing hills. Joel had said they would flow with milk. One writer shows how Amos takes up Joel's words and goes further. Older translations end the verse "all the hills shall melt," where the ESV has "all the hills shall flow with it":
It has been well noted that Amos, a prophet of Judah but sent to Israel, joins his own prophecy to Joel's. Joel's work was especially toward Judah and Jerusalem, and Amos ties their testimony together on purpose (Amos 1:2). Here is a fresh instance. Amos takes up the rich promise at the close of Joel and goes beyond it in strength: he says that all the hills shall not merely flow with milk, but melt (verse 13).
Some readers take a passage like this as a picture of spiritual blessing. One writer answers that the scene is above nature, yet it still belongs to the earth:
The prophet describes what is surely beyond nature. Even so, he is not describing heavenly things but the earth. The earth will then be the place of boundless blessing from God, with no hurt or danger to man. This is in no way a picture of the pathway of faith, which makes its way by the power of the Spirit against the current of the world. For Satan will then be bound, and the Lord will be reigning, not in secret but openly.
The same writer allows a careful use of the verse, but draws a line:
It only misleads when a Christian reads such a passage as if it described his own circumstances. It may be right to use the principle to illustrate the rich grace of our God. But we must be careful: such a use must not deny the passage its just and full meaning, or the clear aim and purpose of the Holy Spirit in it.
This harvest comes at the end of a chapter of judgment. It follows God's judgment on Israel and the rebuilding of David's house, and leads to a settlement that cannot be undone:
So in the prophet Amos we find the judgment of the kingdom of Israel. But this judgment was applied to the whole of Israel as a nation, along with their sure restoration. That restoration goes with the re-establishing of the house of David in the last days — a work done by God, which nothing should ever overthrow. He would plant them, and none should pluck them up. That testimony has certainly never been fulfilled, and just as certainly it will be. Israel shall be in their own land and never removed again.
- Curse — God cursed the ground when Adam fell. Writers hold that the sentence stands until Messiah reigns. This verse shows it lifted.
- Overflow — the plowman overtaking the reaper shows how fruitful the land will be. The curse will be gone, and Jesus will be there.
- Beyond Joel — Joel promised hills flowing with milk. Amos goes further: the hills themselves melt.
- On earth — the scene is above nature, but it is not heaven. Using it to picture God's grace to a Christian must not replace its plain meaning.
- Permanent — the harvest follows judgment and the rebuilding of David's house. It ends with a people planted and never pulled up. That has not happened yet, so it is still to come.
And I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; and they shall make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Amos closes his book with a promise, right after chapters of hard judgment on a nation God was about to scatter. He tells people who had lost everything that they will build, plant, and eat again — which raises two questions: when does this happen, and is it meant literally?
The restoration here is not a repair of the kingdom Amos spent his prophecy condemning. God passes over the dynasty that failed and goes back to His own choice.
On that day — the day of the Lord's final judgment — He would not raise up the tabernacle of the Jeroboams and the Jehus. He had given them a place for a time under His patient government. Instead, fulfilling His own purposes of grace, He would raise up the tabernacle of David, His chosen one, and rebuild it in its glory... At that time the Lord would also bring Israel back from their captivity and settle them again in full blessing. They should enjoy the fruits of their land. It was the land which He Himself had given them.
Earlier in the same book, Amos told these people that what they built and planted would be taken from them. The promise at the end of the book gives back what that sentence took away.
They had built fine houses of hewn stone, but they were not to enjoy them, nor the wine from their pleasant vineyards (Deut. 28:30, 39). The Lord knew their transgressions and the greatness of their sins.
Vineyards, gardens, and rebuilt cities are ordinary parts of life on earth. Commentators refuse to read them as pictures of something else.
There is no doubt that it will be a day of blessing for the souls of all who are born of God. But what the prophet describes goes beyond nature, yet it is not about heavenly things. It is about the earth. The earth will then be the place of boundless blessing from God, with no hurt or danger to man. It is in no way a picture of the pathway of faith. That path presses on by the power of the Spirit against the opposing course of the world. For Satan will then be bound, and the Lord will be reigning openly, not in secret. Righteousness will be at ease and in honour.
The obvious candidate for fulfilment is the return from exile in Babylon. Writers reject it, because what Amos describes does not match what happened.
The blessings promised here, and in the two paragraphs before it, clearly were not fulfilled when the captives came back from Babylon. Each one describes a restoration under the Lord's blessing, with a lasting state of happiness and holiness. Israel has never yet enjoyed this.
That partial return still had a purpose.
The partial return from Babylon is the pledge of a complete restoration in the day of the Lord... His coming did not end the complete fulfilment; the very opposite is true. He will come again, and Israel will say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Then Israel will enjoy the sure mercies of David to the full. This takes nothing from the church, gives much to Israel, and glorifies Christ in all.
Acts 15 quotes the two verses just before this one. That has led some to say Amos was fulfilled then. Commentators read the quotation differently.
"I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel... and I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted." This is not yet accomplished. Acts 15 quotes verses 11 and 12 of this chapter. The point was not to show that the prophecy had come to pass. It was to prove that God had always meant to have a people from among the Gentiles. So the language of the prophets agreed with what Simon Peter had been telling them about what God had done in his days. It is not the fulfilment of a prophecy, but the establishing of a principle.
This promise is about land, cities and fruit. That marks off Israel's hope from the church's.
They (the Jews) will be blessed with every earthly blessing in a pleasant land. (Amos 9:11-15) We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. (Eph. 1)... The Jerusalem above will be the centre of heavenly glory.
- Judgment — The promise comes after the sentence falls. God rebuilds around David, not around the kingdom that failed.
- Reversal — Amos said they would never enjoy their houses and vineyards. Here God gives them back.
- Pledge — The return from Babylon was not the fulfilment. It was the down payment. The full restoration waits for the day of the Lord.
- Principle — Acts 15 cites Amos to show that God always meant to have a people from the nations. It does not say this prophecy is over.
- Portion — Israel's promise is earthly and in the land; the church's is spiritual and heavenly. Neither cancels the other, and both bring glory to Christ.
And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God.
Amos ends a book of warning with a promise that lasts: God will plant His people in their own land, and no one will pull them up again. But who does the planting, has it happened yet, and what makes this settlement hold when earlier ones failed?
This promise comes after judgment, not before it. Only a chosen few are left to receive it.
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 kept, and of these "not the least grain" will perish. Among these preserved ones God will raise up "the tabernacle of David." God will turn back to David, and secure permanence for what is according to His own heart.
The verse does not say Israel will settle themselves. God does the planting, and the land is His gift to them.
At that time Jehovah would also bring Israel back from their captivity, and settle them again in full blessing. They would enjoy the fruits of their land. Jehovah would plant His people on their land, and they would never be pulled up again. It was the land which He Himself had given them.
Israel did come back from Babylon long ago. So did that return fulfil this promise?
It is clear that the blessings promised in this paragraph and in the two before it were not fulfilled when the captives came back from Babylon. Each one describes a restoration under Jehovah's blessing, with a lasting state of happiness and holiness. Israel has never yet enjoyed that.
Israel held the land before and lost it. What changes in the coming day is the terms on which they hold it.
Israel's calling is an earthly one. Under law, the continued enjoyment of earthly blessing depended on conditions they failed to keep. So they did not hold on to the land, even in the days of Joshua and Solomon, when God had given it to them so richly. In days to come, grace will restore and save them. They will then stand in grace, and will no longer hold their blessings on the terms of their own obedience. But their blessings — the blessings that mark out their calling and position — will still be earthly.
The same writer draws the line clearly: this earthly settlement is Israel's portion, while those in the church are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
Who guarantees a promise like this? Commentators look past Israel to one person.
Here, too, our thoughts are drawn to Christ, the true David, as the Man of God's counsels. From the beginning, God's choice has rested on Him. Everything here has fallen into decay, and every man who has lived has added to the ruin. But when the appointed time comes, Christ will establish what God has purposed. No one but He can do it. In that day even the nations will share in the blessing.
Commentators differ on whether any of this has begun. Some say Israel has never yet received what is promised here. One writer sees the modern return to the land as prophecy being fulfilled:
God's ancient people have wandered here and there among the nations for nearly two thousand years. Now a hunger for Palestine has risen in their hearts... Hundreds of thousands of Jews have entered that beaten-down and stricken land again. This is the fulfilment of prophecies scattered across the pages of the Old Testament.
- Sifted — the promise starts on the far side of judgment. The nation falls, and God keeps only "the election of grace", with not one grain lost.
- Planted — the planting is God's own act, and the land is His gift. The title deed is not an achievement.
- Permanent — "never again be uprooted" is the phrase that rules out the return from Babylon. Israel has never yet held the land in lasting blessing.
- Grace — under law they lost the land by failing its conditions. In the coming day they keep it because they stand in grace, not on their own obedience.
- Christ — it all turns on the true David. Everything else has fallen into decay, and no one else can establish what God purposed.