So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.
1 Chronicles 16:1
Let us read Amos 9:11-15. The book of Amos is the third among the Twelve Minor Prophets, after Hosea and Joel. Amos is a contemporary of the prophets Hosea and Isaiah, active around 750 BC, during the reign of Jeroboam II in Samaria. This is the chronologically the first prophetic book in the bible. Our passage is part of the epilogue and is about the restoration of the House of David. This is rather unusual in that it was written before the fall of the House of David.
Let us look at the first two verses of our passage:
11 “On that day I will raise up
The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom,
Amos 9:11-12
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”
Says the Lord who does this thing.
This is the prophecy of Amos about the end times. It is the hope of those who have put their faith in Yahweh and His promise to return them to the land He promised them. The first thing Yahweh will do is to rebuild or raise up again the fallen tabernacle of David. At that time, the Lord will be king not only over Israel but over the whole world.
When the church was quite new, a major issue raised in the Council in the early Church is the inclusion of Gentiles into the Church. Some men from Judea, now popularly referred to as Judaizers, believed by some to be Pharisees, began teaching that new Gentile believers need to be circumcised and be subject to Jewish Law. The resulting argument led Paul and Barnabas to consult with the Apostles in Jerusalem, led by James, the brother of Jesus.
On hearing the discussions James (St. James the Just), quoted the words of the prophet Amos to point out the end-time plan of the Lord:
15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:
16 ‘After this I will return
Acts 15:15-17
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name,
Says the Lord who does all these things.’
What is the Tabernacle of David?
Remember our discussion on the prayer of Solomon? When he became king in the place of his father, David, he made offerings at the high place at Gibeon. The Tabernacle of Moses was still there. It was complete except for the Ark of the Covenant. Thus, the worship at the Tabernacle at Gibeon is a form of religion that did not have its essence.
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he raised up a tent or tabernacle as a dwelling for Yahweh’s Presence. This moved with them throughout their journey in the wilderness. When they settled the land, they set a Tabernacle to semi-permanently house the Ark of the Lord. When their army brought the Ark to battle, it was captured by the Philistines. When the Israelites got the Ark back, Samuel did not order it returned to the Tabernacle of Moses.
When David became king, he brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem with great rejoicing. He made a new tent to house the Ark, known as the Tabernacle of David. The religious sacrifices continued to be offered at the Altar at the Tabernacle of Moses at Gibeon, officiated by the High Priest. The Tabernacle of David housed the Ark of the Covenant and was a place of great rejoicing, music and dancing.
4 And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel: 5 Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, and Obed-Edom: Jeiel with stringed instruments and harps, but Asaph made music with cymbals; 6 Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests regularly blew the trumpets before the ark of the covenant of God.
1 Chronicles 16:4-6
Did we notice the names, especially Asaph? It is a name, together with David, that appears a lot in the Psalms.
In the Tabernacle of Moses, Yahweh is hidden. The tabernacle has three parts: the outer court, the holy place, and the holy of holies or the most holy place.
The outer court is the biggest sector, and it contained the Bronze Altar and the Bronze Sea. At the altar the priests burn the sacrifices brought by the people. After offering, the priest would wash off all the blood at the big basin called the Bronze Sea. We have studied that this picture is an image of Jesus, who is both our priest and our perfect offering.
11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:11-12
The next sector is the Holy Place. This room contains just three furnishings: the table of showbread, the golden lampstand or menorah, and the altar of incense.
The table of showbread speaks to us about Jesus as the freshly baked bread, our Bread of Life.
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
John 6:35
The next furniture in the Holy Place is the menorah or seven-branch lampstand or seven-branch candlestick. This symbolizes the Holy Spirit, sometimes called the seven-fold Spirit of Yahweh.
The Spirit of YHWH shall rest upon Him,
Isaiah 11:2
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YHWH.
The verse above talks about the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus and we can even say that the menorah is about Jesus, since the candlestick is the only source of light in the Holy Place. And Jesus is the light of the world.
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
John 8:12
And the next furniture in the Holy Place is the Altar of Incense. Here the high priest burns incense that rises up as a pleasing aroma to YHWH. Jesus’ sacrifice of himself is a pleasing aroma rising up to God.
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.”
John 17:1
After the Holy Place is the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place. It should have contained the Ark of the Covenant, signifying the presence of the Lord, between the wings of the cherubim. However, in this case, the Ark was somewhere else. The Most Holy Place at the Tabernacle of Moses was empty, signifying religious forms without relationship with YHWH.
The Ark of the Covenant was housed in the Tabernacle of David in Jerusalem. The religious rituals continued at Gibeon while music and celebration was at Jerusalem.
37 So he left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister before the ark regularly, as every day’s work required; 38 and Obed-Edom with his sixty-eight brethren, including Obed-Edom the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, to be gatekeepers; 39 and Zadok the priest and his brethren the priests, before the tabernacle of the Lord at the high place that was at Gibeon, 40 to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly morning and evening, and to do according to all that is written in the Law of the Lord which He commanded Israel; 41 and with them Heman and Jeduthun and the rest who were chosen, who were designated by name, to give thanks to the Lord, because His mercy endures forever; 42 and with them Heman and Jeduthun, to sound aloud with trumpets and cymbals and the musical instruments of God. Now the sons of Jeduthun were gatekeepers.
1 Chronicles 16:37-42
The verses in Amos and quoted in the Acts is a prophecy that began to be fulfilled with the new tabernacle of David to be raised up by the Son of David. This is not a tent or tabernacle made of cloth and skins, nor a building made of wood and stone. It is the dwelling at the heart of the believer. It is the dwelling made up of individual members making up one body
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
The word temple here is the Greek word ναὸς (naos) which means temple or shrine, with the emphasis that it is the dwelling of God. These verses use the second person plural, so the temple here is the collective church—the body of Christ. The Tabernacle of David in our time is the church where Jesus is raised up in praise and worship.
The passage continues:
13 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
Amos 9:13-15
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
15 I will plant them in their land,
And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.
These verses speak of super-abundance when the Lord has rebuilt the tabernacle of David. The descriptions speak of super-abundance: The plowman overtaking the reaper speaks of a harvest that goes beyond the planting season. And while grapes are being turned to wine, the planting season has already come again. The harvest is so plentiful that it seems unending. There is so much overflow and so much abundance that mountains drip sweet wine and hills flow with it. It does not say that mountains and hills have wine. The wine is overflowing!
This kind of reminds us of the verse in Luke:
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Luke 6:38
It is not just abundance. It is not just having 100% returns. It is so much more. When the time has come again to plant while the harvest is on-going, it is so much harvest that practically it is harvest all year-round.
In the natural, the Jews and Israel have been greatly blessed. In the Forbes Top 50 Billionaires list, there are 10 Jews, a disproportionate number of them. Among them are Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle Corp.; Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City; and Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook (now Meta) fame. There are also a disproportionate number of Nobel Prize winners, as well as inventors.
Many Jews succeed even outside of the Promised Land. I remember a story told us about this sculpture among the streets of Jaffa.
It is a tree growing up out of a pot shaped like a seed. The seed is suspended in the air, thus not touching the ground. It symbolizes the Jews who are able to grow roots seemingly in mid-air. It means the Jew can take root anywhere, even when they have no ground of their own. They have been “thrown” to all four winds and wherever they end up on, they take root. They are able to adapt.
But the verse today says that they no longer need to be like that. Wherever they were taken to, the Lord will bring them back. They no longer need to be pulled up. The Lord will plant them in the land that He has given them. And they are able to grow crops in the desert using advanced technologies.
This is the blessing for the natural Israel. Even the Spiritual Israel—the Church, the body of Christ, is blessed with a harvest that is 30-fold, 60-fold, and even 100-fold. Truly it is in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over!
[ Ernest Serote | Church of the Risen Lord | 18 November 2021 ]
