Amo 9:8-9 | KingComments | STEP | Here again we speak of “the eyes” of the Lord ( ). His eyes are directed “on” in the sense of ‘against’ the sinful kingdom (cf. ; ). For the “sinful kingdom” no continuation is possible and it will not rise again. God can never remain in connection with sin. If His kingdom, the government of which He has entrusted to His people, becomes a kingdom ruled by sin through misrule, then God becomes its Opponent. He wanted someone to sit on ‘His throne’ ( ), ‘the throne of the kingdom of the LORD’ ( ), who represented Him. But His throne has increasingly fallen into the hands of people who only pursued their own interests and not the interests of God. Where man reigns without the awareness that he represents God, there, sin comes to power and the whole kingdom is permeated by sin. In this kingdom, God sees nothing but sin. That is why He must wipe it off the face of the earth. How different will be the kingdom over which the Lord Jesus will be King. How different that will be, we will see in the millennial realm of peace. Yet in the midst of this announcement of judgment, God introduces an element of hope. He “will not totally destroy the house of Jacob”. There will be a remnant from which He will form a new realm and holy people. This element has so far been lacking in the preaching of Amos; it was only judgment and nothing else.

‏ Amos 9:8-9

Judgment and a Remnant

Here again we speak of “the eyes” of the Lord (Amos 9:3-4). His eyes are directed “on” in the sense of ‘against’ the sinful kingdom (cf. Lev 20:5; Psa 34:16). For the “sinful kingdom” no continuation is possible and it will not rise again. God can never remain in connection with sin. If His kingdom, the government of which He has entrusted to His people, becomes a kingdom ruled by sin through misrule, then God becomes its Opponent.

He wanted someone to sit on ‘His throne’ (2Chr 9:8), ‘the throne of the kingdom of the LORD’ (1Chr 28:5), who represented Him. But His throne has increasingly fallen into the hands of people who only pursued their own interests and not the interests of God.

Where man reigns without the awareness that he represents God, there, sin comes to power and the whole kingdom is permeated by sin. In this kingdom, God sees nothing but sin. That is why He must wipe it off the face of the earth. How different will be the kingdom over which the Lord Jesus will be King. How different that will be, we will see in the millennial realm of peace.

Yet in the midst of this announcement of judgment, God introduces an element of hope. He “will not totally destroy the house of Jacob”. There will be a remnant from which He will form a new realm and holy people. This element has so far been lacking in the preaching of Amos; it was only judgment and nothing else.

The Sieve

“All nations” are like a sieve in the midst of which “the house of Israel” will be shaken, shocked, and ravaged. They will be rejected from one place to another. But the real Israel will be preserved precisely by this ‘sieving’. What remains in the sieve is a remnant that will be spared.

The normal use of a sieve is that the bad disappears and the good remains in the sieve. All chaff, dust and impurity will fall to the earth through the sieve to be trampled and exterminated. But not a kernel, no good grain, will be lost. Nothing will be lost of what is meant to remain.