The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 183

<lyna.sty of Davi<l, but the kingdom of David, and this M a type of tho king<lotn of Christ. Its restoration, in the ultimate sense, is accomplished only in the estnblish• mcnt of the Messianic kingdom which it symbolized. "The raising up of the fallen hut of David commenced with the coming of Christ and the founding of the Christian Church by the apostles" (Keil). Interpreting the passage thus, the rabbis adopted "the &>h of the fallen" as one of the titles of Christ. 1. Thia house has degenerated. into af<Jllen hut before its troe dignity u reached. Judah shrinks into a petty province, the royal line is represented by a cnrpenter's wife, and the Jewish Church is a little flock with many a black sheep, ere the set time to favour Zion comes. " Strange com- ment on human greatness, that the royal line was not to be employed in tho salvation of the worl<l until it was fallen. The royal palace had to become the hut of Nazareth ere the Redeemer of the world could be born, whose glory and kingdom were not of this world" (Pusey). 2. Its restoration will be to a, state of ideal perfection. The "breaches" would be repaired, and the "rnins" rebuilt, with the effect of making it "as in the days of old;" i.e. restoring it so as to embooy the original desian. This restoration to an as yet unrealized ideal could be only spiritual, and the Rest;rer Jesus Christ. The "hut" into which the "palace" had deteriorated (2 Sam. v. 11) was transformed into a far more glorious structure when Christ sat "upon the throne of David to order it," etc. (Isa. ix. 7; Luke i. 32, 3~. The ideal of the Davidic king- dom is realized in the Christian Church; there fully, and there only. 3. Thu restora- tion will be a work of Divine power. " In the days of these kingdoms shall the God of beavim set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed" (Dan. ii. 44). The Church, composed of Spirit-quickened men, is the creature of God as no political king- dom can be. Redeemed by Jesus Christ, quickened by the Holy Ghost, made one in the white heat of heavenly grace, it is altogether a Divine thing. Every energy it has is God-given; every grace is Spirit-wrought. In this is the special glory of the Jerusa- lem which is above. And when, among the ruins of a Hebrew monarchy, there rises, radiant in the beanties of holiness, the kingdom of our God, then indeed the bricks are changed to hewn stones, and the sycamores to cedars, and the palace of David is rebnilt as in the days of old. lL THE WIDE CIBClLE OF INTERESTS TO BE ADVANCED BY THIS RESTORATION. "The restoration was not to be for themselves alone. No girts of God end in the immediate objects of his bounty and love. They were restored in order that they, the first objects of God's mercies, might win others to God" (Pusey). '!'hose brought in were to be: 1. Genti?a as well as Jews. (Ver. 12.) James, in his speech at the council of Jeru- salem (.Acts xv. 14-17), declares the fulfilment of this prophecy in the calling of the Gentiles. Edom, as the nation most hostile to the Jews and furthest from David's house, is put by a natural figure for the whole Gentile world. The" remnant of Edom," whether mystic or natural, are the few called in each case out of the many (Matt. xx. 16; eh. i. 12). "All the nations," etc., is a fuller and more literal statement of the ingathering of" the fulness of the Gentiles," when God h_rings hi~ sons from af~r, and his daughters from the ends of the earth. The gospel kingdom 1s to be the umversal kingdom," filling the whole earth," covering it with the knowledge of God, and making it, as the home of righteousness, a transfigured place. 2. The Gentiles by means of the Jews. "That they may take possession," etc. It is in Abraham and his seed that the nations are blessed. In our spiritual freedom and fulness of privilege we may not forget th~t Christ who founded the Church, the apostles who preached the kingdom of God and organized it, and the holy men who wrote the Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, were, almost without exception, Jews. It is thus that" out of Zion has gone forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." To those we owe to the Jews there are no earthly obligations parallel, and the time of their gratling in again is one for which by every tie we are bound to pray. 3. Both these in virtu6 of a Divine appropriating act. "And all the nations upon which my Name is called;" i.e. appropriated, or marked as God's own (Gen. xlviii. 16; Deut. n.viii. 9, 10; Jer. :xv. 16). Those whom God saves are such as he has graciously chosen to be bis own. "Whom be did foreknow them he also called." Salvation is the evolution ofan external plan, which in turn is the expression of Divine electing love. 111. Gon'e PURPOSE JN THIS MATTER POTENTIALLY A FACT. "Saith Jehovah who doetb this." 1. The Divine energy is the efficient cause of events, Sccc11d causes ar@ tlit. tx. 1-15.) 'l'EIE BOOK or AMOS. 185