Posted on by wrote in Bible Interpretation, General, Historical and Messianic Prophecy, Prefigures and Foreshadows.
Question:
I was going over Amos in my quiet times and came across this scripture:   Amos 9:13-15 (NIV)
[13] “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. [14] I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. [15] I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.  I know that you have said that Jesus is on every page of the Old Testament. Any insight?
Response:

About Amos 9, this is a prophecy of God coming to bless his people after he has earlier judged them (see earlier in Amos, where God warns them about judgment because of their unrighteousness).  Most likely he is referring to sending Judah into exile (Amos preaches to Judah) in Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar defeated them and their return to the Promised Land in 536 BC and the rebuilding of the temple in 516 BC.  The wording is a symbolic representation of how God would bless them.

What happened when Judah was sent into captivity in Babylon and later a remnant was set free and lived again in the Promised Land is a foreshadow our our own captivity to sin and our being freed  from sin by Jesus.  We, too, are a blessed remnant of God.  In Revelation being in Babylon is symbolic of being captive to sin and being freed from Babylon is symbolic of salvation.  This imagery is also found in early church father writings.  So, indirectly, Amos 9 is a prophecy of our being saved as a remnant from salvery to sin, but I believe it is a direct prophecy of the restoration from Babylon.

John Oakes