Lesson 10 - Amos 8:1-14 - A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT
INTRODUCTION: Last week, in Amos 7:1-17, we covered Amos' prophecy based on God's plumb line, the lesson for which this prophet is probably best known. We learned that a plumb line is a simple string and a weight device that builders use to determine the trueness of a vertical wall in relation to the earth's horizon. It is an absolute standard, and in our lesson, God used it to measure the faithfulness of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to their Covenant with Him. The result was that nation and people of Israel were so unfaithful-so far out of true-that they needed to be completely demolished and replaced. In modern application, the same result applies to both Christians and churches that have departed from the sound doctrines of the Bible. We also heard Amos announce certain judgment against the sanctuaries ('high places' of worship) at Bethel and Dan where the priests and people mixed worship of God with pagan idols-gross apostasy. We learned that the same result can happen today in churches that adopt political and social agendas that are contrary to God's Word, and we have seen this happen to entire denominations. We've also seen this error spread in the form of Christian cults that have completely subverted God's Word.
Today, in Amos 8:1-12, our last lesson in this Book, we'll hear the prophet's fourth vision, which will be based on a 'basket of summer fruit.'
Read Amos 8:1-3 - THE LORD SHOWED ME A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT
1 Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. 3 The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day," declares the Lord God. "Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence."
v. 1: "Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit." - Each of Amos' visions opens with an image, in today's lesson, a basket full of ripe summer fruit. On its face, this image seems to be the most pleasant, least threatening; however, he's actually using some Hebrew word play where the words used for "summer fruit" (Heb. qayits [kah'-yits]), can also mean the end of something. Here, the ripe fruit portrays a metaphor for the Northern Kingdom of Israel: L like ripe fruit having a very short shelf life, the nation of Israel was living on borrowed time: Just as the final fruit of summer signals the end of the harvest, God's 'end' for Israel was now close at hand, when the nation and it people would be judged for their religious hypocrisy and greed.
v. 2a: "He said, "What do you see, Amos?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." - In each of the other visions, what it pictured spoke for itself; but, here, the meaning isn't immediately obvious to readers of the English language, but it should have been apparent to Amos' Hebrew audience.
v. 2b: "Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer." - The word used for "spare" (Heb. abar [aw-bar']) actually translates to 'pass over.' It should remind us of the time when the LORD struck down the firstborn of Egypt but passed over those of the Israelites (Ex. 12 generally). But now, God will not pass over them when judgment comes.
v. 3a: "'The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day,' declares the Lord God." - When God's judgment comes, the prophet depicted a scene where the gleeful songs sung in the royal palace in Samaria will turn into sounds of wailing and grief, like that of a funeral ceremony.
v. 3b: "Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence." - This scene pictures all the dead bodies that will be laying around after the enemy attackers slaughter them. Like so much rotten fruit, the dead Israelites would be thrown out. This isn't an exaggeration but a very accurate description of what did in fact happen when the Assyrian Empire attacked the Northern Kingdom. It also helps explain why the region of Samaria was held in such contempt in Jesus' time.
Read Amos 8:4-6 - YOU WHO TRAMPLE THE NEEDY
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 5 saying, "When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 6 So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?"
v. 4: "Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land," - Now, Amos spells out the LORD's indictment against the Northern kingdom. Torah law included provisions for the needs of the poor: Landowners were required to leave a portion of their fields to allow the poor to gather food to survive; families were obligated to support impoverished kinfolk and widows and orphans (Lev. 25). As we learned previously, the OT prophets regarded this predatory behavior toward the weak and vulnerable in their society as one of Israel's worst possible sins.
v. 5a: "saying, 'When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market" - The "new moon" is associated with Jewish religious observances. While these people routinely follow their religious rituals, their heart really isn't in it because they are watching the clock to see when it will be over so they can get back to business of making a profit. There's nothing inherently evil about business, but it can quickly turn into evil when it compromises your relationship with God or your care for your neighbor.
v. 5b: "To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales," - This simply pictures merchants who give people a lesser amount of foodstuffs or goods than what they actually paid, like paying a dollar and getting 75-cents worth of goods in return. This form of cheating would be especially hard on the poorer people who would have been powerless to object. A "shekel" was a silver coin weighing about 0.4 oz and "scales" were the easily-rigged balance-type. Some unscrupulous merchants kept two sets of weights: one for purchases and another for sales.
v. 6a: "So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals," - Cheating poor people who were already living on the edge financially had the potential of breaking them to the point where the dishonest merchants had the power to seize their property or, in extreme cases, force the victim and members of his family into involuntary servitude (Ex. 21:1-11).
v. 6b: "And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?" - This has to do with adulterated food, as when dirt and debris is swept up with and mixed into the weight of foodstuffs.
Read Amos 8:7-10 - I WILL TURN YOUR FESTIVALS INTO MOURNING
7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds. 8 "Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt. 9 "It will come about in that day," declares the Lord God, "That I will make the sun go down at noon And make the earth dark in broad daylight. 10 "Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.
v. 7: "The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds." - The phrase, "the pride of Jacob," appears in two places, in Amos 6:8 and Ps. 47:4. In Amos' context, it probably means the self-righteous confidence the Northern Kingdom had in its own power and capabilities. Because the LORD remembers all of their deeds, He has sworn an oath to judge them for their arrogant pride, making it irreversible; a fact in history that's certain to happen in the future.
v. 8a: "Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn?" This is a rhetorical question the answer to which is "yes," meaning that the land will literally tremble as the massed forces of the invading Assyrian soldiers march onto Israelite soil with their horses, chariots, and wagons; and all the inhabitants of the land will "mourn" as they are forced away into captivity.
v. 8b: Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt." -The waves of terror the Israelites will experience would be like the rising and falling of the Nile River. And since the rise and fall of the Nile typically extended over a period of months, it implies a time of national upheaval and catastrophe extending over a considerable period of time.
v. 9a: "It will come about in that day," declares the Lord God," - Conservative Bible Commentators uniformly agree the expression "that day" referenced in this verse does not refer to the eschatological, end-time Day of the LORD referred to elsewhere in prophetic Scripture.
v. 9b: "That I will make the sun go down at noon And make the earth dark in broad daylight." -On the day of judgment, the LORD GOD would send 'darkness' over the land during the day. This could refer to an eclipse of the sun (two of which are known to have occurred in Amos' lifetime) or it may be a metaphorical description of the coming judgment as an unnaturally cataclysmic event.
v. 10a: "Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins And baldness on every head." - These two images portray reversals-the turning of good times into bad: the happy festivals would become like funerals and their happy singing would turn into sorrow and grief. The people will wear sackcloth and shave their heads as outwards expressions of their extreme unhappiness and emotional distress.
v. 10b: "And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day." - For Hebrew families, the loss of an only son was the saddest and most tragic of all events. His death meant the extinguishing of hope in the future and the loss of provision in one's old age. So, the end of that day (v. 9a), would be "bitter" beyond all imagination.
Read Amos 8:11-14 - A FAMINE FOR HEARING THE WORDS OF THE LORD
11 "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord God, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. 12 "People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it. 13 "In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst. 14 "As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' And, 'As the way of Beersheba lives,' They will fall and not rise again."
v. 11: "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord God, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD." - As part of His judgment, God will withhold His "words" from His people: they will suffer from a "famine" of spiritual food. Think about this: As Christians, what would we do if we were cut off from fellowship with God and could no longer rely on the guidance of His Word? A worst-case scenario, yes?
Comment: As we've already learned, the people of the Northern Kingdom had repeatedly rejected and ignored God's Word which was brought to them by the prophets (Amos 7:10-13); and now, God will not send it-via the prophets-to them any longer (1 Sam. 3:1; 28:6). And you will recall the 400 years of silence between the OT and NT. This is a frightful prospect not only in Amos' time, but in the here and now. If we-everyone in the world-don't listen to the Word of God, we may not be able to hear the Word of God. This doesn't mean that God will remove all copies of His written Word, but that the people would no longer hear the warnings of His prophets. As Christians, we receive this prophetic Word when we read our Bibles and when we hear it preached and taught in our churches, but we have become a minority. Recent political polls suggest only one in four Americans believe that the Bible is the literal and inerrant Word of God. So, approximately 75% of our population is no longer hearing the Word of God. Does that concern you? It should.
v. 12-13: "People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it. 13 "In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst." - This pictures the Israelites groping all over the land, seeking some word of explanation or forgiveness-anything-but they can't find it. The two expressions, "beautiful virgins" and "young men," picture the vitality and the enthusiasm of young adults. Yet, even they "will faint from thirst" by the drought in the hearing of God's prophetic Word. Today, we see this in a Biblically uninformed younger generation who are spiritually dead because they have never received the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why our outreach and ministries for children, youth, and young families is so fundamentally important. If you agree, say Amen.
v. 14: "As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' And, 'As the way of Beersheba lives,' They will fall and not rise again." - It is a historical fact that in 721 B.C., the Northern Kingdom of Israel permanently ceased to exist either as a political entity or a distinct people. They perished from "Dan" to "Beersheba" because the idols of the pagan deities they had worshipped could not save them. Moreover, the secular state of Israel we see today is not at all representative of the 10 northern tribes who were originally a Covenant people of God. The people of Samaria in Jesus' day were non-Jews of mixed Near Eastern heritage. Galilee, the area where Jesus lived, was a Roman province that had been re-populated by transplanted Judean Jews.
APPLICATION-Hearing and Applying the Word of God.
1. Like the Northern Kingdom of Israel in Amos' time, formerly Christian Nations in the world today are living on borrowed time (vv. 1-3). This includes the United States, where Christians are a shrinking minority. And it's readily apparent in the steep moral decline that over the past 100 years has infected the length and breath of our society, like a basket of over-ripe fruit that's turning putrid. The only cure for it is the church; specifically, Bible-believing churches that see the Great Commission (Matt. 28;18-20) as their primary action plan. We must "go" and make disciples.
2. Like the greedy merchants of Amos' day, people today who take advantage of underprivileged people in our society for unfair material gain will be judged by God (vv. 4-6). In Biblical terms, this means that Christians are held by God to a very high standard of business ethics. Even today, poorer people with lower credit scores aren't able to compete with higher paid and higher net worth people who are more eligible for the best deals. I imagine that many Christian business owners have some ability and latitude at times to close this gap by assuming more risk. For Christian business owners, it can potentially be an opportunity to be a both a good neighbor and a witness for Jesus Christ. For Christians having the ability to do this, it's really a judgment call.
3. People who don't listen to God's Word are likewise unable to hear God's Word (vv. 11-14). In ancient times this was the prophetic Word of God delivered by prophets like Amos. Today it's people who read the Bible and hear it taught and preached in their churches. In this age, people can even hear it proclaimed on TV and various types of digital media like Facebook. However, in the U.S. alone, public opinion polls show that only one in four people believe that the Bible is the literal, inerrant Word of God, so that this 75% are, in point of fact, are not hearing the Word of God. They are only living in this world on borrowed time, and unless they hear and believe the gospel message of God's Word, they are destined to spend eternity in hell. As a church, it's our job to tell them, and by God's grace, some of them may listen and hear the Word of God.
