The Prophet Amos Chapter 8 The 4 th

The Prophet Amos Chapter 8 The 4 th Vision A Basket of Summer Fruit

Review The Message of Amos 1. The Main Message of Amos: The Sovereign Creator God is about to Judge Israel for violating the terms of the Covenant. Walter Elwell says: [Amos depicts] God as the supreme moral Ruler of the nations, not just the national deity of the Israelites. As Creator of the world and humanity he is the universal Lord of History. C. Feinberg says: Amos sets forth the majesty and uncompromising righteousness of God against sinners.

T. Findley says: Amos examines the covenant between Israel and her God and finds the nation guilty of rejecting it. 2. A secondary message is that there is still time to repent. The judgement predicted by Amos in his prophecy may not have occurred until 30 years later (722 BC)!

III. Five Visions of Judgement and a Promise of Restoration(7 -9) A. The first Vision of Locusts. Vss. 1 -3. B. The Second Vision of Fire. Vss. 4 -6. C. The Third Vision of the Plumb line. Vss. 7 -9. D. Opposition to Amos’ Message. Vss. 10 -17.

Outline of Chapter 8 I. The Revelation of the 4 th Vision: A Basket of Summer Fruit Vs. 1. II. The Interpretation Vss. 2 -14 A. The Certainty of Judgement. Vss. 2 -3. B. The Cause of the Judgement. Vss. 4 -6. C. The Character of Judgement. Vss. 7 -10 D. The Consequences of Judgement. Vss. 11 -14.

I. The Revelation: Vs. 1 1 The Lord God showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. The 4 th Vision The Basket of Ripe Fruit is similar to saying: The Cup is full.

II. The Interpretation: Vss. 2 -14. A. The Certainty of Judgement: Vss. 2 -3. 2 He asked me, “What do you see, Amos? ”I replied, “A basket of summer fruit. ” The Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel; I will no longer spare them. 3 In that day the temple songs will become wailing” — this is the Lord God’s declaration. “Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! Silence! ” -- Amos 8: 2 -3 (CSB)

1. There is an interesting wordplay on the two Hebrew words for summer fruit and end They sound alike. Ripe summer fruit =ripe sinners! 2. God’s Mercy comes to an end. The Lion has Roared! The end occurred in 722 BC. 3. Wailing is heard, then silence. Findley believes temple songs should be palace songs (and female voices as in the LXX). See: 5: 23, and 6: 5. 4. Dead bodies strewn all around. Not a pretty picture for Amos to contemplate

B. The Cause of Judgement: Verses 4 -6. 4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and do away with the poor of the land, 5 asking, “When will the New Moon be over so we may sell grain, and the Sabbath , so we may market wheat? We can reduce the measure while increasing the price and cheat with dishonest scales. 6 We can buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and even sell the chaff! -- Amos 8: 4 -6 (CSB)

1. New Moon was a minor festival observed at the beginning of each month. Num. 10: 10; 28: 11. Businesses had to cease. 10 You are to sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your fellowship sacrifices and on your joyous occasions, your appointed festivals, and the beginning of each of your months. They will serve as a reminder for you before your God: I am the Lord your God. ” -- Numbers 10: 10 (CSB) 2. Celebrants could not wait till it was over so they could resume business activities. Problem was not with business, but that their business was corrupt. They were using dishonest weights and crooked scales in selling grain. This practice is condemned in Lev. 19: 36; Dt. 25: 13 -16.

3. Their dishonest business practices were driving people bankrupt so they had to become indentured (debt slavery) to their creditors. These creditors then sold them into slavery. 13 “Do not have differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. 14 Do not have differing dry measures in your house, a larger and a smaller. 15 You must have a full and honest weight, a full and honest dry measure, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 16 For everyone who does such things and acts unfairly is detestable to the Lord your God. - Deuteronomy 25: 13 -16 (CSB) 4. Chaff is refuse of the wheat. They were selling wheat of poor quality.

C. The Character of Judgement: Verses 7 -10 7 The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget all their deeds. 8 Because of this, won't the land quake and all who dwell in it mourn? All of it will rise like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt. 9 And in that day-This is the declaration of the Lord God - I will make the sun go down at noon; I will darken the land in the daytime. 10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make that grief like mourning for an only son and its outcome like a bitter day.

1. The Lord has sworn: He is the God of Jacob from whom they descended, and therefore, He has the authority to judge, 2. To describe the coming calamity of the Assyrian invasion the prophet use imagery of natural calamity. They knew about the flooding of the Nile and earthquakes. Remember a great earthquake took place two years after Amos’ prophecy. 3. Verse 9 may refer to an eclipse of the sun. There were eclipses of the sun on June 16, 763 BC and Feb. 9 784 BC. 4. Sackcloth and shaved heads!

Wearing Sackcloth in the ancient world had multiple significance: 1. Sign of mourning for the dead. 2. Mourning for national disaster. 3. Penitence for sins. 4. Prayer for deliverance 5. It also had a metaphorical meaning. (Isa. 50: 3)

The coming tragedy will be like the mourning for the loss of an only son. It will be a bitter day that is coming.

D. The Consequences of Judgement: Verses 1114: 11 Look, the days are coming —this is the declaration of the Lord God —when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. 13 In that day the beautiful young women, the young men also, will faint from thirst. 14 Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, “As your god lives, Dan, ”or, “As the way of Beer-sheba lives” — they will fall, never to rise again. -- Amos 8: 11 -14 (CSB)

1. There will be a famine of food (II Kings 6: 25), but even worse, will be famine for the word of the Lord. In Isaiah 37: 17 the people cry out: Is there any word from the Lord? Is this a little ironic? What the people are looking for is some word of comfort but there is none. The Lion has roared; roared God has forsaken them. 2. Amos tells us here that the people actively seek some word from God and traverse the entire land. 3. Being forsaken by the God of the universe, their Creator is tragic result of their apostasy. 4. It was especially tragic for the youth of the nation who engaged in the orgiastic religious practices. The sin of Samaria

Dt. 23: 17 -18 17 “No Israelite woman is to be a cult prostitute, and no Israelite man is to be a cult prostitute. 18 Do not bring a female prostitute’s wages or a male prostitute’s earnings into the house of the Lord your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the Lord your God. -Deuteronomy 23: 17 -18 (CSB)

The message of Amos 8 1. Now there is no hope of recovery. The point of no return had arrived. 2. Ruin occurred about 30 years (722 BC) after Amos gave the warning 3. What would have happened to those who harkened to the message of Amos to repent? Some apparently migrated beforehand to the south. II Chron 11: 13 -17.

13 The priests and Levites from all their regions throughout Israel took their stand with Rehoboam, 14 for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of the Lord. 15 Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made. 16 Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek the Lord their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. -- 2 Chronicles 11: 13 -16 (CSB) 4. If God gave us a vision today of a basket of Fruit; how ripe are we?