Amos 8 reminds me how much I love summer. I love warm weather, and the beach; I love long daylight hours and fresh fruit from the garden. Many today are unaware of “seasonal fruit”. Just a few decades ago, summer melons were available only few months a year. Now most fruit can be purchased year-round as it is shipped from central and south America to the big retailers. But there is a definite fruit gap in both the inner city and very rural areas. In some urban sections there is an abundance of tobacco, alcohol and lottery tickets, but not a melon to be found. Today’s chapter begins with God presenting “A basket of ripe fruit” to Amos as a symbol. The Lord explains, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer“. For the rest of the chapter, God speaks through Amos referring to “that day“. What day? Perhaps it is the day when Israel was to be invaded, or perhaps a day when the Spirit of the Lord is no longer available to all. When do you know the fruit has gone bad? The unpleasant answer is, usually just after you take a bite. God Almighty describes that day, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies flung everywhere! Silence!” The people will take a big mouthful of spoiled fruit. I believe God is addressing both those in power, and those that pose as indigent, “Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land“. Are you helping or hindering the harvest?
Next the Lord identifies the purveyors of poor produce that partake in the church service just to take advantage of gullible believers, “When will… the Sabbath be endedthat we may market wheat?” In the poorest sections of many cities, the people have placed their trust in politicians, “buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals“. They promise things they cannot deliver but instead sell “the sweepings with the wheat“. Have you been settling for subsistence and empty promises?
The chapter closes with a clear identification of the problem. It is not racial, nor political, but it is a spiritual problem. “The days are coming when I will send a famine through the land not a famine of food… but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord“. There is much chaos described, from natural disasters to continuous funerals, “I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping“. The grieving will be devastating, “like mourning for an only son“. God Himself declares, “People will stagger from sea to sea… searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it… young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst“. How is this possible? Where are all of the believers? I believe Matthew 24 describes “that day”. Jesus taught the disciples, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark“. The people mocked Noah, but after he and his family were removed, judgment came. “That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.” I believe the church will be removed and protected while those left behind will face a famine of God’s Word. Jesus warns each of us, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come“. “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). Are you ready for the harvest season?