The primary material from this post will come from Amos 8 and 9. In the last post, we were reading Amos 7. To help refresh your memory, Amos was bringing his prophetic warning to the northern Jewish nation of Israel. God had shown him three pictures of various types of judgements that God was prepared to give to Israel as punishment for their disobedience. The plague of locusts, the fire, and the Plumb line. The understanding of these three judgements was that the first two were very harsh, and Jacob (or Israel) was so small and could never survive that Judgement. But the plumb line was the method to make his crooked people right again. Then a “priest” from the city of Bethel started complaining about Amos’s prophecy. This priest was a priest in the loosest sense of the word, because he wasn’t a legitimate priest of God. He ran a golden calf worshipping center in Bethel, which had become a city full of every kind of idolatry and cult. So this “Priest” sent a warning to the King and said that the land cannot bear Amos’s words. The Bible never says that the king replied, but the priest proceeded to kick Amos out of the country and accused him of being an occult seer who was motivated by money. Amos responded to the priest with humility when using his own words, but didn’t mince words when he responded on behalf of God. God’s words were full of vengeance, wrath and anger. Now God shows Amos another picture in Amos 8:1-3:

This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked. “A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered. Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. 3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”

What is this basket of fruit? What does this mean? Ripe fruit is something that’s time has come. It is no longer protected and fed by the tree. The time for it to reach maturity has already past. It was a flower, it was pollinated, it was a bud. It was fed by a root. But now that time is over. The fruit is ripe, and it is ready to be picked. Fruit doesn’t last long. If you buy a box of fruit rollups or a jar of jelly, it’s preserved and can last a long time. But when you buy actual fruit from the produce section, you only have a few days to eat it before it starts to go bad. When you have ripe fruit, the time has come for it to be eaten and devoured. Or it gets spoiled and thrown away. The ripe fruit is a phase of the plant life when it’s about to die. Inside fruit is a seed, which can grow a new plant, so there’s a promise for something new. But the fruit has to die and be buried with the seed for the process to work. At the end of verse 2, God says to Amos “the time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer”. First thing to note: God still considers Israel “His people”. He still has a plan through all of this. The second thing: NIV says “I will spare them no longer”. Some translations say “I will pass by them no longer.”

You need to remember that in this time of History, having God pass by you or having God pass you over was a good thing. Today, we are kind of spoiled by God’s grace and mercy in our lives. We think that if God passes by or looks past us, it’s a bad thing.That’s because we have the expectation of forgiveness. As a people who are forgiven, when God sees us, He sees Christ’s righteousness. That’s an amazing thing. Because of that forgiveness, we want to be seen by God and known by God and we want to know God ourselves. For the Israelites at this time, and throughout their history, to be passed over by God was a good thing. Having God pass over you or cross past you, or overlook you was what saved you from the judgement that you deserved. The Jews still celebrate a Passover, because God did not judge them the way they deserved to be judged. The Passover was the first time the blood of a lamb would allow for sins to be passed over. Christians are under God’s mercy, so we see things a certain way. But when you are under God’s wrath, the best thing you can hope for is to be ignored by God for just a little bit longer. Think about that. It’s scary!! If you are a professing atheist, you’ve put your hope in something. And it’s kind of a Biblical idea. Not the idea that there is no God. But Atheists put their hope in the fact that there is no Judgement for their sins. There’s no consequences for right and wrong. The hope they have is that somehow, some way they will be passed over or ignored by whatever’s out there.. Atheists spend every day hoping that we are wrong, or that the Bible is a big myth. What are they hoping for? They are hoping that they can somehow be passed over. But for the Jews who believed in God, being passed over by a very real God is better than being judged by that same God.

And at this point in Amos, God is saying I am. I exist. I created everything. Every situation. I am sovereign. And I know all about your sins. I allowed them to happen, but I disapprove of them. And for MY glory, I will not overlook them anymore. Verse 7 says “I will never forget anything they have done.” I will not spare you, or pass by you, or give you any sort of special treatment. Your time has come. You are ripe fruit now, and things are going to change.

4 Hear this, you who trample the needy 
and do away with the poor of the land, 5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, 6 buying the poor with silver
 and the needy for a pair of sandals,
 selling even the sweepings with the wheat. 7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

In verses 4-6 Amos brings up a topic that he’s discussed before. The people in Israel take advantage of each other. In particular, the rich take advantage of poor. And they do it in a way that is sneaky and corrupt. How do they become rich? They have a business where they sell grain or market wheat. That seems ok at the surface. But their methods are dishonest. Verse 5. They skimp on the measure. So you buy a one pound scoop of wheat, and they give you a scoop of wheat that isn’t quite full. That’s the first way they cheat you. The second way is by using a dishonest weight. In other translations they go into a greater detail. The ESV version says they make the ephah small and the shekel great. Ephahs are smaller, lighter weights, and shekels are heavier. So if you are a poor man, you bring small change to buy your wheat. But on their scale, the small change looks like it weighs less than it really does. It would be like if you went to the store and they charged you more because you were paying with change. Doing something like that affects the poor much more than the rich. If you can afford a shekel of wheat, you are ok, but if you are living day by day and can only afford an ephah, you need to pay with the smaller devalued coins. And the third way these people cheat each other? Verse 6. They sell the sweepings with the wheat. So you buy a pound of wheat. You don’t get the entire pound because they don’t fill the scoop. Then when you pay, you find out your coins aren’t as heavy as they should be, so you need to pay more. And finally when you get home, you look at your wheat and there’s some extra stuff in the bag like straw and twigs and stuff you can’t eat. That’s what was going on. And it’s not like the Israelites didn’t know any better. Leviticus 19:35 says “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.” Proverbs 11:1 says, “The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.” And there are plenty of other places in the Old Testament that say “do not steal” and do not deal dishonestly with each other. So they had corrupt business and business practices.

But on top of all that, they would go to their religious services and pretend to be good people. Their hearts weren’t involved in worship. Their hearts were thinking about money and their business. The Bible does not teach that business is bad. It actually teaches the opposite. Business and serving each other and selling goods and services is a good thing. But there is a time and a place for everything. We need to set apart time for God. When we are at a church service or worshipping God or studying His word, we need to give Him our focus and our heart. If our minds wander we need to pray for God to bring our focus back. If you have an idea relating to work, jot down a note for yourself to think about it later. But these people saw the Sabbath and the festivals and holidays as a burden. They were making so much money that they didn’t want to close the shops for a day here and there. That’s not what God wants for us. God wants for us to have rest in him. God wants something good for us, so we would be smart to follow his commands. Let’s move on.

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon
 and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
 and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth 
and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son
 and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
 but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

Verse 9 and 10 speak of a time where things come to an end. Some scholars believe that this was prophecy for a solar eclipse a few years later when Jeroboam II died. A few argued that this might not have been visible in Isreal, but there were solar eclipses about 7, 27 and 28 years after that that matched up with the Pentecost, the feast of Tabernacles, and the Passover. This kind of an eclipse would have frightened many people at that time because there was a lot of idol worship directed towards the sun. Another thing to keep in mind, when God says he will darken the Earth in broad daylight, there is a very symbolic and figurative element to that prediction. When everything seems good, everything is at its brightest. But if God does something to bring grief and sorrow, you will have a darkness and mourning that will mask even the noonday sun. On top of all of this analysis, there are people who will say this predicts something 815 years ahead when we see Jesus Christ die on Calvary for our sins. It is fitting that both literal and figurative darkness comes across an otherwise bright earth at a time when both the heavens and the Earth and the land itself all mourn on a bitter day for an only Son of the most High God. When God speaks to us, He not only speaks with words but with actions. When God tells us something, He has the power to tell it to us with not just sounds, but also with his Earth and His Universe at His command. God is unique because he can deliver a message or an idea, not just with language, but also with an event in History. God is amazing, and we would be wise to pay attention to Him!

Let’s read over Chapter 9 and finish.  Amos 9:1-4 talks about how there is no escape for those people who God wants to punish. Whether they dig to the depths of below or climb to the heavens above. Whether they climb to the top of a mountain or the depths of the sea. God’s will is going to be done. There will be judgement and punishment. God says in the end of verse 4. “I will keep my eye on them for harm and not for good”

In verse 7, God tells the Israelites that they are the same as Cushites. Yes, He brought them out of Egypt, but He brought Philistines and Arameans out from somewhere else. Other people have a history too, and God is sovereign over that. God is not just the God of the Isrealites, He is God over all. To Jews who didn’t understand scripture, or were ethnocentric, this statement is very strange. Even though they believe in a God who created everything, they thought “we are his people.” In one sense they’re right, but in another sense, all people are God’s people because God is the creator of all.

8 “Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord
 are on the sinful kingdom. I will destroy it from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord. 9 “For I will give the command,
 and I will shake the people of Israel among all the nations
 as grain is shaken in a sieve,
 and not a pebble will reach the ground.

10 All the sinners among my people
 will die by the sword, all those who say, ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’

In verse 8 God declares that he will destroy the sinful kingdom of Israel from the face of the earth. God says there will be descendants of Jacob still. There will be a remnant. It sounds like it contradicts itself, but God is destroying Israel the Kingdom, not Israel the people. There will be Israelites that die, but some will remain. And God has a plan for that remnant. Let’s read about the restoration of Israel.

11 “In that day “I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins— and will rebuild it as it used to be,

12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
 and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the Lord, who will do these things.

When God destroys, He has a plan in that destruction. His plan for the destruction of Israel was to rebuild David’s fallen shelter. Remember, at this point in history, the Northern kingdom of Israel no longer had a legitimate kingdom based on the line of David. God has a plan for a new reign. One that includes the remnant of Israel in the North, Judah in the south, and even a remnant of Edom to the south of Judah. Who’s Edom? They are descendants of Esau, Jacob’s older brother. Esau’s descendants and Jacob’s descendants had a past that was mixed. At times, they were at war. Other times, they would be hostile and not allow one army to march through the other’s country. More recently, Edom was taken over by Judah. They had their own king and their own country, but they were a puppet government supplied by the more powerful Judah. Now remember: from Amos 1, Edom, Israel, and Judah were all condemned at this point. So God’s plan is a little shocking for a Jew. A new restored kingdom that is under the banner of King David, which would include even some of Esau’s people, and on top of Edom, all the nations that bear my name and seek after the Lord. This new Kingdom is a Kingdom which is established across over many nations. This Kingdom is something that’s universal.

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 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. “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.

In verse 13, God is promising something in this new kingdom. Even though they were a prosperous nation now, God is telling of a day when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. This foretells prosperity and peace. A time when you can’t harvest the food fast enough, because the next crop is ready to be planted. A time when food is so plentiful you need help reaping it, harvesting it, and eating it. Amos foretells of a new wine which drips from the mountains and flows from the Hills. Jesus spoke about you can’t put new wine into an old wineskin. God is saying the same thing here. Even though there will be doom and destruction, the old thing is really not worth it anyway. Even though this kingdom is going to be destroyed, it was a bad kingdom anyway. There was corruption and sin. There was cheating and dishonesty. There was oppression and suffering. Soon there will be immediate pain and there will be suffering, but there is a purpose. These verses tell us that God is building something new. God wants to see us plant vineyards and drink from them. God wants to see us make gardens and eat our fruit. God wants to see us work and enjoy the fruits of our labor. God wants to see us trust in Him, and have our trust rewarded. Living in the present day, we are very fortunate, because we have seen God begin this process. He rebuilt his Kingdom and showed us our King. Jesus Christ took the sins of the world and drank of the cup of God’s wrath. The works of Jesus were done so we would be free to live as God’s new Israel. The world we live in is not perfect. But through Christ, it is being perfected. Read Amos 9:15 again. God planted each of us in a place where we can grow and learn and worship Him. We are planted near a stream, where we can drink the living water of the word of God and be refreshed. We are planted into a Church of believers of Christ. We are united in the church as members of one body. For us, we live in a time where God is already rebuilding his nation. Each day, He is claiming different people as his own, and each of us has gifts that we can use to glorify Him and magnify His Name. When we are claimed by God as his own, we can never be uprooted from the land or taken from his hand. To finish let’s read Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long;
 we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.