This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. "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. Amos 8:1-2 (NIV)
I don’t know how long Amos stayed in Israel. I don’t know how long his time as prophet lasted. I do know that from reading this account Israel did not heed the cautions and warnings. God, who is long-suffering (He is slow to anger), was fed up with the attitude of Israel. His judgment would be swift and bloody. People would die clinging to their false gods. Wailing would become the new national anthem.
God was tired of the unjust treatment of the needy and of the poor. He uses language as plain as possible to show their indiscretions in verse 5 and verse 6:
Second-rate worship – they were more eager to sell goods than to spend time with God. They counted the minutes to the end of church so they could get out of their church clothes and back to work or to play or to laziness.
Skimped on measurements – they held back the full measurement of their goods. They cheated their customers!
Dishonesty in sales – They raised the prices because they could and not because it was necessary. They used scales that were adjusted to their favor.
Dirty Scoundrels – they were just down right scoundrels who would steal a man’s sandals and sell the dirt off their warehouse floors rather than help those in need!
God created the greatest welfare system in the world, and the Israelites had made a mockery of it. They had taken God’s laws and tossed them into the sea. They found out the hard way that living under the law was impossible without God, and they just threw all God’s grace away with their compassion.
God’s anger was great, and He promised never to forget the immoral behaviors of the people. The people were clinging to this new nation of Israel which was built on the laws of man and forged on promises towards false gods. To prove God would not forget, He had Amos and numerous other prophets record these outcomes. To this day people can read and re-read the writings of Amos.
We cannot forget this tragic behavior because people are destined to repeat these atrocities. I find myself sometimes glad to see that we are putting healthcare in the hands of those who cannot afford it. However, I cringe when I see that our government has irresponsibly wasted money so that we cannot afford the healthcare reform. I wish we could find better solutions, and we probably could if we relied on our sensibility and our compassion instead of so heavily upon the government. Then again, the Israelites were not very good at compassion. Would we be the same? This unfortunately is becoming the topic of another discussion.
Compassion is rooted in the love we should have for God and others. Compassion originates with God, but compassion was not on God’s mind anymore. His love also birthed righteousness and justice. God’s justice would be swift as a flood like those known of the Nile River. In fact the confusion of those floods would amount to the confusion experienced in the uprising that was descending upon Israel.
To emphasize the approaching terror, God tells the Israelites that the darkness of their souls would darken their lifestyles. Reminds me of the “dark ages” except this was an age experienced by Israel. Religion would become a burden in those days. It would be the outlet for the mourning and terror in the hearts of those who rejected God. The amount of religious exercise would not extinguish God’s justice as His righteousness ravaged the land.
The days would be bitter, so bitter that the people would seek God and not find Him. They would seek a word from God and not find it. Their souls would experience a famine – a hunger for God that would not be quenched. I hunger for God daily and receive nourishment. I could not imagine if God took that nourishment away from me. I would be empty, lost, and even inconsolable. I lived like that in my teens and early twenties – I could never go through that again and survive.
The anger of God would be so great that stature and beauty would not save them. The “rich man” who creates all the jobs would be as poor as the farmer who cannot farm because the soil is too dry. They can swear by their false gods all they want but God’s judgment could not be stopped by a few golden statues and wooden sticks. God’s act of righteousness would be final.
- Have you ever been without God in your life? If so, would you ever want to return to that way of life? If not, could you imagine never hearing from God again?
- How does God’s justice and righteousness help you through your daily activities and in how you deal with others?
- Are you glad that God is slow to anger? Why or why not?
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