The Ripe Fruit

Producing fruit

One of the things that I have been taking a lot of joy in recently is my garden. In the past I’ve had times when I’ll spend a bit of time in the garden, but it has always been a sort of come and go affair. I’ll spend a bit of time in it, and then forget about it for the next few weeks when I jump in again.

Well, since moving into our new home a few months back, I’ve enjoyed just sitting in the garden and pulling out weeds, and watching things grow.

I must admit, I have very little idea what I’m doing, but I’m having fun just making stuff up as I go along.

Now my veggie patch is where I’ve been getting really excited lately. When Fiona gets home, I usually have to update her on how the snow peas are going.

Some of the veggie patch I’ve planted from seed. Other parts of the garden though, have just sprouted from the compost I used on the garden at the start of the process. It’s always fun to then have a guessing game of what the plant might be.

The reality is, I have very little idea of what I’m doing when it comes to gardening, but in some ways, it kind of adds to the fun.

Now, initially as things started to come up the plants were all so tiny and so it looked neat.

At the moment, the broccoli plants have grown quite large and some are now crowding over the top of the beetroot plants.

Now from experience, I know that a veggie patch like this can go in one of two main directions.

If I keep on top of things, such as pulling out weeds, thinning out plants where necessary, then I will hopefully get a good lot of vegetables when the time comes.

If I don’t. If I were just to leave it and see what happens. It will become an overgrown mess. I might get a few small things to put in my salad, but the rest will be gone.

The important thing is - what am I going to do in this season of growth - because when that season for harvest comes, that is it - I’ll either have fruit to show for my work, or just a big mess.

Amos 8

Now this morning as we come to the second last chapter of this book, we see a new vision in picture. The vision is of a basket of ripe fruit, and as I’ll explore soon, we’ll see that this fruit is at the end of the season, and being at the end of it’s season, it is being shown for what it is.

And so the question I want to consider this morning is what are we doing in this current season of life, so that when that day finally comes, when we stand before Jesus, we can hear the words: well done good and faithful servant.

The ripe fruit

So let’s start by digging a little deeper on this image that we get at the start of chapter 8.

Now, the people who have translated this passage from the original Hebrew to English have had a tricky choice to make in this passage, and if you compare different versions you’ll see that different translators have gone in slightly different directions.

Now in the NIV translation that was read earlier, we see the word “ripe” being used both in relation to the fruit and in relation to the time for Israel. However, on both these occasions, a different word is used, albeit with a little play on words.

You see, if you were to go with a more literal translation, such as the King James Version or the ESV, you’ll see the first word being translated as “summer fruit”, and the second word being translated as “the end”.

Now in the NIV, this translation helps you to see the link between the vision, and the word spoken by the Lord.

But there is a further layer of depth that we see with the more literal translation.

You see, the reference to summer draws our mind to the seasons.

Now the Jewish year essentially revolved around the seasons of growth.

In the spring, they would plant many of their crops, which would then grow over the summer.

By the time Autumn comes, they had the feast of Tabernacles, where they would thank God for their harvest.

There is a maturing. A growth.

And with this, comes a reckoning.

Are they showing the fruit you would expect with the expert gardener? Or have they grown wild?

Well, God gives the answer for the Israelites. Using a play on the word for “Summer Fruit”, the qayis - becomes qes - and we get: the end.

That seasonal fruit has had it’s season.

As the qayis become qes, the songs of joy turn to songs of wailing.

And the picture becomes even more horrific. Just look at verse 3: many, many bodies are flung everywhere. And the final product: silence!

And so as I asked before: what about us? We’ve gone through different seasons of life. We’re continuing to go through these various seasons.

But when that time comes. When that final season comes - what will God say. Will he says: “I will spare them no longer”? Or as Jesus says in Matthew 25: “Well done, good and faithful servant!”?

Rotten Fruit

Well, throughout this prophecy, Amos has been quite descriptive about how rotten the people have become.

A prominent theme that we have seen in many of the chapters, is the lack of justice.

There has been no problem with their public displays of righteousness. They’ve been good at their various religious observations.

But they’ve forgotten what is important. They’ve forgotten that what God really wants from them is love - to love God and to love others.

Verse 4 picks up this familiar theme from throughout the prophecy: they are trampling the needy and doing away with the poor of the land.

Honesty

Verse 5 actually increases the picture for us as to their behaviour.

You see, Amos highlights their hypocrisy of the religious observation. They observe the New Moon and Sabbath, but they are so keen for it to be over so they can quickly get back to making money.

But as verse 5 continues and we move into verse 6, we see that their desire to make a dollar leads them to being dishonest in their conduct.

Sometimes I feel big companies can be a bit like this as they sell their products. They reduce how much they give and charge more for it.

With a few deceptive tricks, it is easy to dupe people into giving more for less and with the end product being a bigger profit.

The reality is, in the way our society is structured, this sort of behaviour is essentially encouraged.

But what this is showing is that the world has been more influential in our growth than God’s word.

If God’s word has been more influential in our growth, then it would show in the way we would show integrity to whoever we deal with.

It rules out racism. Because even if we think we can stereotype a particular group to a particular behaviour, we need to show them the same level of honesty and respect as anyone else.

It means for the most vulnerable people, we need to be extra careful to make sure we are not unfairly benefiting from them.

If we allow God to tend our garden, then principles such as everyone being made in the image of God will become prominent, and it will show in the fruit we provide.

End of the Season

Now we could explore this picture further, however, we’ve spent quite a bit of this series looking at similar ideas. However, as this chapter continues, we start to get a picture of what it will look like when that final season arrives.

You see, I started by describing my garden and the way it will either end with good fruit, or a big mess.

Well, if the garden does go the way of the overgrown mess - a day will come when I need to rip it all up.

And I feel, when we get to verse 7, it’s like God is describing a similar process.

An earthquake?

Verse 8 describes the land rising like the Nile, stirred up, and then sunk like the river of Egypt.

Now, it’s not entirely clear what’s in picture here. Possibly this is just a metaphor for the upheaval it is about to face.

But also possible this is talking about a literal earthquake.

Now if we cast our mind right back to the very first verse of this book, we were told that this prophecy was given two years before the earthquake.

I made a brief mention at the time that w don’t know much about this earthquake beyond this reference, but maybe here is chapter 8 verse 8, this earthquake is back in picture.

Darkness

In verse 9, it talks about the sun going down at noon and how the earth will be darkened in broad daylight.

It would certainly seem at least that this is picturing a phenomenon that we can an eclipse.

But what we see is that these natural phenomenon’s foreshadow the spiritual reality of these people.

The literal darkness with presumably the moon going in front of the sun, precedes the spiritual darkness where the religious festivals are no longer a place of joy, but a place of sadness.

And as verse 10 very provocatively suggests, it will be like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

What could be darker than losing your only son?

You see, the reality is, what is being pictured is God turning away.

As he said back in verse 2: I will spare them no longer.

A Famine

In verse 11, we get another image to describe the situation that these people find themselves in during this season - a famine.

But this time it is clear that we’re not talking a famine of food and water. The reality is we’re facing an even worse famine.

It’s a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

Look at verse 12 as it describes this famine.

“People stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

Now maybe that sounds unusual to you, or maybe it doesn’t.

It might sound unusual because you might wonder why somebody would so desperately want to hear the word of the Lord.

But once you’ve tasted this word - when you’ve experienced the joys and the comfort and the fulfillment that comes from hearing that word, then you’ll understand why it would be so desperately sought after.

But here’s the thing… When we spend those earlier season surrounding ourselves of the ways of the world. When we allow ourselves the luxury of profiting of the vulnerable, because after all, what does it matter. When we seek after power and profits… when we indulge ourselves in selfish ways...

…then we start hardening ourselves against the good news. We get to the point where we can’t hear God even when we want to.

We get to this point where we remember what we once had.

We get this tiny taste of the amazing thing we once knew, but because our life has been overtaken by this other mess, we can’t get it back.

This is what I believe is meant when it says that people will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east searching for the word of the Lord but finding nothing.

The chapter ends on a depressing note.

The people are swearing by this that and the other thing. Actually, there is some conjecture over what is meant by this last verse, but it would seem to me that these starved and lost people are just as lost as ever.

And the last line ends with: “they will fall, never to rise again.”

Application

And so we can wonder - what do we do with this chapter?

Well I believe this chapter should serve as a warning to us.

We are in a time and place where we can still have access to the word of God - if we choose to listen.

God’s word is alive and active, but if we choose not to seek it, we’re in trouble.

You see, the question that I posed earlier was: what are we doing in our season of growth?

And I ask this because it won’t take long to fall out of it.

There are countless things in our life, just waiting in the wings - and if we let them, they will pull us off.

And then it won’t be long before we are gone.

Once saved, always saved

Now, some of you might be thinking at this point - what about the Biblical notion of ‘once saved, always saved’.

You see, the Bible talks about the assurance that we can have.

In Romans 8 for instance, Paul powerfully describes how nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Or take 2 Cor 5:5 which talks of the Holy Spirit being given as a deposit to guarantee what is to come.

And so, we can rightfully ask: if we’ve received the Holy Spirit, can we actually lose that? Can we get to the point like we see in Amos 8 where the people stagger because they’ve lost sight of God, and with God declaring: I will spare them no longer?

Well, this is where we need to hold two truths together - that God’s love always remain for us - and that we need to hold on fast to the hope we profess.

You see, our salvation is not something we are passive in. While God does the heavy lifting, we need to seek after him. And we don’t just seek after him once - we constantly should be reaching out to him.

The sad reality is that the church is full of stories of people who were once active participants in the life of the church, but for one reason or another, they have turned their back.

What happened to them? Well obviously each case is going to be unique and so there are a variety of reasons. Often there was great hurt - sometimes, sadly, even abuse.

Thankfully there are many stories of God’s restoration, but for others, the sad reality is they have turned their back on God. They have sought solace in the things of the world.

Remembering our salvation

And so, this chapter should be reminding us of the beautiful thing we have with God.

He has saved us. He has taken us from a point of hopelessness, and given us hope.

Even for those like myself who have been brought up in a Christian family and have known the truths of the Bible from as young as we can remember - we have felt that pull of the world. We have tasted the emptiness of what the world offers.

But we have tasted the goodness of the gospel.

Do we want to go back to what it was? Do we want to throw away that feeling of deep joy just because we can get drunk on the power the world offers?

Being Active

We need to be active in seeking after God.

We need to listen and obey. We need to be guided by who he is and what he has told us.

And God has told us what he wants for us.

In the book of Micah, which incidentally was written at a similar time to Amos, we get that beautiful verse in Micah 6:8:

Micah 6:8 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

You see, I want to suggest that this call to justice and mercy cannot be separated from our seeking after God.

I know sometimes it can be easy to compartmentalise the different ideas we get in scripture - but the reality is that the Word of God is one big consistent package.

Conclusion

I started by speaking about my veggie patch. If I were to forget about it for a month or two, it would be completely overgrown when I got to it.

And it is the same with our spiritual lives.

We can choose to embrace other parts of the world. We can seek after money, sex, pleasure, alcohol, fame, or whatever our vice might be - but our spiritual life needs work.

Because it won’t be long and we’ll be in a new season. And God will look at our fruit.

But while we could be motivated by a desire not to be rejected by God, can I instead urge you to motivate to seek after God because we know the deep joy and satisfaction that comes with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This truly is the most amazing thing we can ever have.

So let me pray...