“The End is Near”

Series: “God Speaks”

Text: Amos 8

Introduction: (What?)

In this 4th vision of Amos, God began by announcing “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

Perhaps you remember your Mom or Dad calling from the house or porch for you to come. If you were busy playing with friends, you might have ignored their call(s) until finally they use your formal name…in my case it was William Thomas Cole. When you heard that you knew that any further delay would result in discipline. God had just called Israel by their complete name; “My people, Israel.” And He announced that there would be no more chances. Many people today, including believers, live as if the end is not eminent. We must be aware that God could give the command at any moment.

Examination: (Why?)

1. Signs of the End (vv 1-8)

“The LORD showed me this: a basket of summer fruit. 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. In that day the temple songs will become wailing---this is the LORD’s declaration. Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere! Silence!’”

The Hebrew word for “summer fruit” sounds like the word for “end”. The significance of the basket of ripe summer fruit is that just as the fruit was ripe for picking, Israel was now ripe for judgment. God’s sentence would not change. His mind was made up. The “end” for Israel would include the destruction of their homes and the temple. The result would be songs that sound like wailing. Also many people would die and there would be no one to bury them according to Jewish custom. An eerie silence would hang over the city.

Today people seem to be trying to determine what “signs” indicate the Second Coming. The reality is that it can happen at any moment. The signs that God has given are a call to readiness, rather than an alert to the end. As in Noah’s day God will eventually get His fill of the evil of mankind, and judgment will come.

Gen. 6:3 “And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.”” “God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth.”

Gen. 6:7 “Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.””

The Apostle Peter gave a warning in 2 Peter 3:9-10 “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.”

In Amos 8:4-8 God gave His reasons for judging Israel.

“Hear this, you who trample on the needy and do away with the poor of the land, 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. We can buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and even sell the chaff!” The Lord has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: I will never forget all their deeds. 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.”

No commerce could take place during the New Moon festival or on the Sabbath. The inhabitants of Israel could hardly wait until they could get back to buying and selling. As a matter of fact, even when they were at worship, they were thinking about their business and what they were going to do the next day. Some of you remember the days when stores and restaurants were closed on Sunday, and many closed on Wed. at noon so that people could go to Prayer Meetings. Gradually commerce encroached on both so that now there are very few businesses (outside of Chick-fil-a) that honor the Sabbath.

In addition, the Israelites were dishonest in their business dealings, “reducing the measure while increasing the price, and cheating with dishonest scales.” Because of such practices, God swore never to forget their deeds, and to bring judgment on the land. As we mentioned in the last message, this all came to pass in 722 BC when the Assyrians demolished Israel.

2. The End Agenda (vv9-10)

Amos 8:9 “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.” The darkening of the sun implied the coming of “the Day of the LORD”. It is like the cataclysmic events that Jesus described as the intro to His coming to judge the earth. (Mark 13:24-26) “But in those days, after that tribulation: The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”

John McArthur noted that there was a total eclipse of the sun circa 763 B.C. to which Amos may have been referring. Just 42 years later, the Assyrians destroyed Israel.

When God’s judgment would come on Israel, the whole lifestyle of those who survived would change.

Amos 8:10 “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.” Earlier in the chapter Amos had quoted God as saying that their worship songs would become like wailing. That sounds like the grief that God is prophesying in v 10. The people would be inconsolable. It is like what a preacher faces when he has to preach a funeral sermon for a person who was lost. The family is many times inconsolable because they know the truth. The separation is eternal.

3. The Final Blow (vv11-14)

The final blow is “a famine of hearing the words of the LORD”. We are now in a time of great Biblical illiteracy even in a country where the Bible is available at Wal-Mart. Gideon Bibles are in almost all hotel/motel rooms. There are churches on many corners throughout our nation and new churches are being planted almost every week. Yet even the people who populate those churches are ignorant of what the Bible says. One of the most popular excuses for not witnessing is “I don’t know the Bible well enough.” Well why not? Is it because you stopped going to Sunday School when you became an adult? Is it because you go to church to be entertained rather than challenged or taught how to live according to God’s Word? We have no excuse. Our biblical illiteracy is self imposed. However, when God brings judgment that will not be the case.

The pastor of a church where I was on staff partnered with others to smuggle Bibles into Romania and other “Iron-curtain” countries. in China some Bibles confiscated before they can get to the people are thrown into latrines. There are stories of people getting those Bibles out and cleaning them so that they can be distributed among believers. Some pastors of house churches in China and other countries where Christians are persecuted only have one page or part of a page of scripture.

Amos 8:11-14 “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. 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. In that day the beautiful young women, the young men also, will faint from thirst. 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.”

A famine of hearing the Word of the LORD means that God had abandoned Israel. He had left them to their own pursuits. Today we have a mistaken concept that man seeks God. However, the reverse is true. God is not, nor has ever been “lost”. He is the One doing the seeking. Just as Jesus said in Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” The Word of God is the primary tool in seeking the lost. That is why witnessing and missionary work is so important. If there is not the presence of the words of God, there is no path to salvation.

You may have read or heard somewhere that people are more spiritual now than ever before. You must understand what that means. It does not mean that they are seeking the God of the Bible. Instead they are seeking some “spiritual” path that will give them peace without forsaking their sins. In essence they are seeking to become their own god. This is the prevailing form of idolatry in America today.

God pointed out through Amos that this “search for the word of the LORD,” often leads to idolatry. In this case it was the places where Jereboam had built pagan altars, in Dan and in Beer-sheba.

Application: (How should I respond to this message?)

Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? That is the starting point.

Do you have a time set aside each day for reading or listening to and meditating on the Word of God?

Have you ever considered letting God start your conversation? By that I mean let something you read in His Word lead you into prayer rather than just jumping right into your spiritual shopping list.