Amos Chapter 8

Intro:

After Amos records his interaction with Amaziah in Chapter 7 he now in Chapter 8 will continue on with his visions of which there are two left, one which begins chapter 8 and then a final vision in chapter 9. These last two visions are particularly cutting, they bring the book to its climax of judgement before Amos in chapter 9 will close out with a precious promise of hope for their future, however, the future that is immediately in view for Amos is not a hopeful one at all, these people have spurned the Word of the Lord, they have mingled the worship of the One True God with the worship of false idols, and this break down in their relationship with their Covenant God has led them to become a people who oppress and abuse the poor among them to line their pockets, build bigger more fancy houses, and live lives of luxury thinking all along that they are being blessed.

Oh how blind they are in their willful rebellion, these are the same people who Hosea declares have forgotten God, who have willfully and forcefully pushed God out of their minds just as Amaziah sought to push Amos out of Bethel.

As we read through Amos’ words to Israel today I think we will also find some good reminders and challenges that can be applied to ourselves as well.

Lets take a moment to Pray and then we will read the chapter and jump in.

PRAY & READ

Verses 1-3: The Vision

Amos begins with a typical introduction to one of his visions, “This is what the Lord God showed me” he tells us. This is a vision that carries the authority of the Covenant God of the people. If you remember the conflict in chapter 7 was focused around who had authority. Was it the King, Jeroboam II who sat on the throne in Samaria and not only ruled the kingdom but also set in power the priests of the various temple and shrines? Was it Amaziah the priest of Bethel who had been put in place by the king to lead the people in the worship of their golden calf? Was it Amos, this interloping prophet from he south who Amaziah basically claimed was simply in Israel to make a buck, though we know this was a false accusation. Or was it God, the Covenant ruler of Israel who spoke through His prophets His divine words to His people? We know where Amos stood, the only authority in this situation was God and here now God is showing Amos yet another vision.

As with the vision in Chapter 7 of the wall and plumbline we see that God shows Amos a vision which Amos describes as a basket of summer fruit and immediately asks Amos to describe what he saw. This exchange with Amos, similar to how it functioned in the last vision brings into sharp focus what the vision is all about, Amos replies to God, “A basket of summer fruit.”

The vision here is meant to serve mainly as a word play for the message that will follow the vision though it is perhaps significant that this basket was full of ripe fruit that could signify Israel’s ripeness for judgement. However, the word play is in the sounds of the words for summer and the word for end. They both sound very familiar in fact this very word play is even found outside of Biblical records.

The picture is that this is the END of Israel. Many hearers would have likely gotten that just from the recording of the vision but God goes one step further and plainly says, “the end has come!”

Repeating a phrase from CH 7:8 He says farther that He will never again pass by them, which means as it did in chapter 7 that God will no longer pass over their sin. God has been long suffering with them, has given them opportunity after opportunity to repent and yet at last they have stood against all of His calling in Grace and so now when he comes again He will come to vent His wrath upon them for their great transgressions.

Verse 3 paints a vivid picture of this end and it is almost palpable.

In that day, meaning the day when God comes to visit upon Israel the curses of the covenant, if you remember when we here language of “that Day” or “the Day” or “the day of the Lord” most often this speaks of a day when God is coming to visit his people in relation to their covenant, often in wrath but also at times in blessing.

So in that day we find that “the songs of the temple will become wailings”

As this great disaster come upon these people their mirth, their festive songs sung in their financial opulence will quickly become mourning. Death engulfs them as God’s wrath is poured out through the Assyrian army.

So much death that it will be said that there are “So many dead bodies!” There is no place to even put them all, no grave large enough, they are “thrown everywhere.”

This ghastly seen of destruction is so horrific that even the cried of wailings cease and there is SILENCE! Anyone left alive to view the carnage or anyone who might stumble upon this scene will be left in silence.

I read a few articles lately about the civil war and the great destruction that took place on many of its battle fields. I grew up in Pennsylvania and spent time at Gettysburg National Park where you read about events and see pictures of the destruction, countless dead union and confederate soldiers strewn across once green fertile fields and the result is often a solemn silence! That is happening here.

Also this silence could be connected to the command to silence in CH 6:10 where the person witnessing the destruction is forbidden to call on the name of the Lord because God is the one who had brought this great destruction.

Verses 4-7

(READ VERSES)

God again here reminds these people of their deeds that have brought this great destruction upon them. And as he does so he speaks directly to them. He says, “Hear this.” These people are not to miss that God is speaking directly to them. This is again an instance of the call to hearing with understanding, not just to hear the words but to take them to heart!

These are people who are mistreating the poor of the land so badly that they are destroying them, or bringing them to an end!

However as Amos outlines how it is that they have done this we need to see that their treatment of the poor flows directly from their hearts attitude to God and the things of God.

Amos first calls out their impatience and lack of love for divine worship!

New Moon- the start of a month, a appointed feast day

Sabbath- the day of now work and worship to God

APPLICATION: Are we ever tempted to wish it weren't Sunday, wish we didn't have to wake up for church, wish that the service would end already?! No matter what you believe about how believers are to relate to the Sabbath we have this same tendency as these people did, the tendency to rush through the spiritual so that we can get back to life

Life for them was all about making a buck

Ephah & Shekel

Measures of grain (40 Liters) and money they would shrink the size of the measure of grain and then over inflate the shekel to rip off the poor. This was dealing deceitfully!

The result… they would by the poor for silver, meaning they had driven the poor into such a state that they could no longer feed themselves or their families and had to sell themselves into indentured servitude.

Pair of sandals- the pitiful price for a person!

Chaff- they would mix the chaff back in to make the wheat they had to sell go farther but people cant eat the chaff!

APPLICATION: In a free market capitalist economy we have the freedom to get for our goods what the market will bear, or at least we should. However, ion verses like these there is a caution as well I believe, Israel was guilty of outright cheating the poor but often this kind of behavior follows the effort to get as much for something as you can. At the very leas passages like this ought to caution us to be mindful of others and their needs as we seek to provide for ourselves rather than exploiting the markets like we often see in times like say pandemics when people sell hand sanitizer for hundreds of dollars a gallon!

Verse 7: God swears again by himself… this is sure to happen!

God never forgets! The deeds are those mentioned above, both the way they treat God and the way the treat each other!

Verses 8-9

In these verses we see some good examples of apocalyptic language.

Flooding rivers, example of the flooding recently back east.

Sun go down and darken the earth at noon… imagery of an eclipse, these people would have felt very ominous on days when they witnessed these kinds of astronomical phenomena and God is trying to capture that feeling to help them apprehend what this day will be like!

Verse 10

Baldness- people would often shave their heads to signify mourning … everyone will be mourning

Only Son- there could be no greater loss than this because not only did you loose the only son you had to love but you also lost any hope of perpetuating your family line, the FUTURE is lost!

Verses 11-13

Behold… in prophetic literature this phrase often signifies an all important

Here we see that in the days to follow, likely the days following Amos’ prophetic witness, that God is going to bring a famine on the land but this wont be a famine of food but rather a much more dreadful famine, a famine of God’s own word.

God would cease acting toward them in grace by sending messengers to them with his words! They would be left in the dark so to speak.

In Deuteronomy 32 we read this:

English Standard Version Chapter 32

And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

God’s word was life to them.

Commentator TJ Betts says here:

Amos: An Ordinary Man with an Extraordinary Message Latch on to God’s Word before It Is Too Late (8:11–14)

One may make some observations concerning God’s Word from this text. First, true life comes from God’s Word. The Lord says the people will stagger everywhere looking for God’s Word like one who is desperately hungry and thirsty but to no avail. They will fall never to rise again.

This hunger as a result of the lack of God’s word will be so great that even the lovely young women and the best among the young men will feel its pangs.

The young are so often the ones who have the least realization of their need for God!

Story of talking with Nick… I have a life time to figure it out… IE… Ill do what I want now

When this famine come though it will be too late, God’s word is taken away, He has stopped acting toward them in grace and is now bringing recompense!

Verse 14

The idolaters will be punished

Dan the other location of a golden calf

Bersheeba actually far into Judah's territory… this idolatry was not just limited to the North.

Fall and never rise again! Takes us back to 5:1&2

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

2  “Fallen, no more to rise,

is the virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

There is a finality in this judgement that only serves to foreshadow the finality in the coming judgement that is to come over all mankind, you cant be like my friend who said that he had a whole life time to decide because when it is too late it is too late!

These passages give us, like the Psalms, an opportunity to search our own hearts in our pursuit of holiness!