Once a fellow started crying about his hurts he would never quit. This is a rough country. Nobody wants to hear about your feelings.”
–Ernest Haycox (Free Grass)
“Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated.”
–Numbers 11:10 (NLT)
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Amos, after his words to Amaziah, receives another vision, that of the summer fruit. This is the ripe fruit, the final harvest of the year. The prophet announces, “the end has come.” What normally would be a time of thanksgiving “would be turned to wailing because the harvest would be death.” (NKJV Study Bible) Lloyd Ogilvie says, “Israel’s sin had ripened and spoilage was inevitable.”
8.1 — Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit.
.2 — And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me: “The end has come upon My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.
.3 — And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day,” says the Lord GOD– “Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence.”
.4 — Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, and make the poor of the land fail,
.5 — Saying: “When will the New Moon be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit,
.6 — That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals–even sell the bad wheat?”
Gary C. Cohen writes, “He is not portraying people who merely break the Sabbath, but rather loathe the Sabbath–loathe it perhaps partly because they do not want their souls and spirits turned to God, which would make them feel guilty over their sins.” Woe, when this occurs, the end is come. In the words of Peter C. Craigie, “One can in fact practice evil so persistently that a death sentence is inevitably proclaimed. There does actually come to a point at which all excuses are useless: the death sentence is proclaimed and nothing can change it.”
“Sin” is a word that is uncommon today. It is wrong to say that a person has sinned or is living in sin. “Guilt”, “shame” are words that are now forbidden in modern usage. Yet it is guilt and shame over sins that bring conviction thus bringing people to ask God for forgiveness. “The frightening thing,” according to Ogilvie, “is that it is possible to resist the overtures of God’s love so long that our wills can become hardened.”
Instead of a harvest of produce, “there will be instead, many dead bodies with the shock of dead silence.” (Garner) This is an indictment against those who “swallow up the needy,” by false measures and mixing the sweeping of the threshing with the grain. Add to that the deplorable practice of selling people into slavery. No longer is Amos saying, “Seek the Lord and live,” now he can only say, “It’s too late; you must die.”
The words of Jeremiah are clear, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (8:20, NKJV). Too late, too late–there comes a time when God’s patience runs out, the scales are full, judgment is now coming. The nation will reap what they have sown. Warren Wiersbe puts it solemnly, “People would be so overwhelmed that they would be unable to discuss the tragedy. Silence would reign in the land.”
Israel had gotten to the point where they viewed God and the worship of Him as an inconvenience to their daily business. Many want to sleep in on Sunday morning with the excuse that it is their only day to do so. Others have ball games to attend (and that is a blight in our country, substituting children’s games for worship in God’s house). Excuses, all sorts of excuses–maybe we are to the point like Israel, where all the excuses will be worthless. I remember my Mom having to work at a grocery store on Sunday back in the day when most businesses were closed on the Lord’s day. She related to me of the times people would say to her as she checked out their groceries, “It’s a shame that you have to work on Sunday.” She would smile at them and reply, “Someone has to wait on the people who come to shop after church.”
It is not only “remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy,” it is allowing “things” to become more important than God. It is putting God on the back burner, or even taking Him out of our lives. Be careful of saying “No,” to God too long! “Evil is not a light matter, something to be played with casually; its end is death.” (Craigie)
————————————-
Amos, after his words to Amaziah, receives another vision, that of the summer fruit. This is the ripe fruit, the final harvest of the year. The prophet announces, “the end has come.” What normally would be a time of thanksgiving “would be turned to wailing because the harvest would be death.” (NKJV Study Bible) Lloyd Ogilvie says, “Israel’s sin had ripened and spoilage was inevitable.”
8.1 — Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit.
.2 — And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me: “The end has come upon My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore.
.3 — And the songs of the temple shall be wailing in that day,” says the Lord GOD– “Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence.”
.4 — Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, and make the poor of the land fail,
.5 — Saying: “When will the New Moon be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit,
.6 — That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals–even sell the bad wheat?”
Gary C. Cohen writes, “He is not portraying people who merely break the Sabbath, but rather loathe the Sabbath–loathe it perhaps partly because they do not want their souls and spirits turned to God, which would make them feel guilty over their sins.” Woe, when this occurs, the end is come. In the words of Peter C. Craigie, “One can in fact practice evil so persistently that a death sentence is inevitably proclaimed. There does actually come to a point at which all excuses are useless: the death sentence is proclaimed and nothing can change it.”
“Sin” is a word that is uncommon today. It is wrong to say that a person has sinned or is living in sin. “Guilt”, “shame” are words that are now forbidden in modern usage. Yet it is guilt and shame over sins that bring conviction thus bringing people to ask God for forgiveness. “The frightening thing,” according to Ogilvie, “is that it is possible to resist the overtures of God’s love so long that our wills can become hardened.”
Instead of a harvest of produce, “there will be instead, many dead bodies with the shock of dead silence.” (Garner) This is an indictment against those who “swallow up the needy,” by false measures and mixing the sweeping of the threshing with the grain. Add to that the deplorable practice of selling people into slavery. No longer is Amos saying, “Seek the Lord and live,” now he can only say, “It’s too late; you must die.”
The words of Jeremiah are clear, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (8:20, NKJV). Too late, too late–there comes a time when God’s patience runs out, the scales are full, judgment is now coming. The nation will reap what they have sown. Warren Wiersbe puts it solemnly, “People would be so overwhelmed that they would be unable to discuss the tragedy. Silence would reign in the land.”
Israel had gotten to the point where they viewed God and the worship of Him as an inconvenience to their daily business. Many want to sleep in on Sunday morning with the excuse that it is their only day to do so. Others have ball games to attend (and that is a blight in our country, substituting children’s games for worship in God’s house). Excuses, all sorts of excuses–maybe we are to the point like Israel, where all the excuses will be worthless. I remember my Mom having to work at a grocery store on Sunday back in the day when most businesses were closed on the Lord’s day. She related to me of the times people would say to her as she checked out their groceries, “It’s a shame that you have to work on Sunday.” She would smile at them and reply, “Someone has to wait on the people who come to shop after church.”
It is not only “remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy,” it is allowing “things” to become more important than God. It is putting God on the back burner, or even taking Him out of our lives. Be careful of saying “No,” to God too long! “Evil is not a light matter, something to be played with casually; its end is death.” (Craigie)