There Is Nothing New Under The Sun
A Basket of Summer Fruit and Israel’s Captivity
Amos 8:1-14 (NASB)
Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day,” declares the Lord God. “Many will be the corpses; in every place [hey will cast them forth in silence.”
Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,
saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain,
And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales,
So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds.
“Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt.
It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord God, “That I will make the sun go down at noon
And make the earth dark in broad daylight.
“Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone’s loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord. “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.
“In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst.
“As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives,’ They will fall and not rise again.”
Amos means "burden bearer."
Amos was a shepherd and a keeper of Sycamore Trees from Tekoa in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. God called Amos to deliver a message of judgement to the people who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He lived in the 8th Century BCE at the same time as the Prophets Hosea and Jonah. This was when King Jeroboam ll, the son of Joash was ruling the Northern Kingdom of Israel, 760 BCE (793-753).
This was a time of peace and prosperity, Amos spoke out against the idolatry and many social abuses taking place at that time which were lacking in compassion for the poor.
Amos was called to preach a message of repentence and judgement to the rebellious people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Approximately 100 years previously under Jeroboam l, Solomon's Kingdom had been divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom also included Damascus and part of Lebanon.
Jeroboam l had departed from worship of the "One True God" only and instead mixed Baal worship and various other deities with faith in the Lord of the Covenant. When the kingdom was divided and he controlled the northern part, he stopped all pilgrimages to Jerusalem:
So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. (1 Kings 12:28-30 NASB)
Around 100 years later, when Jeroboam ll ruled over the Northern Kingdom of Israel he reinstated all the idolatrous practices of his namesake. In 2 Kings 14:23-24 we read:
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.
Amos was known as a prophet of righteousness. Jeroboam (Yarav'am) means "the people contend."
The opening chapters of the book of Amos speak of judgement on Israel's neighbours; Damascus, Aram, Gaza, the Philistines, Edom, Assyria, and Moab. And also the coming judgement on both Judah and Israel when they refused to repent from trusting the gods of their neighbours rather than trusting the only true Living God of their fathers.
Amos 5:24 “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
Authentic worship results in changed behaviour - seeking God's will, treating others kindly with compassion and justice, doing what is right.
Amos had a vision of a basket of summer fruit (Figs are harvested at the end of summer, Amos tended Fig trees) and the Lord revealed to him that the time had come for judgement on His people Israel. In Hebrew, the word for summer fruit comes from the same root word that describes coming to an end.
Summer fruit is luscious, but it doesn't last very long, it quickly spoils. Therefore, Amos likens God's coming judgement as "summer fruit" and just like summer fruit, the Northern Kingdom of Israel is ripe for judgement. A time of living under God's grace is finally coming to an end and judgement will quickly follow as a consequence of sinfulness of the nation.
Amos dared to deliver God's message to the wealthy and influential people of his day. His message is timely for our world today because the world today is in a similar state to that of the Northern Kingdom of Israel under both Kings named Jeroboam. In Chapter 2 Amos speaks of the 3 or 4 sins of Israel that will bring judgement on them: 1) selling the righteous for silver and the needy for sandals;
2) trampling on the heads of the poor and denying justice to the oppressed;
3) father and son using the same girl and profaning God's holy name by doing so;
4) causing the Nazarites to drink wine and the prophets to keep silent.
Seven times in the Scriptures God speaks of 3 or 4 sins or transgressions bringing judgement on a nation.
In the second part of Amos chapter 8:5 we read the following:
To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales;
This speaks of inflation and dishonesty. Much like we are currently experiencing today when our dollar buys a lot less in the shopping cart than it did just a year or so ago. Food is costing us more for less! The scales are dishonest - here I am thinking about the chocolate bars that are thinner and shorter than they used to be, also the packets of biscuits and crackers that are also smaller and/or the recipes have changed from using quality ingredients to a myriad of cheap and unhealthy additives in place of butter, eggs, and natural sugars. Packaged meat cuts pumped up with water in the Supermarkets! In some cases the price hasn't changed all that much, but the weight and quality has. Selling junk food so cheaply it becomes the basic 'go to' for folk on low incomes who cannot afford fresh food or the means to cook a healthy meal. Cheap soft drinks and fast food outlets become the "normal" for many along with the subsequent health issues that arise from poor food choices. In verse 6 there is the implication that the bread is mouldy or made from poor quality or spoiled grain resulting in the youth being weak and fainting for thirst. We can relate to this by the obesity epidemic and mental health issues so many of our youngsters are presenting with these days.
The guilt of Samaria refers to the pagan practices introduced during Jeroboam l's reign. Worship of pagan deities such as Adrammalech (aka Molech) which was aligned with child sacrifice, Parents offering their children on an altar of fire (abortion, infanticide).
Astimah (Ashimah) was a Hittite god referenced in 2 Kings 17:30 - Ashimah is also known as Asherah and is said to control fate, kismet, or karma.
Those who swear by the sin of Samaria... shall fall and never rise again:
God promised that the idolaters of Israel would face judgement, and it would be a lasting judgement.
The Golden Calf of Bethel and Dan represent Baal (Ba'al means "master"), a Canaanite deity which represented the worshipping of nature, natural forces, and also the fertility of crops and livestock, productivity, immorality and warfare. The idol worship of Dan refers to Baal worship which was usually depicted as a bull or golden calf.
If you visit Israel today, you can go the the region of Dan in the Northern Galilee and walk through the archaeological park where the gates of the ancient city are still standing to this day. Along with its carved relief figures of the bull or calf. It is located in a beautiful nature reserve at the headwaters of the Jordan River and is near the Roman Ruins of Caesarea Philippi or Banias - where the Romans erected temples to the God Pan on either side of the cave known as "the gates of hell". It was standing on a rock outside that cave and between the two Roman temples, that Jesus is reported to have proclaimed to Peter "you are Kefar (a small stone), and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18 NIV)
The "Way of Beersheba" is referred to in 2 Kings 17:36-41 -
But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice. The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods. The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.” However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
They served the idols from the nations they had been held captive in, (Egypt and Babylon) whilst still paying lip-service to the Lord. Teaching their children and grandchildren a false religious system of superstition, serving foreign gods yet still proclaiming themselves as serving the Lord by observing the feasts and customs taught by Moses. These teachings affected their subsequent generations by bringing judgement on themselves, their children and their grandchildren.
We can see these very same practices in our own society today, mixing Christian beliefs with those of foreign or pagan deities such as the practices introduced to the West by Hinduism including karma, Yoga and its various spin-offs, vegetarianism/veganism, meditation and reincarnation. Buddhism and its Tai Chi, "mindfulness" and "meditation," involving "emptying your mind and indulging in repetitious hums or chants whilst meditating." Judeo-Christian meditation prescribed in the Bible, is to focus on the Word of the Lord, not to empty your mind, but to fill it with God's word and think on that, teach it to your children, apply it to your life, live it and pray to God the Father through Jesus the son, "our Lord Jesus Christ" (Yeshua HaMashiach). Sadly many of our schools, sporting clubs and workplaces have introduced programmes around mindfulness and various forms of yoga in the interests of fitness and wellness, thereby introducing our young to practices aligned with the worship of false deities; and influencing them towards accepting such concepts as abortion and euthanasia as being forms of kindness and compassion.
There are many other false deities prevalent in society today such as Taoism, Spiritualism, Angel worship, witchcraft, satanism, astrology, horoscopes and fortune-telling through palm reading, crystals, tarot cards and ouija boards. It may surprise you how many professing Christians think some of these practices are harmless and continue to participate in some of them for fun, health or exercise. The lessons of Amos apply to the church today too!
Solomon lamented in the book of Ecclesiastes, that indeed there is "nothing new under the sun!"
Idolatry always results in famine, but not necessarily a famine of crops and foods, in this case Amos highlights a famine of "hearing the Words of the Lord!" What does this mean?
This famine is not a lack of God's Word, but a famine of "hearing the words of the LORD." The condition described is that of being deaf to the words of the Lord, not able to hear them or covering one's ears to block them out. It isn't a case of God withholding His revelation; but of the people being in such a state that they do not see it, or even want to "hear the words of the Lord." We see that in our society today where the Word of the Lord is no longer welcome in our education system, our parliament, in health services, Courts of Justice or in the market place. Amos 3:7 reads:
"Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets."
It is true that there may come times where there is a famine of God's Word, either through neglect or unfaithfulness. But that isn't what Amos is meaning here. This was a problem with the hearer, not with the preacher. Jesus reminds us that the "fields are ripe and ready for harvest, but the labourers are few!"
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NIV) describes the right way to hear the Word of God:
When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
Since it is true that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4 NIV), then it is true that a famine of hearing God's Word is ultimately worse than a famine of bread.
They shall wander-seeking the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it: When we push away God's Word for a long time, we may find ourselves in the place where we shall not find it even if we wanted to. We remember that the ability to hear God's Word and benefit by it is a gift from God, and a gift not to be despised. Jesus alluded to this principle in the Parable of the Seeds and the Sower in Mark 4:24
Consider carefully what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. Whoever has, will be given more; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
When we seek God, it generally becomes easier to find Him. When we push away God, it generally becomes more difficult to hear and receive His Word.
"Men will stagger from sea to sea," Amos describes people running from nation to nation seeking answers, wandering all over the world seeking wisdom to cope with the judgement coming upon the land; weather patterns, flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes, droughts etc. Jesus warned of these things coming to pass in Matthew 24 when he outlined the signs of the end of the age and his return. I am thinking of the influence of the UN and EU over the nations of the world, the recent Paris Accords and Climate Change events in Geneva, also come to mind. Amos warns they will fall never to rise again.
However, despite all these events, in Chapter 9 Amos tells Israel that God will not totally destroy the house of Jacob, He will shake them and sieve them, but none of them will fall to the ground, only those who arrogantly say "Disaster will not overtake or meet us!" I would compare them to those folk today who tell believers that our Christianity is just a crutch and the Bible cannot be trusted, or it is a fairytale, or, all religions worship the same god!
God promises restoration to Israel and through them all the nations that bear His name. When we Gentiles became believers by asking Jesus (Yeshua) the Jewish Messiah into our hearts and lives, we were grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel and became part of the "one new man" that the bible refers to in Chapters 2 and 3 of Ephesians. Jew and Gentile united through the blood of Jesus to become a holy temple or dwelling place (Tabernacle) in which God lives by His Spirit. The restoration spoken of in Amos Chapter 9:11-15 says; "In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places and restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name," declares the LORD, who will do these things. "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter by one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God.
Wow! All God's promises are Yes and Amen through Jesus the Messiah and we can take encouragement from God's Word and the fulfilment of His promises to Israel, that just as He is faithful to fulfil His Word to Israel, so He is faithful to fulfil His Word to us the Gentile believers grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel - the "one new man!"
James, the brother of Jesus referred to the prophecy of Amos at the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15:16-18 when the disciples met to discuss the situation regarding the Gentile believers joining the congregation of Jewish believers and whether they should follow Moses' customs or not.
Modern Israel depicts exactly what God spoke of through Amos, it surely is a land of milk and honey; agriculture, viticulture and horticulture, exporting produce and technology to the world. They bless the nations with their innovations, medical advances, pharmaceuticals, and food production. They have modern hi-tech cities with enviable transport options, and soft-seal roading. The land flourishes when the Jews are there, large swathes of some of the deserts are green and productive under Jewish guardianship. When the Jews were exiled from the land, it became full of malarial swamps and barren stony deserts as the author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) recorded when he visited it on a Pilgrimage in September 1867 (the land was then under the control of the Islamic Ottoman Empire and governed from Turkey). Both the land and the people languished as a land "cursed" and "sitting in sackcloth and ashes." Now some 152 years or so after his visit, the prophecies regarding the Jews and the Land are fulfilled in our time, whoever would have imagined that we would be the generation alive when God brought back His people to the land He gave them through Abraham so very long ago!
Hallelujah - Great is Thy Faithfulness O LORD
Amos 8:1-14 (NASB)
Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit. He said, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer. The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day,” declares the Lord God. “Many will be the corpses; in every place [hey will cast them forth in silence.”
Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,
saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain,
And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales,
So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?”
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds.
“Because of this will not the land quake And everyone who dwells in it mourn? Indeed, all of it will rise up like the Nile, And it will be tossed about And subside like the Nile of Egypt.
It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord God, “That I will make the sun go down at noon
And make the earth dark in broad daylight.
“Then I will turn your festivals into mourning And all your songs into lamentation; And I will bring sackcloth on everyone’s loins And baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, And the end of it will be like a bitter day.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord. “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.
“In that day the beautiful virgins And the young men will faint from thirst.
“As for those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, Who say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’
And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives,’ They will fall and not rise again.”
Amos means "burden bearer."
Amos was a shepherd and a keeper of Sycamore Trees from Tekoa in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. God called Amos to deliver a message of judgement to the people who lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He lived in the 8th Century BCE at the same time as the Prophets Hosea and Jonah. This was when King Jeroboam ll, the son of Joash was ruling the Northern Kingdom of Israel, 760 BCE (793-753).
This was a time of peace and prosperity, Amos spoke out against the idolatry and many social abuses taking place at that time which were lacking in compassion for the poor.
Amos was called to preach a message of repentence and judgement to the rebellious people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Approximately 100 years previously under Jeroboam l, Solomon's Kingdom had been divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom also included Damascus and part of Lebanon.
Jeroboam l had departed from worship of the "One True God" only and instead mixed Baal worship and various other deities with faith in the Lord of the Covenant. When the kingdom was divided and he controlled the northern part, he stopped all pilgrimages to Jerusalem:
So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. (1 Kings 12:28-30 NASB)
Around 100 years later, when Jeroboam ll ruled over the Northern Kingdom of Israel he reinstated all the idolatrous practices of his namesake. In 2 Kings 14:23-24 we read:
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and reigned forty-one years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.
Amos was known as a prophet of righteousness. Jeroboam (Yarav'am) means "the people contend."
The opening chapters of the book of Amos speak of judgement on Israel's neighbours; Damascus, Aram, Gaza, the Philistines, Edom, Assyria, and Moab. And also the coming judgement on both Judah and Israel when they refused to repent from trusting the gods of their neighbours rather than trusting the only true Living God of their fathers.
Amos 5:24 “But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
Authentic worship results in changed behaviour - seeking God's will, treating others kindly with compassion and justice, doing what is right.
Amos had a vision of a basket of summer fruit (Figs are harvested at the end of summer, Amos tended Fig trees) and the Lord revealed to him that the time had come for judgement on His people Israel. In Hebrew, the word for summer fruit comes from the same root word that describes coming to an end.
Summer fruit is luscious, but it doesn't last very long, it quickly spoils. Therefore, Amos likens God's coming judgement as "summer fruit" and just like summer fruit, the Northern Kingdom of Israel is ripe for judgement. A time of living under God's grace is finally coming to an end and judgement will quickly follow as a consequence of sinfulness of the nation.
Amos dared to deliver God's message to the wealthy and influential people of his day. His message is timely for our world today because the world today is in a similar state to that of the Northern Kingdom of Israel under both Kings named Jeroboam. In Chapter 2 Amos speaks of the 3 or 4 sins of Israel that will bring judgement on them: 1) selling the righteous for silver and the needy for sandals;
2) trampling on the heads of the poor and denying justice to the oppressed;
3) father and son using the same girl and profaning God's holy name by doing so;
4) causing the Nazarites to drink wine and the prophets to keep silent.
Seven times in the Scriptures God speaks of 3 or 4 sins or transgressions bringing judgement on a nation.
In the second part of Amos chapter 8:5 we read the following:
To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales;
This speaks of inflation and dishonesty. Much like we are currently experiencing today when our dollar buys a lot less in the shopping cart than it did just a year or so ago. Food is costing us more for less! The scales are dishonest - here I am thinking about the chocolate bars that are thinner and shorter than they used to be, also the packets of biscuits and crackers that are also smaller and/or the recipes have changed from using quality ingredients to a myriad of cheap and unhealthy additives in place of butter, eggs, and natural sugars. Packaged meat cuts pumped up with water in the Supermarkets! In some cases the price hasn't changed all that much, but the weight and quality has. Selling junk food so cheaply it becomes the basic 'go to' for folk on low incomes who cannot afford fresh food or the means to cook a healthy meal. Cheap soft drinks and fast food outlets become the "normal" for many along with the subsequent health issues that arise from poor food choices. In verse 6 there is the implication that the bread is mouldy or made from poor quality or spoiled grain resulting in the youth being weak and fainting for thirst. We can relate to this by the obesity epidemic and mental health issues so many of our youngsters are presenting with these days.
The guilt of Samaria refers to the pagan practices introduced during Jeroboam l's reign. Worship of pagan deities such as Adrammalech (aka Molech) which was aligned with child sacrifice, Parents offering their children on an altar of fire (abortion, infanticide).
Astimah (Ashimah) was a Hittite god referenced in 2 Kings 17:30 - Ashimah is also known as Asherah and is said to control fate, kismet, or karma.
Those who swear by the sin of Samaria... shall fall and never rise again:
God promised that the idolaters of Israel would face judgement, and it would be a lasting judgement.
The Golden Calf of Bethel and Dan represent Baal (Ba'al means "master"), a Canaanite deity which represented the worshipping of nature, natural forces, and also the fertility of crops and livestock, productivity, immorality and warfare. The idol worship of Dan refers to Baal worship which was usually depicted as a bull or golden calf.
If you visit Israel today, you can go the the region of Dan in the Northern Galilee and walk through the archaeological park where the gates of the ancient city are still standing to this day. Along with its carved relief figures of the bull or calf. It is located in a beautiful nature reserve at the headwaters of the Jordan River and is near the Roman Ruins of Caesarea Philippi or Banias - where the Romans erected temples to the God Pan on either side of the cave known as "the gates of hell". It was standing on a rock outside that cave and between the two Roman temples, that Jesus is reported to have proclaimed to Peter "you are Kefar (a small stone), and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18 NIV)
The "Way of Beersheba" is referred to in 2 Kings 17:36-41 -
But the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice. The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods. The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.” However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
They served the idols from the nations they had been held captive in, (Egypt and Babylon) whilst still paying lip-service to the Lord. Teaching their children and grandchildren a false religious system of superstition, serving foreign gods yet still proclaiming themselves as serving the Lord by observing the feasts and customs taught by Moses. These teachings affected their subsequent generations by bringing judgement on themselves, their children and their grandchildren.
We can see these very same practices in our own society today, mixing Christian beliefs with those of foreign or pagan deities such as the practices introduced to the West by Hinduism including karma, Yoga and its various spin-offs, vegetarianism/veganism, meditation and reincarnation. Buddhism and its Tai Chi, "mindfulness" and "meditation," involving "emptying your mind and indulging in repetitious hums or chants whilst meditating." Judeo-Christian meditation prescribed in the Bible, is to focus on the Word of the Lord, not to empty your mind, but to fill it with God's word and think on that, teach it to your children, apply it to your life, live it and pray to God the Father through Jesus the son, "our Lord Jesus Christ" (Yeshua HaMashiach). Sadly many of our schools, sporting clubs and workplaces have introduced programmes around mindfulness and various forms of yoga in the interests of fitness and wellness, thereby introducing our young to practices aligned with the worship of false deities; and influencing them towards accepting such concepts as abortion and euthanasia as being forms of kindness and compassion.
There are many other false deities prevalent in society today such as Taoism, Spiritualism, Angel worship, witchcraft, satanism, astrology, horoscopes and fortune-telling through palm reading, crystals, tarot cards and ouija boards. It may surprise you how many professing Christians think some of these practices are harmless and continue to participate in some of them for fun, health or exercise. The lessons of Amos apply to the church today too!
Solomon lamented in the book of Ecclesiastes, that indeed there is "nothing new under the sun!"
Idolatry always results in famine, but not necessarily a famine of crops and foods, in this case Amos highlights a famine of "hearing the Words of the Lord!" What does this mean?
This famine is not a lack of God's Word, but a famine of "hearing the words of the LORD." The condition described is that of being deaf to the words of the Lord, not able to hear them or covering one's ears to block them out. It isn't a case of God withholding His revelation; but of the people being in such a state that they do not see it, or even want to "hear the words of the Lord." We see that in our society today where the Word of the Lord is no longer welcome in our education system, our parliament, in health services, Courts of Justice or in the market place. Amos 3:7 reads:
"Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets."
It is true that there may come times where there is a famine of God's Word, either through neglect or unfaithfulness. But that isn't what Amos is meaning here. This was a problem with the hearer, not with the preacher. Jesus reminds us that the "fields are ripe and ready for harvest, but the labourers are few!"
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NIV) describes the right way to hear the Word of God:
When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
Since it is true that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4 NIV), then it is true that a famine of hearing God's Word is ultimately worse than a famine of bread.
They shall wander-seeking the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it: When we push away God's Word for a long time, we may find ourselves in the place where we shall not find it even if we wanted to. We remember that the ability to hear God's Word and benefit by it is a gift from God, and a gift not to be despised. Jesus alluded to this principle in the Parable of the Seeds and the Sower in Mark 4:24
Consider carefully what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. Whoever has, will be given more; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
When we seek God, it generally becomes easier to find Him. When we push away God, it generally becomes more difficult to hear and receive His Word.
"Men will stagger from sea to sea," Amos describes people running from nation to nation seeking answers, wandering all over the world seeking wisdom to cope with the judgement coming upon the land; weather patterns, flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes, droughts etc. Jesus warned of these things coming to pass in Matthew 24 when he outlined the signs of the end of the age and his return. I am thinking of the influence of the UN and EU over the nations of the world, the recent Paris Accords and Climate Change events in Geneva, also come to mind. Amos warns they will fall never to rise again.
However, despite all these events, in Chapter 9 Amos tells Israel that God will not totally destroy the house of Jacob, He will shake them and sieve them, but none of them will fall to the ground, only those who arrogantly say "Disaster will not overtake or meet us!" I would compare them to those folk today who tell believers that our Christianity is just a crutch and the Bible cannot be trusted, or it is a fairytale, or, all religions worship the same god!
God promises restoration to Israel and through them all the nations that bear His name. When we Gentiles became believers by asking Jesus (Yeshua) the Jewish Messiah into our hearts and lives, we were grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel and became part of the "one new man" that the bible refers to in Chapters 2 and 3 of Ephesians. Jew and Gentile united through the blood of Jesus to become a holy temple or dwelling place (Tabernacle) in which God lives by His Spirit. The restoration spoken of in Amos Chapter 9:11-15 says; "In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places and restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name," declares the LORD, who will do these things. "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter by one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God.
Wow! All God's promises are Yes and Amen through Jesus the Messiah and we can take encouragement from God's Word and the fulfilment of His promises to Israel, that just as He is faithful to fulfil His Word to Israel, so He is faithful to fulfil His Word to us the Gentile believers grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel - the "one new man!"
James, the brother of Jesus referred to the prophecy of Amos at the Council of Jerusalem recorded in Acts 15:16-18 when the disciples met to discuss the situation regarding the Gentile believers joining the congregation of Jewish believers and whether they should follow Moses' customs or not.
Modern Israel depicts exactly what God spoke of through Amos, it surely is a land of milk and honey; agriculture, viticulture and horticulture, exporting produce and technology to the world. They bless the nations with their innovations, medical advances, pharmaceuticals, and food production. They have modern hi-tech cities with enviable transport options, and soft-seal roading. The land flourishes when the Jews are there, large swathes of some of the deserts are green and productive under Jewish guardianship. When the Jews were exiled from the land, it became full of malarial swamps and barren stony deserts as the author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) recorded when he visited it on a Pilgrimage in September 1867 (the land was then under the control of the Islamic Ottoman Empire and governed from Turkey). Both the land and the people languished as a land "cursed" and "sitting in sackcloth and ashes." Now some 152 years or so after his visit, the prophecies regarding the Jews and the Land are fulfilled in our time, whoever would have imagined that we would be the generation alive when God brought back His people to the land He gave them through Abraham so very long ago!
Hallelujah - Great is Thy Faithfulness O LORD