Amos 8:1-14. This chapter contains a second vision that Amos shared with the Northern Israelites.  The vision is kind of odd though; he saw a basket of fruit.  God asked him what he was and he said a basket of fruit, summer fruit.  And then God said that the time had come for Israel (the Northern Kingdom) to cease to exist.  Like I said, odd

The key is in the description of the fruit and also in the word “end”.  The Hebrew word for “summer fruit” is “qayits”, the Hebrew word for “end” is “qets”.  So God is sort of rhyming the words here to make a point.  So how do the words relate besides their sounds.  I like to garden and I love tomatoes.  I think I like to garden because I love tomatoes.  In fact right now for breakfast I am having some marinated cucumber and tomato salad that made a few days ago.  The tomatoes that I put in the salad were some nice red ones that came with a stem on them, you know tomatoes on the vine.  They are supposed to be better that way, but they weren’t very good.  Tomatoes need the warmth of summer to ripen properly and they have to stay on the plant not just the vine to get good.  Most growers for the stores pick the tomatoes early so they are hard enough to ship, but that leaves them flavorless.  If they pick them when they are ripe they are hard to ship because they are soft and can easily spoil.  They have to be shipped fast, in safe containers and used soon.  There is one grower here in California who grows in nice warm green houses, waits till the tomatoes are much riper, does leave them on the vine, and ships them in hard plastic cases to protect them.  His tomates are much better.  In fact I had some of them and added them to the salad this morning, yummy.  So what does this all have to do with Amos?  Well although I have only had the tomatoes a few days, and even kept them refrigerated (which the grower says never to do because it diminishes the taste) there was still a bad tomato in the box this morning.  Once fruit is cut from the vine it will not last forever.

I’m sure that the Northern Israelites thought of themselves as pretty awesome; remember they had just beaten the Syrians and had peace and lots of stuff.  The problem is they were cut off from their source of life and were starting to rot, like beautiful summer fruit.  The interesting thing is often you don’t know the tomato is bad until you put some pressure on it, touch it.  The skin looks great but you touch it and bam, it turns into tomato goo.  It rots from the inside out.  That is where these Israelites were at spiritually.  There end had come and God was about to toss them out.  Their parties would turn into a time of mourning and even that would be silent, perhaps because it would be so bad they couldn’t even speak.

Verses 4-6 repeat what we have already hear in the book, the evidence of their rotten spiritual lives is the way they treat each other. They also have a bad attitude about their times of honoring God, “Can’t wait till Sundays over so I can get back to important stuff; like taking advantage of everyone I can to get rich.”

Verses 7-11 describe the coming disaster for the people.  This description probably has a double fulfillment.  Some of the description probably applied to the actual conquest in 722 BC by the Assyrians, which was certainly the closer more immediate fulfillment of the prediction.  If we take the word literally though it certainly sounds like there will be an earthquake (which is interesting since there was evidently an earthquake two years after Amos spoke to the people (Amos 1:1), and there will also be a time of darkness in the middle of the day.  That could have been a solar eclipse around this time too.  But the language also fits descriptions of events during “the Day of the LORD” found in the book of Revelation.  So I think this prediction might have at least two fulfillments.

Some Bible scholars like to talk about “days of the LORD” meaning more than one.  They realize there is a final “day of the LORD” that will involve the whole world but they also see smaller more limited times of punishment or discipline, especially in the history of Israel (the nation and each of the kingdoms).  Those  “days of the LORD” where like small warning earthquakes before the big one.  I think they are right, God gives plenty of warning, he disciplines us a lot.  Even in the book of Revelation he is looking for people to come back to him (Revelation 9:20-21; 16:9,11).  God is very loving and giving.  But he also pure and holy.  The final verse of today’s reading tells us that the Israelites who kept turning to their false gods would fall and not rise up again.  We need to be careful to listen when God talks to us and be sure we are really honoring Him with our lives and not some god we have invented no matter how much that god looks like him.

God I know you are very forgiving and for that I am glad because I have often failed you.  I have had false gods in my life, things that were more important to me than you; more important than the things you care about.  Let me be a good ripe fruit well connected to you.  Let me do the things that please you and keep me alive and fresh.  Thank you for your patience.  Let me love the things you love, especially people.  Let me love as a response to your great love for me.  Thank yo for Jesus, let me reflect him to the world around me.

Amos 7:1-17. This chapter begins a new section in Amos where Amos relates to us visions that he had rather that communicating more verbal messages from God.  I’m not really sure how all of this worked out for prophets in those days.  Some how Amos knew when God was talking to him, that is clear from verses like Amos 5:4.  I don’t know if the voice was audible or he was impressed in his mind with what he wrote.  I do know that Paul, who wound up writing a good portion of the New Testament was spoken to by Jesus while on his way to Damascus and that his traveling companions heard the noise but did not understand what was it was (Acts 9:1-7).  Sometimes the prophets had visions, they saw things which included explanations by a angel or God.  At the beginning of the book of Revelation John tells us that he was on an island where he had been exiled and that he was “in the spirit on the Lord’s day” when he had a vision.  It would seem like his vision was sort of a dream.  On the other hand Paul was writing a letter to the church in Corinth and he described a vision he had and explained that he did not know whether or not it was a dream directed by God or an actual physical bodily experience (2 Corinthians 12:2).  It would not be impossible for God to move a person through time and space.  One of the early believers in Jesus, Phillip, was told to go southwest of Jerusalem and talk to a guy in a chariot about Jesus.  At the end of the meeting the man in the chariot, a Ethiopian official, accepted the message about Jesus and was baptized.  Immediately at the end of the baptism Philip was moved by God to a city called Azotus or Ashdod, about 30 miles away (Acts 8:26-39).

So here in Amos 7 Amos begins having visions from God (Amos 7:1).  The first vision is particularly troubling to Amos.  First he sees God getting a swarm of locusts together and sending it into the land.  A locust swarm could be a complete disaster for Israel.  If you read through Joel with us I made the point that they could not go very far to find food and needed to have successful crops each year or starve.  Amos begs God for mercy and God grants his request.  Next Amos has a vision of a great fire that destroys the farmland.  Again Amos begs God for mercy and God again grants his request.   Finally Amos sees God holding a plumb line.  A plumb line is a string or rope with a weight on it.  When you hand it from something it hangs straight down.  Builders sometimes use it to make sure things are straight up and down (like a level but for vertical objects) it’s a favorite tool of mine when I build things.  In this case God is telling Amos he is going to check out the people to see if their lives are lined up the right way.

In verse 8 we learn that the people have failed, they don’t “measure up”.  In verse 9 we learn that the punishment is that God is going to destroy the places where they were honoring false gods (people in those days would set up altars and shrines on hills and other high places).  Jeroboam was the king.  Kings passed their kingdoms on to their children, members of their household, so we see that God is also going to destroy their king and his entire reign or dynasty.

In verses 10-13 we learn that Amos did not keep this vision to himself, in fact he was sharing the vision with people in one of the leading cities of the Northern Kingdom, Bethel.  The priest of the false religion they were following reported Amos to the king and also confronted Amos, telling him to go home to Judah where he belonged and talk to them.  The priest, Amaziah, made it very clear they wanted to hear not more.  His report to the king would also have put Amos’ life in jeopardy. It is interesting that Amaziah’s name means “Yahweh is mighty”, he certainly didn’t seem to believe his own name when he rejected Amos message.

In verses 14-17 we see Amos answer to Amaziah. Amos (who’s name means “burden”, see “What’s I a Name”) tells Amaziah, “Look I’m not a professional prophet I’m just a shepherd that God sent up here with a message.”  Basically he is living up to his name, God has given him a job (like carrying a burden) and he is following through.  Amos then delivers a message to Amaziah from Yahweh.  Amaziah’s wife is going to become a prostitute (a job that was usually looked down on and a sign of desperation), Amaziah’s children would be killed in an invasion, and Amaziah would be carried away in exile to a foreign land where he would die.  The land would be divided up by the conqueror and the people in it would also be take away.  We know from history that the Assyrians conquered Israel (the Northern Kingdom) about 40 years later and took many of the people away.  They also brought in foreigners to intermarry with the Israelites and no doubt gave land to these new settlers.  A lot fo courage for a shepherd boy in a country not even his own.

The big question for me from reading this is< Am I living up to my name?”  I call my self a “Christian”, a “Christ follower”, but do I?  When God gives me a burden do I follow through or deny the power of God and go my own way?  Do I really believe that Jesus is the “Christ”; the promised savior of the world?  Do I really believe in the name of Jesus (“Yahweh with us”, see  “What’s in a Name”) or do I think he is something less?  I try to follow through with these truths, but sometimes I fail.  Remember that Amos is about true honest faithful living for God.  No compromises, no mixing in other things to worship.  “Know today and take it to heart that Yahweh is the only God of heaven and earth, there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:32; Mark 12:32).  Believe and live it.

God sometimes I have a hard time believing, life swirls around and I lose sight of you.  Sometimes I want to see you, feel your presence, feel your power.  I know it is there help me see.  Sometimes I am like the father of the demon possessed boy, “if you can do anything, take pity on me and help me”.  “If you can?”  Help my unbelief (Mark 9;17-24).  I know you will.  Help me trust and see.  And help me live up to the name “Christian”.  Let me share with the world about Yahweh with us the only way to eternity with you.