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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
AMOS 8:1-14
(Reading: Psalm 82; Luke 23:44-49)
The Time Is Ripe!
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
There was a picture from the past that came to my mind when I read this vision of the basket of fruit.
It was actually quite a big picture, because it was a poster.
It was a tourist poster for Israel.
On this poster there was a beautiful young woman.
Well, she would have to be, wouldn’t she?
In her arms she was carrying a very attractive basket, filled with the fruit grown in Israel.
There were lush, big, juicy grapes, the most orangest oranges, and so many other obviously ripe, ready-to-eat fruits.
It makes you want to go there to enjoy it for yourself!
Naturally, that’s what it’s supposed to make you do.
That’s why many countries use a similar image for their tourist posters - the pretty girls with the fruit of the land.
It’s such an image that might strike us first with this next vision from Amos.
A vision which is quite different than the three in chapter 7.
So different, in fact, we could well wonder what’s going on.
Until we realise this is the Lord speaking through Amos.
Amos, the prophet who does a very clever play on everyday phrases and words.
Amos, who has fooled the audience not just a few times before.
And he does now too!
Congregation, in the words of a first aspect … THIS IS THE LAST HARVEST.
It is the end.
All Israel’s chickens have come home to roost.
You see, the word for ‘ripe’ in Hebrew sounds just like the word for ‘end’.
The image Amos is actually showing us now is quite different to what it might seem.
There’s no promise in this fruit - only the end of any more fruit altogether!
Definitely a pun on words!
The NIV comes close to conveying the sense of this by translating the LORD saying, “The time is ripe for my people Israel.”
But it’s the next phrase which really puts this picture in perspective.
Because the LORD repeats a phrase he said in the last vision, the vision of the plumb line.
This phrase makes what’s happening very clear.
The LORD God declares, “I will never again pass by them.”
Think of that harvest imagery.
A crop comes to the point that it must be harvested. This is because of the process which has happened within that fruit.
In the same way God’s judgment coincides exactly with the end result of what’s happened inside his people.
And the crop they had been planting then - a crop of idolatry, unrighteousness, and injustice - was about to be gathered.
The kind of crop which meant there could be no more!
This is an imagery true for God’s people of any age.
The ripe fruit shows us that God is the Great Harvester.
In the words of John 10:10, he is the One who has chosen us to bear fruit, and to bear it abundantly.
And it’s going to be him who one day will call an end to whatever his people are doing, because there is no more he has for them to do.
This Lord is the God of the covenant.
He specially brought out of Egypt this people.
He had passed by them in mercy then, because it was through them he wanted to show His love.
And many times since Egypt, together with the Patriarchs before Egypt, he had been gracious to them.
But he who has spared them before has reached the devastating point of despair!
That is why we have in verse 3 the songs of praise in the temple becoming the saddest cries of wailing.
Our first point, THIS IS THE LAST HARVEST, leads, in the second place, to seeing … HERE THERE IS NO THANKSGIVING.
THE LAST HARVEST HAS NO THANKSGIVING.
This is as dark as it gets.
The scene of chapter 6, the verses 9 and 10, reappears.
This is the judgment where no one is left behind.
The scene there is of the ten who are left behind in a house.
They have survived the first major catastrophe.
But then they all die in a further and total obliteration.
“You see, people of Israel,” the prophet says, “this is worst than anything you’ve ever, ever suffered before!”
“You don’t just bounce back from this one!”
“There’ll be no one left to start anything off!”
The time is ripe!
Yet, the contrast in the imagery continues.
There will be noise alright, as there always was at this time of the year.
But not now the sounds of celebration because the crop has been gathered!
There was nothing here to keep them fed for another year!
This harvest day produces only tragedy and death.
Israel’s crop was to be themselves the last crop!
Congregation, here is the Day of the Lord from chapter 5 - the day which is all darkness.
There can be no light - whatever was shining for the LORD went out in Israel a long time ago.
After the shock description of all the dead bodies flung everywhere, this judgment to end all judgements, verse 3 ends with the exclamation “Silence!”
But what could it mean now?
Is it the deathly quiet that comes because there is no more life - the silence which reigns over a battlefield after all the fighting is done?
Then it could not be an exclamation.
It would be a simply stated fact.
But here it’s in our face!
This word won’t let it be!
This is the same word used with that scene in chapter 6, when the ten men left are themselves killed.
Then, that relative came to carry out those bodies. He asks anyone still hiding there, “Is there still anyone with you?”
Of course, the answer is “No.”
But then the one coming into that house of destruction says the same word as we have in verse 3.
He says, “Silence!
“We must not mention the name of the LORD!”
Congregation, that man in chapter 6 mentions the one name he doesn’t want to speak of.
That’s the name he knows got him caught there.
For him it’s only the gloomiest despair!
But now it’s the Lord who says this word.
From his mouth it becomes the complete opposite, for everyone now must hear!
God has visited there!
In the words of another prophet, Zephaniah 1:7, “Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near.”
Let no one be in any doubt.
You can’t dismiss God any more.
He’s dismissed you forevermore!
THE LAST HARVEST HAS NO THANKSGIVING.
And the text goes on now to tell us why.
The third aspect tells us … JUST LOOK AT THE FRUIT.
THE LAST HARVEST HAS NO THANKSGIVING – JUST LOOK AT THE FRUIT!
Amos has already mentioned most of these crimes in the verses 4 till 6 before.
But this is no mere repetition.
He’s not stuck on saying the same thing -like a scratched record.
Here Amos is continuing the imagery of the fruit of the last harvest.
For just as a bad harvest could ruin many in the country for a whole year, this is the harvest from which this country can never recover.
It’s the harvest of what’s in here - in their hearts.
And especially it’s what in the hearts of those who were meant to lead Israel.
On the outside this fruit seemed okay.
These people profess to be religious.
They keep the Sabbath and the festival of the New Moon.
You’ll see them on Sundays, up near the front of church.
They are always there.
But what’s underneath there?
For that matter, what has been on your minds today, congregation?
How much attention have you given to the LORD - in his worship?
Because that will determine whatever you get out of today.
You see, the devil is especially busy today, in churches all over this world.
He’s distracting believers by getting them to think of what they are going to be doing later this week!
That way God doesn’t get a say.
The fruit in the final harvest is nothing like what it appears to be on the outside.
Like that nice red juicy apple you thought you were biting into, it’s only rotten on the inside.
It’s not what it’s supposed to be!
Already on the Sabbath they’re working out their next business week.
When they’re in the presence of the LORD, hearing his Word, they’re planning how they’re going to break that very Word!
They’re not worshipping God - they’re worshipping money! (Matt.6:24.)
If it were a desire to work, because they enjoyed their work, and they saw their work as their way of serving God, fair enough.
We can all be distracted in Sunday worship, especially by the things we like to do.
We know that’s not right – we’re there to worship.
But theirs is an underlying desire to do evil.
They were thinking about how they were going to rip off people!
These people couldn’t wait to make the weights smaller than it should have been when they were buying, and overcharging when they were selling.
Altogether, they had three ways of cheating people - “skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales.”
And it was always the same who suffered - the poor.
“The poor you will always have with you,” said Jesus.
But could he have meant that also because the rich are always with us, too?
In our text, what they were doing meant the poor became poorer.
Some even ended up in slavery, as verse 6 says.
Amos continues the contrasting pictures.
Now it is the picture of people being bought for money, while they sell the lowest grade wheat.
The lowest grade stuff that you feed to the animals!
People are bought and animal food is sold!
And this leads right into the fourth aspect.
We consider now … THERE IS NOTHING IN THERE.
THE LAST HARVEST … HAS NO THANKSGIVING … FOR LOOK AT THE FRUIT - THERE’S NOTHING IN THERE!
Congregation, God’s Word never returns to him without doing something.
We pray that the Gospel may convert people, and that it will challenge or comfort those in the faith.
But if it doesn’t do that, it will condemn them.
This is what we see now with the verses 7 till 14.
Verse 7 begins this passage strikingly.
“The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: ‘Surely I will never forget any of their deed.’”
There are two things which stand out here - two things which already make it clear what is going to follow.
The first is what the Lord swears by.
Because usually he swears by the greatest thing that he can swear by - himself!
That’s what he did in chapter 4, verse 2: “The LORD God has sworn by his holiness.”
Now he swears by “the pride of Jacob.”
Did you find that phrase a little strange?
Pride is not a quality we think so highly of - and certainly that’s the way the Bible conveys it.
But if you swear by something which doesn’t change, and which you can always depend on, then I suppose the pride of Jacob is just the thing!
Because, in their pride, they were such a stubborn bunch!
In an ironic way, the Lord begins outlining what he will do.
You see, he cannot forget now what they have done.
While in the past he may have forgiven his people, and so put behind his back the sins they have done, now he can’t do that anymore.
Sure, you should forgive and forget, but only if the guilty party involved is truly sorry and does change.
But when he doesn’t, that past will keep coming to haunt him.
It catches up.
For Israel it will catch up with them with more than a terrible invasion.
The Lord’s judgment will be experienced with all kinds of disasters.
Verse 8 pictures the land itself trembling in an earthquake.
An earthquake so terrible it leaves damage everywhere - like the Nile River rising up in a flood.
It’s not surprising that when a great earthquake came two years after Amos had spoken (Amos 1:1), the people saw it as fulfilling these words.
An earthquake so devastating that it was referred to by later prophets as well.
In addition to this destruction on the earth, there would also be a strange sight in the sky.
Verse 9 pictures an eclipse which would blacken the sky at the brightest time of the day.
Such an event had happened in their recent history.
The fear of what happened then is pictured as what will happen again on the terrible Day of the LORD.
And wasn’t this picture of judgment devastatingly shown when the Saviour hung on the cursed cross at Calvary?
Then it signalled the last part of God’s wrath being visited on his Son.
And so that the people would know the extent of this judgment, verse 10 shows that there will be no end of the mourning.
Those surviving this most terrible time of all, will sit in sackcloth with shaved heads.
They were the signs of deepest grief and sorrow.
It would be like the grieving for an only son - the child his parents had all their hope for the future in!
It will be a mourning the like of which they have never experienced before.
In fact, it will be a mourning which will be as anguishing on the last day of the mourning period, as it was on the first day.
Time, the great healer, cannot help them here.
Yet, if they thought this could be the very deepest, darkest pit of despair, the next verses bring out that the Lord himself won’t be there.
Through the image of a famine, in verses 11 and 12, Amos brings out the ultimate in hunger.
People can be very poor and severely malnourished, but they still have life and hope in their souls.
What life and hope is there, however, when the Lord himself has got nothing left to say?
What light is at the end of the tunnel when the light’s gone out?
This is really a picture of hell, for there is no loving care!
It had been God’s revelation to them which had made the Hebrews the special people they are.
It was the Word of the Lord which regulated their lives, which called them back to his Life, and which gave them hope beyond this life.
Take that Word away and they don’t know where they’re going.
Though they travel the known world - from the Dead Sea in the south, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and wandering to the north, and the east, and so complete the widest possible circuit - they still won’t find it!
Because his Word has gone!
For Israel that is.
Congregation, as we look at the Old Testament for the promises about the Saviour who has come, we must realise it also has the words about the yet-coming judgment.
God is sovereign as to when and to whom he offers his Word.
We can’t afford to neglect it.
In the words of the apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians 6:2, “Now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.”
You see, these are the last words of the Lord to the nation of Israel!
And he’s telling them exactly that!
THERE IS NOTHING IN THERE!
Amos continues the contrasts in his images with the lovely young women and the strong young men.
Not only the fruit in the basket is far from what it seems, but the ravishing beauty holding it, is not what she seems either!
Verse 13 takes that which gives us hope for the future - the young people - and dashes it!
They need food and drink, too!
The world today shows how true this is.
Look at the despair out there.
The songs, the fashions, the entertainment, so much is without hope!
The suicide rate amongst young people has never been higher.
You can’t say that we aren’t rich enough.
It’s not the physical food and drink they lack.
But … THERE’S NOTHING IN HERE!
Oh, there is religion.
This is a time when people are really searching through so many different faiths.
Anything to fill the huge, gaping, hole in here!
Just as Israel had alternative religions.
Verse 14 fills us in on some of these.
There are the shrines at Dan in the north of Israel, and Beersheba in the south of Judah.
It’s these which can seem to be so close to the truth.
They made their oaths.
They used religious language.
But it was all meaningless.
That was a truth which is always out there!
They needed to hear about what had to be in here!
That was the constant plea of the LORD through Amos - “Seek me and live!” (5:4)
No matter which high status they may have believed the Lord gave them in the past, that all counted for nothing if they didn’t repent.
And they hadn’t!
Congregation, there was no getting up again after this judgment.
How could they? … THERE WAS NOTHING IN THERE!
This fruit was ripe alright.
The time is ripe.
And the end of God’s time for Israel shows up how there is nothing more of God in Israel.
They got what they wanted for so long.
And it would be a time without God for a long time.
In fact, it was a time that would never end.
They didn’t want to hear from God anymore.
But who has heard of Israel anymore?
What has happened to those Ten Tribes?
They have certainly fallen!
They have disappeared for ever!
There is no come back here.
They won’t rise again.
This is the lesson for all those who have heard but didn’t care.
For you can look as good as you can on the outside.
The Lord looks on the inside, though!
And he’s right here!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
Lord God, You know us - inside and out.
You know exactly where we stand, or don’t stand, before you.
May we not be like Israel who, though they had your Word right before them all the time, yet went their own way.
Keep us from that dreadful and ultimate punishment - the place where you no longer care.
Instead, keep us looking to you in love.
So move in our hearts by your Spirit that we will be yours through and through.
In Jesus’ precious name, we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
The source for this sermon was: www.rcnz.org.nz
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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