Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests
to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of
The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of
ripe fruit.
“What do you see, Amos?” He asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people
Israel; I will spare them no longer.”
“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in
the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
“Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with
the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell
grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”—skimping on the
measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor
with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings
with the wheat.”
Amos 8:1-6
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
In Chapter 7 of Amos, we found the Lord using a plumb to
illustrate how He had measures His people and found them crooked and untrue as
a result of their sinfulness.
As Chapter 8 opens, we find the Lord using another
object, ripe fruit, to frame His message to His prophet Amos. Look again at
these words here:
This is what the
Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit.
“What do you see,
Amos?” He asked.
“A basket of ripe
fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said
to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.”
“In that day,”
declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.
Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
“Hear this, you
who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will
the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we
may market wheat?”—skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating
with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of
sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.” Amos 8:1-6
Here we find the Lord once again giving Amos a vision and
asking him what he saw within the vision. Amos looks and sees a basket of ripe
fruit, relaying it onto the Lord.
So what did that ripe fruit have to do with the
Israelites?
It was simple. For we find God telling Amos that His
people were ripe for judgment.
Think about the word “ripe” for a moment. It indicates
that something has grown to a place where it is fit to be harvested. We
typically think of this as a positive thing as in fruit ready to be picked and
eaten, offering up its deliciousness to the consumer.
But in regard to the Israelites, the word “ripe” was not
intended to indicate anything good, not in any sense. For it only pointed to
the fact that the sins of God’s people had reached a point where they would no
longer be allowed to continue living in them. The trampling of the needy and
poor was going to stop. The deceit and dishonesty in conducting business was
going to end. And the worshiping of false gods and idols was going to cease.
Indeed, the sins of Israel were going to be dealt with. No
longer sparing them, God was set to harvest His people, taking them from the
sinful lives they were living and sending them into His judgment with the hope
that His punishment would bear the fruits of repentance and draw the Israelites
back to Him. God knew that there would be suffering and sorrow, anguish and
remorse, fear and terror but the Israelites had to learn a lesson. God was not
going to tolerate sin.
The same applies to us today. We serve the same God as
the Israelites of Amos’ day and we are being watched and scrutinized just as
much as they were.
So what does God see when He looks at us?
Does He see a faithful, obedient people, loyal to His
word, will, and way as we selflessly serve Him and others?
Or does He see a sinful lot who, like the Old Testament
Israelites, feel they can do what they want to do regardless if He has
commanded otherwise, a people who are like a basket of ripe fruit ready for God
to send His punishment upon us?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment