Amos 8:1-6 - The time is ripe for judgement

8:1-3

The Lord now gives Amos a vision. The vision is of a basket of ripe fruit. One might think that this is good news, but one would be sadly mistaken. The message is that Israel is ripe for judgement! It is a feature of the Bible that judgement never comes quickly. God is slow to anger and rich in love (eg Ex 34:6), and judgement only comes after numerous warnings. People often object to the concept of hell, asking how a God of love could send people to hell. The truth is that if a God of love sends someone to hell, then that person must be truly deserving of it, for God will have done everything possible to avoid that outcome. The reason Israel would receive judgement is because she repeatedly failed to heed the warnings. And the judgement would be terrible.

8:4-6

Verse 4 reminds us of the sins of Israel. They trampled the needy and sought to do away with the poor of the land. Oh, we should be careful how we react to the poor. It can be so easy for us to look down on them, but we need to remember that God looks down on us.

Next the Sabbath is mentioned. We can identify with “crime” of verse 4, but if we are honest may well consider this one to be rather trivial. There are two things to note. First, the Sabbath signified trusting in God. It was a recognition that all that we have comes from God, and that we are utterly dependent upon Him. Now notice what this verse says. It implies that they were actually formally observing the Sabbath, but their hearts were not. They just wanted it to be over so they could get on with their trade. Secondly, their trade was fundamentally dishonest, involving cheating people, and taking advantage of the poor. When we trust God we will behave better, if we stop trusting God and trust in ourselves instead it will inevitably lead to immoral behaviour.