Amos 8:1-14

     Amos chapter eight opens with a vision from God in which He shows Amos a picture of summer fruit (Amo 8:1). Just as fruit naturally ripens over time and becomes ready for harvest and consumption, so Israel—because of sin—has become ripe for God’s judgment, and God declares, “The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer” (Amo 8:2). God’s judgment would turn palace songs into mourning as an enemy force would come against them (Amo 8:3a), and “Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence” (Amo 8:3b; cf. Deu 28:47-50). God then turns His attention to the corrupt merchants in Amos’ day, “who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land” (Amo 8:4). These abusers were a part of the community and even participated in the feasts and religious holidays; however, their hearts were elsewhere. God reveals their thoughts, 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?” (Amo 8:5-6). Feasts and holidays were merely interruptions to their financial activities and cruel practices. These wealthy merchants were unmoved by God’s Law, which promoted economic justice rather than abuse (Lev 19:35-36; Deu 25:13-16; Pro 11:1; 16:11). Valuing spiritual health more than material wealth would have prevented such inhumane abuses (Deu 15:7-11). In a statement of irony, God swore by the pride of Jacob, saying, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds” (Amo 8:7). An oath was commonly made by something unchangeable (Heb 6:16-18), and the Lord had previously sworn by His unchanging holiness and character (Amo 4:2; 6:8), and here, ironically, swears by Israel’s unchanging pride. God’s judgment would come in the form of a military invasion that would cause the land to quake and be tossed about like the rising and falling of the Nile (Amo 8:8), and it will be a day of darkness upon the land (Amo 8:9), and festivals will cease and there will be deep mourning, like the mourning that comes when one loses an only son (Amo 8:10). In addition, God would send a famine upon the land, “Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the LORD” (Amo 8:11). Because Israel had rejected God’s messages through His prophets (Amo 2:11-12; 7:10-13; cf. 1 Sam 3:1; 2 Ch 36:15-16; Jer 25:3-4), He now withdrew His word and left them to starve. Though people travel all across the land, they will not find His nourishing word (Amo 8:12), and the youth—noted for beauty and strength—will faint spiritually (Amo 8:13), and those who turn to their idols “will fall and not rise again” (Amo 8:14). “When the word of God is not believed, people will believe anything and the cults will grab the young, taking them by the hand in order to take them by the throat, till they fall and cannot rise again.”[1] God’s Word, daily consumed, results in spiritual health and inner strength, but the soul famished cannot weather the storms of life. God desires to give His Word to grow, guide, and strengthen us; but the word rejected becomes the word denied.

 

[1] J. A. Motyer, “Amos,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 805–806.