Today’s passage: Amos 8:1-14
Helpful thoughts:
- The vision of summer fruit served as a picture of Israel being ripe for judgment.
- The greed of the people was evidenced by their mistreatment of others for personal gain and waiting impatiently for Sabbath rest to end so they can return to their greedy practices.
- Some believe the term, “Pride of Jacob” refers to the literal sinful pride of the people of Israel (Meaning, as surely as Israel remained sinfully proud, God would bring about judgment). It does seem strange that the Lord would swear by anything other than Himself. I think the Pride of Jacob should be a capital P “Pride”…meaning God Himself.
- Either way, judgment was coming.
- While the powerful in Israel enjoyed their earthly prosperity, they were disinterested in any word from the Lord. Later, when they were desperate to hear from Him, there would be no word.
Questions to consider:
- What were the methods described in verses 4-6? How might those same greedy practices be accomplished today? Not just with money or goods, but also with information and social status?
- What kind of a word from the Lord do you think those who are under judgment would want? What do they want to hear? How did their desires for “good” words (According to their tastes and expectations) make them deaf to the truth?
- What aspects of the gospel message are hard to hear? What bad news are we prone to ignore or reject that would prevent people from hearing and believing the good news?