07/15/2015 FRUIT
AMOS 8:1-2 Thus the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” [Revised Standard translation]
Then the Lord said, “This fruit represents my people Israel…”[Living Bible Translation]
Summary
The book of Amos is a book about prophetic justice and judgment. Amos was a prophet---a spokesperson for God, predicting and foretelling God’s plan for the people, including God’s plan to judge and punish Israel for their sin. God was going to punish Israel because the people had disobeyed God. They had broken covenant with God by repeatedly worshipping idols. The wealthy elite were becoming rich at the expense of the poor, stealing even their “smallest crumbs” with taxes, fines and unjust interest rates. There was rampant corruption and social injustice everywhere, even in the courts. Individual pride, the lust for power and self-interest were more important to the people than God or righteousness.
In the 7-8 chapters of the books of Amos, (i.e., The Book of Visions), Amos describes a series of visions from God. In the first two vision narratives (in the 7th chapter), Amos seems to persuade God not to carry out the punishment on Israel that God described to Amos in these two visions. However, in the 8th chapter, God gives Amos a third vision. God shows Amos a basket of summer, ripe fruit. The kind of ripe fruit Amos saw may have included strawberries, peaches, blueberries or cherries. In the hot Middle East sun, this type of ripe summer fruit would not have lasted long. The fruit would turn brown. It would become soft. It would have decayed, spawn mold, began to rot and then smell. Eventually it would have to be “dealt with.” Through this vision, God lets Amos know that, like ripe rotting fruit, Israel’s sin and social injustices had gone unchecked too long. Like molding, ripe summer fruit—the stench of Israel’s sin had become too great. It had to be “dealt with.” God would not defer His punishment any longer. The time was “ripe” for punishment. The people and the nation of Israel were accountable to God and now it was judgment time.