WHILE GOD MAY BE FOUND
Texts: Isaiah 55:6, Amos 8:1- 2, 8:11- 12
Isaiah 55:6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Hime while He is near
Amo 8:1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. …. 11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it.
Who likes overripe fruit? Can you do much with overripe fruit? Have you ever had an overripe banana? Beyond making banana bread, the overripe banana is god for nothing. In today’s text God uses overripe fruit in a way that is symbolic.
Who would argue against the understanding that we live in a day when many take God for granted? One thing that eighth chapter of Amos clear is that moving away from God invites destruction. The opening image of ripe fruit cuts to the chase as a metaphor for God’s judgement.
It is lost in the translation from Hebrew to English that ripe fruit is equated with being ripe for judgment. In the original Hebrew, the prophet’s point was far more emphatic because he uses\d a play on words that [is] sic. difficult to communicate in English. “The overt connection between the vision and Israel’s fate was in the word-play based on the similar sounds [between summer and end]… The point of this vision, then, is the finality of judgment” (Hubbard). (David Guzick’s Enduring Word Commentary).
What can we draw from the eighth chapter of Amos that would convict the atheists, naysayers, agnostics and sinners to repent?
Let’s look at prosperity, neglect and judgment.
PROSPERITY
Is prosperity a bad thing?
1) Negligent prosperity: If prosperity increases and our attentiveness to being God’s people begins to decrease and take a back seat, then we are on dangerous ground, because we may quit worshipping God and try to become our own God. Is this not what happened to those in Amos’s audience?
2) Power brokers: When leaders begin to “skimp the measure, boost the prices, and cheat with dishonest scales and exploit the poor” (See Amos 8:5-6 cf. Amos 2:6), they will reap what they have sown! If we sow seeds of neglect, then would we not reap the seeds of neglect?
3) Technological idols: As Christian author Francis Chan points out, “We are a culture that relies on technology over community, a society in which spoken and written words are cheap, easy to come by, and excessive. Our culture says anything goes; fear of God is almost unheard of. We are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to become angry”. (Frances Chan. Crazy Love. Colorado Springs, David C. Cook Publishing, 2008, p. 25). Have you seen how this kind of thing happens on Facebook and other social media outlets very day?
4) Lawlessness: In our world, people bend rules, break rules and make new rules when they do not get what they want! Can this kind of mutiny escape its lawless consequences?
What kind of fruit does godless prosperity give to us?
1) Reaping and sowing: The biblical understanding of things is that we will reap what we sow! Godless prosperity is not always a good thing if the fruit of prosperity leads to success that becomes idolatrous. Is our generation any different than the people of Amos’s day? Amos 8 is an oracle that targets the injustice of the nation of Israel.
2) Self-made prisons: Not long after a wealthy contractor had finished building the Tombs prison in New York, he was found guilty of forgery and sentenced to several years in the prison he had built! As he was escorted into a cell of his own making, the contractor said, “I never dreamed when I built this prison that I would be an inmate one day.” Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press: [Origin: Today in the Word, July 12, 1993]). Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers build in vain (Psalm 127:1).
3) Eternal peace: Material things will never provide the eternal peace that only God can give! Only the blood of Jesus can wash us of our sin and make us right with God!
NEGLIGENCE
How will we prosper if we neglect God and His word? Would we fare well if we neglected God’s life-giving Word? Jesus said that His food was to do the will of God who sent Him (John 4:34).
1) Words of life: What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit (John 6:63 GNB). God’s Word is our food and there are too many who prefer the world’s junk food.
2) Breathe of God: Every breathe we breathe is God given. Gensis 2:7 tells us that Then the LORD God took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live (GNB).
3) Scripture: “Every Scripture has been written by the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness”. (2Timothy 3:16 TPT). If God’s Word nourishes us, and it does, then does the world’s junk food leave us spiritually malnourished and vulnerable?
How can we live without God’s life-giving Word?
1) Providence: If we, the sheep of God’s pasture, have been given all the Great Shepherd provides for our salvation, and we have, then we have no one to blame but ourselves when we are negligent and malnourished!
2) Neglect: J. Vernon McGee put it this way “God tells any church or any nation that if they will not hear His Word after He has given it to them, He will withdraw it from them. I think we can see this happening in America. There has been a rejection of the Word of God. The churches have turned to liberalism, and the Word of God is no longer preached”. McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophets (Amos/Obadiah) (electronic ed., Vol. 28, pp. 94–102). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. They provoked the Lord to anger when they worshipped the golden calf (Deuteronomy 9:16) when God had already told them that forgetting God, following others’ gods and worshipping them would be their doom (Deuteronomy 8:19).
3) Intercession: If Moses had not interceded, then it was more than likely that God would have destroyed them (Deuteronomy 9:26).
4) Stewardship: God has made us stewards who are called to keep His word. When we neglect that stewardship, others on our watch will suffer.
"A young woman left for college one autumn. Before she left, she asked her mother to look after the potted violets and her aquarium in her bedroom. Her mother, who often seemed distracted, assured her that she would water the plants and take care of the fish. The daughter left with assurances from her mother that everything would be cared for. Two weeks after leaving, the girl called home, and, in the course of the conversation asked how the violets were doing. The mother apologized that she'd forgotten to water them and that they all died. A couple of weeks later, the daughter telephoned and inquired about the goldfish, the mother confessed that she had been busy and had neglected to feed them, and had found them all dead. After a long pause, the young woman asked with anxiety in her voice, "And … how is Dad?" (William P. Barker. Ed. Tarbell's Teacher's Guide. 86th Annual Volume. Elgin: David C. Cook Publishing Co., 1990, pp. 144-145). God has called us to do far more than water someone’s plants and feed someone’s fish.
5) Our sibling’s keeper: God has called us to take care of the sheep of His pasture. Is this why Jesus said there are people who are harassed and helpless because they are like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36)? Is this why Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are so few (Matthew9:37)? Does our negligence of being stewards of God’s Word cause them to become food for wild animals (Ezekiel 34:5)?
JUDGEMENT
Will God send a famine for His Word?
1) Woe: Woe to us if God were to send a famine because of our neglect of His Word! Will our generation be the generation where God withdraws His Word where men will stagger in all directions searching for God’s Word (Amos 8:11 -12)? From Malachi up till the birth of Christ there had been four hundred years of silence.
2) Godless sinners: 1 Peter 4:18, says “As the scripture says, "It is difficult for good people to be saved; what, then, will become of godless sinners?" (GNB).
3) Impartial laundry list of God’s judgment: Some of the things outlined by my NIV Study Bible illustrates the laundry list of God’s judgment. The whole book of Amos is filled with judgment as God judges Aram (Amos 1:3- 5) ; Philistia (Amos 1:6 -8); Phonecia (Amos 1:9-10); Edom (Amos 1:11-12); Ammon (Amos 1:13-15); Moab (Amos 2:1- 3); Judah; (Amos 2:4-5); Israel (Amos 2:6-16); the unrepentant (chapter 4); the unjust (Amos 5:1- 17), and fast forward to the symbolism of the fruit basket (Amos 8:1 -3). God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).
Do our ways provoke God’s judgment?
1) Provocation: Do we not deserve God’s judgment for our waywardness? If God were to bring on a famine for His Word today, how many would perish because of our negligence?
2) Epilogue: Amos 9:11- 15 is a passage of scripture that is fittingly called an epilogue by the Cambridge Bible. An epilogue is usually a concluding section of a literary work or a play that comes at the end. Just because there is an epilogue, does not dismiss our responsibility to be stewards of God’s Holy Word. How will many of the lost sheep hear of God’s Word if we fail to preach God’s Word in the way we live and speak (Romans 10:14 – 15)?
3) Harvest of souls: “Some scholars interpret this passage in Amo_9:11-15 as a prophecy for the Church, so that it refers to the great harvest of souls in the last days. The house of David would be symbolic of prayer where churches intercede to God for the harvest of souls. The harvest of souls is directly linked to the prayer efforts of the Church”. (Gary H. Everette’s 2013 Edition of Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures). Since the birth of the Church at Pentecost, we have been awaiting the day when Jesus comes back! The harvest is plentiful, and Christ calls His disciples to bring in the harvest until Jesus comes back (Matthew 9:36 37)!
4) Prophecy fulfilled: Act 15:15-18 And the prophet’s [see Amos 9:11- 15] words are fulfilled: (16) ‘After these things I will return to you and raise up the tabernacle of David that has fallen into ruin. I will restore and rebuild what David experienced (17) so that all of humanity will be able to encounter the Lord including the gentiles whom I have called to be my very own,’ says the Lord. (18) ‘For I have made known my works from eternity!’ (TPT). God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all come to repentance (II Peter 3:9)! Again, How will many of the lost sheep will hear of God’s Word if we fail to preach God’s Word in the way we live and speak (Romans 10:14 – 15)?
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
