For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Amos 8:1-6

1 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.

“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.

Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.

3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”

4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
    and do away with the poor of the land,

5 saying,

“When will the New Moon be over
    that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
    that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
    boosting the price
    and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

A. Find Out

1. What does the Lord next show Amos? v.1
2. What is the application of that? v.2
3. How will that be worked out? v.3
4. So who does he warn? v.4
5. What had they been doing? v.5
6. And what else? v.6

B. Think:

1. What about timing is now revealed?
2. Who are spoken against and what had they been doing?
3. What is the outcome going to be?

C. Comment:

Following the opposition seen in the previous chapter, the Lord now continues to give Amos another picture. (There is no time indication so we don’t know how close these things were). The picture this time is simply a basket of ripe fruit (v.1) and He explains to him that the time is ripe (ready) for the judgments to come on Israel (v.2). The Lord is quite explicit about this so that there is no misunderstanding – this will involve the loss of many lives (v.3).

But then He focuses on the people on whom this judgment comes and, as He always does, makes very clear what He has against them: they trample the poor and needy (v.4).

Even more than that, their attitude towards the Lord, His Sabbaths, and His festivals, indicate that they wish they didn’t have to be bothered with Him (v.5a), so they could get on with lives of corruption and unjust gain, cheating buyers of grain (v.5b) and taking the poor into servitude or perhaps even slavery unjustly (v.6).

To summarize, note once again the structure of what we have here:

• A prophetic picture indicating judgment is coming SOON,
• A warning of the destruction and loss of life that will come,
• A condemnation of the indifference of the people to the Lord,
• A condemnation of their cheating in business, and.
• A condemnation of their oppression of the poor.  

D. Application:

1. Sin is first and foremost against the Lord.
2. Sin is then worked out in respect of others.

Amos 8:7-14

7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

8 “Will not the land tremble for this,
    and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
    it will be stirred up and then sink
    like the river of Egypt.

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
    and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
    and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
    “when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
    but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
    and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
    but they will not find it.

13 “In that day

“the lovely young women and strong young men
    will faint because of thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
    who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
    or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’—
    they will fall, never to rise again.”

A. Find Out

1. What had the Lord done, and why? v.7
2. What will He cause to happen? v.8,9
3. How will that impact Israel? v.10
4. What will He send on the land v.11
5. With what effect? v.12,13
6. And what will stop happening? v.14

B. Think:

1. How determined was the Lord to bring all this about?
2. What does the picture language suggest about the judgment?
3. What impact will this all have on the people, young and old?

C. Comment:

Perhaps a sub-heading over this passage might be, ‘The Lord’s Determination’. The state of affairs with Israel has got to such a state that the Lord is determined to bring it to an end.  Between the end of the reign of  Jeroboam II and the fall of Samaria was roughly thirty years, not a long time in the realms of prophecy. The Lord is not in a hurry.

But already the die is cast, the Lord knows that the state of Israel will not change for the better and so judgment WILL come, hence the determination in v.7 not to forget all that Israel have done and are doing.

There is going to come such an upheaval in the land. Perhaps the descriptions of v.8,9 are more allegorical about the upheaval that the people will experience from an invasion. Even the darkness (v.9) may be spiritual, as is indicated by the verses that follow.

All of their festivals and their singing (v.10a) will be swept away and only mourning and bitterness will be left (v.10b).

And then something terrible will happen: in their anxiety and in the chaos and confusion, there will be a desperate turning to the Lord but He will not be found and the prophetic word will have ceased and the spiritual silence, for this nation that has in the past known so much from the Lord, will prevail (v.11), however much they seek Him (v.12), even the younger generation (v.13). The judgment that will come will be inescapable and ALL will experience it.  

D. Application:

1. Warnings cannot be more explicit than those found here.
2. Warnings are given for us to heed them and act.