“Summer Fruit”,,,the Wayfarer 8//24/13

“Summer Fruit”
8//24/13

“Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of fruit.

And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, a basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them anymore.

(Amos 8:1&2)

Today, we go once again to one of the “minor” prophets, whose words echo out across the centuries venturing to give guidance to God’s people, then, and now.

All civilizations, throughout our known histories, have gone through, and continue to go through, cycles.

These cycles are very much like the seasons of our year, in that there is a beginning, a time of fruitfulness, a beginning of that fruitfulness to wax and wane, and finally a time that the winter sets in, and all growth is only the promise of the next cycle to come.

Once again, Israel had turned away from God, and turned to its own devices to continue its society, taking bits and parts of other heathen societies into their own because it was easier, and provided them more pleasure than the rigorous demands of a society bound to God and His laws.

Amos, having received a series of visions, wrote them down as an advance warning to future generations, and to his own as well.

The previous chapter details the vision of a plumb-line, a tool used to effectively assure that a building goes up without deviation from its base to remain square throughout.

I will save this particular scripture for another time, but I will state that if a building is plumbed after having been built, the builder, upon finding a wall out of plumb, must remove that wall, or live with the imperfections and find other means to correct them for the building to be of any use whatsoever.

For complete context I ask that the reader take the time to read the entire book for yourself to glean the richness of the prophecy given, and the warnings to be taken from them.

For brevity I will confine this discourse to the 8^th chapter only, but again, context is of utmost importance.

Prior to divulging these visions, Amos wrote:

“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of nations, to whom the House of Israel came!”

(Amos 6:1)

That particular chapter is full of judgments to come upon a haughty nation that refuses to listen to the words of God, as is the one I choose to use for today.

As we go through the words of this 8^th chapter, I ask the reader to look at the society in which each of you lives, and compare its actions to the ones detailed here!  

“And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.

Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,

Saying, when will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the sabbath , that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

(Amos 8: 3-5)

As I read these few verses, I found the current turmoil and news come crashing through my mind in their similarity to the descriptions given.

The howlings in the temple, instead of song, bring to mind the persecution of Christianity, worldwide, but particularly in the troubled areas of both Egypt and Syria at this time.

The next sentence that tells us there will be many dead bodies cast out with silence, also immediately jumps out at me with the reports of all the deaths in  these areas, both of which are seemingly ignored with silence by a majority of a world so wrapped up in self-interest and indulgence, that, there is no one standing unified to correct the reasons for these conflicts.

Not only these two areas, but in fact each and every society that is known, and reported about seems to be swallowing up the needy, and making the poor to fail even more every day.

This is more evident in some societies than others, but is a cancer that grows on all of them.

The justification given for the violence that is going on around us can be traced to the protest of those very poor and needy, who have been trodden underfoot by those in power for so long that it seems to them that there is no other choice!

In my own country, though not yet having reached the complete desperation evidenced by this treatment, the despair has still taken hold and may only continue to grow if correction is not made to the root problems that create that despair!

That root cause is a separation of a people, and its disobedience to God’s laws, and may only be corrected through repentance and following that law instead of the current politically correct versions of man’s own law that has displaced it.

All who interact in commerce, of any sort, have the same low regard for making sure that all is brought to a full ripeness before being sold,(quality is not a major point of interest to any seller, quantity and immediate sale is the priority.) The balances have been so distorted, that the value placed on just about every item is determined only by those with wealth enough to gain more wealth by stealing even more from those already without the means to pay the asking price!

Amos continues:

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea and sell the refuse of the wheat?

(Amos 8:6)

Our poor are being bought both metaphorically, and in some places literally, for silver. The conundrum faced by the poor is that they have to find a way to make enough money to buy food or starve.

Whether they are in fact slaves, or are only “wage slaves” that slavery still exists and only becomes worse as time progresses because of the greed of those in power!

The refuse of the wheat is being sold daily because the grain that gives sustenance is not available at a price affordable to those most in need.

Promises, and gifts from those in power, assuage some of the anger and despair for the few, who insist that no effort need be expended at all to reap the rewards of those other few that do give the gift of their labor to those powerful greed mongers in charge. This only assures the rapidity with which that despair will deepen and the anger will grow, louder, to the point it can no longer be ignored.

As I stated, at the onset of this message, civilization progress in cycles that closely resemble the seasons of the year. I find that we have entered the autumn of our particular cycle, possibly to be the last viable cycle for this poor creature so loved by God that we were intended to have perfection. This is the perfection thrown away long ago that necessitated labor for our existence….Something long forgotten by too many of those who are too greedy.

Just as the hardships of winter must be faced in the ongoing cycle of life, so must the hardships that come with the winter of societies as is demanded by God!

The lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? And it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the flood of Egypt.

And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth on a clear day:

And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end there of as a bitter day.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god O Dan, liveth; and, the manner of Beer-Sheba liveth; even they shall fall and never rise up again.

(Amos 8:7-14)

These judgments are fast upon us, and cannot fail to happen. How much longer can we expect to hear the sweet sounds of the word of God if we continue in our refusal to acknowledge it and obey it?

The judgments detailed here continue into the 9^th chapter, and become even more frightful in clarity of just what is in store for those disobedient hardheads ,who continued then, and continue now, to refuse to listen to the requirements set forth for true prosperity, through the love of God, his laws, and in denial of his love for us that is available only by adhering to those laws.

The end of the 9^th chapter also details the results of a repentant nation and the rewards to be given for that repentance.

Once again, I state inequivocally, that I make no pretense of being a prophet myself, but that I offer only the interpretation of prophecy already given for any and all willing to open eyes to the events and ongoing failures to respect God's law. This disrespect is all the more visible, in that it seems none are willing to look for the single redeeming factor that was given us through the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross.

None seem willing to accept the simple promise of redemption through repentance, or to heed the warning given throughout His ministry to:

“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Even the churches seem to ignore the warning given in Revelation to:

“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

(Revelation 2:5)

For my critics and those naysayers who will, without doubt state that this old prophet has no pertinence to us and our society and time I would remind them of the fact that God doesn’t lie, and that he stated he would not forget the actions taken in the time of Amos. Again I would ask them, just why they feel that what was unacceptable to God then is acceptable now, and how they continue to expect a different judgment and result, without having met the price required of redemption only through repentance?

I come to a close, once again, with the offering of the love of our Lord for all who choose to accept it, still nothing more than a simple sinner saved by grace through faith, soldier in His service for as long as He sees fit, imploring all to heed the words of warning given, but more importantly to accept the means to stand in the judgment with the same assurance that I personally have, that my Intercessor has already paid the price required for my entry into the kingdom.

2 Timothy 1:12 ¹²For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day

AMEN & AMEN 

the Wayfarer