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| Photo by Jim Tracy |
1 This is what the Master I Am showed me: Look, a Basket of summer fruit.
2 And He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of ripe summer fruit.” Then the I Am said to me, “Israel is ripe for her end. I will not delay their punishment anymore."
A ripe fruit is one that is fixing to spoil. Israel is ready for the picking.
3 And the songs of the temple will become howlings (of grief) in that day, says the Master I Am: there will be dead bodies everywhere! They will be tossed out in silence.
Instead of the songs of rejoicing the people were used to hearing in the temple, there will be mourning.
4 Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, and destroy the poor of the land!
5 Saying, “When will the New Moon Feast be over, so that we can sell grain? And the Sabbath, so we can display our wheat, making the measurements small, and the money great, and rigging the scales to deceive?
6 “So we can buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yes, and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
Israel was not only not enjoying the Sabbath-Rest with God, they were impatient to get back to cheating the poor.
Chaff is the paper thin cover of the wheat kernel. It has no nutrition, but is nothing but garbage.
7 The I Am has sworn by the best of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget anything they have done.
God will never forgive them for this.
8 "Won't the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that lives there? And the land will rise up just like a flood; and then it will sink, like the annual flood waters of the Nile.
The Nile River floods a good part of Egypt every year, wiping out any structures in its path.
9 "And it will happen in that day," says the Master I Am, "that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
In the patriarch Joseph’s dreams, the sun and moon stood for the nation Israel. God is going to destroy this people; completely darken them so they can’t be seen.
7 The I Am has sworn by the best of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget anything they have done.
God will never forgive them for this.
8 "Won't the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that lives there? And the land will rise up just like a flood; and then it will sink, like the annual flood waters of the Nile.
The Nile River floods a good part of Egypt every year, wiping out any structures in its path.
9 "And it will happen in that day," says the Master I Am, "that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
In the patriarch Joseph’s dreams, the sun and moon stood for the nation Israel. God is going to destroy this people; completely darken them so they can’t be seen.
But, also, the sun and moon were darkened during Jesus crucifixion.
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into crying; and I will make everyone wear mourning clothes, and shave their heads with sorrow. I will make you mourn as if your only son had died. Oh, how sad that day will be!
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into crying; and I will make everyone wear mourning clothes, and shave their heads with sorrow. I will make you mourn as if your only son had died. Oh, how sad that day will be!
11 Look, the days are coming," says the Master I Am, "that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the I Am.
This was fulfilled from about 400BC to the time of John the Baptist. There was no inspired word from God during this time.
12 And they will wander from sea to sea, and from the north all the way to the east, they will run back and forth to look for the Word of the I Am, and they won't find it.
13 In that day will the beautiful virgins and young men faint for thirst.
Again, this is not a physical thirst, but a thirst for the Word of God.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, “Thy god, O Dan, lives.” and, “The manner of Beersheba lives” even they will fall, and never get up again.
All the people of Israel will try to find some god to answer them but won’t be able to. They will die from a lack of God’s attention.