FBC Morning Light (12/9/2023)

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're going to be looking at a portion of scripture in Amos chapter 8 this morning.

So if you would join with me in Amos chapter 8. Thus the

Lord God showed me, behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said,

Amos, what do you see? So I said, a basket of summer fruit.

Then the Lord said to me, the end has come upon my people

Israel. I will not pass by them anymore. And the songs of the temple shall be waiting, wailing in that day, says the

Lord God. Many dead bodies everywhere, they shall be thrown out in silence.

So Amos was one of the first prophets.

He was the first prophet to have a book named after him. And this is a prophecy against the

Northern Kingdom, where Jeroboam is the king. And Jeroboam, if you remember, led the rebellion of the 10 tribes against the

United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. And the summer fruit here represents the end of the time of Israel.

They are walking in rebellion against God. And so in verse 4, we see who specifically the

Lord is talking to here. He says, hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail.

All right, so we're talking about those who are taking advantage of various people because they're poor and they're needy.

And this is what it says, starting in verse 5, it says, when will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain and the

Sabbath that we may trade wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit.

So they are robbing people through their trade. It's not fair trade at all.

And so then it goes on, it says that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even sell the bad wheat.

And so they're using their ill -gotten gains to purchase people and to be their servants.

And it's not a good thing. It says in verse 7, the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, surely

I will never forget any of their works. I will not forget any of their works.

Let's compare that with the blessed man of Psalm 32, says, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

We have the direct opposite of that here in Israel. Let me pick this back up in verse 9 of Amos chapter 8, says, and it shall come to pass in that day, says the

Lord God, that I will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.

In other words, judgment is coming. He says,

I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head.

I will make it like mourning for an only son and its end like a bitter day.

Now, these things have come true for the Northern Kingdom and there's worse things coming and those things that we just named are very awful.

It says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will send a famine on the land.

Now, famine is typically associated with not enough food or not enough water or starvation, but he says, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the

Lord. Of all the types of famine you could have,

I cannot imagine one worse than not having the words of the

Lord, where there's no place you can go to hear what

God says about what is true, about what is right, about what is noble, about what is the way of salvation.

And I think of brothers and sisters in Christ who even now travel for over an hour to come to church here as a place where they hear the words of life.

Now, yes, we have internet access. Yes, we have the Bible in our hands and things like this, but in a sense, there's been a diminishment in the land that we now live of the preaching of that word, whether it's we no longer hold the

Bible in the same regard as God's word, or if it's that we've completely turned away and say, it's not

God's word at all. Either way, there is a somewhat of a famine now for us.

And as you think through the consequences of that today, please let that drive you to prayer.

While I very much enjoy the fellowship of people who drive a long way to get here, it ought not to be that they have to travel so far to find a church that preaches and believes the word of God as the word of God.

Let's take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, we have, as a people, not followed you.

And as a people, we need to repent of that, and we need to look to you and to your word.

May it be that there would never be a famine of your word in our lives or in this land.

Help us to walk with you this day. It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray, amen.