THE FRUIT BASKET II

In yesterday’s Journal entry I mentioned the prophet Amos and the five visions he was given to warn Israel of their corrosive and corrupt social, spiritual and economic condition. The fourth vision of The Fruit Basket.

Just as fruit was in a basket because ‘it was at the end of summer harvest,’ so Israel, ‘the end has come for my people Israel’ (Amos 8:2). The next eight verses of chapter 8 give the reasons for this strong remark from the Lord. There was dishonest weights and measures, cheating and lying for economic gain, selling wheat mixed with chaff, cheating the poor and causing their indebtedness, despising the Sabbath and ignoring worship and causing a spiritual famine.

The Lord said through Amos, “Now the LORD has sworn this oath
    by his own name, the Pride of Israel:
“I will never forget
    the wicked things you have done!
 The earth will tremble for your deeds,
    and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like the Nile River at flood time;
    it will heave up, then sink again.
 “In that day,” says the Sovereign LORD,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth while it is still day.
I will turn your celebrations into times of mourning
    and your singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothes
    and shave your heads to show your sorrow—
as if your only son had died.
    How very bitter that day will be!” (Amos 8:7-10)

The people of Israel, just like us today, are given warnings and strong encouragement to live in honesty, integrity, to worship and live purposefully and carefully, to love the poor and love the Word of the Lord. (continued)

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Jesus