Homilist Amos 8:1-2 Thus has the Lord GOD showed to me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.… I. WICKED NATIONS GROW RIPE FOR JUDGMENT. The "basket of summer fruit." This symbol suggests — 1. That Israel's present moral corruption was no hasty production. The ripe fruit in that basket did not spring forth at once, it took many months to produce. Men do not become great sinners at once. The character of a people does not reach its last degree of vileness in a few years, it takes time. The first seed of evil is to be germinated, then it grows, ripens, and multiplies until there is a crop ready for the sickle. 2. That Israel's season for improvement was past and gone. The ripened fruit in that basket had reached a stage in which improvement was impossible. The bloom was passing away, and rottenness was setting in. Nations become incorrigible. 3. That Israel's utter ruin was inevitable. Nothing awaited that " basket of summer fruit" but rottenness. Its decomposition was working, and would soon reduce it to putrescent filth. So it was with Israel. II. TRUE PROPHETS ARE MADE SENSIBLE OF THIS RIPENESS. God gives Amos a vision for the purpose. To every true teacher God says at the outset, "What seest thou?" Hast thou a clear vision of this basket of summer fruit? Hast thou a clear idea of this subject on which thou art about to discourse? Thus He dealt with Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Paul, John. III. ALMIGHTY GOD MAKES HIS PROPHETS SENSIBLE OF THE RIPENESS OF A PEOPLE'S CORRUPTION IN ORDER THAT THEY MAY SOUND THE ALARM. Why was Amos thus Divinely impressed with the wretched moral condition of the people of Israel? Simply that he may be more earnest and emphatical in sounding the alarm. What was the calamity he was to proclaim? I. Universal mourning. "The songs of the temple shall be howlings." The inevitable tendency of sin is to turn songs of gladness into howlings of distress. 2. Universal death. "And there shall be many dead bodies in every place, and they shall cast them forth with silence." (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.WEB: Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. |
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