Amos 8:1–12 (NRSV)
Read Amos 8:1–12 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 8This is what the Lord God showed me-a basket of summer fruit. Verse 2He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me, The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. Verse 3The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says the Lord God; "the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!"
Verse 4Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, Verse 5saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, Verse 6buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat." Verse 7The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Verse 8Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? Verse 9On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. Verse 10I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.
Verse 11The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Verse 12They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.
Devotion
There is no basket of fruit like the luscious red strawberries I picked in mid-June. God displays earth’s abundance no better way. In Amos’ vineyard, God had rolled out his bounty. “What do you see, Amos?” “A basket of summer fruit,” replied the farmer, implying, What’s the big deal? I am just doing my job.
God saw more. God saw the abundance of his land, his creation, and simultaneously the impoverishment of so many of his children. Today God must also see the impoverishment of earth, its increasing deserts and lowered lakes, its cloud of carbon and clear-cut forests.
God warned that when the needs of the poor go wanting while most others have such rich food and pleasure, it will not last. Famine follows, but not of fruit. God’s gracious word will elude us no matter how sincerely we seek it. The strawberries remind me of God’s goodness and others’ needs.
Prayer
Giving God, thank you for the abundance in our lives. Invite us at every sign to share in Jesus’ name. Amen.