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Famine of Hearing: Amos' Warning for Our Day
November 12, 2026 · 12 min
Amos 8–9: judgment follows moral failure when a people refuse God's voice. Repentance and renewed listening are our hope.
Series Stand on the Word - Audio On Demand November 12, 2026 · 12 min · Stand on the Word - Audio On Demand
Amos 8–9: judgment follows moral failure when a people refuse God's voice. Repentance and renewed listening are our hope. ...more Show the full description Show less Amos 8–9: judgment follows moral failure when a people refuse God's voice. Repentance and renewed listening are our hope.
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The Vision of the Basket of Summer Fruit 0:10 Good morning. Welcome to Stand on the Word. Thanks for joining this morning as we wrap up our look at the book of Amos with chapters eight and nine. And what we're gonna see this morning is an avoidable disaster0:21 that no government program can offset. What is it? We're gonna look at it. Verse eleven, chapter eight. Behold, the days are coming, says the lord, that I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread nor a0:33 thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the lord. So today, we continue with the visions of Amos that he recorded in the previous chapters. The previous chapter, we saw the vision of devouring0:46 locusts, the fire, and the plumb line. So in chapter seven, there was this historical interlude that we wrapped up with last time as Amos recorded his, interaction, his encounter with the false0:57 priest there in Bethel. Now in these final two chapters, we have what I call the vision of the basket case. Alright? The vision of the lord's judgment, but also, as we see with almost all of the prophets,1:10 a a promise, a vision of a future blessing. Verse one, chapter eight. Thus the lord god showed me, behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said,1:22 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. So here it is.1:34 Because of their sin, the nation is a basket case. The vision of a basket of summer fruit, meaning the harvest is over and the shelf life of what they were looking at, what he was looking1:45 at was not gonna last long. Time is short because judgment for their sin is coming. That's the message. Verse four. Hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the1:57 poor of the land fail, saying, 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,2:09 falsifying the scales by deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even sell the bad2:21 wheat. So listen to what the lord is saying. To them, it was all about the economy, making a profit regardless of the impact upon the poor and the the needy. Now I'll tell you what thisEconomic Exploitation and the Need for Moral Goodness 2:33 is. This is capitalism without a moral compass or without an anchor. The reason there was no moral compass is that their religion was just for show. It was not... They didn't apply it2:44 to their lives and to their commerce. They couldn't wait for the church service to be over so that they could go back to work, not to apply biblical principles to their commerce, but to employ2:56 deceptive tactics. It was all about making a profit, the bottom line. Now it's easy to see this on the pages of scripture, but what about in the headlines of our newspapers today? What was3:08 the number one issue according to the various polling organizations that shaped people's vote in the last election? It was the economy. Right? Don't misunderstand me. I have to fill up my truck. I have to buy a3:20 gallon gas gasoline. I have to pay the mortgage like everybody else, and I want a responsible government that will enable the economy to grow. But we must understand what the scripture3:32 makes abundantly clear. If America is to thrive, if if we are to pass what George Washington described as the great experiment, if we're to pass this great experiment in3:44 self government down to future generations, we must remember this. Political and economic greatness cannot survive without moral goodness.3:55 Amos eight verse seven, the lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this? And everyone mourn who4:07 dwells in it, all of it shall swell like the river heave and subside like the river of Egypt. Here, God swears by his eternal, all knowing, all powerful4:19 self saying he would not pass by without punishing Israel for their sin. The judgment is like the swelling river, a flood, which is comprehensive and, and I've been4:31 through these floods, unable. You're unable to escape escape it. 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 broad4:43 daylight. Look at verse eleven, a very familiar verse. Behold, the days are coming, says the lord, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, not4:55 a thirst for water, but of hearing of the words of the lord. What does this mean? Well, number one, this is not a disaster that government can offset with aThe Famine of Hearing the Words of the Lord 5:06 program. This is what it means. If you won't hear god, eventually, you can't hear. This speaks to the danger of rejecting the word of the Lord. America5:18 has been saturating with the with the gospel and the truth of God's word. But increasingly, over the last sixty or so years, we've refused to hear it, pushing it out of our public discourse and our dialogue.5:30 And there comes a point that God says to a nation, okay. Alright. Have it your way. You know, we read in first Samuel, chapter three verse one. Now let me just read it again. Now the boy Samuel ministered to the5:42 Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation. Why was it rare? I mean, they had a priest. They had the high priest Eli. They had religion.5:54 They had sacrifices. They had the tabernacle. But what they didn't have was leadership listening to and responding in obedience to the word of God.6:07 Now let's move to the last chapter here in Amos chapter nine. By the way, if you wanna come with us on our tour to Israel, we'll be going to Shiloh where that tabernacle stood for three hundred sixty nine years,6:19 and it all came crashing down because it would not listen to god. Alright. Chapter nine, we read the final vision, which, differs from the rest of the vision that Amos,6:31 in this one, he neither speaks nor participates, alright, as he had previously done. In this vision, Amos is only narrating what takes place. Verse one. I saw the lord standing by the altar, and he said, strike the6:42 doorpost that the thresholds may shake, and break them on the heads of them all, and I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, and he who escapes from them6:54 shall not be delivered. Though they dig into hell, from there my hand shall take them. Though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. And though they hide themselves on7:06 top of Carmel, from there I will search and take them. Though they hide from my side at the bottom of the sea, from there, I will command the serpent, and he shall bite them. Though they go into captivity before their7:17 enemies, from there, I will command the sword, and it shall slay them. I will set my eyes on them for harm and not for good. That is not a good place to be. Now remember, Amos is in Bethel. This is the7:29 epicenter of Israel's idolatry. Very few people from the Northern Kingdom, there were Amos is at, went to the temple in Jerusalem. They worshiped there in BethelNo Escape from God's Judgment 7:41 before the golden calf. The vision is most likely the Lord standing at the altar there at Bethel, this... Of this false god, as judgment begins at the7:52 source of the sin, their idolatry. The imagery is the building collapsing, the religious system Jeroboam created in the northern kingdom. And there would be no way of escape. God8:04 would track them down. Verse five. The lord, god of host, who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell there mourn all of it shall be like the river and subside like the8:16 river of Egypt. He who builds his layers in the sky and has founded the strata of the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth. The lord is his8:28 name. To underscore the fact that you can run but you can't hide from god, his power, his authority, and his sovereignty, they are again revealed. God is anything8:40 but removed from his creation. Yahweh is his name. Verse eight, behold, the eyes of the lord are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the8:52 face of the earth, yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the lord. Now the northern kingdom would be destroyed, but Jacob would not be9:03 utterly destroyed destroyed. God's judgment is mixed with mercy because, and this is why, because of God's covenant, his word. He keeps his promises, and he had made a9:15 promise to David. Verse nine, for surely I will command and will sift the house of Israel among all nations As grain is sifted in a sieve,9:27 yet the smallest grain shall fall to the ground. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword who say, the calamity shall not overtake nor confront us. God9:39 will sift his people, shift, separating those who deserve judgment from those who have followed him. Now here's the hope, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on9:51 that day. Verse eleven. On that day, I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages. I will raise up its ruins and10:02 rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and that all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the lord who does this thing. Notice this,10:14 Gentiles who are called by my name, followers of Christ. By the way, James quotes this passage in in Acts chapter fifteen. Verse thirteen, behold, the days are coming, says the lord, when the plowman shall10:26 overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes. Him who sows seed, the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of my people Israel. They shall build the10:37 waste cities and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens and eat fruit for them. I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled10:49 up from the land that I have given them, says the lord god. These days are not yet here, but we are seeing the pieces coming together. And that is the directionGod's Mercy, Sifting, and Future Restoration 11:01 that god is moving, and we should be moving in the same direction that God's word says that he is going. Father, we thank you for your word. And I pray father that there11:13 would not be a famine in our day of the hearing of your word. But, lord, I pray that our ears would be open, our hearts receptive to the words of your word, lord. The the holy11:25 spirit is speaking through your word, and, lord, I pray that we would respond to it. We would hear it, and we would obey it. Be merciful to us, lord god. And please do not bring a famine of11:36 hearing on our land, for we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. Thanks for joining me this morning, and until next time, keep standing on the word.11:48 Today's study comes from the Stand on the Word Bible Reading Plan available for free at f r c dot o r g slash bible. By following along in just a few minutes a day, you12:00 can read through the entire Bible in just two years. Learn more and request the free reading guide at frc dot org slash bible.In this video 0:00 The Vision of the Basket of Summer Fruit2:30 Economic Exploitation and the Need for Moral Goodness5:00 The Famine of Hearing the Words of the Lord7:30 No Escape from God's Judgment10:50 God's Mercy, Sifting, and Future RestorationComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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