Skip to content Famine of Hearing: Amos' Warning for Our Day Nov 12 · 12 min ...more
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 - Video On Demand November 12, 2026 · 12 min · Stand on the Word - Video 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.
Series Stand on the Word - Video On Demand Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
94K followers
Family Research Council is serving in the kingdom of God by championing faith, family, & freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
94K followers
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 nor0:33 a 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 of0:45 devouring 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 with0:57 the false 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 the1:09 prophets, a a promise, a vision of a future blessing. Verse one, chapter eight. Thus the lord god showed me, behold, a basket of summer1:21 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. So here1:32 it is. 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 were1:44 looking at, what he was looking 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 the1:56 needy and make the 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 small2:08 and the shekel large, falsifying the scales by deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, even sell2:20 the bad 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. Now2:32 I I will tell you what this 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't2:44 apply it to their lives and to their commerce. And 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 to2:56 employ 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 newspapers3:08 today? What was 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.3:20 I have to buy a gallon of 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 theJudgment for Economic Exploitation and Moral Decay 3:32 scripture 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 experiment3:44 in 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 a5:06 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. America has5:18 been saturated 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 to5:42 the 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 had5:54 religion. They had sacrifices. They had the tabernacle. But what they didn't have was leadership listening to and responding in obedience to the word of6:05 God. 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 hundred6:17 sixty nine years, and it all came crashing down because they would not listen to god. Alright. Chapter nine, we read the final vision, which, differs from the rest of the vision6:29 that Amos, 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,No Escape from God's Comprehensive Judgment 6:41 and he said, strike the 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 who6:53 escapes from them 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. And7:05 though they hide themselves on top of Carmel, from there I will search and take them. Though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, from there I will command the serpent, and he shall bite them. Though they go7:15 into captivity before their 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, Amos7:27 is in Bethel. This is the epicenter of Israel's idolatry. Very few people. From the Northern Kingdom, there where Amos is at, went to the temple in Jerusalem.7:39 They worshiped there in Bethel before the golden calf. The vision is most likely the lord standing at the altar there at Bethel, this... Of this false god, as judgment7:51 begins at the 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 way8:03 of escape. God 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 the8:15 river and subside like the 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. The8:26 lord is his 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.8:39 God is anything but removed from his creation. Yahweh is his name. Verse eight. Behold, the eyes of the lord are on the sinful kingdom, and I8:50 will destroy it from the 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 not9:02 be 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, and9:14 he had made a 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 a9:26 sieve, 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 confront9:38 us. God 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 Christ9:50 on 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 ruins10:02 and 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. Notice10:14 this, 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 plowman10:26 shall 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 buildSifting and Future Restoration of Israel 10:37 the 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 direction11:01 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 frc dot org 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 Fruit3:30 Judgment for Economic Exploitation and Moral Decay6:30 No Escape from God's Comprehensive Judgment10:30 Sifting and Future Restoration of Israel
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.