AMOS 8 GOES FROM ONE THEME TO ANOTHER. First, it deals with the question of bearing fruit, then it touches on those who have all the religious forms without any of the spirit that should animate those forms; a problem, perhaps, for Christians in all eras and all times. Next it brings up an interesting question about salvation, that of forgiven sins that are no longer forgiven. Then it touches on the issues in the final conflict before the end of the world.

And, finally, it delves into the concept of there being a "famine" in the land for hearing the "words of the Lord." It's an interesting week's worth of lessons. Dig out what you can. Though we certainly aren't going to cover all that could be said on these topics, you'll certainly leave with a few things to think and pray about.

THE WEEK AT A GLANCE:Why is the image of fruit used to describe human character? Can we be keeping all the rules and regulations of our religion and yet miss the most important point about it? What does it mean that the Lord will "forget" all our sins? What does it mean that He will "remember" them? What does the Bible mean when it talks about a "famine" for "the words of the Lord"? Can we be in a land of plenty and still be in dire need of the Word?

What kind of fruit is talked about here?

Early maturing fruit, used especially of 'figs.' The purpose of this vision was to show that the people were ripe for judgment, that God's forbearance was at an end. The divine long-suffering had resulted only in the continuance of Israel's sin."—The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 979.

Look up each of the following texts. How does each one use the imagery of fruit to make its point?

"Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?" (Amos 8:4-6).

These verses reek with one of the greatest and most common spiritual deceptions ever conjured up in Satan's brew of demonic deceptions: religious formalism cloaking abuse of the most basic religious principles. No doubt these people felt spiritually superior to those who didn't keep the Sabbath or observe the feasts as strictly as they did. After all, because they were observing these religious festivals, these folk thought they were holy and thus didn't need to worry about little things like honesty, greed, or helping the poor.

"The first day of the month. . . was devoted to religious service, and apparently was a day on which all trade was suspended. . . . Here is a striking example of a formal observance of sacred institutions, with no true spirit of devotion. In their selfishness these apostates begrudged the time their religious formalism demanded of them. Such worship becomes a curse instead of a blessing."—The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 4, p. 980.

These people wanted the Sabbath to end so they could immediately get back to cheating their customers. How intrusive of the Sabbath to interfere with their fraud! The irony is that when one understands the true meaning of the Sabbath, when one truly keeps the Sabbath as God intended, it's hard to imagine that person going out and cheating people, especially the poor.

Give an example from the New Testament where Jesus had to confront this same problem. How did He respond?

This verse is amazing, terrible in severity, yet painfully accurate in depicting basic biblical truth regarding salvation. In the end, either all our sins are forgiven, forgotten, and obliterated, or they will come back to haunt and condemn us. Either we face none of the legal penalties for our sins or we face the full brunt of them all. Either we walk away totally free from the legal consequences of our sin, or we are destroyed under the oppressive weight of their consequences. Either God "forgets" all our sins, or He "remembers" them all. There's no middle ground, no plea bargain, no compromise.

Compare what God is saying in Amos 8:7 with what He's saying in these verses: "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins" (Isa. 43:25). "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 8:12). "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 10:17).

In the above verses, God promises to "forget" their sins, the idea being that their sins will no longer be factored into how He regards these people. These words are basically a poetic way of saying that when God forgives our sins, He forgives them completely, even to the point where He no longer "remembers" them. This is what happens when we are saved by Jesus Christ, when His righteousness becomes ours by faith.

A description of the day of the Lord follows in verse 9: "On that day,' says the Lord God, 'I will make the sun go down at noon" (RSV). Amos, living in Palestine, saw the sun go down at noon on the day of the Lord. Ellen White, nearly three millennia later and on the other side of the world, was given a vision, described in The Great Controversy, page 636, in which she saw the sun come up at midnight when God intervenes in world history to deliver His people.

How does the phrase "in that day" point to the final judgment prefigured by Israel's day of judgment? (See the use of this phrase in such last-day prophecies as Isa. 4:1; 12:1, 4; Joel 3:1, 18).

In Amos 8:9, the prophet foretells events that will take place long after his time. Verses 9 and 10 point to the second coming of Christ in the day of final judgment.

Compare Amos 8:10, which applied originally to the gloom and lamentation in Israel at the fall of Samaria, to Revelation 18:9-19, which describes the mourning of the entire world at the time of God's judgment on last-day Babylon.

"When the voice of God turns the captivity of His people, there is a terrible awakening of those who have lost all in the great conflict of life. While probation continued they were blinded by Satan's deceptions, and they justified their course of sin. The rich prided themselves upon their superiority to those who were less favored; but they had obtained their riches by violation of the law of God. . . . Now they are stripped of all that made them great and are left destitute and defenseless. They look with terror upon the destruction of the idols which they preferred before their Maker. . . . The rich bemoan the destruction of their grand houses, the scattering of their gold and silver. . .

The implications of these verses are staggering. People seeking the "word of the Lord" and yet not able to find it? How could the God who wants us all in heaven so badly that He died on the cross allow a time when those who seek the "word" can be in a position where they can't find it? What's going on here?

Read John 12:35. What is Jesus saying that could help us understand the meaning of Amos 8:11, 12?

Whatever the exact meaning of the those texts in Amos, particularly in the context of last-day events, there's an important principle applicable to our immediate situation now. We can, through continually filling our minds with junk, get to the point where the "word of the Lord" has no meaning to us. We can become so dull, so insensitive to spiritual truths, that when we hear them they can't penetrate our minds and hearts. That's why what we read, what we watch, and what we think about can deaden us to truth so that the effect is no different upon us than if we, in fact, didn't have access to "the Word of God."

Read chapter 37 in The Great Controversy, "The Scriptures a Safeguard."

1. Look once more at Matthew 18, the story of the ungrateful servant. Can you see how it, in an indirect manner, is linked to the investigative judgment? In other words, during the judgment, our decision as to whether or not we are serving Christ is, once and for all, finalized. If we, by faith, have Christ's righteousness covering us, then, as Jesus says, "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (Rev. 3:5). On the other hand, if we are not converted, then it would appear that our names are blotted out and Jesus doesn't confess us before the Father and the angels. What Matthew 18 implies, then, is that we can indeed lose our salvation. See if you can find other verses that give the idea that we can reject our salvation. At the same time, see if you can find some verses that seem to say the opposite. How can we synthesize them so that we come to a balanced understanding of this important truth?
2. Read the last clause of Matthew 10:22, about how those enduring to the end will be saved, particularly in the context of the previous question. What added information does verse 22 give regarding this important issue?
3. Going back to the lesson on Monday, which dealt with those who kept religious forms but were totally devoid of the spirit of devotion behind those forms, read this quote by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel about the Sabbath: On this day, humankind "must say farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world has already been created and will survive without the help of man. Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed planted in the souls. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh we try to dominate the self."—Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983), p. 13. How could these sentiments help free people from the sins that Amos was talking about in Amos 8:4-6?