"This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 'What do you see, Amos?' He asked. 'A basket of ripe fruit,' I answered. Then the Lord said to me, 'The time is ripe for My people Israel; I will spare them no longer.'" (Amos 8:1-2) Ripe fruit doesn't last long. The time is at hand to eat it. The Lord uses the ripe fruit as a symbol for the time of judgment being at hand. He may also be using it as a symbol of something that has gone bad. Just as fruit becomes overripe and then turns rotten, the nation has gone "rotten" spiritually.
The Lord speaks of the coming judgment, which we know is invasion by the nation of Assyria, but whether or not Amos or the people knew the exact nature of this disaster I cannot say for certain. "'In that day,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies---flung everywhere! Silence!'" (Amos 8:3) If we didn't already know that the Lord has spoken of being displeased with what was only an outward show of worshiping Him, we might think that people are going to be attacked while faithfully serving Him. But earlier in the book of Amos He spoke of taking no pleasure in the ways they were simply going through the motions.
It's clear that they are not following the Lord's laws and commandments when we read this next segment. He accuses them of having no compassion on the needy and of trampling the rights of their fellow man and of being dishonest in business. He accuses them of caring nothing for the Sabbath or for other religious holidays, saying they observe them but are eagerly waiting for them to be over so they can resume the things they really want to do. "Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, 'When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?'---skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat." (Amos 8:4-6)
We might compare this with someone in our day who attends church every Sunday but who lives immorally the rest of the week. We could compare this with someone who is very involved in charitable works with the church but who is dishonest in business, cheating people in order to make a bigger profit. Does the Lord care that this person attends church? Or does He care that they don't practice the principles they hear at church? It's useless to hear the word of God if the word isn't applied to the person's heart. It does no good to sit on a church pew if the person doesn't love the Lord and isn't willing to obey Him.
The Lord is not going to allow people to get away with "going to church on Sunday and living like the devil through the week", as the saying goes. "The Lord has sworn by Himself, the Pride of Jacob: 'I will never forget anything they have done.'" (Amos 8:7)
If a person's deeds are pleasing to the Lord, it's a wonderful thing to know He sees and rewards obedience. We are promised in the Scriptures: "God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them." (Hebrews 6:10) But when a person's deeds are wicked, it should be a fearsome thought that He sees those deeds and will punish those deeds. In our passage from the book of Amos today, the Lord warns those who are wicked that He has seen all the ways they have cheated and disenfranchised their fellow man. He has seen their lack of compassion on widows, orphans, foreigners, and all the poor of the land. He has warned them over and over to repent and they have not repented. While it's true that when we repent of our sins the Lord forgives our sins, these people have not been sorry and have not asked for forgiveness and have not stopped doing the things He's accused them of doing. Unrepentant sin calls for judgment and the Lord will soon deliver that judgment. Just as the fruit in the basket of Amos' vision is ripe, the situation in Israel is ripe. The time is at hand for the Lord to act and, as we've noted before, the nation's fall to Assyria occurs within about thirty years of Amos' warnings to the people.
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