by Diana Durrill
It caught my eye when I came to the verses today about the basket of summer fruit.
Amos 8:1-2 says,
"This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he 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 by them."
My first thought was to think of Pastor Mike's illustration on Sunday where he talked about the wax fruit we often display in our lives when we try to put on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. in our own strength. That was a powerful illustration in that we clean ourselves up and look good, look real...but really and truly, we are fake. Unless the Spirit of God produces His fruit in our lives any fruit we display is a basket of wax fruit.
As I did a little research on what the meaning of this passage is, I learned that God is giving the nation of Israel a serious object lesson on judgment. Read the worlds of David R. Reid from this devotional:
"A basket of rotten fruit must be emptied and the fruit thrown away"...that hits home, doesn't it? Especially in light of the topics we've been studying on Sundays? Did you catch the statement earlier in the paragraph? "God had been incredibly long-suffering and patient with His people but they refused to respond to His grace." (emphasis mine)
I am justified before God by the finished work of Jesus Christ. I have been given a full dose of the grace of God and yet I often try to live in my own strength, picking and choosing how I want to live this Christian life. If this or that particular fruit fits into my agenda for the day - great! If not, I will save it for another day, another circumstance. Not only am I producing fake fruit that way, but I am letting the grace that has been given to me from God rot when I refuse to walk in obedience, truth and grace.
How do we do we do it? How do we let the Holy Spirit produce the fruit? How do we walk in truth?
By taking heed to to the word of God. (Psalm 119:9) By reading it, studying it, meditating on it, letting it penetrate to the very core of our beings. (Joshua 1:8) That is how the Fruit of the Spirit is manifested in us and how our lives can turn from ones of selfish ambition to obedience and love for the Father. That is how we walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
And...that is how we keep from letting the beautiful fruit of God's grace in our lives rot.
It caught my eye when I came to the verses today about the basket of summer fruit.
Amos 8:1-2 says,
"This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he 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 by them."
My first thought was to think of Pastor Mike's illustration on Sunday where he talked about the wax fruit we often display in our lives when we try to put on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc. in our own strength. That was a powerful illustration in that we clean ourselves up and look good, look real...but really and truly, we are fake. Unless the Spirit of God produces His fruit in our lives any fruit we display is a basket of wax fruit.
As I did a little research on what the meaning of this passage is, I learned that God is giving the nation of Israel a serious object lesson on judgment. Read the worlds of David R. Reid from this devotional:
"For most of us the words "a basket of summer fruit" convey a pleasant picture. What could be more delightful than a basket full of delicious red cherries, juicy plums and perfectly ripe peaches? But for Amos, the vision of summer fruit was not a pleasant sight. In the scorching heat of the Middle East, summer fruit is fully ripe or over-ripe fruit. Amos saw a basket of fruit that was becoming brown and soft and squishy! Ugh!
Why did God show Amos a vision of soon-to-be-rotten fruit? The basket of overly ripe fruit was an object lesson that represented the nation of Israel. The people of Israel had turned away from the Lord and were now ripe for judgment. God had been incredibly long-suffering and patient with His people but they refused to respond to His grace. They had turned a deaf ear to the warnings which God had sent them through the prophets. Now there was no hope of recovery. As the basket of fruit indicated the end of the summer season, so Israel had arrived at the end of her national existence. As the ripening process in the fruit could not be reversed, so the moral and spiritual deterioration in Israel had passed the "point of no return." As a basket of rotten fruit must be emptied and the fruit thrown away, so the corrupt nation would soon be dispersed from the land and scattered abroad."
"A basket of rotten fruit must be emptied and the fruit thrown away"...that hits home, doesn't it? Especially in light of the topics we've been studying on Sundays? Did you catch the statement earlier in the paragraph? "God had been incredibly long-suffering and patient with His people but they refused to respond to His grace." (emphasis mine)
I am justified before God by the finished work of Jesus Christ. I have been given a full dose of the grace of God and yet I often try to live in my own strength, picking and choosing how I want to live this Christian life. If this or that particular fruit fits into my agenda for the day - great! If not, I will save it for another day, another circumstance. Not only am I producing fake fruit that way, but I am letting the grace that has been given to me from God rot when I refuse to walk in obedience, truth and grace.
How do we do we do it? How do we let the Holy Spirit produce the fruit? How do we walk in truth?
By taking heed to to the word of God. (Psalm 119:9) By reading it, studying it, meditating on it, letting it penetrate to the very core of our beings. (Joshua 1:8) That is how the Fruit of the Spirit is manifested in us and how our lives can turn from ones of selfish ambition to obedience and love for the Father. That is how we walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
And...that is how we keep from letting the beautiful fruit of God's grace in our lives rot.
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