the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Amos 8:1-14
The vision of the basket of summer fruit (v. 1) is to make Amos understand that Israel is ripe for judgment. Unlike that of the Passover night, this destruction will not pass the nation by (v. 2); it will be "as the mourning of an only son" (v. 10). The futile noise of hymns (Amos 5:23) will be changed into howlings, songs into lamentations (vv. 3, 10). "Silence!" concludes v. 3 (JND trans.) as if to put an end to this useless racket. Before the Lord, every mouth is henceforth to be shut; and the end of the chapter speaks of the silence of God, which is the worst of punishments! Few passages are so frightening as vv. 11, 12. People will appreciate the value of the divine Word, so long despised, the moment it is heard no more. Then "they shall wander from sea to sea . . . they shall run to and fro" in indescribable distress. And they "shall not find it"! (cf. 1 Samuel 28:6; 1 Samuel 28:15). Dear young people, the Word of God is still within your reach today. "The word is nigh thee," says the apostle, "even in thy mouth and in thy heart" (Romans 10:8). At no other time has the Bible been so widely circulated. What is missing is rather the soul’s hunger and thirst to lay hold of its promises and teaching. May God awaken such a desire in each one of us!
