What can be more susceptible to rot and disease than ripened fruit? There is a short window of time for the beautiful and refreshing sweetness of ripe fruit to be tasted. But after that window, there is no escaping the steep decline. The analogy used here not only illustrates the end result for Israel but also represents the swiftness with which it will occur. The end was near and there was nothing Amos could do about it. He was just a man. Even if he desired, he could not step in as Jesus did to take the full punishment of sin.
When the time of harvest arrives, there is no escaping the separation that must occur. Though the wheat and tares may blend together for a season, there will eventually be a time of clear division. In the same way that Israel’s punishment was inevitable, and God followed through to completion, our world will also be harvested. The people we see each and every day will either go to eternal glory or eternal separation from God. You see, there is no middle ground during the harvest. Wheat or tares. Sheep or goats.
For Amos, he witnessed the same type of crimes we are witnessing today. The elite ruling class preyed on the poor and needy as they continued to climb their ladder of worldly success. Slowly and subtly, they forgot about God and dedicated their lives to material pleasures.
“Eager to increase their stores, they wearied of time given to religion. They grudged passing a day without opening their salesrooms. They did not scruple to make their measures (ephah) small, and to demand a greater weight of money (shekel) from their clients. These were crimes that could not be passed over. It is an awful sentence when God says, “I will never forget,” Amo 8:7”
F.B. Meyer
God would strip them of these idols so that they would remember what truly mattered. Their appetite for His Word and His ways had declined and exile would be the only path to bring their priorities back in line. Praise God that through Jesus God’s “I will never forget” has been transformed into “as far as the east is from the west…”