A Basket of Summer Fruit for the Season of the End

While reading the book of Amos last weekend, my wife and I saw some connections to the judgment that has come upon America. Some of these involve timing elements that would suggest a catastrophic event is imminent. Prophetic timing is a place where angels fear to tread, so I will simply report what we saw and leave the interpretation to you. If the Lord confirms a meaning or interpretation for you, please let me know.

Amos is a book about the judgment of Israel, except for the first chapter or so where surrounding nations are addressed. There are many prophetic parallels between ancient Israel and the current situation in America. God is orderly and follows certain patterns and protocols, including for the judgment of nations. 

By the way, judgment is God's response to the rebellion and injustice of mankind. He is exceedingly patient in urging people to repent, though many mistake his decades-long patience for permissiveness or apathy. If rebellion grows and continues, there will come a point when God resorts to the final option - calamity and destruction - which serves several purposes:

• To punish the wicked,
• To stop the sin and injustice,
• To pressure people to repent and be saved, and
• To wipe the slate clean in order to start anew.

The last five verses of Amos are about how God promises to restore and renew Israel on the far side of judgment.

America has already reached the point of no return with regard to judgment. 

Amos 8:1-3 - DEATH

"Here is what Adonai ELOHIM showed me: there in front of me was a basket of summer fruit. He asked, 'Amos, what do you see?' I answered, 'A basket of summer [Hebrew: kayitz] fruit.'

Then ADONAI said to me, 'The end [Hebrew: ketz] has come for my people, I will never again overlook their offenses. When that time comes, the songs in the temple will be wailings," says Adonai ELOHIM. "There will be many dead bodies; everywhere silence will reign."" - Amos 8:1-3, Complete Jewish Bible

A basket of summer fruit seems like an odd metaphor for judgment. But the Jewish Bible notes that the Hebrew word for summer (kayitz) rhymes with the Hebrew word for end (ketz), so the phrase "a basket of summer fruit" is linked poetically with "the end has come for my people." The summer-end. As fruit is ripe and ready to be picked and eaten in the summer, so a nation ripe with rebellion is ready for judgment.

When does a basket of summer fruit appear? In the summer season, of course. In what season is America right now? Summer - and approaching the final month of summer. Keep this in mind.

The verse says the end has come. This is the end of God's patience and delaying the consequences of sin. The nation has crossed the line and reached the time of punishment.

In this case, the punishment will be death, songs of wailing in the place of worship and a stunned silence across the nation. To me this speaks of a major, deadly catastrophe striking the nation.

Amos 8:9-10 - MOURNING

"'When that time comes,' says Adonai ELOHIM, 'I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into wailing; I will make you all put sackcloth around your waists and shave your heads bald in grief. I will make it like mourning for an only son and its end like a bitter day.'" - Amos 8:9-10

Here again is the phrase "when that time comes," which refers to the time of judgment. It says the sun will go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. Many know that in five days, on August 21, there will be a total solar eclipse. The path of the eclipse starts in the Pacific Ocean, ends in the Atlantic Ocean and slashes across one country and one country only - the United States:

In Idaho where I live, the time of maximum eclipse is about 11:30 am. Depending on where you are in the country, the time of the eclipse will be a little before or a little after noon. THE SUN WILL GO DOWN AT NOON. THIS IS A NOON ECLIPSE IN THE SUMMER SEASON.

The scripture says festivals will be turned to mourning. There will be grief and wailing, like a bitter day.

Amos 8:9-10 - FAMINE

"'The time is coming,' says Adonai ELOHIM, 'when I will send famine over the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of ADONAI. People will stagger from sea to sea and from north to east, running back and forth, seeking the word of ADONAI; but they will not find it.'" - Amos 8:11-12

Famine is coming to the land. Not a lack of food and water (though this is coming too), but a lack of hearing the words of the Lord. I see this lack in both supply and demand: A lack of hearing because people's hearts are stopped up with rebellion, and a lack of preaching because most of the church in America is not delivering the Lord's message for the hour. Is your church preaching repentance and national judgment from the pulpit? If not, they are contributing to the famine.

This reminds of me of how God described the people of Israel during Isaiah's prophetic commission:

"He [ADONAI] said, 'Go and tell this people: "Yes, you hear, but you don't understand. You certainly see, but you don't get the point!" 'Make the heart of this people [sluggish with] fat, stop up their ears, and shut their eyes. Otherwise, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, then understanding with their hearts, they might repent and be healed!'" - Isaiah 6:9-10

Revelation 18:8 - DEATH, SORROW and FAMINE

Two years ago in the summer of 2015, the Lord opened my eyes to a coming day of great calamity in America, which I wrote about in the article It Will Come in One Day. While there may be multiple prophetic identities of "Babylon" in the Scriptures, I believe the primary end-times identity of "mystery" Babylon is the United States. (For the reasons why, see America Is Mystery Babylon.)

"Therefore, her plagues will come in a single day - DEATH, SORROW and FAMINE; and she will be burned with fire, because ADONAI, God, her Judge, is mighty." - Revelation 18:8

At the time I felt this day of calamity would come very soon. Now, after hearing the message of Amos 8 and seeing its connection to this moment in time and the prophetic alignment with the DEATH, SORROW and FAMINE of Revelation 18:8, what else can I say?