The International Bible Lesson (Uniform Sunday School Lessons Series) for Sunday, June 28, 2015, is from Amos 8:1-14. Please Note: Some churches will only study Amos 8:1-6, 9-10. This posting and podcast includes both the International Bible Lesson Commentary and the International Bible Lesson. The International Bible Lesson Commentary is now available in five different Bible translations on the International Bible Lessons Commentary (http://www.ouosu.com/IBLC/) website: these versions are the English Standard Version (ESV), King James Version (KJV), New American Standard Bible (NASB), New International Version (NIV), and the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).  Questions for Discussion and Thinking Further follow the verse-by-verse International Bible Lesson Commentary. The Study Hints for Discussion and Thinking Further discusses each of the Questions for Discussion and Thinking Further to help with class preparation and in conducting class discussion: these hints are available on the  International Bible Lessons Commentary (http://www.ouosu.com/IBLC/) website along with the International Bible Lesson that you may want to read to your class as part of your Bible study using the easy printable lesson. To help your class review the lesson, links to an easy printable Word Search Puzzle, a Crossword Puzzle, and a True and False Test are also available below. To listen to this commentary a podcast is available by subscribing (http://ouosu.com/biblelessonforum/?page_id=6113) and by clicking on the audio links here on the International Bible Lesson Forum.
International Bible Lesson Commentary
Amos 8:1-14
(Amos 8:1) This is what the Lord GOD showed me—a basket of summer fruit.

In addition to the Holy Spirit giving Amos words to speak, God showed visions to Amos and talked to him about their meaning. Both Joseph and Daniel interpreted the dreams and visions of others with the help of God, and God helped Amos interpret the dreams or visions that God gave him. A basket of summer fruit would be the produce right before the fall season.

(Amos 8:2) 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 them by.

God began His dialogues with Amos by asking Amos a question that verified he had seen the vision correctly, and he had. Summer fruit is ripe fruit that is picked and ready to be eaten; in the basket it was ready to be served, just as justice was ready to be served by God in Israel. For many seasons, or for many years actually, God had warned the Kingdom of Israel to repent, but the nation’s leaders had refused to repent and lead the nation to repent; therefore, the time had finally come for God to punish the nation as God had threatened: God keeps all of His promises.

(Amos 8:3) The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,†says the Lord GOD; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!â€

As God had said through Amos earlier, God hated their songs because their hearts were far from Him and they were often songs of praise to their idols. When God’s punishment came, their songs would turn to wailings, not just the professional wailings of paid mourners, but real wailings at the death of a multitude of people. Paid mourners would die along with their families, and the dead bodies of a multitude would be cast out of their homes and their cities. “Be silent†or do not complain, O Israel, for you deserve your just punishment.

(Amos 8:4) Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

God addressed the wicked directly through His prophet Amos. Once again, God gave them the reasons He would punish them. They trampled on the needy, and God would send the Assyrian army to trample on them (though Amos did not name the Assyrian army by name, God used the Assyrian army to crush the nation in 722 BC).