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R. T. Tippett

Amos 8:1-12 - How to be seedless fruit and walk in darkness


This is what adonay Yahweh showed me-- a basket of summer fruit. He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then Yahweh said to me,

"The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by.

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says adonay Yahweh;

"the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!" פ


Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?


We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat."


Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.


Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? פ


On that day, says adonay Yahweh, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight.


I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.


The time is surely coming, says adonay Yahweh, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Yahweh.


They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of Yahweh, but they shall not find it.


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Please note there are four uses of the combined words “adonay Yahweh” in these twelve verses, with another four single uses of “Yahweh.” After the fifth Sunday after Pentecost presented the same combinations and single of “adonay Yahweh” and “Yahweh,” the explanations given in the commentary for Amos 7 [the wall and the plumb line] apply for this next chapter being the Track 1 Old Testament selection for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 11].


“Yahweh” is who speaks to Amos: “Yahweh said to me;” “Yahweh has sworn;” “hearing the words of Yahweh;” and “seeking the word of Yahweh,” but “Yahweh” speaks within Amos’ soul by His Son’s soul [Adam-Jesus] having been resurrected there. That presence is the “Yahweh elohim” written in Genesis 2 [the creation of Adam on the seventh day], so the “adonay” is the “elohim” becoming the ”Lord” over Amos’ soul and flesh. Thus, Amos heard the voice of “Yahweh” through His Son’s soul being merged with the soul of Amos. This is always the meaning of “adonay” in holy Hebrew Scripture.


Reading “adonay Yahweh showed me” in verse one, this is identical to what Amos wrote in the seventh verse of his seventh chapter, with his writing there, “he showed me and behold adonay stood on a wall with a plumb line.” It is the inner presence of Yahweh’s elohim – the Lord [adonay] over Amos’ heart, soul, strength, and mind – so Amos can become a true prophet of “Yahweh” and be shown divine visions. If Amos did not have this “adonay” in him from “Yahweh,” he would simply be a sheep herder and trimmer of sycamore trees – a normal worker of the land in the Northern Kingdom.


While Amos’ possession by Yahweh’s adonay showed him the Northern Kingdom was near collapse, through the vision of a wall next to a plumb line made true by Yahweh’s presence within “the midst of Yahweh’s people,” the vision shown by adonay Yahweh is a “basket of summer fruit” [“kə·lūḇ qā·yiṣ”]. In the rituals commanded by Yahweh, spoken by Moses, the gathering of first fruits in the early spring, placed in omer measures in baskets, those fruits and grains were kept in the Tabernacle-Temple for fifty days. On the Fiftieth Day [Pentecost], in the festival of Shavuot [Weeks – numbering seven] the fruit was deemed ripe and this ritual was metaphor for the Israelites [sons of Israel] being fit to serve Yahweh and His Sons [each being possessed by adonay Yahweh]. A “basket of summer fruit” then related to the last summer festival Sukkot [Booths or Tabernacles], where the “Harvest” or “Ingathering” becomes the festival of fall.


According to the website Kabbalah.info the spiritual meaning of Sukkot is this: “The holiday of Sukkot represents an essential change of values. By changing our values—from individualistic and egoistic to connective and altruistic—we will be able to create a safe, harmonious and happy world.” This means “the basket of summer fruit” seen by Amos was determined by Yahweh to be “individualistic and egotistic,” having no signs of commitment to Yahweh, with no adonay present in that “summer fruit.” This is why “has come the end upon my people Israel.” Then, Yahweh added, “not joined with them again I will pass by them.” This says, “no longer will Yahweh see the people of Israel as having the doorways to their souls painted with the blood of the lamb – His Son Adam-Jesus, Yahweh’s adonay.


When Yahweh then told Amos about the death that would be coming, this has to be seen as relative to the “basket of summer fruit.” Just as the omer baskets of first fruits came in the spring, they came from seeds planted in the fall. The “summer fruit” were what produced those seeds. What Yahweh saw, which Amos could not see with human eyes, was seedless fruit. Once that fruit was consumed [a festival of selfishness] there were no seeds from which would come the first fruits of the spring. The seeds became the metaphor for Yahweh’s pass over. Without them, all the firstborn males of the Northern Kingdom would die. Death is not a statement of the physical body separating from the soul, but the judgment that comes to a soul once released. A judgment of death then means no opportunity for eternal life.


In the NRSV translation of verse four, we read: “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,” the Hebrew text has “the poor” written in parentheses and brackets, as “[‘an·wê-](‘ă·nî·yê-)”. The enclosures surrounding masculine plural constructs of “anav” signal that which is “poor, afflicted, humble, meek” is within, of a spiritual nature [thus masculine, not feminine]; and, that is one’s soul. The words leading up to that inward state of being says “and cease or desist [make fail]” this inward source of life that is a ‘seedless’ soul. Following these marks of enclosure is the construct that says, “of the earth.” Here, “earth” must be read as metaphor for the stuff human bodies of “flesh” are made of: dust and clay. Thus, the inner soul gives life to the outer flesh; but for the selfish that “trample [or swallow up] the needy [or poor], they do so without souls being possessed by adonay Yahweh.


In verse five where the NRSV translates: “saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?” this refers to the return of spring, when the “new moon” marks the beginning of the first month Nisan. On the first full moon after that “new moon” comes the recognition of Passover; but the minds of the spiritually dead are focused on the selling of the first fruits, as a business to profit from. They no longer see the commanded festivals as recognitions of their souls in commitment to serve Yahweh as “his people.” The people of the Northern Kingdom were more concerned with cheating the believers and stealing from the poor to become rich, while pronouncing the first fruits fit for consumption, when they are little more than the “sweeping” of dust and chaff as good wheat.


When we find written: “Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds,” the name “Jacob” means “Supplanter.” That name represents one who cheats his brother out of his birthright, lying to his father, before running in fear from his brother. Yahweh will never forget the deeds of sinners. Jacob had to wrestle with his inner demons – his spiritual poverty – before he found his soul had to serve Yahweh, for his guilts to be released. Paul the apostle was a model of Jacob, with both men having their spiritual (soul) names changed, to represent their deaths of self, in submission to Yahweh. That submission brought each the adonay Yahweh that would be named “Israel.” That name means “Who Retains Yahweh through the possession of adonay in one’s soul.”


The life of those who are ‘seedless,’ without divine possession, Yahweh used the symbolism of the waters of the Nile in Egypt, which bring plenty from the land when the waters run high, but then bring famine to the people when the waters run low. The sending of Moses to take the descendants of Jacob away from that inconsistency of inner fortitude means Yahweh places His Son’s soul [Yahweh elohim] in all His people, so they never experience the famines of spirituality, having only the plenty of faith to sustain their “flesh.”


In verse eight is another instance of dual words being enclosed by parentheses and brackets. That written says, “and mourn everyone who dwells in the flesh , and shall swell like the Nile , the whole of it , and cast out [to sink] (to sink down) like the Nile of Egypt .” This says the ebb and flow is based on the physical source of all life on earth – water to replenish the flesh. To be an Egyptian was to be married to the death the flesh was bound to find .. in the ebb and flow. The enclosure marks once again become signals to see the ebb as when the failures of human existence have “cast out” the flesh, so the soul cannot save one to that state of existence, as it can only “sink down” along with the decline of the flesh. The marks of spirituality says dependence on a river in a land is worthless, as the only salvation of a soul comes from rising and being uplifted by adonay Yahweh.


At this point, verse nine states, “and it shall come to pass in the day this his , says adonay Yahweh , that I will make to go down the sun at noon , and I will darken the earth in daylight broad .” This is Amos prophesying the coming of His adonay that is the released of the soul of His Son Jesus. The “light” that gives life to the world of flesh [“the sun”] will be extinguished, as far as being an external source of life. The Hebrew that translates as “go down” also says, “come in.” The source of life then only matters to the soul, not the flesh [relative to the ebb and flow of the Nile in Egypt].. The timing of “noon” is “midday,” when the “sun” is expected to shine brightest. This then predicts divinely the end of individuals [kings or prophets] that will be the external “light” by which others will follow. All such external guides “will be darkened,” which means none will be able to save the souls of others. Even if they possess adonay Yahweh, their internal “light” cannot be made available to “the flesh” [“the earth”]. Only souls will be allowed to find the ”daylight” of Yahweh, by earnestly seeking that blindly [as was Paul stricken blind for three “days”].


Verses ten and eleven then prophesy the death of the nations that worshiped the wealth of the world, in the same way as the Egyptians had done. All of the “feasts” commanded by Yahweh will no longer reflect the spiritual commitment of all the people, but be turned into ceremonies that say the deaths of those nations has come. The peoples of Israel and Judah will become trails of tears into captivity, lamenting all the sins that will suddenly dawn upon themselves. Their bodies of flesh will reflect their deaths as the children of Israel, having become seedless. Their bodies will cover their souls like black sackclothes of mourning. The uncut hair of the men, symbolizing a total commitment to Yahweh, will become bald. When Yahweh told Amos this would be “like mourning for an only [son],” this means they will not have been spared death by Yahweh’s Passover.


In verse eleven, Amos wrote, “says adonay Yahweh , I will send a famine on the land ; not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water , but for a hearing of the words of Yahweh.” This means all “the bread” that can feed a soul already exists for the soul’s salvation. That “bread” is the ‘manna from heaven,’ or ‘the spiritual food’ that was fed to them as the writings of Moses, David, and the Prophets. The “water” is the living waters of adonay Yahweh being joined permanently with one’s soul. That food and drink provides by the possessing adonay Yahweh makes one a Saint [like Amos], thereby capable of seeing visions and listening to the commands of adonay Yahweh. In terms of soul salvation, through being fed Spiritually all that one’s soul can possibly need, nothing more can be added [although the New Testament will be restatements of the original divine texts … but they will come when the famine has ended, with the fulfilled prophecy of Jesus’ death by the hands of evil men].


In verse twelve, Amos was told to write, “and they shall wander … seeking the word of Yahweh , but they shall not find it.” This prophecy is still in effect today. The modern versions of Judaism [not true Christianity] are blinded from seeing the truth that is written in Scripture. The blindness comes from the ‘Big Brain Syndrome’ that makes certain leaders [along with their ‘scribes’ called translation into English services] out to be gods [send in your checks and money orders now!!!]. They lead the people’s souls to ruin, in the exact same way as did the failed leaders and false prophets sent those expecting profits from being a believer in God into darkness. Once a prophecy, always a prophecy. The only escape from that guarantee of that to come is death of self-identity and total submission to Yahweh. When one receives adonay Yahweh, then one will know the LOVE of Yahweh, through His Son’s resurrection; and, one’s soul will know the promise of eternal life.


As the Track 1 Old Testament selection for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost, this is Amos singing the same song, different verse, from that he sung on the fifth Sunday after Pentecost. It shows a “basket of summer fruit,” which is a reflection of all the seedless [souls not married to Yahweh, becoming led by His adonay], which was the Northern [as well as the Southern] Kingdom, led by the evil Jeroboam and his false prophet Amaziah. Those failed leaders project forward to all times, through the prophecy Yahweh told Amos. All the Oral Roberts, Joel Osteen, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Pope Benedict, et al, are promised to be walking in darkness as external beacons of light. NONE of these leaders today are Saints; so, NONE of them are touching the souls of lost flocks with the “daylight” of an adonay Yahweh. It is foolishness to expect a false shepherd to explain the truth, by hearing him or her say, “I have no clue what anything means; so, if I were you, I would go someplace else.” The industrial produced wafers they then serve are nothing more than the sweepings from the threshing room floor, where Scripture is discerns by the adonay teacher … which false shepherds and hired hands refuse to receive.

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