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The DEEP

A Basket of Summer

Reaping what they've sown.

Amos 8:1–3 (ESV)

This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And 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 by them.
The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
                        declares the Lord GOD.
“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
“Silence!”

The Hebrew literally says, “A basket of summer.” This means a basket of summer’s yield, thus the translation, “summer fruit.

The point is that they’re about to harvest a basket of what their actions have yielded. They “produced” what’s coming.

And it will be a dreadful yield. There’s some ambiguity in what follows but not in the words, “The end has come.

The nation will be completely conquered.


Christians can overstate the impact of God’s grace. Cause and effect still exists. Don’t do your homework, and you won’t do well in school, and you may not do well in life.

Reckless driving yields wrecks. Wrecks yield injuries. Injuries yield limps. God grants grace, but His agenda is eternal. Limping can be what someone needs to as a means of instruction or to open blind eyes.

There was a clever description of God’s judgement published in the science humor magazine, The Journal of Irreproducible Results. Since reproducibility is the standard for whether an experimental result is genuine, this name means the magazine is tongue-in-cheek.

Long ago, it published a letter to the editor from God, complaining about a previous article about Him and noting that there might be consequences. It contained this profound description of His pique.

As it is well attested, my patience is infinite, but it’s not that infinite.

God created a universe of cause and effect.

His grace stands on top of that, not instead of it.


These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.

Mike Slay

As a mathematician, inventor, and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America, Mike Slay brings an analytical, conversational, and even whimsical approach to the daily study of God's Word.

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