August 28, 2025 • 10 mins
Pastor Brandon explores Amos 8, examining what it truly means to struggle with the absence of God's favor. The prophet warns about a coming famine not of food but of hearing God's word—the most terrifying punishment of all.
• God sends Amos a vision of a basket of ripe fruit, symbolizing Israel's ripeness for judgment
• The people had been robbing the poor, using dishonest business practices, and enslaving the vulnerable
• God promises to turn celebrations into mourning and send darkness at noon
• The most devastating famine will be spiritual—people will search desperately for God's word but won't find it
• We should never take for granted our access to scripture
• We worship not the Bible itself but the God revealed through it
• Regular engagement with God's word ensures we never experience the spiritual famine Amos describes
Make sure you take a moment to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and podcast. Leave us a five-star review—it really helps others find us! Join our Bible Breakdown discussion group on Facebook, and find links to all our resources at thebiblebreakdown.com.
We’d love to hear from you. (For questions, use the links above.)
Contact us-
Ask a Question
Send Encouragement
Take a Next Step-
SOAP Bible Study Method.
Bible Reading Plan.
Free Weekly Newsletter.
Socials-
Facebook.
Instagram.
X.
YouTube.
The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, amos, chapter 8, andtoday's title is A True Famine.
A True Famine we're going totalk about what it really means
to struggle, and that is tostruggle with the absence of the
favor of God.
We're going to get to all thatin just a moment, but if you
(00:20):
have your Bibles, I want to openit up with me to Amos, chapter
8.
While you're doing that, makesure you take just a moment to
like, share and subscribe to theYouTube channel and the podcast
.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.
Also, make sure you leave ussome feedback on there.
When people are looking forpodcasts to listen to, they want
to know what to expect.
I do that whenever I'm lookingat podcasts and so it doesn't
(00:43):
cost you anything, takes youjust a couple of minutes.
Let people know how they canexpect to engage with God's word
every day as they join ourcommunity.
Also, make sure you're going tothe Bible Breakdown discussion
group on Facebook and you canget the links to all the things
at thebiblebreakdowncom.
Well, if you've been with usover the past few weeks, one of
the things that we've beentalking about not weeks, excuse
(01:04):
me, days one of the things thatwe've been talking about is the
overall idea of Amos, is thisidea of let justice roll.
In other words, amos is talkingto the nation of Israel and
what we've been saying is that'scrazy, because he's not even
part of the nation of Israel,he's from Judah.
But he's writing to them and heis saying guys, listen, I can
(01:29):
see the writing on the wall, andso I'm writing to you and I'm
telling you be so very careful,because there is this Assyrian
empire.
He doesn't call them by name,necessarily, but he is saying
that you're going to fall toDamascus and they are going to
absolutely wreck shop because,even though you're economically
so very blessed, you're becomingcorrupt, you're turning away
from the things of God, and sohe is just warning them over and
(01:49):
over again.
And in today's chapter, whathe's going to be talking about?
He's going to be talking aboutthis idea of I want you to know
what the true famine is going tobe, and it's not going to be
that you're going to beoverwhelmed and overtaken and
all the different things, asmuch as it's going to be losing
the favor of God, and I think wesometimes take that for granted
and remember that that reallyis the most important thing,
(02:13):
because if we lose everythingelse, we still have God.
We're still winners.
So we're going to jump intothis, we're going to talk about
this and then see what God'sword will say to us on the other
side.
So if you're ready, amos,chapter 8, verse 1, says this
he's going to be talking about avision and he says then the
sovereign Lord showed me yetanother vision.
In it, I saw a basket filledwith ripe fruit.
(02:38):
What do you see, amos?
He asked I see a basket full ofripe fruit.
Then the Lord said like thisfruit, israel is ripe for
punishment.
I will not delay theirpunishment again.
In that day, the singing in thetemple will be turned to wailing
, dead bodies will be scatteredeverywhere and they will be
carried out of the city insilence.
I, the sovereign Lord, havespoken.
Listen to this.
(02:59):
You who rob the poor andtrample down the needy.
You can't wait for the Sabbathday to be over and for religious
festivals to end so you can getback to cheating the helpless.
You measure out grain withdishonest measures and cheat the
buyer with dishonest scales,and you mix the grain you sell
with chaff swept from the floor,then you enslave poor people
(03:22):
from one piece of silver or apair of sandals.
Now the Lord has sworn this oathby his own name, the pride of
Israel.
I will never forget the wickedthings you have done.
The earth will tremble for yourdeeds and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like theNile River at flood time.
It will heave up and sink againat flood time.
(03:47):
It will heave up and sink again.
In that day, says the Lord, Iwill make the sun go down at
noon and darkness in the earthwhile it is still day.
I will turn your celebrationsinto times of mourning and your
singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothesand shave your heads to show
your sorrow, as if you, as ifonly your son wait a minute, as
if your only son had died.
How very bitter that day willbe.
(04:09):
The time is surely coming, saysthe Lord, when I will send a
famine on the land, not a famineof bread or water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord.
The people will stagger fromsea to sea, wander from border
to border, searching for theword of the Lord.
But they will not find it.
Behold beautiful girls andstrong young men will grow faint
(04:31):
in that day, thirsting for theLord's word, and those who swear
by shameful idols of Samaria,who take oaths in the name of
the God of Dan, who make vows inthe name of the God of
Beersheba.
They will fall down, never torise again.
Wow, what he's saying here is ishe's saying these bad things
(04:53):
are going to happen and you'regoing to be seeking after me,
but I'm not going to talk to you.
I am going to keep my distancebecause it is time and for all
the things.
And we've been noticing overthe past couple of days, as
we've been reading, that God hasbeen sending these visions to
Amos and he has been saying thatjudgment is coming, and then
Amos is interceding for thepeople, and then God is saying,
(05:15):
okay, I'll wait.
And then he's saying I'll wait,and then, but after a while, he
says no, it's not, I'm notgoing to wait anymore, I'm going
to, I'm going to do it.
And the greatest difficulty isgoing to be that you're going to
call to me but you're not goingto hear from me.
You're, you're, you're going towant my word and it's not going
to be there.
And that is the most terrifyingthing in the world, and so what
(05:36):
I would encourage you to do isto make sure that you never
allow yourself to be thirstingor hungry for God's word and not
filling back up again, becausewe have this wonderful joy of
being able to hear God's wordevery day by reading his word.
(05:57):
Being able to hear God's wordevery day by reading his word
and the great thing is aboutreading his word together is
we're able to continually fillback up on his word.
Therefore, when we read hisword, it will constantly be
digging into our lives anddigging into who we are and
helping us to remember the rightway to go.
That way, when bad things come,we will know which way to go.
(06:20):
Now we'll still have to makethe choice if we're going to
take it or not, but that's whatAmos is saying, is he's saying
the worst part of all of this isnot the judgment.
It's going to be the fact thatyou are going to want to turn
back to God, but God's going tosay no, I'm not going to speak
to you.
What a terrible thing.
But we don't have to live thatway because we have his word
every day.
So let's never take it forgranted.
(06:40):
Instead, let us treat God'sword as the precious jewel that
it is.
And to remember and it'simportant to say this, to
remember we don't worship God'sword, we worship the God of his
word.
So when we read the Bible,god's word reveals who he is.
That's when we call it God'sword.
So when I say God's word, morethan I just say Bible, is
(07:02):
because we get to know the Godof the Bible.
I heard someone one time thatsaid it was this progressive
Christian which I hate to evenuse the word Christian behind
that.
But he was criticizing peoplelike me and people like you who
value God's word as much as wedo and we say man, you know.
He said, you know, your Trinityis not what it's supposed to be
(07:22):
.
He was trying to be superiorand he said my Trinity is Father
, son, holy Spirit.
Your Trinity is Father, son,holy Bible.
That's all you do.
And you know, in my mind I'msitting there and I'm going OK.
Well, just by, very, by thevery fact you said that helps me
realize you have no idea whatwe're trying to do, like we're
(07:43):
not.
We're not worshiping the Bible,we're worshiping the God of the
Bible and it's as we know hisword.
We're able to know him more.
So the very fact that you aresaying that means you don't get
it.
But it is important that we saythat we study God's word, not so
that we can just know what theBible says.
We study God's word so that wecan know God more and that we
(08:03):
never have to be in thesituation as he's saying today,
and he's saying there's going tobe a day when you're going to
want to hear God's word, you'renot going to be able to hear it.
Let that never be said of us.
Let us never get to the place,to where we want to hear God's
word but can't get back to it,but to always stay close to his
word.
Let's pray together right now,god.
Thank you so much for today.
Thank you, lord, that we live ina time and a place that, if
(08:23):
someone's listening to this,that means they have access to
your word.
I know that there are peoplewho live in places of the world
right now they don't have readyaccess to your word, but we pray
for them right now.
We intercede for them.
We ask, lord, that you willopen up opportunities for them
to hear your word, to get accessto your word, and that, for
those of us who are so blessedto be in places where we can
(08:45):
listen to podcasts and watchYouTube videos and have a Bible,
that, lord, you will encourageus not to feel bad that we have
these resources other peopledon't but to first of all
celebrate it and then number twobe the answer that brings these
resources to other people.
Help us to never forget the joythat we have of having ready
access to your word.
(09:06):
In Jesus name, we pray Amen.
And what God's word says inAmos, chapter five, verse 24,.
Instead, I want to see a mightyflood of justice, an endless
river of righteous living.
Let that be our story.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for thegrand finale.
Amos, chapter 9.
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, amos, chapter 8, andtoday's title is A True Famine.
A True Famine we're going totalk about what it really means
to struggle, and that is tostruggle with the absence of the
favor of God.
We're going to get to all thatin just a moment, but if you
(00:20):
have your Bibles, I want to openit up with me to Amos, chapter
8.
While you're doing that, makesure you take just a moment to
like, share and subscribe to theYouTube channel and the podcast
.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast.
It really does help.
Also, make sure you leave ussome feedback on there.
When people are looking forpodcasts to listen to, they want
to know what to expect.
I do that whenever I'm lookingat podcasts and so it doesn't
(00:43):
cost you anything, takes youjust a couple of minutes.
Let people know how they canexpect to engage with God's word
every day as they join ourcommunity.
Also, make sure you're going tothe Bible Breakdown discussion
group on Facebook and you canget the links to all the things
at thebiblebreakdowncom.
Well, if you've been with usover the past few weeks, one of
the things that we've beentalking about not weeks, excuse
(01:04):
me, days one of the things thatwe've been talking about is the
overall idea of Amos, is thisidea of let justice roll.
In other words, amos is talkingto the nation of Israel and
what we've been saying is that'scrazy, because he's not even
part of the nation of Israel,he's from Judah.
But he's writing to them and heis saying guys, listen, I can
(01:29):
see the writing on the wall, andso I'm writing to you and I'm
telling you be so very careful,because there is this Assyrian
empire.
He doesn't call them by name,necessarily, but he is saying
that you're going to fall toDamascus and they are going to
absolutely wreck shop because,even though you're economically
so very blessed, you're becomingcorrupt, you're turning away
from the things of God, and sohe is just warning them over and
(01:49):
over again.
And in today's chapter, whathe's going to be talking about?
He's going to be talking aboutthis idea of I want you to know
what the true famine is going tobe, and it's not going to be
that you're going to beoverwhelmed and overtaken and
all the different things, asmuch as it's going to be losing
the favor of God, and I think wesometimes take that for granted
and remember that that reallyis the most important thing,
(02:13):
because if we lose everythingelse, we still have God.
We're still winners.
So we're going to jump intothis, we're going to talk about
this and then see what God'sword will say to us on the other
side.
So if you're ready, amos,chapter 8, verse 1, says this
he's going to be talking about avision and he says then the
sovereign Lord showed me yetanother vision.
In it, I saw a basket filledwith ripe fruit.
(02:38):
What do you see, amos?
He asked I see a basket full ofripe fruit.
Then the Lord said like thisfruit, israel is ripe for
punishment.
I will not delay theirpunishment again.
In that day, the singing in thetemple will be turned to wailing
, dead bodies will be scatteredeverywhere and they will be
carried out of the city insilence.
I, the sovereign Lord, havespoken.
Listen to this.
(02:59):
You who rob the poor andtrample down the needy.
You can't wait for the Sabbathday to be over and for religious
festivals to end so you can getback to cheating the helpless.
You measure out grain withdishonest measures and cheat the
buyer with dishonest scales,and you mix the grain you sell
with chaff swept from the floor,then you enslave poor people
(03:22):
from one piece of silver or apair of sandals.
Now the Lord has sworn this oathby his own name, the pride of
Israel.
I will never forget the wickedthings you have done.
The earth will tremble for yourdeeds and everyone will mourn.
The ground will rise like theNile River at flood time.
It will heave up and sink againat flood time.
(03:47):
It will heave up and sink again.
In that day, says the Lord, Iwill make the sun go down at
noon and darkness in the earthwhile it is still day.
I will turn your celebrationsinto times of mourning and your
singing into weeping.
You will wear funeral clothesand shave your heads to show
your sorrow, as if you, as ifonly your son wait a minute, as
if your only son had died.
How very bitter that day willbe.
(04:09):
The time is surely coming, saysthe Lord, when I will send a
famine on the land, not a famineof bread or water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord.
The people will stagger fromsea to sea, wander from border
to border, searching for theword of the Lord.
But they will not find it.
Behold beautiful girls andstrong young men will grow faint
(04:31):
in that day, thirsting for theLord's word, and those who swear
by shameful idols of Samaria,who take oaths in the name of
the God of Dan, who make vows inthe name of the God of
Beersheba.
They will fall down, never torise again.
Wow, what he's saying here is ishe's saying these bad things
(04:53):
are going to happen and you'regoing to be seeking after me,
but I'm not going to talk to you.
I am going to keep my distancebecause it is time and for all
the things.
And we've been noticing overthe past couple of days, as
we've been reading, that God hasbeen sending these visions to
Amos and he has been saying thatjudgment is coming, and then
Amos is interceding for thepeople, and then God is saying,
(05:15):
okay, I'll wait.
And then he's saying I'll wait,and then, but after a while, he
says no, it's not, I'm notgoing to wait anymore, I'm going
to, I'm going to do it.
And the greatest difficulty isgoing to be that you're going to
call to me but you're not goingto hear from me.
You're, you're, you're going towant my word and it's not going
to be there.
And that is the most terrifyingthing in the world, and so what
(05:36):
I would encourage you to do isto make sure that you never
allow yourself to be thirstingor hungry for God's word and not
filling back up again, becausewe have this wonderful joy of
being able to hear God's wordevery day by reading his word.
(05:57):
Being able to hear God's wordevery day by reading his word
and the great thing is aboutreading his word together is
we're able to continually fillback up on his word.
Therefore, when we read hisword, it will constantly be
digging into our lives anddigging into who we are and
helping us to remember the rightway to go.
That way, when bad things come,we will know which way to go.
(06:20):
Now we'll still have to makethe choice if we're going to
take it or not, but that's whatAmos is saying, is he's saying
the worst part of all of this isnot the judgment.
It's going to be the fact thatyou are going to want to turn
back to God, but God's going tosay no, I'm not going to speak
to you.
What a terrible thing.
But we don't have to live thatway because we have his word
every day.
So let's never take it forgranted.
(06:40):
Instead, let us treat God'sword as the precious jewel that
it is.
And to remember and it'simportant to say this, to
remember we don't worship God'sword, we worship the God of his
word.
So when we read the Bible,god's word reveals who he is.
That's when we call it God'sword.
So when I say God's word, morethan I just say Bible, is
(07:02):
because we get to know the Godof the Bible.
I heard someone one time thatsaid it was this progressive
Christian which I hate to evenuse the word Christian behind
that.
But he was criticizing peoplelike me and people like you who
value God's word as much as wedo and we say man, you know.
He said, you know, your Trinityis not what it's supposed to be
(07:22):
.
He was trying to be superiorand he said my Trinity is Father
, son, holy Spirit.
Your Trinity is Father, son,holy Bible.
That's all you do.
And you know, in my mind I'msitting there and I'm going OK.
Well, just by, very, by thevery fact you said that helps me
realize you have no idea whatwe're trying to do, like we're
(07:43):
not.
We're not worshiping the Bible,we're worshiping the God of the
Bible and it's as we know hisword.
We're able to know him more.
So the very fact that you aresaying that means you don't get
it.
But it is important that we saythat we study God's word, not so
that we can just know what theBible says.
We study God's word so that wecan know God more and that we
(08:03):
never have to be in thesituation as he's saying today,
and he's saying there's going tobe a day when you're going to
want to hear God's word, you'renot going to be able to hear it.
Let that never be said of us.
Let us never get to the place,to where we want to hear God's
word but can't get back to it,but to always stay close to his
word.
Let's pray together right now,god.
Thank you so much for today.
Thank you, lord, that we live ina time and a place that, if
(08:23):
someone's listening to this,that means they have access to
your word.
I know that there are peoplewho live in places of the world
right now they don't have readyaccess to your word, but we pray
for them right now.
We intercede for them.
We ask, lord, that you willopen up opportunities for them
to hear your word, to get accessto your word, and that, for
those of us who are so blessedto be in places where we can
(08:45):
listen to podcasts and watchYouTube videos and have a Bible,
that, lord, you will encourageus not to feel bad that we have
these resources other peopledon't but to first of all
celebrate it and then number twobe the answer that brings these
resources to other people.
Help us to never forget the joythat we have of having ready
access to your word.
(09:06):
In Jesus name, we pray Amen.
And what God's word says inAmos, chapter five, verse 24,.
Instead, I want to see a mightyflood of justice, an endless
river of righteous living.
Let that be our story.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for thegrand finale.
Amos, chapter 9.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.