Rob gave us this verse from Amos 8:2:
"And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I
said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come
upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more."
He mentioned that the basket is like
an ark, and that made me curious, so I wanted to know what Mr. Strong has
to say about that. His word for basket as used in Amos 2 is
#3619, meaning a bird-trap, as furnished with a clap-stick
ot treadle to spring it; hence, a basket resembling a wicker cage. Well this
is not exactly an ark, but the summer fruit is inside a basket
that is about to be opened. With Strong's definition including a wicker basket
like a bird cage that has a spring release, I had the mental image of doves
who had been confined in a cage, about to freed to fly into the
air above.
I like Rob's analogy of a basket
being an ark, but I think more correctly it is saying that the fruit, the
Bride, rather than being held in an ark, are actually about to released
from this world, which is not our home, to our heavenly home above. And once
this event happens, the summer fruit being released, then the end will come
upon Israel. The remainder of this chapter in Israel surely describes
the coming time of Jacob's trouble.
Thank you Rob for giving us another clear
example from the Old Testament of the pre-trib rapture.
"Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards
of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head
of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! Behold, the Lord hath
a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with
the hand.The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under
feet: And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall
be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he
that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. In
that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem
of beauty, unto the residue of his people, And for a spirit of judgment to
him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle
to the gate. But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink
are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,
they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink;
they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit
and filthiness, so that there is no place clean."
This pictures to me the USA, with its mountains and valleys and fruited plains,
once a glorious beauty, but now a drunkard, fat with pride. Ephraim is drunk
on the words of the false priests and prophets, and are stumbling in judgement.
The land is is full of filth and is about to be judged, once the basket of
summer fruit is removed. Woe unto Ephraim!