When we speak of Amos today, we know that he was one of Israel's great prophets. Yet at the time when Amos spoke, he took pains to remind us that he was just an ordinary migrant worker. What he spoke were the words God had shown him.

God spoke to him through a series of visions that came to Amos when he was in worship. As he participated in these common ritu­als of worship, which he and others had seen hundreds of times, this time the ritual had a clarity that it had never had before. It is the fourth vision that I want to focus on.

The fourth vision given to Amos was a basket of summer fruit. It was the annual offering of the firstfruits of the harvest. The of­fering was at the conclusion of the harvest and in anticipation of winter rains that prepared for fresh plantings. People woul…