Amos 8:8-14
Amos 8:8
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn
that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be
cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
The land will tremble with the sound of the horses and
chariots when the Assyrians come into the land.
The word tremble may also be understood as “quake” which means it will
sound like an earthquake. When the
people see the chariots coming they will mourn because they realize that the
word of the LORD concerning their judgment was not only a vague or future
prophecy but a specific one which was now being fulfilled on them.
The Assyrians will come in like a flood of Egypt when the Nile overflows
its banks and floods the surrounding areas.
There will be no way to stop the Assyrians as they will come in like a
roaring flood and will decimate the land as God’s hand of judgment.
Amos 8:9
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord
GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth
in the clear day:
And thou shalt
grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper
in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man
shall save thee. (Deuteronomy
28:29) On June 15, 763 B.C.
shortly before Amos began his ministry there was an eclipse of the sun.
Eclipses are not in view in this verse but a fulfilling of the warning
found in Deuteronomy 28:29 where even if it is daylight, they will be in
consternation as one who is blind and gropes in the darkness.
To grope is to feel around in the darkness to get your bearings.
The sun was a point of worship in the false religions but here God is
stating that he has the power to darken the sun at noon and to darken a day when
it is clear and no clouds in the sky.
When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, the sun was darkened by God
at noon.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of
the temple was rent in the midst.
(Luke 23:45)
Amos 8:10
And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your
songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and
baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and
the end thereof as a bitter day.
When the day of God’s judgment finally comes, all that
the people enjoyed will now be taken away and instead of mirth there will be
mourning. No longer would the songs
of Zion be sung in joy but in lamentation.
For there they that carried us
away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us
mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
(Psalm 137:3) Wearing
sackcloth was an outward expression of the sadness and mourning a person had
inside them. Making one bald is
like a person pulling out some of their hair or shaving their head in shame.
Make thee bald, and poll thee for
thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into
captivity from thee. (Micah 1:16)
There will be such sadness in the land that it will be like one who
mourned for their only son which means that the family line would now cease and
die with the parents. Then when the
end of the day comes they will be glad in hopes that they will not see another
day like it yet the invasion of the Assyrians is only the beginning of their
sorrows because this judgment will be a lifetime judgment.
Amos 8:11
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will
send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the LORD:
The days being spoken about is the day of judgment which
they will experience. They have
despised the word of the LORD and chose not to heed the written word of God and
the prophets which were sent to them but soon they would realize that the words
of the LORD were words of life and all they will be hearing in captivity will be
the words of the false teachers and priests.
The famine they will suffer will not be one of physical food nor of water
which will take care of their physical needs but their greater need will be to
hear the words of God so they can come back spiritually to the LORD but because
of their despising of the LORD and his words, he will withhold the words of life
from them. This is the same
situation with the modern Christian as they choose more and more the modern
versions of the Bible which chop up and mutilate verses and their meanings so
they get to the point where there is no true understanding of the words of God.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It
is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
(Luke 4:4) Christians
today can have food and water and survive but they will not know how to live the
obedient Christian life if they are void of the words of God.
Christianity because of its unconditional acceptance of modern versions
is going the way of Israel. In
these modern churches there is full bands and they sound like nightclubs.
The pulpits have been removed for theatrical performances.
No instruction in the word of God.
These things will bring Christianity into the same situation that Israel
was in and they will not know it until the judgment of God falls.
Just as ancient nations with false gospels attacked Israel, false gospels
are flooding into the modern church unchecked simply because the modern
Christian leaders are inept at identifying them and rejecting them.
Amos 8:12
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north
even to the east, they shall
run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall
not find it.
Then those who would be left behind in Samaria would be
like people wandering around with no destination to go to.
They would wander from the Sea of Tiberias to the Midland Sea, from the
Dead Sea to the Red Sea. They would
also hear reports that there is a prophet in some distant town and they would
make the journey to hear such a one just to be disappointed that the report was
wrong and there was no prophet, so their wandering would continue to hear the
word of God from someone.
Amos 8:13
In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint
for thirst.
No matter how attractive a woman is or how athletic and
in shape a young man is, neither of these groups will escape the consequences of
the coming judgment of God from Assyria.
Without them being able to find water they will die much quicker than
they would if it was a famine of food.
This would mean the end of many blood lines and no posterity to carry on.
Amos 8:14
They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god,
O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and
never rise up again.