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.

 

Many had come to worship the golden calf which Jeroboam had set up and because they were devoted to it, they would also swear by it as they made deals or lived in the rules associated with it.  They refuse to believe that the golden calf was a mere idol with no power behind it so they brought themselves to believe that the golden calf was alive because there was power behind it.  This would be referring to both the golden calves and the idolatrous center of Beth-el.  Then there was the manner of Beer-sheba which had the idolatrous city of Gilgal where the people of Samaria made pilgrimages to when they did not go to Beth-el.  Beersheba was in the southern most area of Israel and was about 70 miles (113 km) from Samaria.  All of the cities where there was idolatry in the land of Israel, from the north to the south would be totally destroyed between the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

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