Amos 8:7-10

The nature of Israel's judgment -- Amos 8:7-10: Israel was prideful or arrogant about the fact that they were descendants of Jacob. God told them that this fact would not cause Him to forget any of their evil deeds. God forgets our sins when He forgives them. Therefore Israel's sins would be unforgiven and thus would not go unpunished. God would no longer overlook the unrighteous practices of the leaders in Israel even if their ancestry went back to Jacob. They had become an unfaithful nation and had broken their covenant with God. Now God said, "Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?" The wrath of God that was to come should have caused this nation to tremble.

God promised, "On that day, I, the LORD God, will make the sun go down at noon, and I will turn daylight into darkness." The figure that the sun would go down at noon was a picture of how the nation of Israel would lose her power prematurely. Faithfulness would have blessed that nation for many generations to come. Sadly the land was darkened because of continual sin. Everything that was good became bad. Their festivals and joyful singing turned into sorrow. There would be no joy. They would wear sackcloth and shave their heads, as one would at the death an only child. The coming of God's judgment would be a day of bitter calamity and of wailing and mourning. The day might start as a beautiful, sunshiny day but it would end in bitter darkness. The coming of God's wrath would be a horrible day for Israel.