Today He says, "Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt." (Amos 8:8) The Nile flooded annually and the Lord compares the coming disaster to the inrushing of flood waters. An enemy army will rush in like a flood and the nation will sink.
"'In that day,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.'" (Amos 8:9-10) It is believed that two eclipses occurred during Amos' lifetime, based on the historical timeline of known eclipses and the way this timeline lines up with the reign of Jeroboam II, who was on the throne during Amos' lifetime. The reference to the land going dark at noon may mean that one or the other of these eclipses was the sign that the prophesied disaster was imminent.
But I am not sure whether the Lord literally means the earth will turn dark at noon or whether this is an expression He's using to describe a day that begins like a normal day and ends catastrophe. Have you ever experienced a day like that? I have and it's a shocking and devastating thing to be going through an ordinary day and suddenly be faced with a horrifying loss. I don't believe I did anything that caused the particular loss I have in mind and it's important to remember that not every catastrophe is a result of our own sins. Simply living in this fallen world that's been polluted by sin exposes us to the risk of danger. We live in a world where bad things happen, so we don't have to be living in disobedience to the Lord to experience hardship, but in the book of Amos it is clear that the hardship that's coming is a direct result of the people's deliberate sin. When we are living within the will of God and hardship comes, we know that the Lord has a purpose for allowing the hardship. But when hardship comes into the life of a deliberately disobedient person, it is for the purpose of discipline and (hopefully) to cause repentance.
The religious festivals and the singing mentioned in verses 9-10 may be of an idolatrous nature. But even if these are festivals and songs in the Lord's name, we've already learned that most of the people were only going through the motions. He's already spoken of how meaningless are their observations of His prescribed holy days. While they are participating in religious observances and songs, just as they would do on any other day, shocking things are going to occur.
Worse than invasion by an enemy army and worse than being taken captive to foreign lands is the era of spiritual darkness into which they will be plunged. "'The days are coming,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'when I will send a famine through the land---not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.'" (Amos 8:11-12) For a long time now they have ignored His word. They have eschewed His holy principles in favor of living according to their carnal natures. But when the "wakeup call" comes, they will desire a word from the Lord and will not receive one. He will be silent for a time until their desire for His word is as strong as a parched tongue desires water and is as strong as an empty belly desires food.
Silence can speak louder than words. Have you ever had someone pay no attention to you until you stopped talking? A person may ignore our warnings for a long time until we give up and go silent. Then, realizing we are no longer trying to deal with them, they suddenly want to hear what we have to say. The Lord has sent prophet after prophet after prophet to preach His message to the nation but most of the people have ignored His warnings. A day is coming when He will go silent for a time and the silence will be deafening. That is when He will finally get their attention.
He concludes Chapter 8 with this: "In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst. Those who swear by the sin of Samaria---who say, 'As surely as your god lives, Dan,' or, 'As surely as the god of Beersheba lives,'---they will fall, never to rise again." (Amos 8:13-14) Again this "thirst" is a reference to the thirst for God's word.
The sin of Samaria (the capital of the northern kingdom which was close to the golden calf worship site at Bethel), the god of Dan (another golden calf location), and the god of Beersheba (another location of an unauthorized altar), are mentioned here because it is these gods and these religious sites to which the people are looking for help. But no help is coming from useless idols. Their only help is in the Lord, whom they have rejected, and because they have rejected Him so many times and for so many centuries, the northern kingdom will collapse, never to rise again. Its people will be scattered throughout the nations, and from there many of them will remember the one true God and call upon His name again, but the northern kingdom will not revive and prosper politically or militarily. This is why the Lord says that those who trust in idols "will fall, never to rise again".
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