Amos 8:9

 Amos 8:9 says, 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:  God said that the people of Isreal might look out and think that they had plenty of daylight left to do what they wanted to do, but that He would cause the sun to go down in the middle of the day and darkness to come over the earth.  I believe that God was saying that He was in charge of when judgment was coming on them, and they only had the time He gave them to repent and return to Him.  We today may feel that we have plenty of time left to make things right with God, but time may run out for us any second.   Verse ten adds, 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.  God said when He sent His judgment on them, that all their feasts would become times of mourning and their songs would become songs of lamentation.  He also said that they would go through the acts of repentance, but it would be too late.  God said that their mourning would be like that of the death of an only son.  When God's judgment comes, no matter how much people may mourn, if they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, it will be too late.  Verse eleven declares, 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:  God said that He was going to send a famine on the land, not of food and water, but a famine for hearing the word of God.  Matthew Henry says this means that there was coming a time when there would be few true prophets proclaiming God's word.  I don't believe that this means that God was deliberately withholding His word, but that there would be very few who were willing to proclaim His word.  We need preachers today who proclaim the truth of God's word, but more and more people are living in spiritual starvation.  They do not hunger and thirst after God's word.  Verse twelve adds, 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.  God said in that day that people would run everywhere seeking His word, but they would not find it.  I believe that this means that they would be looking for God's word everywhere but in a personal relationship with Him.  We may search everywhere in the world for an understanding of God's word, but until we come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, we will not find it.  Verse thirteen states, In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.  God said that when His judgment came upon them that the young people, those who should be the strongest, would faint from thirst.  I believe this means that they would faint not from physical thirst, but from the spiritual thirst that God had just spoken of.  No matter how strong we may be physically, if we are not hungering and thirsting after God's word, we will faint spiritually, and our spiritual relationship to God is all that really matters.  Verse fourteen adds, They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.  God said that those who swore by, or put their faith in, false gods would fall and never rise again.  If a person puts their faith in anything but God, allowing it to be their god instead of faith in Jesus Christ as their God, when God's judgment comes, they will fall into the punishment of sin, never to rise again out of it.  This is true not only for those when judgment comes, but also for anyone who dies between now and the day of God's coming judgment.  If we reject Jesus Christ in this life, then He will reject us when God's final judgment comes.