6:8
This verse is given a very strong introduction, “The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts”. This is stressing the seriousness and the certainty of what is about to be said. The nation needed to come to its senses.
Jacob is used here to refer to the northern kingdom of Israel. God abhors her pride. All of us need to be careful that we do not fall into the trap of Jacob. As a nation we are very rich, while much of the world is very poor. We can become very proud in ourselves. We need to keep an eye on our hearts. The things that Jacob but his trust in would come to nothing, for God would deliver the city and all that was in it to an enemy.
We need to truly fear the Lord.
6:9,10
These two verses describe the aftermath of destruction. You can imagine this as a scene from a horror film, but why does God use such vivid language? There is only so much that can be communicated by prose, graphic language, picture language, can sometimes convey the point much more forcibly. So what is the point that God is seeking to convey? It is that judgement, horrific judgement, is coming upon the house of Israel. It is vital that Israel heeds the warnings that Amos is giving, otherwise severe consequences would follow. We should treat the language of Jesus in the New Testament in the same way. Fools spend their time babbling on about eternal conscious torment, or conditional immortality, and the like. We would do far better to focus on the purpose of Jesus’ words. We are sinning against God, judgement is coming, terrible judgement, and if we have any sense we will repent while there is still time. Finally, we should note that judgement did come upon Israel, very real judgement. Likewise, hell is for real.
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