For some reason, Amos 8-9 keeps presenting itself to me. When I read these chapters, I’m not sure if they are history or prophecy. Some of it sounds like history. And yet in a few places Amos uses the term “in that day”, a reference to the end times. Is that the case here? Amos 8:9 speaks about the sun going down at noon and the earth being dark. Was this the crucifixion event or is it speaking of a time yet future? And the “time of mourning for an only son”. Is that future? The famine of the hearing of the words of the Lord – is that future or past? Then in the latter part of Amos 9, it speaks of “raising up the fallen booth of David”. I see some partial fulfillment of Verses 11 – 15 today, but there are some things in these verses that seem to point to conditions present in the millennial period. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Like other prophets, the words of Amos take in amazing sweeps of time with out so much as a pause for breath. Amos was a contemporary of Isaiah. Though he was primarily sent to warn the Northern Kingdom, it’s easy to see the fulfillment of Amos 8:9 in the day on which Jesus was crucified.
Verse 10 was partially fulfilled by the believers who mourned the Lord’s death on that Passover, but its ultimate fulfillment is confirmed by Zechariah 12:10-14. Just before the 2nd Coming, the entire nation will mourn over the realization of what their ancestors allowed to happen. Amos 8:11 is often quoted in connection with the End times saying that the anti-Christ will attempt to remove any reference to God and His word from Earth.
Amos 9 begins with a prophecy of the Northern Kingdom’s destruction that was fulfilled within 50 years of its writing, but from verse 11 on, Israel’s Kingdom Age is in view with God’s promise of complete and permanent restoration.