Amos 8:9

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.

The eclipse of the sun spiritually considered

Though the heavens are full of the glory of the Lord, yet they rarely engage our devout attention, or make their voice so to be heard as that we notice it and listen. The sight and the music are so constantly repeated, and become so common, that they cease to impress us. It is well, then, that God has so wisely ordered the universe that ever and anon the monotony of these ordinary phenomena should be broken by those that are more startling and extraordinary,--such as the visitations of eclipses, comets, and earthquakes, that so men might be compelled to see their Maker’s hand and hear their Author’s voice, and know that there is indeed a God that created and that governeth the earth.

1. Such a phenomenon as the eclipse is calculated powerfully to impress upon us a lesson of gratitude for the inestimable blessing of sunlight. Like some of our greatest mercies, it is a common one, and therefore it is unappreciated. From how few hearts arise the morning orison of thankfulness, and the noonday hymn of praise. Of this, like most of God’s blessings, we need to be now and then deprived, in order to teach us how great it is. If suddenly at midday God were now and then to place the shadow of His hand before the sun, we should then feel to the full the horror of the deprivation and the great blessing of the gift. We read of those, like the Persians, who worship the Sun, and pay to it the homage that is due to its Creator. And far nobler it is to worship the sun than to walk day by day in his light with a heart thankless for the blessing.

2. A more solemn truth, of which this phenomenon may remind us, is the effect of sin on the soul of man. The darkness of eclipse will be caused by a large and opaque body coming between us and the sun. The moon will come between us and the sun. Were it not for some intervening object, God’s light would be ever shining down upon us. The eclipse will not be caused by the sun’s withdrawing his shining. God never changes. If there is darkness in the soul of man, it is to be accounted for by the fact that something or other has come between his soul and God, and eclipsed the light. Scripture teaches us that this object is sin. “Your iniquities have separated between you and God.” Every soul who is under the dominion of sin may see in the eclipse a faint image, in the natural world of the position of his soul in relation to God. It is cut off from God, and so abideth in darkness.

3. This eclipse may bring to remembrance the awful death of Him through whose work alone those sins can be removed. During His supreme agony upon the Cross there occurred a preternatural eclipse of the sun. “The sun was darkened.” It was truly a time for both nature and man to mourn.

4. The eclipse should enable us in some sort to realise the great day of the wrath of the Lord. Then “there shall be signs in the sun”; “the sun shall withdraw his shining.” That appalling eclipse will not only be total but final, and to no man who is not then found to be a child of God, and a servant of Christ, will light evermore return. (Richard Glover.)

Untimely sunset

I. The Divine hand in an apparently untimely event. The peculiar reference of the text is some sudden calamity which was to befall Israel. In nothing is the Divine sovereignty more conspicuous than in the untimely removal of useful and excellent characters from the world. The mystery attending it, however, arises more from ignorance and shortsightedness than from any other cause. We can only judge from appearances. With the real nature of the case, and the actual reasons which govern the decisions of the Eternal, we are equally unacquainted. Humanity seems to weep when her favourite sons are removed. Patriotism bears a dejected head when her brightest ornaments are no more. The world trembles when its best pillars bow before the stern hand of time and death--“when the earth is darkened in the clear day.” Even religion cannot be unmoved. Religion contemplates, and teaches us to contemplate, this world in its true light, as introductory only to a more finished state of being--as connected with the purposes and plans of heaven. It is succeeded by an emotion of triumph, that in that world in which their splendours are renewed the same voice proclaims, “My sun shall no more go down.”

II. The divine dispensations demand particular attention. The very language of the text denotes surprise, and seems intended to awaken attention--“and it shall come to pass.” So it is especially when God takes from the world important characters,--He expressly designs to arouse men from their lethargy. Fear should produce seriousness and desire for the true salvation. (Homiletic Magazine.)

Early graves

The words are suggestive of early graves, and these abound. The vast majority of the race die in early life, the greater number by far in childhood; the sun goes down just as it appears in the horizon. What do these early graves show?

I. That life is absolutely in the Hands of God. Who causes the sun to go down whilst it is yet noon? He alone can arrest its majestic progress, and turn it back. So it is with human life. The human creature seems organised to live on for years; but its Maker puts an end to its course at any time He pleases, so that the first breath is often immediately succeeded by the last.

II. That man in all stages of life should hold himself ready to leave the world. He should regard himself not as a settler, but as a sojourner; not as a tree, to root itself in the earth, but a bark to float down the stream to sunnier shores.

III. That there must be a future state for the free development of human nature. What a universe of thought and sympathy and effort are crushed in germ every year by death! Potential poets, artists, statesmen, authors, preachers, buried in early graves. Why the creation of these germs--these seeds of majestic forests? Surely the wise and benevolent Author intended their full development; and for that there must be another world. (Homilist.)

Lessons of an eclipse

If the text were taken literally it would be very nearly verified in an eclipse. But the words are to be spiritually understood. Here is intended some dispensation of Divine Providence towards mankind, of which the sun’s eclipse is a suitable and proper emblem.

1. Such a day is that wherein God makes a sudden and unlooked-for change in a man’s circumstances. All may go well with a man, and his heart may be lifted up within him. Then, in great mercy to his soul, God may send him an eclipse. The bright sun of prosperity is suddenly put out.

2. God eclipses a man’s sun when He calls him suddenly and prematurely from the world. How many a bright sun is thus extinguished every day!

3. The day on which the Lord maketh a man’s sun to “go down at noon” is the day on which He is pleased to strip such a man of his opportunities and means of grace. There is a clear day of blessed opportunity for every penitent, awakened sinner in existence. None shall seek and seek in vain. But will the light shine for ever on those who will not “comprehend it”? And there are eclipse times for sincere believers. “Now, for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” And the Lord Himself sometimes appears to hide from him, and withdraw from him His customary favour, then indeed his sun is gone--his day is darkened. Seasons like these may well be called the eclipses of believers. But, blessed be God! they are, like eclipses, of short continuance. (A. Roberts, M. A.)

The solar eclipse

The darkness of an eclipse may be considered--

I. As an excitement to gratitude. The present state of knowledge affords abundant reason for gratitude. We axe not ignorant of nature as our distant fathers were. Ignorance is never a simple privation of knowledge; in the absence of correct knowledge there will always be erroneous conclusions; and hence ignorance is always injurious. The regularity of the course of nature claims our gratitude on an occasion like the present. Deviations from the ordinary course are not of frequent occasion, but we are acquainted with their arrival. One reason for such deviations may be, that our sluggish faculties may be awakened to observe the wonderful works of God.

II. The darkness of an eclipse as a memoral of past facts.

1. We are reminded of the creation of the world, when “darkness was upon the face of the deep.” How concerned is God for man’s comfort! Surely man ought to be concerned for God’s glory!

2. Of the darkness with which God has surrounded Himself in His intercourse with man. How superior are the spiritual manifestations of Deity under the Gospel, to the personal manifestations of Deity under the law.

3. Of the plague of darkness which was inflicted on the Egyptians. The bewildering and distressing effects of darkness may be illustrated by a familiar example. It may have happened to us to lose our way in a field at night. Once bewildered, you wander without the least conception whither. So this plague of darkness gives us an impressive view of the value of that light which will be temporalily darkened by the expected eclipse.

4. Of the supernatural darkness at the time of the death of Jesus Christ. This could not have been occasioned by an eclipse, as the Passover was held at the time of the full moon. On this memorable instance we are taught how easily God can reverse the order of nature. The course of nature is but the will and energy of God, who “worketh all in all.”

III. The darkness of an eclipse as a reminder of events which are to come.

1. We are reminded of the time when we shall “ go whence we shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death.” The grave is dark, but we shall not perceive its darkness if we are the disciples of Jesus Christ.

2. We are reminded of the punishment of the wicked. This is spoken of as “the outer darkness.” As figurative, this seems rather to heighten our apprehensions of distress than to diminish them. (The Essex Remembrancer.)