Because God is good, he must punish evil like the “sinful kingdom” where Amos lived (Amos 9:8). When God’s judgment came on them, they had nowhere to hide. It was a dark day. Amos describes some trying to hide in the mountains and others at the bottom of the sea. He is exaggerating to make the point that no one could escape God’s judgment!

Someday soon there will be a similar but final judgment. Amos describes this future dark day like this: “On that day,” God declares, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. . . . I will make it feel like someone is crying that their only son has died” (see Amos 8:9–10).

This is also how the death of God’s Son, Jesus, is described: “From the sixth hour [noon] there was darkness over all the land” (Matt. 27:45). The darkness lasted until three, when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you stopped speaking to me?” (see Matt. 27:46) and died. In that moment, when the Snake Crusher died, he provided the way to escape God’s final judgment. How? He took the punishment we deserve for all our sins. He died in our place as the sky went dark with God’s judgment. He died to save us from the final judgment. Then he rose and told his followers that he would be with them always. What a Savior! Let’s run to him so we can escape the judgment we deserve.