The way we can correct our path and avoid judgement is to look at our history, our personal history and the history of our nation. God hasn’t changed His toolkit. He created the Heavens and Earth. Humans have no control over those tools. Amos details to Northern Israel the abuses of the elites in the government and monarchy upon the regular citizens.
The descendants of Israel, North and South, inherited the covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at Mt. Sinai hundreds of years before. Yet, instead of living in that covenant, the children of Israel preferred to imitate the practices of the nations around and actually surpassed the surrounding nations around in their iniquity. This is why God judges the entire family of Israel much more severely than He punishes the other nations. This is the prophet’s warning in Amos 3.
The friends of God are those who trust the promises and testimony of God and want to communicate with God face to face, despite knowing how disastrous that could be for one’s casual observance of God. We can know God as one speaks to a friend, but once God calls you to be His friend, you life will never be the same.
Amid the seemingly disconnected warnings about various nations in Amos 1 is a message for the people of God: The answer to social injustice is not socialism but spiritual revival that brings personal transformation. This is also the message of Revelation 1-3.