Well, God's mercy didn't change the behavior of the people.  They continued perverting the worship center they had constructed into something they invented for their own convenience, with their own perverted lives.  They broke the covenant they had with God.  They continued to break His commandments--big time.  So God spoke to Amos about all of this again.  One thing about God, He doesn't change his mind about sin.  Sin is sin.  Many years ago, an evangelist named Billy Sunday had a sermon called "Payday Someday."  Someday was here.  Payday was coming for the house of Jacob.

The second vision of Amos occurs in Amos 7:4-6  "Thus has the Lord God showed unto me:  And, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.  Then I said, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.  The Lord repented for this:  This also shall not be, said the Lord God."

When I lived in Santa Ana, California, we were always afraid of the winds whipping fire down through the valley.  I'm sure you have seen these fires on television as they tear through everything in their paths.  They lick up water in cow ponds and evaporate pools.  It is devastating.  People are left with nothing.  Amos saw a vision of what God was going to do to Israel, and again he went straight to God. But this time instead of asking God to forgive, he begged God to cease.  He appealed to God to remember that these were His people, and to consider how few they were.  How could they ever rise from the ashes if God carried out His intentions?

Once again, God repented.  Repented!!!  And told Amos that the vision would not happen.  All because of Amos' plea.  God tells Amos what is going to happen to the house of Jacob, Amos asks God to cease, and then God changes his mind.  He must have really loved Amos.  It was a sure thing the people didn't deserve His mercy.  God was simply affirming  the relationship He had with Amos.  I wish I had known Amos.  He would have been a really good friend.