The book of Amos is just as you said. Amos was their warning. He was not a prophet, he was a gardener, a dresser of sycamores when God called him to warn the Israels. They, the Israels did not listen or turn from their evil ways and they experienced God’s wrath.
The same things happened to Judah but they were kept together for the most part during the Babylonian captivity and did return to Jerusalem and Judea. They repented and changed their ways. I have read somewhere that the years in captivity corresponded to the Jubilee Years they had not observed.
A good modern day take of this is in St. Faustina’s Diary entry #20. Her angel takes her to purgatory and on their return Jesus tells her “my mercy does not want this but justice demands this”.
Another way to view it is through the Passion and death of Jesus. Why should He suffer for Our sins?
God Bless!!!
