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Amos 5:19  (Revised Standard Version)
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<< Amos 5:18   Amos 5:20 >>


Amos 5:18-20

"Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you?" (Amos 5:18). It is always a prophet's responsibility to remind the people that the future is inextricably bound to the present. What one does today affects the course of events as time marches on.

Malachi asks, "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?" (Malachi 3:2). No such doubts assailed these people at all. They were confident that things would be all right. They felt they would march right through the day of their judgment because they were His chosen people.

But when Amos looked at his times, he became frightened. "It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him" (Amos 5:18-19).

There is no escape! People, living in their complacency, think that everything is fine. But the day of judgment will come upon them unexpectedly, and in utter hopelessness they will start running for their lives. They will escape one terror only to confront another! And just when they think they are finally safe, they will receive a mortal wound!

But, the prophet is not yet finished! "Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?" (Amos 5:20). Wailing and inescapable judgment are followed by darkness. In their complacency, the people think it logical to conclude that, since everything is presently all right, they must have overcome those things which plagued them. With that behind them, they think their future is full of gladness and good times. Amos disagrees! He accuses them of feeding themselves false hopes. When God comes, he says, He will be their enemy!

John W. Ritenbaugh
Prepare to Meet Your God! (The Book of Amos) (Part Two)



Amos 5:18-20

These verses bear a definite affinity with Jeremiah 7, where the prophet warns his audience against giving heed to “deceptive words” (verse 4) and behind them, of course, fallacious doctrines. These people “entered these gates [of the Temple] to worship the LORD” (verse 2). Yet, much like those to whom Amos spoke earlier, they were guilty of perpetrating vast social injustices, justifying themselves all the while in the name of religion. Jeremiah asks, rhetorically:

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered!“—only to go on doing all these abominations? (verse 9)

He has already pointed out the moral depravity, however:

For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. (verses 5-7)

These people considered themselves safe because of their religious heritage, typified most saliently in Solomon's Temple (verse 4). They thought, “God would never destroy that!” God instructs the people otherwise, asking them in verse 12 to go “now to My place that was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel.” History has shown that the threats of the “severe” God are not idle:

Therefore I will do to the house that is called by My name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. (verses 14-15)

Charles Whitaker
The Goodness and Severity of God (Part Two)



Amos 5:18-20

The Israelites of Amos' time were like many in the Western world today. Those who at least nominally believed in God had fooled themselves into thinking that when He intervened, He would be on “their side.” Certainly, they were in a privileged position because of God's covenant with them, not remembering that this relationship made them more accountable (Amos 3:2).

Over time, the Israelites had turned God's promises to their fathers into a sort of inflated divine favoritism, as though God had no choice but always to bless them no matter how they lived. Here in Amos 5, however, God pronounces a woe against them for this approach. They would not enjoy the fireworks from a safe distance; His judgment would overtake them, personally and painfully.

There is a mystery in verse 18 about the phrase “the day of the LORD.” Amos mentions it as something Israel was already familiar with, not a new event he was foretelling. This mention is curious because Amos is one of the earliest recorded prophets, and none of the earlier ones—such as Moses or Elijah—refers to a “day of the LORD.” Isaiah, who does speak of the Day of the Lord by name (see Isaiah 2:12; 13:6, 9; 34:8), did not come on the scene for another forty years, and Joel, with his dramatic imagery (Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14), would not prophesy for nearly two hundred years. Yet, at this early date, Amos refers to the Day of the Lord as if it is already part of the national consciousness.

Perhaps one of the earlier prophets had spoken about the Day of the Lord, and we simply do not have a record of it. But another possibility fits the context. Even though what we call the Old Testament had not yet been canonized, the Israelites of Amos' day still had Scriptures to draw upon to learn history and religion. The Pentateuch, some of the histories, and much of the wisdom literature were already available.

Significantly, they had the psalms, many of which are prophetic. None of the psalms use the specific phrase “the day of the LORD.” Still, the book contains enough mentions of God's deliverance and protection during the day of trouble that a clear picture emerges of His future intervention and judgment.

In addition to prophetic psalms, the Israelites had psalms of praise for God's mercy, watchfulness, and regard for His people. These inspired and encouraging psalms were among the songs they sang at their feasts. However, God declares in the very next verse: “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies” (Amos 5:21). God does not use such words carelessly! The Israelites' singing of His psalms did not impress Him because they mixed truth with debased practices. They felt good about themselves even as they mistreated others.

Whatever the source of their concept of the Day of the Lord, the Israelites had concluded that God's intervention would be spectacular—which was true. Yet, they willingly overlooked what God required of them and what it truly meant to be His people.

David C. Grabbe
Do You Desire the Day of the Lord?



Amos 5:19

One calamity occurs after another. It seems as if a person escapes one of them, only to become caught in a worse calamity. The Day of the Lord will be a time of unending catastrophe and trouble.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-Three)



Amos 5:18-20

The prophet is explicit: The Day of the Lord is totally dark. There is nothing at all light about it!

It is important that we recognize the context of this passage. In verse 1, Amos terms his words “a funeral song—that I am lifting up against you, house of Israel” (Common English Bible). The Modern English Version and The Voice actually refer to it as a “dirge.” The King James Version uses the noun “lamentation.” With that definition in mind, notice the verb tenses in verse 2: “She has fallen; virgin Israel will never rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up” (Holman Christian Standard Bible).

Amos' vision is so clear that he is actually treating his subject, the nation of Israel, as though she were already dead—gone. Yet, he wrote these words some forty years before ten-tribed Israel (that is, the Northern Kingdom) had actually fallen to the Assyrian Empire. Furthermore, we know that Israel will rise again, when God restores her, joining her again with Judah (Ezekiel 37:15-28). Indeed, Amos himself speaks of this restoration in Amos 9:11-15. Notice just verses 14-15:

“I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God. (English Standard Version)

Both Old and New Testaments speak of this restoration. Clearly, the language of Amos 5:2 is hyperbolic (that is, overstatement), highly apropos rhetoric for a dirge, the rhetoric of which is about as dark as it can be. With that context in mind, Amos' meaning in verses 18-20 becomes clearer. The prophet is in fact saying that the people of Israel thought the Day of the Lord was one of total light. They misunderstood.

If we were to transport a representative cross-section of Amos' audience to the twenty-first-century America, we might, after interviewing them, discover a lot of common ground between these self-righteous and hypocritical Israelites and the post-Millennialist members of today's liberal churches. Post-Millennialists believe that “things” are improving all the time, the result of the effective work of the church. They believe that, eventually, things will be so good that Christ will return. It is almost as though these people listen to different newscasts than the ones to which we listen!

So, too, the Israelites of Amos' day, focusing myopically on their current wealth and false sense of wellbeing, perceived nothing but “good times rolling.” Times were great, getting greater, with no end to prosperity in sight. They imagined themselves to be at the gate of Paradise, what they thought the Day of the Lord would be.

Amos corrects that errant perception. The time is coming, he avers in Amos 5:16, “In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, 'Alas! Alas!'” This is a far cry from “good times”! From their distress, he says in verse 19, they will find no viable path of escape—running from a lion, they meet a bear! Their doom is sealed.

In reality, for those doomed, the Day of the Lord will have no good in it at all. It will be totally dark, exactly the opposite of what Amos' audience dimwittedly envisioned. We know, however, that those not doomed during the Lord's Day will see God promptly take restorative action, extending “great compassion” to them.

Charles Whitaker
The Goodness and Severity of God (Part Two)




Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Amos 5:19:

Amos 4:6-12
Amos 5:18-20
Haggai 2:11-14

 

<< Amos 5:18   Amos 5:20 >>



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