The Day of the Lord – Amos 5
Bible Study Time 7-23-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 7-23-06
The Prophet Amos spoke to the nation of Israel and predicted a time of great tribulation and suffering. His words had a near fulfillment and a fulfillment which would come far into the future. He said that the nation of Israel had turned justice into bitterness and had cast righteousness to the ground. The bribes which were given to their judges had deprived the poor of justice. Then Amos said:
Amos 5:16-24 (NIV)
16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: "There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD. (Now notice what Amos says.)
18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light-- pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21 "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
With His mighty hand, God had delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. He had brought them through the Red Sea on dry land and then to the foot of Mt. Sinai where all of the people agreed to keep the commandments of the Lord. While Moses was up on the mountain, God said:
Exodus 19:5-8 (NKJ)
5 'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
6 'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
7 So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8 Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.
The people promised to keep the commandments, but then they refused to go into the promised land so that God could do all that He had promised. Isn’t that just like many people today? They want to live for God by keeping His commandments, but they refuse to accept the salvation of God by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.”
When the Jews refused to go into the promised land, God led them through the wilderness for 40 years and then brought them back to the promised land. This time they believed in the Lord and entered into the kingdom which God had promised.
God drove out the Canaanites who were living it the land, and the Jews lived under a series of judges for many years. Then God used King David to defeat all of the enemies of the Jews and establish a kingdom of peace through all twelve of the tribes of Israel.
However, the full glory of the Old Covenant Kingdom was not realized until David’s son, Solomon, became the king. Under Solomon, the nation of Israel became the envy of all the nations of the earth. Even the Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem to listen to the wisdom of Solomon and to see the glory of his kingdom. The Bible says that:
I Kings 10:4-9 (NKJ)
4 . . . when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,
5 the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.
6 Then she said to the king: "It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom.
7 "However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard.
8 "Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom!
9 "Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness."
Obviously, the glory of Solomon’s kingdom bore witness to all the world that the God of the Jews was the true and the living God and that God is faithful to fulfill His promises. But the glory of Solomon’s kingdom was as nothing in comparison to the everlasting kingdom which God had promised to David.
All of the believing Jews were waiting for the promised Son of David, the Messiah, who would sit upon the throne of David in a worldwide kingdom of righteousness and peace. In this kingdom there would be no exploitation of the poor and there would be no corruption among those who hold public office.
So how did Israel fall so far away from God by the time Amos came predicting their doom and destruction. As we saw a few moments ago, God said that He despised their religious feasts and their assemblies.
This passage reminds me of the folks today who think that their primary duty to God is to go to church every Sunday. Make no mistake about it, God loves to see believers who enjoy the fellowship of other believers and rejoice in the teachings of the word of God, but God hates it when people go to church for the wrong reasons. Those who go to church to earn their way to heaven or to make up for the sins of the previous week have already demonstrated their lack of faith in the word of God, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Amos told Israel that they were facing a time of great tribulation in which God was going to allow justice to roll on like a river. The people had promised to do all that the Lord commanded. They had promised to love the Lord their God with all of their hearts, but they had gone after the pagan gods of the Canaanites which oddly enough can be traced right back to Solomon.
In spite of all the blessings that God had poured out upon Solomon, Solomon was seduced by the pagan gods of his Canaanite wives. Solomon worshiped these pagan gods, and he even built temples to facilitate their worship. As a result, the Bible says that:
I Kings 11:9-12 (NKJ)
9 . . . the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded.
11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
12 "Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
True to His word, when Solomon died, God stirred up the hearts of the people in the northern ten tribes, and they went about establishing their own independent nation. They called themselves the nation of Israel while the two remaining southern tribes called themselves the nation of Judah. The Bible tells us that from the very beginning Jeroboam led the nation of Israel into idolatry. He built golden calves for them to worship so that they would not be tempted to travel to Jerusalem to worship as God had commanded.
As the northern tribes worshiped their idols, the prophets continued to proclaim the validity of the promises concerning the future New Covenant Kingdom. The prophets spoke of the coming kingdom and called it the Day of the Lord, but the people mocked the prophets and often joked about the so called “Day of the Lord”.
I’m reminded of the fact that people today often speak flippantly about hell and holiness and even about God, but one of these days everyone will see the seriousness of all of these things. They’ll see what hell really is, and they will see the value of true holiness which can only be found in Jesus Christ.
The people of Amos’ day often spoke of the Day of the Lord as sort of a slang idiom, but Amos seized the opportunity to teach them the seriousness of their words. He said:
Amos 5:18-20 (NKJ)
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
19 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!
20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?
Amos wanted the people of Israel to know that the day of the Lord’s kingdom will surely come, but it will not come until after a day of great tribulation and suffering for all those who refuse to put their trust in the true and the living God. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul spoke on this very subject. As a minister of the New Covenant, he was looking forward to the fulfillment of all of the promises of the New Covenant, but he knew that many of the Jews would not believe and would, therefore, not inherit the everlasting kingdom. In Romans, Chapter 2, Paul said:
Romans 2:28-29 (NKJ)
28 . . . he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
Then in Romans 8, Paul speaks of the time when the true Sons of God are made manifest. He says that even the creation is eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God,
Romans 8:21-23 (NKJ)
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
In the Day of the Lord, the true sons of God will be revealed by means of the fact they are going to be the ones who will be given glorified bodies. Before the kingdom is established in the Day of the Lord, the saints in the grave will be resurrected and the saints on the earth will be raptured, and both groups will be given glorified bodies.
In Thessalonica, this doctrine had led to some confusion in that some false teachers had come in teaching that the resurrection of believers had already occurred. When Paul heard this, he wrote his second letter to them, saying:
II Thessalonians 2:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Obviously, Paul wanted to dispel any notion that the rapture and resurrection which is associated with the Day of the Lord had already come for that day could not occur until after the coming of the antichrist in the tribulation period. As Amos said, “The Day of the Lord will be darkness, not light – pitch dark, without a ray of brightness.” This will certainly be a dark day for the those who refuse to believe in the Jesus Christ during the tribulation period.
But all of this stands in stark contrast to the last days of the Church which is the Body of Christ, the Church of our present age. We read in the third chapter of both Philippians and Colossians that the Church is looking forward to the day when Christ will simply appear in the glory of heaven. The curtains of heaven will be folded back, and when Christ appears in the glory of heaven, then we shall appear with Him in glory. There is no hint of the tribulation period or the antichrist in either of these passages that relate to the Church of our present age. But after the Church is taken out, the great tribulation period will begin and then it will culminate in the great and terrible Day of the Lord.
I see that our time is gone for this morning. Thank you for listening, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Amos 5:16-24 (NIV)
16 Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: "There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail.
17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD. (Now notice what Amos says.)
18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light.
19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.
20 Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light-- pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?
21 "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.
23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
With His mighty hand, God had delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. He had brought them through the Red Sea on dry land and then to the foot of Mt. Sinai where all of the people agreed to keep the commandments of the Lord. While Moses was up on the mountain, God said:
Exodus 19:5-8 (NKJ)
5 'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.
6 'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
7 So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8 Then all the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.
The people promised to keep the commandments, but then they refused to go into the promised land so that God could do all that He had promised. Isn’t that just like many people today? They want to live for God by keeping His commandments, but they refuse to accept the salvation of God by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.”
When the Jews refused to go into the promised land, God led them through the wilderness for 40 years and then brought them back to the promised land. This time they believed in the Lord and entered into the kingdom which God had promised.
God drove out the Canaanites who were living it the land, and the Jews lived under a series of judges for many years. Then God used King David to defeat all of the enemies of the Jews and establish a kingdom of peace through all twelve of the tribes of Israel.
However, the full glory of the Old Covenant Kingdom was not realized until David’s son, Solomon, became the king. Under Solomon, the nation of Israel became the envy of all the nations of the earth. Even the Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem to listen to the wisdom of Solomon and to see the glory of his kingdom. The Bible says that:
I Kings 10:4-9 (NKJ)
4 . . . when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built,
5 the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.
6 Then she said to the king: "It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom.
7 "However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard.
8 "Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom!
9 "Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness."
Obviously, the glory of Solomon’s kingdom bore witness to all the world that the God of the Jews was the true and the living God and that God is faithful to fulfill His promises. But the glory of Solomon’s kingdom was as nothing in comparison to the everlasting kingdom which God had promised to David.
All of the believing Jews were waiting for the promised Son of David, the Messiah, who would sit upon the throne of David in a worldwide kingdom of righteousness and peace. In this kingdom there would be no exploitation of the poor and there would be no corruption among those who hold public office.
So how did Israel fall so far away from God by the time Amos came predicting their doom and destruction. As we saw a few moments ago, God said that He despised their religious feasts and their assemblies.
This passage reminds me of the folks today who think that their primary duty to God is to go to church every Sunday. Make no mistake about it, God loves to see believers who enjoy the fellowship of other believers and rejoice in the teachings of the word of God, but God hates it when people go to church for the wrong reasons. Those who go to church to earn their way to heaven or to make up for the sins of the previous week have already demonstrated their lack of faith in the word of God, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Amos told Israel that they were facing a time of great tribulation in which God was going to allow justice to roll on like a river. The people had promised to do all that the Lord commanded. They had promised to love the Lord their God with all of their hearts, but they had gone after the pagan gods of the Canaanites which oddly enough can be traced right back to Solomon.
In spite of all the blessings that God had poured out upon Solomon, Solomon was seduced by the pagan gods of his Canaanite wives. Solomon worshiped these pagan gods, and he even built temples to facilitate their worship. As a result, the Bible says that:
I Kings 11:9-12 (NKJ)
9 . . . the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded.
11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.
12 "Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
True to His word, when Solomon died, God stirred up the hearts of the people in the northern ten tribes, and they went about establishing their own independent nation. They called themselves the nation of Israel while the two remaining southern tribes called themselves the nation of Judah. The Bible tells us that from the very beginning Jeroboam led the nation of Israel into idolatry. He built golden calves for them to worship so that they would not be tempted to travel to Jerusalem to worship as God had commanded.
As the northern tribes worshiped their idols, the prophets continued to proclaim the validity of the promises concerning the future New Covenant Kingdom. The prophets spoke of the coming kingdom and called it the Day of the Lord, but the people mocked the prophets and often joked about the so called “Day of the Lord”.
I’m reminded of the fact that people today often speak flippantly about hell and holiness and even about God, but one of these days everyone will see the seriousness of all of these things. They’ll see what hell really is, and they will see the value of true holiness which can only be found in Jesus Christ.
The people of Amos’ day often spoke of the Day of the Lord as sort of a slang idiom, but Amos seized the opportunity to teach them the seriousness of their words. He said:
Amos 5:18-20 (NKJ)
18 Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
19 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!
20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?
Amos wanted the people of Israel to know that the day of the Lord’s kingdom will surely come, but it will not come until after a day of great tribulation and suffering for all those who refuse to put their trust in the true and the living God. In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul spoke on this very subject. As a minister of the New Covenant, he was looking forward to the fulfillment of all of the promises of the New Covenant, but he knew that many of the Jews would not believe and would, therefore, not inherit the everlasting kingdom. In Romans, Chapter 2, Paul said:
Romans 2:28-29 (NKJ)
28 . . . he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;
29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
Then in Romans 8, Paul speaks of the time when the true Sons of God are made manifest. He says that even the creation is eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God,
Romans 8:21-23 (NKJ)
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
In the Day of the Lord, the true sons of God will be revealed by means of the fact they are going to be the ones who will be given glorified bodies. Before the kingdom is established in the Day of the Lord, the saints in the grave will be resurrected and the saints on the earth will be raptured, and both groups will be given glorified bodies.
In Thessalonica, this doctrine had led to some confusion in that some false teachers had come in teaching that the resurrection of believers had already occurred. When Paul heard this, he wrote his second letter to them, saying:
II Thessalonians 2:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Obviously, Paul wanted to dispel any notion that the rapture and resurrection which is associated with the Day of the Lord had already come for that day could not occur until after the coming of the antichrist in the tribulation period. As Amos said, “The Day of the Lord will be darkness, not light – pitch dark, without a ray of brightness.” This will certainly be a dark day for the those who refuse to believe in the Jesus Christ during the tribulation period.
But all of this stands in stark contrast to the last days of the Church which is the Body of Christ, the Church of our present age. We read in the third chapter of both Philippians and Colossians that the Church is looking forward to the day when Christ will simply appear in the glory of heaven. The curtains of heaven will be folded back, and when Christ appears in the glory of heaven, then we shall appear with Him in glory. There is no hint of the tribulation period or the antichrist in either of these passages that relate to the Church of our present age. But after the Church is taken out, the great tribulation period will begin and then it will culminate in the great and terrible Day of the Lord.
I see that our time is gone for this morning. Thank you for listening, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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