What is the meaning of Amos 5:20? Will not the Day of the LORD “Will not the Day of the LORD…” (Amos 5:20) • The phrase “Day of the LORD” points to a specific, decisive moment when God intervenes in human history with judgment and vindication. Joel 2:1–2 and Zephaniah 1:14–15 echo Amos by describing that day as near and dreadful. • While many in Israel assumed the day would favor them, Amos clarifies it will expose sin wherever it is found (see Isaiah 2:12; 1 Peter 4:17). • The prophetic warning also looks ahead to the ultimate Day of the LORD revealed in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and 2 Peter 3:10—an event sudden and unavoidable for every generation. be darkness and not light “…be darkness and not light…” (Amos 5:20) • Darkness signals divine judgment; light normally symbolizes blessing (Psalm 27:1), yet here the expected light is absent. • Isaiah 13:9–10 foretells heavenly bodies withholding light in the day of God’s wrath, reinforcing Amos’s imagery. • Jesus applies similar language regarding His return: “the sun will be darkened” (Matthew 24:29). The righteous live in hope, but those clinging to hypocrisy find only darkness (John 3:19–20). even gloom with no brightness in it “…even gloom with no brightness in it?” (Amos 5:20) • The piling up of terms—darkness, gloom, no brightness—underscores total absence of relief. Zephaniah 1:15 calls the same day “a day of darkness and blackness.” • The ninth plague in Exodus 10:21–23 offers a historical picture: thick darkness that could be felt, yet Israel’s homes had light—showing God’s ability both to judge and to protect. • Revelation 6:12–17 portrays cosmic upheaval and terror when God’s wrath is revealed; unbelievers hide, finding no “brightness,” while the redeemed look for the “dawn from on high” (Luke 1:78). summary Amos 5:20 warns that the Day of the LORD is not a celebratory moment for the complacent but a fearful, light-less judgment for all who presume upon God while rejecting His righteousness. Other prophets and the New Testament confirm this reality: sudden, global, and inescapable except through humble repentance and steadfast faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only true Light (John 8:12). |
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