Daily Readings and Thought for November 25th. “DESIRING THE DAY OF THE LORD”
Amos writes “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD?” [5 v.18] This verse provides food for much thought. We desire the Day of the LORD! Why? We long for the day when our Saviour comes when he reigns over all the earth and controls the nations as we will read in Micah next week (Ch.4 v.1-3). What kind of people desire the “day of the Lord” – when they should not?
They were only hearing half the message of the prophets, like as today, when many churchgoers think God is purely a God of love. A contemporary of Amos was Obadiah whose short message we will read next week. He wrote “For the day of the LORD is near upon all nations” [1 v.15] Some people in Israel were looking for that day to come – so that their enemies would be destroyed, blind to the fact that they deserved destruction too!
Only those truly trying to walk righteously in the sight of God should desire the day of the LORD, knowing it will be a time of great distress. The day of the Lord that was coming on Israel in those days was to particularly affect certain classes of people; note what Amos writes, “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches … who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp … invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils …” [6 v.4-6] The words of Amos are very appropriate for way many live today, they live for the here and now, they find it impossible to believe in any long term future. Let us make sure we desire the day of the LORD for the right reason being fully aware of what is to take place in that ultimate day when Jesus returns and God’s ultimate “day of the LORD” occurs as we were very conscious of in our reading of Joel’s prophecy a few days ago.
