For Amos the day of the Lord involves a contrast between light and darkness. The language echoes the beginning of creation, when the earth is formless and void. In the darkness God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. One would expect the day of the Lord, then to be a day of brilliant light. But, ironically, and contrary to popular expectation, it will be a day of darkness. It is a day of gloom and judgment because of sin, unconfessed and unrepented of.

The good news is that the concept of the day of the Lord becomes the day of the Lord Jesus Christ as he undergoes judgment in our place and brings us into his glorious light.

“We must be on guard against the small snakes in the dark corners of our hearts. The snake of our unconfessed and uncombatted sin may kill us yet!…The great killer and trampler of snakes must kill the treacherous snake of my sin through the breath of His mouth, through His Spirit.” (Herman Veldkamp, The Farmer from Tekoa, p. 176).

The Wednesday evening Bible study at Trinity Presbyterian Church focuses on Amos 5.