Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Amos 5:18-20
The Day Of YHWH That Is Coming Come On Israel Will Be A Day Of Darkness, Not Light (Amos 5:18).
‘Woe to you who desire the day of YHWH! Why would you have the day of YHWH? It is darkness, and not light.'
Amos stressed that they should not be ‘looking with longing' (the verb is strong) for YHWH to act in a special way, because they needed to recognise that when He did so it would not introduce light but darkness. Initially this ‘day of YHWH', as indicated here, was speaking of the day when YHWH would make His people face up to their sin by destruction and judgment, and it would descend on first the land, and then the city, of Samaria as an act of judgment. Israel should therefore not be hungering for YHWH to act, (as seemingly they did at their feasts), for when He did so it would be against them. And it would be a day of darkness, of misery and catastrophe and suffering, and not a day of light.
It is significant that they had this deep ‘longing', not at a time when things were going badly, but at a time when all seemed to be going well, and Israel and Judah had extended their borders and were defensively strong. It was thus not a longing for deliverance resulting from despair, but a yearning desire for even better things to come, a patriotic looking forward to ruling the nations. (Like many of us, when it came to their Scriptures they were selective of ‘the good bits' and ignored the remainder).
There would in the future be many days of YHWH. Later the phrase ‘the day of YHWH' would refer to the devastation to be brought on the world by a gathering of nations (probably under Assyria), and especially by their Medan contingents, which would result in the destruction of proud Babylon, an initial recognition of the fact that one day it would cease for ever (Isaiah 13). It would also refer to the coming of a huge plague of locusts (or armies) on Israel/Judah (Joel 1), when YHWH was seeking to bring them to repentance. And it would refer to the final destruction of Edom (Isaiah 34:8). All these were events of history. Thus there would be a number of ‘days of YHWH'. But each ‘day of YHWH' had in mind in the end the final dreadful day when YHWH would call all nations to account, and that is why sometimes we are not sure which day He is referring to, the near or the far. For all were deserving of judgment and would one day have to face up one way or another to a day of YHWH, with the result that in the New Testament the ‘day of the Lord' pointed forward to the time of the second coming of Christ when the old world would be judged and destroyed, resulting in the introducing of a new heaven and a new earth (e.g. 2 Peter 3:10).
‘As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.'
This is then illustrated in picturesque fashion. When a man flees from a lion he ‘desires' to run into a party of hunters so that he may be saved, but in fact in this instance he is given a dreadful shock when he simply runs into the arms of a bear. Lions and bears were quite common in the Israelite countryside so that this could easily occur. Or it will be like the time when a man goes into the refuge of his house, thinking that there at least he will be totally secure, only to find to his horror that when he confidently leans on the wall feeling a sense of security, he is bitten by a deadly snake. Thus in each case what comes to him is the opposite of what he expects. Thus will it be for them in the day of YHWH.
Note the emphasis on that fact that no one will be safe whether out of doors or indoors. Wherever they are tragedy will strike them.
‘Will not the day of YHWH be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?'
That is why for them the day of YHWH will result in darkness and not light. Indeed it will be very dark and there will be no brightness in it, because for them there will be no hope beyond it. (And so it would be at the destruction of Samaria). Night time was when terror was abroad (Psalms 91:5) and it symbolised the end of life, for to be driven into darkness was to die (Job 10:22; Job 18:18). A day of darkness was a day which God did not observe from above, for it was a day of hopelessness (Job 3:4). It was God-forsaken. In contrast the light spelled hope (Isaiah 9:2), and to enjoy God's light was to enjoy His blessing and presence and salvation (Isaiah 60:1).