Sometimes we hope for things that, if we really knew what we were wishing for, we would not want them. I have known of people who wished for millions of dollars in prize money from some giveaway or lottery, but had no idea the kinds of problems that attended such large amounts of money. One fellow wished to win a big pot of money, and then he did, and then shortly afterward he was found dead in his home. He had been robbed and murdered by thieves who heard about his “good fortune”! He had gotten what he wished for, but had no idea what he was really going to have when he got it: a big lot of trouble and a solitary gravestone in a nearby graveyard.

The prophet Amos spoke of those who wished for the day of the Lord. In doing so he warned them that they had no idea what was coming if they were not prepared for it. He said,

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is a day of darkness, and not light. 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. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18-20)

The people of the prophet’s time to whom he was addressing these sentiments were folks just like you and me. Their lives were rather ordinary, at times downright miserable, and they wished for a better day. Moreover, they believed that God would bring a better day for them when he answered their prayers for rescue and redemption.

But there was one problem with this scenario: they were not living the kind of lives that would make a divine interruption into history a thing to be desired. God can and will help us when we are living right. He has promised to redeem his righteous ones from all evil. But if we are only playing at the game of godly living, while we call out for salvation like they did, we may be bitterly disappointed. They looked for a day of brightness, but the prophet of the Lord warned that what was coming was foreboding and dark. The happiness and festive occasion for which they longed was not what was on the horizon. Elsewhere in his prophecies he warned of death and desolation rather than joy and redemption. Thus, for them the “day of the Lord” would prove to be only a bitter disappointment rather than an answer to prayer.

Likewise, many of those who today are calling out to God for some sort of visitation are ignoring the inevitable results of their worldly and ungodly manner of life. They have learned to call evil good and good evil just like those with whom the prophet Isaiah dealt in his day (Isaiah 5:20). Church people who are considered “radical conservatives” who stand for the principles and practices of Sacred Scripture have been made to be the “evil villains” of our time. Folks who care deeply about the moral repercussions of such wicked practices as abortion, rampant divorce, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, and other such evils, are seen as obstacles of their progressive moral agenda. They have been swept aside and ignored when they inveigh against the use of their tax dollars to push this vile filth and public wickedness.

At the same time those who have taken up the pulpits and miters of religious office have continued to use the vocabulary of ancient religion while they twist religion to suit their own purposes and speak of the Lord “coming” for their salvation and spiritual deliverance.

What a sick and twisted joke this is! It is just as sick and twisted as Amos perceived it to be in his own generation of spiritual perverts. The day of the Lord, said Amos, will prove to be something that will surprise and shock you, nothing like what you are expecting! It will be a day of dejection and judgment and not of joy, a time of punishment rather than partying, an occasion for weeping and wailing and not of  good cheer. Be careful what you wish for!