Why do you long for the day of the Lord?

Amos 5:18-20:

¹⁸ Woe to you who long
for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
That day will be darkness, not light.
¹⁹ It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
²⁰ Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

After having listed all of the sins of the House of Israel, we come across this passage. Aren’t we supposed to long for the day of the Lord? Don’t we want the Lord to come quickly? Of course we do.

This was a different time, this was before Christ came and walked among us. But it raises an interesting question for us as followers of Christ.

Are we living for Christ in every way we can imagine today? Or do we spend the day hoping Christ will come, but forgo the work we have been called to do today? Are we consumed with our selfish desire for Christ to come so that we can be set free from the troubles of this world? Sure, we hope for that. But, what about those who haven’t experienced the hope that we have? What about those who don’t yet know of a better future?

What I would simply propose for us as we look at this scripture is that our desire for Christ’s return would be something that drives us to do whatever we can do today to reach those who still don’t know. Let us live lives that testify to Christ being alive in us, the hope for glory. Let us hope for Christ’s return, but let us live among the men whose only hope is for a good life before they die. May we show them that this troubled world is not the end, but only a beginning.

There is much more to this passage that could be dealt with, but for today, we’ll leave it at that. How can we live and share our lives today so that even one more may share eternity with Christ?