Exposition of Amos 4-9, Part 2 · Section 20
VERSE 20.
Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
THe Prophet having shewed this people the terrour, and unavoidableness of that great day of the Lord which was coming upon them for their sin, concludes all with this sharp and sacred Epiphonema, Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?
The Interrogation is a strong Affirmation, q. d. To what and do you desire this dreadful day of the Lord? Do you not know that it will be a dark and dismal day, when you shall lose your …ves and liberties, your goods and your relations ▪ when your joy shall be turned into sorrow, your prosperity into adversity, and your light into the shadow of death. It is not therefore for such obstinate sinners as you, to think that the day of the Lord should …ver yeeld you any light or comfort, for the Lord will come as an armed enemy against you, who have been so long open enemies to him.
2 To assure them of the truth of what he spake, he doubles it, saying, It shall be a day of darkness, even very dark, q. d. Take it for a most certain truth that you shal have all sorts and degrees of darkness amongst you, you shall have outward and inward, corporal and spiritual darkness and misery. See more vers. 18.
Epitasis est in affirmatione cum negatione contrarii.3 To make the words more weighty and emphatical, there is added a denial of the contrary to the Affirmation, which is an usual Hebraism, and intends the speech. So Isa. 38.1. Thou shalt dye, and not live, i. e. thou shalt surely dye. So Ezek. 18.21. He shall live, and not dye, i. e. he shall surely live. So Ioh. 1.20. he confessed and denied not, i. e. he plainly and openly confessed that he was not the Christ; so it shall be a day of darkness, and no light, or brightness in it, that is, it shall be a very calamitous day, which will bring with it many evils, but no good; much sorrow, but no joy; much darkness, but no light of comfort, ease, direction, or good counsel.
OBSERVATIONS.
1 A dark and doleful day will certainly and suddenly seize upon secure and obd…rate sinners.
Therefore the Prophet doubles and trebles it, saying, The day of the Lord will be darkness, and not light; then he asks the question, and doubles the Interrogation, and all to assure them of the truth of what he spake, and to hasten their Repentance. The darkness of sin brought upon them darkness of sorrow, and provoked the Lord to take away his corn and wine, and oyl, and to strip them naked, as in the day when they were born. Since they would not serve him with gladness of heart in the abundance of all things; now they should serve the Assyrian in woe and misery, and in the want of all things, Deut. 28.47, 48.
A good man if he fall into trouble, yet he riseth again, but the wicked shall fall, and never rise more, Prov. 24.16. If a good man sit in darkness, yet the Lord will be a light unto him, Psal. 97.11. Micah 7.8. and turn all to his good in the conclusion. As the wicked man in the fulness of his sufficiency is in straits, Job 20.22. So the good man in the fulness of straits hath an All-sufficiency of comfort, so that he cannot but say, the Lord hath done all things well, and it is good for him that ever the Lord afflicted him; yea that great and terrible day of the Lord, when Christ shall come in his glory to judge the world, shall be a day of joy and refreshing to all the Saints, Ps. 98.4. to 9. Luke 21.28. But to the wicked, who have Christ the Judge for their enemy, how dark and dreadful will all his dayes of Judgement be? When he shall lay his Vindictive hand upon them here, how full of despondency and despair will they be, when they shall be totally forsaken of all their hopes and comforts? So that if they look upward God is against them; if downward, Hell and the Grave wait for them; if inward, a guilty Conscience accuseth them; if outward, all the Creatures are ready as so many Serjeants to arrest them, on the behalf of their Lord and Master. Thus wee see how the Day of the Lord will be darkness, and no light nor brightness in it to the wicked.