Woe to you who desire the day of YHWH!  Why would you have the day of the Lord?  It is darkness, and not light; Amos 5:18

Day of YHWH – Rapture!  What a great concept.  The Lord will come and we will all escape this place.  Things will be wonderful.  We will have untold blessings, showers of prosperity in heaven.  Who can wait?  Time to leave it all behind, right?

But the prophets have a different view of the end of the age.  Woe to you! Why are they so negative?  Yom YHWH comes as a day of punishment to all who are rebellious.  Yom YHWH is terrifying to those who have turned from His path.  Yom YHWH is disaster for those who have not lived in His reflection.

Oh, but you’re thinking, “That isn’t me.  I’m justified.  I’m redeemed.  I’m saved.”  Really?  Look very carefully.  Search deep within.  Do you still want the day of YHWH to arrive right now?  Have you nothing corrupt, no dross, no tinge of selfish desire left in the crevices and cracks?  Do you really plead for God’s unbearable light to shine into every corner?  Today?  Maybe it isn’t such a bad thing to let the day of YHWH come tomorrow.  Today I still have some repairs to make in order to welcome the King.

The prophet is shocked to find those who desire the day of YHWH.  He sees the world from God’s point of view.  He observes the hypocrisy, the jealousy, the rage, the manipulation, the deceit in our lives.  He knows God is holy.  He is frightened of our naïveté.  And there is another reason for his dismay.  He sees the lost, the hungry, the neglected and the ones whom God has yet to bring into His house.  Can we really be so anxious to escape that we would ask God to shorten the time for these to repent and return to Him?  Are we so preoccupied with our own salvation that we would hasten the day of judgment?  Paul spoke of this and it broke his heart.  “For I could wish myself accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen . . .”  Those who share God’s heart plead for His mercy and His delay of judgment.  They are willing to wait through anything in the hopes that one more will find the path.

What is all this prattle about rapture?  Isn’t it really a symptom of our lack of compassion?  Paul’s comments about the rapture offer us hope, not escape.  It is hope that someday, when God’s purposes have been fulfilled, we will find consolation in His grand return.  It is about sharing the experience of the God who is no longer concealed.  But we have turned it into a personal exit plan.  We want the rapture to solve our problems.  Yeshua might caution us that we have neglected the weightier matters of justice, mercy and compassion.

Topical Index:  rapture, day of YHWH, yom YHWH, Amos 5:18