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. 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. – Amos 5:18-19

A few years ago I wrote about the tactfulness of rock-badgers. Rock-badgers live in open plains that have hills, rocks and mountains. They take up homes in holes they find in these rocks. Moving around freely on the plain spells doom for them, the eagles might come for them. On the land, they face threats from bobcats, cougars, bears and wolves. Rock badgers protect themselves by using their keen senses to detect predators and their agility to escape danger. In my write-up, I emphasized on the need for us to learn the way of the rock badger, and appreciate that we can only be safe in the rock of ages, which is Jesus Christ.

Prophet Amos gives us a similar call in our verse for today. He gives us a graphical view of how the day of the Lord will be like. The phrase “the day of the Lord” is a biblical term used to refer to a time of divine judgement. The prophet warns against all who do not walk in uprightness with God and are banking on that day for salvation. The book of Thessalonians speaks of a time when the Lord will rapture all who have walked in uprightness, after this day many turbulent things will come upon the earth and wickedness will increase incredibly. It is called the time of “Great Tribulation.”

Many Christians have the belief that if they miss out on rapture they can fight their way through the great tribulation and make it to heaven. I am here to inform you that is a lie from the depths of hell. As the prophet implies in our verse for today, the great tribulation will be a time of total darkness and no safety at all. It will be like a man running away from a lion into the hands of a bear, as though he enters his house and gets bitten by a serpent. There will be danger in all corners, men who refuse to take the mark of the beast will literally be hunted down and tormented brutally. By other men who have lost their minds, and by demons who have manifested and taken over the earth.

For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.—Matthew 24:21

I am here to re-echo my submission from years ago. Let us take the way of the rock-badger. They can teach us a valuable lesson about relying on the rock at all times. For us, relying on the rock of ages means walking upright and relying on Christ for salvation. It is my prayer that we will find wisdom in the way of the rock-badger, that we do not rely on heresies and lies from the devil, who only wants to lure us out and devour us. May the Good Lord help us all, Amen.