The Day of The Lord
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Introduction
Introduction
Yom Teruah.
We aren’t told much about Yom Teruah.
23 The Lord spoke to Moses: 24 “Tell the Israelites: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you are to have a day of complete rest, commemoration, and trumpet blasts—a sacred assembly. 25 You must not do any daily work, but you must present a food offering to the Lord.”
1 “You are to hold a sacred assembly in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, and you are not to do any daily work. This will be a day of trumpet blasts for you.
The Feasts were specially appointed days, called moadim, between God and His people. The feast days are community events that recognized God’s work and presence with His people.
Fall Feasts: Three feasts occur in the month of Tishri:
Each major Israelite feast recognized a specific aspect of God’s saving work.
What is the meaning of This feast of Yom Teruah? Some say celebration, some say somber reflection and repentance.
Dont know much, other than it is a day of ‘Teruah’.
The primary meaning is “to raise a noise” by shouting or with an instrument, especially a horn (Num 10:7) or the traditional ram’s horn, the “shofar”
Interesting it doesnt specifically say that the Teruah is from trumpets or a shofar, that is actually an interpretation but not specifically stated.
But there is good reason for the translation, since terûʿâ can designate the sound made by a trumpet (see Nu. 10:5f.; 31:6), and since the new moon of every month was greeted by the blowing of trumpets (Nu. 10:10; Ps. 81:3).
Yom Teruah is to be celebrated on the first of the 7th month.
Day of The Lord
Day of The Lord
This year, Yom Teruah brought to mind the coming day of the lord - Yom Adonai. That’s what I want to look at today.
What is the Day of the Lord?
It was used to describe God’s judgment upon a group, often through the use of another people.
It wasn’t just a specific single event, but has been used by the prophets to describe various events in the past that entail God judging israel or another nation, or both.
14 The great day of Adonai is near— near and coming very quickly! The sound of the day of Adonai is bitter— the shouting of the warrior is there. 15 That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastating storm and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 a day of shofar and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high corner towers.
9 For then I will restore to the people pure speech, so that all of them may call upon the Name of Adonai and serve Him shoulder to shoulder.
A day against Judah, A day against. the nations.
Like Yom Teruah:
On the one hand it is something to be feared, a time of judgment, a time to remember wh our God is and the need to repent before Him.
On the other hand, it is a time of expectation for the rightehous, for those found in the lamb of God Yeshua Hamashiach, for those that know the will of God and do it.
Is the Day of the Lord a litteral day or is it a period of time?
The point of using the word ’day’ is that it will be an instant and there will be no time to escape it.
Day of The Lord and Time.
Day of The Lord and Time.
Does time move forward or does it go around in circles?
Quotes from Britannica:
The cyclic view of history, both cosmic and human, has been prevalent among the Hindus and the pre-Christian Greeks, the Chinese, and the Aztecs. More recently, the cyclic view has gained adherents in modern Western society.
In the Zoroastrian and Jewish-Christian-Islamic vision of the time flow, time is destined to be consummated—as depicted luridly in the Revelation to John—in a terrifying climax. It has become apparent that history has been accelerating, The Bible suggests
This is a very important point.
The Bible is by nature prophetic.
Our worldview is that something is wrong - it was good in the beginning - that was corrupted - and now God is working to restore it.
Our God is working and active and is doing something about it which tells us about the nature of God. - He cares to the point of suffering Himself to fix it.
Things will be made right.
10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.
So in Biblical thought creation was the beginning of time and it’s moving toward the end, and the end is the Day of the Lord.
Progressively Apocalyptic Revelation
Progressively Apocalyptic Revelation
6 Wail, for the day of Adonai is near! it will come as destruction from Shaddai. 7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. 8 They will be terrified; pain and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe as a woman in labor; they will look aghast at one another— their faces aflame! 9 Behold, the day of Adonai comes, cruel, full of wrath and fierce fury, to make the earth a desolation, and destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. 11 I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and abase the insolence of tyrants. 12 I will make people scarcer than gold, even than the pure gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make heaven tremble, and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of Adonai-Tzva’ot, in the day of His fierce fury.
This was an oracle from Isaiah against Babylon prophesying its destruction.
Is the Day of the Lord something that happened in the past or is it in the future? Both - these events are types and characterize the anticipated ultimate Yom Adonai.
The Bible is a collection of writings but all with divine origin - and they are progressive in relvation with how God deals with humanity. Rom 16.25-26
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles—
Not only is the revelation pgoressive, it is increasingly apocalpytic.
What does apocalyptic mean? It technically is rooted in the greek meaning revelation but I am using in our modern sense of the word as climactic and cataclysmic.
The climax of the Bbile is not the cross. The climax is the Day of the Lord aka the Kingdom come aka the judgement.
So the Tanach, intertestmental, and apostolic scritpures all move in this increasingly climactic direction.
5 Then you will flee through My mountain valley because the mountain valley will reach to Azel. Yes, you will flee like you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then Adonai my God will come and all the kedoshim with Him. 6 In that day there will be no light, cold or frost. 7 It will be a day known only to Adonai, neither day nor night—even in the evening time there will be light. 8 Moreover, in that day living waters will flow from Jerusalem, half toward the eastern sea and half toward the western sea, both in the summer and in the winter. 9 Adonai will then be King over all the earth. In that day Adonai will be Echad and His Name Echad.
Yeshua as the messiah is of cousre central to this day, it is in fact His day.
6 I am sure of this very thing—that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the Day of Messiah Yeshua.
8 He will also strengthen you until the end—blameless in the Day of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
29 And they screamed, “What’s between You and us, Ben-Elohim? Have You come here to torment us, before the appointed time?”
History is moving like a giant arrow toward the judgement day of God.
Why is this worldview vital? Because it produces behaviour in line with the Gospel. A neverending cycliar view of history doesn’t inject urgency to live right.
The key event in this apocalyptic view is the Day of the Lord.
Indeed, the Day of the Lord is a central theme in the Bible.
Day of the lord and spin offs ‘that day’ ‘the day when’ ‘the day of’ mentioned 200 times in the prophets alone.
We blow the shofar today and it is called a memorial - a memorial of what? Perhaps of Sinai Ex 19.16
16 On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud blast from a trumpet, so that all the people in the camp shuddered.
This imagery of the Sinai event is reused by the propehts as the imagery to describe the Day of the Lord.
Charteristics of the Day of the Lord
Charteristics of the Day of the Lord
Royal
Royal
The day of the lord deals with royalty because the Scriptures reveal that God Ps 47.2
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is awe-inspiring, a great King over the whole earth.
He is a king above all kings, greater than all gods, and so the Bbile uses the language of lord, throne, dominion, rule.
God literally rules over creation, heaven and earth, as a king. He is a real king who demands real honour and respect and He desires the absolute loyalty and allegiance of His people and ultimately all the nations.
The word allegeince is a better description of what we call faith - because the word allegiance contains both oath and action toward a king.
As king God is worhty of royal honour. If someone rejects my authority at work it woudl be an attack on my dignity and honour. When someone rejects God’s authority over creation it is disrespect of His dignity and honour.
This is why the Scriptures reveal that God will act with wrath, fury and anger.
2 A jealous and avenging God is Adonai. Yes, Adonai is the avenger and master of wrath. Adonai is avenger to His adversaries, Yes, a keeper of wrath for His foes.
The day of the lord is the ultimate satisfaction of God’s royal divine wrath against those that dishonour Him.
5 But by your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.
9 How much more then, having now been set right by His blood, shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him.
Judicial
Judicial
As king, he is also the highsest judge.
The world does not obey Him as the heavens do. HaSatan has to be presented before the Lord in humility in the heavens, but he goes to and fro as he pleases on the earth.
Soon the king’s will is going to be fully done on earth as it is in heaven.
The event that describes the initation of that is the Day of the Lord.
This is the day when wicked are judged and righteousness becomes the standard.
9 before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world righteously and the peoples fairly.
And of course to judge fairly there has to be a transgression of law.
22 For Adonai is our Judge, Adonai is our Lawgiver, Adonai is our King— He will save us!
And this law will ultimately be given afresh to the nations just as we recite every week from Is 2. …For the Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Economic
Economic
The Day of Adonai is also economic - because real things have been taken away from people and real injustices done.
Recompense will take place on this day. The lord is consistently described as the on who repays to all according to their work.
There will be recompense and retribution.
6 A sound of uproar from the city, a sound from the Temple— the sound of Adonai who fully repays His enemies.
12 Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to pay back each one according to his deeds.
The Two Ages
The Two Ages
What are the two ages? This age and the age to come.
What does the Day of the Lord have to do with that? It is the separator between the two.
7 So you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you eagerly wait for the revealing of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 8 He will also strengthen you until the end—blameless in the Day of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
Is the age to come better described as eternity or endless time?
We use the word eternity but just realise this concept is from a platonic thought really rooted in timelessness, but in the biblical sense it is better understood as endless time - time just as we know it now that continues but no longer has an end.
What does change is the condition and context - the world is renewed adn no longer corrupted, our bodies are no longer corrupted - but time continues. this is what it means in phrases that speak about forever and ever.
15 The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.
The Day of Fire
The Day of Fire
Teh Day of the Lord is described as a day of firey wrath, burning, and cleansing through judgement fires.
40 Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.
Peter talks about this as well.
7 By the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
What is the difference between Hell and Hades?
Hades is the greek translation for sheol, and Hell is the english word used for Gehenna.
Hades/Sheol is the holding place in this age, Gehenna is the place of judgement fire of the age to come.
Isarel sacrified children in the valley of hinnom (in hebrew gay hinnom) 2 Kings 23.10.
Because of that the prophets said it would become a place of slaughter and over time it grew to be understood that God would fill it with fire and that would be a place of judgement.
So hades or sheol exists under the earth, whereas Gehenna or hell is coming in the future and exists on the earth as a lake of fire.
And in the end hades / sheol itself is thrown into Gehenna Rev 20.14
14 Then death and Sheol were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.
43 “And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than, having two hands, to go to Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. ( 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off! It’s better for you to enter life lame than, having your two feet, to be thrown into Gehenna. (46 ) 47 If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out! It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to be thrown into Gehenna, 48 where ‘their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will endure before Me”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“so your descendants and your name will endure.” 23 “And it will come to pass, that from one New Moon to another, and from one Shabbat to another, all flesh will come to bow down before Me,” says Adonai. 24 “As they leave, they will look on the corpses of the people who rebelled against Me. For their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a horror to all flesh.”
Why Hasn’t The Day of the Lord Come Yet
Why Hasn’t The Day of the Lord Come Yet
Because the age to come brings judgement - somethign so severe we are not fully comprehending it.
Because God is merciful He is patiently waiting as long as possible for people to repent and avoid what is coming. 2 Pt 3.9-10
9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.
And because God is acting in this age with such mercy we also need to act in this age with mercy. This is the halachah of Yeshua. This age isn’t the time fo rjudgement, that will come, but to extend mercy to those who do not understand the wrath of God.
Before I menionted that the cross is not the climax of the Bible. So does that mean the cross was insignifcant? Not at all. The Cross is the highest picture of what this age entails - mercy.
The cross is the picture of God’s present attitude toward the wicked in this age. But the message of the Cross is that it is time bound - mercy doesn’t last forever otehrwise it wouldn’t be mercy.
9 The love of God was revealed among us by this—that God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Yom Teruah reminds me of the Day of the Lord.
It is a memorial of who our God is - A royal king, The righteous judge of the heavens and earth, And ultimately the one who will repay according to deeds.
The shouts of teruah remind me that God is coming, this age is one of mercy, but the age to come is set in motion through the wrath of God.
As we prepared our minds and hearts for these events to unfold let us find ourselves living and acting in a way that demosntrates our allegiance to the mercifcul king and our saviour Yeshua our messiah.
