The Day of the Lord

Introduction

Today we continue our study of the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah is one of the 3 “big” prophets. We sometimes refer to them as the “major” prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. They appear in that order, in our bibles as well as in the original order of the Hebrew bible. The Jewish tradition has those three, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, as separate scrolls, and then all the other prophets are lumped into “the twelve.”

In neither tradition is this a chronological ordering, as we’ve seen with the [slide] timeline that Mike has been referring to. But if you just read through the Bible in order, front to back, whether it’s the Western, Christian order or the original Jewish order, Isaiah is the first book of the prophets you come across.

We’re going to look at chapter 2 of Isaiah today, and because Isaiah is the first book of the prophets, this is the first place where we see one of the biblical authors start talking about “The Day of the Lord” in such terms. It’s introduced here in chapter 2, and referred to again in several other places throughout the rest of the book.

But before we get into the reading of the text, I wanted to ask, out of curiosity,

how many of you are familiar with that phrase, or at least have heard it before? “The Day of the Lord” (or “The Day of Yahweh).

I’m also curious, even if this is your first time hearing it:

what is the first thing you think of when you hear that phrase?

When I said “Day of the Lord,” what popped into your head? Just call out the words or images or ideas you associate with The Day of the Lord.

For many people, “The Day of The Lord” is synonymous with “The End Times” or “The End of the World.” And that’s…not a terrible thing, actually. If you picture “Final Judgment” and “The Great White Throne” and “The Return of Christ” … that’s really not an inaccurate picture! It is, however, an incomplete picture. There is a bit more to it than just that.

So that’s what we’re going to get into today. Let’s start by reading Isaiah chapter 2:

Isaiah Ch. 2

Isaiah 2 CSB

1 The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: 2 In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it, 3 and many peoples will come and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us about his ways so that we may walk in his paths.” For instruction will go out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not take up the sword against nation, and they will never again train for war. 5 House of Jacob, come and let’s walk in the Lord’s light. 6 For you have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of divination from the East and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines. They are in league with foreigners. 7 Their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no limit to their treasures; their land is full of horses, and there is no limit to their chariots. 8 Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the work of their hands, what their fingers have made. 9 So humanity is brought low, and each person is humbled. Do not forgive them! 10 Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from his majestic splendor. 11 The pride of mankind will be humbled, and human loftiness will be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. 12 For a day belonging to the Lord of Armies is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—it will be humbled— 13 against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, 14 against all the high mountains, against all the lofty hills, 15 against every high tower, against every fortified wall, 16 against every ship of Tarshish, and against every splendid sea vessel. 17 The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. 18 The worthless idols will vanish completely. 19 People will go into caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the Lord and from his majestic splendor, when he rises to terrify the earth. 20 On that day people will throw their worthless idols of silver and gold, which they made to worship, to the moles and the bats. 21 They will go into the caves of the rocks and the crevices in the cliffs, away from the terror of the Lord and from his majestic splendor, when he rises to terrify the earth. 22 Put no more trust in a mere human, who has only the breath in his nostrils. What is he really worth?

I’m going to stop there, but chapter 2 is kind of a microcosm of the next 2 chapters, which go on to continue describing this “DAY.” In Hebrew, it’s “yom” (like “yum” but with an “o”). A yom, a day, that Isaiah says “belongs to Yahweh.” So what is this day? This yom of Adonai?

What “Day” is Isaiah Referring to?

I think many of us, including myself, have been influenced in our understanding of The Day of the Lord by a variety of factors such as: western historical culture, church traditions, and modern, popular culture. And it’s not that these influences are inherently bad, we benefit immensely from those who went before us and from our peers in today’s global church. However, I do think that we have a way of thinking that differs from that of the original writers and readers of scripture, that in some cases can deter us from understanding what’s going on with some of the nuances and concepts that are baked into Jewish thought and Jewish writing.

So, that’s the first hurdle I’m going to try to at least crawl over, if not leap over, to try to bridge that cultural gap a little bit.

Isaiah 2-4 Summary

Chapter 2 starts off describing a global event in verse 2, he says “All nations” will stream to the mountain of Yahweh’s house. We’ll come back to that image, but just following the overall trajectory of this poem, it starts off with a very beautiful, positive image, with people from all over the world coming to God, walking in his paths, disputes are settled, there’s no more war, no need for weapons, it’s awesome! But then he shifts in verse 5 to address the “house of Jacob” specifically, and it sort of escalates into a full-on, harsh proclamation of judgement on Judah, her leaders, the women of Jerusalem, and it goes on and on about how terrifying this day will be! Then, in chapter 4 verse 2 it suddenly switches tone again:

Isaiah 4:2–6 CSB

On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors. Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy—all in Jerusalem written in the book of life—when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodguilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. Then the Lord will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy over all the glory, and there will be a shelter for shade from heat by day and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.

It’s a jarring shift from people dying, being stripped of glory, and wallowing in disgrace to “the Branch of Yahweh will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

So, what on earth, or in heaven, or both, is going on here? Clearly, there are two sides to this coin, right? And this is not so far off from what we saw in Jeremiah: on one side, there is doom and gloom; destruction and despair. On the other side, there is hope and prosperity and beauty and glory. But there’s even more to it than that! By using the word “Day” Isaiah is tying into a concept, a biblical theme, that clearly points to the future. He’s prophesying about things yet to come. In some cases, things even still today that have not yet come to pass, and point still to our future, not just Isaiah’s future. However, this concept, even when talking about the future, is rooted in the past.

The Day of The Lord, even when talking about future events, is rooted in the past. It’s defined by Israel’s history. But before we dive into that history, I want to bring up two points to try to help us peel back the layers of our own preconceptions with which we approach this cross-cultural experience of reading this ancient text.

Multi-Faceted “Day”

First of all, we need to let go of any notion that this “day” is exclusively a singular event. It certainly can refer to a singular event, but it can also refer to multiple specific events, or a classification of events, or an extended period of time. And the way the biblical authors wrote, a poem like this can be doing all of those things simultaneously! That’s something amazing and clever in how ancient Jewish writers, through the Holy Spirit, were able to craft these intricate stories and poems, but having those multiple layers of non-linear application is not something nearly so intuitive to Western tradition. So we have to intentionally be open to that and looking for that.

Even in English though, the word “day” has multiple nuances of meaning depending on the context. The Hebrew word yom is the 5th most used noun in the Hebrew bible! Yom can refer to the period of time between sunrise and sunset. We sometimes use the word “day” in the same way: day is when the sun is up, night is when the sun is down. But it can also refer to a 24-hr time period, right! A full day, in terms of measurement, is 24 hours regardless of how many of those hours are filled with sunlight. “Day” can also refer to a general time period of multiple days, months, or years. It’s used this way many times throughout the Bible, often characterized by a unique event, or by kings and kingdoms: “in the day when the city was built” or “in the day of king Solomon.” We don’t use it that way as often in English, but we do have phrases like “In this day and age” which obviously refers to the general time period we’re living in, not literally “On this day, the 22nd of November, and my age of 27 years and 10 months and 4 days.

[slide]

All this is to say that even though the phrase appears singular, it can be applied in more than one way, to more than one event. And in the Bible, the writers can sometimes be using it in multiple ways, on multiple layers, at the same time. That’s the first little mental exercise, or piece of gear to put on before we dive in.

Archetypes

The second thing I want to bring up before moving further is the importance of archetypes in the Bible. We talk about these a lot, though we don’t always use that term to define them, I think it’s probably the best word to describe what’s happening in a lot of the design patterns throughout scripture.

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An archetype is defined as a very typical example of a certain person or thing. It can be an original that has been imitated, or a recurrent symbol or motif in literature.

One example we’ve talked about several times this year is how we see several Old Testament people serve as archetypes for the Messiah. The chosen one. The promised savior of Israel. We see that especially with Moses and with King David, and even with Solomon. They each exhibit characteristics which serve an example for what the people of Israel hoped for in the Messiah. And in fact, “Messiah” just means “anointed one.” David, and others, were literally anointed to lead Israel, so in that since, were literally “messiahs.” BUT they weren’t THE Messiah. So, like with the word “Day” we can see the word being used in two different ways but still in ways which relate to each other in a sort of parallel, multi-faceted way. Jesus, THE Messiah is certainly distinct from King David “the messiah” of his day, but they still have a relationship to each other. In the same way, we’ll see archetypes for the day of the Lord, and many examples of small days of the Lord, all of which point to the “big D” Day of the Lord.

The Precedent

I know that’s all a bit dense, but I think it’s important to try to get, as much as we can, into the head-space of the cultural and literary context when it comes to big, loaded themes like this. So with all that in mind, we’re going to move on now and look at the precedent for this conversation, leading up to Isaiah.

Amos

I mentioned that Isaiah is the first of the prophets to start talking about “The Day of the Lord,” but that’s only based on the order of the books. Chronologically, the prophet Amos was the first of the prophets to actually use the phrase in writing:

Amos 5:18–20 CSB

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! What will the day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light. 19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him. 20 Won’t the day of the Lord be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it?

So, Amos is the first place we see it show up if we’re looking at it on a timeline. But still, he clearly didn’t invent the phrase; it wasn’t new or introduced through Amos. Who is he talking to here? “You who long for the day of the LORD” Which means this was a familiar concept to the Jews at the time. This was something they not only knew about and thought about, but actually longed for. Of course, Amos is warning them that maybe they shouldn’t be so excited for it, because it’s not going to go so well for them. But why would they be longing for it in the first place? What were they expecting?

As usual, to answer that, we have to back up and look at Israel’s story: their history as told in Genesis through Kings. By know you should know to expect a mini Old Testament survey whenever we start talking about a biblical theme, because that’s what a biblical theme is! It’s something that has precedent in the very first pages of scripture, and is repeated in various patterns throughout the whole rest of scripture. And that’s what The Day of the Lord is!

Garden of Eden

Think back to the garden of Eden. A sanctuary for human life: a peaceful, abundant garden set on top of a mountain. A place where God dwelled among the humans, and where humans were called to rule creation alongside him. It was a holy place. Mike talked about that word “holy” last week. It was set apart from the rest of creation as holy, and therefore God and humans, heaven and earth, intersected at Eden in perfect harmony.

BUT that all changed when the serpent deceived Eve, and suddenly paradise was corrupted by evil.

What was God’s response? Put simply, he confronted it. And just as we see the pattern of sin repeat itself over and over, we see the pattern of God confronting evil as it comes to a head. Now, God was merciful to Adam & Eve; he provided protection for them: he clothed them, and promised to fix the mess they made, but in the meantime, they could not remain in the holy space of the garden, because they were no longer holy. So they were banished.

Cain & The Flood

Cain, after he killed his brother, was confronted by God. And again, God had mercy. He provided protection, but, like his parents, Cain was banished, sent away even further, towards the East. And what did he do? He built a city.

Meanwhile, humanity got worse and worse, until the earth was “filled with wickedness” as it says in Genesis 6:11. What did God do? Did he ignore it? No. He confronted it. This time, of course, with a global flood! He wiped everyone out except for Noah & his family. Eight people. He saved a faithful remnant. Even though this was a drastic measure, it’s an example of God confronting evil in such a way to save humanity from their own corruption and self-destruction.

Tower of Babylon

But, as you know, the pattern of sin continued, and eventually we get to chapter 11 of Genesis, where we find people migrating from the East, coming together and cooperating to develop technology and new building methods; they figure out how to make bricks and construct buildings and towers more efficiently and more significantly than ever before!

How do they put this technology to use? They build a city and a tower. They desire to make a name for themselves. They want to elevate themselves to power, fame, security, and they build a temple to themselves. They celebrate themselves and aim to position themselves as the gods of their own world.

What does God do? He confronts it. He confuses their language, and he scatters them. So this time, the confrontation results in everyone surviving, but they are scattered. The scattering of the people is itself an act of judgment.

BUT that city they built remained. The city of Babylon. And I know I’ve said this before, but it’s so important in seeing these patterns, to recognize Babylon as the archetype for the culmination of human corruption, in a systematic, collaborative form, building itself up to be an anti-Yahweh, anti-holiness, anti-human entity. It stands for the opposite of what humans were created for.

And it’s NOT that cities or even towers are inherently sinful! Not at all! Humans were told to multiply, fill the earth and subdue it! It’s the purpose and the motivation behind people’s self-kingdom-building behavior which God is compelled to confront. Put another way, the problem wasn’t and isn’t technology! There’s nothing sinful about a brick. There’s nothing sinful about integrated circuits or fiber optic cables. It’s what people do with technology and why. That’s where we start to have issues, because of the corruption of sin nature.

The same could be said about power! Which ultimately is what does extend from buildings and technology and civil collaboration; they ultimately yield power. Social and geopolitical influence. And power can be wielded in a way that honors God and humanity’s true purpose. God gave authority and power to humans! Power itself is not the problem; it’s that selfishness, greed, and unhealthy desires lead to a perverse use of power, for personal gain and to tear down others. Which is exactly how Babylon is portrayed. This is really true of pretty much every empire that rose and fell, but Babylon is kind of THE original, so for literary purposes, it’s used as THE archetype for an “evil empire” that threatens God’s purposes and God’s people.

God’s people, the Israelites, who God established by bringing Abraham out of Babylon, and multiplying his descendants into a whole nation of twelve unified tribes.

Egypt

Babylon rears its head again later in the story, and again, serves as an archetype for the type of cumulative corruption which demands confrontation by God. But in the meantime, we see another kingdom take on that role as a “type” of Babylon. The kingdom of Egypt. We find the Israelites enslaved and oppressed by the Egyptian king, who felt so insecure about his kingdom and so threatened by this other people group, that he resorted to committing genocide in order to, in his eyes, protect the integrity and welfare of his own people group and nationality. He was afraid the Israelites would join forces with Egypts enemies, so he preemptively started killing them off. He murdered their children, and subjected the rest to ruthless slave labor.

So what does God do? You should know the answer by now…in keeping with the pattern…God confronts the evil. He confronts it quite spectacularly, doesn’t he? It’s very dramatic, he brings 10 plagues against Egypt, and they’re terrifying and each one is worse than the last. You might read about these plagues and think “wow, God’s judgment is pretty harsh, and scary!” Which is true. But it’s also kind of amazing that God gave Pharaoh 10 opportunities to repent! That’s not really how we would want our global systems of power to respond to a genocidal tyrant, is it?

Regardless though, God confronted this evil kingdom, and intervened to bring his people out of Egypt. And it culminates when the people get to the Red Sea, and pharoah leads Egypt in their last effort to stop Israel from escaping. In Exodus 14 we find Israel trapped at the shore of the sea, and God miraculously parted the waters to allow them across on dry land. And when the Egyptians tried to follow, the water crashed back in on them, wiping out pharaoh's entire army. It was a spectacular show of power and a mighty act of deliverance for the Jews. And listen, now to exodus 14:30

Exodus 14:30–31 CSB

30 That day the Lord saved Israel from the power of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 When Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses.

“That day.” We’ve seen the pattern of God confronting evil all the way up to this point, but here we actually have that word “day.”

In fact, it comes up before they even leave Egypt, back in chapter 13. Right before they leave, they receive instructions for the passover, and moses says in 13:3

Exodus 13:3 CSB

3 Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, for the Lord brought you out of here by the strength of his hand. Nothing leavened may be eaten.

The day in which God brought Israel out of Egypt was monumental for them, and God wanted them to remember it forever.

And it WAS “a” day of the Lord. Not the ultimate, final one, but it was an archetypal day of the Lord.

This is the pattern we’ve seen: [slide]

Perspective During Prophets

So why is all of this important? Other than simply recognizing and tracking the theme, which is in itself valuable. I think it’s also helpful in understanding the context of Isaiah and the other prophets.

Fast-forward in the timeline, by the time we get to Amos, the deliverance from Egypt is ancient history, and Israel is way past its prime. King David turned out NOT to be the ultimate messiah, and King Solomon did great, until he basically became no better than pharoah himself! After him it just went downhill quickly; the kingdom split up; the tribes are no longer unified. They’re gradually being scattered into exile to the Assyrians, and Babylon is looming on the horizon. So you can imagine Israel really longing for, as Amos says, a “Day of the Lord.” Another “Red Sea” moment, where God will swoop in and deliver them from all their enemies, unify them with his presence, and establish them as a major geopolitical power, a big and glorious kingdom. After all, that IS what he promised David he would do, right? Well, along comes Amos and says:

Amos 5:18 CSB

18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! What will the day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light.

Amos is saying “You’ve got it all wrong! There WILL be a day of the Lord, but it’s going to be against YOU!”

And then Isaiah comes and gives us 3 really intense chapters about the day of the Lord, and a lot of it is directed right at Israel! And this topic comes up quite a few more times throughout the rest of the book. This is a major theme in the message of the prophets, and especially Isaiah, and it seems these passages were provided to reshape the expectations that were prevalent at the time.

So now we’ve seen the precedent for this concept of the Day of the Lord. It’s not just an isolated future event, it’s a theme we can see established leading up to the prophets.

And we can define this concept broadly as God intervening to confront evil with a redemptive purpose for humanity.

This is my broad definition:

[slide]

“The Day of The Lord” refers to God intervening to confront evil with a redemptive purpose for humanity.

This can refer to a past, present or future event, though there is one final culminating event that will take place in the future we can refer to as the “D” day of the Lord

So, now I want to go back to Isaiah and look at some of the characteristics he identifies for the “day” he sees in the future.

There are 2 major characteristics of “a day” of the Lord, as well as THE day of the Lord. They are 2 sides of the same coin: Judgement and Hope.

Judgment

First of all, The day of the Lord is clearly a day of judgment. Now, we know about the impending Exile of Judah to Babylon and the fall of Jerusalem. This is a very localized or specific judgement on a specific people at a particular time. That’s one layer of Isaiah’s prophecy, and most of the judgment in chapters 2-4 is directed at Israel. But we’ve already talked a lot about that, we’ve seen similar prophecies in Malachi, and Jeremiah, and even Jonah. And, obviously, a lot of that is now in the past from our perspective. So I want to bring out some of the more global judgments we see in Isaiah, and focus a just little bit on some of the things that haven’t happened yet.

First of all, we can see that there will be a universal judgment. That the day of the Lord is NOT intended only for Israel is evident at the beginning of chapter 2, when it talks about “ALL nations.” But it’s not even limited to earthly judgment. Check out chapter 24 verse 21:

Isaiah 24:21–23 CSB

21 On that day the Lord will punish the army of the heights in the heights and the kings of the ground on the ground. 22 They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon; after many days they will be punished. 23 The moon will be put to shame and the sun disgraced, because the Lord of Armies will reign as king on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and he will display his glory in the presence of his elders.

This is an epic, COSMIC, day! Not only are the kings of the ground, the kings of the earth, subject to judgment, but the “army of the heights in the heights.” That’s referring to the heavenly realm, and spiritual powers, all of which are subject to God’s authority. Even the sun and the moon, both of which were sort of icons of heavenly power and deity, will be out-shined by God.

Revelation 6 tells us that all nations and every person from every station of life will face judgement the the FINAL DAY of the Lord.

New Testament

But now that we’re in the New Testament, we need to back up just a little. By this time, Babylon is ancient history. However, you have this new, oppressive empire, the Romans, and the Jews are again, or still, longing for the Messiah to come and bring a great day of the Lord and deliver them from their oppressors. Jesus came on the scene, and claimed to be THE Messiah! Not just “a” messiah, THE Messiah! So, what would you expect him to do? Put together an army and take on the Roman empire and with the power of God wipe out all of Israel’s problems! Except…that’s not what he did, is it?

No, instead he went after the underlying problem: the root cause of all this corruption and destructive power. He went after corrupted power systems, both spiritual and human. He went after demons and prideful, hypocritical leaders. But then he dug even deeper. He got down to the very bottom, the deepest roots of all: he went after sin itself. He set out to defeat death itself. And he did it in the most unexpected of ways: by dying!

Isaiah 25:8 actually says the messiah would “swallow up death once and for all.”

2 Timothy 1:10 says this was fulfilled through Christ.

However, and this is where it gets tricky, the New Testament also is very clear that Jesus will yet return one more time. Jesus was and is THE Messiah. His first coming was “a” day of the Lord, though not at all in the way Israel expected, and his second coming will be THE day of the Lord. Jesus said it himself and it’s all throughout the rest of the New Testament, which refers to it more often as “The day of Jesus Christ” or similar.

It’s very clear in Revelation that there will be a final judgment for every tribe, tongue and nation; every king and every peasant; every human, every angel, every demon will stand before God in Judgment. Many of the details beyond that are not clear, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First, this brings us to the good news. To that flip-side of the coin. Remember, Isaiah goes back and forth with the good news, bad news coin? Standing before God in Judgment is a SCARY thought. So how do we end up on the good side of the coin?

Hope

Well, that’s where Jesus comes in. When Jesus allowed himself to be sacrificed for our sins, that sacrifice was final. He said so himself on the cross, when he cried out “IT IS FINISHED!” He successfully took our place once and for all, covering the penalty for our sin and stands victorious as an intercessor for all who believe in him. That work is done. If we place our faith in him, he stands between us and God. He says “Father, this one belongs to me. I took his judgment upon myself. He remains in my kingdom.” That’s amazing! God sent Israel and Judah into Exile, but spared a remnant, and eventually they returned from exile, back to Jerusalem. Their partial restoration foreshadowed the final restoration of all humanity. So let’s look then, briefly at what it looks like to live in God’s Kingdom on the other side of the final day of the Lord.

First of all, let’s go back to that first part of Isaiah 2:

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Isaiah 2:2 CSB

2 In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it,

I told you we would come back to this image, because it’s just to good to pass up. Doesn’t this sound familiar? The mountain of Yahweh’s house, at the top of the mountains…it’s a high place, where God dwells…it’s Eden! Except, with Eden you had a mountain with rivers streaming FROM it. Now, you have rivers of nations streaming TO it. People from all over the world will return to Eden! And not only that, it’s like the reverse of the judgment on Babylon, the original judgment, when the people were scattered, and the judgment on Israel, when the tribes were broken up, and scattered. Now, you have a re-gathering, a re-unification of humanity.

Mark 13:26–27 CSB

26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 He will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

The ultimate day of the Lord is the ultimate fulfilment of the Messianic hope. It will be disastrous for evil, because evil will be purged from heaven and earth forever. But for God’s people, it is the ultimate hope. It will bring an end to war. People will no longer have any need for weapons. There will be no sin, no death, no sickness, and the light of God’s glory will permeate and sustain everything, everywhere, for eternity.

The Anticipation

Now, all of this is very exciting, isn’t it? We await the second coming with as much anticipation as the Jews awaited the first. But that also warrants a few points of caution. Like I said a minute ago, a lot of the details about how this is all going to happen are either confusing, vague, or simply not there. If you’ve ever read through books like Isaiah, parts of Daniel, and Revelation, you know exactly what I mean.

Christ will come again. God will judge the world. He will purge heaven and earth of evil, and renew all of creation to exist in a state of holiness: Heaven and Earth in harmony, Jesus as our high king, and all creatures living peacefully together under his rule. This the core truth that I believe, and we believe as a church, regardless of exactly how it happens and the order in which certain events will take place.

Beyond that, you will find a very wide variety of differing beliefs and opinions as to how to interpret the various prophecies about stuff that hasn’t happened yet. And it’s definitely a worthy topic to study and explore! Obviously, we’re not going to get into the finer details this morning, but by no means do I want to discourage you from doing so. I would only offer, again, a couple points of caution:

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Remember The First Coming.

First of all, remember that the first time Jesus came, even though there were hundreds of prophecies about him, the people who were looking for him for the most part completely had the wrong expectations. Jesus was pretty much the opposite of what they thought they needed and what they thought was promised: a non-violent bible nerd who fought spiritual forces of evil and pretty much ignored the problems the Jews thought they needed him to fix.

We have a lot of prophecy about his second coming, and it’s important to be familiar with what he said, so we aren’t led astray by false teaching. However, I think we would also be wise to hold the specific details of our expectations loosely, because God tends to be far more creative and surprising than we expect him to be.

It’s good to be sure of things. But there are some things which are OK to be a little bit less sure about. I think we need to be humble about how certain we can possibly be about things which haven’t happened yet. I’m 100% certain that Jesus is coming back. I have a few convictions and opinions about some of the finer details, but I’m OK with being less sure about them.

Remember The Unknown Timing.

On that note, probably the most important detail to NEVER even try to figure out is the exact timing. Jesus said “The son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” and

Mark 13:32 CSB

32 “Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—but only the Father.

Despite this clear statement, many people throughout history have attempted to make predictions. Don’t do it. And don’t pay any attention to anybody who does.

Remember Our Calling.

Finally, I just want to say that knowing the Day of the Lord is coming is NOT an excuse or an invitation to simply sit back and watch the world burn.

Will the world become a worse place before he comes back? Possibly.

However, just as the Jews were called to live and work towards the greater good of Babylon while in exile, we are called to pursue truth, beauty, and justice during our time on earth, whether or not it feels like an uphill battle at times.

Jesus set the example for how we are to conduct ourselves, and gave us the Holy Spirit to make it possible, bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We are to be lights in the darkness, so that more people can find their way to Jesus.

We are to be stewards of our time, our resources, our families, and our environment. We are to care for the widows, the orphans, the immigrants, the addicts, the sick, the poor, the homeless, and each other. Let’s remember those things.

Let’s focus on our calling. Let’s certainly be Bible nerds while we do it! But also be able to major on the majors, minor on the minors, and walk humbly together as brothers and sisters, in the freedom that was bought for us with the ultimate price.

Pray