He is Coming Soon
Notes
Transcript
One of the toughest subjects of study in all of scripture is the study of the end times. Prophecy is a very difficult subject. The language is heavily figurative, and some of it hasn’t happened yet. It often feels like putting a jigsaw puzzle together without the box top. If you have ever tried putting a jigsaw puzzle together having never seen the picture on the box top, you know what I am talking about. It is difficult.
This week you have finished the major prophets, a section of the Bible that we call major not because of importance, but because of length and scope. Isaiah to Daniel cover a wide scope of history and a wide array of messages. This week you are reading through the section we call the minor prophets. They are called minor for the same reasons as the majors are called major. The minor prophets are shorter and are more limited in scope and their messaging. On Thursday of this week you will have finished reading the Old Testament. Let that sink in for a minute.
From Hosea to Malachi, there are twelve prophetic books and we simply can’t cover them all this week. I wanted to cover one, but I was having a difficult time trying to figure out which one. As I was praying, it dawned on me that many of these books have a recurring theme: the day of the Lord. That phrase appears 23 times in the Old Testament. All of them appear in the prophetic books and 17 of them appear in the minor prophets. Today we will be looking at the day of the Lord and what picture the Old Testament paints and then how the New Testament further develops that picture.
The Old Testament Day of the Lord refers to both events that are near and far off.
The Old Testament Day of the Lord refers to both events that are near and far off.
When we think about the day of the Lord, we often think about events that are still future. We think about the great tribulation, the 1,000 year reign of Christ, and the great white throne judgment. But that is not the only aspect of the day of the Lord the Old Testament speaks of. One important aspect of Bible interpretation that we have to remember is that there is often an immediate fulfillment of prophecy for the original audience of Old Testament scriptures and also a future fulfillment that may be alluded to, though not fully realized in the moment.
A popular verse helps us see this a little more clearly.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Ahaz was the king of Judah at the time and the king of Aram allied with the king of Israel an waged war against Jerusalem, but failed to conquer it. Isaiah prophesies that this alliance will soon end and the Lord tells Ahaz to ask for a sign. Ahaz refuses, so the Lord offers one anyway. That is verse 14. But that is not all that is said.
“He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.
“For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.
If this prophecy only concerned the messiah to come, these verses would not make much sense, nor would they be all that helpful to Ahaz in his current position. Only later through new revelation does Matthew see the connection between that verse and Jesus.
This happens similarly with the day of the Lord in the Old Testament.
Have you ever seen forced perspective photos? A forced perspective photo takes two things that are further away and present them as if they are closer together. Looking at the day of the Lord is like looking at a forced perspective photo, but not always discerning the actual space between them [show pictures].
For some prophecy, the event in imminent. It has already taken place. Isaiah 13 refers to the day of the Lord’s judgment against Babylon.
Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.
And their bows will mow down the young men,
They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor will their eye pity children.
And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
But desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there.
Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers
And jackals in their luxurious palaces.
Her fateful time also will soon come
And her days will not be prolonged.
This event has already occured, yet it uses the language of the day of the Lord. Ezekiel 30 uses the day of the Lord to refer as a time of doom for the nations, but also targets Egypt specifically.
The word of the Lord came again to me saying,
“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God,
“Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’
“For the day is near,
Even the day of the Lord is near;
It will be a day of clouds,
A time of doom for the nations.
“A sword will come upon Egypt,
And anguish will be in Ethiopia;
When the slain fall in Egypt,
They take away her wealth,
And her foundations are torn down.
The prophet Joel speaks of a recent locust plague as foreshadowing of a day of the Lord that is to come against Israel. This too, has come to pass as Israel endured captivity and exile by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten;
And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.
Awake, drunkards, and weep;
And wail, all you wine drinkers,
On account of the sweet wine
That is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation has invaded my land,
Mighty and without number;
Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,
And it has the fangs of a lioness.
Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
But then just one chapter later, Joel writes of the future day of the Lord.
“I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
“The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
“And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Will be delivered;
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the Lord has said,
Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.
In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.
You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!
Finally, we have the very last verse in the Old Testament:
“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
From these verses and many others, we can conclude:
There are days of the Lord that have come and gone, but THE day of the Lord is still to come.
There are days of the Lord that have come and gone, but THE day of the Lord is still to come.
I want to give you a few characteristics of the day of the Lord.
The day of the Lord is the day of God’s judgment.
Based on the passages we have already looked at, we can be certain that God has a day in mind where he will pour out judgment on the earth for their sin against him. God is just and he will be faithful to his promises as we saw in Lamentations last week. God is a judge who will bring final punishment to sin in the future.
2. The day is still future.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,
that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
3. The day of the Lord will come after a time of great trouble.
For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;
What does this mean for us?
What does this mean for us?
The day of the Lord is an incentive for godly living.
“For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
2. The day of the Lord should give us a sense of urgency in evangelism.
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”