Story 5: The Day of the Lord
There are many ways that humans have viewed the world. In our deep hunger for meaning and purpose, we tend form beliefs into systems that make sense of all the different aspects of human life. Are we karmic souls, moving from life to life, that will one day enter into a cosmic pool as a drop of water joins the ocean? Are humans and animals and stars simply masses of chemicals that will decompose at death? Is there some all-powerful, objective God out there that has His own personality? Did He make us? Is He loving? Good? Is He just?
Humanity has come up with many answers to these questions. One of the easiest is to decide we can't know, so why even try? Another answer is to say that everyone is right, or that each person gets to decide what is true. If that is so, then the great moral wrong is to decide that anyone else is wrong. This sounds like a very compassionate, open minded way of looking at the world, but in truth it is just as imposing and dogmatic as any other worldview. It demands that every other faith system has to surrender whole portions of their beliefs in order to say that every other belief is also true.
So here is the question: What if one of the answers turns out to be true? What if there is a belief system that is actually correct, providing an accurate view of what is really going on in the world. More specifically, what if the Bible is right? What if God loves the human race and made Himself known to us? What if it matters whether we seek Him? What will we miss out on if we don't?
One of the longest lasting, most profoundly influential ways of looking at the world came to the human race through the Jewish faith system. With the coming of Christ, new concepts were added that Christians believe gave a broader and deeper understanding of the plans of God. If they are right, then what they believe is true regardless if anyone else believes it or not...and what the God of the Bible says is going to happen is really going to happen.
Over many centuries, God gave the nation of Israel many remarkable promises about the future through His bold and fearless prophets. The Lord would raise up an Anointed One, a Messiah, who would be the Savior of the world. He would come and establish a Kingdom of everlasting peace (see here and here for more details about that).
But before that time could come, the Messiah would have some work to do. The sin of Adam and Eve plunged the universe under a terrible curse (see here). The Messiah would have to make the way for radical transformation. It would have to be something that would change the twisted, tainted hearts of each of Adam and Eve’s children. (If you have any doubts about that, just consider all of the small and large ways humans create suffering for each other all over the world and throughout history.) He would have to transform the rebellious condition of the nations that battle against the ways of the Most High God. The Messiah would also have to fix the devastated system of the natural universe. God gave multiple promises throughout the Old Testament that he would bring about all of those things. The time when the Messiah would come to pave the way for his Kingdom is called the Day of the Lord.
It is probably important to understand at this point that the word “day” in the “Day of the Lord” does not mean a twenty-four hour period. It means a certain time in history, an epoch or an era, when specific things are going to happen. It could take years for all of these things to unfold in that period or “day”!According to the Old Testament prophets, the Messiah will do great and mighty works in that time. In the power of God, He will cleanse the nation of Israel from its sin. The repentant will receive salvation and the oppressed will be set free. Their hearts will receive total transformation through the power of God’s Spirit. Meanwhile, the unrepentant wicked will come under God’s judgment and wrath. This is how the prophet Zechariah described the coming of the Messiah to Israel:“…I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great.”
Zechariah 12:10-11a
It is interesting, because there are actually two kinds of mourning going on here. The righteous will mourn in repentance and grief over the sufferings that the sins of the people have caused. The wicked will mourn because the time of their judgment has come. They will continue to refuse to repent, and the One they had pierced would fill them with dread. It is terribly tragic because every individual in this story has the same opportunity. Everyone has the chance to repent. It is only those who are relentless in their embrace of wrong and rejection of God's goodness who will face judgment. For them, judgement will be a horror, for the Messiah will come to cleanse His people. He will no longer allow those who love evil to contaminate the nation with the curse and horrors of sin and shame. Yet the righteous...the repentant...will find themselves refined and glorious, like pure gold. They will be made strong by God and able to do the right thing...able to give, able to serve, able to love. What an amazing world they will be able to create, with the Messiah as their leader. For them, the refining fire of judgment is a precious gift. This is what the prophet Malachi wrote:
“Who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of gold and silver…so I will come near to you for judgment.”
Malachi 3:2, 5a
The choice is clear. Transformative cleansing through repentance or condemnation.
There are many verses like these in the Old Testament where God promised to come in fiery judgment against the sin of Israel. In fact, God said that on the Day of the Lord, He would use other nations, those in utter rebellion against God, to judge the nation of Israel. That doesn’t seem fair, does it? Why would God use incredibly wicked nations to punish a nation that is much less sinful than they are? The book of Isaiah asks the same question. It also provides the answer.
In God’s perfect, wise plan, He will take advantage of the violent, warmongering wickedness of the other nations and use it for His own excellent, purifying purposes. He will take what is evil and use it for good. He will move those nations to attack Israel and provide Israel with the chance to be cleansed in the process.
Now, those evil nations will be in big trouble with God, too. God’s intentions are always righteous, He only does things that are in line with His perfect holiness. His judgment towards Israel is absolutely just. But those nations will act out of very different motives. They will attack Israel out of their own viciousness, greed, and fierce will to conquer. God will use them for His righteous plans, but the motives of their hearts will be evil, and their sins against Israel will be great. Because of their great sin, God will judge them, too.
The prophets told of about this over and over again. Zechariah wrote:
“A day of the LORD is coming when…I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked…then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.”
Zechariah 14:1a, 2a, 3
The Lord said through the prophet Joel: “‘In those days…when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations…there I will enter into judgment against them concerning My inheritance, My people Israel, for they scattered My people among the nations… I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done.”
Joel 3:1, 2a, 2c, 4c
The prophet Zechariah wrote chilling images of what that judgment will be like:
“This is the plague that God will strike on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet…on that day the men will be stricken by the LORD with a great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other.”
Zachariah 14:12a-c, 13
There are more descriptions in these verses and others, and they are rightfully terrifying. They are also a mercy. These prophecies have been given to humanity to drive us to a proper fear about what will happen if we continue to perpetuate evil. These might seem like extreme measures, but that is because we fail to understand the depths of evil and hardness of heart that exists in the human race. Consider the horrifying terrors that humans inflict on each other every day across the earth: war, genocide, human trafficking, perverse abuse, relentlessly deep, embedded corruption that robs the innocent and vulnerable of hope and life. We can look away from these devastating things and pretend they are not there, but God does not. He sees every despicable act every day all day long and understands them completely. He knows the extremity of humanity's hardness of heart, and his plan of salvation was extensive enough to include every extremity of sin. The very things we want to protect ourselves from are the places that God invades with his purifying righteousness and love, but in order for him to do so, there has to be repentance, and he is willing to go the farthest mile to get it. Judgment from God is an act of the most painful, sacrificial form of love. And he is willing to do it for the most heinous of sinner. What an amazing and merciful God.
God is also just, and for those who refuse to repent, there is a final judgment. For those who want to stay the way they are, savoring evil, arrogantly rejecting their Creator, the only true source of good, there will come a time their hearts have so hardened that they will no longer be able to repent. Over and over again, the Bible tells of a great and terrible day when God would come in great judgment against the wickedness of the whole human race.
As massively epic and righteously dark as this judgment will be when the Messiah closes down human history as we know it, the Day of the Lord is not only about judgment. In fact, it is mostly about blessing. It will be a day of spectacular joy as every evil possibility, even death, is destroyed. There will no longer be any place for those who love evil, their contaminating presence will be utterly removed. All who remain will be those whose repentance has made away for God's cleansing, holy presence. All that will be left are the things that bring true happiness, peace, and light because all that will be left are the things of God. The Day of the Lord is only the beginning. It is the inauguration of a Grand New Hope that God is going to bring. But we will read more about that in the next story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqy-gob13kA