Think of a problem, pain, or predicament you’re facing right now. What is it? Perhaps something related to a difficulty in your relationships? Or an inner struggle with sadness, shame, or fear? Maybe a challenge in your work or problem with your health?
Now take it a step further, and consider the sickness of humanity. What breaks your heart about our world? What troubles you at such a deep level that you may not even want to think about it? Or maybe you can’t think of anything because you don’t just feel grief like that anymore. If so, what caused the compassion fatigue? What happened to you that hindered your ability to feel deeply the sorrow of the world?
I want to propose that a biblical term, “the day of the Lord,” has direct relevance to what came to mind for you with the questions above. I want to suggest it is what our hearts hunger and crave for at the deepest core of our being. To help us wrap our heads around the massive significance of what can seem like an easily overlooked subject, join me in this brief foray into the meaning and relevance of “the day of the Lord.”
How Time Works
In the ancient Near East, time was seen as basically cyclical, almost like a wheel, with an endless cycle of birth and death. This conception is illustrated in and was strengthened by the fertility religions of the day.[1]
But for the Israelites, time was seen as linear, going somewhere, with a beginning and a triumphant transition. These drawings illustrate the difference:
Prophetic, Apocalyptic Predictions
With this linear view of time, the Old Testament prophets often pointed their hearers to a coming “day of the Lord” where God, as a divine warrior, would intervene. Sometimes it meant a coming day of hope and joy, while other times it meant a coming day of catastrophe. When it comes to the great “day of the Lord” when Jesus returns, it is both, but different for different people. How does this recurring theme of the “day of the Lord” fit into the final culmination of history, to what the Bible refers to as the coming “new heaven and new earth”?
What is the Significance of “The Day of the Lord” for the New Heavens and Earth?
Again, the transition between the present age and the age to come is often referred to throughout the Bible as “the day of the Lord.” Although that term is used to refer to other major events throughout biblical history, the final culmination of history is the “day of the Lord” in its grandest sense. This is a cataclysmic day of judgment and salvation when God conquers His enemies and inaugurates a new heavens and new earth for those He saves.
Much has been written on “the day of the Lord” and all it suggests, but here are a few Hebrew and Christian scriptures that utilize this term and flesh out its sobering implications:
“For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.” (Isaiah 2:12, NKJV)
“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.” (Amos 5:18, NIV)
“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come . . . everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Joel 2:31-32, NKJV)
What is the day of the Lord? “For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.”
Joel 2:28-32 was cited by Peter in Acts 2 (and alluded to in Revelation 6:12-17 and Matthew 24:29-31). Note how the broader context of Joel’s prophecy describes not only judgment but also a great restoration of what has been lost:
“The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.” (Joel 2:24-26, ESV)
Paul explains how that day will be a day of vindication for those who trust and follow Jesus:
“…on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.” (2 Corinthians 1:14, ESV)
Although this day of the Lord is certain to happen, we can’t pencil in the day on a calendar. We can know the what but not the when:
“For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2, ESV)
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:8-10, NKJV)
What is the day of the Lord? “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”
How Do We Understand the Day of the Lord in Light of Jesus’ First and Second Comings?
Thanks to scholars like G. E. Ladd, we have an easy way of understanding the disappointment felt by the Jews when Jesus didn’t seem to fulfill their messianic expectations. They wondered, where was the great day of vindication for the righteous and destruction of the unrighteous? Where was the great reversal of fortunes and restoration of what was lost?
Now we can see it more clearly. What they anticipated as a single moment—the Day of the Lord—actually includes a gap in between when you zoom in.
So where does Jesus’ first coming fit into the biblical teaching on the “day of the Lord”? Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection inaugurated His Kingdom, and blessings of the age to come began to flow. That’s why he announced, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15, ESV).
But instead of a singular “day of the Lord” separating the end of the present age from the age to come, we are now living in the “already-not-yet” tension between the two ages.
Jesus’ second coming, of which we anxiously await, will bring the present age to close with judgment, punishment, and salvation. This is the moment when heaven comes to earth and life is transformed, once and for all, to what it was originally intended to be. People who are saved by the Messiah will finally exist in perfect harmony with God, each other, and the world itself.
What is the day of the Lord? “This is the moment when heaven comes to earth and life is transformed, once and for all, to what it was originally intended to be.”
A Snapshot of the Day of the Lord
Not surprisingly, the Hebrew prophets were gripped by prophetic imaginations of what the day of the Lord and the age to come would be like. Although there are so many prophetic descriptions to choose from about the age to come, let’s focus in on one passage from Isaiah. As you’ll notice, life in the new heavens and new earth contrasts sharply with that stereotype of a mystical experience in the clouds. This picture offers a far greater motivation and reward.
“But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 65:18-25, ESV)
“The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food.”
Notice the descriptions of the age to come from this passage, and think back to the opening exercise where you identified a problem, pain, or predicament in your life or the world. See if this doesn’t provide the answer or solution:
- Gladness and rejoicing forever
- No more weeping or cries of distress
- No more premature death of infants or old men who die early
- Building and inhabiting houses
- Planting vineyards and enjoying their fruit
- A different nature of time
- Enjoying the work of our hands, not laboring in vain
- God answers before we call, hears before we finish speaking
- Wolf and lamb graze together, lions eating straw like the ox
- No hurting or destruction
While this final day of the Lord remains on the horizon for now, how blessed we are to be able to participate, even today, in spreading foretastes of our Messiah’s already-not yet Kingdom. Hope for the future gives us strength for today.
[1] See Thomas Cahill’s The Gift of the Jews in the Hinges of History series for a masterful explanation of this in a way that is accessible to a non-academic audience.
