Day of the Lord. Part 3. Rev 19:6 and others

1. We recognize that the day of the Lord is a doctrine that reminds us that sin and evil will not go unpunished. God is waiting until the proper time; He is longsuffering, the Scripture says; there will come a time when His plan will come to its proper goal and at that time God will finally judge sin and evil.
2. The day of the Lord is a term that has a general meaning in the sense of just a time of divine judgment in history, but its primary use is in relation to a final climactic judgment where Satan is judged, the enemies of God are judged, and this immediately precedes the establishment of His kingdom on the earth at a time when there will be a restoration of the earth, a rolling back of the curse so that there will be a time of relative perfect environment. It is not a time of absolute perfect environment, that only existed in the garden of Eden. Even in the Millennial kingdom there will be human beings that are born who have sin natures. There will be injustice because sin will still be around, but the curse on nature will be rolled back, the lion will lie down with the lamb, etc.
3. The day of the Lord will be a time of universal judgment on the arrogant human race who has opposed God and His people Israel. This is seen in passages such as Isaiah 2:11, 12, 17; 34:2; Obadiah 15, emphasizing that worldwide judgment. Other events that are called the day of the Lord are simply foreshadowings or pictures of what it will be like in the ultimate and final day of the Lord. 
4. The day of the Lord will be a time of unimaginable terror in the souls of men, such that they will flee before God and hide in the caves of the earth for protection. Isaiah 2:10, 19, 21.
5. This seems to correlate to the sixth seal judgment in Revelation 6:14.
6. Thus we learn that there must be several distinct times when there are going to be these signs in the heavens. These kinds of geo-physical cataclysms seem to occur several times with increasing devastation through the period of the Tribulation.

a)  Isaiah 2:10-20 correlates with the sixth seal where there is also stated to be a great earthquake, the sun is darkened, the moon turns to blood, and this is accompanied by stars falling from the heavens and the sky splitting apart like a scroll. Cf. Revelation 6:12-14; Isaiah 34:4.

b)  The fourth trumpet judgment which comes sometime later also describes such a phenomenon. This seems to suggest that something has happened to the sun and the moon themselves, but again it could also be phenomenalogical, i.e. it is explained from the perspective of what is seen and doesn't necessarily mean that the sun or the moon actually reduce their light or heat. It is doubtful that this ism permanent. If this is in the fourth trumpet judgment it is in the first half of the Tribulation and so is not a permanent thing, it is something that happens in another cataclysm that occurs during the Tribulation period.

c)  We also see that in Isaiah 13:10, 13, describing the final destruction of Babylon, that there are similar astro-geophysical phenomena. (Revelation 17 & 18 tells us that Babylon is destroyed near the end of the Tribulation period at the beginning of the Armageddon campaign) ^NASB "For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light….Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the LORD of hosts In the day of His burning anger." In the seal judgments the sun was darkened and the moon turned to blood; in the trumpet judgments it is a third of the light of the sun and a third of the light of the moon is gone. That is the last mention of something happening to the sun and the moon in Revelation. But in Isaiah 13 it appears to be more absolute that the sun is darkened and the moon will not shine, and this context seems to put it immediately before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of the destruction of Babylon.

d)  The only other event related to the sun in the second half of the Tribulation is in the fourth bowl judgment which speaks of the intensification of the heat from the sun. Revelation 16:8, 9.

e)  When compared to Isaiah 13:13 it appears that a complete darkening does come at the end.

7. Isaiah 13:8 compares the day of the Lord and all of these cataclysms to labor pains preceding a birth. The real hope in the day of the Lord is that this is a time when the Lord is going to come and establish the kingdom. It is a time of glory, a time of joy, a time of perfect environment. But before that happens, before the kingdom is birthed, there are these labor pains of judgment that take place.
8. Joel also spoke of these astro-geophysical phenomena that takes place just preceding the day. Joel 2:11 ^NASB "The LORD utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it? … [31] The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes." That sounds just like what is described in relation to the sixth seal, but the sixth seal is much earlier—unless Joel is just seeing these events and they're telescoped and he is not really seeing the time different which is between them.
9. The day also precedes the time of God's greatest blessing for Israel in the establishment of the kingdom.

The phrase "the day of the Lord" is used in two places in Amos: the exact phrase in 5:18, 20, and then an allusion to it in chapter nine where it is just referred to as "that day." Amos 5:18 ^NASB "Alas, you who are longing for the day of the LORD, For what purpose {will} the day of the LORD {be} to you? It {will be} darkness and not light." The historical setting of this is that Amos is prophesying in approximately 752 BC. The focus is during the time when the northern kingdom is within about 30 years of being destroyed by the Assyrian empire. The people are full of themselves; it is a time of tremendous arrogance in the northern kingdom. It was the time of the reign of Jeroboam II which is one of the last times that God really extends His grace to the northern kingdom of Israel before they are finally destroyed. In chapter five Amos is pleading with Israel, the northern kingdom, to turn back to God and to recognize that He is the ultimate authority. But they refused to do that, and we see an example here of how they distort Scripture. They are looking for the day of the Lord to come and just make everything right without realizing that they have to be properly aligned to the justice of God.

Picking up the context in v. 16 ^NASB "Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, the Lord, 'There is wailing in all the plazas, And in all the streets they say, 'Alas! Alas!' They also call the farmer to mourning And professional mourners to lamentation. [17] And in all the vineyards {there is} wailing, Because I will pass through the midst of you,' says the LORD."

Amos 5:18 ^NASB "Alas, you who are longing for the day of the LORD…" They are just looking for all the blessings, not realizing that the blessings only come to those who are rightly related to the justice of God. "… For what purpose {will} the day of the LORD {be} to you? It {will be} darkness and not light; [19] As when a man flees from a lion And a bear meets him, Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall And a snake bites him. [20] {Will} not the day of the LORD {be} darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it?" The point is that the day of the Lord here is referring to a time of judgment on Israel. Most scholars believe that this is not referring to the end times, it is referring to the immediate judgment that was coming on the northern kingdom in 722 BC. But it also seems that it provides an allusion at the very least to the end time and ma, in fact, be directly related to the end times because everywhere else in these prophets when we read the phrase "the day of the Lord" it is clear that it is talking about an end time event. Chapter nine certainly is eschatological where Amos has another vision and he sees the Lord standing by the altar in heaven. Again, very similar to the type of vision that we see in Revelation where John sees the heavenly temple and sees the altar in heaven.

Amos 9:1 ^NASB "I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, 'Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, And break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest of them with the sword; They will not have a fugitive who will flee, Or a refugee who will escape.'" This is clearly announcing divine judgment upon Israel. [2] "Though they dig into Sheol, From there will My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down.'" What we learn about the day of the Lord is that there is no escape; everyone will be brought to accountability.

Amos 9:5 ^NASB "The Lord GOD of hosts, The One who touches the land so that it melts, And all those who dwell in it mourn…" The imagery there of touching the earth and melting fits with the conditions surrounding the judgment at Armageddon and the destruction that occurs throughout the earth as a result of the bowl judgments. "…And all of it rises up like the Nile And subsides like the Nile of Egypt; [6] The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth, The LORD is His name." Verse 6 talks about God who is the creator and who controls human history. [7] "Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me, O sons of Israel?" declares the LORD. "Have I not brought up Israel from the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?" He is saying that He controls the destiny of all the nations, including Israel. [8] "Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," Declares the LORD"—related to the apostate Israel at the end times. (The verses up to verse 11, vv. 1-10, immediately precede what occurs in v. 11; and what occurs in v. 11 is the establishment of the Messianic kingdom) It is not a total destruction of the house of Jacob because a remnant will survive. [9] "For behold, I am commanding, And I will shake the house of Israel among all nations As {grain} is shaken in a sieve, But not a kernel will fall to the ground. [10] All the sinners [those who have rejected the Messiah] of My people will die by the sword, Those who say, 'The calamity will not overtake or confront us.'" They had this arrogance up until the end that somehow just because of who they are as descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that the calamity won't come upon them. That is the same kind of arrogance that was seen from the Pharisees when Jesus came: that just because they were descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob they were saved.

What we learn from Amos 5:18 and 20 is that the day of the Lord includes judgment. It is darkness and not light. What we learn from Amos chapter nine is that there is this judgment on Israel that will destroy much of Israel, many of the people, but it receives restoration of the house of David. Amos 9:11 ^NASB "In that day [day of the Lord] I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old." The dynasty of David is not in operation from the time of the return of the exile up to the present; there is not a Davidic king upon the throne. [12] 'That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name," Declares the LORD who does this. [13] Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. [14] Also I will restore the captivity [the remnant] of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live {in them;} They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. [15] I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them,' Says the LORD your God." The fulfillment of vv.11-15 doesn't take place until the time when the Lord returns and establishes His kingdom.

Zephaniah's ministry occurred during the time of Josiah, probably just before the revival that occurred during his reign. We put his date at 630 BC. The three chapters of Zephaniah focus on the day of the Lord; primarily the first chapter. Zephaniah 1:1 ^NASB "The word of the LORD which came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah." Hezekiah was the king who preceded Josiah, so this indicates that Zephaniah was in the aristocracy and was royalty. He was in fact related to Josiah and this is about the only case among the prophets where more than the father is mentioned. He is in the royal line, which also means he would be in the house of David.

Zephaniah 1:2 ^NASB "I will completely remove all {things} From the face of the earth," declares the LORD." Complete destruction. [3] 'I will remove man and beast; I will remove the birds of the sky And the fish of the sea, And the ruins along with the wicked; And I will cut off man from the face of the earth,' declares the LORD. [4] 'So I will stretch out My hand against Judah And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, {And} the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests. [5] And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, And those who bow down {and} swear to the LORD and {yet} swear by Milcom." These first verses are in reference to the historic judgment that was coming in 586 BC.

In verse 7 there is a shift where he begins to talk about the day of the Lord. ^NASB "Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near, For the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, He has consecrated His guests." This is the same terminology as in Revelation where it says the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is near. It refers to imminence as opposed to necessarily chronological proximity. [8] "Then it will come about on the day of the LORD'S sacrifice That I will punish the princes, the king's sons And all who clothe themselves with foreign garments. [9] And I will punish on that day all who leap on the {temple} threshold, Who fill the house of their lord with violence and deceit. [10] On that day,' declares the LORD, 'There will be the sound of a cry from the Fish Gate, A wail from the Second Quarter, And a loud crash from the hills. [11] Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar, For all the people of Canaan will be silenced; All who weigh out silver will be cut off. [12] It will come about at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And I will punish the men Who are stagnant in spirit, Who say in their hearts, 'The LORD will not do good or evil!'" That is the same kind of arrogant misrepresentation of God and judgment that is referenced in Amos.

Zephaniah 1:14 ^NASB "Near is the great day of the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. [15] A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, [16]  A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers." This is one negative term after another piled up and it reminds us of the passages in Matthew 24 and Daniel 12 that describe the time of the day of the Lord, the end time, as a unique time in history. This is the time of the day of the Lord's wrath. Chapter two calls them to repentance before there begins to be outline of the judgment upon the nations, ultimately reading through to the end of the book with an emphasis on the faithful remnant in the end times in the Millennial kingdom. This is again a focus on the day of the Lord as a present time of judgment. What we learn from Zephaniah is the focus on judgment, not just the establishment of the kingdom, not just the blessing.  

The next passage to look at is in Ezekiel which was written around 595-590 BC. He is taken captive to Babylon in 597. Ezekiel 30:1 ^NASB "The word of the LORD came again to me saying, [2] 'Son of man, prophesy and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Wail, 'Alas for the day!' [3] 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. [4] 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.'" That did not occur in 586, so this is clearly an unfulfilled prophecy and something that takes place in the far future. [5] "Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all Arabia, Libya and the people of the land that is in league will fall with them by the sword. [6] Thus says the LORD, 'Indeed, those who support Egypt will fall And the pride of her power will come down; From Migdol {to} Syene They will fall within her by the sword,' Declares the Lord GOD.'" This describes the destruction upon Egypt that will come before the Millennial kingdom. [7] "They will be desolate In the midst of the desolated lands; And her cities will be In the midst of the devastated cities. [8] And they will know that I am the LORD, When I set a fire in Egypt And all her helpers are broken." That hasn't happened yet; they haven't recognized the Lord. [9] "On that day messengers will go forth from Me in ships to frighten secure Ethiopia; and anguish will be on them as on the day of Egypt; for behold, it comes!" All of this is designed to teach that God is the Lord. Ezekiel 30:19 ^NASB "Thus I will execute judgments on Egypt, And they will know that I am the LORD." This is another eschatological judgment related to the day of the Lord, so again we see that the day of the Lord relates to judgment upon Gentile nations.

Zechariah 14:1 ^NASB "Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you." Indicating that there will be a time of blessing. [4] 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." So this is a world-wide conflagration that is focused on Jerusalem. What happens early on in that campaign of Armageddon is that there is a victory to the Antichrist who takes the city. The verse indicates that there is an isolation of a remnant within the city itself, trapped there under siege by the Antichrist. [3] "Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle." This will occur within the campaign of Armageddon. After the Lord rescues the remnant in Bozrah He leads them up from the south, across Judah to Jerusalem, and this is the time of His victory ascent up the Mount of Olives and His blasting open of a pathway on the eastern wall of Jerusalem so that the remnant can escape to the Mount of Olives.     

Zechariah 14:4 ^NASB "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. [5] You [the remnant within Jerusalem] 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! [6] In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. [7] For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. [8] And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter." This split in the Mount of Olives will tap into some sort of underground spring out of water which will flow out in two directions, east and west. [9] "And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be {the only} one, and His name {the only} one." So we see that the day of the Lord immediately precedes the establishment of the Millennial kingdom and it involves the rescue of the remnant.

Malachi 4:1 ^NASB "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. [2] But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise [the Lord Jesus Christ] with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall." This is a time of great prosperity and happiness. [3] "You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing," says the LORD of hosts." This describes the establishment of the kingdom.

Malachi 4:4 ^NASB "Remember the law of Moses My servant, {even the} statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel. [5] Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD." So before that happens Elijah has to come. This refers to the ministry of the two witnesses who will come, one of whom will either be a resurrected Elijah or one who receives the same spirit and ministry of Elijah. His ministry is one of restoration, turning Israel in the Tribulation back to God. [6]   "He will restore the hearts of the fathers to {their} children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse."

Illustrations