God’s Judgment: How It Works – Part 21

Grace Thoughts

God’s Judgment: How It Works – Part 21

What is the “Day of the Lord”?

It’s a phrase first used in the Bible by the prophet Isaiah:

For the day of the Lord of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up— And it shall be brought low— Isaiah 2:12

God’s Day

Isaiah and other prophets used the phrase in connection with the “day” when God will judge Israel and the world. Isaiah 1 begins with — “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”

As we read through the first chapter of Isaiah we see that God is angry with a wicked and rebellious Israel. He is tired of the supposed “sacrifices” of His people and calls on them to repent of their sins and “seek justice”:

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword’; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 1:16-20

God then rehearsed the history of Israel and Jerusalem. The city had been faithful in the past. It was full of justice and righteousness lodged in it, but murderers were the lodgers. Their silver had become dross and their wine mixed with water. Their princes were rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loved bribes and followed after rewards. No one defended the fatherless or helped the widows.

What Isaiah wrote next are the words that lead into the section about ‘the day of the Lord, so look carefully at what God promised He would do to Israel and His enemies. Also, look at how God will redeem His people “with justice”:

Therefore the Lord says, The Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, ‘Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, And take vengeance on My enemies. I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy. I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”

Zion shall be redeemed with justice, And her penitents with righteousness. The destruction of transgressors and of sinners shall be together, And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees Which you have desired; And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens Which you have chosen. For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades, And as a garden that has no water. The strong shall be as tinder, And the work of it as a spark; Both will burn together, And no one shall quench them. Isaiah 1:24-31

The next words are – “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:1) What follows is probably a familiar section to you:

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:2-4

The last line may remind you of an anti-war protest song from the 1960s, but it was first an African-American spiritual that pre-civil war slaves sang:

Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside. Gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside, gonna study war no more.

Other lines that have appeared in the song include “gonna shake hands with every man,” “gonna lay down my heavy load,” gonna try on my long white robe,” “gonna talk with the Prince of Peace,” “gonna cross the River Jordan,” and “gonna climb the road to heaven.” The sentiment is of a time when everyone in the world will be at peace with God and with each other.

Tribulation and the Day of the Lord

What we read in Isaiah 2 is one description of what will happen in “the latter days.” This is a prophecy of the end times when Jesus Christ will physically rule on earth. Many Christians view this time as the Millennium (thousand years) spoken of in Revelation 20. So, is that the ‘day of the Lord’ of Isaiah 2:12? I don’t think so and here’s why I say that.

The Millennial reign of Christ will be a time of great peace, as we saw in Isaiah 2:2-4 and in Revelation 20:4. According to Isaiah and other prophets the ‘day of the Lord’ will be the time Jesus referred to as the ‘great tribulation.’ Look at the similarities between how Isaiah, the Gospels and Revelation describe it:

For the day of the Lord of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up— And it shall be brought low— Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, And upon all the oaks of Bashan; Upon all the high mountains, And upon all the hills that are lifted up; Upon every high tower, And upon every fortified wall; Upon all the ships of Tarshish, And upon all the beautiful sloops. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols He shall utterly abolish. They shall go into the holes of the rocks, And into the caves of the earth, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver And his idols of gold, Which they made, each for himself to worship, To the moles and bats, To go into the clefts of the rocks, And into the crags of the rugged rocks, From the terror of the Lord And the glory of His majesty, When He arises to shake the earth mightily. Isaiah 2:12-21

Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place’ (whoever reads, let him understand), ‘then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened … Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:15-22, 29-31

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:20-21

The plagues are found in Revelation chapters 8 and 9 as six trumpets. The seventh trumpet is the proclamation of the Lord’s Kingdom:

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’ And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.’ Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. Revelation 11:15-19

Judgment and Justice

God’s future judgment will be based on His justice. That’s why we have connected this series with a new one titled “God’s Justice: How It Works.” You can read the first part of that series here.

Next Time

We will continue our study into the meaning of “the day of the Lord” in the next part of our special series “God’s Judgment: How It Works.”

If you have not read all of the parts of this study we’ve published so far, we invite you to do that now for the Scriptural background to Christ as Judge.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Part Twelve
Part Thirteen
Part Fourteen
Part Fifteen
Part Sixteen
Part Seventeen
Part Eighteen
Part Nineteen
Part Twenty

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God’s Judgment: How It Works – Part 21