Isaiah 13

“Look, the day of the Lord is coming – cruel, with rage and burning anger – to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners on it.  Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light.  The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.  I will bring disaster on the world, and their own iniquity, on the wicked.  I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.” Isaiah 13:9-11 (HCSB)

Isaiah 13 introduces us to an important Biblical expression: The Day of The Lord.  The first occurrence refers to a not-too-distant horizon, the invasion of Babylon, some 150 years away.  But the second instance is quite different.

It is vital to understand that events actually separated by long periods of time are seen from an “Old Testament” perspective as following close after each other.  It’s like a “condensation” of time, where events are condensed and couched next to each other but actually occur decades or millennia apart.  This perspective is similar to what we experience when looking at two objects from a long distance away: they “appear” close together when in fact, they are not.

The prophecy of Joel regarding Shavuot (the Festival of Weeks, i.e., the Day of Pentecost) is an example of this.  

“After this I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.  I will pour out My Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days.”  Joel 2:28-29 (HCSB)

Immediately after the prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit, Joel gives an apocalyptic account of the coming of “the day of the Lord.”

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke.  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.” Joel 2:30-31(NKJV)

The Day of the Lord can sometimes refer to a day that is in the near future, but usually, it is a phrase used by prophets to describe the final day of consummation when the wicked will be punished.  Question: when the events the prophets predict come to pass EXACTLY as prophesied, why is it that we doubt the probability of those events yet to pass?

Again, two things confound a fool: 1) how slow God is to act, and 2) how quickly He shows up!  Are you prepared for the Day of The Lord?