The Day He Returns - The One Year Book of Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament
The Day He Returns
Many of the Old Testament prophets wrote about the “Day of the Lord.” We find the “day of the LORD’s revenge” in Isaiah 34:8, and the “day of his fierce anger” in 13:13. Many prophets record the Lord speaking of this coming day in the first person: “the very day I punish Israel for its sins” (Amos 3:14); “the day I take away their stronghold” (Ezekiel 24:25); “the day I come for them” (Jeremiah 27:22, NIV); “the day of reckoning” (Jeremiah 10:15); “the day when I act in judgment” (Malachi 3:17); the day “I will stand and accuse” (Zephaniah 3:8). Over and over again the emphasis falls on the Lord’s personal coming to intervene and bring this world to its conclusion. It is the Lord’s personal intervention that makes this coming day so cataclysmic and so definitive in its outcome.
In the Old Testament prophecies about the Day of the Lord, we find the near and the distant future brought together in a single vision of things to come. The prophets saw the temporal days of the Lord—his days of judgment in their own lifetimes or shortly thereafter—as precursors of and the pattern for one final dies irae, the day of the divine wrath.
When the Day of the Lord is discussed in the New Testament, it exclusively refers to the second coming of Christ. We read of “the day of the Lord’s return” (1 Thessalonians 5:2), “the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns” (1 Corinthians 1:8), “the day when Christ Jesus returns” (Philippians 1:6), and “the day of Christ’s return” (2:16). All these phrases refer to the same day and to the same event: the time of Christ’s final and decisive visitation of this world in judgment and salvation. Paul provides insight into the agony and the glory of that day:
He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. When he comes on that day, he will receive glory from his holy people—praise from all who believe. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10)
Because I belong to you, Lord Jesus, the day of your return is not a day to dread; it is a day to anticipate, celebrate, and prepare for. And what a day it will be, when you return in all of your glory to do what is right and good. Place in my heart a holy fear and longing for that day.
