The Day of the Lord

The Bible talks about a day that is specific to the Lord. This is a day that the Lord will use to judge the people and set things straight. It is also a day that the Lord will use to vindicate his people. Many of the Old Testament prophets have warned the people of Israel about that day, the Day of the Lord, often times with calls of repentance. Indeed, prophecies were God’s mercy to the people for without them, the people would have no way to escape the looming judgement. In our present context, it is difficult to imagine what the Day of the Lord is and even believe there is such a thing since we do not live in the Old Testament times and “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13). Indeed, we are quick to dismiss the fact that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. This saying is a common one but we do not necessarily think much about its implications otherwise we would see that the Day of the Lord is still in effect and will come to pass for us living in the twenty first century. Because our God is faithful and true, He will not contradict himself so the sin He hated in the past, He still hates today. What He judged in the past, He judges today. That is why we are still called to holiness, we who are in Christ. So make no mistake, the Day of the Lord is coming and the question remains, will you be ready? Today’s post is a reminder that our lives should be lived with the reality of that Day as echoed in the minor prophets I have been reading lately.

If there is one thing we can never accuse God of is of being a liar, two-faced, or inconsistent. These types of attributes and adjectives are not fitting to the holy and eternal God of the Bible. In fact, we are told by Paul that God is so faithful that even if we are faithless, he will remain faithful for He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13)! In other words, God is consistent even with Himself. The principles He lays out for the world, He abides by them, He makes Himself bound to them. That’s how true God is. While He does not have to abide by those principles since He made them, He still does. God is the only being who tells you something that He himself follows. If He says to be holy, well, it is because He Himself is holy. In the life of Jesus we see that clearly. There was nothing that Jesus taught that he did not do himself. Unlike our present day teachers and leaders, Jesus “walked the talk and talked to walk”. You could not point out his flaws, indeed the Bible says he was perfect, without sin yet did all that is expected of man to do. This is important to know because it goes to show that God does not compromise on anything. What He disliked in the past, He still dislikes today; what He considered blasphemous in the past, He still considers blasphemous today. Therefore, the warnings of the prophets concerning the Day of the Lord are still valid to us today. We may not be Judah or Jerusalem, we may not be surrounded by enemies nations, we may not be in exile today but the message and the call to repentance and to return to the Lord is still valid for us today. As I have been reading Joel, Amos, Micah and now Zephaniah, I could not help but notice a common theme in their warnings to the people of Israel and in the sins the Lord was calling out on his people, namely idolatry, injustice and dishonesty. There are more specific sins that can be drawn from those texts but for the purpose of being concise I will keep it just to those three.

The first one is idolatry. This one is a big one in the eyes of God. His very first commandment to His people was “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3). Idolatry is a direct opposition to the first commandment God gave to His people including us. By now, you should know that idolatry is not just worshiping an image but it is putting anything above God in your life so before you start thinking you do not practice idolatry, I would caution you to think again. What has taken precedence in your life above God? What or who has the first place? What or who is competing in your heart for the first place? Is it yourself? Your career? Your spouse and kids? Your money? Your power and influence? Your qualifications? Your witchcraft? Simply put, witchcraft is trying to tamper with God’s plan or will. It is not relying on God but on yourself or others who appear to have power. Wherever you find yourself, know that God hates idolatry and if you engage in idolatry practices, He calls you out and asks you to repent and submit to Him. Our eyes should only look to God and no other. There is none like Him, as He says “I am the first and the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.” (Isaiah 44:6-7). This is a mic drop it is best! I love it when God speaks for Himself. In those moments, He silences us, we remain speechless and that is in fact the place we ought to be at as Psalm 46 reminds us “Be still and know that I am God”. Indeed, you cannot know God is God when you’re still talking and elevating yourself, or when you’re still doing things in your own strength or in the strength of others, or when you are preoccupied with what tomorrow will bring. Let God be God. 

The second sin God often calls out on his people is injustice. This is because God is a God of justice. He is the justifier, the one who vindicates His people and He knows a thing or two about justice. He is a father to the fatherless, the one who takes care of the widow and the poor (Psalm 68:5-6). He takes their cases seriously. Whatever you do to any of them, you have done against God. In God’s kingdom, justice is what reigns, justice is the norm. He sent His son to the world to establish justice. God says of Himself “For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong;” (Isaiah 61:8). In Micah, the Lord also says “Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! … they covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance” (Micah 2:1-2). The one who is just cannot tolerate injustice and that is why by sending Jesus to die in our place, God showed his righteousness so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). That is why throughout the Bible, we are encouraged to wait for the Lord and his justice. He alone is truly just to vindicate us.

The third sin God often calls out on his people is dishonesty. This manifests itself in various ways: from lying to deceiving to using unfair weighting systems, anything that is not honest the Lord is against and calls us to repent of such things. We see that in multiple Bible passages such as Zephaniah where the Lord says He will punish those who fill their masters house with violence and fraud (Zephaniah 1:9) or in Micah, where the Lord says “Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?” (Micah 6:11). The refrain is common throughout the Bible. The way, the truth and the life does not have an ounce of dishonesty in him. If we are to follow him, we must be people of truth. Doing the opposite is making it clear to God that we have chosen to follow the devil and his evil ways as Jesus calls him the father of lies (John 8:44). Therefore, those of us who are new creatures in Christ no longer belong to the old ways of doing things which includes dishonesty but rather we live for righteousness now.  

There is so much that can be said about this but the gist of it is clear enough. We need to take God at His word. Which means, we must believe that the Day of the Lord is fast approaching and God will do what He has promised to do. Until that day comes, stay alert, continue to abide in the Lord, using any opportunity He gives you to proclaim Him and stand on His word. I pray the Lord in His mercy awakens this reality in us so that we will know our days here are numbered and live in wisdom (Psalm 90:2). Amen.