The Day Of The Lord

I brought my dad to an ophthalmologist to have his failing eyesight checked one day. The Doctor said that the retina in his right eye was damaged and that there was no cure to this and that it will eventually lead to total blindness. My dad was seriously concerned and asked the Doctor what caused it?

The Doctor asked if my dad was a smoker in his youth, to which he answered yes, and even added that he could finish a pack of cigarettes in a day, then the Doctor asked if he drinks alcohol, my dad said not anymore but he also used to drink almost everyday when he was young.

The doctor looked him straight in the eye and said. Well, Mr. Chandnani – those are the main causes of your retinal damage! He couldn’t believe it! He couldn’t believe that the decisions he made in the past, his vices would potentially cause the loss of his eyesight.  

Had he known, he wouldn’t have done those things. Had he been warned before, He wouldn’t have indulged in those vices. Or would he still do them?

How about you? Are you going through a health challenge? If you knew that lifestyle choices would greatly affect your health outlook, would you have lived differently, acted accordingly or even be more proactive about taking care of your health? Psychologists calls this Consequence-Based Decision Making or Consequence-based reasoning, or the tendency to make decisions based on their impact or consequences on yourself. I call it Decision – Consequence. It’s rational, objective, even scientific AND its also spiritual. I say this because we have been learning in our study of REVELATION that there are certain events that will surely happen in the future. It is certain and there are decisions that individuals can make today in light of those certainties. Today we will learn about the certainty of The Coming Day of the Lord. Simply put the day of the LORD is his certain judgement on sin. This is not speculation, its not a theory. It’s a certainty. It will happen. It will come to pass. Now, properly understood, this absolute certainty should transform the way we think and the way we live. As we go through and dive deep on the aspects of this day of the LORD, we will learn that The day of the Lord will reap judgment for unbelievers and deliverance for believers.

Alright, in our lesson today we will look at two passages -- one from the Old Testament, the book of Joel, and one from the New Testament, 2 Peter 3.

We will also divide our lessons into 2 divisions. In our first division, we will ponder the concept of The Day of the Lord. What does it mean and how does it relate to us? And our second division will cover 2 Peter chapter 3 and we will call this Preparing for the Day of the Lord.

Let’s get right to it! The Day of the Lord is a powerful theme in Scripture. But what does this term really mean? Broadly, "The Day of the Lord" refers to God's dramatic judgment upon the world, coupled with His deliverance of His people. Throughout Scripture, we see God’s judgment and His merciful deliverance presented together—Amazing right – Gods Judgment and Mercy!

The “day of the Lord” is used in Scripture as the crushing of Satan and his minions, whether they are systems or people. The “day of the Lord” is used as the time of great outpouring of blessing upon God’s people when He gathers the redeemed to be with Him forever at the conclusion of time.

The Old Testament prophets used this term frequently, but it didn’t have a single, fixed meaning.  It appears explicitly 19 times across eight Old Testament authors and four times in the New Testament.

There are several equivalent phrases in the Bible for the “day of the Lord” such as “the day of our Lord,” “the day of Jehovah,” and “that day.”  Interestingly, the exact phrase doesn’t show up in Revelation, although the concept certainly does.

The Day of the Lord doesn’t refer to one specific day or event; rather, it describes a period of time with multiple stages of fulfillment. The Old Testament prophets, in particular, often gave prophecies that had both an immediate fulfillment and a larger, future one. Many events that took place in their time served as a preview of a greater fulfillment to come, which we associate with the end times and the second coming of the Lord.

Ultimately, the Day of the Lord underscores the serious reality that God’s holy wrath will confront humanity’s sin in a powerful and devastating way. Simply put, there is a set day that belongs to the Lord—a day He has appointed. History is not spiraling out of control but is moving exactly according to God’s timeline toward His certain day of judgment. Although the Day of the Lord unfolds as a series of events over a season, HUMAN HISTORY is indeed heading toward a definite conclusion. This truth dear friends should shape how we think and live today.