To follow tlie scripture statements regarding the Day of the Lord through the three periods just mentioned would lead to much repetition : it will be enough to state some general points con- nected with the Day. The Day of the Lord is Hi^ time for manifesting Himself, for displaying His character, for performing His work. His short and strange work upon the earth. ' The Lord of Hosts hath a day upon every one that is proud and lofty, and he shall be brought low . . . and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day ' (Is 2''-- ").
1. As it was a day of the manifestation of J', God of Israel, in His fulness and tlierefore in a way to realize His i)urposes, which with Israel and even with the world were those of grace, it is funda- mentally a day of joy to Israel, and even to the world—' the Lord is king, let the earth rejoice, let tlie multitude of the Isles be glad thereof. Say among the nations. The Lord is King ; let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ' (Ps 96). That J" should reign, and that He should come to the earth as king, must, in spite of all the terrors that might attend His comint:, bring to the wor'-*
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a pervading gladness. For the falsehood and in- justice thit had cursed the earth so long would disappear, and tlie lon^'ing of men, who were ever in words or sighs saying, Show us the Father, would be satisfied. But it would be a day of joy above all to Israel, His people, when lie should plead her cause, for the day of vengeance was in His neart and the year of His redeemed was come. Naturally, an accompaniment of the manifestation of J" was tlie disappearance of the idols — ' On that day men shall cjist their idols of silver and their idols of gold to the moles and to the bats ' (Is 2-"). Hut in the view of the prophets those gigantic oppressions, the empires of Assyria and Baliylon, were but projections of their idolatry, with its cruelties and licentiousness and pride. The later prophet Daniel expresses this idea in a grapliic ^/ure when he represents the heathen monarchies ander the symbol of various savage beasts, while the kingdom of God is represented under the image of a man.
2. To those in I.srael who looked for His coming, apart from the natural terrors of it, it was unmi.xed 'oy (Hab 3). And it would have been so to all 'srael had fidelity to their God been universal. But this was far from being the condition of Israel. There were many who belonged to Israel only in race. They were filled from the East, and sooth- sayers like the Philistines. They imitated the idolatries and jjractised the sins of the nations. Hence the prophets warn the people against a superficial conception of the Day of tiie Lord, as if it would be a mere interference of J" in behalf of His people as a nation, and not a revelation of His righceous judgment — ' Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Wherefore will ye have the day of the Lord 7 It is darkness and not light ; as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him ' (Am 5"). Hence the Day is first of all judgment, and only through this salvation. Sometimes one si<le is made iironiinent and sometimes another, (he side of judgment (as has been said) in the pre- exile prophets, and the other side in prophets later down {e.g. Ob "). It is around the Day as one of judgment that all the terrible pictures of gloom and the dissolution of nature are gathered (Is 2. 3. 13. 24, Hos 10», Am 5", Jl 2'- '» 3, Zcph 1). These convulsions in nature which accompany the Day of the Lord may not be all to be explained in the same way, but the general idea seems this : the universe is a human world ; man is the head of creation, and creation is virtually the earth ; the heavens are a more appendage of the earth, sub- serving the moral life of mankind — being for signs and seasons, and days and years. Hencu in man's judgment the world suilers dissolution, and in his redemption it is renewed and transfigured.
3. As has been said, the coming or the Day was an article of faith as much as our belief in the Last Day, but the presentiment of its nearness was awakened by what the prophet perceived around him : the moral condition of the world (Is 2. 3, Mic 3), God's ojierations among the nations of the earth (Is 13, Zeph 1), His judgments on His people (Jl 1. 2), or the beginnings of their redemption alreaily experienced at the Restoration, which led to the hope of His full manifestation to dwell in His Hou.se when it should be prepared (Hag, Zee). Naturally, though the Day of the Lord was a crisis, and itself ofbrief duration, the phrase ' that day ' is often used to cover the period nshered in by the day. This is the period of final perfection and blessedness. It is identical witli what in other pa.s,Mages is the Messianic Bge, and with the ideal condition following the Kestoration as conceived by such prophets as Deutero • Isaiah (Is 00). It is a period entirely homogeneous. There are no occurr^uices w'thin