The day of the Lord.
We may truly speak of every day as a "day of the Lord." For when does the morning come on which we cannot say, "This is the day which the Lord has made' (Psalms 118:24)? Every day brings with it fresh tokens of his presence, new proofs of his power. The refreshment and invigoration of sleep, the provisions of the table, the enjoyment of the hearth, the activities of outward life, the continuance of mental power, etc.,—do not all these daily mercies make each returning portion or' our time a "day of the Lord?" But there is a peculiar sense in which the time of special visitation is to be so regarded. For that is the day on which—
I. GOD REVEALS HIS NEARNESS TO US AND HIS INTEREST IN US. We are in danger of imagining that God has withdrawn into a remote solitude, in which he takes no heed of the passing events of his outlying creation; that he is too great and high to concern himself with our "poor affairs." It is a conception unworthy of him and most injurious to us. When God "arises to judgment," so that it is as if all visible nature were disturbed and disordered (Isaiah 13:10, Isaiah 13:13), and the hearts of men are filled with consternation (Isaiah 13:7, Isaiah 13:8), "in the day of his fierce anger" (Isaiah 13:13), these false imaginings are scattered, and God is found and is felt to be a God at hand and not afar off—a God who has much to do with us, and with whom we have everything to do (Hebrews 4:13).
II. GOD REVEALS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS TO US. Such events as these (Isaiah 13:9-11) are "terrible things in righteousness." The anger or "wrath" of the Lord (Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 13:13) is thus revealed "against all unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18). God is "destroying the sinners" (Isaiah 13:9) in order that he may set his seal against the sin which they have committed; he is humbling the proud that their "arrogancy may cease" (Isaiah 13:11), and that human haughtiness may receive his powerful condemnation. In such a "day" as this, the Lord is making his thought concerning iniquity very clear to the children of men.
III. GOD MANIFESTS HIS POWER TO US. Sin is apt to think itself triumphant; it is arrogant, haughty (Isaiah 13:11); it says, "Who is the Lord?" etc. (Exodus 5:2); it says, "How does God know?" (Psalms 73:11); it says, "Let us break asunder the bands of the Lord" (Psalms 2:3). In "the day of the Lord," the nation, the confederacy, the individual man, sees that human bands are nothing but thinnest thread in the hands of almighty power. Then man knows his nothingness in the presence of his Maker; his spirit is subdued (Isaiah 13:8), and he acknowledges that God is greater than he (Daniel 6:26).
IV. GOD ATTESTS HIS FAITHFULNESS AND HIS GOODNESS. God has given many promises to his people that he will appear some day on their behalf. Often his coming seems to be long delayed (Revelation 6:10). But "in the day of the Lord" this his Divine word is redeemed; then the enslaved nation is freed from its bondage; then the persecuted Church is delivered from its oppressor; then the wronged family or the injured man is saved from the wrong-doer, and walks in peace and in prosperity. Hence the many utterances of thanksgiving for the "judgments" of the Lord. The outpouring of his wrath, which seems "cruel" (Isaiah 13:9) to the guilty, shows itself to his suffering people as the long-awaited proof of his fidelity to his word and pity for his people.
1. Let the afflicted wait in hope; their cause will be espoused, their prayers heard and answered.
2. Let the guilty tremble; the day of the Lord will come, a day of darkness and confusion, a day of terror and overthrow for them; even when they may be most confident of continuance in power and sin, the coming of God in judgment may be "at hand."—C.