A signal revelation.
"Behold, the day of the Lord cometh," etc. The "day of the Lord" here referred to seems that of the second coming of Christ. We say this partly because it is a tiny to be marked by a signal exercise of Jehovah's power against his enemies, "as in the day of battle" (2 Peter 1:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Joshua 10:14, Joshua 10:42); partly, also, because he is then to appear in person in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:4), as though in fulfilment of Matthew 23:39; Acts 1:11, Acts 1:12; and partly, again, because of those who are mentioned here (end of Acts 1:5) as then to appear in his suite (comp. Matthew 25:31; Daniel 7:10; Jud Daniel 1:14, Daniel 1:15; Revelation 19:11-16). Understood thus of that stupendous event, the prophecy seems to describe
I. ITS IMMEDIATE ANTECEDENTS. These appear to be described here only so far as "Jerusalem" is concerned—whether we understand thereby, as some do, the literal city inhabited again and besieged (see above, Zechariah 12:2) by the rest of the nations, or that great "spiritual city," the Christian Church (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 3:12). In either (or both) of these senses we see the condition of "Jerusalem" at the time intended (note "then" in Acts 1:3). For example, we see:
1. The city itself wholly subdued. Its bulwarks are all "taken," its separate "houses" "dried," its choicest treasures boldly divided by the secure and triumphant enemy in its most central positions, and every refuge against the deepest indignities utterly gone. 2 Its population half destroyed. When the inhabitants of a neighbourhood are decimated by disease it is awful enough. Here we have a proportion of lost ones just fives times as great! Every second house uninhabited! Every family less by one half! What all this exactly points to it is hard to say; but there are passages connecting such unexampled excess of trial with the very eve of the Saviour's coming, in Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:12, Matthew 24:13; possibly, also, in a spiritual sense, in Luke 18:8.
II. ITS PRIMARY RESULTS; viz. as might be expected, very great natural—or else spiritual—convulsions (comp. Haggai 2:6, and beginning of 7; Malachi 3:1, Malachi 3:2). Three things to be marked about these.
1. How mighty they are in nature! To divide the tideless waters of the upper Red Sea in old days had been much. To do the same by the flowing waters of Jordan (Joshua 3:16) perhaps more. To separate, as prophesied here, into two districts, and far removed portions, the solid range of Mount Olivet, more again. At any rate, nothing less.
2. How momentous in results! Jerusalem, with Mount Olivet practically gone from "before" it "on the east," where it had stood for so long the most conspicuous object all round about (comp. Psalms 125:2), would be no longer the same place as before. Where once had been a mountain was now a valley; where a barrier, a way of escape—a way of complete escape to "Azal;" either, i.e; as far as needed (so some), or else close at hand (as others). Certainly, if we may judge from the case of Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:4, 2 Kings 25:5), the "way of escape" in previous sieges had been by a very different route.
3. How easily wrought! viz. immediately on the Master's arrival, by the mere force of that arrival itself by the mere touch, as it were, of his feet! Compare—itself not improbably another prediction of the same occurrence—the striking description of Habakkuk 3:6; also 2 Thessalonians 2:8, "Whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming", as darkness is destroyed, and that instantly, by the mere presence of light.
Observe, from all this, the inevitable consequences of every manifestation of Christ, specially, of course, of the latest of all.
1. Amazing changes to all. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low." These will be partly, of course, in the world of feeling and thought. "Then shall the righteous shine forth," as they certainly do not at present (see also Matthew 20:16, and elsewhere; and Acts 3:20, Acts 3:21). Partly, also, it is far from improbable, in the world of matter and sense. (See such passages, on the one side, as Psalms 67:6; Ezekiel 34:25, Ezekiel 34:26; Amos 9:13; the very ground which was cursed for the first Adam's sake being blessed then for the sake of the second. See, on the other, 2 Peter 3:10, etc.)
2. Exceeding fear to some. Many then will be found fleeing as though for their lives, even in such a way as they did on the occasion of that appalling earthquake in the days of Uzziah, the terror of which had engraved itself so deeply on the national mind. Never before had there been greater fear than there will be at "that day" (Matthew 24:30; Isaiah 2:19; Revelation 6:15-17).
3. Corresponding triumph to others. How many things which now divide Christ from his people—how many which now separate his people from one another—shall then be things of the past! All his "saints" shall be with him then (2 Thessalonians 2:5), and with him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Consequently (1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:49), they shall be fully "like him" at last; and therefore, also, like one another; and therefore, again, divided no more! No longer, when at last in the Master's presence, will they "dispute," as they once did "by the way".