II. THE DAY OF JEHOVAH

Our first aim will be to show that the entire prophetic Word predicts a day and a time when Jehovah will be revealed in the earth. This day is called repeatedly the day of Jehovah, a day of wrath and of judgment. A day followed by a continued manifestation of the Glory of the Lord and His righteous rule, as well as great blessings for the earth and its inhabitants. It has not yet come, and is still future. How prophecy harmonizes in speaking of this great future day we will now demonstrate. We have a continued and a progressive revelation of it which is not confined to the Old Testament prophets, but extends to the New Testament, with a fitting climax in the last book, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

We do not begin with the prophet Isaiah, whose book is generally considered to be the first prophetic book of the Old Testament. Old Testament prophecy is not contained exclusively in the books which are called "Prophets." Moses and David as well as other men were prophets. Most of the songs in the Bible are not only hymns of praise, but they breathe a prophetic spirit.

In the 23d and 24th chapters of the book of Numbers we find recorded a series of utterances by the Spirit of God through one who had been called by an enemy to curse God's people. Balaam had to speak and pronounce the blessing, and could not help it. His parables do not alone declare the blessedness of God's earthly people Israel, with many precious applications to the believer in Christ, but they also unfold what shall be in the end.

In Num 24:17 we have a statement from the lips of this seer to which we call special attention:

"I shall see Him, but not now. I shall behold Him, but not nigh. There cometh a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and He shall cut in pieces the corners of Moab and destroy all the sons of tumult."

Reading on to the end of the chapter we find that the Spirit of God through Balaam predicts that when the Sceptre, rising out of Israel, has full sway, the nations will be punished. The quoted verse has always been interpreted by orthodox Jewish, as well as by most Christian, commentators as referring to the Messiah. We have in it His first coming, "A Star out of Jacob," His second coming, "A Sceptre out of Israel." When He arises as a Sceptre assuming the rule, it will be to destroy the sons of tumult and to consume His enemies. The Star has shone forth. The Sceptre will arise by and by.

In the 32d chapter of Deuteronomy we find another great prophecy. Moses sings here his wonderful prophetic song. What he utters as a farewell to his beloved people is a grand outline of their future history, their apostasy, their subsequent deliverance and restoration to their own land. It is a marvelous prediction, an unanswerable argument in itself for the Divinity of the Bible. It is "a key to all prophecy." ⁽¹⁾ At the close of this song, before the announcement that nations shall in future rejoice with His people (verse 43), we read of what Jehovah will do:

"If I have sharpened my gleaming sword, And my hand take hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, And will recompense them that hate me. Mine arrows will I make drunk with blood, And my sword shall devour flesh." (Verses 41 and 42.)

Some expositors have admired the language of these stanzas, but have entirely ignored their prophetic meaning. They reveal a time of future judgment.

The nations do not yet rejoice with God's earthly people Israel, the divine sword of retribution has not yet been unsheathed, and the day of vengeance is still future. The One of whom Moses speaks as coming to take hold of judgment is the "Sceptre out of Israel" of Balaam's parable. It is He who in His humiliation said to His enemies, "Before Abraham was I am" Jehovah-Jesus. The words in Moses' song, quoted above, predict His coming as Judge in that day.

We listen next to the language of a mother in Israel. Hannah sings a song—praising Jehovah for mercies received. Her song is not less prophetic than Moses' sublime prophecy. In 1Sa 2:10 we read at the end of Hannah's song:

"They that strive with Jehovah shall be broken to pieces; In the heavens will He thunder upon them.

Jehovah will judge the ends of the earth; And He will give strength unto His King, And exalt the horn of His anointed."

These words, equally sublime, predict a future judgment, a time in which the ends of the earth will be dealt with by the Lord, when the Messiah will be exalted. Here then we have three persons as different as they can be—Balaam, the unwilling prophet; Moses, the great leader of God's people; and Hannah, a mother in Israel. All are moved by the same Spirit, who makes them His mouthpiece, and each declares that Jehovah will judge the nations and the earth. What a striking harmony we have in this!

Hannah's song is but a faint beginning of what the Holy Spirit unfolds in inspired song in perfect, Divine order in that wonderful collection of songs, the Book of Psalms. We generally look upon the Psalms as expressing all kinds of human experiences, and we often draw much comfort from them.

That we can do this none would dispute. However, if we wish to know the full meaning of this book, we must look upon it as a prophetic book.

It is a well-known fact that the Psalms are divided into five books. These five books correspond to the five books of Moses or the Pentateuch. So clear is the correspondency that the old rabbis called the Psalms the Pentateuch of David.

The Genesis portion of the Psalms extends from Psalm 1 to 41. Many of the Messianic Psalms are found in this section. Its character is like Genesis. It begins with "Blessed is the man" (Psalm 1), which is the Lord Jesus Christ, and it ends with "Blessed is he that considereth the poor," and this is the same Lord. The whole section ends with "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting" (Psa 41:13).

The Exodus part begins with Psalm 42 and ends with Psalm 72. Like in the book of Exodus do we find here the suffering of Israel's remnant and how they are delivered. This section is rich in dispensational foreshadowings of Israel's future. It begins with the cry for the tabernacle and ends with the vision of the kingdom established. " He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor." " He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth " (Psa 72:8). This section ends with a fuller praise than the first. " Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be His glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen and Amen" (Psa 72:18-19).

The third book begins with Psalm 73 and closes with 89. The very beginning of this part makes it a Leviticus. The opening Psalms are the gift of the Spirit through Asaph, and they celebrate the holiness of God. "Truly God is good to Israel, to such that are of a clean heart" (Psa 73:1). This refers us to the remnant of Israel in the last days. The last Psalm in this section rehearses God's wonderful doings in behalf of His people and puts before us the sure mercies of David, that is the full ratification of the Davidic covenant, and how One from David is to be exalted. "And I will make Him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth" (Psa 89:27). The ending is, "Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and Amen."

The fourth part or book extends from Psalm 90 to Psalm 106. This is in character like the book of Numbers. Here we see Israel in the wilderness; all her ways are traced, but Israel is seen in this section led out of that wilderness and come into her inheritance. The opening Psalm, the 90th, is significant. It is the only Psalm we have, given by Moses, the leader of the people. It speaks of death, and is rightly called the Psalm of the old creation; the 91st is the Psalm of the new creation. While in the 90th we see the first man, in the 91st we behold the second man. This is the shortest section. In the 103d Israel, redeemed from all her backslidings, sings her new song: "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies." Then comes the 104th, the praise of nature. The 105th and 106th are the praise of His restored people, and the doxology in the last verse of the 106th contains the nation's praise: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord."

Still more interesting is the fifth or Deuteronomy part, the last book in the Psalms. Like Deuteronomy, it puts before us the end of the ways of God with His people. This section begins with the 107th and leads to the close of the book.

The opening is highly instructive. "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands, from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South." Deuteronomy shows us, in its closing chapters, how Israel is to be scattered into the corners of the earth. All this has been and is being fulfilled. But there is also the promise that they should be gathered again: "... Then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee" (Deu 30:3). Here in the 107th Psalm we find the fulfilment of this prophecy. This section, and with it the whole book, ends in a continued "Hallelujah." Praise ye the Lord. All is praising Jehovah. Israel, redeemed, praises Him, the nations, all creation, everything that has breath, praise Him. Here we have the great end of all things, the praise and worship of God.

Throughout the Psalms we read of Jehovah's intervention in behalf of His suffering earthly people, His manifestation in glory and wrath upon His enemies. To say that these events were fulfilled in David's experience, or find now a spiritual fulfilment in the church, is doing great violence to the Scriptures. It dishonours God and His Word. Beginning with the 2d Psalm, where the coming King is seen enthroned upon the holy hill of Zion, ruling the nations with a rod of iron and smashing them like potters' vessels, we can trace the day of Jehovah's manifestation through the entire book, and hear again and again of the overthrow of God's enemies, the deliverance of His people, and the establishment of His rule. A closer study of the Psalms and a literal interpretation of all they declare will make this clear to the reader. Here indeed is a mine of wealth in prophetic foreshadowings which is inexhaustible.

The phrase, "Day of Jehovah," and its fuller revelation we find only in the books which are generally called the Prophets. "In that day," is a phrase which occurs many times in those prophetic books. Obadiah and Joel are the earliest of prophets. In the fifteenth verse of Obadiah we read:

"For the day of Jehovah is near upon all the nations; as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee; thy recompense shall return upon thine own head."

This prophet ends after a description of the day of Jehovah with the declaration, "the kingdom shall be the Lord's."

It is, however, in Joel (Jehovah is God) that we find full mention of Jehovah's day. He may well be called the prophet of the day of Jehovah. This day is the burden of his prophecy. It is also evident that there is between this early prophet and the prophets which followed the closest relation. Higher criticism declares that the other prophets took the wonderful flow of language and the visions of Joel as a pattern and attempted to imitate it; while others maintain that Joel lived after the exile and copied in his terse style from the writings of the other prophets which preceded him. The Spirit of God unfolds in the later prophets what He had given in Joel, so to speak, in a nutshell. No prophet " imitated " another; each wrote as moved by the Holy Spirit.

In Joel we read five times of the day of Jehovah. Swarms of locusts had fallen into the land of Israel. Behind this great calamity there looms up a greater one. The swarms of locusts are but types of enemies who are to fall into the land, and in the midst of all the dreadful scenes of famine and desolation the prophet points to the day of Jehovah and describes that solemn day. See chapters Joe 1:15; Joe 2:1-2, Joe 2:10-11, Joe 2:30-31; in the 3d chapter this great day is vividly portrayed:

"The day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. And Jehovah shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake" (Joe 3:15-16).

Turning to Amos, the herdsman of Tekoa, we find the day mentioned in the very beginning, Amo 1:2. Here Jehovah roars from Zion against the ungodly nations. While the judgment of the nations, as announced through Amos, has seen a partial fulfilment in the judgments of these nations which are mentioned, its final great fulfilment is yet to come. The day of the Lord will bring this.

The testimony of the prophet Hosea is mostly about the rejection of Israel and Judah and their final restoration and blessedness as a nation, and one would not expect the announcement of that day in this prophet. However, it is clearly indicated in the 11th chapter:

"I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim: For I am God and not man: In the midst of thee is the Holy One, And I will not come in wrath (to His earthly people). They shall walk after Jehovah. He shall roar like a lion; When He shall roar (in that day), then the children shall hasten from the West, They shall hasten as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of Assyria, and I will cause them to dwell in their houses, saith Jehovah." (Hos 11:9-11.)

In the vision of Isaiah, which so vividly shows the suffering and exaltation of the Servant of Jehovah, the Messiah, as well as the glorious future of Israel, the day of the Lord is often mentioned. Throughout this prophet this day is seen in a threefold relation. The day brings the visible, glorious manifestation of Jehovah. It also brings the deliverance and restoration of the remnant of His earthly people and the overthrow and judgment of their enemies.

In the beginning of Isaiah there stands a sublime description of that day, the day when Jehovah arises and man's day is ended:

"For there shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon everything proud and lofty, and upon everything lifted up, and it shall be brought low; and upon all the cedars of Lebanon, high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; and upon alt the lofty mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up; and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall; and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant works of art. And the loftiness of men shall be brought low; and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day: and the idols shall utterly pass away. And they shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty, when He shall arise to terrify the earth. In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made each for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the fissures of the cliffs, from before the terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty, when He shall arise to terrify the earth" (Isa 2:12-21).

This and similar passages in the opening chapters of Isaiah point clearly to the great day of Jehovah, and it is seen at once that the vision of Isaiah concerning that day is in harmony with what we have learned so far from the other Scriptures.

The 4th chapter in Isaiah unfolds the blessed results following the terrible day of the Lord, which, in its fury, is announced in the 2nd and 3rd chapters. Chapter Isa 10:5-34, contains a description of the events connected with the approaching day, events which will transpire in Israel's land, while in the 11th chapter, beginning with the fourth verse, still greater blessings are announced to follow the appearing of Him who " shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips slay the wicked." No intelligent believer could claim that these scenes, as predicted in Isaiah 11, are now seen in the earth; for the spiritualizing of them we have no authority.

Another prediction is recorded in the 13th chapter, the chapter which begins a new section in that prophet, announcing the judgment of nations, partly fulfilled, yet finally to be fulfilled in Jehovah's day. We quote from this chapter:

"Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the earth desolate; and He will destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of the heavens and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will make the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will bring low the haughtiness of the violent. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even man than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens to shake, and the earth shall be removed out of her place, at the wrath of Jehovah of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger" (Isa 13:9-13).

Beginning with chapter 24, and ending with the 27th chapter, we find a vision which has justly been called " Isaiah's Apocalypse." Here we have a continuation of the description of the day of the Lord. The wrath of the Lord is again announced. The earth is seen emptied, utterly broken down, dissolved, violently moved, reeling to and fro like a drunkard, and shaken like a night hut (Isa 24:18-20). Alongside of the wrath we have the glorious singing of a delivered people, the assurance of the binding of the enemy, the resurrection of the dead, the conversion of the nations. All this is closely connected in Isaiah, 24th and 27th, with the day of Jehovah.

The 40th chapter, that chapter of comfort for Jerusalem, is not silent about Jehovah's manifestation, for Jerusalem's comfort begins with the manifestation of the Lord. "Every valley shall be raised up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken" (Isa 40:4-5).

Some of the other passages in Isaiah speaking of the Lord's day and His manifestation are the following: Isa 61:2; Isa 63:1-6;Isa 66:6, Isa 66:15-16, Isa 66:23-24.

When we turn to the prophet Jeremiah, we discover that the Spirit of God announces through him likewise such a day as He did through the other men of God. We quote two passages:

"And thou, prophesy unto them all these words, and say unto them, Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation, He will mightily roar upon His dwelling place, He will give a shout, as they that tread the vintage, against all the inhabitants of the earth. The noise shall come to the end of the earth; for Jehovah has a controversy with the nations, He entereth into judgment with all flesh; as for the wicked, He will give them up to the sword, saith Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great storm shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. And the slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither gathered nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the ground" (Jer 25:30-33).

We learn from this prediction what we have learned before from others: the day is coming for the entire earth, and evil will go from nation to nation.

The second passage we quote is from chapter Jer 30:18-24

"Behold a tempest of Jehovah, fury is gone forth, a sweeping storm; it shall whirl down upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of Jehovah shall not return, until He have executed, and until He have performed the purpose of His heart. At the end of the days ye shall consider."

The "end of the days" has not yet been reached. It is still future. After God's purpose in this present age, the gathering out from the nations a people for His name, is accomplished, then shall He perform the purpose of His heart.

Read also Jer 4:23-26.

The prophet Ezekiel is but little studied as a book. Like every other book in the Bible, it has perfect order. It is divided into three parts. The first part, chapters 1-24; the second part, chapters 25-32; and the third part, from chapter 33 to the end.

The first twenty-four chapters contain prophecies which were delivered by him before the destruction of Jerusalem. The sins of Judah and Samaria are vividly described and the threatening judgments announced. The sins enumerated are idolatry, adultery, fornication, usury, bloodshed, oppression, and theft. Beginning with the description of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, a glory which is yet to be manifested, for the whole earth to see, every chapter burns with holy zeal for God and overflows with wonderful descriptions of human failure and sin, divine forbearance, righteousness, and the coming day of the vengeance of God.

The 16th chapter is one of the finest in the first part of the book. . The 24th chapter begins with the parable of the boiling pot, typical of Jerusalem's judgment; but the chapter ends with a promise for the escaped, not only applicable to the escaped then, but also to the remnant of Israel in a future day.

The second part contains the announcement of the judgment of seven nations and cities. These are: Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Zidon, and Egypt. These prophecies were given after the destruction of Jerusalem. The judgments upon these nations are prophecies of the judgment of nations in the day of the Lord. The great nations now in existence may read their coming doom here as nations. Read chapters 27, 28, and compare them with Revelation 18. Yet while Israel's enemies are destroyed and their destruction is announced, Israel's Hope shines bright upon the dark background of divine judgment.

While the term "day of the Lord" is not mentioned in the prophet Daniel, this great event is nevertheless clearly revealed throughout the great prophecies of Daniel. The great image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, presents, according to divine interpretation, the four great world powers. The stone, cut out without hands, falling down and striking the image at its toes, pulverizing it, while the stone becomes a great mountain filling the entire earth, is the day of the Lord. Gentile world rule will not cease till He comes. Our Lord speaks of this demolishing of the rule of ungodly nations when He said: " And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder" (Mat 21:44).

In the 7th chapter Daniel sees in his vision again the day of the Lord, and Him, Jehovah, as Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven. All the other events which cluster around the day of Jehovah are also predicted in Daniel.

In the prophet Micah, at the close of that beautiful fifth chapter, where the Lord's first and second coming is so clearly described, we read: " And I will execute vengeance in anger and in fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard of" (Mic 5:15). The context shows this will be in connection with God's earthly people in their final restoration.

Nahum prophesied against Nineveh, the wicked city, her wickedness come to the full. That ancient, bloody city, in its awful overthrow, is the prophetic picture of the great and wicked city of the end, and a prediction of the final overthrow of all which is wicked in the earth. Read Nah 1:1-9, and see how it harmonises with all the rest. Habakkuk in his vision beholds the Lord's coming in vengeance for the judgment of the nations and the salvation of His people (chapter 3). Zephaniah may also, like Joel, be termed " the prophet of the day of the Lord." Like Joel's three chapters, the three of Zephaniah witness fully to that coming dreadful day, and the blessings which are in store for Israel. Perhaps in the 1st chapter of Zephaniah (Jehovah hides) we have the finest description of the day:

"The great day of Jehovah is near; It is near and hasteneth greatly. The voice of the day of Jehovah.

The mighty man shall cry there bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of ruin and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and gross darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm Against the fenced cities And against the high battlements. And I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men; For they have sinned against Jehovah; Their blood shall be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung.Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them In the day of Jehovah's wrath; And the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, For He will make an end, Yea, a sudden one, shall He make of all them that dwell

in the land" (Zep 1:14-18).

It is clearly seen what wonderful agreement there is between this utterance and those of Isaiah, Joel, Habakkuk, and the other prophets. Other passages in Zephaniah which speak of the day of Jehovah are the following: Chapters Zep 2:1-3, Zep 2:8-15; Zep 3:11, Zep 3:16, etc.

Haggai sees the day: " For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Hag 2:6-7). This is still future (compare with Heb 12:26-29). Zechariah's night visions⁽²⁾ are likewise in part descriptive of events connected with that day, such as the punishment of the nations, the regathering of Israel, the establishment of the theocratic rule, and future glory in the earth. The last chapter is taken up with a detailed account of the events of that day.

In that chapter Jehovah's visible manifestation to fight against the nations that have come against Jerusalem is foretold; and what follows in this chapter of the prophet whose name means " Jehovah remembers" may be termed a fitting climax of Old Testament prophecy concerning the great coming day of Jehovah.

But Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, is likewise not silent on the day of Jehovah:

"For behold, the day cometh, burning as a furnace; and all the proud and all that work wickedness shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch " (Mal 4:1).

And this word, which harmonizes so fully with all we have learned before, is followed by the gracious announcement to God's earthly people:

"And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and leap like fatted calves. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I prepare, saith Jehovah of hosts." (Mal 4:2-3.)

We have thus briefly shown that Old Testament prophecy harmonizes completely in the prediction of the great day of Jehovah. We have seen how various, yet harmonious, the prophecies are which relate to this day. If they are thus put together, what a solemn picture they unfold before our eyes! Unbelief may laugh at it and ridicule him who expects a fulfilment of these majestic scenes of Jehovah's manifestation. A false interpretation of God's Word, in the end nothing less than unbelief, may spiritualize these predictions and call them fulfilled in past events; but the believer, who knows God means what He says, reads these revelations in faith and enters into the thoughts and purposes of God. Faith sees them as being literally fulfilled and rejoices in the assurance of deliverance from the day of the darkening sun and the fierce wrath of God.

We wish to add that this clay of the Lord must not be looked upon as a day of twenty-four hours. It is more or less descriptive of the entire age which is to come; it will last a thousand years. "For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past" (Psa 90:4.). "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2Pe 3:8.). Now it is still man's day, and it has lasted thousands of years. The same as the hour which our Lord mentions in Joh 5:25, when the dead should hear His voice, means this age, and that hour is not yet past. So, when the Lord comes and is manifested in His glory, the day of man ends and the Lord's day begins. The glorious manifestation of Jehovah-Jesus, and His righteous judgment, will last for a thousand years (Rev 20:4).

And now but a rapid glance at the New Testament. Are the New Testament Scriptures silent as to this great day, that day of fire and wrath, the day of the nations' calamity and upheaval, of a visible manifestation of Jehovah's glory and the establishment of His rule? They are not; but make known this day in fullest harmony with the Scriptures contained in the Old Testament.

John the Baptist appears, and in harmony with the Old Testament, to which he belongs, announces the first and second coming of Christ. He speaks of the fire baptism which He brings. This is not a spiritual experience of the believer, but the second .coming of Christ. " Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Mat 3:12.)

Then our Lord referred many times while in the earth to that day of His own glory. Whenever He speaks of His coming as Son of Man it refers to His visible manifestations from Heaven in His own day. Nowhere is His coming for His saints, when He comes in the air (1Th 4:13-18), described as a coming of the Son of Man, but as Lord. In Mat 24:29-30, our Lord gives a full description of His glorious coming as Son of Man. It does hardly need any further word of comment to show how closely these two verses are linked with the descriptions of Jehovah's appearing in the prophets. Daniel, Isaiah, Joel, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah, etc., gave utterance through the Spirit of Christ concerning " His Glories," and in Matthew the Lord Himself, whose Spirit revealed all this to the prophets, presses it all together in a few sentences, and in the presence of His disciples He witnesses of His own glory to come at the end of the age. He speaks of Himself in Mat 25:31, as sitting upon the throne of His glory to judge the nations. Of the many passages to which we could refer we take but a few. In 1 Thessalonians we have alongside of the blessed hope of the Lord's coming for His saints, mention made of the day of the Lord. It is in the 5th chapter (1Th 5:2). It is clearly seen that day does not concern believers in Christ. The day cometh with sudden destruction upon the careless and ungodly world. In the 1st chapter of the Second Epistle we read of this day again in the following words:

"When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels. In flaming fire taking vengeance. on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power" (2Th 1:7-9.)

In 2Pe 3:10, we find likewise a description of the day of the Lord:

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."

This passage has brought a difficulty to many believers. Post-millennialism, which teaches that the. Millennium, the thousand years of peace on earth and glory to God in the highest, will come before the Lord comes, and that the Second Advent in the day of the Lord brings the burning up of the earthy has used this passage as a strong argument. The apparent difficulty vanishes when we look upon the day of the Lord as the age to come, being a thousand years. That day, lasting a thousand years, will have a beginning with fire, and after the thousand years there will be an end with fire. In 2 Peter the beginning as well as the end of that long day is before us.

The book of Revelation is, after the 5th chapter, full of descriptions of events which we find predicted by the prophets and in the Psalms, and all relate to the day of Jehovah. In Isaiah we found the prediction of men hiding themselves in the caves and the rocks for fear of the Lord, and in the Revelation we read similar words (Isa 6:12-17). We have also the darkened sun and moon, the trembling earth, the falling stars, the shaking of the heavens, in this last book of the Bible, which we find in the rest of the prophetic Word. The climax of all is the opened heavens and the manifestation of Jehovah at the head of the armies of Heaven (Rev. 19).

May our hearts as believers praise Him who has redeemed us by His blood and delivered us from the wrath to come. Blessedly and forever true it is, he that believeth in Him hath everlasting life and shall not come into judgment. (Joh 5:24.)

1 Professor Franz Delitsch.

2 Studies in Zechariah, by A. C. Gaebelein, gives a complete analysis and exposition of this interesting book.