The Thessalonian
Epistles
The Day of the Lord
Lesson XI
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2
Written: June 10, 2004
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2
(1) But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have
no need that I write unto you.
(2) For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
The
chapter begins with the word “but.”
Although that word is a conjunction, it is also used by way of contrast
as in Ephesians 2:12-13 “…That at that time ye were without Christ…and without
God. But now in Christ
Jesus…made nigh…”
In
chapter 4:13-18 Paul had revealed the doctrine of the Rapture of the
Church. Now in chapter 5 he is
introducing another subject and so writes:
“But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write
unto you. For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”
Here
he writes about the Day of the Lord. This is a new subject. He had said in chapter
The
Day of the Lord is an Old
Testament doctrine.
Joel 1:15
(15) Alas for the day! for the
day of the LORD [is] at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it
come.
Joel 2:1, 11, 31
(1) Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,
and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land
tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;
(11) And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army:
for his camp [is] very great: for [he is] strong that executeth
his word: for the day of the LORD [is] great and very terrible; and who can
abide it?
(31) The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Wherever
one reads about the day of the Lord in the Old Testament it is always a time of
trouble. Here are some more examples.
Ezekiel 30:3
(3) For the day [is] near, even the day of the LORD [is]
near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.
Joel 2:1-2
(1) Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,
and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land
tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;
(2) A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds
and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people
and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more
after it, [even] to the years of many generations.
Amos 5:18
(18) Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end [is] it for you? the
day of the LORD [is] darkness, and not light.
Zephaniah 1:14-15
(14) The great day of the LORD [is] near, [it is] near,
and hasteth greatly, [even] the voice of the day of
the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
(15) That day [is] a day of wrath, a day of trouble and
distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of
darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
All
of this is in contrast to the blessed hope of the Rapture, a great event
connected with the grace of God in the completion of the believer’s salvation. It is not connected with the wrath and
judgments of God as are clearly connected with the day of the Lord.
The
Old Testament prophets considered every judgment from the hand of God to be a day
of the Lord. Each
one pointing forward to the great and terrible day of the Lord.
2 Peter 2:4-9
(4) For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but
cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be
reserved unto judgment;
(5) And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the
eighth [person], a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly;
(6) And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow,
making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
(7) And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy
conversation of the wicked:
(8) (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in
seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soul from day to day with [their]
unlawful deeds;)
(9) The Lord knoweth how to
deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
2 Peter 2:4-9 The angels, the
antediluvians, Sodom and Gomorrah were all judged by God and were all “days of
the Lord” to be examples to those who thereafter chose to live ungodly. Therefore, past days of the Lord are types
and shadows of the coming great and terrible day of the Lord when God will pour
out His wrath upon the earth.
Revelation 16:1
(1) And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to
the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon
the earth.
Revelation 16:1 Remember Hell is not
wrath, it is retribution.
Acts 2:20
(20) The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
That
there is a future Day of the Lord is plainly stated in this Thessalonian
text. “For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” (1 Thessalonians
5:2).
Also
in Acts
2 Peter 3:10
(10) 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.
2 Peter 3:10 “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 therein shall be burned up.” It is well to note that the elements melt,
not matter. When one burns a piece of
paper the elements are changed but no matter has been destroyed. We quote the verse to emphasize the future
aspect of the Day of the Lord.
Isaiah 2:12-21
(12) For the day of the LORD of hosts [shall be] upon
every [one that is] proud and lofty, and upon every [one that is] lifted up;
and he shall be brought low:
(13) And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, [that are] high
and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
(14) And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the
hills [that are] lifted up,
(15) And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced
wall,
(16) And upon all the ships of Tarshish,
and upon all pleasant pictures.
(17) And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and
the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted
in that day.
(18) And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
(19) And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and
into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his
majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
(20) In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver,
and his idols of gold, which they made [each one] for himself to worship, to
the moles and to the bats;
(21) To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the
tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his
majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
Isaiah
2:12-21 are verses that also describe this coming day of the Lord. It will be upon every one proud and lofty
(verse 12). The haughtiness of man shall
be made low (verse 17). Men shall go
into the holes in the rocks, and unto the caves of the earth, for fear of the
Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth
to shake terribly the earth (verse 19).
That He will shake terribly the earth is repeated in verse 21.
Isaiah 61:1-2
(1) The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the
LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of the prison to [them that are] bound;
(2) To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the
day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
Luke 4:16-20
(16) And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought
up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to
read.
(17) And there was delivered unto him the book of the
prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he
found the place where it was written,
(18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
(19) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
(20) And he closed the book, and he gave [it] again to
the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him.
The
day of the Lord is also called the day of vengeance. What is written in Isaiah 61:1-2 are the
words read in the temple by Jesus (Luke
But
there is more in Isaiah 61:2, in fact two more statements, three in all.
(1)
the acceptable year of the Lord;
(2)
the day of vengeance of our God;
(3)
to comfort all that mourn.
Jesus
said the first point was fulfilled and, we would add, we are still in that
acceptable day.
But
the day of vengeance has not yet come.
In
the great plan of God the day of vengeance will surely come.
Isaiah 63:4
(4) For the day of vengeance [is] in mine heart, and the
year of my redeemed is come.
Hebrews 10:30
(30) For we know him that hath said, Vengeance [belongeth] unto me, I will recompense, saith
the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Deuteronomy 32:35
(35) To me [belongeth]
vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in
[due] time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall
come upon them make haste.
We
are told in Hebrews 10:30 and Deuteronomy 32:35 that vengeance belongs to God
and he will repay!
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
(13) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have
no hope.
(14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with him.
(15) For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent them which are asleep
(16) For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
(17) Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with the Lord.
(18) Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3.
(1) But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have
no need that I write unto you.
(2) For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
(3) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then
sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and
they shall not escape.
The
Rapture as described by Paul in Thessalonians 4:13-18 certainly is not a day of
vengeance. It would seem to be in order
to describe the Rapture as the last act of grace to conclude the day of grace.
That
to me is one reason chapter 5 begins with the word “but” that is, to show the
contrast between the day of grace and the day of vengeance, which is a part of
the Coming Day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3).
When
Paul wrote his second epistle to the Thessalonians we shall find that he gave
us more information as to the events connected with the day of vengeance and
the day of the Lord.
Today
we are seeing that man’s day has produced corruption, confusion and conflict.
When
the Lord comes, the day of the Lord will begin and after the judgments are
poured out, we shall see what the Lord can do for this troubled world when the
third statement of Isaiah 61:2 is fulfilled, when He will comfort all that
mourn. Then Matthew 5:4 will be fully
fulfilled.
Matthew
5:4
(4)
Blessed [are] they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.