In the essence of what it means to experience life, the
"day of the Lord" has its meaning. It represent not so much a
specific period of time than it does a process, a sequence of events. It
follows the natural movement of a common day. It has light. It has night.
It has both in the scope of its duration.
Every day has its night. More accurately, every night has its day. For the
Scriptures reveal that the new day always begins with the evening of the
previous day. Moreover, that truth is merely representative of a deeper
truth. Jesus said, ". . . except a seed falls to the ground and die,
it abideth alone, but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit."
Night and day, seed-time and harvest are the reality of experiencing life.
Ultimately, night and day, fall and spring, cold and heat, and seed-time
and harvest are merely the reflection of the essence of what it means to
be a created entity. In the essence of the mystery of the day being the
oneness of the night and the light, all men have their existence. The
writer of Genesis wrote, ". . . the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life."
Man came into existence when the body of dust was inbreathed with the
Sprit of God. He is the substance of the union of dust and Spirit.
Personal identity is found in the essence of that which is formed out of
the dust of the ground and of the Spirit of God. A person is dust, yet he
is more than dust. He is spirit, yet more than spirit. Man is uniquely the
substance of the union of dust and of spirit.
It is within the interplay of the body and the Spirit that man experiences
his life. When the body and the Spirit exist in harmony, life is good. The
Spirit gloriously enables the body to experience all the sensations of a
flourishing life. When the body and Spirit function in disharmony, life
becomes bad. The senses become dull and the flourishing life is missed.
The harmony between the body and the Spirit is accomplished by both of
them being what they are. In other words, the body is a created entity and
the Spirit is the eternal God. In the mystery of oneness that which is not
life experiences that which is life. The sum of the two produces a
breathing creature.
Experiencing the immortal God in a mortal body brings with it a condition
that man continually struggles to overcome. Created to know God in the
full power of all of his senses, this capability to know often brings man
into conflict with God as he experiences the process of how that life is
experienced.
The body by being what it is, a created entity, is always dying. It is the
nature of being formed out of a substance which does not have life. The
Spirit by being what it is, the breath of God, is always living.
Therefore, in the essence of what it means to be a human being, the
earthly flesh must continually be taken down to enable the heavenly spirit
to come forth in its glory. The implication seems clear. The joyful
flourishing life of the Spirit comes only out of the painful perishing
death of the flesh.
All of creation attest to the fact that life comes only out of death.
Death and resurrection is the ground of being for all living creatures. It
is this morning coming out of the night, this harvest coming out of the
seed-time, this life coming out of death that is identified as the
"Day of the Lord."
It has night, but it also has morning. It has planting, but it also has
harvest. It has suffering, but it also has joy. It has death, but it also
has life. It is the working of the Lord in the days of our lives.
There are many "days of the Lord." It is every time He brings
life out death. The good life is experience when man lives in harmony with
the "day of the Lord."
Joel spoke of the "day of the Lord" for Judah, the Southern
kingdom. There is nothing known of Joel except what is found in the book
that bears his name. There can be no better name for this book that
reveals God’s judgment, God’s promise of His Spirit, and God’s
restoration for the name Joel means "Jehovah is God." God brings
judgment, God brings His Spirit, and God brings restoration, the secret
and the mystery of life.
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