Opening Prayer
Lord, stir our hearts to hear Your Word. Amen.
Text: Isaiah 13:9-13
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger.”
Devotion
It is judgment over Babylon that the prophet discerns in these shocking words, but such judgment over an individual people is a portent of judgment over the world. And so this too is a picture of the Last Day.
The Day of the Lord will be glorious for God’s people, but terrible for His enemies. Those who are proud now will become cowardly then. Now they hold their heads high, but then they will sink to the ground. Mortals will become more rare than gold. The sun disappears, the stars fall, and birth pangs shall grip men’s hearts so that their faces soon blush, soon go pale. See how the eyes of the proud are cast down, how bewildered they stand, how perplexed they look at one another! They despised pain and prided themselves on their courage. Now they groan like a woman in labor and call to the mountains: “fall on us,” and to the hills: “cover us from the wrath of the Lamb!”
The unbelievers mock and say: “What has become of His coming? We have heard of it for so long, as though it were near!” But that’s exactly the way Noah’s contemporaries made fun, until the flood came and took them all away. Likewise the people of Sodom, until fire and brimstone rained down from heaven, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, until the fire poured down its flames, and their own blood flowed in streams through their city. You faithful of the Lord, who know that all things shall be taken away, what should be your attitude? In holy living and godly behavior you ought to wait and look for the coming of the Day of the Lord, when heaven shall be burned and dissolved and the elements shall enter the fire and be melted. Both heaven and earth, as they are now, shall melt and pass away. But according to His promise we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness shall dwell. Therefore, beloved, since you expect this, then busy yourselves in being found at peace, unblemished and blameless before Him, and realize that our Lord’s long-suffering is for salvation, for He wants to have the number of His saints in full (2Pe 3:10).
Closing Prayer
God, give us the Spirit of Your fear, and keep us awake, so that we can meet You with joy. Let that day be for us a glorious day of redemption. Amen.
Hymn
Awaken now ere death is calling
You at an unexpected hour!
Soon old men in its grip are falling,
And also youth may feel its pow’r.
Ye do not know the time, nor place,
Do therefore wake and seek God’s grace.
Awake, be for God’s summons ready
When He to judgment calleth you!
In faith and love be ever steady,
His gracious will with ardor do!
Oh, take the strait and narrow way,
For quickly cometh judgment day.
Gotter: O vaagner op af Verdens Drømme L 110:5-6 HCH 182:3-4 tr. P. C. Paulsen;
tune: Wer nur den lieben (ELH 479); alternate hymn: Rise, my soul ELH 253:2-4