Day of the LORD Typically End Time Reference - Gaza's Not Done Yet.

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Sep 10, 2014 at 17:02

After thinking about this somewhat dismissive observation of scriptural fulfillments, there is again the reminder for this reader that the WORD of the LORD is not limited to human understanding, but a greater discernment is called for to help determine what the Eternal Sovereign of Israel has planned for His people, the apple of His eye. One of the key aspects of the phraseology in the Zephaniah edict is the use of the term, 'day of the LORD.' It is generally and specifically, an end time reference.

[2] Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD's anger come upon you.
[3] Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD's anger.

All things being unequal in how the world treats Israel, one of the more compelling aspects of the Eternal Sovereign's relationship with Israel is in His promises to seek justice/judgment against Israel's enemies, not merely in their restoration period, but throughout history. See what the LORD promise to Babylon in the ancient times and realize that the same judgment for Babylon occurs in John's Apocalypse.

To be sure, archeology has the 'Philistines' consigned to the annals of similar lost civilizations (term used loosely here considering the savagery of those peoples); but if history demonstrates nothing else, the spirit of the antipathy towards Israel, say in the time of Sampson and the other judges, the typology is what survives to antagonize the successors of Abraham's promise. There is a deep reason it is now referred to as 'Palestine,' its Romanesque alliteration.

That being said, it is also observed by many scholars that prophecy typically has two views, the near fulfillment and the far, such as Isaiah 61, which looks at HaMashiach in His first advent and His second, which is yet to appear. That is what Zephaniah looks at, the preparation of the times for the Second Advent, a fulfillment that by many accounts is not all that far off. This need not be assumed; look around and the connection is easily made, even in the actions of the ISIS/ISIL/IS.

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