THREE DESCRIPTIVE ‘DAYS’

These are three Titles (or descriptions) of the Lord Jesus given to us in Scripture that all commence with the word ‘days …’ Let us examine them.

1. THE CRY OF THE PATRIARCH

It is Job, suffering loss of property, children, health and friendship, who argues with God. “Why” he cries, “have You done this to me?”

For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause. He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness… therefore I said, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, He will laugh (mock!!) at the trial of the innocent… Now my days … flee away, they see no good. They are passed away as the swift ships; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey… If I wash myself with snow water… Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both’ (Job 9:17-33).

No Daysman!! The margin of the King James Version renders is ‘Umpire’. Job desired someone to arbitrate between God and himself.

In the New Testament we meet One who is able to “lay His hand on both” God the Father and sinful man. The Lord Jesus is the Mediator who spans that gap. He is our Daysman.

And even Job seems to eventually grasp that truth … that one day someone would arise to vindicate his name and reveal that the cause of his suffering was not punishment for some sine he had allegedly committed.

Job 19:25 … “I know that my Redeemer (Vindicator) liveth,” he later said, “and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms shall destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

Or … “How I wish that someone would remember my words and record them in a book! Or with a chisel carve my words in stone and write them so that they would last for ever. But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defence. Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God. I will see him with my own eyes” (GNB).

2. THE SONG OF THE PRIEST

When told by the angel that his wife would bear a son who would be the Messiah’s forerunner, Zacharias, a priest, did not believe! And he was struck dumb (Luke 1:5-23). But when the babe was born, Zacharias was inspired by the Holy Spirit to sing!

“And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (referring to the Messiah, about to be born … even our Lord Jesus!); As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. And thou, child (referring to John) shalt be called the prophet of the Highest (the Messiah): for thou shall go before the fact of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:67-79).

3. THE AFFIRMATION OF THE APOSTLE

“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth … For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Peter 1:12-21).

Peter describes the Lord Jesus as the Daystar … but we need to study the whole passage, indeed the whole epistle, to grasp what he is saying.

(a) He is writing to Christians … II Peter 1:1.

(b) They are under attack by false teachers who deny the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus … II Peter 3:1-4.

(i) He, with James and John, were “eyewitnesses” to a preview of “the power and coming (again) of our Lord” when they witnessed His transfiguration (v. 16). And they even heard God the Father speak from Glory! (vs. 17-18).

(ii) There is something “more sure” than Peter’s testimony … you readers, he seems to say, may think I’m lying or that it was only a dream, but more sure than my testimony is the written Word of God. It was penned by inspired prophets (v. 21).

(d) “Therefore,” he says, and we follow E. Gordon’s translation of the Greek text, take heed to that written word in your hearts … until the Day dawns and the Daystar arises!”

Notice the phrase “in your heart” applies to the study of God’s written word that they might be “established in the present truth” (v. 12). It is not that the Daystar needs to arise in their hearts, as the King James Version implies, for they are already believers. They already know the Lord as Saviour. But they need to be grounded in the doctrine of the Lord’s return in the light of the attacks being made by the false teachers. And that grounding comes from studying the Word of God.

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CONCLUSION

He is the DAYSMAN - Who is able to reconcile the sinner to God the Father.

He is the DAYSPRING - from on High Who came to bring salvation.

He is the DAYSTAR - Who will come again to usher in Heaven’s eternal Day.

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