A Day of Wrath Zeph. 1:15-18 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
The second coming of Jesus is truly a terrible experience in the earth. All the beautiful tourist attractions of the world are going to be destroyed. God will not tolerate men doing what men are doing today. They take God’s name in vain, they reject his words, they worship idols, they deny him his glory in federal places and so forth. When he returns, he just levels everything.
After he comes, things will settle down and his rule will make things wonderful. However, the earth and the inhabitants must endure his day of wrath until he gets settled in. All of creation will suffer through his rage. It is the day of wrath.
Notice the description of the day of his coming. It is a day of:
Wrath – at the Lord’s wrath the earth shall tremble [Jer 10:10]. Men shall drink of the wine of the Lord’s wrath [Rev 14:10]. We are saved from God’s wrath through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ [1 Thes 5:9; Rom 5:9]. If you aren’t saved, you should be saved now by trusting Jesus Christ.
Trouble and distress – the Jews will go through a time called Jacob’s trouble [Jer 30:7, the tribulation]. The day of the Lord’s return is called a day of trouble [Ezek 7:7-9] with fury and smiting.
Wasteness and desolation – God said, “I will make your cities waste… and your land shall be desolate,” [Lev 26:31-32]. The desolation utterly consumes them in a moment [Ps 73:19].
Darkness and gloominess – the darkness will be as intense as the darkness that plagued Egypt in Ex 10:21-22. If the darkness is the result of a radioactive event, all the GPS and satellite guided tanks, jets and helicopters and all the satellite guided missiles and ordnance will be useless. It will be darkness [Rev 16:10-11].
Clouds and thick darkness – the clouds are the Lord’s footstool. When the Lord comes, the clouds come [Rev 1:7]. They shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven [Matt 24:30].
Trumpet and the alarm – there will be a trumpet and an alarm in Zion [Joel 2:1]. He shall send his angels with the sound of a trumpet [Matt 24:31]. You see the trumpets in Rev 8:13; 9:14.
Blindness – they shall walk as blind men. God smites them with blindness [Deut 28:28]. Every horse is smitten with blindness [Zech 12:4].
Bloodshed and death – there will be more bloodshed at the second coming of Jesus than there has been in all the wars that have been fought on earth [Rev 14:19-20]. The fowls of heaven will come to eat the flesh of the dead to clean up the carrion [Rev 19:17-19].
Fire – the fire is so bad that it only leaves a desolate wilderness [Joel 2:3]. And this fire is found in the New Testament, as well [2 Thes 1:7-9]. He comes in vengeance and flaming fire.
Why does these bad things happen? All these bad things happen because they have sinned against the Lord. Evolution, idolatry, rejecting Jesus, fornication, pride, arrogance, haughtiness, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. have stirred up God’s wrath against them.
How will they try to protect themselves from this coming destruction? They will turn to their silver and gold and it will fail them [Is 13:17; Ezek 7:19].
Conclusion: the way to prepare for the day of wrath is to get saved. Stockpiling gold, silver, food and water will do you no good.