The great day of the Lord

Unlike the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) sets out the book of Zephaniah in metrical form so that it looks like a poem (the whole book following the subscription).

The phrase “the great day of the Lord” in Zeph. 1:14 caught my attention –

The great day of the Lord is near,

near and hastening fast….

 

I wonder if those words call to mind for our readers a hymn. I hear hymn 82 in the Christian Science hymnal: “God is working His purpose out”. The second verse refers to hastening time (italics added):

What can we do to hasten the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea?

Here is the whole hymn (words by Arthur C. Ainger:

God is working His purpose out

As year succeeds to year,

God is working His purpose out

And the time is drawing near;

Nearer and nearer draws the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

 

What can we do to work God’s work,

To prosper and increase

The brotherhood of all mankind,

The reign of the Price of Peace?

What can we do to hasten the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

 

March we forth in the strength of God

With the banner of Christ unfurled,

That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth

May shine throughout the world;

Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin,

To set the captives free,

That the earth may be filled with the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

In his Continuity of the Bible Series in The Christian Science Journal October 1969, namely Zephaniah: The Dawn of Seventh Century Prophecy, Thomas Leishman suggests that invasion by an enemy—namely "Scythians, great hordes of wild and savage tribesmen"—"symbolized the wrath of God soon to be vented upon a nation that had openly embraced idolatry". It seems that, to Zechariah, “the great day of the Lord” had everything to do with this invasion. The KJV translates: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly…” (Zeph. 1:14).  

I see that the phrase is echoed in other books of the Bible, and much scholarly writing can be found about it.

I would say that, as the hymn implies, the Christian Science “day of the Lord” is one of the triumph of good over evil. Students of Christian Science often share their inspired interpretations of Bible passages through poetry and hymns*, surely in the way David and other inspired writers of the Psalms have done through poetry and songs.

On first reading, Zech. 1:2, 3 which has God “consuming all things from off the land”, is possibly alarming. But the idea came to me that all "things" will be changed from the material to the spiritual. The “day of the Lord” is come through Christian Science. All will be well!

Joyce Voysey

*Another Christian Science hymn comes to mind: “This is the day the Lord hath made”. Are there any more that readers can think of?