When we look at how life is going, we often see it as a series of good days and bad days. For our lives are full of both. And when we have a bad day, we look forward to when life will turn around and get better. We think, “It can’t get any worse; I have nowhere to go but up!”
It’s our understanding of good and bad that causes us to see or rate a day as good or bad. But here’s where it can get crazy. Sometimes, what we think is bad is not bad. For example, years after a painful event in your life, you might even decide that it was something good for you. We’ve all learned this from experience. Something bad may happen to us, to which we later say, “That’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
And on the flip side, what we may think is good can sometimes turn out to be bad. Just ask most lottery winners. Over 90% later say that they wish they had never won the lottery. They lament that the lottery had only brought misery into their lives.
Life in the ancient world was no different. Like us, people back then had good days and bad days, even kings. Now, where they may differ was that they didn’t like to talk about their bad days. For when word gets around about a king having a series of bad days, others could see that as weakness.
So, a king didn’t like his people—and especially his enemies—to hear about his bad days. He had selfish and self-serving reasons to want everything to look as if he were on top of his game, in charge, and a powerful force not to confront or challenge.
Now, we know that everyone has bad days. And yet, kings aren’t the only ones who may try to hide their problems and put up a good front. We’ve all hidden our problems or internalized our sadness. We may even have a propaganda machine inside us working overtime, trying to convince ourselves, not only to delight in the good days but also to deny that the bad days are bad.
But then we read the Old Testament and hear God prophets of old. If you were having a good day, they could bring you down. For they didn’t mince words: They spoke of both good days and bad. They saw life and evaluated it using something other than human wants or wishes, or human needs and notions. They saw reality—the past, present, and future—from God’s perspective and vantage point, the Maker of our days.
One problem that these proclaimers of God’s Word, these prophets, had to deal with was that their hearers often got their ideas of good days and the bad days turned around. Prophet Isaiah got to the heart of this.
He said: “You call evil good and good evil. You present darkness as light and light as darkness, and make bitterness sweet and sweetness bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). We choose what looks good to us, but many times it isn’t.
Part of the problem was that many in Israel thought that God owed them what they wanted. They were the people of God. So, wasn’t life supposed to go their way? And since God was a God of salvation and deliverance, they assumed that He would save and deliver them—no matter what!
And they knew the phrase “the Day of the Lord.” They knew that was God’s day of salvation. But God’s preachers of old had a way of turning this talk about that Day on its head. Amos cried out:
Doom to those who desire the Day of the Lord! Why do you want the Day of the Lord to come? It will be darkness and not light. It will be like a man who runs from a lion, only to confront a bear. He goes home and rests his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. Don’t you realize the Day of the Lord will bring darkness and not light? [Amos 5:18-20]
Prophet Malachi said this to the people who were crying out for justice: “Who can endure the Day of His coming? Who can stand when he appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire and like cleansing lye” (Malachi 3:2).
And then the Lord said: “I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who cheat workers, widows, and orphans, and who deny justice to the foreigner, but do not fear me” (Malachi 3:5).
And Prophet Zephaniah said:
The great Day of the Lord approaches—near and coming quickly! That Day is a day of wrath, a day of anguish and distress, a day of devastation and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom… I will bring distress on the people, and they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the Lord. [Zephaniah 1:14-15, 17]
That doesn’t sound like a good day, does it? But here’s the twist; this is what must be done. God comes as the king to get the job done. In the end, if we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, then our eternity will be a day of anguish and distress.
That’s what happens when you are in eternity, in God’s full and blazing presence, and you’re there based on your righteousness. Your righteousness is never good enough. That’s why it’s a day of unceasing anguish and distress.
So, God has to show us that any day lived apart from Him and His light, is a day of darkness. But God does more than that. In a life-changing reversal, He even has a way—His only begotten way—to show us that He has turned all those bad days into good.
That’s because of the one great day: The day on which the innocent son of God and our Lord and King was put to death. He didn’t die because of anything that He had done, but for the sins of the world. What looked like a day of the greatest injustice turned out to be the day that the King finally carried out His justice.
And what do we call that “bad day”? We call it Good Friday! On that day, God turned the bad day into a good one. He has even turned the darkness of that day into a glorious light, even the brilliant light of Easter morning.
On this third Sunday of Advent, on this Sunday of rejoicing in the repentant season of Advent, we are having both good days and bad. We live every day in the shadow of darkness, in Good Friday, but also in Easter morning light.
Here, in the middle of Advent, even in these days of preparing to celebrate Jesus’ birth, our Lord’s passion, death, and resurrection are not that far removed from us. After all, every Sunday is also a Son-day (S O N day), where we get to live in God’s Son and His light because He took our darkness and death into Himself.
Today, Prophet Zephaniah brings us to the end of the story. We heard that in our Old-Testament reading. Those having a dark day would see the light. Even amid the dark deeds surrounding us, in the insecurities of our world and our lives, God has a message pointing us to a good Day, the best Day.
God tells us: “Sing for joy, O daughter of Zion… Be glad and rejoice with all your heart… The Lord has removed the judgment against you… The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you” (Zephaniah 3:14-15).
He’s here, right here, right now, in His Word of grace and forgiveness. He’s here in His body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sin.
On that Day, like today, it’s a good day to hear the Word of God. “On that Day, it will be said to Jerusalem: ‘Do not fear; Zion, do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is with you, the Mighty One who saves.’” (Zephaniah 3:16-17).
Yes, the Kings, the rulers of the earth, have their days, both good and bad. So do we. And even as God’s people, we still have to wait to “have our day.” But that day is the Lord’s Day, the Day of the Lord. The King has come and has had His day; it was a bad day that He turned into a good day—the best day, for us.
And because of His day, He makes all our days His! Now, that’s something to rejoice! So, sing for joy, O Daughter of Zion! Amen.
