The day of the Lord will be the seventh trumpet, the Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the saints. And it will be the day of God’s wrath on all the unbelievers of the whole earth. It will be the day of Megiddo. It will be the day of the Lord’s wedding feast. Scripture details ‘the day’ in many verses throughout the Bible.
It will also be a unique day.
Zechariah 14:7 ‘For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light.’
The prophet Isaiah put it this way:
Isaiah 28:21 – “For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon, to do His task, His unusual task, and to work His work, His extraordinary work.”
Isaiah’s Gibeon reference indicates a repeat of Joshua’s long day.
Joshua’s long day was at Gibeon, around 1448 BC: Joshua 10:10 ‘And the LORD confounded them before Israel, and He slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and pursued them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-horon, the LORD threw large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died; there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword. 12 Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “O sun, stand still at Gibeon, And O moon in the valley of Aijalon.” 13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies. Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. 14 There was no day like that before it or after it, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.’
NIV version: Joshua 10:12-13 – “On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: ‘O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.’ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, til the nation avenged itself on its enemies…The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.”
Global history tells of this exceptionally long day/night, depending on location:
A long night was reported in North America:
The Ojibways tell of a long night without any light.
The Wyandot Indians told missionary Paul Le Jeune of a long night.
The Dogrib Indians of the North-West tell of a day ‘when the sun was caught at noon and it instantly became dark’.
The Bungee Indians from the Lake Winnipeg area of Canada also tell of a long night.
The Mexican Indians write of a long night in the Annals of Chauhtitlan.
In their national book the Popol Vuh, the Quiche Mayans of Guatemala wrote about the people’s reaction to a long night with these words: “They did not sleep; they remained standing and great was the anxiety of their hearts and their stomachs for the coming of the dawn and the day…’Oh…if we only could see the rising of the sun.’ “
The Aztecs have a legend of the sun not appearing ‘for a very long time’.
Peru reported the sun was hidden for nearly 20 hours.
West Africa also has a story of a long night. It is said that the night lasted too long ‘because the owl overslept and did not awaken the sun’.
In Egypt, there is an ancient manuscript that tells of a day that lasted twice as long as a normal day. As they had accurate water clocks that could record time, they could easily record that a long day had actually taken place.
History will repeat itself as is written: Isaiah 28:21 – ‘For the Lord will…be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon, to do His task, His unusual task, and to work His work, His extraordinary work.’
Habakkuk also prophesied about it – Habakkuk 3:11 ‘Sun and moon stood in their places; They went away at the light of Your arrows, At the radiance of Your gleaming spear. 12 In indignation You marched through the earth; In anger You trampled the nations.’
A very long day, for the Lord to do ‘His extraordinary work’.
click here for: In that day: The Day of the Lord – Part One
