The verse brings to light several principles which can be applied in the current life situation. The day of the Lord is the judgment day. This day will be marked with darkness as will people dance to the tunes that they set for themselves. This day will come after the Lord gives man a lot of time to repent and come back to Him.
God will have no mercy at the wicked during this time because they chose their own path. Many people who long for the day of the Lord are not aware of the meaning attached to this day. It is a day when the Lord will ensure that the long suppressed justice prevails. All the wicked people will come face to face with God’s wrath. People associate God with light but the converse will be realized during this time. Darkness will be evident across the universe as the Lord unleashes His anger to the people due to their wicked ways.
The Lord has mentioned the wicked deeds that He is not pleased with. He does not like the façade presented by the people who bring to Him offerings and hold festivals in honor of His Name. This is because, these people pretend to love God but fail to love their fellow men by subjecting them to oppression and treating them unfairly. Before having love for God, one ought to have love for his or her fellow men. It is because of the pretence of these people that the Lord refuses to accept their offerings.
There are so many times when we ask ourselves why our lives are filled with a series of misfortunes. However, we do not sit back to reflect on our actions. We should evaluate out deeds to determine if we can be called righteous. Are we just to other people, the poor and oppressed, do we treat them fairly? When we go to the church to serve God and offer to Him what He has blessed us with, are we true to ourselves and to Him? These are some of the questions that as believers we need to reflect on.
The call for justice and righteous in the reading applies to the present world. The Lord is interested in justice and righteousness of the people and not the offerings and festivals held in accordance with His name. The songs, festivals and offerings accorded to the Lord are synonymous to a façade due to lack of sincerity from deep within the people’s Souls. The world hosts a lot of injustice and wickedness. Injustice presents itself in the form of oppression, theft, destruction of other people’s property and corruption.
People deemed to be inferior are oppressed by those who deem themselves as superior. These superior people are the leaders and prominent persons in society.
The inferior people are the common poor individuals who have no place in society. The inferior people are denied important rights to life which the superior people can easily obtain through corruption and unjust means. After engaging in such inhumane acts, these people go ahead to worship God and offer offerings and hold festivals in honor of the Lord, yearning for the day of the Lord.
There are so many court cases between rich people and poor people whose ruling end in a very unjust way. The words of the rich are heard while the poor man is always treated with contempt. These are the unjust systems that the Lord is against. “God is not a respecter of persons” (Attridge 2006). To Him, everyone is the same and should be treated equally.
The verse shows that the very same Lord who blesses is capable of destroying that which he has blessed if it turns away from Him. However, with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is ready to give us another chance if only we turn away from sin and repent. God’s anger is not instant, but he warns us through our own life situations.
Reference
Attridge, H. W. (2006). The HarperCollins Study Bible: Fully Revised & Updated. Yale: HarperOne.