The Day of the Lord and messianic hope in Isaiah

¶ … Lord' is a general phrase of judgment that can describe the final eschatological judgment of the world, but more often describes any forthcoming day of judgment. What "day" is in mind is determined by context, not merely by the phrase itself" (Holding 1).

In Chapter 53:5, Isaiah spoke of the suffering servant, who "was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities..., and by his wounds we are healed." For centuries, this hope was held up by the Jews as the character of the Messiah and since Christ came, this description of Him has held out hope for those who have learned of Him.

The theologian Arnold Toynbee believes that prophets of all religions are the precursors of Christ and that Christianity may save Western civilization in a spontaneous rally of faith. Toynbee himself was a prophet of things to come, holding out hope for the future (Time 6). As Christ was the light and the hope of the world for us, we are the hope of the future of this world. As we and others have hoped for better times, we are the only ones who can really do anything about it. In the book Journey of Hope Reader, Stevens says that "each of us, in a sense, is called to be a prophet in the paticular circumstances of our own life and times" (2001, p. 3)

The Day of the Lord in the context that is most fitting to this season was referred to by Isaiah as the day in which the Messiah was to come to a suffering people. The advent of the Messiah was an event much discussed and much looked forward to among the ancients. God had promised a Messiah and the day that He would come was prophesized and eventually fulfilled in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, according to the New Testament writers.