“Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

Here we have the first reference to the day of the Lord. This is a huge day of reckoning for the people of God in this time of the Prophet, and is sent that they will face their sins and repent and change their ways. The day of the Lord is in this time, is the visitation of the swarms of locusts that are infiltrating the land and destroying the life of the people and the whole nation. They have brought destruction and death to the land and the people are in mourning along with their priests and leaders.

The day of the Lord is to be feared. This day of the Lord is a precursor and an emblem of days that are to come, namely the complete destruction of Jerusalem in the future when even the temple will be destroyed. 

It is also a preview of the Last great day of the Lord, when the whole earth will pass away in fervent heat and all human history will be over. We will all give account for the deeds done in the body and every idle word we have spoken. It will be the last great battle, the battle of Armageddon, when the enemies of the Lord will gather to vent out their fury on the Lord, but to no avail. He will destroy them with a word from His mouth and not a blow will be struck. 

In the succeeding verses and chapters, this day will be referred to again and again and is a motif of the future in the book of Joel. 

“I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land..”

Joel 3:2

The day of the Lord is surely coming and we must be ready.

The cry goes out in our day… “the day of the Lord is at hand…” we must work while it is still day and bring many into the kingdom.