Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord
Either the day of Christ's coming in the flesh, as Cocceius
interprets it; and which was desired by the people of Israel, not
on account of spiritual and eternal salvation, but that they
might be delivered by him from outward troubles and enemies, and
enjoy temporal felicity; they had a notion of him as a temporal
Saviour and Redeemer, in whose days they should possess much
outward happiness, and therefore desired his coming; see (
Malachi 3:1
Malachi 3:2 )
; or else the day of the Lord's judgments upon them, spoken of by
the prophet, and which they were threatened with, but did not
believe it would ever come; and therefore in a scoffing jeering
manner, expressed their desire of it, to show their disbelief of
it, and that they were in no pain or fear about it, like those in
( Isaiah
5:19 ) ; to what end [is] it for you?
why do you desire it? what benefit do you expect to get by it?
the day of the Lord [is] darkness, and not
light;
it will bring on affliction, calamities, miseries, and distress,
which are often in Scripture expressed by "darkness", and not
prosperity and happiness, which are sometimes signified by
"light"; see ( Isaiah 5:30 ) (
8:22 ) (
Esther 8:16 )
; and even the day of the coming of Christ were to the
unbelieving Jews darkness, and not light; they were blinded in
it, and given up to judicial blindness and darkness; they hating
and rejecting the light of Christ, and his Gospel, and which
issued in great calamities, in the utter ruin and destruction of
that people, ( John 3:19 John 3:20 ) ( 9:39 ) .