THE GLORIOUS CONSUMMATION 501
and different to all other days in the world s history, " so that none is like it," as Jeremiah expresses it, " and it shall be known to Jehovah" which phrase certainly reminds us of the words of our Lord : " Of that day and hour knoweth no man, not even the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" 1 " Not day nor night" "like mysterious light when day and night are contending together." It shall not be day, for the natural sources of light will be withdrawn ; but it cannot be like the darkness of night, for there will be the transplendent light of the glory of the Lord, and the myriads of His holy angels, and of the glorified saints reflected on the earth.
" And it shall come to pass tJiat at evening time " when in the order of nature everything should sink into darkness " there shall be light " ; out of the contest between light and darkness on that eventful day light shall emerge victorious " the light of salvation breaking its way through the night of judgment," as Von Orelli observes ; and out of the apparent chaos beauty and order.
As far as its primary literal significance is concerned, the statement that " at evening time there shall be light," may perhaps be explained by the words of Isaiah : " The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah bindeth up the hurt of His people and healeth the stroke of their wound." 2
But this literal physical phenomenon will answer also to the spiritual condition of the spared remnant. " At evening time " of that great and most solemn day the great Atonement Day for the nation when the long dark period of their national history shall end in bitter sorrow and universal mourning, not on account of their suffering, but for their sin ; when the glorious Sun of Righteousness shall at last rise upon them with healing in His wings, " there shall be light" the light and the joy of forgiveness and eternal reconciliation ; the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ which shall shine upon them.
1 Mark xiii. 32. * Isa. xxx. 26.
