Like a Thief in the Night

Let me ask you the question I asked at the start. What would you do differently if I told you the Lord Jesus is coming tomorrow evening at six o'clock?

Sit with that honestly. The answer you give reveals more about how you are living right now than about the future. And it is the very question the apostle Paul was really pressing on the Thessalonians.

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night... But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day.

1 Thessalonians 5:2-5 (NKJV)

Notice something most of us rush past. The Bible does not say the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It says the day of the Lord comes like a thief, and it says so for a certain kind of person, the one still living in the dark.

What is the day of the Lord?

The day of the Lord is a theme the Old Testament prophets, especially Joel and Isaiah, loved to sound out. It carries at least three meanings, and they are worth holding together.

In Joel it is the day the army of the Lord goes forth and takes the land, the day when whoever calls on His name is saved, the day God so manifests Himself that multitudes stand in the valley of decision. In Isaiah it is the day of God's vengeance against His enemies and the day of deliverance for His people, when the Lord Himself becomes a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty for those who are His.

And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Joel 2:32 (NKJV)

Look at how Joel paints it. It is the day the army of the Lord marches out and conquers the land for its King. It is the day the power of God becomes available to deliver, so that whoever calls is saved. It is the day God manifests Himself so plainly that multitudes stand in the valley of decision, and the word goes out, put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Isaiah adds his own colors: the day of vengeance against every enemy of the Lord, the day of deliverance for the remnant, the day the Lord Himself becomes a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty for His people.

So the day of the Lord means at least three things. It is the season when the Lord visits you for good. It is the season when His justice visits the enemies of the Lord. And it is the day of the Lord Jesus' actual return to the earth. When you read it closely it almost feels like every day belongs to the thief, but one day belongs to the Owner.

Here is the comfort in that. It may seem the Lord has been quiet about your matter for a long time. But a day is coming, a season of visitation, when He shows up in a big way for you. You have known days of tears. The day of the Lord's visitation is here for you too.

Three ways it comes like a thief

In Luke 12 Jesus shows us who gets caught off guard, and why. Read it and you find three kinds of people surprised by the very One they were supposed to be waiting for.

• The one who is not watchful. The master knocks, and because they were not paying attention, they mistake Him for a thief.
• The one who is not prepared. The visit is unexpected, and unexpected is exactly what catches the unready.
• The one who is careless. For the servant weighed down by the world, the day proves very, very costly.

Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master... Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.

Luke 12:35-37 (NKJV)

Sit with each of those for a moment, because they are not really about timing. They are about the state of a heart. The unwatchful servant is not evil; he is simply distracted, so absorbed in other things that the sound of the Master at the door registers as a threat instead of a homecoming. The unprepared servant made no plan, so what should have been expected lands as an ambush. And the careless servant is the one Jesus warns most sharply, the one who says in his heart the master delays his coming and begins to live loosely; for him the day is not just startling but costly.

So hear this clearly. It is not God's will for His visitation to reach you like a thief in the night. It should not, and it need not, because you are a child of the light, not of the night. For you the day of the Lord should feel less like a break-in and more like a bride receiving her bridegroom.

Live like the bride

A bride is not anxious about whether she has a groom. She knows she has one. Her whole focus is on being all she can be for him when he comes. In the same way, the question of your making heaven is settled. What you are giving yourself to now is making this earth the kind of place your Bridegroom from heaven would love to walk into.

That reframes everything, even the rapture. It is not mainly an escape from earth to heaven. It is going out to welcome your Lord from heaven to the earth. So a ready bride lives three ways, and they answer the three surprises exactly.

She lives prepared. She lives watchful. And she lives carefully. Let me take each one.

Watchful enough to hear His voice

The watchful bride is not drunk or distracted. She is sober, and she knows his voice. She knows when he speaks and she knows his heart, because his words are what she meditates on day and night. One of the great things God is doing in the church today is restoring the voice of the Lord to His people, the ability to discern when the Master is knocking and when He is moving. If you want the day of the Lord to be no thief to you, start now. Practice being still enough to hear Him.

And you cannot live carelessly. You cannot let yourself be weighed down by the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the endless pursuit of more. It is a real danger in the church today. We have traded the hunger for our Lover for the hunger for money. We chase the blessing more than the Blesser, the gift more than the Giver, and then we wonder why the day of the Lord frightens us.

What happens when you are ready

Give the Lord a prepared, watchful, careful bride, and He will gladly bring the day of the Lord. He is more eager for His day, in your life, in His church, in this nation, than any of us could ever be. The only question is whether He will find us ready.

For those who are, three things follow. You will constantly share in what God is doing in your day; Luke says the Master Himself will gird Himself and serve you. God will use you to bring others their own encounter with Him, making you a dispenser of the kingdom's goodness, because you are connected. And when the Lord visits, even more will be given to you, a reward for what He did in you and through you. The rapture stops being something you dread and becomes a day of double portions you look forward to.

What would you do differently?

They once asked a group of people that same opening question. One said he would go and forgive everyone he had hurt and been hurt by. Another said she would finally quit her bad habits. Another said he would stay in church all day. Another said she would lock herself away to become more holy. One said he would run into the streets and preach to everyone he could.

Then they asked a young woman, barely twenty-three. With tears in her eyes and her voice cracking, she answered, "Nothing. I have been ready and waiting for Him for so long. Is He really coming tomorrow at six?"

That is a bride. That is a lover ready and waiting. For her the coming of the Lord can never be like a thief in the night, because she has been longing for it all along. If you want that to be your answer too, you do not have to wait for some future date. Now is the day of the Lord. Now is the acceptable time. Turn to Him today and let your heart say the same word: nothing, because I have been ready for You.