2 Peter 1:19-20

THE COMING DAWN

‘Until the day dawn.’

2 Peter 1:19

‘The day.’ What day? The day of all days for this world is the Advent of Christ. That day which will throw over this earth a light never seen before, and clothe it with the most brilliant splendour. Christ calls that ‘My day!’ and every believer will echo it and say, ‘My day!’—‘My day, Thy day.’ Of the exact period of that day’s dawn it appears to me that we have been most wisely and mercifully kept in ignorance. Of its character and its beauty we have just enough told us to enable us to recognise it when it comes, and to know that it will be exceedingly lovely.

I. It is the focus of the present life.—We are led to believe that the eyes of angels are resting upon it. Everything we say, or do, or think, should have reference to that day. There should be the ‘until’ always—that is, ‘until the day dawn.’ You may say, ‘Isn’t it the same thing whether I go to Christ, or Christ comes to me?’ Yes, only if Christ comes first, there will be no parting; and therefore in His mercy God tells us to think much more of the Advent than of death. He does not say, ‘until death comes,’ but ‘until the day dawn.’

II. Is then this life all night?—Is there no sunshine now? Why speak of the day dawning as if it is all now so very dark? It is all comparative. This life is a very happy life; this world is a beautiful world; but we all find that colour changes its hue under contrast. To-morrow’s exceeding joy may make a bright yesterday look dull, however pleasant it was. And when Jesus comes with His glory, and the heavens are new, and the earth is new, all that is now the holiest, the loveliest, and best—tainted as it all is with sin, and change, and sorrow—it will all look like a shadow. Still it is not to disparage the present, but to exalt the future, that we are told to wait ‘until the day dawn.’

III. The struggle of life is severe.

(a) I see a man passing through a long, dark passage, and I see a light at the other end. He cannot see it yet, but he hears a voice which says, ‘Until the day dawn’; and when he comes out the other side the light will be all the more beautiful for its short suspension.

(b) I visit a poor, stricken, bereaved heart. It cries, ‘Oh! this bitter separation! Shall we never meet again? Are we parted for ever? Shall I never look upon that dear face? ‘Oh! to be able to say to that desolate one, ‘A little while, a little while, the resurrection morn will soon be here, and you shall meet, you shall meet, and parting tears shall never flow.’ Only wait for a little interval. The night is far spent. Only wait and trust ‘until the day dawn.’

(c) The work which God has given you to do is very hard. Just of all work, the work you dislike the most, and in which you feel the loss of bodily strength, and you see no results. Life grows heavier and heavier to you every day. But it is all mapped out and measured. It is only a copy of a chart in heaven. The boundary line is all drawn. It cannot go beyond the limit God has ordained for it, not by a feather’s weight, or by one stroke of the clock of immortality, until, ‘until the day dawn.’

To all the mysteries of our world and being, to the chaos of our thoughts, to the dark things within and around us on every side, the key, the true solution is ‘until the day dawn.’

Rev. James Vaughan.