What would happen on the Day of Destruction?
Background
Many prophecies had been given that spoke of when God would avenge Israel and punish those Gentile nations that had abused her.Isaiah 34:2In the Greek, the word used for “nations” is the same word used for “Gentiles”. So you could literally read it as “For Yahweh is enraged against all the Gentiles”. Daniel also describes the time when God would destroy the Gentile nations and would establish His own kingdom on earth:
For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations,
and angry with all their armies.
He has utterly destroyed them.
He has given them over for slaughter.
See also Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 13:13, Isaiah 26:21, Isaiah 30:27, Isaiah 30:30, Isaiah 52:10, Isaiah 59:19
Daniel 2:31-35This time of God's vengeance was referred to in several ways in the Old Testament:
You, O king, saw, and behold, a great image. This image, which was mighty, and whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and its aspect was awesome. As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass, its legs of iron, its feet part of iron, and part of clay. You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Day of the Lord
Day of Vengeance
Year of Redemption
End of the Age
There was another term called "Day of Destruction". It is often translated "Day of Evil" but this translation implies a meaning that Paul does not have in mind in Ephesians. "Day of Destruction" was a generic term. We might refer to 9/11 as a specific event but we might also use a generic term such as "National Day of Tragedy" to refer to that same event. In the same way, "Day of Destruction" could be used to refer to God's judgement at the end of the age or any other day that involved judgement and destruction.
Jeremiah 17:17-18
Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of destruction. Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but don't let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of destruction, and destroy them with double destruction.
