"he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed"
(Isa. 66: 5)
"Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
For what good is the day of the Lord to you?
It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion,
And a bear met him!
Or as though he went into the house,
Leaned his hand on the wall,
And a serpent bit him! Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light?
Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?" (Amos 5: 18-20)
To true believers the second coming of Christ will be a time of great thrill and exuberant joy. "He shall appear to your joy." But, to the unbeliever (including pretenders), "he shall appear" to his shame and disgrace, and bring woe and tribulation.
Let us therefore be diligent to make our calling and election sure. (II Peter 1: 10)
"And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." (I John 2: 28)
The appearing of Christ will find two kinds of people and produce different effects upon the two. There will be those who will "have confidence" and those who have none. The former are they who did abide in Christ, and who held firm to a genuine faith and allegiance to him. The latter are they who did not abide, being like the five foolish virgins (Matt. 25) who, having no oil in their lamps, and asleep (when they should have been watching alertly), missed out on experiencing the joy of the coming of the Lord.
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