A THIEF AND A SNARE by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 27, 1900

A THIEF AND A SNARE.

By Uriah Smith

Perhaps the most startling feature of the prophecies that set forth the coming of the day of the Lord is the fact that they declare that it will come on the world as a “thief in the night,” and take them as in a “snare.” The Bible reader will at once recall the words of Peter: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10.

The very announcement that such a day as is here described is to come, sometime, on this world, in its present state, ought to be sufficient to arouse all hearts to interest and anxiety. But the manner of that coming is calculated to stir them more deeply still. For it is to come stealthily and silently, as a thief in the night. Before Peter had written these words, our Lord himself had uttered this emphatic warning: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Luke 21:34, 35.

The testimony of both these scriptures relates to the day of the Lord; and both use a figure which conveys a most searching impression. One says that it will come as a thief in the night; and the other says it will come as a snare. These figures should not be dismissed without an earnest consideration of their significance. The day of the Lord will come as a thief. What is it to come as a thief? A thief comes in the night; he comes by stealth; he comes suddenly; he comes when he thinks you are least aware, when you are least expecting him, and when he thinks the way is most clear for him to secure his booty and depart without detection. He comes when he thinks you will be lost in the unconsciousness of sleep, or be absorbed in other things, so that you will be off your guard concerning him, and he can accomplish his purpose. The whole figure conveys most intensely the idea of suddenness, unexpectedness, and fatal results, leaving you to discover your loss, and make the best of it, in whatever way you may be able.

The figure of the snare conveys the same lesson. How little the victim of a snare suspected beforehand the danger. All unconscious of peril, the victim was pursuing his own purposes according to his own intentions, when all of a sudden, like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, the trap is sprung, and the whole scene is changed. He is a captive, held fast, freedom gone, and he doomed to the fate for which the snare was laid for him.

SO shall the day of the Lord, says Christ, come upon those that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Since this is so, the query may arise, How can anyone escape being overtaken as by a thief, and being caught in the snare? The answer is, By watching unto prayer. Peter says: “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” 1 Peter 4:7.

Bear in mind the distinction implied in the language used on this subject. The day comes, it is true, as a snare upon all that dwell on the face of the whole earth. But who are they who are counted as dwellers upon the earth?—Not the people of God; for they walk by faith, not by sight. They are led by the Spirit, and are not reckoned as dwellers on the earth, but are pilgrims and strangers, with no abiding city here. Upon them the day of the Lord does not come as a snare. So, whereas Peter says that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night, without any qualification, Paul, to the Thessalonian brethren, explains the situation more fully. He does not contradict Peter, but confirms his testimony. He says: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Then he explains that there are two classes, differently related to the day of the Lord. One class are children of the night and of darkness; and the other are children of the light and the day; and to the believers he says: “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness,” that that day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thess. 5:4, 5.

And again, he who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, writes to the members of the Sardis church: “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Rev. 3:3. The converse of this must, of course, be true,—that if they would watch, they would know what hour he would come upon them, and would not be overtaken as by a thief. Such are exceptions to the general rule which Peter lays down.

And what kind of a day is this which is thus coming upon the world as a thief?—It is a day such as this world has never yet seen. Read Zephaniah’s graphic description of it. Zeph. 1:14–18: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as the dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.” The earth has passed through terrible experiences, appalling disasters, scenes of terror that have paralyzed the stoutest hearts; but the earth has not yet been brought to drink of the cup of God’s unmixed wrath against sin.

The day of the Lord includes these scenes of trouble. It takes in the seven last plagues, and extends over to the time when the great deluge of the final lake of fire shall be quenched at the end of the thousand years of Revelation 20. The opening of the day of the Lord will draw the final line of separation between the righteous and the wicked. That day may therefore be said to open with the beginning of the seven last plagues, which mark the end of human probation. It is this point, therefore, which comes suddenly and unexpectedly, as a thief and as a snare.

But why does the day come as a thief and as a snare? Does the Lord design it to be so; and has he planned it so?—Not by any means. He has done everything within his power, which he could do consistently, to have it otherwise. He has done everything that he could do to awaken and arouse the world in regard to the coming of the great day of the Lord, and its nature. He has filled his word with predictions that such a day is coming; he has specified the signs that would be given to indicate its approach; he has written the fulfillments of these signs all over the heavens and the earth, and among men, to warn them, that they might understand the time in which they were living; he has laid out in his word the steps which Christ would take in working out the great plan of salvation; he has revealed that the last work of our Redeemer in his priesthood would be a work in the second apartment of the heavenly temple, or sanctuary, on high; he showed the very day on which that work, the atonement, or the cleansing of the sanctuary, would begin—a momentous day, now more than fifty years in the past; and finally he has sent forth a world-wide message of warning and invitation, to go to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples, that no one might have any excuse for not knowing the time.

No; the Lord does not wish the world to be taken in a snare, nor to be overtaken as by a thief. He would have them not only warned but prepared for that day and for his kingdom. That day comes upon them as a thief because of their own course of action. Men are themselves responsible for that feature of the case, because they will not heed the warning nor believe the message. The Lord’s throne is clear. No man can blame the Lord for any evil destiny which may be his lot.

As a free moral agent, every man is the arbiter of his own destiny. Like the man in the parable who

was questioned why he had come in without a wedding garment, and was speechless, so the wicked, when asked why they have not made preparation for that day concerning which they have been so often warned, will be speechless. But all at last, the righteous willingly and heartily, the wicked, by constraint, will be impelled to join in the reverent ascription to him that sitteth on the throne, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” U. S.