Joel 2:28-32
The Day of the Lord
“And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as the Lord has said,
even among the survivors
whom the Lord calls.
Introduction
Over the next few weeks, I thought it would be good for us to look at some of the chapters of the Bible that we don’t often look at. At the end of the Old Testament, there are a series of books that are known as the Minor Prophets. These are not because they were short people, nor is it truly because their prophecies were short of strength, either. It’s just because when the people who prayed and were moved by the Holy Spirit to create the Canon of the Bible saw the greatness of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and of the Major Prophets and how it related to the coming of Christ, and determined that even though these books were most certainly created by the Holy Spirit and showed God’s power, they were not exactly long. Ergo, why they are called the minor prophets! But even though they are called the minor prophets, they provide a great deal of information to us, not just for understanding God, but also for daily living.
The first of these books that we are going to look at is the book of Joel. It is just past Hosea in the Old Testament, and it’s only 73 verses long. You can read it in about 20 minutes, even taking in the entirety of the message that Joel is providing to the readers. It was written by a man who likely was from the area of the Holy Land just south of Jerusalem, although we are not completely certain. It seems that Joel was an eyewitness to the things that he describes in his writings, but also that he likely was not a priest. We do know that his name is the combination that means Yahweh is God, or the one true God, and that he had a very close, personal relationship with his creator.
Now, some of you may be like me and wonder where in the world these minor prophets books come from, and why they were written. Interestingly enough, many Bible scholars have had a tough time in figuring out exactly when Joel was written. In many of the other books of prophecy, there are often listed the rulers of the time. This is missing from Joel’s book, and we don’t exactly know why. Also, we don’t know if this is the same Joel that is listed in other parts of the Bible, or another preacher that just so happened to be named Joel who was compelled to write about the locust horde that came upon his area. What we can know is that this book shows us the Creator and Redeemer God of all the universe in complete control of nature. Joel makes it clear to us that the God of judgement is also the God of mercy who stands to redeem us and restore when His people come before Him in repentance. Let’s look at this book more closely.
Locusts
We recently had an outburst of cicadas in our area. Many of you remember going down to the Roberts’ new house and hearing them, or going out of the Valley and hearing them. It was an amazing thing to have a hard time hearing other people outside because of how loud the sound was, wasn’t it? Well, something equally as amazing was happening in Joel’s time. We open with the word “hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?” Joel goes on to tell us what was happening at the time: locusts.
Now, some of you know about locusts. They are much worse than cicadas. They are, actually, grasshoppers. Individually, these grasshoppers are not a major threat, and rarely are they a nuisance. But these grasshoppers of this area are known to swarm, and when they do, they consume everything in their path. But there was something peculiar with these locusts that was revealed to Joel by God. The Hebrew word that is used in this place is ar-BEH. This word is the most common word used for locust in the Bible, but it was used to indicate the locust that was used by God to punish the Egyptians when Pharaoh would not let God’s people go. Simply put, this is a punishment by God on His people because they have once again turned away from Him. But God has made a way for His people to repent again. Joel tells the priests to put on sackcloth, and to spend the night at the Temple, fast, and call a sacred assembly. Why is this? Because the devastation is complete and full: not only has there been the devastation of locusts, there have been fires, there have been droughts, and even the livestock is suffering.
You know, sometimes it takes us getting to the lowest point to have our attention pulled to God. And this is what had happened to God’s people! They had turned so far away from God, they had turned to drunkenness, they had turned to sloth, to ease, and to waste. And it is fully within God’s righteousness and power to do such a grand thing to get our attention. You might hear someone say to you, “well, I had this terrible medical condition happen to me. It sure was a sign from God that I had to get things right!” Well, don’t ever discount what they are saying! Even though it is not necessarily the whole fields burnt up, it is a sign that they may need to right something in their lives, and God has used this to do so.
The Day of the Lord
So, what are we to do when God grabs our attention like this? How can we ever be restored when we have turned our backs upon God like the people of Israel have? Now, we know that we are still saved, but just like the Israelites, we backslide. Try as we might, we all are sinners. But God gives us a way to return to Him no matter what. Look at verses 12 and 13. It says “even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” God gives us clear instructions here for what to do when we sin, even as Christians. Return to him with all our heart, with a true humbleness for Him and his ways. Tear your heart up for him, not your garments. This is an interesting statement for us today: of course, we don’t tear out clothes when we are sorrowful, but this was common practice for someone who was mourning, or when they wanted to show repentance. But God does not want this grand gesture from mankind. No, he wants us to bring us the damaged pieces of our hearts to Him so that He can repair it in the only way that He knows how. He is slow to anger, and abounding in love for us, and wants us to come back to Him.
God wants to forgive us our sins. Did you ever stop to think about that? Why else would he have made a way for us to be forgiven if it were not so? We see that Joel calls for the priests to beg on his people’s behalf to spare them. They show in verse 17 for God to “spare your people. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the people, ‘Where is their God?” It is a subtle reminder to God’s people that they do have an inheritance, one that takes on such greater meaning when you look at it through the lense of Christianity. Our inheritance is written by greatly by Paul. He talks about it in many different letters to churches, but in Titus 3:7, he wrote “So that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Our inheritance comes for the Lord, for certain. But it is the inheritance of eternal life at the side of Jesus Christ that we are promised if we follow Him.
And just in Joel’s time, God has pity on us when we turn back to Him. Joel 2:18 says “then the Lord was jealous for his land and took pity on his people.” He tells them that because they have repented, and because they have come back to Him in humbleness, he will bless them. But he promises something even greater to them. Look at the end of this chapter, the verses that we read at the beginning of the sermon. God promises that he will pour out His spirit upon the people. He says that our children will prophesy, and that the old men will dream dreams. God will show the wonders in the heavens and on earth. In other words, they will be filled with the Holy Spirit and be given gifts. But the only way for this to happen is for people to call upon the name of the Lord. In verse 32, it says it plainly: “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.” As one commentator puts it, “escape and survival relate to a faithful response to the Lord.” Our escape and survival that they are talking about is the escape from the sentence of death in our lives because of sin, and the survival of our souls when we accept Jesus into our lives! Because the Day of the Lord is still coming.
A blessing for God’s people
As I was studying for this week’s lesson, I came across a book (big surprise, right?) that was one of my grandfather’s books. It’s titled “The Busy Man’s Old Testament”, and it was written for the man on the go of the 1970s. When we get so busy in our lives, we oftentimes miss the blessings that God is trying to give us, or else miss the signs of warning that God is showing to us, just like the priests and the people were missing in the time of Joel. But God truly does want to bless us. But we have to realize three things before we can be blessed by God as shown through this short book.
First, we have to know that God is in complete control of everything. EVERYTHING. In Joel’s time, it was the drought, the swarm of insects that caused famine, and all the suffering that the people were enduring. We are shown again and again and again that God controls all within this world, and allows things to happen that follows His will. And when we do not follow Him, he allows punishment to happen. When we turn to Him, we are blessed. His values endure, and they are always vindicated.
Second, we must know that the Day of the Lord is still coming. We’ve been studying the millennium viewpoints in Sunday School, and there are many different viewpoints that could be discussed and argued. But what they all believe and what they all show is that no matter what they think what may happen in the time of Revelation, in the very end there will be a judgement by Jesus Christ, and that the final Day of the Lord will come. But those that call upon Jesus’ name will be saved, they will have their name in the Book of Life, and they will be rescued from the eternal damnation that those who do not believe will endure.
Finally, to receive God’s full blessing, we must have a heart that is open to God so that it can receive that Holy Spirit into it. It is only a love for Christ, a true, honest and open love that drives us to WANT to be with Him forever that truly opens us to the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is that love of Christ that brings all people into fellowship with Him.
Conclusion
This book points to a time where the Spirit of God would be present upon all people. This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when Peter proclaimed that the new day of Spirit-filled discipleship, as was foretold by Joel in this small book ,was completed! But it also points to a judgement that all of us face in the end. None of us are able to escape it, much as we would like to try. As one book put it, though, the character of judgement day depends on the attitude of the heart. It may be a day of terror or a day of blessing. Remember that God wants us to bring Him a heart that is rend for Him when we come to Him for forgiveness. He wants a heart that is torn to pieces in sorrow because of what we have done against Him. He wants us to be in that place where we can be forgiven. And you can be forgiven, today, if you only ask for it. Let’s pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment