Joel 2:1-27
Notes
Transcript
Intro/Background
Last week we started our 3 week mini series through the OT book of Joel
We don’t know a whole lot about the prophet. We don’t know when it was written, or anything about him except for his name.
What we do know is that Joel wrote his prophecy during a time of great disaster - a plague of locust had eaten all of the wheat and the grain and the fruit, effectively destroying the food supply of the nation and plunging them into economic crisis
We also know that Joel served the southern kingdom of Judah, not the northern kingdom of Israel
If you remember, last week we discussed that the book of Joel has 3 different lenses for us to study it through
We can study this book historically, prophetically, as well as personally
Joel wrote historically. He wrote about a real period of time with real suffering due to a real locust plague that had struck
He wrote prophetically. Joel used the current plague of locust to write about a yet future event that would be even more devastating, the Day of the Lord, which we’ll discuss more about this morning.
Joel also writes for us personally. We can take what he says and apply it to our own walks.
This morning we’ll really start to get into those multiple lenses as one minute Joel will be talking about something that was current in his time (history to us), but very much what his people were currently facing.
But in the same breath he’ll switch to talk about something future and in moments, be talking about both
In the OT, there are 16 books of prophecy from Isaiah to Malachi, excluding the book of Lamentations that Jeremiah wrote.
Those books speak of current events, near future events, the first coming of Christ, as well as His second coming
Its easy when you’re reading through these books to get confused as to what period of time the prophecy is referring to
You think about the disciples during the time of Jesus. So many prophecies in the OT about the promised Messiah spoke both of suffering and of glory. Most of the people assumed that the Messiah would come in glory, so when Jesus came on the scene, they thought He was going to set up an kingdom on earth, not suffer and die
They didn’t understand that there are two distinct comings to earth of Jesus, His first coming and the yet future 2nd coming
It was only after He came and died and rose again that their eyes were opened and they were able to clearly see what the OT prophets were referring to
The same principal will apply as we read. A lot of very smart theologians and scholars have studied these words in Joel and think they have a good idea of what they’re talking about
We’re going to talk about those this morning and I’ll let you know where I lean in interpreting this book
But some things are a bit more vague and we’re not entirely clear
We’ll still do our best to study it together and see what the Lord has to say to us, and then we’ll make application to our lives to see how it should impact the way we live
Lesson - Joel 2
Verses 1 & 2
Here we see that Joel starts to use the current plague of locust that had already hit to compare to a coming devastation, the day of the Lord
Chapter 1 tells us the plague had already happened - Joel is speaking historically
Chapter 2 tells us the day of the Lord is coming - here’s the prophetic look at things that are yet to come
So what is the day of the Lord?
We covered it briefly last week, but that phrase refers to the timeline surrounding the yet future 2nd coming of Jesus to the earth
The exact phrase “the Day of the Lord” is mentioned 26 times in the Bible in 14 different books from Isaiah in the OT to 2 Peter in the NT
It doesn’t describe a singular day, but a span of time where God is going to step in and intervene in history to accomplish His ultimate plan
It’s cool that we’ve been going through the book of Genesis b/c so many foundational truths of our faith are covered there.
We learned through Genesis that God originally created the world in perfection, and then He created human kind in His image to have a relationship with Him - that was His original intent
He also created us with free will b/c He wanted that relationship to be genuine, not forced
But in our free will, sin got in the way and so God had His plan of redemption through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross to take the consequence that sin deserved
Now He offers us forgiveness from our sins and an opportunity to join His family again, but in a broken world.
Sin and evil still exist.
God wants to restore that perfect world and bring a final end to sin and death, but to do so will require Him to step into history and act
That is what the day of the Lord is - that action that He will take to bring a final end to sin & death
What does that intervention look like?
There are a lot of different views on this w/in the church.
The study of this is called “eschatology”, or a study of what we’d call the “end times”
B/c the description of what happens comes from OT prophecies, which we already discussed is presented through multiple lenses and can be hard to interpret, as well as from different books in the NT, especially in the book of Revelation which is full of imagery, it can lead to different thoughts, as well as a lot of misinterpretation or people just ignoring it b/c it seems too hard to understand
But we’re called to be students of the word, so ignoring it is not what we should do
Jesus tells us to be a watchful and wakeful servants
Watchful = looking and waiting for the return of Christ
42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Wakeful = not ignoring the fact that Jesus is coming back, but being busy about the Master’s business
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
We’re also called to rightly divide the word of truth in 2nd Timothy - learn proper theology or what the Bible says so we can grow and mature in our faith. It’s important
What does this look like then?
There are a lot of different views on this - some people believe that all Bible end times are symbolic, or that they refer to different events in history like Jerusalem being destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman army, but those views fail to take the Bible literally, at its face value.
As Christians, we have to interpret the Bible literally. If we start to go down the road of spiritualizing everything, we open ourselves up to all kinds of different interpretations - you can shape scripture to fit your own thoughts or desires.
Jesus took scripture literally. 2 Timothy 3 tells us to rightly handle the word. The disciples took Jesus’ words literally.
Yes, there are parables and figures of speech in scripture, but we can’t leave the Bible up to our own interpretation
That literal interpretation should also apply to our view of eschatology
When you take scripture as literal, it gives us what the day of the Lord looks like
The 3 big points that we consider are Jesus’ second coming, the millennial reign of Christ (Jesus setting up an earthly kingdom) as found in Revelation 20, and then God bringing a final judgement on Satan and finishing off sin and death, leading to a perfect eternity with Him
There are 3 major views on how the timing of all of that comes together.
Postmillennialism - show timeline
This view states that the preaching of the gospel will be so successful that everyone will be converted and God’s kingdom will be created on earth by Christians, then Jesus will come back
You see this view in those of the New Apostolic Reformation or in dominion theology - this over emphasis of creating God’s kingdom through government that are both growing rapidly in the church in America
I can tell you that if you just look at the world around you, we can see things aren’t getting better. Our world isn’t getting closer to becoming all Christian.
And the Bible is very clear that our hope isn’t in this earth, our hope is in heaven and eternity with Christ
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Jesus also said that they days would grow darker and darker leading up to His return in Matthew 24 - another portion of scripture that directly contradicts this view
Amillennialism - show timeline
This view says that the millennial reign of Christ is right now, but the “1,000 years” is more symbolic than a literal period of time. The Kingdom of God is the church on earth.
Then Jesus will come back and usher in eternity.
Kind of like postmillennialism, but it doesn’t teach that Christians will make Jesus come back or that the world will be in this perfect Christian state before the 2nd coming
Those like Augustine and John Calvin were amillennialists
This view starts to walk down the road of not interpreting the Bible literally, and it has difficulty explaining the details in Revelation 20
It isn’t outright disproven like postmillennialism is, but I don’t think there’s enough evidence to support it
Premillennialism - show timeline
This view says that the 1,000 year reign of Jesus is yet future, and it will come after what are called the rapture of the church and the 7 year tribulation spoken of in Revelation, and then Jesus will usher in eternity
This view is the most literal interpretation of scripture, and is the most commonly held in the church. We here at Calvary are premillennialists
This view is easily supported by scripture like what we just read in Joel 2 - that a terrible time is coming, a time of gloominess and darkness that has never been seen or ever will be seen again
The Day of the Lord is then speaking of the 7-year tribulation on earth culminating in Christ’s return to earth
Why is this day coming?
Well, like I mentioned earlier, God desires a relationship with His children, and He desires it to be in perfection
And while God is perfectly loving, He is also perfectly just
His death on the cross has given us the offer of forgiveness from our sins, but its not an automatic covering. Not everyone is forgiven just b/c Jesus died, that’s not a relationship b/c that takes away our free will. We have to choose to come to Jesus
But I’ve been chosen, predestined!
Yes, God, in His foreknowledge, knew you’d choose to follow Him, so He chose you first. But you weren’t chosen against your will. There has to be free will
B/c there is free will, many people will not choose to follow Him. There still has to be a consequence, justice for the evil that is done and not forgiven by Jesus
God isn’t willing that any should perish (2 Pet 3:9), but that all should come to repentance, but that won’t happen for everyone
Think about it this way, if you were God and you saw every single sin ever done. You saw all of the pain and suffering, the evil and death, the injustices and slavery done to people.
AND, not only did you see the evil, but you knew the thoughts and intents of every person’s heart, man, that’s a lot of evil!
As a just God, there needs to be justice for those sins if you aren’t forgiven by Jesus
That’s what the Tribulation is, when God gives the unbelieving earth the punishment for its sin and evil
Daniel 9 tells us its a period of 7 years to bring an end to sin and bring in everlasting righteousness
How will that all go down?
I encourage you to dive into the book of Revelation if you’re interested more in this, we actually have a commentary on that book in our bookstore I recommend, but we’ll do a super high level overview of the details of the Day of the Lord
Starts with the rapture
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Believers will be caught up, or snatched (Greek word harpazo which is translated as rapturo in the Latin, where we get our word rapture from) from this world and we’ll be with Jesus in heaven
There are different views on this. Some would consider themselves mid-tribulational (the rapture happens during the middle of the 7 year tribulation), others say they’re post-tribulational (it happens at the end), but here at Calvary we teach a pre-tribulational rapture (it happens before the tribulation) due to 1 Thess 5:9 among other scripture
Then the great tribulation will start with the antichrist will solve the crisis in the middle east and set up a peace treaty with Israel and allow them to start construction of a third Jewish temple (Daniel 9)
Think about it. If a world leader was able to solve the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, and allow for both a Jewish temple and a Muslim shrine to exist on the temple mount in Jerusalem, they would be a Nobel Prize winning leader that a lot in the world would be willing to follow. Maybe even seen as a messiah (savior) of the world
Especially if the world is in chaos after the disappearance of millions of Christians
For the first 3 1/2 years, the antichrist will seem like a world unifier (who still hates God and any who convert to Christianity during the tribulation), but 1/2 way through the 7 years he is going to break the peace treaty with Israel, set up what’s called the abomination of desolation in the new temple, and demand to be worshipped as god (Mark 13:14 & Daniel 9:27)
Then he’ll wage war against the Jewish people (Rev 13)
During the tribulation, God will pour out His judgement through what are called the 7 seal judgements, the 7 trumpet judgements, and the 7 bowl judgements
This will be a time of chaos where things like warfare, famine, and plagues happen. There will be natural disasters like a massive earthquake, a fiery meteor strike, freshwater becoming undrinkable, the sun and moon going dark, and intense heart. Even supernatural events like a plague of demonic locust who torment mankind will strike the earth
That is why Joel says it is a dark and terrible day
At the end of it all, the nations of the world will gather together in Israel in the Valley of Meggido for the Battle of Armageddon
At that point, Jesus will come back to earth with us following, defeat His enemies, and establish an earthly kingdom for 1,000 years where we get to rule and reign with Him
At the end of the millennial reign, God will judge Satan and banish him to the lake of fire, then usher in eternity in a new heaven & new earth
When will it happen?
2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
Jesus would say that no man knows the day or the hour
That is the Day of the Lord
Joel goes on to give us that multi-lensed picture in verse 3
Verses 3-11
Crazy how many of the judgements I just mentioned are alluded to here by Joel.
He calls that time great and very terrible, who can endure it?” in verse 11
22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
This is a terrible, terrible time in history
Jesus told us to pray for this time though - “You’re kingdom come”
Even though this will be a time of intense darkness, it will lead to a time of perfection with no more sin, no more pain, no more hurt or suffering. That is what our hearts should long for
Verses 12-17
Tomorrow is the 22nd anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks in our country.
Churches across the country were packed following those terrible attacks.
But they didn’t stay packed
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down and we were all on lockdown at home, we livestreamed our church services here and we had so many people tune in
That Easter, our little church had over 1,000 online views from our livestream service. One church in America said they had over 1M online views that Easter
The world was looking to God in a time of crisis
But that didn’t last
So many times, when we’re faced with crisis, whether it be a national crisis like those moments, or a theological one like hearing about the coming day of the Lord, or even a personal one where you go through your own tribulation like intense stress or anxiety, sickness, loss, personal tragedy, our first reaction is to turn to the Lord
But we can do it in appearance and not in heart. We can cry out to the Lord or go to church b/c its the right thing to do, but our hearts aren’t given over to the Lord
The Jewish people, when they would have a tragedy strike, it was customary to tear your garments, rip our outer cloak that you’d wear
That doesn’t really make sense to us, but think of it as an ancient way of wearing black to a funeral, its just custom
Sometimes our “religiosity” can be just that, a religious custom
It’s interesting, the Hebrew word for rend in vs 13 is the word קָרַע -qâraʻ, (keh-rah) which literally means to cut or to tear
Instead of tearing your clothes, cut your hearts
6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
That physical ritual of circumcision God gave His people was symbolic of what He really wanted, a heart that has been changed, a heart that has had the selfish desires cut away, a heart that has been torn away from self-governance and self-rule and given over to the King of kings to rule
So God tells His people here, “Give me your hearts, not your garments”
God cares more about your heart than your outward expressions
Yes, a changed and soft heart will naturally produce those godly outward expressions, but if we turn to God in a moment of suffering or personal tribulation and its just a ritual, nothing will truly change
He wants our hearts laid bare and opened up before Him
For us to hit that place of true, 100% surrender where we just tell God, “whatever You want in my life, I’m Yours, I trust You Jesus.
What’s wonderful about the Lord is that He is gracious and merciful. He is kind and patient with us.
We don’t turn our hearts to the Lord b/c He is demanding, we turn to Him b/c He is good.
Notice verse 15 tells the people to blow the trumpet and gather the people to fast and worship the Lord
It didn’t matter who you were or what you were doing
Gather the kids, even the babies, gather the elders, go get the bridegroom and the bride even, there is no time to wait
Turning to the Lord was more important than anything else they could do
The trumpet here and in vs 1 is what’s know as the shofar, which was a ram’s horn
Pastor Eric has one from Israel that’s in his office - show trumpet
This was a trumpet that the priests would use to get everyone’s attention
They’d use it to announce important news, to kick off the start of a religious feast, or to summon the troops for war
When you heard that trumpet sound, you knew that it was important
This morning, if you’re here, and you’ve never given your heart to the Lord, this is important, there is no time to wait
Tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us. The Day of the Lord could come at any time.
It doesn’t matter if you think you’re too young or too old, or you have other things to do or accomplish first before you settle down and then turn to Him, today is the day of salvation
Today is the day to turn to Him. B/c He is good and gracious
B/c He took the burden of being religious or perfect away and said, “I just want your heart”
B/c He can cleanse us from all of our guilt and shame from our sin and failures and shortcomings
Verses 18-27
Our multi-lensed view comes back into the picture here
Historically
God is telling His people, the nation of Judah, that if they repent of their sin and from following false gods which they had done and which had led to this locust plague, He would restore their nation
The locust would go away, the land would be healed and not left decimated
Prophetically
During that great tribulation period, one of the major things that happens is the antichrist will make war both against the saints, those people who turn to Jesus and become Christians during that time, and make war against Israel
Jesus had warnings to His people about that time
14 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let him who is on the housetop not go down into the house, nor enter to take anything out of his house. 16 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 17 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 18 And pray that your flight may not be in winter. 19 For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be.
When the peace treaty to kick off the tribulation is broken and the antichrist demands to be worshipped, the Jews will say no and he will wage war on them
But at the end, God will restore their land, and they will realize that Jesus really is their long expected Messiah, and they will turn to Him
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”
God is not done with His people. His covenant that He established with Abraham did not end b/c the people killed Jesus, it was an unconditional covenant.
If you remember, Genesis 15 told us of this covenant ceremony that God did while Abraham was sleeping to show Abraham that it was God’s unconditional promise that was based on Him and Him alone
The church hasn’t replaced Israel, God still has a time of restoration for His chosen people
Personally
Last week we talked about how every single one of us will experience our own personal trials and sufferings.
As followers of Jesus, we’re not exempt from difficult times. We don’t live under this false American prosperity gospel that says God will bless you with health and wealth if you are just faithful to Him
The rain falls on both the righteous and the wicked
You may have faced difficult times b/c of the consequence of sin, or b/c of something another person did to you. You might have been sick or endured a hardship b/c of living in a fallen world where disease and death happens. You may have gone through a season of spiritual famine as your faith was being tested or tried
God has a wonderful word to say to you this morning - He can restore those years the locust has eaten
God is so faithful that He can restore the years where the fruit in our lives had dried up
Some of you might be examples of that. You look at your life before Jesus and it was a mess. There was so much pain and heartache. They were wasted years
But you turned to the Lord and He has done such a redemptive work in your life
He doesn’t restore the years time wise - you don’t get more time, but He restores the fruit of those years
Charles Spurgeon said of this verse, “You cannot have back your time; but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours.”
If that’s you and you feel you are in a dry season that the locust have destroyed, or you have wasted fruit from walking down your own road and serving the false gods of self or money or relationships.
If the enemy has gotten a foothold into your life and left destruction in his path
Your call is to rend your heart, to turn to the Lord
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Seek the Lord, b/c He is gracious and loving
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Turn to Jesus and get rid of your heavy load you are carrying, b/c His burden is easy, His load is light
Rend your heart to the Lord and allow Him to restore and redeem those years the locust have eaten
Close & Pray