Sermon Tone Analysis

Appropriate God's MercyBackground Passage

Joel 1:1-3:21

Lesson Passages

Joel 1:15-16; 2:12-13,18,25-32

Lesson Passages Outline

#. Regard God's Warnings (Joel 1:15-16)

#.

Respond to God's Invitation (Joel 2:12-13)

#.

Rejoice in God's Promise (Joel 2:18,25-32)

Biblical Truth

The Lord warns through His Word that sin brings His certain and harsh judgment, and He encourages people to repent and thereby appropriate His mercy.

Life Impact

To help you appropriate God's mercy

Prepare

Disasters often make people think of their relationship to the Lord.

I became a Christian at the age of seventeen.

God had been convicting me of my need of Christ prior to that time.

One night a gas pipeline near our home exploded.

The noise caused me to dream that the Lord was coming, and I knew I was not prepared.

I also knew from God's Word that God judges sin seriously and harshly, and I knew I was a sinner.

Shortly after that, I talked with my pastor and he led me to Christ.

Thank God that a sinner can appropriate God's mercy.

How did God make you aware that you needed to repent of your sins and receive His mercy?

The study of this lesson will help people who need to:

* take seriously God's warning of judgment on sin now and in the future;

* understand the need for repentance and how to repent;

* experience daily the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit and live godly lives;

* love and serve God more and thereby honor His name and enjoy His blessings.

As you study Joel's message of judgment and mercy, focus on ways you can lead adult learners to experience the Life Impact of this lesson by appropriating God's mercy.

As you continue your personal Bible study, prayerfully read the Background Passage and respond to the Study Questions as well as to the questions in the margins for the June 3 lesson in Explore the Bible: Adult Learner Guide.

The Bible in Context (Joel 1:1-3:21)

In Joel's day the people of Judah did not take seriously God's attitude toward sin.

They thought they were safe from judgment because they were Abraham's descendants.

God called Joel to prophesy to the people of Judah—to warn them of God's judgment and to urge them to repent and turn to God.

Judah experienced a devastating plague of locusts and drought.

Locusts in every stage of development invaded the land and destroyed everything in their paths.

God revealed to Joel the locust plague and the drought were His judgment on Judah's sin (Joel 1:1-20).

God made clear to Joel that in addition to the locust plague, Judah soon would experience an invasion from an enemy army.

God would send that army against His people just as He had sent the locust plague.

That invasion also would be a judgment on Judah's sin (Joel 2:1-11).

However, God is not just a God of wrath and punishment.

He is also a God of grace, mercy, and love.

Therefore God offered Judah an opportunity to escape judgment.

He extended an urgent call to repent and to turn to Him.

If the people repented, He would have mercy on them and deliver them from further judgment (Joel 2:12-17).

Whereas God's judgment on Judah was harsh, God's mercy to the people, which was based on their repentance, would include firm assurance of their restoration to God's presence, protection, and provisions.

God also would pour His Holy Spirit on all of them.

The presence of the Holy Spirit would be a sign of God's favor on them and of their continued relationship with Him (Joel 2:18-32).

God also would judge Judah's enemies.

Because He is sovereign over all people and nations, He would bring every nation to judgment for all the wrong they had done, especially all they had done against His people (Joel 3:1-21).

Review the material on the Book of Joel in the Introduction (pp.

8-9).

Joel warned Judah of God's present and coming judgment.

Judah needed to cry out to the Lord and repent of its sins.

Regard God's Warnings (Joel 1:15-16)

15 Woe because of that day!

For the Day of the LORD is near and will come as devastation from the Almighty.

16 Hasn't the food been cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

*Verse 15*.

Joel had called for a personal and national repentance in the house of the Lord (Joel 1:13-14).

Verse 15 may have been the prayer the people were to or did pray.

God revealed the locust plague was a warning or a sign of the Day of the LORD.

[See Exploration: "Day of the LORD," p. 20.] Joel described it as a day of woe.

The Hebrew word translated woe expresses an exclamation of pain.

Judah was in big trouble with God.

The locust plague was a devastation from the Almighty.

The name Almighty is Shaddai, a Hebrew term that carries the idea of power and destruction.

Judah needed to fear the Day of the Lord.

The nation was already suffering from the locust plague.

However, the reference to the Day of the Lord being near was probably a warning of the imminent invasion of an enemy army (2:1-11).

The Day of the Lord is always a possibility, for God can intervene at any time to bring judgment on sin or to bring unusual blessings and deliverance to His people.

Therefore, Joel's prophecy about the Day of the Lord had a specific, current application for Judah as well as a future warning.

The ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy will be at the return of Christ and the final judgment.

The last sentence in this verse might have been a statement the prophets used frequently when they made reference to the Day of the Lord.

*Verse 16*.

The locust plague produced severe conditions in Judah, which are described throughout chapter 1.

The expression before our eyes emphasizes the people watched helplessly as locusts destroyed their food sources.

The land also had experienced a drought.

Joel described the devastation (1:5-12) and declared the famine was proof God was acting in judgment on them.

Because the food supply was cut off, there were no offerings to bring to the house of God.

Therefore, the temple services had ceased.

Through those temple services the people of Judah had maintained fellowship and contact with God.

Being cut off from the temple was proof God was not pleased with the people.

They had lost the joy and gladness they usually experienced in the temple festivities.

They were learning that God brings certain judgment on His people's sins.

However, not all natural disasters are necessarily God's judgment on sin.

Luke 13:1-5 and John 9:2-3 provide help on this subject.

The passage in Luke describes a judgment of God on sin; the passage in John does not.

At times of disaster we need to look for the hand of God and ask Him what His message to us is.

Also, God can use adverse circumstances to warn us of wrong directions or activities in our lives and of our need to turn back to Him.

How do you view times of catastrophe in your life or in the lives of other believers?

What have these times taught you about God?

Respond to God's Invitation (Joel 2:12-13)

12 Even now—

[this is] the LORD's declaration—

turn to Me with all your heart,

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

13 Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the LORD your God.

For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster.

God warned Judah of judgment but revealed His mercy in His invitation to repent.

Joel 2 begins with God's command to the watchman on the wall to blow his horn, warning Judah the Day of the Lord was coming.

Verses 2-11 tell what that day would be like.