Joel
Major Messages From the Minor Prophets • Sermon • Submitted
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· 64 viewsAn overview of the book of Joel
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This morning we are going to continue on with our summer series Major Messages From the Minor Prophets by looking at one of the shortest books of the Old Testament, the book of Joel
Joel has only 3 chapters in it and a total of only 1447 words in it
In spite of that if you have spent any amount of time in a Pentecostal church than you are very familiar with the prophet Joel
Or at least with his prophecy regarding the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
“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.
Joel 2:28-29
But this small book is about so much more than just this one passage and so this morning I want to give you an overview of Joel, one chapter at a time
Before we do that let me help you put it into context with the other books we’ve already looked at
We don’t know a lot about the man himself, in fact the only place that his name occurs in all of the Old Testament is in verse 1 of this book about his ministry
The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
In spite of that we can compare the events of his book to what we know about history and can conclude that he prophesied around 800 B.C. shortly after Judah was devastated by a plague of locusts
This would place him a few years after the death of Jonah and right around the same time as Amos who also spoke about the locusts
Unlike Amos though the ministry of Joel was focused on the southern kingdom of Judah in general and the city of Jerusalem to be more specific
Joel is also a nice follow up to the book of Amos because after the hard message laid down by Amos (check last week’s sermon if you’re not sure what I’m talking about) the overwhelming theme throughout the book of Joel is that God desires our repentance, not our destruction
Let me say that again, God desires our Repentance, NOT our destruction
I’m pretty sure that Peter had recently read the book of Joel when he penned his second epistle and said,
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
2 Peter 3:9-10
So let’s begin with chapter 1 which I have subtitled, Wake Up!
Immediately after his introduction Joel gets right to business by reminding the people of the recent swarm of locusts that left the land so barren that even the trees had no bark on them
In verse 4 he uses 4 different Hebrew words for the word locusts leading many scholars to believe that this swarm of locusts was actually four waves of locusts, one after the other until there was literally nothing left
You know that I love watching documentaries and I have started watching a series from the BBC called Planet Earth
In an episode I watched recently they document a swarm of locusts 40 miles wide devouring everything in their path eating hundreds of tonnes of vegetation every day
This would have been small potatoes compared to what Judah experienced and Joel wastes no time in explaining that this catastrophe was God’s judgement upon the people and that they didn’t seem to care
So Joel lays out 3 actions for the people
First in verse 5 he tells them to wake up and see things the way that they really are
Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
for it has been snatched from your lips.
A nation has invaded my land,
a mighty army without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
the fangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vines
and ruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their bark
and thrown it away,
leaving their branches white.
Joel 1:5
Joel lets the people know that their beloved nation is going to hell right before their eyes and they don’t even realize it
They needed to take the blinders off and see things as they really were, and so do we
We can’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend any more, our nation is no longer a Christian nation, we have turned away from the things of God and followed our own way
Secondly Joel told the people to mourn
Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
Joel 1:
He calls the nation, or at those who would heed his words, to recognize what was happening and to despair over the condition, to take it to heart to take it personally
Interestingly in verse 12 he says,
The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
is withered away.
The things were all symbols that were often used to describe the blessing of the relationship between God and Israel
Yes there was a literal translation to this but there was a bigger spiritual translation, The enemy had come in and robbed the people of their special relationship and that was worth crying over
Thirdly after they woke up and mourned Joel told them to repent
Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.
Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
Joel 1:13-
In 2 Chronicles we have the story of Solomon building the temple in Jerusalem and immediately after it is finished and dedicated God appears to the king
2 Chronicles 7:12-14
the Lord appeared to him at night and said:
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Now let me take you to the New Testament, to the words of Christ in
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
It’s time for the people of God to wake up and realize what has been taken from us by the thief because as chapter 2 is about to show us the time is coming when it will be too late to repent and take back what is rightfully ours in Jesus Christ
So let’s look at chapter 2 which I have subtitled “All Your Heart”
It begins with a warning about the inevitable and fast approaching day of reckoning
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
Using the recent locust plague Joel warns of an even greater judgement to come unless the people do something to avoid it
He calls for the blowing of the shophar, the ceremonial trumpet which was also used to signal imminent danger and was a call to battle
So what was it that they could do to avoid such a terrible fate? Simple:
“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.
Joel 2:12-13
God is not looking for an outward legalistic type of faith but He is looking for a people that will love Him with all their “HEART” mind, soul and body
The writer of Hebrews put it this way,
Hebrews 10:19-2
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
So after explaining what would happen if God’s people don’t turn to Him with their whole heart, Joel goes on to explain what will happen if they do with God’s response
Joel 2:18
(NASB95)
Then the Lord was jealous for his land
and took pity on his people.
Deliverance Promised
18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land
And will have pity on His people.
Joel 2:25-
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
It is only after all of this process that we come across these other verses that we read earlier that are quoted by every “good” Pentecostal
Joel 2:28-29
“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.
This is the “day of the Lord” in which we now live
A day that is both fulfilled and yet to come as we will now see in chapter 3 subtitled “The valley of decision”
The first thing we see about the day of judgement that is still yet to come is that God will judge the nations and the criteria for this judgement will be how they dealt with His chosen people, Israel
Joel 3:1-
“In those days and at that time,
when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all nations
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I will put them on trial
for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel,
because they scattered my people among the nations
and divided up my land.
They cast lots for my people
and traded boys for prostitutes;
they sold girls for wine to drink.
Make no mistake that the books are still open and the recording angel is still taking notes for the promise of is still very much in effect
Genesis 12:1-
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
And after He has finished with His judgement on those who have done wrong to His people, God will, for all of eternity make things right
Joel 3:16-
The Lord will roar from Zion
and thunder from Jerusalem;
the earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.
“Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy;
never again will foreigners invade her.
“In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk;
all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
and will water the valley of acacias.
Judah will be inhabited forever
and Jerusalem through all generations.
Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?
No, I will not.”
The Lord dwells in Zion!
Joel 3:20-21
Wow, I have thrown a lot at you this morning
You probably never imagined that such a short little book contained so much stuff
From the swarm of locusts in roughly 845 B.C. right up to the new Jerusalem where God will reign for all of eternity
But in the meantime there are battles to be won, there is an enemy that needs to be put in place and there is a nation of Canada that needs to hear what we have to say
Next week we look at Hosea
Let’s pray