Fresh Start
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23 Children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, because he will give you the early rain as a sign of righteousness; he will pour down abundant rain for you, the early and the late rain, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be full of grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and fresh oil.
25 I will repay you for the years that the cutting locust, the swarming locust, the hopping locust, and the devouring locust has eaten— my great army, which I sent against you.
26 You will eat abundantly and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for you; and my people will never again be put to shame.
27 You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God— no other exists; never again will my people be put to shame.
28 After that I will pour out my spirit upon everyone; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
29 In those days, I will also pour out my spirit on the male and female slaves.
30 I will give signs in the heavens and on the earth—blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
32 But everyone who calls on the Lord’s name will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be security, as the Lord has promised; and in Jerusalem, the Lord will summon those who survive.
Fresh Start
Fresh Start
Judy Viorst wrote a wonderful children’s story about a little boy named Alexander and his terrible, horrible, no good, terrible day. I really love that story, it’s just a short read, but I can relate to him at times. The story opens with these words:
I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning, I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
At breakfast Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box, but in my breakfast cereal box all I found was breakfast cereal.
I think I’ll move to Australia. [1]
Poor Alexander, his day did not get any better, it seemed to go from bad to worse. When he finally gets in bed he says “It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. My mom says some days are like that. Even in Australia” [1]
I bet Alexander would like to have had a fresh start to that day. Have you ever had one of those days? It’s ok to raise your hands!
Have you ever felt like you were at the end of the rope? Feeling like there was no more hope, that you couldn’t go on?
If there ever were a group of people were at the end of their rope and that hope seemed to be lost it would have been Israel. They needed a fresh start with God.
A majority of theologians believe that Joel was the last to prophesy before that period of silence before the birth of Jesus. If that is the case, the people are back in Judah and Jerusalem. The temple has been rebuilt and worship is happening.
The problem is that they have been living during a time of drought and a locust invasion. Life seemed hopeless as the people struggled to feed their families and livestock.
I was really excited as I thought about this passage for today. These verses are a hope filled message of what God is going to do. I agree that these verses were for Isreal but also for us today.
These verses speak about the abundance of of God’s blessings. Look at verse 23
Joel 2:23 (CEB)
23 Children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, because he will give you the early rain as a sign of righteousness; he will pour down abundant rain for you, the early and the late rain, as before.
Earlier in this chapter is a call for repentance and returning to God. I don’t know if you ever noticed this before, but throughout the Bible there are scenes of God calling people to relationship with Him. From Genesis to Revelation, God is calling.
When sin first entered the world, God was there calling Adam back into a relationship with him.
9 The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
Where are you? I remember when I had walked away from God and hearing God calling me with very similar words. Have you experienced that?
All the way to the very end of the Bible God has been calling people into relationship with Him. There are only 4 more verses after this next until the final punctuation mark is made in Revelation.
17 The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who is thirsty come! Let the one who wishes receive life-giving water as a gift.”
Even when the end comes, God will still be calling to people to come to Him.
The people of Israel needed the intervention of God. It had been tough going due to the lack of rain and God says there in verse 23
he will give you the early rain as a sign of righteousness; he will pour down abundant rain for you, the early and the late rain, as before.
The early rain is that spring time rain when the crops are planted. The rain is needed for that germination process. Joel wrote that it would be a sign of righteousness.
That word used there from the Hebrew language means “right-relatedness” or “proper order.” The Egyptian language had a similar word and that word means “right order in nature and society, as established by the act of creation, and hence means, according to the context, what is right, what is correct, law, order, justice and truth.” [2]
This righteousness is covenant language. This righteousness is a sign of the covenant of God and to His people.
There are blessings associated with this righteousness, of this covenant relationship with God.
Joel prophesied that there would be early rain and late rain. That is the entire growing season. Spring-time and harvest time. There would be abundant rain.
Look at verse 24
24 The threshing floors will be full of grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and fresh oil.
That was only going to be possible because of what God is doing and is going to do for them. I don’t believe that this is only to be interpreted in a real physical sense, I believe there is a spiritual application as well.
Our threshing floors, meaning our lives, can be covered with dirt and waste, the meager crumbs of life. The vats of our lives can be full of vinegar or empty rather than filled with the choicest wines. God has not meant for us to live with meager supplies. God has promised us blessings upon blessings
There is a hymn in our hymn book that has this verse:
There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain. - D.W. Whittle
The scriptural inspiration for this song is found in Ezekiel 34:26
26 I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.
Those blessings were not just a one time event. God said there that He would send down showers in season. God in Joel wasn’t going to just bless them one time and be done. He said there in the later part of verse 26 said
Joel 2:26 (CEB)
26 my people will never again be put to shame.
This again is a demonstration of covenant language. Again God is calling them His people.
What was the purpose of this blessing of rain? Was it just so that the people would have full stomachs, storage barns, and wine vats?
To often we think that God’s blessings are in a materialistic sense. That is not the truth. God’s goal is something greater. Dr Lloyd Ogilvie wrote:
The picture is one of restoration to health as whole people and as a healthy community, which depends on a righteous relationship with the Lord. It is a complete orientation around the Lord who is in their midst
Jesus brought this idea when talking about worry. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
This is a radical reorientation of our lives. Out of the abundance of God we will praise for the wonders He has done for us. All to often we forget to praise God. We forget to give Him the praise He deserves.
Are you alive and doing well today? Praise the Lord!
Do you have enough to pay to fill your fuel oil tanks? Praise the Lord!
Do you have enough food for today? Praise the Lord!
Do you have enough to pay your bills? Praise the Lord!
Did you get a deer? Praise the Lord!
Did you catch a fish? Praise the Lord!
Were you able to share Jesus with someone? Praise the Lord!
Even in the bad days when it seems like Alexander in that story and you are having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Praise the Lord!
Job got it right when he said Job 1:21 “21 He said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb; naked I will return there. The Lord has given; the Lord has taken; bless the Lord’s name.””
Praising God is a preventative measure of slipping into a wow is me type of thinking. The Imperials had a song many years ago with these words:
Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him
Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praise
Praise the Lord, for the chains that seems to bind you
Serve only to remind you that they drop powerless behind you
When you praise Him
Look at the result of their praise.
27 You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God— no other exists; never again will my people be put to shame.
You will know. Stop there and think about that for a moment. You will know because God has blessed abundantly and you praised Him. You will know. God then announces what they will know.
I am in the midst of Israel. That is presence. God is their midst.
I am the Lord your God. That is the same language God used in the 1st of the 10 Commandments. Exod 20:2 “2 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
God continues by saying I am the Lord your God - no other exits. God had said Exod 20:3 “3 You must have no other gods before me.”
What was the primary sin that plagued Israel? Idolatry, worshipping Baal and other gods of their neighbors. God had said that they “must have no other gods before me.”
God had said that never again would the people be put to shame. However, that anticipated a faithful response of the people that God is God and there are no others. The invitation here to to be witnesses of God’s faithfulness in the world. This is the invitation to us. Praise and worshipping God and living out that covenant relationship we have with Him.
Joel then transitions from immediate promises to a longer view of God’s promise. God is still speaking and He says:
28 After that I will pour out my spirit upon everyone; your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
One pastor wrote:
St. Paul asked the Ephesian Christians, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit...?" They answered, "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." A pastor assigned his Confirmation class the memorization of the Apostles’ Creed. At the next class, he asked one of them to give the first article, "I believe in God the Father ..." Then a second recited, "I believe in Jesus Christ ..." He called for the third article, but there was silence. Then one of the pupils explained, "The boy who believes in the Holy Ghost is absent!" When it comes to the Spirit, he may be absent from many of us. [3]
We are to be a prophetic people. The Holy Spirit is given for all of us, the young and old, the slaves and free, everyone.
This is the fresh start that Joel prophesied and that found its fruition on the Day of Pentecost. That word “pour” is the same word that was used earlier about the rain. God will “pour down abundant rain.” “I will pour out my spirit.” This pouring of rain was abundant. The pouring of the Holy Spirit was an abundant pouring of the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, He overflowed from those in that upper room out into the streets and thousands came to faith in Jesus!
This pouring out of the Holy Spirit will have a dramatic impact on the individual as well as community. We very frequently talk about our personal relationship with God which is great, however, for the Israelites, the thought in terms of community. What is the goal of being filled with the Holy Spirit? Is it just to benefit us? Should it not be for the benefit of the community.
We need people to prophesy. It is that forth-telling of the Gospel. Pray for the gift of Prophesy.
We need people to dream dreams of what God wants us to do.
We need people to have visions of how God is going to accomplish through us what he wants.
We are in the last days. Jesus is coming again. We need to pay attention to the signs in the heavens above and the earth below.
What is the purpose of this?
One commentator wrote:
The Message of Joel, Micah and Habakkuk: Listening to the Voice of God 3. I Will Pour out My Spirit (2:28–32)
The gift of the Spirit was not to be for personal satisfaction, or even for national recovery and stability. It was to strengthen the people of God to take up a position of prophetic leadership26 among the nations in a world heading for an apocalyptic day of final reckoning.
The coming of the Holy Spirit is about power. To receive the Holy Spirit is to receive power which can be seen in words and deeds. The coming of the Spirit is the coming of Power to be witnesses of all that Jesus has done.
Joel wrote in the first part of verse 32:
Joel 2:32 (CEB)
32 But everyone who calls on the Lord’s name will be saved
Paul used the same language when he wrote Rom 10:12-13 “12 There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord is Lord of all, who gives richly to all who call on him. 13 All who call on the Lord’s name will be saved.”
Do you need a fresh start today? Do you need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit who was prophesied by Joel and fulfilled on the day of Pentecost is the same Spirit that is still being poured out on His people.
We may have the Spirit, but we still need to be filled with him. We can never get enough of the Spirit. In an English church there is a bronze plaque on the very place where William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was converted and received the Spirit. During World War II, an American soldier visited the church and walked to the spot. After meditating a while, he softly and earnestly prayed, "Lord, do it again! Do it again!" [3]
[1] Viorst J. & Cruz R. (1972). Alexander and the terrible horrible no good very bad day ([First edition.]). Atheneum.
[2] Ringgren, H., & Johnson, B. (2003). צָדַק. In G. J. Botterweck & H.-J. Fabry (Eds.), & D. W. Stott (Trans.), Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Revised Edition, Vol. 12, p. 240). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[3] Brokhoff, J. (n.d.). Joel 2:28-32 - the spirit - for me too? Sermons.com. Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://www.sermons.com/sermon/the-spirit-for-me-too/1341857