Untitled Sermon (3)

Intro

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities reported treating cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause. By January 23, 2020, the epicentre of this phenomenon, Wuhan, China, was cut off by Chinese authorities; it is a city of more than 11 million. On January 30, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency. On February 2, the first death outside of China from the unknown disease was reported. Then, on February 11, the virus causing the disease was named: Covid-19. It spread rapidly, and within a month and a half lockdowns and global concern and panic skyrocketed as the case numbers surged. On March 11, the WHO declared a global pandemic.

Here in Alberta, between March 12 and March 19 our world ceased to function as we knew it as schools, workplaces, churches, businesses, and much more simply shutdown, in hopes of containing the spread. So our world, and the world, ground to a halt. Most people, at least, ceased their normal routines in observance of the “stop the spread” mandate that threatened to take lives and leave no one untouched. To date, it is one of the most significant events of our times. The world was invaded by an enemy no larger than .1 micrometers, and it was brought to its knees.

Can you remember a time when the world stopped in such an extraordinary way? What has the power to bring humanity to its knees is such a fashion? Were we just overreacting?

I don’t know if I would say we were overreacting, but either way, I want you to consider. If we responded in such a way to a virus that had the ability at the very worst to take many physical lives, how much more so should we cease our normal routines and cry out before God that He might stop the spread of a far more rampant disease: sin. It threatens not just physical life, but guarantees eternal death. You tell me, what then is the greater enemy?

Today we are going to be looking at Joel 2:1-17. Here Joel gives a warning about the day of the Lord, and asks “who can endure it?” We’ll get to a better understanding of the day of the Lord in a minute, but for the moment let’s read the passage together. xdd

Joel 2:1–17 ESV

Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run. As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it? “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

Joel is writing to the nation of Israel here in this passage. Yet, what is interesting is that dating the book of Joel is hard to do. Some have pegged it before the exile, some during, and some after. Yet it seems the book is intentionally illusive about is date of writing. Why? Because the focus is not supposed to be on what is happening in Joel’s present, but what is coming. It’s an eternal matter - it’s the day of the Lord (Moore, 2020, pp. 124-126). According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, the “Day of the Lord” is “[The] time when God reveals His sovereignty over human powers and human existence.” It transcends all of time, and makes everything that happened in the past seem irrelevant; this event is unprecedented (Moore, 2020, p. 126).

Remember the question I posed before we read this? If we responded in such a way to a virus that had the ability at the very worst to take many physical lives, how much more should we cease our normal activities and cry out to God asking that He might stop the spread of a far more rampant disease of sin. It threatens not just physical life, but guarantees eternal death.

What I want us to grasp today is that

To stand on the day of the Lord you must repent and humbled ourselves before Yahweh.

This is the call of Joel in this passage, to repent and take seriously the Day of the Lord. When it comes, it will be a great calamity! Joel calls out, predicting the end, and saying, “repent, and perhaps God will yet spare us.” He takes it so seriously he advocates a complete cessation of activities. Even the Bride and Groom are to leave their preparations and entreat God. Young and old, men, women, children, doctors, janitors, everyone, is called to stop, turn, and repent.

As we dive into this passage, we will see that we have only two choices: attempt to stand in the day of the Lord on our own and ultimately be destroyed, or repent before God now and entreat Him to shield us from this judgement.

Choice #1: Ignore the Warning.

Let’s start at verse one, let me read it again.

Joel 2:1 ESV

Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,

There’s a warning in Joel as we have seen. It heralds (quite literally) the “Day of the Lord.”

The Day of the Lord is not a new concept to the Old Testament audience.