End Times- God's Timing and Ours(2)

Purpose: To show how understanding the Day of the Lord can bring joyful gratitude to the fulfillment we presently experience in Christ, and joyful anticipation of more to come.

Day of the Lord: The occasion of God’s final intervention in human affairs to punish sin, restore the faithful of his people and establish his rule over the nations. It is linked with the Messianic hope and will be fulfilled at Jesus Christ’s return.

This “Day of the Lord” is a part of the Last Days in which we currently live.

This was Israel’s first experience of the day of the Lord (Joel 2:1, 11), a day which did not exempt God’s own people (His by birth but not obedience) from judgment. By studying the prophecy of Joel, we will deepen our grasp not only of how Jesus inaugurated the end times but also of how much more we should anticipate the full realization of the Day of the Lord.

Read: Joel 2: 11-17

The day of the Lord WILL usher in God’s judgement

2 National repentance was appropriate for a nation-church like Israel under the old covenant. In what ways should the Lord’s people today express their repentance now that the church and the state cannot be completely identified?

Is it that difficult to distinguish between the church and the state? I don’t think so. It is still appropriate to call this nation to repentance.

But while repentance should be a continual call for the church (Agree/Disagree?),

There HAVE BEEN numerous calls by “state leaders (e.g. Presidents, senators, mayors, etc.).

Continental Congress, March 16, 1776:

Continental Congress, First National Day of Thanksgiving on November 1, 1777 included:

John Adams, our second President, proclaimed May 9, 1798 a day of solemn fasting and prayer. The United States was on the verge of war with France:

Lincoln Proclamation on March 30, 1863: “… we have forgotten God…we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own…It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the Offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

Just a few examples. But contemporary calls by political leaders for repentance seem few.

In line with Obadiah, who believed the Day had come, Joel sees in the plague of locusts a preliminary manifestation of that day.

Judgment had come first to God’s household (1 Pet 4:17).

1 Peter 4:17 (LSB) For it is time for judgment to begin with the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

Luke 12:47–48 (LSB) “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many beatings, 48 but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a beating, will receive but a few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

It is the “even now” (v. 12) of God’s timing.

If they respond appropriately, God’s people will face a blissful future untroubled by the terror to be experienced by the rest of the nations.

The difference between the Lord’s people and the other nations is the covenant relationship (he is your God), which is presupposed in the call to repentance.

As Leslie Allen says, “The prophets often presuppose that the proclamation and inauguration of punishment for God’s people are interim, ad hoc measures, closely related to the present state of their hearts and lives” (The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah[Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1976], p. 78).

It is a measure designed to repentance

We see such a “preliminary” manifestation of the Day of the Lord today. This is the wrath of God (judgment):

Romans 1:18–32 (LSB) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions; for their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the males abandoned the natural function of the female and burned in their desire toward one another, males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

3. Imagine what it would be like to see a whole congregation repent. What sins of a people or a nation would require such a dramatic change of direction?

Romans 1:32 “… although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

2 Timothy 3:1–5 (LSB) But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Keep away from such men as these.

Other sins? Abortion, export of media that promotes sin, every sexual sin in the Bible (plus others not mentioned), destroying the children allowed to be born,

4. What material blessings wait for the Lord’s people if they repent (vv. Joel 2:18–27)?

Joel 2:18–27 (LSB) Then Yahweh will be zealous for His land And will spare His people. 19 Then Yahweh will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine, and oil, And you will be satisfied in full with them; And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. 20 “But I will remove the northern military force far from you, And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land, And its vanguard into the eastern sea, And its rear guard into the western sea. And its stench will rise up, and its foul smell will rise up, For it has done great things.” 21 Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad, For Yahweh has done great things. 22 Do not fear, beasts of the field, For the pastures of the wilderness have turned green, For the tree has borne its fruit; The fig tree and the vine have yielded their full force. 23 So rejoice, O sons of Zion, And be glad in Yahweh your God, For He has given you the early rain in righteousness. And He has poured down for you the rain, The early and late rains as before. 24 The threshing floors will be full of grain, And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. 25 “Then I will pay back to you in full for the years That the swarming locust has consumed, The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust, My great military force which I sent among you. 26 “And you will have plenty to consume and be satisfied And praise the name of Yahweh your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; Then My people will never be put to shame. 27 “Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am Yahweh your God, And there is no other; And My people will never be put to shame.

Abundant food supplies through Harvests (We are having problems)

Satisfaction with what we have

Honor among the nations

Military peace because enemies removed

The animals will not be stressed

Calm weather

Praise to God

Not put to shame

Question 4. In the Bible covenant is the term that describes the binding personal relationship between God and this one chosen people as exemplified in the oft-repeated formula “I am your God and you are my people.”

Israel was unique in the ancient world as having its national identity formed by a covenant made with a single deity. What makes this judgment passage so poignant and at the same time so hopeful is the fact that it concerns God’s own covenant people. In the context of assuring them of mighty acts of blessing from God upon condition of their repentance, Joel pictures the bountiful return of the basics: grain, wine and oil.

The reference in verse 20 to “the northern army” points to the horde of locusts which the Lord will drive away, a horde now treated in a more figurative manner in line with the apocalyptic hordes of Gog from the north bent on destroying Judah (Ezek 38:15; 39:2).

The bad years (v. Joel 2:25) will be more than compensated by the good years to come.

Experiencing the curses of the covenant is expressed in terms of deprivation of life in this world.

In the same way the restoration of covenant harmony must have a this-worldly manifestation as evidence that God really dwells with his people (v. 27).

5. Joel 2:28–32 further elaborate the results of repentance on the day of the Lord.

Joel 2:28–32 (LSB) “And it will be afterwards That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; Your old men will dream dreams; Your young men will see visions. 29 “Even on the male slaves and female slaves I will in those days pour out My Spirit. 30 “And I will put wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire, and columns of smoke. 31 “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes. 32 “And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As Yahweh has said, Even among the survivors whom Yahweh calls.

What supernatural benefits will come to Israel “afterward”?

6. How are these spiritual gifts, signs and securities indications of a deeper fulfillment of Israel’s covenant relationship with God?

Questions 5–6. As a deeper indication of covenant fulfillment and evidence of the Lord’s presence with his people, Joel prophesies a Spirit outpouring as a counterpart to the outpouring of rain (2:23).

There are three dimensions of supernatural blessings:

Spirit presence (vv. 28–29),

signs of Spirit power (vv. 30–31)

and ultimate security (v. 32).

In the first (2:28–29) of the three dimensions, Joel envisions a universal ministry of prophecy (direct and immediate speech and visions from God) that includes men and women, old and young, and even slaves.

The supernatural signs are standard figurative terms used in end-times passages in both testaments (Is 13:10, 13; 34:2–4, 10; Ezek 32:3–8; Amos 8:9; Rev 6:12).

These “supercharged” images of creation undergoing change express the truth that things can never be the same again.

In contrast to the nations for whom the day holds only judgment (Joel 3:1–16), the Lord’s people can find security in God’s home, Mount Zion in Jerusalem, an image that is taken up in the New Testament.

7. In what ways does Joel’s prophecy of an Old Testament “Pentecost” go beyond the normal experience of the people of God before Christ?

Question 7. Under the Old Covenant direct messages from God were rare (1 Sam 3:1) and restricted almost completely to the prophets and sages.

Joel’s vision of community-wide ministry of the Word of God is consistent with other prophesies (see also Is 54:13; Jer 31:31–40; Ezek 39:29).

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (LSB) “Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 “And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Ezekiel 11:19–20 (LSB) “And I will give them one heart and give within them a new spirit. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.

It is apparent, however, that Joel did not envision an outpouring beyond Israel. Neither did Peter. Even though Peter quoted this passage on the day of Pentecost, he was truly amazed later when another unthinkable frontier was passed: even the Gentiles could become Spirit people (Acts 10:45).

8. In quoting Joel on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16–21), Peter made an important change.

Instead of saying “afterward” (Joel 2:28), he inserted a phrase from another prophecy about the day of the Lord in Isaiah 2:2—“in the last days” (Acts 2:17).

Why is this change of time important in light of the events of Pentecost?

Questions 8–9. The concept of the day of the Lord in the Old Testament centered on the truth of God’s saving judgment as He enters history.

It was prefigured by the plagues of Egypt (literally, the “strokes” of God’s judgment), which simultaneously brought judgment on the Egyptians and salvation to the believing Hebrews. The various dimensions of the day of the Lord are like distant mountain peaks that form a tableau with undefined distances between the peaks.

The order does not seem to matter ultimately once one encounters God’s time.

So in Joel’s prophecy the Day included relief from judgment for God’s own penitent people evidenced in both material and spiritual blessing, while outsiders could anticipate only the terror of unrelieved judgment.

Under the more complete fulfillment of the day surrounding the coming of Christ the order gets somewhat reversed:

final judgment is delayed, while the immediate spiritual blessings of universal Spirit-endowed language become a reason to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38) rather than a consequence of the people’s repentance.

Signs of supernatural power had already been demonstrated in the miracles of Jesus and were perpetuated by the first believers (Acts 2:43).

A further irony is that Peter urges separation from “this crooked generation” (2:40)—referring to Jews unwilling to accept Christ—and suggests through his use of Psalm 110:1 that the crushing defeat formerly reserved for the enemies of God and Israel can be experienced by people who are nominally God’s people (Jews) though not spiritually so.

Later still, Paul quotes Joel 2:32 in Romans 10:13 to prove that the gracious provision of the saving aspect of God’s judgment during the day of the Lord includes even Gentiles who are equally positioned to receive the grace of God in Christ.

Empowered by the vision of the exalted Christ and the Gentile-embracing gospel, Paul went into the Gentile world to preach the grace of the day of the Lord, pleading with non-Jews (Acts 17:31) to repent before the final day of judgment. Under apostolic preaching the full material blessings of covenant restoration and fulfillment wait for the new heaven and the new earth (Rev 21–22).

Acts 17:30–31 (LSB) “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”

So the seed of Joel’s prophecy finds multiple fulfillments in clock-time sequences that appear from our perspective to be different from the original plan, while being fulfilled in ways that even Joel could not have dreamed.

Indeed, there was no plan.

There was in Joel’s prophecy an eschatological (end times) vision that would be largely fulfilled in Christ’s first coming when the church was born.

But it would be ultimately fulfilled (in the same way that fruit is more than seed) when Christ will come again.

Meanwhile God’s time penetrates seasons and clock and calendar time until time itself will be fully transformed, along with the rest of the cosmos.[1]

9. In Joel’s prophecy, repentance followed by forgiveness would inaugurate the day of the Lord and bring about an age of Messianic blessing.

Peter reversed the order, calling for repentance because of the events of that day.

Why are repentance and calling on the name of the Lord (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21) so essential at the time of God’s intervention?

Joel 2:12–13 (LSB) “Yet even now,” declares Yahweh, “Return to Me with all your heart And with fasting, weeping, and wailing; 13 And tear your heart and not your garments.” Now return to Yahweh your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, And relenting concerning evil.

Acts 2:38 (LSB) And Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What does this interpretation of the flexible order in which things will happen (while retaining the essential truths) suggest about the relation of end-time events to our kind of clock and calendar time?

10. The elaborate imagery of cosmic, irreversible changes common in Old Testament prophecy and used by Joel (vv. 30–31; Acts 2:19–20) shows that in the day of the Lord nothing will ever be the same again. How can that be true for you today?

11. What answer can you give to the person who wonders whether God will restore in their life “the years the locusts have eaten” (v. 25)?

Prayer: Ask Jesus to come.

Now or Later

Like distant mountain peaks that appear to be merged without revealing the depth of the hidden valleys between, Joel pictures multiple realities without assigning their place on a timeline or showing how deep the valleys are between the peaks. In the New Testament there are six “peaks” of God-revelation at the end, again without our knowing the exact order. Examine how each of them contributes to the full meaning of the end: the Second Coming of Jesus (Acts 1:10–11; 1 Thessalonians 5:2–3; 2 Thessalonians 1:7–9); the resurrection of the body (1 Corinthians 15:12–58); the last judgment (John 5:22; Acts 17:30–31; 2 Corinthians 5:10); eternal life (John 6:47; Romans 6:23); the full coming of the kingdom of God (Luke 13:29; 1 Corinthians 15:24); the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21–22).

Like so many Old Testament promises, this passage bursts its original wrappings and leaps into the New Testament with wider and deeper significance.

Leslie Allen[1]

[1]Stevens, R. P. (2004). End Times: 13 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders (pp. 25–28). IVP Connect: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press.