"JOEL:THE DAY OF THE LORD"

Joel 1:2–4 “Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.”

>>>The prophecy of Joel begins with a plague of locusts. Plagues of locust, as seen in Deut. 28 are a consequence of Israel should they begin to disobey/be unfaithful to God.

>>>These locusts devoured everything in their path.

*Pre-exile, exile, or post exile, something Israel did warranted this punishment.

>>>This plague was a precursor to something even worse in the future.

Joel 1:14–15 “Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.”

>>>This plague of locust preludes a future time of devouring and destruction-the Day of the LORD.

*15x in the prophetic books

*References God’s coming and restoration of Israel/God’s wrath

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>>>Chapter two is completely focused on the coming Day of the LORD.

Joel 2:1–2 “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.”

Joel 2:3–5 “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.”

>>>Joel describes an army on the mountains of Jerusalem.

*Fire is before them, burning what is in their way.

*What is beautiful land before them becomes a wasteland after they come through-nothing escapes them.

*They are an army coming to wages war on the earth.

A DAY OF DESTRUCTION

>>>This coming Day of the LORD is a day that will destroy.

Joel 2:11 “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?”

>>>This army is the LORD’s army. HE is the One waging war on the earth and bringing destruction.

>>>This verses emphasizes the power seen on this Day.

*God’s ability to carry out this destruction reveals how powerful He truly is.

>>>The Day of the LORD itself is described as “great” and “awesome”.

*“Great” references the magnitude of the event.

*“Awesome” is used to invoke fear.

*The Day of the LORD is a frightening event.

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Joel 2:12–13 ““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.”

>>>The word “yet” shows a pivot in the chapter’s tone.

>>>The LORD is giving Israel an opportunity to “turn back” to Him.

>>>(v.13) The LORD says to “rend their hearts”.

*“Rend” means “tear”

*In OT times, the tearing or clothes signified mourning.

*The LORD wants Israel to “tear their hearts”-mourn their sin and be broken in repentance to receive salvation.

A DAY OF SALVATION

Joel 2:28–32 ““And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.”

>>>Regardless of how immediate or distant the Day of the LORD seems to be, these verses clearly tell of a future time.

>>>There is a time where the Spirit of God will be poured out on all flesh, and those who turn to God will be saved from eternal destruction.

Acts 2:14–17 “But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;”

>>>On the day of Pentecost, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Peter said this was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Joel prophesied.

>>>(v.17) The “last days” do not explicitly refer to the end times, but to the time between Jesus’ ascension and second coming.

*These days are the only opportunity for people to be saved and experience the Day of the LORD as a day of salvation.

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Joel 3:1–2 ““For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,”

A DAY OF JUDGMENT

Joel 3:9–16 “Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.” Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord. Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.”

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Joel 3:17–21 ““So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim. “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations. I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.””

A DAY OF RESTORATION