Joel: The Imminent Day of the Lord

Do you remember last week when I said that most of the minor prophets are interconnected with 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles? I want you to keep that in mind.

Joel definitely has the attention of the people, and in Chapter 2, he tells them that they need to stop looking at the locusts and start looking at what the locust plague symbolized.

The locusts swarm, even though real, symbolized a coming invasion by the Assyrians. (Hosea 11:5)

The issue was settled the Assyrians were coming.

Hosea 11:5 “They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me.”

In the Bible, God even says why the Assyrians were coming.

2 Kings 18:11–12 “The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.”

2 Kings 18:13 “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.”

If you read Isaiah 36 and 37, you will see that God allowed the Assyrians to ravage the land of Judah. As we go through this chapter tonight, you are going to understand why He allowed it. Miraculously, and I do mean miraculously, God delivered Judah.

Joel, in Chapter 2, gives the people three timely instructions regarding the imminent Day of the Lord.

That word imminent is so important in the Bible. The Assyrians were coming. It was imminent. Joel did not say when they were coming. Knowledge of when they were coming did not matter. Their coming was imminent.

The same holds true for the coming of Jesus Christ. Paul and others in the New Testament describe His return as imminent. They lived their lives as it could happen any minute. Just as Jesus could come any minute so was the imminent invasion of the Assyrians.

Just so you will have an idea of how imminent the Assyrian invasion was I want you to look at some dates.

Conservative Bible scholars estimate that the Book of Joel was written between 850 - 800 BC. The Assyrian invasion of Judah occurred in 701 BC. Judah had 150 years to prepare.

The Assyrians were coming. It was settled. God had determined His course of action because Judah would not repent of its sins. Joel knows the Assyrians are coming, so he gives the people three timely instructions regarding the imminent Day of the Lord.

1. Blow the Trumpet/Shofar (Joel 2:1-11).

Joel 2:1–3 “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.”

Because of our lack of historical knowledge, we lose sight of how vicious some of the ancient civilizations were.

The Assyrians were a mean, evil people.

Assyrian Facts:

Assyria consisted of modern day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.

Assyria mastered the seige and blockade.

Assyria mastered offensive warfare. When the Assyrians started the attack, they unleashed their full arsenal of weapons.

Assyria mastered terrorism and psychological warfare. If they could not get an enemy to surrender or to do as they wanted, they would make an example out of a nearby small village by raping women and girls, skinning the men alive, burning children alive, and by executing the elders of the village in an attempt to instill fear and to terrorize those who the Assyrians were attacking.

The Assyrians were a terribly mean, vicious people, and they instilled fear in all nations.

Joel says they are coming like a swarm of locusts. Judah could not stop the locusts of the immediate Day of the Lord, and they could not stop this enemy swarm either.

Joel says to blow the trumpet/shofar to alert the inhabitants of Judah that the imminent Day of the Lord was at hand. Literally, Joel was telling them to get prepared. The Assyrians would not come for another 150 years, but Joel did not know that and neither did Judah, but the people were to be alerted now.

The sounding of the trumpet was used by the Jews as instructed by the Lord for many different things:

To call assemblies

To announce special events

To mark religious festivals

To warn people that war had been declared

In this instance, they were sounding the trumpet to announce war and to call for a fast.

Joel 2:15 “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;”

Fasting in the Bible is a way of coming to God by completely removing everything else, including food, out of the equation. Fasting is closely associated with repentance and prayer. (Daniel 9:1-3)

In essence, Joel was telling the people that God was the only one who could help them. Their weapons against the Assyrians would have to be repentance and prayer. This battle was to be the Lord’s.

Can I ask you a question?

Who is Sovereign? _________________. Notice verses 1 and 11.

Joel 2:1 “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,”

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?”

In verse 11, who is the Lord’s army? THE ASSYRIANS.

In verse 11, whose camp is exceedingly great? THE ASSYRIANS.

In verse 11, who is executing the Lord’s Word? THE ASSYRIANS.

Joel is telling Judah that the imminent Day of the Lord was planned and would be directed by God.

Habakkuk 1:5 ““Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”

It was God who brought the locusts. It was God who was going to bring the Assyrians. I am telling you this is absolutely incredible. God will do whatever it takes to get you and I to repent, and tragically, God knows what that is. Pay attention to these two verses.

Isaiah 10:5–6 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.”

Assyria, that ungodly, cruel, mean people, was going to be God’s rod of anger, God’s tool of judgment against Judah.

God calls Judah a godless nation meaning that God was using Assyria because of Judah’s sins.

What kind of sin? Did you know that God says in the Bible that Judah’s sins were worse than the sins of her sister Sodom? Ezek. 16:49-51.

Ezekiel 16:49–51 “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it. Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations that you have committed.”

Judah’s sins were so bad that Judah made Sodom and Samaria appear to be righteous. Is that not incredible?

God is Sovereign. God is in charge, and He will use even heathen nations to accomplish His purposes on earth.

Proverbs 21:1–3 “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”

2. Rend Your Hearts (Joel 2:12-18).

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.”

Joel 2:18 “Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.”

I am going to stick to my notes, but there is about an hour’s worth of discussion we can have on those three verses.

Joel called for a solemn assembly where God’s people would repent and seek God.

The Lord was their only hope. Their hope lie in the grace and mercy of God and not the fairness of God.

Have you ever thought about God being fair?

I, for one, would rather cling to God’s grace and mercy instead of His fairness.

Judah, on its own, had no shot against the Assyrians, and before the Lord would act, Judah had to repent and seek the Lord’s help, and that is an incredible message for us.

2 Chronicles 7:13–15 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.”

I never realized that this passage ties in with Joel. God says, “When I command the locusts”. Before God would hear them, Judah had to humble themselves, pray, seek, and repent before God would act.

I want you to notice something else, and this shows the necessity and importance of church unity.

Joel 2:15–17 “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?’ ””

For God to act, the whole congregation had to be unified in purpose and worship. From the youngest to the oldest, ALL had to turn to God with a repentant heart unless they wanted the Assyrians to gloat over them blaspheming God.

The message for the church is incredible.

Can you imagine what God could accomplish if every member of this congregation from Bro. Griffin to Linda were unified in purpose with a repentant heart seeking God? That’s what it took for God to act on Judah’s behalf, and I believe God is giving the church the same message.

Like Judah knew the Assyrians were coming, the church knows Jesus is coming. No one knows when. Knowing when He is coming is irrelevant. We should be prepared always for His return.

1 John 2:28 “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.”

1 John 4:17 “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”

3. Believe His Promises (Joel 2:18-27).

Joel 2:19 “The Lord answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. “I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things.”

Joel 2:20–21 ““I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!”

God does not stop the Assyrians from coming. Judah had sinned grievously against God, and God sent the Assyrians to judge Judah. The Assyrians were going to ravage the land like the locusts swarm, but they were not going to completely destroy Judah. God says, “I will remove the northerner, the Assyrians, from you.”

King Hezekiah took Judah’s message to heart.

Isaiah 37:16–17 ““O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.”

Isaiah 37:18 “Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,”

Isaiah 37:20 “So now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord.””

Hezekiah prayed to God with a contrite heart reminding God of His covenant with the Jews, and because He did, listen to God’s response. Isaiah 37:35-37.

Isaiah 37:35–37 “For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.”

From the agony of defeat to the thrill of victory. What an incredible work by the Almighty God. Some Bible scholars even say that Psalm 126 arose from the victory over the Assyrians. I challenge you to read and see for yourself.