Joel 2:3-9

-You have some who interpret the book of Joel as eschatological prophecy - prophecy about the end times

-there is a good case for it: the day of the Lord, locusts are mentioned in Revelation 8-

-however with the way in which the book is laid out with repentance and a withdrawing from judgement, to restoration - it is my opinion that it is not necessarily about the end times as we read in Revelation, but is specifically to the Jews at that time and their need to repent from sin and if they don’t judgement will come

-there is also the view that the current text is continuing to describe the locusts, however, with the imagery I interpret it as another nation coming to attack the Jews

-God uses an agent of judgment - an army

-Why does God use human agents of judgement? Why not handle the judgement directly?

-We may even struggle with the idea that God uses evil people to be the agent of judgement

Habakkuk struggled with this idea as he asked God in Habakkuk 1:1-4

Habakkuk 1:1–4 ESV

1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.

-He struggled with the idea that the Holy God would allow evil people bring destruction among His own people

-This is something that God had said all along, that if His people were to rebel and sin He would allow their enemies to invade

Deuteronomy 28:25 ESV

25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deuteronomy 28:36 ESV

36 “The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.

Deuteronomy 28:49 ESV

49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,

Jeremiah 5:15 ESV

15 Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say.

-This is a part of God’s plan to use humans at His will

-This shows the sovereignty of God, it reveals that God is the one in control

To fear God is to live in the reality of His holiness, His sovereignty, and His judgment of sin. It is to love God, respect Him, reverence Him, adore Him, hold Him in awe, and worship Him.

John F. MacArthur

-Even though God uses evil people to accomplish His purposes, they are still evil and their actions are not ok

-an example would be the religious leaders who arrested the Lord Jesus and paid Judas 30 pieces of silver, even though God used them, their actions were still evil

-God’s plan was to use an agent of judgement - it reveals the sovereignty of God:

God Empowered the Agent of Judgment (4-5)

-We need not think that the agent of judgement - the nation or the army is of so much power to over take God’s people, their strength is not in of themselves

-Joel mentioned the fierceness of the army that will invade

-the nation of Israel often faced armies that appeared more fierce than themselves, often they faced armies on foot like much during David’s reign 2 Samuel 8:4

2 Samuel 8:4 ESV

4 And David took from him 1,700 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough for 100 chariots.

Solomon took a more fierce approach with chariots as we see in in 1 Kings 10:26-28

1 Kings 10:26–28 ESV

26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 27 And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 28 And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price.

-Joel illustrated that their appearance was like that of horses, specifically war horses

-The image is that of Israel being on foot and the cavalry of war horses charging against them

-And if the image of war horses was not enough, Joel described the rumbling of chariots

-notice the imagery - they leap on the tops of mountains, like fire devouring the stubble

-perhaps they leaps on the tops of mountains to describe the insurmountable number of chariots or the image of a swift army of chariots coming down the mountain down onto the plain

-crackling flame of fire devouring stubble is a description of swiftness, I’m not sure if you have ever had experience with a wildfire, but it doesn’t take but a small spark. When we lived in Reform, AL I had the bright idea of burning boxes after we had moved. The wind was not blowing at the time, well we lived in front of a field, well you know what happened, a field fire, fire was coming toward sour house and toward the field, it happened quickly

-Joel explained to the Jews that the agent of judgement was fierce and swift, they will come with power and quickness

-Now you may say the text doesn’t say anything about God giving them the power to invade, well we must remember the previous text v.1-2

-the reason the army is powerful is because it is God who has empowered them

-reminded just because a nation has numbers or chariots did not mean that would defeat God’s people, quite the contrary

Deuteronomy 20:1–4 ESV

1 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people 3 and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, 4 for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’

-So the reason for the power of the army is because God is the One who has sent it and empowered it

God Set the Path for Judgment (7-8a)

-like warriors they charge = they move forward, military force, courage, determination

-they are warriors

-Jeremiah also mentioned the fierceness of an army Jeremiah 6:23

Jeremiah 6:23 ESV

23 They lay hold on bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy; the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!”

-the words used here brings implication of a human army and not locsusts = warrior, soldier

-they scaled the walls, they do not swerve from their paths

-Again the sovereignty of God - they stay the course, they do not move from the path that God has set

-God’s people needed to know that the judgement was coming in full force

-scaling the walls - the image of invasion

-do not jostle each other, they stay focused on their task, they are not hindered, not distracted

-fight through weapons = spears and darts, no weapons can prevent them from coming, just a reminder you would not spear locusts

-Here is what we know about God - He will do as He wills, His judgement will come if He sends it forth

God, whenever he wills to make way for his providence, bends and turns men’s wills even in external things

John Calvin

Infinite wisdom dictates what absolute sovereignty decrees. God is never arbitrary, or tyrannical. He does as he wills, but he always wills to do that which is not only most for his own glory, but also most for our real good. How dare we question anything God does? Fifteen Years After!, Volume 53, Sermon #3025 - Job 1:21

Charles Spurgeon

None Can Withstand the Judgement (3, 9)

-fire before and after means they bring destruction

-interesting is that many references of fire are descriptive of God

Psalm 97:3 ESV

3 Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.

Zephaniah 1:18 ESV

18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

-But we must remember that whether it is specifically God or the army that God sends it still comes from God

-What is the significance of the garden of eden reference?

-lushness of the land, but also how sin destroys goes back to reference the fall in the garden back in Genesis 3 -

v.9

-they will invade, none will escape

-when you sin against God judgment is next and it will come

-Let’s go back to Habakkuk, God responded to the prophet to say that the Babylonians will surely experience judgement, because all who sin against God will be judged

-Now think of this for a moment - the Jews, Israel is God’s people they sinned and God judged

-Also think about these evil nations who we would consider Gentiles, God judged them for their sins

-God also provided salvation - for the Jews, for out of the Jews salvation came - Jesus came and brought salvation to the people of God - but not just for them, for the Gentiles as well - what a beautiful picture - Jew and Gentile alike deserve God’s judgment of sin - Jew and Gentile alike salvation has been provided

-Praise God that when we repent and turn to Christ we are forgiven, that our sins are casted as far as the east is from the west