Joel 2:10-11
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-As a kid I loved transformers, have yall ever heard of these toys? It was this metallic looking warrior that would turn into a car or truck or something else. It would change.
-How well do you deal with change? Some people struggle with change, there are times where we cause the change, we may change jobs, change our style of clothing, change vehicles, move to a different location, and so on
-There are times where change just comes to us, other individuals may bring the change
-Then there are times where change happens because of decisions we make, not realizing the change that would happen, perhaps the intention was not to cause change
-This is where our sin comes into play, when a person sins and lives in sin they are not considering the implications of their sin, they are not looking at the change that it would cause, they are just focused on the immediate pleasure of living in such sin
-Adam and Eve are the 1st example of this. Knowing that God had given them the consequences of their sin, Eve looked at the fruit and saw it was good to eat, the thought was immediate pleasure and not looking the consequences that would follow
You cannot escape from the consequence of sin if you keep following in the pursuit of sin. Work and you shall have your wages—and “the wages of sin is death.”
Filling Up The Measure Of Iniquity, Volume 53, Sermon #3043 - Genesis 15:16
Charles Spurgeon
-Because of sin judgment follows, Joel has addressed this judgment with the Jews
-Judgment Brings Traumatic Change
-How does God’s judgment over sin bring change:
Judgment Changes Normalcy
Judgment Changes Normalcy
-Joel uses poetic imagery to describe that what was normal to the Jews would be totally changed
Jerome - It is not that the strength of the locusts is so great that they can move the heavens and shake the earth, but that to those who sutler from such calamities from the amount of their own terror the heavens appear to share and the earth to reel.
-The imagery is to describe the calamity that is to come
-Why would Joel focus on the change of normalcy? Because God wants the Jews to know that unless you repent everything you know will be turned upside down
-From time to time we have some behavior issues among our children, like within any household. The consequences vary, at times we have to make the consequences more severe
-It is amazing to read different scholars opinions on what darkens the sun, moon and stars, what causes the heavens to tremble?
-Some spend time speaking of the devastation of the locusts, others comment on the fierceness of an army, but it totally misses the point - simply the judgment is a total upheaval
-We see this imagery in other Scriptures
7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.
Judgment Changes Relations
Judgment Changes Relations
-The Lord utters His voice
-The Lord has uttered His voice in many circumstances
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
-God spoke directly to Abraham, Moses, Samuel
-He spoke through the prophets, declaring the coming Messiah
-Jesus God in the flesh spoke of the coming Kingdom
-Apostles spoke of what they had seen and heard
-specifically Joel told the Jews that this time God is not declaring positive words, uplifting words, but words of despair
-Sin had altered their relationship with God, instead of uttering words to His people, He utters words to the army to lead the charge, to bring the judgment
Number one, it affects their view of themselves, it affects their view of God, and it affects their view of others.
John F. MacArthur
-Much of what we find in the garden of Eden, a tremendous change
-Adam and Eve could walk with God in the coolness of the day, imagine the communion that had with God, the freedom to talk with their Creator, then they allowed sin to crouch at the door, they gave into the temptation and sinned against the Holy God, no longer could they commune with their Maker but they were cast out of the garden, their world changed
-When we allow sin to remain it changes our world, but more importantly it changes our relation with God
-before His army
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!
9 behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.
-Again God is sovereign, just had a conversation this week with an individual who struggles with the sovereignty of God. This person said well I believe we have free will of which I said ok, but the things that happen are only because God allows them to happen. I gave the situation in Job as an example.
Judgment Changes Security
Judgment Changes Security
-It is easy to debate in this section of whether Joel was in reference to locusts, a northern army, or something else. But we cannot miss the point here - the day of the Lord, the judgment to come
-God’s message to the Jews was I will no longer protect you, instead I will orchestrate the judgment to come
-The God in whom was their shelter would be the warrior against them
-Their security would be no more
-But the important point here is that there false security would be shattered
-There is often this idea for those who live in sin that nothing bad could ever happen, often our kids when they misbehave they are shocked when the punishment comes. Crazy when the Jews were told over and over again, we have looked at Deut. 28 in which is fair warning of judgment to come if they turned away from God
-Now it is true that all these things in which Joel mentioned have eschatological overtones, but we must remember that God sent this message so that the Jews would repent
-lets look at Joel 2:12-13
12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 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.
God brings rescue and salvation is precisely because he is the holy and faithful God, keeping covenant with his people—but, if that is so, he is bound to bring judgment as well as mercy.
nt wright
-Sin brings change for the worse, it separates us from God, it brings his judgment and discipline
-The Gospel brings transformation - change for the better - it cleanses us from our sin, it places the righteousness of God over us, it tore the veil into and now we have access to God and can spend eternity with Him - Praise God for the transformation He has provided in Jesus Christ our Lord