Joel: The Day of the Lord
Notes
Transcript
Background/Introduction
Background/Introduction
TONIGHT—LOOKING @ JOEL—
READ: V1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
Prophet: DURING DIVIDED KINGDOM
NAME MEANS: YAHWEH is GOD…
**KNOW VERY LITTLE about JOEL/MINISTRY**
Date: RANGES from 9TH to 4TH CENTURIES BC!!
SOME TEXTUAL CLUES—NOTHING EXHAUSTIVE
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Transition ➡ LOOKING @ HIS MINISTRY NEXT…
AIMING to COVER ALL THREE CHAPTERS—
— SO WE’LL BE READING LONGER CHUNKS, LESS COMMENTARY
READ: v2-12
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Text
Text
Setting a Locust Plague (Ch. 1:1-12)
Setting a Locust Plague (Ch. 1:1-12)
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 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?
3 Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
4 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.
(v2-4) Setting: UNCANNY PROBLEM — LOCUST INVASION.
CONSUMED EVERYTHING—LEFT it DESOLATE WASTELAND
**Show BBC Video**
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(v4) 4 KINDS/STAGES of LOCUST
Takeaway: EVERYTHING LOST — TOTAL DEVASTATION
Focus: LOCUSTS = PROMISED JUDGMENT in DEUT. CH. 28.…
📜38 You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it.📜
COVENANT/CURSE— CONSEQUENCES of DISOBEDIENCE
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Exhort: 📢SOMETIMES PROBLEMS = USED BY GOD to TURN HIS WAYWARD PEOPLE 📢
**Disclaimer** NOT ALL HARD TIMES = PUNISHMENT/DISCIPLINE
=> YET WE CAN’T OVERLOOK THAT as a POSSIBILITY!
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Transition ➡ W/ JUDGMENT CAME CALL for SPIRITUAL WAKEUP!
Read: V5-12
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Calls to Awaken & Mourn (v5-12)
Calls to Awaken & Mourn (v5-12)
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.
10 The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
11 Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.
(v5-7) CALL to the DRUNKARDS to AWAKE—FOR THEIR WINE WOULD SOON BE GONE.
LOCUSTS (NATION) HAD DESTROYED EVERYTHING
PEOPLE in THEIR SINFUL STUPOR MISSED WHAT GOD WAS DOING…
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(v8-12) CALL for a LAMENT
(v8) LIKE a BRIDE LOSING HER FIANCE
Reason: NOTHING LEFT — ((v9)) NOT EVEN ABLE to KEEP UP W/ REGULAR OFFERINGS @ TEMPLE.
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(V11) CALL for MOURNING AMONGST FARMERS & VINEDRESSERS…
HARVEST WAS GONE…
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(v12) EVERYTHING WAS DRIED UP—INCLUDING THEIR GLADNESS…
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Transition ➡ THIS SHOULD GET THEIR ATTENTION—
PROPHET CALLS for a RESPONSE:
READ: v13-14
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Ch. 1:13-20 (A Call for Repentance & Communal Lament)
Ch. 1:13-20 (A Call for Repentance & Communal Lament)
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
14 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.
(V13) CALL for PRIESTS —SACKCLOTH
Background: SACKCLOTH = UNCOMFORTABLE— USED as a SIGN of MOURNING…
=> NO REGULAR OFFERING = REASON to MOURN—IT’S BAD.
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(v14) PRIESTS WERE EXPECTED to CALL a FAST— TIME of REPENTANCE & MOURNING
(v14b) EVERYONE COME to the TEMPLE & CRY OUT to GOD…
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🎒Takeaway: THEIR PROBLEMS = GOD’S JUDGMENT — ONLY GOD COULD FIX the PROBLEM🎒
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Transition ➡ REASON— DAY of the LORD = NEAR
READ: v15-20
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The Coming Day of the Lord (v15-20)
The Coming Day of the Lord (v15-20)
15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up.
18 How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.
19 To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
✨(V15) Key Theme: “DAY of the LORD” = INTRODUCED. ✨
DAY of YAHWEH’S ACTION
**END-TIME DATE of JUDGMENT
& ALSO DAYS of HIS ACTING in JUDGMENT BEFOREHAND**
(v16) DAY WHEN BOTH FOOD & GLADNESS = CUT OFF!
(v18,20) EVEN BEASTS GROAN & PANT — PASTURES DEVOURED BY FIRE? Poss. Drought??
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(v19) PROPHET CALLS to GOD—HE ALONE WAS THEIR HELP.
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Transition ➡ PROBLEM… DAY of the LORD WAS NEAR— & DARK…
READ: CH. 2:1-2
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The Day of the Lord: Coming Destruction (Ch. 2:1-11)
The Day of the Lord: Coming Destruction (Ch. 2:1-11)
Joel 1–3 (ESV)
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,
2 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.
(v1) TRUMPET BLAST = WARNING,, SOUNDING ALARM…
DAY of the LORD COMING —> A DAY of DARKNESS & GLOOM
JUDGMENT = FEARFUL THING…
📜31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.📜
HERE— DAY of the LORD BRINGS FUTURE DESTRUCTION…
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Background: NOT 100 PERCENT CLEAR WHAT FOLLOWS…
COMING ARMY W/ DESTRUCTION...
SOME SCHOLARS — LOCUSTS
OTHERS — MILITARY (BABYLONIANS??)
OTHERS — FUTURE ESCHATOLOGICAL DISASTER…
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Transition ➡ WHAT = CLEAR— DAY of DESTRUCTION to BE FEARED…
READ: V3-11
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Coming Destruction w/ Lord’s Army (v3-11)
Coming Destruction w/ Lord’s Army (v3-11)
3 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.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run.
5 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.
6 Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale.
7 Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths.
8 They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.
9 They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.
10 The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
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?
SITUATION = SEEMINGLY WITHOUT HOPE…
FIRE
GARDEN of EDEN ➡➡ DESOLATE WASTELAND
(V7-9) ARMY = INESCAPABLE— CLIMBING UP WALLS & INTO HOMES…
EARTH QUAKES
HEAVENS TREMBLE
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SINFUL PEOPLE LONGING for GOD’S INTERVENTION = REMINDED— DAY of JUDGMENT = SCARY
WE SHOULD LONG for JUSTICE HUMBLY…
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D.Q. ESSENTIAL TRUTH WE CAN’T MISS— WHO DOES the ARMY BELONG TO? (v11) IT WAS GOD’S ARMY
GOD WAS SOVEREIGN OVER THEIR JUDGMENT/PUNISHMENT
Exhort: 📢LOCUSTS/ARMIES/ETC. — ALL UNDER HIS CONTROL📢
📢WE CAN TRUST HIM— HE CAN TURN ANY SITUATION AROUND!!📢
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Transition ➡ IN MIDST of DIRE CIRCUMSTANCES… THERE’S HOPE:
GOD = NOT ONLY SOVEREIGN,, BUT MERCIFUL.
READ: V12-14
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Hope through Repentance (Ch. 2:12-17)
Hope through Repentance (Ch. 2:12-17)
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.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
HOPE: GOD is MERCIFUL
JUDGMENT @ DOORSTEP!! && GOD is MERCIFUL…
EVEN NOW… RETURN to ME.
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D.Q. WHAT’S TRUE RETURN LOOK LIKE?
RENDING HEARTS—NOT GARMENTS
SORRY for SIN—NOT ITS CONSEQUENCES
Quote,, E. Peterson: CHANGE YOUR LIFE, NOT YOUR CLOTHES.
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**D.Q. DO YOU SEE WHY RETURNING is LOGICAL AT ALL??***
(v13) BECAUSE of GOD’S NATURE— GRACIOUS, MERCIFUL, KIND…
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
JOEL CALLS PEOPLE to REPENTANCE—WHO KNOWS,, WE MIGHT BE SPARED from FURTHER CONSEQUENCES
IT’S in GOD’S NATURE to BE MERCIFUL & GRACIOUS…
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Transition ➡ SO,, in RESPONSE— PEOPLE = CALLED to REPENTANCE...
READ: v15-17
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15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;
16 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.
17 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?’ ”
D.Q. DO YOU SEE the REPEATED ACTION HERE? “BLOW the TRUMPET”
1ST TRUMPET — SOUNDING ALARM—JUDGMENT is COMING
2ND TRUMPET— SOUNDING CALL— REPENT.
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SOLEMN, REPENTANT ASSEMBLY of EVERYONE…
NURSING INFANTS to HONEYMOONERS…
NO GREATER PRIORITY THAN GETTING RIGHT W/ GOD!! — SERIOUS BUSINESS!!
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(v17) W/ SORRY PEOPLE—PRIESTS CALL OUT for MERCY
GOD SPARE YOUR PEOPLE…
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Transition ➡ WE’LL SEE YAHWEH’S RESPONSE
READ: v18-27
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Yahweh’s Response (Ch. 2:18-27)
Yahweh’s Response (Ch. 2:18-27)
18 Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.
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.
20 “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.
21 “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!
22 Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield.
23 “Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.
24 “The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
25 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
26 “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
GOD = JEALOUS for HIS PEOPLE—HAD MERCY/PITY on THEM!!
Hope:
(v19) SENDING GRAIN, WINE, OIL… NO LONGER a REPROACH
(v20) NORTHENER (ARMY of CH. 2) = SENT AWAY… GOD’S PEOPLE = DELIVERED!
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Result: NO NEED to FEAR!
LAND —NOT FEARFUL
ANIMALS —NOT FEARFUL
(v22) A RETURN to EDENIC CONDITIONS...
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(v23) PEOPLE— GLAD
=> THEIR FORTUNES HAVE TURNED…
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(v25) EVEN MORE— GOD PROMISED to RESTORE the LOST YEARS!!
GOD CAN REDEEM EVEN the MOST HARSH, SORRY CIRCUMSTANCES!!
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(v26-27) CONCLUSION— GOD’S GLORY & PRAISE
HE WILL BE PRAISED
THERE’S NO ONE LIKE HIM…
GOD WORKS FOR HIS OWN GLORY & HONOR
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Transition ➡ EVEN MORE HOPE for the FUTURE…
READ: v28-32
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A Future Day of Hope (Ch. 2:28-32)
A Future Day of Hope (Ch. 2:28-32)
28 “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.
29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
32 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.
AFTER DAY of DELIVERANCE—THERE’S a FUTURE HOPE… GOD SENDING HIS SPIRIT.
(v28-29) FULFILLED on DAY of PENTECOST—WHEN GOD SENT HOLY SPIRIT to HIS PEOPLE…
Theology Point: HOLY SPIRIT = DOWN PAYMENT, GUARANTEE of FUTURE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE—GIVEN to ALL GOD’S PEOPLE
=> ((JEW & GENTILE, MAN & WOMAN, FREE & SLAVE))
Exhort: 📢WE LIVE in an AGE of FULFILLMENT THAT WAS LONG AWAITED!!
PRIVILEGED to BE N.T. BELIEVERS!!📢
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📸Focus: JOEL 2 = PARTIALLY FULFILLED...📸
New Testament: DAY of the LORD = TWOFOLD…
CHRIST CAME
CHRIST WILL COME…
WE LIVE in “ALREADY BUT NOT YET”… KINGDOM INAUGURATED BUT NOT FULLY CONSUMMATED…
DAY of JUDGMENT STILL COMING…
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IN BETWEEN: HOPE for ALL WHO TURN to HIM!!
ALL WHO CALL WILL BE SAVED— ROM. 10:13
📜13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”📜
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Transition ➡JOEL CONTINUES on THAT FUTURE DAY of HOPE…
READ: CH. 3:1-8
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Restored Fortunes & Future Judgment (Ch. 3:1-8)
Restored Fortunes & Future Judgment (Ch. 3:1-8)
1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 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,
3 and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.
4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily.
5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.
6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border.
7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head.
8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”
FUTURE DAY of RESTORATION — GOD’S PEOPLE = VINDICATED!
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REBEL NATIONS—BROUGHT INTO **VALLEY of JEHOSHAPHAT** = JUDGMENT…
FOR ATTACKING GOD’S PEOPLE
FOR SELLING THEIR CHILDREN for PROSTITUTES & WINE
LORD WILL REVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES—BLESS HIS PEOPLE...
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Transition ➡ THIS IN MIND—NATIONS WILL BE CALLED to WAR…
READ: V9-16
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Eschatological War (Ch. 3:9-16)
Eschatological War (Ch. 3:9-16)
9 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.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”
11 Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
12 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.
13 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.
14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
16 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.
THIS = FINAL, END-TIME BATTLE,, PROB from REV. CH. 16…
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Transition ➡ STORY ENDS W/ HOPE for GOD’S PEOPLE:
READ: v17-21
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Final Hope (Ch. 3:17-21)
Final Hope (Ch. 3:17-21)
17 “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.
18 “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.
19 “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.
20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations.
21 I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.”
FUTURE HOPE—KNOWING GOD & DWELLING WITH HIM…
DESERT LAND = NO LONGER:
MOUNTAINS DRIPPING W/ WINE
HILLS FLOWING W/ MILK
GOD’S PEOPLE—FINALLY AVENGED…
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Transition ➡ CONNECTING to BIG PICTURE
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Big Picture:
Big Picture:
JOEL STANDS AMONGST PROPHETS of DIVIDED KINGDOM—
— CALLING GOD’S PEOPLE to RETURN to THEIR GRACIOUS & MERCIFUL GOD for DELIVERANCE…
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🎒Biggest Takeaway: INTRODUCES US to “DAY of the LORD” CLEARLY— 🎒
DAY of SALVATION for the BELIEVER
JUDGMENT for the UNBELIEVER
DAY = SPLIT.
CHRIST CAME
CHRIST WILL COME.
WE ALL LONG for THAT FUTURE DAY of BLESSEDNESS— A RETURN to EDEN…
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Takeaways:
Takeaways:
SIN = SERIOUS—BRINGS ABOUT GOD’S JUDGMENT
LOCUST DESOLATION = PICTURE of the END
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2. GOD is a GRACIOUS GOD WHO is MERCIFUL to the REPENTANT SINNER…
CALVARY—OUR SINS WERE PAID FOR— WE SIMPLY RETURN to HIM…
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3. TRUE REPENTANCE = NOT RENDING CLOTHES—BUT RENDING HEARTS
ACTUALLY SORRY—NOT JUST SAYING IT.
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4. THE GLORIOUS END… GOD WILL DWELL AMONGST HIS PEOPLE.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
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Closing Thoughts/Questions
!! Close in Prayer !!
