The Mountains Will Drip With New Wine
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Dearly loved people of God,
Disasters: natural and human are part of our history and make a mark on our lives. They’ve shaped our view of the world.
On Aug. 14, there was a massive landslide in Sierre Leone, killing nearly 500 people. My colleague, allowed me to use his pictures (4 slides).
In BC, they have the worst fire season on record.
Last summer Fort McMurray was damaged by fire.
Yesterday in London, there was a rally by so-called Patriots of Canada Against the Islamization of the West.
While Islam doesn’t speak the truth about God or salvation, Muslims should be free to practice their religion in Canada. Why? I want freedom to live as a disciple of Jesus. Such a rally is surprising so soon after Heather Heyer lost her life protesting a similar demonstration down in Virginia.
WWII was fought, in part, to resist these destructive, brutal ideologies. My generation – and younger – didn’t experience that kind of thing firsthand. Yet I visited the concentration camp in Dachau. It was sobering to walk there.
How do we interpret natural and man-made disasters? What do they mean?
We can confidently say that such disasters are part of the groaning of God’s creation. The creation groans because it’s caught in the darkness of sin. Sin has knocked things out of whack. It’s no surprise that rotten things happen. In his gospel, Matthew records how Jesus spoke of disasters during his earthly ministry:
You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
The end is coming. In the fullness of time, Christ will return and the Kingdom of God will come in all its fullness. Joel also points ahead to the Day of the Lord – a day of judgement.
Joel’s prophecy comes on the heels of a natural disaster. In his short book of prophecy, Joel speaks of locusts. Massive swarms munched their way through all the plants in Judah.
Just as they started to recover, another swam of insects descended. They ate the new growth. Then more locusts came. And then a fourth wave.
That’s how it seems to go in farming. One disaster piles on another. You feel beaten as well as broke. In Joel’s day, the destruction caused by locusts was incredible. Hunger pinched everyone’s belly. The disaster was on everyone’s mind.
Yet there’s another thing mixed in with Joel’s description of the locusts. There is a military feel to his description. Reading through , you can hardly tell if Joel is describing swarms of invading insects or invading armies.
It seems there’s a veiled threat here – reference to a military threat echoed by the other prophets of the day. They speak of God’s judgement through the foreign armies who conquered Israel and Judah and took them away into exile. Once you get to , the references to war is no longer veiled. Joel talks of atrocities of wars inflicted upon Judah by their neighbours.
Because the Word of the Lord came to Joel, there is no confusion on how to interpret these events. The Lord explains the plague of locusts through his prophet Joel: All this occurs – all these horrors occur and warnings are given – as a call to repentance.
It’s a call to stop relying on neighbouring nations and put their trust in the Lord their God once again. It is a call to Judah to renew their covenant vows, to return to covenant faithfulness with the Lord. Joel shows how all nations are subject to God’s judgement.
It’s like parenting. It seems kids only settle down when you get angry. Same with God’s covenant people in the OT. It seems they only repent when God gets angry.
The Lord’s response when they finally repent is twofold:
1. Healing and restoration to the land and the plants, the animals and the people:
a. The locusts are pushed into the seas: the front columns into the seas on the east: Galilee and the Dead Sea. Those in the rear will be driven into the western sea: the Mediterranean
b. Health and fruitfulness of the land will be restored:
enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
an object of scorn to the nations ().
The Lord replied to them:
“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,
enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
an object of scorn to the nations.
2. The Lord will hold the nations accountable for their actions. All the nations will be compelled to gather before the Lord and await his judgement. They can march in with all their military might, but they will be held responsible for everything that happened in battle and in conquest.
2. The Lord will hold the nations accountable for their actions. All the nations will be compelled to gather before the Lord and await his judgement. They can march in with all their military might, but they will be held responsible for everything that happened in battle and in conquest.
It’s a scene that mixes fear and relief. God holds people accountable for their actions . . . but that’s not always comfortable. We like the idea that God holds our enemies accountable. It’s rather less comfortable to consider how God holds us accountable.
It’s a warning that’s still fitting today. The Lord will hold all people to account: not just individuals, also nations and groups
On Judgement Day, the Lord will hold all nations (from all times) accountable for their actions and inactions. But the measuring stick is not what you might expect. In Joel’s prophecy, the measuring stick for judgement was the way the nations treated God’s chosen people. That hasn’t changed. On Judgement Day, the Lord will measure people according to their response to the Kingdom of God.
In the picture of judgement that Joel paints, we see the day of the Lord as great and terrible:
15 The sun and moon will be darkened,
and the stars no longer shine.
16 The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem;
the earth and the sky will tremble.
The sun and moon will be darkened,
and the stars no longer shine.
The Lord will roar from Zion
and thunder from Jerusalem;
the earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.
The scene is incredible.
The scene is incredible.
We have seen this too. We are witnesses of the great and terrible judgment of the Lord. In the gospels, we read how Jesus was under God’s judgement for our sake: the sun was darkened and the sky turned black. The ground trembled in a terrible earthquake. God’s fierce anger was poured out.
We call the day Good Friday now. At the time, it was terribly frightening. It was the judgement of the Lord on humankind.
But there is a refuge from that judgement; a stronghold for God’s chosen people. When God’s judgement came, we were hidden in Jesus Christ by faith. He died our death, suffering the anger and judgement of the Lord.
Jesus’ suffering shields us from the judgement of God. No longer does the day of the Lord need to cause us anxiety. The full force of God’s anger at our sin was put on Jesus. He is now the refuge for his people. The Rock of Ages was cleft for us. We can hide ourselves in him.
Judgement Day should not frighten those with faith in Jesus. The nations will be judged for their response to the Kingdom of God. The evil that is done will be repaid. God will hold the nations accountable for all their actions.
And those who are hidden in Christ will enjoy the blessings of the restored Kingdom of God. We will enjoy the restoration of the earth to the fruitfulness and wholeness that God created and redeemed the world and his people to enjoy.
18 “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk;
all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
and will water the valley of acacias
“In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk;
all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
and will water the valley of acacias.
joel 3
The abundance sparks the imagination, doesn’t it?
The abundance sparks the imagination, doesn’t it?
Consider how grapes were trompled in huge winepresses. When the plug is pulled, it flowed out. Imagine the harvest of grapes if the mountains dripped with that new wine!
The cows and goats are milking pretty well if the hills are flowing with milk!
The source of this abundance and fertility comes from the fountain flowing out of the Lord’s house – the river that waters the whole land. All good things – grace, forgiveness, fruitfulness comes from the house of the Lord.