Joel 1
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Author:
Author:
We don’t really know anything about Joel.
His name means YHWY is God, but other than this, we don’t know very much about him.
One thing that we can say is that he knew his scripture well. Joel was a prophet who was immersed in the word of God. He makes reference to:
Amos
Isaiah
Ezekiel
and others...
So, Joel knew his scripture very well.
Date:
Date:
Typically, the prophets will tell us when they write. For example: Hosea 1:1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Here, Hosea tells us exactly when he prophesied. Joel doesn’t help us like this. So, we don’t know for certain when he was prophesying or when his book was written.
We can, however, make intelligent guesses.
Joel quotes other prophets, so he must have written after those prophets
Joel makes no reference to any kings, so he likely wrote when Israel had no king.
This leads many to believe that Joel wrote during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah after the Israelites were released from captivity.
Message:
Message:
Joel writes concerning what he, and other prophets, call The Day Of The Lord. As we are going to learn as we read this and other prophets, there are many days of the Lord (lowercase), but they ultimately point to THE DAY OF THE LORD (uppercase).
Simply put, the day of the Lord is when God defeats his enemies and saves his people.
Joel writes that the day of the Lord (lowercase) is coming against Israel. Not for salvation, but for destruction. Because of sin, Israel had become one of God’s enemies, and Joel encourages the people to repent.
This isn’t the whole story… Joel also shows us how God responds to Israel’s repentance, but we will talk about that when we get there.
We have enough to get started in chapter 1.
1:1-12 God’s Judgment against Israel
1:1-12 God’s Judgment against Israel
Joel 1:1-4
Joel 1:1-4
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.
Who is Joel referencing at the beginning of verse 2?
The elders.
Throughout the book, we see that Joel references the elders and the priest… He doesn’t reference any Kings. This gives us some evidence that the book was written late in Israelite history when there were no kings.
Continuing, the book begins with Joel referencing an event.
Has this event already happened, or is it going to happen in the future?
This is something that happened in the recent past, and Joel says that this is a big deal. Remember it… Tell your kids about it. So this is a historic event that must be remembered. What is it?
We see it in verse 4.
This historic event that everyone should remember is a locust attack.
When some read this, they tend to think symbolically. There is some precedent for this because we do see locust used symbolically in books like Revelation, but we need to read Joel for Joel.
In this book, the locust seems to be quite literal, and we will continue to see this as we read for the next couple of weeks. Verse 4 tells us that the Israelites suffered a severe and historical locust attack.
We don’t tend to see this as a very serious thing. “locusts… what’s the big deal?”
In the ancient world, locusts were a huge deal. They didn’t have pesticides, grocery stores, and GMOs like we do. A locust attack could be an extremely destructive event.
An entire nation could be wiped out by a severe locust attack because the locust would attack the food supply. If you can’t grow food, then you are out of luck for an entire year.
If you can’t grow food, then the animals would go somewhere else… Your cattle would die… ultimately, the people would starve to death.
So, a severe locust attack was serious business. And this is apparently what the Israelites went through.
So, we start the book with this crazy historical event, but do you remember what I said about prophets and history?
The prophets are God’s interpreters of Israelite history, So what Joel is going to do is show the Israelites God’s purposes behind the history.
This is why, in the next couple of sections, Joel tells the Israelites exactly what they need to do.
Joel 1:5-7
Joel 1:5-7
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.
Who are the people that Joel is talking to in these verses?
He’s talking to the drunkards, and he tells them that they should weep and wail. Why should the drunkards weep and wail?
The reason why the drunkards should weep and wail is because of the locusts. The locusts have attacked the produce of the land and that includes the grape.
We see the idea of a Nation in verse six, but this isn’t a literal nation. The nation is used symbolically to talk about sheer amount of locusts.
This is made clear in verse 7… According to verse 7, what did the locusts do?
The locust attacked the vine
The locust attacked the fig tree
The locust stripped bark off of the tree and made the branches bare like a skeleton.
So, this is describing the destruction done by the locusts. It’s unlikely that a foreign nation would do this.
Notice the possessives in these verses… Who’s land is it in verse 6?
My land… I think this is God speaking.
Who’s vine is it in verse 7?
My vine… This is God’s vine.
Who’s fig tree?
My fig tree… God’s fig tree.
Why do you think God continues to remind the people that it’s his land?
There are a couple reasons for this.
This is something that we must continually remember. At times God blesses us with so much that we start to think that we’ve earned it. We haven’t earned anything. It all belongs to God.
God doesn’t take pleasure in bringing judgment upon his people. He looks at the destruction and sees his land laid waste.
Sometimes we refer to our house as the house “I’m going to the house.”
If our house has burned down, we will likely say something like “the fire burned my house.”
The idea is: it’s mine and I don’t take pleasure in it’s destruction.
Joel 1:8-10
Joel 1:8-10
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.
Verse 8 tells us that the people should be weeping… How should the people be weeping?
They should be weeping like an an engaged woman who has lost her husband. How horrible!
This would have more impact in the ancient world because their engagement was more binding than our modern engagement.
The separation of engaged people would be just like the separation of married people. It would be a divorce. This is why, in the ancient world, engaged people would refer to one another as husband and wife even though there was no sexual relationship between them. (this is the language in verse 8).
So engaged people in the ancient were extremely close, and an engaged woman losing her husband would bring immense grief. It’s a horrible image.
What do women wear on their wedding day?
They wear a white dress, don’t they? There was a similar tradition in the ancient world: The wife would wear a special garment on their wedding day.
Instead of wearing their white dress, what are the women wearing?
They are wearing sackcloth. Instead of wearing garments of celebration, they are wearing garments of mourning.
This really is a profound image. On a symbolic level, who is the husband of the Israelites?
God is, and through their sin, they have lost their husband.
In verses 9-10, we continue to see the destruction of the land. all of this is the locusts.
There is no grain or drink offering because of the locusts… The Israelites can’t even worship God correctly anymore.
Since the Israelites can’t worship God correctly, the priest are mourning...
But it’s not only the priest that are mourning… What else is mourning?
The ground mourns and the oil languishes because the locusts are attacking
The idea is that our sin affects others. Our sin has an effect on God’s creation.
There is also an irony here. Who should be mourning?
The Israelites should be mourning. They have to be told to mourn Joel 1:5, 8
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.
8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
The Israelites have to be told to mourn, but does the land? No the land is already mourning (the priest also).
The irony is that God’s creation is doing what it’s supposed to do. Humanity is not.
Joel 1:11-12
Joel 1:11-12
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.
In the last verses of this section, Joel tells the farmers that they should be grieving as well.
Why should the farmers and vinedressers grieve?
Their crops are gone. The locust have attacked, so they need to be grieving in the face of God’s judgment.
1:13-20 Israel’s response to Judgment
1:13-20 Israel’s response to Judgment
In this section, Joel tells Israel how they should respond to God’s judgment. Essentially he tells them that they must repent for the day of the Lord is coming.
Joel 1:13-16
Joel 1:13-16
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.
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?
In these verses, we see that the response to God’s judgment (to sin) must be repentance. He tells the priests to continue their mourning, but that it should be intensified. He tells them to wear sackcloth through the night.
He continues speaking to the religious leaders and tells them to gather everyone for a special assembly of mourning, repentance, and prayer.
I think that this is an important lesson for us. How should we respond to our sin?
We should mourn, repent, and pray.
Joel tells them why they should do all of this… Why should they do all of this?
It’s because God is judging us. “The day of the LORD is near.”
In this verse, Joel is referencing two different prophets.
Ezekiel 30:2-3
2 “Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God:
“Wail, ‘Alas for the day!’
3 For the day is near,
the day of the Lord is near;
it will be a day of clouds,
a time of doom for the nations.
Isaiah 13:6
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
In Ezekiel 30, the day of the Lord refers to judgment against Egypt
In Isaiah 13, the day of the Lord refers to judgment against Babylon
Both Babylon and Egypt were bad guys in the Biblical story.
Over and over again, Babylon is seen as the enemy of God’s people… We see them at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the Bible story. Every time… It’s not good. They are the enemy of God, so in Isaiah 13, we see judgment against Babylon.
Egypt is also frequently seen as an enemy of God. In the book of Exodus, Egypt is the enemy. So in Ezekiel 30, we see judgment against Egypt.... What does God send against the Egyptians in Exodus? One of the plagues is locusts.
So, this language… day of the Lord (lowercase) refers to the enemies of God, but here it’s different…
How is it different?
Now it refers to God’s people. God’s own people have become enemies.
The locusts that God sends to Egypt, he also sends to his own people.
This gets back to what we talked about earlier… Prophets are what to history?
Prophets are God’s interpreters of history… So, that locust isn’t just locust, is it? That locust is God’s judgment for Israel’s sin.
When the nation has sinned, what do the people need to do?
The people must repent… They must mourn… They must gather the assembly and pray together.
I think that this teaches us an important lesson.
I think that this teaches us an important lesson.
We need to recognize that tragedy can sometimes be God’s judgment. We are supposed to recognize it.
6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
9 “I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
10 “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
and carried away your horses,
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
11 “I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
Amos tells us that God’s people should be able to discern judgment. How do we do this?
When tragedy afflicts an entire nation, we need to start thinking “this could be God’s judgment.”
Looking at what’s been going on for the last year, it seems to me that God is calling us all to repentance.
We frequently talk about how tragic our time is… We say that 2020 was a dumpster fire, and the outlook on 2021 isn’t much better.
In tragic times like this, what do we need to do?
We need to repent
We need to mourn
We need to pray.
We need to gather like the Israelites did and make petition to our Lord.
Joel 1:17-20
Joel 1:17-20
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.
Verse 17-18 talk about the devastation of the locust. Again, man’s sin even have an affect on creation.
In verse 19, we see the response of Joel.
What does Joel do as a response to Israel’s sinfulness?
He prays… He calls out to the Lord.
What do the beast do in verse 20?
The beasts also call out to the Lord.
That’s one of the great ironies of this chapter...
The beast are doing what they are supposed to do.
The beasts mourn when the Israelites should be mourning.
The beasts call out to God when the Israelites should be calling.
The beasts even obey God… The locusts are God’s obedient soldiers while the Israelites are abandoning God.
The animals teach us an important lesson… We need to obey God like the rest of creation does.