The Lord Has Pity
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Recap last week. Joel prophesied the locust plague as a coming army. Called for the people of Israel to repent and cry out to God to relent.
This week, the situation takes a drastic turn in a great direction for Israel. The past two weeks, we have seen nothing but disaster as the locust have come in and destroyed everything on top of a drought taking place. Now, we see that the people cry out to God and God blesses the Israelites and restores Judah. Not only that, God even reveals through Joel that His Spirit will be poured out on all people. Let’s look at Joel 2:18-32
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.
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.
Pray.
Now, we see that God, in His grace and mercy, has pity upon Israel. This leads us to our first point tonight.
Repentance reveals the grace of God.
Repentance reveals the grace of God.
The grace of God is unmerited favor. In essence, we can think of God’s grace as a gift that is not deserved. This is exactly the case for the Israelites in the book of Joel. Remember, the Israelites had been living in differently toward God. They were not concerned about God or His law. Israel and God had a covenant which meant that they essentially had a bond. However, Israel constantly would fall short in holding up their end of the deal which would result in consequences such as a locust plague.
As we have seen in the week’s past, the locust plague was sent which destroyed and decimated the land. The harvest was gone along with food and offerings were no longer made due to the lack of food and harvest. As Joel described this coming wrath to the nation of Israel, God spoke through Him calling the nation of Israel to repentance and right relationship with God. As everything mentioned points to the Day of the Lord this continues in tonight’s passage. To avoid this coming Day of judgment, God calls His people, Israel, to repentance or turning of sin.
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.
It seems as though Israel does repent. In verse 18, God has pity upon the people of Israel. In His pity, He becomes jealous for His land and people. What that means is that God’s particular love and concern for His people is shining through. God had never lost His love for His people. Instead, they were the one who had turned their back on Him. Yet, God remained faithful as He always does and still loved His people despite their indifference toward Him.
As Israel repented, God granted them grace. Notice what God did! He restored to them grain, wine, and oil. In essence, God restored the land that was decimated by the locusts that He sent. This is the grace of God. Though His people had turned their back on Him, God was still gracious to restore to them food. They did not deserve food. Instead, they deserved punishment for their lack of care for their loving Father in heaven. Now, they had food and blessings from God. No longer were they a mockery to other nations.
One commentator writes:
The prayer of the people will be answered, for the Lord in his sovereignty will ensure that the people are no longer mocked by the surrounding Gentile nations.
Harman, A. M. (2018). Joel. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Daniel–Malachi (Vol. VII, p. 286). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
However, God’s grace continues to be revealed.
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.
If think back, you will remember that the locusts were described as an army last week. In the description, they were described as an army coming from the north. Now, God says to the Israelites that He will remove the northerner from them. What that means is that God is removing the locusts from them. The plague that had come upon them from the north, the locusts, were being removed by God. God drove the locusts in to the eastern sea which is known as the Dead Sea and the western sea which is the Mediterranean sea. As they would be driven into these two seas, a foul smell would rise up because of the locusts. And this would be according to God’s grace for the Israelites that the locusts were removed.
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.
Grace and mercy continue to be extended to the Israelites. God calls for them to fear not and to be glad and rejoice. Why? They can rejoice and have no fear because God is restoring them. God is continuing to be faithful to His people. They have repented and God has relented and now His people are being overwhelmingly blessed by God. He even blesses the animals. The pastures are restored with grass and the trees are bearing fruit again. At one time, the locusts had come through and absolutely stripped the bark off of the trees. Now, the tress are bearing fruit once again.
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.
A drought was coupled with the locust plague. Now, God has blessed them with rain for their vindication. What that means is that God has given His people a clean slate. Now, He is sending rain to in order to reveal their forgiveness. They have been vindicated. God is reversing all of the effects of the locusts plague that He sent.
“The covenantal curse of withheld rain and dew is annulled or canceled and divine blessing will again be displayed by both an early rain and a latter rain.”
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.
The threshing floors were basically where the grain would be stored. Now, those floors are overflowing with grain and the vats with wine and oil. This signifies the blessing of God upon His people.
Likewise, God is the Sender of the locust plague, and He is the One who has taken that plague away. Now, He is restoring all that has been destroyed by the locusts. God has the power to give and to take away. Notice that He describes the four types of locusts yet again here. He sent every one of them. Likewise, He calls them His great army pointing back to last week’s passage.
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.
Now, God has restored His people. He says that they shall each an be satisfied. This will cause them to praise God because of His grace and mercy extended toward them. Though they did not deserve grace and mercy, they Israelites repented of sin, and God relented of sending disaster. They were living indifferently toward God, yet God continued to remain faithful to His people. As they cried out to Him, He answered them. As everything is restored, Israel no longer has to suffer shame and God reminds them that He is in their midst.
Just as God called for the nation of Israel to repent, He calls us to repent of our sin. The Israelites were God’s chosen people, and they were called to live obediently to Him. Whenever they feel short, God showed them compassion. The same is true of us. As human beings, we are created by God. Yet, we are born with a sin-fallen nature that inclines us to sin against God each and everyday. Israel sinned against God and were called to repent or turn from sin and follow God. Likewise, we sin and mess up and God calls for us to repent and believe in His Son Jesus Christ.
As we fail to live according to God’s standard, we are to repent of our sin and turn to Him. God loves us and will forgive us whenever we fail.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God demonstrated this in sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Much like the Israelites, we were worthy of punishment for our sins. However, God shows us His very love for us in that while we were sinners, He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. That is grace. God give up His Son for us. We did not deserve that, but God sent Him out of love for us. That is how great of a God we serve.
Repentance reveals to us God’s grace. As we repent of our sin, we are reminded of the cross of calvary. Each and every time that we sin against God, for those of us in Christ, we should be reminded that all of our sin has been paid for by the blood of Christ poured out upon the cross.
Does this mean that it is okay to remain in sin because God’s grace covers us? Absolutely not.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
We have died to our sin as Christ has paid for our sin. Jesus died for our sin on the cross of Calvary. Now, for those of us who have repented of our sin are no longer to walk in sin. Instead, we have died to our sin. That is what we professed whenever we were baptized. We stood in the water before the church proclaiming that when we went down into the water we were dying to our way of life. As we came up out of the water, we were proclaiming that we were walking according to the new life that we have in Christ Jesus. Therefore, we no longer walk according to how we want to. We walk according to Scripture and for God’s glory.
This means that we sacrifice for God our desires and take up His desires. Do you desire more time with God or more time on social media? Do you desire more time in Christian fellowship or in the dugout? Do you desire encouraging people or gossiping behind their back? Do you desire more time in pray or more time private on your phone looking at things you shouldn’t?
When we place our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit enters into our lives and guides us and our desires change. Now, this may take time as the process of sanctification takes place. However, if we are in Christ, we should see our desires begin to change. If you are not seeing this, it could be a wake up call concerning your relationship with Christ or lack thereof. If you are walking in sin and constantly telling yourself that you can sin because of God’s grace, you are a grace abuser. You are abusing the grace of God by continuing in sin, and if that is you, I earnestly challenge you to check your walk with Christ.
As we do check our walk with Christ, we understand God’s grace as we consider our absolute sinfulness before Him.
Also, Israel had God’s presence with them. When we are in Christ, we have His presence with us as well.
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
We have Christ dwelling within us. May we live for Him as we recognize His grace in our repentance.
The Holy Spirit now dwells within us.
The Holy Spirit now dwells within us.
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.
As Joel continues pointing to the day of the Lord, God speaks through His prophet Joel and declares to them that He will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh is what the Scripture says. However, He points out this this will take place afterward which points to the future in the case of these Israelites hearing this.
Notice that it will be poured out. What that means is that God’s Spirit will be give abundantly or effectively. Joel is drawing the picture of the Spirit being an outpouring. It will come on all flesh. As God had the Israelites has His chosen people, He is pointing to a day in which His Spirit will be poured out on a large number of people. And I want you to notice in verse 29, God says He will pour out His Spirit on the male and female servants.
These would be foreign slaves who were captured in battle or sold. They would be Gentiles and God’s chosen people were the Israelites who were Jews. This is pointing to the salvation of both Jew and Gentile.
Does this mean that everyone will receive the Holy Spirit? No, only those who repent and believe in the name of Jesus Christ will receive the Holy Spirit.
This is pointing to Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost whenever the Holy Spirit was poured out upon those who believed in Jesus Christ.
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
The Holy Spirit is given to those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
However, look back at verses 30-32
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.
Wonders and signs will take place on the Day of the Lord. This is pointing to the Day of the Lord. God’s judgment will be poured out. However, notice something, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Does that sound familiar?
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ will be saved.
Saved from sin
Saved from God’s wrath.
Saved from the coming Day of the Lord.
Share the Gospel!!!!!!!!
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.