A Day of Reckoning

What if the real greatest human need is to be prepared to face God who will judge the worthiness of every soul? Everyone will face God’s judgment when they die. What will happen after you face God’s judgment? Is the worst yet to come, or will things get better?

What about God’s judgment and the consequences you are facing for your sins right now? Have you experienced anything that might be a warning that you need to improve on what you’ve done in the past?

The prophet Joel warned the people of Judah about God’s coming judgment against them. There had been a very big warning sign. A plague of locusts had stripped the land bare. Almost nothing was left to eat. Even water was in short supply.

We will be looking at Joel’s prophetic message from God:

· Devoured by Locusts

· Repent of Your Sins

· Return to God

Devoured by Locusts

Joel 1:1–12 ESV

The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 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? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation. 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. 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. 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. 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. Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes. Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. 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.

The beginning of the book of Joel begins with the words, “The word of the Lord that came to Joel.” These words are almost identical to what we find written by other prophets and people who lived close to God. The “word of the Lord came to …”

“Isaiah” (Isaiah 38:4)

“Jeremiah” (Jeremiah 1:2, 4, 11, 13; 2:1; 13:3, 8; and more)

“Ezekiel” (Ezekiel 1:3, and more)

“Jonah” (Jonah 1:1; 3:1)

“Haggai” (Haggai 1:1; 2:1 and more)

And many more including Abraham (Genesis 15:1); Samuel (1 Samuel 15:10); Nathan (2 Samuel 7:4); Elijah (1 Kings 18:1); and others.

The point is that God spoke directly to specific individuals with a specific message. Joel has a message from God that God’s people need to hear. If you’re one of God’s people you probably need to hear it too. Some very bad things had happened to Judah, but worse things were coming soon, if they didn’t repent.

Joel tells the elders of Judah that they must “hear” and “give ear” to a message God has given to them. He mentions “all inhabitants.” They must “tell” the message to their children, grandchildren, and the generation after their grandchildren.

The “locusts” ate up all the food in the land. “Locusts “could refer to insects, like the picture here. Or “locusts” could refer to armies that laid waste to the land. Whether “locusts” refers to insects or armies, all the sources for food had been destroyed.

We don’t know when the book of Joel was written. Joel’s message does mention that the people had been “cut off from the house of the Lord” (Joel 1:9). That could mean the Temple had been destroyed, as it was by the Babylonians. Or it could mean that due to a lack of grapes and grains the materials for drink offerings and grain offerings cut the people off from being able to make those sacrifices to God. Either way, all opportunities to make grain offerings or drink offerings to God were “cut off” from the people[1] [2](see notes at the end for details of grain and drink offerings).

Joel next addressed “drunkards.” They put their desire to get intoxicated above their love for God. As a result, God cut off their supply of “sweet wine” (vs 5), the name for the type of wine that could get a person drunk. Now they could no longer get drunk, so they had to face their devastation while sober.

A very powerful nation had come “up against” Judah and devastated it with a destructive force like “lion’s teeth” (vs. 6). Judah had been chewed up and spit out by the army of this enemy.

[1] Grain offering (minchah; “meat offering,” KJV) Offering from the harvest of the land; the only type that required no bloodshed. It was composed of fine flour mixed with oil and frankincense. Sometimes this offering was cooked into cakes prior to taking it to the priest. These cakes, however, had to be made without leaven. Every grain offering had to have salt in it (Lev. 2:13), perhaps as a symbol of the covenant (Num. 18:19; 2 Chron. 13:5). Only a portion of this offering was burned on the altar, with the remainder going to the priests. While no reason is given for the grain offering, it may have symbolized the recognition of God’s blessing in the harvest by a society based to a large degree on agriculture. The bringing of a representative portion of the grain harvest was another outward expression of devotion. Grain offerings as well as “drink offerings” or libations of wine accompanied all burnt offerings and peace offerings (Num. 15:3–4). Clendenen, E. R. with Langston Scott. (2003). Sacrifice and Offering. In C. Brand, C. Draper, A. England, S. Bond, & T. C. Butler (Eds.), Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (p. 1430). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers. [2] A drink offering of water or wine poured out as a ritualistic act of worship (e.g., Exod 29:40–41; 30:9; 37:16; Hos 9:4). Libations often accompanied other types of offerings. Libations involving blood were associated with pagan practices (Psa 16:4). Barry, J. D., Bomar, D., Brown, D. R., Klippenstein, R., Mangum, D., Sinclair Wolcott, C., Widder, W. (Eds.). (2016). Libation. In The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

In judgment against Judah, God removed everything in the land that provided nourishment for the people and sacrifices to God. The “vine” was “laid waste”. The “fig tree” was “splintered.” The “bark” was “stripped off,” and all of its “branches” were “made white” by the absence of bark. Vines and fig trees were symbols of peace and abundance. Their destruction of vines and fig trees symbolized the devastation of Judah, and a time of great deprivation.

Joel advised the people receiving this message from God, to “lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth” (vs. 8). Can you imagine a greater grief than a young woman whose fiancé died before she ever got to spend a single night of married life with him?

They were “cut off from the house of the Lord.” Priests were in mourning because their only source for food was taken away because there were no more sacrifices being made in the Temple.

Joel wrote that even the “ground mourns.” Of course, ground can’t express the emotion of mourning, but it can become unproductive and useless, as Joel wrote. Metaphorically, it mourned because nothing could grow in the land “the grain” was” destroyed, the wine” dried up,” and “the oil” from olives was also gone (verse 10)

In modern times we would see these suffering people as deserving help from God. In fact, we would probably think God was wrong for not helping these people. But these people had sinned against God. They were responsible for disobeying Him. Joel tells them that they should feel “ashamed.” Clearly, Joel says it was right that they should be ashamed. They must “wail.” They must face the horror of their guilt. They cannot survive much longer without God’s help. Yet, in order to receive God’s help, they had to turn to God and repent of their sins.

Joel describes the peoples’ reaction: “Gladness dries up from the children of man” (verse 12). We don’t know specific details about the punishment God had poured out on the people of Judah but we know they weren’t happy campers. Maybe you've felt like everything you care about has been taken away from you. Perhaps you also know what it’s like to have everything you love eaten up by the “locusts” of this world.

Repent of Your Sins

Joel 1:13–20 ESV

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. 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. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer. 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. 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.

Joel next told the priests to put on sackcloth, the kind of clothing worn to repent. They were to lament and wail. He told them to wear sackcloth through the night, which would have caused their skin to become raw and would make it difficult to sleep. Putting on sackcloth completed the act of repentance by causing the body to be as uncomfortable as the person’s heart. These days we usually see discomfort as a bad thing, but Joel sees it as an appropriate response to personal guilt.

Joel directed the elders of the people, or the leaders, and all the people, to gather at the Temple, “the house of your God” (vs. 14). They were to declare a fast. No wine for a drink offering or wheat or barley for a grain offering (vs. 9) was unavailable. They couldn’t gather at the Temple to offer sacrifices to God, but they could gather to repent of their sin. That was what Joel said they must do.

Joel announced that the terrifying “day of the Lord” was coming, bringing the “destruction of the Almighty”. When it arrived, the people of Judah would be destroyed by God’s righteous judgment. What they had experienced with the devastation of the locusts was very terrible, but something much worse was coming.

Joel wanted to convince the people of Judah to repent of their sin. He asked, “Is not the food cut off”? The people were in need of God’s help. But until this point in the story they had continued in their sin. Their sin needed to stop. They needed to open their eyes to their need for God’s help. But God would not help them if they did not repent of their sin. They needed to repent and turn to God for forgiveness and seek His deliverance.

Everything in Judah had fallen apart. There was nothing left worth saving. Storage places for grain were empty. Many of buildings for storing grain had been torn down. The future offered no hope. Even animals suffered from lack of food. The pastures had nothing for the animals to graze upon.

Joel cried out to God for help. “Fire” had destroyed everything in the land. Pastures and forests were destroyed. We don’t know if Joel referred to a literal fire or if “fire” is a metaphor for the destruction left by the “locusts.”

The whole situation seemed hopeless, but it wasn't. God is Holy, meaning that He is very, very different than human beings. Most important to God’s holiness is that He is purely righteous, without the slightest impurity. Yet, He is also God. If God’s people are to have a healthy relationship with God, they must meet God on God’s terms. God asked the people to repent of their many sins. That choice is now theirs to make. If they would repent the future could be different.

Turn to God

Joel 2:12–14 ESV

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 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. 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?

God told the people of Judah, the priests, farmers, and drunkards, to turn back to Him. They need to feel genuine remorse for their sin. Their repentance couldn’t be all for show. It needed to come from their hearts. God would know the difference. God asked the people to “rend their hearts and not your garments” (2:13). Their repentance must come from hearts torn apart by guilt.

Jewish people would “rend” their garments, or tear their clothes, when they were very upset. It was a very extreme expression. Today it is quite easy to replace clothing. It would have been much more difficult then. This kind of expression of grief or anger would really cost something for the person who did it. But God said, their repentance needed to be more than just an over-the-top gesture of anger. It must be real, and it must come from a broken heart. Anything short of that would not satisfy God.

Joel added that God “relents over disaster” (2:13). In the Old Testament there are records of times when God relented on His threat to punish sin. When the people of Nineveh repented God did not destroy their city (Jonah 3:10). When David repented, after he made an altar to God, offered sacrifices, and God turned away from sending a plague on the people (2 Samuel 24:25). When people repent God has been known to spare them from punishment. Hope was a possible, but only if they would repent. The real source for uncertainty was that sincere repentance is rare among sinners. If Joel was in doubt that God would spare the people from His judgment it was because he questioned whether the people will truly repent.

Repentance is a possibility for you. Christ died for your sins. The payment has been made in full by Jesus Christ. But in order to receive His forgiveness you must repent of your sins. Without Christ your eternal future and your short-term future are doubtful. You need His strength and His power to deliver you.

When a person truly repents of their sins, they “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8, ESV). In other words, they perform “deeds in keeping with repentance” (Acts 26:20. ESV). This means that they try to stop sinning, and do what is right in the eyes of God. This is a tall order, but God will provide the ability to obey His commands. He provides the ability to obey because “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

What if we try and fail? Then we need to repent and go through the process again, and not give up on trying. The pattern of repenting for our sins is actually a good pattern for daily life. If you’re not sure what your sins then pray with the Psalmist: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23&24). We should ask God to help us out of the sin cycle so that we can be freed from them.

The natural way of sinful human beings is to hide their sins. Those who believe in Christ do the opposite. They seek out sin so that they can identify it. They want to identify sin in their lives so that they can confess it to God. And, they want to confess sin, so that they can be forgiven of their sin (“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” I John 1:9, ESV).

A well-known pastor, Tim Keller, often says, “You are worse than you think you are, but also far more loved than you feel you are.” This is the Good News of the Gospel. Your sins are far more terrible than you want to admit, but God’s grace to forgive is greater still.