Joel 2:1-27

Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 15 views
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

Intro:

Today we continue on in Joel. I want to emphasize this morning as we start that this is not an easy book to parse out, especially without any historical anchors to allow us to take these prophecies and connect them nicely to events that we read about in scripture. Because of this I have had to seek to make some educated guesses, for lack of a better term but I am hopeful that today, even as we review what I believe is happening over the course of these verses we will see the flip side of how, maybe, the lack of a certain historical ground elevates this text and makes it easier for us to hone in on what is the central theme of the text. We read that in verse 27:

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.

Lets actually start there and then hop back to the beginning of the chapter and see how it is that we arrive at the central theme of verse 27, the theme of the book: YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD!
But first lets take a moment to open in prayer.
PRAY
What we see here in verse 27 is God’s ultimate purpose for His people, it is actually His ultimate purpose in creating this whole universe in the first place. That His own people would know that He is God. There is a lot wrapped up in that statement when we examine it as not just an isolated verse in the book of Joel but rather as a theme that spreads throughout the entirety of God’s word.
When God created the world in Genesis we read that He created man in His own image. Theologically speaking we understand that He did this for the purpose of creating a creature with the capacity to know Him and not just to know Him in a general type of knowledge sense, like you might know the answer to a math problem, but that He created mankind that way so that we might know Him in a personal relational kind of way.
This is why God created marriage, we read in Ephesians that marriage has always been intended, through the close intimate relationship of a husband loving His wife and vise-versa, to show the love and care that Christ has for the church and in turn the love that the church has for Christ. The Bible over and over again hammers home this reality that God desires that His people know, truly know Him.
We see there that this people are to know that God is in the mist of them. This speaks of the closeness of God to them. God throughout the old testament had given the people picture after picture so that they could understand the glorious privilege that was there’s to be a people with whom He dwelt. The tabernacle and them the temple served as the highest of these pictures! Wrapped in concentric layers of cautioned and God ordained approach so that they might not be utterly burned away because of their sin, therein the midst of Israel was the holiest of holies, a place where God in all of His magnificent glory dwelt.
Picture that! The God of all eternity, the Creator of all things, lets just take a moment and pause and turn with me to Ezekiel (I have ben working on studying this book to get a better understanding of it and this vision that opens Ezekiel has really been on my mind a lot lately.) Lets turn and read in Ezekiel 1 starting in verse 22, here after describing this majestic chariot that God rides on as he moves on any direction He desires over the face of the earth the prophets eyes are draw even farther up to the view on top of the chariot, (strikingly similar to the way one might look up from the priests who carried the ark of the covenant to view the ark itself) there on top of the shoulders of these magnificent creatures the prophet sees a sight that knocks him literally off his feet: TREAD 22-28

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face,

This great and awesome God of glory is the one who dwelt in the midst of His people.
The New Testament takes this imagery even farther, Consider the words of Jesus in John 17 at the end of His prayer for His disciples and those who would believe on Him because of their testimony:

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

This follows the vine and branches imagery from John 15. There is almost too much content to point out that shows that the telos, the end for which we were made was that we might abide with God because when we abide with Him and know Him, when He is in our midst and the reality of Joel 2:27 is made real amongst God’s people it is then that we fulfill the ultimate purpose for which we were made, we then can not help but overflow in exuberant glory to God, that we might glorify God, this is the answer to the Westminster catechism and may other faithful catechisms as to what the purpose of man is, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
This is the reality toward which Joel 2:27 directs us!
This is why the verse ends with:

And my people shall never again be put to shame.

Honestly this is one of the verses in this text that threw me, just until my studies yesterday. It seems to point to a moment in time, a reality in which these people have been restored on the other side of this great Day of the Lord judgement and that this will never happen again. I kept reading it as the people of Israel, ethnic Israel and when you read it that way then you wind up wondering when did this happen? When were these people restored to the land to never again be put to shame? I am not sure but a dispensation minded individual might even take this verse and project it forward in time to a point at which ethnic Israel is restored and a Kingdom made manifest here on earth, (I know I know, Jake has covered that!) but here it is imperative to realize that this promise is a promise to the believing remnant, the people within the people, the true Israel, those who we red in Romans 4 walk in the footsteps of the faith of their father Abraham! This is the same lack of shame spoken of in Romans 5 where we read:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For these people, the “My people” of Joel 2:27 who have been so united to God that they know Him and experience His presence in their midst there remains no source of shame! How can there be a putting to shame when they have recieved the greatest inheritance imaginable, God Himself in their midst.
Now it will take many more years and a lot more ink to fully flesh this out in Paul and His New Testament counterparts in light of the amazing revelation of fullness of God’s plan of redemption of His people through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, but I firmly believe that this is the reality toward which these verses point us, the reality of the experience of God’s faithful people of God himself, this frees us from the need to take this verse and pin it to any particular restoration in Israels’ History weather a restoration from a locust horde or an invading army or of any of the other curses from Deuteronomy 28 that God was pouring and preparing to pour out on His people.
So that is where we are headed, this is the finish line, the goal of our great God in all of His workings with His people and certainly to goal of his workings with them here in the time of Joel, whenever that might be, and so with that peg firmly set in the board lets back up and work our way to int through the rest of the chapter.

2:1-11

If you remember from our last time together I said that I believe that it is likely that in chapter 1 Joel uses the actuality of a plague of locusts to call his people to repentance in the midst of that horrific plague. In this chapter I believe, though I would not be at all dogmatic about it, that Joel uses now the peoples experience of that plague to drive their minds forward to a yet to come judgement by Babylon, or some other impending army which could be Assyria but we don’t have a lot of historical precedent to tag this to any particular invasion. In fact this chapter reads as though the people repent for a time and it could be that this invasion didn't happen because of the people’s repentance. At any rate that in the view I will propose, that Joel now uses the current experience of a locust horde to drive their view forward, however, the main points that we will see, including the final point we just spent time fleshing out are not ultimately dependent on this view.
Lets read these first verses about the impending judgement: READ
As the first prophecy began with a call to hear so this also begins with a call to hear but it is couched in the language of an impending battle:

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,

The command is to sound the alarm, this disaster is near, remember we have talked about near, it doesn't necessarily mean near in time but rather that the situation is ripe for judgement, covenant judgement to fall. In this context though it could also mean that the even is near to happening, right on the edge, though as we will see there is yet time for repentance.
Joel then begins to describe the day, he used imagery specifically derived from Israel’s history with God. When God had appeard to the people as they came out of Egypt in the Exodus he appeared in clouds and darkness.
English Standard Version (Deuteronomy Chapter 5:22)
These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more.
Earlier in Exodus 19 we read about this event:

And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

When God had delivered the covenant to Israel he had done so from the cloud and darkness, this highlights the holy otherness of God, when he appears to sinful humanity he must be shrouded with dark cloud or they would have been consumed, how much more now that these people were due to receive the covenant curses ought God to have shown up in this same manner ready to burn hot against them in His just wrath.
God then describes this coming army, a vast people, likely hyperbole in the language of this vast army being unlike anything before or after but possibly not if it represents Babylon, Babylon if you remember from Daniels dream interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar was to be the head of gold, the greatest of nations.
We see the destructive force that will be unleashed by this army as before them the land is like Eden and after it is left a desolate wilderness (3). This again is hyperbolic language that uses two things that are as opposite from each other as they can be to highlight the nature of the event. This will be devastating. (Note that all of these things are spoken of, based on verses 1&2, as future possibilities not actualities like the locust devastation in chapter 1)
In verse 5 we see what may be a brilliant literary device by Joel. If indeed these people were currently experiencing a vast devastation due to locust one of the crazy things is that with that many bugs eating and crunching their way through everything green there is a clear sound of crackling, like a fire. It is possible that talking about the coming destruction in this way would have viscerally connected what was coming to what was being experienced.
In verses 6-9 we see yet more of the description of this army likely in terms similar to the current horde of locusts.
The in verse 10 we see apocalyptic language again.

The earth quakes before them;

the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

Joel uses this phrase to lead into the next. When judgments come directly from God, as Day of the Lord judgments did they are spoken of in these ways, armies, locusts, nothing that man can generate can shake the fabric of the heavens, however that glorious chariot and its divine rider that Ezekiel describes, that can indeed and does do these things.
We see, indeed that this is the Lord!

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?

We see here that this is indeed the Lords doing! The Israelites never believed that the Lord would do this, they were His chosen people, they had failed to seriously apprehend the nature of the covenant curses and the severity of spurning the God who had graciously established that covenant with them!
Because of this the Lord is the one who is against them, it is his voice that has shaken the heavens, it is His voice that sends forth this vast army. We read of Babylon in Jeremiah 51:20:
Jeremiah 51:20 ESV
“You are my hammer and weapon of war: with you I break nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms;
Who can endure that day? The answer is rhetorical… no one!
Therefore:

Joel 2: 12-17

But, there is time for repentance! READ 12-17
We see in the first verse of this call to repentance (12) the only instance of the typical prophetic phrase “declares the Lord” these people’s ears ought to have, and likely did, perk up here. They are experiencing judgement and Joel has now confronted them with the horror of what is yet to come if they remain unchanged in their wicked ways and now God himself is the one who personally calls out to his beloved covenant people, “return to me!”
These people needed this swift kick in the pants to wake them up. We sing often that song that says “Ye who think of sin but lightly.” This is the natural propensity of the flesh and even those of us who are in Christ still have this man of flesh hanging around our necks and have often to be reminded not to think of sin but lightly. For these people the weight of sin was to be seen in the description of the horror of the judgement, for those of us on this side of the cross the most gut impacting image of the horror of our sin, no matter how insignificant we may believe it to be, is the very Son of God, the perfect, holy, righteous Son of God, splayed out on the cross bloodied and beaten and left to die int he Judean sun, crying out to His father with whom He has forever dwelt in perfect unity within the Godhead, “my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”
Have we any need of a greater picture of the great wickedness of our own sin than the price that was paid by the Son to deliver us from it?
These picture of the cost of sin are meant to, as God calls through Joel here, to drive us to repentance!

return to me with all your heart,

God is not interested in outward turning, this is not about doing something better, this is about the trajectory, the direction of their hearts. God would have their hearts or nothing at all!

and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Reminiscent of Psalm 51:17
Psalm 51:17 ESV
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

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.

We see Joel here go the whole way back to Moses in the wilderness as God walked before Him declaring His name to Moses within the rock.

And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

The natural outworking of coming to know God in this way is worship, the overflow of a heart that has been turned toward God and that is exactly what is commanded from the people in the coming verses, true heart worship of YHWH!
God is the center of this whole thing!
There is no guarantee, we see that in verse 14, repentance does not force God to relent, people don't merit God’s turning from anger to mercy. One commentator says here :
Prophet of the Coming Day of the Lord: The Message of Joel 1. The Heart-Change Required by Repentance (2:12–14)

For ‘who knows’ exactly how the Almighty in his wisdom will respond? For ‘Repentance no more controls him than do the magic incantations of pagan priests.’ ‘Penitence is not a means of pressuring Yahweh into an automatic response, nor can his freedom be trammelled by it. He retains his sovereignty.

This is also fleshed out for us farther int he NT but we see there that the reason that this is is ultimately because even the turning to God is a work of God. (Ezekiel will flesh that out fro the people also)
And look at the blessing that is to be primarily expected, what is it that God leaves behind in his forgiveness of the people? The very items needed for worship! The true fruit of repentance is a heart of worship and that heart God will provide with what is needed to worship Him!
We see at the end of this call to repentance one last thing to note. In verse 17 we see that the primary concern of God’s people is God’s glory! Why should God be defamed among the people?! Again the primary concern of God’s people is always God!

God’s Mercy 2:18-27

In this last section then we see that God does indeed show them mercy.
We see God here describe the restoration of the land as he turns toward them in jealous love again in language that would have been very parallel to the restoration of the land from the locust.
Just a few high points to note here.
“You will be satisfied”
Prophet of the Coming Day of the Lord: The Message of Joel 2. The Lord Will Satisfy Their Desires

A person may have plenty to eat, with access to all the pleasures of the world, and yet not be satisfied. People who have these things in the greatest abundance are often the least satisfied. Being contented is a gift that comes from God only to those who have returned to him.

When we have turned to God we can expect, no matter what comes our way, to be fully satisfied. Such is the nature of the fullness of our God that overflows into our lives!
The smell of freedom! Verse 20. Remember those locust piled up 3 to 4 feet deep on the sea shore! How that must have stunk, that stink though signified that God had blown the enemies away!

be glad and rejoice,

for the LORD has done great things!

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.

Pictures of the refreshing nature of the smile of God upon the repentant persons life!
Verse 25 may show that this passage shows the restoration from the Locust horde entirely. The people did indeed repent and God did not bring the disaster for the invading army upon them and on top of that he has blown the locust out to sea and is restoring what they as well destroyed. Such is the great mercy of God.
Praise and worship abound for God “who has dealt wondrously with you.” (26)
And then we are right back where we started at the beginning, God’s remnant, the faithful in Israel can experience this intimate knowing of God, experience His blessed presence with them!

Conclusion

This is the hope of all of God’s people! We have a hope that will never put us to shame! We don't have to pin this down to a moment in time, we don't have to ask how it is that Israel was never again put to shame, because they were, over and over again! These promises are for the true Israel, those who have put faith and trust in God, and speaking today in light of the finished work of Christ at the cross, who have put faith in Christ alone! He is the glorious one who saves and it is with Him that we long to dwell for ever, it is Him who we worship and praise, it is in Him that we find our satisfaction and our joy, and it is in Him that this unshakable hope is found!
​
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Copyright 2024 Logos Bible SoftwareFeatures|Pricing|Privacy|Terms of Use|Support