Joel

Timeline of Events

• 931 BC The Kingdom divides, Israel and Judah• 836 BC Joash becomes King• 796 Joash reign ends• 740 BC Isaiah ministry begins• 722 BC Fall of Israel• 586 BC Fall of Judah

Comparison With Other Books• Amos

– Speaks of Mountains dripping with wine verse Joel 3:18 & Amos 9:13

– Both say the Lord will roar from Zion Joel 3:16 & Amos 1:2

– Both say the day of the Lord will be dark not light Joel 2:2;10,31 3:15; Amos 5:18, 20

• Isaiah– Both say the day of the Lord is at hand 1:15; Isa. 13:6

– That it is a day when the sun and moon will not give light 2:10; 3:15 and Isa. 13:10

– Both speak of the pouring out of God’s Spirit 2:28; Isa. 32:15; 44:3

– Joel spoke of beating plowshares into swords in preparation for Armageddon 3:10 Isaiah 100 years latter reversed it in refrence to peace in the millennial peace Isa.2:4

Outline

• The Present Devastation Chapter 1• The Future Tribulation Chapter 2:1-17

– Devastation 2:1-11

– Deliverance 2:12-17

• The Future Restoration 2:18 - 3:21– Restoration and the Day Of Christ (Millennium) 2:18-27

– The Day Of Pentecost 2:28-32

– The day of Christ Millennium 3:1-21– The destruction of sinners– The delight of the saints

Joel• Joel son of Pethuel, means “vision or wisdom of God others say be ye

enlarged or persuaded”• Joel means “Jehovah is God”• He shares his name with at least a dozen other Old Testament figures• Ministry area was Judah, Jerusalem, and surrounding nations, the Southern

Kingdom based on references to the Temple of the Lord, Zion, Judah & Jerusalem

• Joel 830-750 BC• Alternative date 539-331 BC• During the rein of Joash 835-796 BC• Main theme is “The great and dreadful day Of The Lord”• Key Verse

– Joel 3:13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great.

Joel’s Prophecy and Fulfillment

• Joe 2:28 "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.

• Joe 2:29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

• Joe 2:30 "And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.

• Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

• Joe 2:32 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. – See Acts 2:17-21 & Romans 10:13

Context and Meaning

In Joel’s era, near the close of the Old Testament, God spoke of a coming judgment and restoration of Judah and Jerusalem. The judgment would be terrible! It would be “the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (v31) (This was Near Term Fulfillment) Yet no matter what was bound to happen, Zion (Jerusalem) would be the source of salvation for survivors; Gods Spirit would be given to all people. Peter recognized this coming day at Pentecost and Paul confirmed the prophecy in his assertion that Gods Spirit and his salvation was intended for all people (Rom. 3:10) (Fulfillment or Far Term)

The Day Of The Lord

• Amos 5:18 “Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, ““Derived from the promises God made to David, the Israelites expected a great day of reckoning. They expected a day when God Himself would visit Israel to bring salvation, victory, and restoration to humanity through Israel, a day when God would establish his Kingdom on earth (Isa. 2:6-22). However, especially in the Minor Prophets, the day of the Lord was a day of judgment and a day of deliverance,. It was a day in which God would visit His people to punish the wicked and the unfaithful and to deliver those who remained faithful to Him.In the New Testament “The Day Of The Lord” becomes associated with the second coming of Jesus.(2nd Peter 3:10-13; 1st Thess. 5:2)”(Rose Publishing)

The Present Devastation

• The ultimate locust plague 1:1-12– God called Joel to prophesy after a sever locust plague which

had stripped the land, a land which was dependant on agriculture. It stole their joy, and even deprived the drunks of their wine!

– Unlike Gods people the locust obey him, and do his will.

What Is A Locust?

Desert LocustCicadas

The Present Devastation

– Mosses said God would use the same locust used on Pharaoh on his own people if they were disobedient. Deut 28:38 42

• 38 “You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it. 39 You shall plant and cultivate vineyards, but you will neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm will devour them.

• 42 All your trees and fruit of your land shall the locust consume

Before and After

A tree before and after the arrival of the desert locusts. Images from Jerusalem Locust Plague of 1915

American Colony in Collection, Manuscript Division, LOC

Successive Swarms

• Joel 1:14 translated says What the old locust left, the (newly hatched) hopper ate; what the hopper left, the (pupa) crawler ate; what the crawler left the mature flyer ate.

• So it appears that there were four successive swarms one after another.

• In verse 2:25 all four development stages are mentioned again but not in the same order.

• The usual length of a locust swarm rarely exceeds five months.

Joel’s Call To Repentance

• Fast & Pray 1:13-20– Joel called for a national time of morning where everyone would

gather at the temple and seek God’s help.– Joel saw the plague as a foreshadowing of “the day of the Lord”

which would be a great time of destruction

Future Tribulation

• In verses 2:1-11 Joel warns of the future judgment “the day of the Lord” like the present plague there would be great devastation emphasized by ominous figures as:– Thick clouds and deep blackness– Fire– Faces pale with fright– Earth quakes and trembling of heavens

The Lords Day?

• 2:10-11. The army’s approach is accompanied by cosmic disorder. The entire world, from earth below to sky above, quivers (cf. shakes and trembles) before the thunderous battle cry of the divine Commander. This cosmic response is a typical poetic description of the Lord’s theophany as Warrior (cf. Jud. 5:4; Pss. 18:7; 77:18; Isa. 13:13; Joel 3:16). The darkening of the heavenly bodies (cf. 2:2, 30; 3:15) is another characteristic of the Lord’s day (cf. Isa. 13:10; Ezek. 32:7; Zech. 14:6-7; also note Isa. 34:4). The prophet concluded with a rhetorical question (Who can endure it?), to suggest that no one can endure this great and dreadful day (cf. Mal. 3:2; 4:5). If the army in Joel 2:1-11 was in Joel’s day, it may foreshadow the army in chapter 3.

Future Tribulation

• The land of Milk & Honey would become a desolate wilderness. (a desert)

• Both the locust and future human invaders have a singular focus on total destruction.

Today Is The Day Of Salvation• Joel’s message was a call of repentance, there was still time left in

hope to avoid Gods wrath to come, he called for the priest to blow the trumpet a second time to gather the people so the priest could intercede for them.

• God is not eager to punish• His judgments are designed to bring people to repentance• God is not easily angered• Joel appealed to God to on behalf of the people to save them both

for their salvation and His Glory

Future Restoration

• When His people have repented, God will have pity on them he will restore the land and remove their reproach among nations and at last they will recognize Him as their God. (This is a far term prophecy)

His Spirit For All Who Seek It

• Sometime after this God will pour out his spirit upon all those in a right relationship with the Lord.

• The out pouring will be accompanied by signs and wonders in nature, all in preparation for the great day of the Lord. 2:30-31 It will move people to seek salvation and deliverance from judgement.

His Spirit For All Who Seek It

• Peter saw this outpouring at Pentecost as a fulfillment of prophecy see acts 2:1-21

• Another such outpouring is expected at the end of the tribulation, which will usher in the millennium.

Interpretive Problems

• The nature of the army– The reason being details in chapter 2 verses 1-11

• The great numerical size of the invader 2: 2,5

• The destruction of the land 2:3

• The Leaping and scaling ability of the invaders 2:5,7

• The darkening of the sky 2:10

Interpretive Problems

• A more likely Interpretation is that a literal foreign army is envisioned using a literary parallel.– That the army in chapter two is being described in locust like

terms.– Both were instruments of the Lords judgment, one past one

future.• The army in 2:11 is called the northern army, translated literally the

northerner

Interpretive Problems

• An Assyrian inscription from the time of Sargon II (722-705 b.c.)• “The city of Aniash-tania . . . together with 17 cities of its

neighborhood, I [Sargon] destroyed, I leveled to the ground; the large timbers of their roots I set on fire, their crops [and] their stubble I burned, their filled-up granaries I opened and let my army devour the unmeasured grain. Like swarming locusts I turned the beasts of my camps into its meadows, and they tore up the vegetation on which it [the city] depended; they devastated its plain” (D.D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926-1927, 2:85).

Interpretive Problems

• Locust usually attack Palestine from the South or Southeast (although it has happened from the North and Northeast)

• Historically and eschatological armies are often described invading from the North

– Assyria Isa. 14:25, 31– Babylon Jer. 6:1, 22; 15:12; Ezek. 26:7– Gog Ezek 38:15

• The curses in Deuteronomy associate locust with invading armies, both devoured agricultural produce

Interpretive Problems

• The day of the Lord– Though the description of “the day of the Lord” was certainly

influenced by traditions relating to the Lord’s intervention in Israel’s early wars (cf. Gerhard von Rad, “The Origin of the Concept of the Day of Yahweh,” Journal of Semitic Studies 4. 1959:97-108), the expression itself is ultimately derived from the idea, prevalent in the ancient Near East, that a mighty warrior-king could consummate an entire military campaign in a single day (cf. Douglas Stuart, “The Sovereign’s Day of Conquest,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 220/21.

Interpretive Problems

• The day of the Lord is an idiom used to emphasize the swift and decisive nature of the Lord’s victory over His enemies on any given occasion.

Interpretive Problems

• In the Old Testament “the day of the Lord” may refer to either a particular historical event or an eschatological battle which will culminate the present age.– (1) “The day of the Lord” sometimes involves the judgment of

God’s people Sometimes this judgment appears in the context of a more universal judgment on all nations.

Interpretive Problems

• “The day of the Lord” often involves the judgment of foreign nations, including Babylon (at the hands of the Medes; Egypt (at the hands of the Babylonians; Edom and the eschatological northern coalition headed by Gog

Valley Of Jehoshaphat

• Also referred to as the of decision• Meaning the Lord Judges• Usually referred to as the battle of Armageddon

Key Verse

• 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.

Rom 10:13For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Application

• Joel’s message is all about repentance• God is sovereign over all people• He judges them for their wickedness and sin• That with true repentance, comes blessings God is a

forgiving God!• Today is the day of Salvation from Gods wrath

My Questions To Look Up

• Is a plague a swarm or a plague– It’s a swarm