"Repent For The Day Of The Lord Approaches" Joel
WarriorforJesus
The Simple Truth
May 12, 2019
"Regarding The Prophecies Of The Prophet Joel In Comparison To Current Events and Modern Times"
Transcript:
The prophecy of Joel may seem unimportant as it contains only three brief chapters. However, this little book is like an atom bomb—it is not very big, but it sure is potent and powerful. For one we know that this man Joel was a prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah. Joel prophesied as one of the early prophets and it is generally conceded by conservative scholars that Joel prophesied about the time of the reign of Joash, king of Judah. That would mean that he was a contemporary with and probably knew both Elijah and Elisha. Joel’s theme is “the day of the LORD.” He makes specific reference to it five times: Joel 1:15; 2:1–2; 2:10–11; 2:30–31; and 3:14–16. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel all refer to the Day of the Lord. Sometimes they call it “that day.” Zechariah particularly emphasizes “that day.” What is “that day”? It is the Day of the Lord, or the Day of Jehovah. The Day of the Lord is a technical expression in Scripture which is fraught with meaning. It includes the millennial kingdom which will come at the second coming of Christ, but Joel is going to make it very clear to us that it begins with the Great Tribulation period, the time of great trouble. If you want to set a boundary or parenthesis at the end of the Day of the Lord, it would be the end of the Millennium when the Lord Jesus puts down all unrighteousness and establishes His eternal Kingdom here upon the earth. Joel is the one who introduces the Day of the Lord in prophecy. Yonder from the mountaintop of the beginning of written prophecy, this man looked down through the centuries, seeing further than any other prophet saw—he saw the Day of the Lord.
James, at the great council of Jerusalem, more or less outlined the relationship between the church age and this period known as the Day of the Lord. He said, “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up” (Acts 15:14–16). James says, “After this”—after what? After He calls out the church from this world, God will again turn to His program with Israel, and it is to this time that the Day of the Lord refers. James went on to say, “That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things” (Acts 15:17). Today God is calling out of the Gentiles a people; in that day, all the Gentiles who will be entering the Kingdom will seek the Lord. I think there will be a tremendous turning to God at that time unlike any the church has ever witnessed. Someone may question,“Why is God following this program?” James said, “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:18). Don’t ask me why God is following this program—ask Him, because I do not know and nobody else knows. He is following this program because it is His program and it is His universe. He is not responsible to you or to me. God doesn’t turn in a report at the end of the week to tell us what He’s been doing and to receive our approval. My friend, all I can say is that it is just too bad if you and I don’t like it because, after all, we are just creatures down here in this world.
Joel writes in the midst of crisis. A devastating locust plague had attacked Israel and left virtually no vines or grain: "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 has left, the destroying locust has eaten" (1:4). "The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but after them a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them" (2:3). Joel tells the drunkards to weep because all wine is now cut off since the vines are eaten and gone (1:5). But for Joel the tragedy is felt most keenly because "the cereal offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord" (1:9). The plague was no accident. Joel sees it as a judgment from God on the people who had left the Lord. The locusts are God's army: "The Lord utters his voice before his army, and his host is exceedingly great; he that executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?" (Joel 2:11). So Joel calls for repentance: "'Yet even now,' says 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 . . . Who knows whether he shall not turn and repent and leave a blessing behind him?" (2:12–14). And the people respond to Joel's preaching with the result that God's jealousy for his people is stirred up. "The Lord answered and said to his people, 'Behold I am sending you grain and wine and oil, and you shall be satisfied, and I shall no more make you a reproach among the nations."
Joel had called the judgment of God in the locust plague "the day of the Lord" (2:11). But now he sees another "day of the Lord" coming, "great and terrible" (2:31). It shall be signaled by portents in the sky and signs on earth for all to see, and the whole earth shall be summoned for judgment: "I shall gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat (which means Yahweh judges), and I shall enter into judgment with them there" (3:2). But before this cataclysmic judgment occurs, God promises that a great outpouring of his Spirit will happen: "I shall pour out my spirit on all flesh" (2:28).
The Day of the Lord is also an expression that is peculiar to the prophets of the Old Testament. It does not include the period when the church is in the world, because none of the prophets spoke about a group of people who would be called out from among the Gentiles, the nation Israel, and all the tribes of the earth, to be brought into one great body called the church which would be raptured out of this world. The prophets neither spoke nor wrote about the church. There are several special features about the prophecy of Joel which I would like to point out. Joel was the first of the writing prophets, and as he looked down through the centuries, he saw the coming of the Day of the Lord. However, I do not think he saw the church at all—none of the prophets did. When the Lord Jesus went to the top of the Mount of Olives, men who were schooled in the Old Testament came and asked Him, “What is the sign of the end of the age?” Our Lord didn’t mention His Cross to them at that time. He didn’t tell them then about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He didn’t tell them about the church period or mention the Rapture to them. Instead, the Lord went way down to the beginning of the Day of the Lord. He dated it, but it’s not on your calendar or mine; the events He predicted will identify it for the people who will be there when the Day of the Lord begins: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)” (Matt. 24:15). That is how we are to know the beginning of the Day of the Lord. Joel will make it clear to us that it begins with night—that is, it begins as a time of trouble. After all, the Hebrew day always began at sunset. Genesis tells us, “And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5). We begin at sunup, but God begins at sundown. The Day of the Lord, therefore, begins with night. The first chapter of Joel is a dramatic and literary gem. It is a remarkable passage of Scripture, unlike anything you will find elsewhere in literature. Finally, Joel’s prophecy contains the very controversial passage in which he mentions the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which was referred to by the apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost (see Joel 2:28–29). There is a difference of interpretation concerning the out pouring of the Holy Spirit, and we will look at that in detail when we come to it.
In the Old Testament in the book of Joel the consequences of the terrible events described by one of Gods Prophets are certainly clear: God will one day wipe out all evil and start creation all over again but this time it will be an Eternal Heavenly Spiritual version of creation without sin. However the book of Joel teaches us that during the destruction of old creation comes eternal protection and Spiritual Salvation for those who believe in Jesus through Gods Holy Spirit of Truth, causing seemingly ordinary people to have visions, divine dreams, when they are filled with God's Spirit, ensuring us that the Day of the Lord is even closer at hand today than ever before. “I shall pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. Even on My servants, both men and women, I shall pour out My Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28–29)
Peter (in Acts 2:16–17) quoted these same verses in Joel to explain what was happening on Shavuot (The day of Pentecost) when the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) fell upon the early Jewish Believers in Jesus (Yeshua), causing them to speak boldly, even in other languages, about their risen Messiah.
The Book of Joel accounts for justice over evil in a form that's unique to the other Old Testament prophets. The Hebrew prophet Yo’el (יוֹאֵל or Joel, meaning the LORD is God) provides some of the most exceptional and explicit details regarding the Day of the Lord, a time of judgment in our not-too-distant future that will be cloaked in darkness with armies that conquer like consuming fire. Joel reflects on the "Day of the Lord" and how True Repentance is the only way to ever bring about the great restoration hoped for in the other prophetic books through out the Holy Bible. “Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound the alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD is coming, for it is at hand.” (Joel 2:1)
Joel also tells us that in the end times, God will orchestrate the complete redemption of Israel, describing celestial signs involving the sun, moon, and heavenly bodies. “The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance.” (Joel 2:31–32) Although the Prophet Joel tells us about key end-time events that likely concern us today, he is a somewhat obscure, mysterious character. While Joel 1:1 tells us that Joel is the son of Pethuel, little else is known about him. The Bible offers no other explanation about the author’s life, the time in which he lived, or the king who was reigning in Judah. The prophet’s name is given only once in Joel, and he is mentioned nowhere else in the Tanakh, although Amos seems to quote him (Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2) as does Isaiah (Joel 1:15: Isaiah 13:6). Because of that, some conclude that Joel prophesied before these other prophets. While some scholars have estimated Joel’s writings as being eighth century, before Amos, others estimate late 6th and early 5th century BC, a time at which the Temple was standing and the memories of the Babylonian exile were fresh in the minds of the people.
We can tell, however, that Joel’s prophecies begin in his own day and extend to the Day of the Lord—the end-time judgment, as well as Israel’s end-time restoration. For that reason, the words of the Prophet Joel are entirely relevant for us today. Similar to many of the prophets’ writings, Joel emphasizes the importance of Israel’s relationship with the Lord and the consequences of their sin. That relationship was codified, or drawn up into a legal document called the Mosaic Covenant at Mount Sinai. In that covenant, the Lord promised through Moses that “if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5–6) In this conditional agreement, the people vowed to do their part in maintaining the relationship, saying, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” (Exodus 19:8) Chapter 1 of Joel begins with the consequence of Israel’s sin, followed by Joel’s instruction to the people to turn from sin and receive God’s restorative blessings, instead of His wrath because God has told Israel that if they do not obey God and follows His laws, then instead of Gods Blessings they shall instead recieve Gods curses.
“The vine has dried up, the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate, even the date palm and the apple—every tree in the field has dried up. Joy itself has dried up among the people.” (Joel 1:12) In describing the total destruction of the harvest, followed by a severe drought, Joel describes curses and a famine the Israelite's had never seen before—one in which even the animals groan in despair. God makes it clear that this plague and famine is His work and no natural disaster: “the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, [are] My great army, which I sent among you.” (Joel 2:25) By chapter 2, Joel uses the imagery of the swarming, hopping, cutting locusts as an object lesson and a metaphor to describe another vast destruction coming in the future where great armies “have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops.” (Joel 2:4–5)
Without any reference point for helicopters, planes, tanks or special forces with advanced weaponry and rappelling skills, Joel could only describe this future army in relation to the familiar horses, chariots, and locusts: “They burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.” (2:8–9) Because Joel connects this invading army to the Day of the Lord, he could have been seeing the same battle that the Prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 38–39) or the Seer Asaph (Psalm 83) saw, or even the last battle at Har Megiddo (Armageddon) in Revelation 16. Yet, like other true prophets of God who bring news of approaching doom, Joel also provides hope for the people by showing them the only way to receive both physical and spiritual restoration, is by believing, worshiping and repenting unto Gods way, through the Lord God Jesus Christ The True Messiah.
Whenever we experience God’s judgment or discipline, we are in danger of falling away from our faith in Him, from believing that He loves us or that He is even real. Moreover, when non-Believers see calamity come upon us, they, too, wonder if the God we have been sharing about is a good God or even real. Joel understands this reality and is zealous to protect God’s integrity. He gathers the priests, elders and all the people together and focuses them back on the One they entered into the Mosaic covenant with: “Proclaim a holy fast! Call an assembly! Gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, to the house of the Lord, your God, and cry out to the Lord!” (Joel 1:14) The Lord Himself also pleads with His people to return to Him in sincere repentance: "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.’” (Joel 2:12) Whatever the cause of our calamities, God is always there to see us through. When we cry out to Him, turn from our wicked ways, and return to Him, we find that “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” (Joel 2:13)
We cannot see God fully work out His mercies, however, unless we renew our relationship with Him by giving Him permission to enter our lives as we seek to do His will. In Joel’s day, the people simply had to turn from sin and walk in the covenant given through Moses. In addition to the people turning back to the promises they made to God in that covenant, Joel charges intercessors to act on behalf of the people. Joel tells them to remind the Lord of His covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in which He would make their descendants great in number, give them a land, and make them a blessing to the world. Unlike the Mosaic covenant, the covenant God made with Abraham was unconditional. God alone cut the covenant while Abraham slept. There is nothing the People of Israel have to do for God to keep this promise. (Genesis 15:12–21) “Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, ‘Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?” (Joel 2:17) If the Israelite's had perished during this time of judgment against them, God would have broken the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As a result, His heritage—the children of Israel that He called to be set apart as holy—would have been shamed, and His name mocked by the nations. This is the same argument that Moses made to God when he interceded for the disobedient Israelite's in the wilderness. He basically told God—If you kill your people, no matter how disobedient they are, the Egyptians will think you planned to kill them all along. They will never learn of your holiness or see your great promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob come to pass. (see Exodus 32:9–13) After this intercessory plea by Moses, “the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened.” (Exodus 32:14)
Chapter 2 of Joel sees the period in the end-times when the Jewish People rend their hearts in sincere repentance and cry out to Him for their salvation. As a result, the Lord is “jealous for His land” and takes “pity on His people.” (Joel 2:18) Believers in Jesus are also called to be God’s Holy People, a royal priesthood and, as His priests, we each have the responsibility to intercede for the spiritual and physical salvation of the Jewish People. We can intercede for their protection against the spirit of Antisemitism that tries to kill every Jew on earth, by reminding God of His promises to them as we pray: The spirit of Antisemitism is so evil and so aggressive that in 1948, when God miraculously re birthed the nation of Israel and the ancient Hebrew language, five neighboring nations immediately attacked and invaded her, which seems to be at least a partial fulfillment of Joel, and this vile hatred of Israel and the Jewish people is still ongoing. These same nations and more, are still trying to destroy the land of Israel and the people that God has promised to protect forever: “‘Then you shall know that I, the Lord your God, dwell upon Mt. Zion, My Holy Hill.
Jerusalem shall be Holy; never again shall foreigners invade her. … But Egypt shall be desolate, Edom into a desert waste, because of violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. Judah shall be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations. Shall I leave their innocent blood un-avenged? No, I shall not.’ For the Lord dwells upon Mt. Zion!” (Joel 3:17–21) Because God is a promise-keeping God, we can hold Him to these promises in our prayers for the Jewish People, as well as for ourselves and those for whom we intercede. “O! The day! For near is the day of the Lord, like destruction from the Almighty it is coming!” (Joel 1:15) Like every good prophet, Joel had a greater application to the very real curse of locusts. Joel wanted to prepare the people of Israel and all of us for the coming Day of the Lord’s judgment and the destruction that will lead up to it. (Joel 2:12–17) Joel describes it as being unlike any day from the past or the future—“a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds!” (Joel 2:2) Joel sees this day, which is far into the future, to our very day and beyond, to a time of judgment for the nations—nations responsible for divvying up His land: “Because they scattered them among the nations, they divided up My land. For My people they cast lots, trading a young boy for the price of a prostitute, exchanging a young girl for the wine they drank.” (Joel 3:2–3)
The Lord is still jealous for His land and He still keeps His covenants; therefore, He will keep His promise to avenge Israel and judge the nations for how they treated His land and His people: “In those days [the last days] and at that time [the end time], when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to My inheritance, My people Israel, because they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land.” (Joel 3:1–2) In the past 65 years, the world has seen the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem being restored, “the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.” (Joel 2:22) Before that great Day of Judgment comes, though, there are more signs to be fulfilled. God then says He shall perform specific signs in the latter days. The first is the sign of prophecy: For 2,000 years, many of Gods signs have been visible in varying degrees, but as we come closer to the very last days, we shall see a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit around the world, especially among individual Believers of Jesus, some who are even now experiencing God’s manifest glory in tangible ways, including prophecy, visions, and dreams.
In addition to the sign of prophecy, we are perhaps in the midst of witnessing the second sign that Joel speaks about. “The sun will darken, the moon turn blood-red, before the day of the Lord arrives, that great and terrible day.” (Joel 2:31) In his third and last chapter, Joel mentions a blood moon in connection with the Day of the Lord. We are currently in the midst of a period of a series of Blood Moons called Tetrads. These blood moons seem to occur in and on Passover and Sukkot, two of God’s Moeds (Gods Appointed Times), feast/festivals that celebrate redemption and the Exodus from slavery in Egypt and to freedom in Israel. Blood Moons are eclipsed moons that reflect the earth’s light and give the appearance of a reddish glow that appears to turn the moon blood red in color. While these series of blood moons (Blood Moon Tetrads) may not be linked to the great judgment day that Joel prophesies of, in the past, they have been linked to momentous events in the history of the Jewish People and the nation of Israel as a whole.
For example, in 1493–94 their occurrence was linked with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492). A Blood Moon Tetrad occurred again in 1949–50 just months after David Ben Gurion issued the Declaration of Independence for the newborn State of Israel, giving the Jewish people their ancient homeland and capital of Jerusalem after a 2,000-year exile. Their appearance during the years 1967–68 was linked with Israel’s Six Day War and the regaining of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Regarding the current Tetrads, the Temple Mount Faithful website says that “the blood moons and dark suns on the Feasts of Passover and Sukkot indicate again judgment upon the nations that continue to pressure or to fight against Israel in order to destroy her, such as Iran, and Turkey who prepare themselves for war ‘to remove Israel from off the map of the world.'” As we study the prophecies of Joel, written 2,500 to 2,800 years ago, we cannot help but see their relevance for today when so many of the signs that he predicted are coming to pass. The Day of the Lord of which Joel speaks is not to be feared by those who bless Israel, but it should be feared by the nations who turn against His people and divide up His land; they will be judged in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. While Joel reminds us all of God’s great promises to avenge Israel’s enemies, restore her land, and prosper His people, He reminds us of another important truth: Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)
Note that the day of the Lord, is a reference to the day when Gods Days of Wrath and Judgments begin, a period of judgment and restoration, which shall consists of three basic features:
The judgment of God's people both physically and spiritually.
The judgment of foreign nations for it's hatred of Gods people and Gods Nation Israel.
The purification and restoration of God's people through intense suffering during the tribulation, the great tribulation and the Day of Gods Wrath even unto both physical and spiritual life and death. We find each of these elements in the book of Joel, as it offers one of the most complete pictures in Scripture of this ultimately redemptive both physical and spiritual event (Joel 2:1–11; 2:28–32; 3:1–16). Joel sees in the future judgments of God. Just as the locusts devoured the land of Judah back in the old testament for failing to Believe and repent unto the one True God of Israel, so shall the land of America and of future Israel be devoured by enemy armies, unless both nations repent of their sins and come back unto the Lord God. For the Lord promises to the people who repent, whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish, an ultimate deliverance from disaster, either physical or spiritual or both.
Joel also warns that punishment against all of the nations who have wronged Israel and the Jewish people, specifically, Tyre, Sidon, the Philistines, Egypt and Edom. Joel mentions the great and terrible "day of the Lord" which is also a day of Gods wrath bestowed upon an unrepentant world in the future. However Joel is quick to remind us that everyone who believes in Jesus and who Repents and who then calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ The True Messiah, they shall be saved. In chapter 2, Joel makes the famous prediction of the Lord "After I have poured out My rains again, I will pour out My Spirit upon all of you! Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men see visions." The theme of Joel's message is one of coming judgment if Jerusalem and the world at hand do not repent. Joel also speaks of coming prosperity and final blessings, for the people who do ultimately respond in faith, however most of them shall reap those rewards in Heaven. I conclude, therefore, that the prophecy of Joel 2:28–32 does apply to us, precisely to us and especially to us who claim to pin our hope for spiritual salvation of our immortal eternal spiritual soul on Jesus and what God did upon the cross through Jesus for us.
