Joel 2

Well, hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Joel chapter 2. Joel. Done with Jeremiah. I did second John. Where were you? Oh, we've done the beginning of 1st of Joel chapter 1 and now we're all the way to Joel chapter 2. Maybe you've just been joining us and probably I haven't explained it. We are working through a whole bunch of J's this year. So we started in Joshua and then, or sorry, maybe we started in Judges and then went to the New Testament with 1st John and so we're going to do J, J, J, J, J. So we've still got 3rd John and Jonah and we got the book of Jude to do, but today we're at at Joel chapter two. So, you've got to find it. If you're trying to flip in your Bible to Joel, you're going to find it in all the minor prophets. So, all the way at the very end. So, keep going after the wisdom literature. So, keep going. Well, you're, hold on. Over here's Jeremiah. So, it's after Jeremiah. So, Jeremiah's one of the major prophets. If you get to the New Testament, you're too far. Keep going. Joel, Amos, Daniel, Hosea. Keep going. It's just before Amos. Alright, Joel chapter 2. There you go.
Alright, let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Okay. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word and we pray that as we read your word, your Holy Spirit would help us to not just read it and know how to sound out the words, but we pray that your Holy Spirit would help us to understand it and have it applied to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're just going to read a paragraph, talk back and forth again. Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an 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 a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations." What's that talking about? Somebody great is going to rise up. Well, the great one is going to be the Lord, right? So, this is about verse 1, for the day of the Lord is coming, right? This is a judgment day that's going to come.
Alright, you want to read 3-5? A fire devours them, and behind them are flame-borns. The land is like the goddess of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. Surely nothing shall escape them, their appearances like the appearance of horses, and likes for steeds. So they run, with a noise like chariots, over mountains they leap, like the noise of flaming fire that devours the stubble, like strong people set in battle array. Alright, oh somebody you're right somebody's coming now, but who's it gonna be? It almost sounds like flaming horses. Yeah, but it's like, like, like, like. Let's see. Before them, the people writhe in pain. All faces are drained of color. They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like mighty men. Everyone marches in formation, and they do not break ranks. They do not push one another. Everyone marches in his own column though. They lunge between the weapons. They are not cut down They run to and fro in the city. They run on the wall. They climb into the houses. They enter at the windows like a thief
Okay, whatever this army is this is crazy Yeah, read 1011. Yeah Earthquakes before them the heavens tremble the Sun and the moon grows dark The stars diminish their brightness the Lord gives voice for before his army for his camp is very great a strong one First for strong is the one who executes his ward for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible who can endure it hmm, so this is describing the Lord's army and I don't know. What do you think this army is? I don't know. Maybe we should keep reading.
Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. and he relents from doing harm. Who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for Jehovah, your God.
What's this, Gidnet? Bestial hope. Yeah. Return from your sins. Who knows, right? God is merciful and gracious. Maybe he'll turn from this judgment.
Go ahead. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Call the sacred assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather the children and the nursing graves. Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests who minister to the Lord weep between the porch and the altar. Let them say, spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your heritage to a poach. that the nation should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God?
So what's that talking about? The people of God should, the people of God should, they should reverence the fear of the Lord and turn from the evil and look to the one. Yeah. Yeah. Notice like this is all like religious language, right? Consecrate a fast. Blow the trumpet in Zion. That's how you would call the feast. Call the sacred assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather all the people. Let the priests who minister in the Lord weep between the courts and the altar. Repent and come worship the Lord.
So that army before, most commentators say this was like a flood of locusts coming in, like God destroying the fields and them climbing the walls and getting in houses and stuff like that, right? Then this like, He's brought this horrible calamity. Won't you wake up and listen? The judgment is coming.
Then the Lord will be zealous for His land and pity His people. The Lord will answer and say to his people, Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them. I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. God is going to turn. He will relent. Good. But I will move far from you, the northern army, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land. With his face to the eastern sea and his back to the western sea, his stench will come up and his foul odor will rise because he has done monstrous things. a stinky army. Yeah, the Assyrians did and then the Babylonians, right? So this is one of the hard things with sometimes when people try to date the Book of Job is Joel. Joel, sorry. Thank you. Yeah, right. So this northern army, he's going to send them away, right?
Fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things. Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field, for the open pastures are springing up and the trees bear its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and will cause the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil."
The desolation is probably going to be changed into blessing. So fields that were stripped bare are now going to be green Barns that were empty we're going to be filled Wine vats that were drained are going to have wine So I will stall to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten crawling with the consuming locusts and then chewing locusts and My great army, which I sent among you, you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied. And praise the name of the Lord your God, who is dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.
So what's that talking about? That people will not be put to shame. Yeah, right. He's going to restore back to them, right? He brought the locust, but he's going to bring it, bring back the food. He, he did these things and he's restoring to them. Good.
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, your young men shall see visions, and also on my menservants and my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. So, this is after the Babylon. Well, so yeah, he's going to bring fresh prophecy and pour out his spirit. Good.
You want to read 33-32? And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fires, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be torn into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. From Mount Zion and Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.
Alright, so he's going to show these wonders and these signs of the heavens. It's interesting. This whole day of the Lord, day of the Lord, day of the Lord. It's interesting because especially in verse 28 and 29 about these seeing visions and having dreams and prophesying. That's what Peter in the book of Acts says is happening in their midst. the people aren't drunk, but that God has poured out his Holy Spirit.
And so you have like Philip, we call him Philip the Evangelist. He has four daughters and they prophesy. Did you notice that? Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
You end up with Paul having new revelations and Peter having new revelations right this is what Ephesians talks about with God blessing and giving the church good gifts and he gave prophets and our apostles and prophets and evangelists and preachers and even teachers right and so he's he's given these good gifts to the church and so the book of Acts wants to say we're in the midst of it that's that's where it's like it's gonna be really hard to take How much is history and how much is prophecy?
Well, it is prophecy. I don't think he's prophesying after the fact, history. I think he's writing from before this happens. He's talking about the Day of the Lord. But this is one of the things that regularly happens in the Day of the Lord.
Actually, somebody told me a good illustration of this, another pastor recently. He said, when you're talking about the Day of the Lord, right? You always have a near reference and then a far reference, right? Because the far reference is like that great last Judgment Day, right? But in the Old Testament, you talk about the Day of the Lord and then in the New Testament, there's even talk about the Judgment Day and there's things that like, okay, well, when Assyria conquered Israel, that was kind of like a day of the Lord. And then when Babylon conquered Israel, that was like day of the Lord. And then when Rome sacked Jerusalem, that was kind of like a fulfillment of the Judgment Day.
But he said the illustration is kind of like, you know, when we've driven to the Rocky Mountains before. mountains and and you just come up out of the out of the eastern plains and as you come up out of the eastern plains, you just see mountains and they all look like basically one row of mountains but then when you start driving through the mountains, you realize you go through one peak and there might even be a flat area and then on the other side, there's more mountains and then you drive through those mountains and then there's even more mountains, greater mountains, bigger It's saying like that's almost like the picture of the day of the Lord and the judgment day It's like there's a near reference and a far reference
So so what does this call us to do? I Think this calls us maybe to understand that Well, that's people that Jesus has brought us back and so now we are God's people. This does not just apply to Israel as Old Testament, but because of Jesus Christ, we are.
Okay. It's better for him to go than to stay, right? Because he was able to pour out his Holy Spirit on us. Good. I would say, right, if that's true, if this is applying to us today, if it's fulfilled in our hearing today, then I better be repenting. I better be looking and seeing where is there sin in my life? Where do I need to call the sacred fast? Where do I need to turn away from sin? Where do I need to rejoice in the Lord and know that He's merciful and He's gracious and He's abounding in love and kindness and that He can turn things back.
Today is the day that we can repent. Today is the day that we can believe. Today is the day that we can worship Him. So, that's where I would go. especially knowing that there is still yet a day of the Lord to come, a final judgment day, where he will judge all the living and the dead. Good? Yep. You want to pray? Sure.
Okay. God, thank you for a great day that we can come and walk for your glory. God, please help us to remember that we should put away our sin, put away the former things, and repent and follow You, and that there will be a day of the Lord, the final judgment. We should rejoice and be glad that the Lord Jesus Christ came, and that we do not have to cower in fear, but rejoice in the Lord our God. In Jesus' name, amen.
May you not cower in fear, but may you walk in the joy of the Lord. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.