“Judgment and Salvation” The Message of Joel - Cameron Jungles 6-12-2013

“Judgment and Salvation”: The Message of Joel (Eastside Baptist/June 12, 2013/Wed PM)

 

The Message of Joel

Ø  Setting and Context

Ø  Structure & Message

Ø  Important Themes

Ø  “Jesus Lens” and New Testament Application

 

Setting and Context

Ø  Little knowledge of author

Ø  Uncertain historical setting

o   Late pre-exilic after fall of Israel, before fall of Jerusalem

o   Post-exilic after rebuilding of temple and Jerusalem walls

Ø  Implications for interpretation

 

Structure & Message

Ø  Superscription (1:1)

Ø  Locust plague (1:2-12)

Ø  Lament (1:13-20)

Ø  Impending Invasion (2:1-11)

Ø  Call to Repent (2:12-17)

Ø  Restoration (2:18-32)

Ø  Judgment & Salvation (3:1-21)

 

Locust Plague (1:2-12)

Ø  Judah/Jerusalem

Ø  Described as a past event

Ø  Figuratively described as invading army (1:6)

Ø  Complete agricultural devastation

Ø  Results in famine and depression

 

Joel 1:4

What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.

 

Joel 1:12

The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree-- all the trees of the field--are dried up. Surely the people's joy is withered away.

 

Call to Lament (1:13-20)

Ø  Lament and Sorrow expressed through fasting and mourning

Ø  Lamenting a past event

Ø  Locust plague appears to be a portent of a yet coming judgment from God (Day of the LORD) (1:15).

 

Joel 1:13

Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

 

Impending Invasion (2:1-11)

Ø  Described as future event

Ø  Locusts or human armies?

Ø  Recent locust invasion used to figuratively describe future Day of the LORD judgment

Ø  Will Day of LORD bring judgment or blessing?

 

Joel 2:11

The LORD thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the LORD is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

 

Call to Repent (2:12-17)

Ø  Repent from the heart!

Ø  No specific sins listed

Ø  Repentance of all the people – no one exempt

Ø  God is compassionate and may relent and bring blessing.

Ø  For the sake of God’s Name!

 

Joel 2:12-13

"Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." Rend your heart and not your garments…

 

Joel 2:16

Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

Joel 2:17

…Let them say, "Spare your people, LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God? '"

 

Restoration (2:18-32)

Ø  Repentance leads to restoration

Ø  Reversal of locust devastation

Ø  Abundance of food and wine

Ø  Future blessing of outpouring of the Holy Spirit (DoL).

Ø  Universal blessings – salvation beyond Israel’s borders

 

Joel 2:18

Then the LORD was jealous for his land and took pity on his people.

Joel 2:19

The LORD replied to them: "I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.

 

Joel 2:28

"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

Joel 2:29

Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

Joel 2:30

I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

Joel 2:31

The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Joel 2:32

And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

 

Judgment & Salvation (3:1-21)

Ø  Future judgment of the nations for their mistreatment of God’s people (described as warfare)

Ø  God’s people saved and protected during final judgment

Ø  Kingdom peace and prosperity

 

Joel 3:2

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 3:16

The LORD will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the heavens will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

 

Joel 3:18

"In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the LORD's house and will water the valley of acacias.

 

Important Themes

Ø  Day of the LORD

o   Not a single event

o   Locust plague is type/shadow of future Day of LORD.

o   God’s decisive intervention for blessing and/or judgment

o   Israelites not spared judgment if in rebellion against God

Ø  Covenant (Deuteronomy)

o   Locust plague is covenantal curse (Deut 28:22, 38-42).

o   God’s chastening of his people

o   God’s zeal and faithfulness to bless and restore his people

o   Restoration through repentance

Ø  “Telescoping” of Prophecy

o   Locust plague symbolic (and also part) of Day of the LORD, linked to future, climactic Day of LORD.

o   Restoration of land/crops after locusts symbolic of future peace/prosperity and outpouring of Spirit in Kingdom of God.

 

“Jesus Lens” and Application

Ø  Judgment and Salvation meet at the Cross of Christ.

Ø  Judgment precedes restoration.

Ø  Christ took our judgment that we might be saved.

Ø  Christ inaugurated the new age and poured out the Spirit.

Ø  The blessings of salvation and the gift of the Spirit are now for all people – “whoever calls on the name of the Lord.”

Ø  There is still a future, climactic Day of the LORD coming.

 

2 Peter 3:10

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

2 Peter 3:11

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives…

 

Ø  After this Day of the LORD, there will be a time of restoration, peace, and joy as Joel predicted.

Ø  God loves his covenant children enough to discipline them.

 

Hebrews 12:5

And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

Hebrews 12:6

because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son."