“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
“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."
