A Study Of "The Day Of The Lord” In The Scriptures – All References Part 4 - Joel Series

A STUDY OF “THE DAY OF THE LORD” IN THE SCRIPTURES – ALL REFERENCES PART 4 - JOEL

The DAY OF THE LORD is “The Day of Jehovah” and its usage is always associated with something dire, with judgement, and with events outside the implementation of man. In other words, it is the intervention of God with the power of God in the affairs of this world after the Rapture. It has a primary application to Israel, but that is always extended often to a wider field, and that involves the world. It’s main focus is in the Tribulation that is coming. We continue -

NUMBER 8

[08]. Joel 2:28 (and) It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions, Joel 2:29 and even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. Joel 2:30 I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth - blood, fire, and columns of smoke. Joel 2:31 The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes, Joel 2:32 and it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered, for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.” (NASB)

((This is another amazing prophecy, one that has not been fulfilled. Peter quoted this in part at Pentecost, but the proper fulfillment is set right at the end of the Tribulation and in the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.

It is absolutely vital here to consider the context. Verse 28 states, “AFTER THIS” and those two words must be placed in context. We need to ask, “After What?” To understand this correctly, we have to backtrack so we realise what precedes the “AFTER THIS” and the “after this” was partly covered in PART 3 in this series. The KJV and the NIV translates as “afterward”.

What goes before that verse is the account of great judgement on the land and on Israel’s enemies, BUT then there comes a great restoration. This is when the Lord returns to the nation and Israel is restored in righteousness to God. Let us look at the preceding verses leading into verse 28 – {{Joel 2:25 “Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you, Joel 2:26 and you shall have plenty to eat and (thatbe satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. Then My people will never be put to shame. Joel 2:27 Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is no other, AND MY PEOPLE WILL NEVER BE PUT TO SHAME.”}}

When the Messiah returns, and after defeating all the world’s armies in Israel, (that is Armageddon), then He rules from Jerusalem. Zechariah covers that well. Look above at verse 25. The promise is that all the wasted years of sin and rebellion and hardship and persecution among the nations of the world for 2 850 years, is going to be righted and everything restored to them. Israel will be redeemed and settled in its own land with no more “locusts of shame and defeat.” Look at verse 26 and 27. “Then My people will never be put to shame.” Imagine that just for a moment. Israel will be settled in its own land forever and never more will the people of God know war or/and disharmony. Rebellion will be gone forever. No more will Israel ever be shamed again. That is the context for the momentous verse 28. It is “in those days” of verse 29, all this will happen when God pours out his Spirit.

ONLY AFTER ISRAEL IS SETTLED WITH THE LORD IN HER MIDST, only then, with the land at rest and the people righteous, only then, will the Holy Spirit be poured out on them. It will not happen before. All those conditions must be fulfilled first. These are the Tribulation saints, brought back from all over the world and settled in their own country once the Lord Messiah reigns in Jerusalem. Redeemed and contrite, they are the Lord’s chosen nation.

Mention must be made about the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. In that event God poured out His Holy Spirit and Peter was so stunned that the only thing he could explain it by, was the words from Joel, from this present passage we are speaking of. I am going to quote that passage from Acts and notice the parallels with Joel 2:28-32 and also with Matthew 24.