This morning we’ll begin in earnest our study of the Book of Revelation – God’s final word to His people. As we saw last week, there is really not anything new in the Book of Revelation, but rather John paints for us a number of pictures to help us gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of what we’ve already read in the first sixty-five books of the Bible. So, in a sense, Revelation is merely God’s summary, or His final word on every significant matter that has already been addressed in the Scriptures previously.
And since those previous Scriptures, especially those we find in the Old Testament prophets, are so crucial in laying a proper framework for the Book of Revelation, we’re going to take some time to examine those Scriptures in order to make sure that we let the Scriptures themselves, and not some theory, structure or system developed by man, serve as our guide as we work our way through the Revelation.
To the extent that it is possible based on the information we have, we’re going to work our way through those passages in the chronological order in which they were written, beginning with the earliest prophets. So this morning we’ll begin with the prophet Joel.
Please take your Bibles and open them up to the Book of Joel. You’ll find Joel in the Old Testament right after the major prophetic books of Ezekiel and Daniel, then the prophet Hosea followed by Joel. Since, in many cases, like this morning, we’ll be looking at some larger sections of Scripture, it’s just not practical for me to put those passages in your bulletin inserts or on the screen, so I want to encourage you to bring your Bibles each week. If you don’t have one with you, there are red Bibles in the chair backs throughout the auditorium. This will also have the added advantage of encouraging all of us to actually use our Bibles and to get more familiar with them.
I also want to use a common translation for our entire study of the Book of Revelation and these related Old Testament passages. That will provide us with the advantage of all reading the same words as well as make it much easier to track certain words and phrases through all the different passages we’ll be looking at in order to determine patterns
For a number of reasons, we’ve decided to use the ESV translation in our study, which frankly will require a change for me, too. I’m not going to take a lot of time to explain the reasons we’ve chosen that translation other than to say that it is a good, literal translation of the underlying Hebrew and Greek texts that is also readable.
I know that all of us have our preferred translations and I’m certainly not going to demand that you switch translations. But what we do want to do is to make it easy for everyone to have in their hands a hard copy of the ESV translation that we’ll be using if you’d like to have one. The church is going to order these Bibles in bulk and will make them available to everyone at an amount that will cover our costs. The regular editions will be available for $10 each and the large print edition will be available for $15 each. There is a sign-up sheet at the Welcome Center if you would like to order a Bible. We should have these here within two weeks at the most. In the meantime, I’ve also given you a link in your bulletin to the full ESV text that is available on the internet.
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/
Now that we have those housekeeping matters out of the way, let’s dig into the book of Joel.
Although we’re examining the Book of Joel first, primarily because of its position in the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, it is really difficult to know exactly when Joel prophesied. The most common conservative dating places his ministry during the reign of Joash in the southern kingdom of Judah, somewhere between 850 and 800 BC. But perhaps there is some value in not knowing for certain the specific circumstances under which Joel ministered because it makes the principles which we will find there even more universal in their application since they aren’t limited to any specific time or circumstances.
We really don’t know much about Joel either. He merely identifies himself as the son of Pethuel, someone who is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.
I don’t believe it is at all a coincidence that we’ve begun our journey in the Book of Joel. As we will find in a moment, there is a pattern to the Book of Joel that will be repeated over and over again with other prophecies and which we will also find in the book of Revelation itself.
THE PATTERN
Hopefully, you took advantage of the opportunity to read through the Book of Joel this week. And if you did, I hope that you were able to identify that there are three distinct sections to Joel’s prophecy. And those three sections will help us to identify a pattern that we are going to see over and over again as we look at more Old Testament prophecies, the words of Jesus and the Book of Revelation itself.
Using only the text itself, there are several clues that will help us to identify these three sections. The first clue is the verb tenses, which move from past to future as we progress through the book. And then there are some key connecting words and phrases that also help us identify those sections.
• Three sections:
1. The past locust invasion (1:2-20)
In this section, we find that the verbs used are almost all in the past tense – “has eaten”, “has come up”, “has laid waste”. Joel is describing here a literal invasion of locusts that had occurred in Judah, probably in the very recent past.
Although we aren’t very familiar with locust invasions in our part of the world, they were, and still are a common occurrence in the Middle East. In fact, right now much of Central Asia is suffering the effects of a massive locust invasion that has devastated their food supplies. It certainly would not have been uncommon for the people of Judah to have experienced such invasions on multiple occasions, so this information isn’t really much help in trying to identify a specific event or the timing of Joel’s ministry. But there is no doubt that Joel is referring here to a literal invasion of locusts.
What is really interesting about this particular invasion is that God, through His prophet Joel, tells the people in verse 2 to remember this invasion and to pass on the account to their children and to future generations. Since these kinds of events were common in Judah, why is it that God was so concerned that his people would remember this particular locust invasion?
It is because God is going to use this locust invasion to paint a picture of what the coming future judgments were going to be like. He also wants to make it clear that this locust invasion was not just some random act, but rather that it was His judgment on the sins of His people. Back in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, God had set forth a series of blessings and curses before His people – blessings that would result from keeping His commandments and curses that would result when they violated those commandments. Among the curses we find these words:
You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it.
Deuteronomy 28:38 (ESV)
In chapter 1 of Joel, we clearly see that the locust invasion was in fact God’s judgment on the sins of His people. That is why Joel commands them to lament over their sins and to repent. And as we’ll see more clearly in a minute, there are some aspects of that locust invasion that help us to understand the future judgments that are revealed in the second and third sections of the book.
The locust plague was bad enough, but it was certainly not the end of God’s judgment on His people. Just as the plague of locusts in Egypt preceded the far more terrible judgments of death and darkness, the locust plague in Judah was only a harbinger of something far worse to come.
2. A near-term judgment (2:1-27)
This second judgment is actually hinted at back in chapter 1, verse 15:
For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
And then at the beginning of chapter 2, we find a similar introduction:
…for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near
You will note that the verbs in chapters 2 and 3 are almost entirely in the future tense, indicating that these events would occur in the future when viewed from Joel’s perspective.
You will also note that in both verses that I just referred to, the coming day of the Lord is described as “near”. We’re going to look at this section in more detail next week, but for the purpose of developing the overall structure of the book, let me just say that this section describes an invasion of a human army that seems to have been imminent. Once again, these types of attacks on Judah occurred often throughout its history so we can’t pinpoint with any precision exactly which invasion is in mind here. But it is clear that Joel expected that this judgment was going to happen quite soon. Thus he begins chapter 2 with a command to warn the people of the coming invasion:
Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
3. A far-term judgment and restoration (2:28-3:21)
The third section is set apart from the previously described future judgment by this phrase in chapter 2, verse 28:
And it shall come to pass afterward…
There is further evidence that is an event farther in the future at the beginning of Chapter 3:
…in those days and at that time…
Once again, we’ll come back and look at this section in more detail in a couple of weeks, but for now, what I want us to see is that this is a future event that is even farther in the future from what we observed in the first part of chapter 2.
When we put all this together, we find a pattern that we’re going to see consistently throughout our study, both with the Old Testament prophets and in the Book of Revelation. On the back of your sermon outline I’ve provided a diagram that will hopefully help us to understand that pattern. In a sense what Joel sees can be compared to us standing at the base of Pusch Ridge looking toward the Catalina Mountains. Below us we can see the city of Tucson, in much the way that Joel could look around him and see the devastating effects of the locust invasion that was described in Chapter 1. But as we look towards the mountains, we see Pusch Ridge in our immediate view which equates to Joel’s vision of the near term judgment that was to come as described in the first part of Chapter 2. Then, further away, we see the Catalina Mountains in the distance, towering over Pusch Ridge, a picture of the far term judgment to come as described beginning in Joel 2:28.
But there are some valleys between Pusch Ridge and the Catalina Mountains that we can’t see into from our vantage point because they are obscured by Pusch Ridge itself. Those areas are represented by the shaded areas on your diagram and they picture the events that Joel wasn’t privileged to see from his vantage point. It certainly isn’t that God is not at work at those times. It’s just that He hasn’t permitted Joel to see how He is working then.
We’ll see it in more detail when we get to the last part of Joel, but you’ll also notice that the Day of the Lord pictured for us beginning in Joel 2:28 is an extended period of time that begins with the Day of Pentecost described in Acts 2 and which ends with the final culmination of the Day of the Lord.
At the bottom of the diagram, you will also see a coil spring. This spring represents the picture that we see here in Joel and in the entire Bible where we see similar patterns repeated over and over again. Here the locust invasion is a picture to help us understand both the immediate and far term judgments that are to follow, and the near term judgment is also a picture that helps us to understand the far term judgment.
Not surprisingly, we find this very same pattern portrayed near the beginning of the Book of Revelation:
Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.
Revelation 1:19 (ESV)
So in the Book of Revelation, we can expect to see described those things which have already occurred, those things which are occurring now or about to occur in the very near future and those things that will occur in the more distant future. We must keep this pattern in mind if we are to properly handle the Book of Revelation.
THE DAY OF THE LORD – A DEFINITION
We’ve been using the term “the Day of the Lord” quite frequently so far and we’ll be using it again frequently throughout our journey. So it seems prudent to take a moment to define that term. That exact term is used 19 times in the Old Testament and 5 times in the New Testament. And related forms of the phrase, such as “that day” are also common. We also find the concept demonstrated many other places in Scripture, even when the phrase itself is not used.
Although I researched a number of definitions of the Day of the Lord this week, I couldn’t find any one that seems to accurately express the Biblical meaning of the term based on what the Bible itself reveals to us. I’m sure there are plenty of good definitions out there, but I just couldn’t find one that I was comfortable with. So Dana and I have developed a working definition based on what we’ve discovered here in Joel and we can adjust it if necessary as we look at other texts which will help us to understand it even better.
The “Day of the Lord” = a cycle consisting of:
• God revealing man’s sin,
• A means of salvation,
• An opportunity for repentance,
• Judgment,
• Restoration
On Thursday night, we saw that same pattern with Noah. God revealed the wickedness of man, he provided the ark as a means of salvation, there was a long time period to give the people an opportunity to repent, judgment came and then there was restoration. As we’ll see in more detail the next two weeks that same pattern is also present in both of Joel’s descriptions of the Day of the Lord.
APPLICATION
One of the commitments that Dana and I have made for our journey is that our time together will never just be about information. That is one of the limitations of many studies of the Book of Revelation. They provide a lot of information, much of it quite sensational at times. But there is not a whole lot of effort made to take and apply what is being learned to help us live our lives for Jesus right here and now. And our commitment to application applies to every Old Testament passage that we will look at as well.
So in our remaining time, let’s see what we can learn from the first chapter of Joel that we can use in our day-to-day lives.
1. Failure to deal with my sin immediately leads to escalating consequences
Joel described the past locust invasion as follows:
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 left,
the destroying locust has eaten.
Joel 1:4 (ESV)
The Hebrew words used to describe the various kinds of locusts are difficult to translate, but there is no mistaking the picture that Joel paints for us here. The devastation didn’t come all at once. It’s not too hard to imagine what happened. One group of locusts came along and began to attack the crops. But perhaps the people just ignored them or they figured they could handle it on their own. And then the next wave came along and now the people took notice, but they still didn’t recognize that this was discipline from God. Perhaps they had forsaken God’s Word and didn’t remember the clear teaching from Deuteronomy that would have identified this as the curse of God that resulted from their disobedience. And by the time the last wave of locusts came and they finally realized this was from the hand of God, it was now too late to repent and avoid God’s judgment.
Obviously this is a picture of what will happen at the final culmination of the Day of the Lord. But I am convinced that there is also a personal application for each one of us. This is exactly how sin works in our life and why it is often pictured as yeast or leaven in the Bible. Sometimes God brings discipline into our lives in order to point out some sin that we need to deal with. But we often ignore that discipline, so then God has to bring a more severe form of discipline. And if we ignore that or figure we can take care of it on our own, we often face increasingly harsh forms of discipline.
So the lesson for us here is to deal with our sin immediately – to confess it, to repent and to make whatever changes that we need to make in our lives to help us avoid returning to that sin. This first chapter of Joel also provides us with some additional insight over how to deal with our sin.
2. We need to mourn over our sin
This is such an important principle that Joel points it out repeatedly in chapter 1, including these two verses:
Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the bridegroom of her youth.
Joel 1:8 (ESV)
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
Joel 1:13 (ESV)
In general, I’m convinced that we don’t fully understand the gravity of our sin and just how much it breaks God’s heart. For far too many people that claim to be Christians it seems as if their goal in life is to see just how much sin they can get away with and still get into heaven. Paul addressed those who would attempt to live like that in his letter to the church at Rome:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Romans 6:1, 2 (ESV)
Like Joel, Paul recognized just how serious sin was in God’s sight and he implored the people recognize just what it cost God to provide a way for us to deal with that sin. Do you really mourn over your sin? Does your sin break your heart because you realize just how much it breaks God’s heart?
3. It’s never too late to turn to God
In verse 14 and again in verse 19, Joel refers to calling out or crying out to the Lord. Even in the midst of the devastation of the locust invasion, it is still not too late for the people to turn back to God. As we saw in our definition of the “Day of the Lord”, God is compassionate and patient and so He provides an opportunity for people to repent and to turn to Him. In general, that is what is occurring in those shaded areas on your diagram which represent that which Joel could not see. Throughout the bible, we constantly see God providing frequent and often long-lasting opportunities for people to repent and turn to Him
This passage from 2 Chronicles confirms that principle and also has a direct bearing on the locust invasion described here in Joel 1:
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:13, 14 (ESV)
This passage confirms the point that Joel makes here in chapter 1 - that the locust invasion came directly from the hand of God. It was He who commanded the locusts. But there was still an opportunity for the people to turn to God and allow God to bring healing and restoration.
That is great news, isn’t it? No matter how long you may have rejected God, no matter how big of a mess you may have made of your life, it’s not too late to turn to God and allow Him to forgive you and heal you.
Next week, we’ll continue our examination of the Book of Joel, so I encourage you to read through the book again, keeping in mind the pattern we have established this morning. And in particular, focus on Joel 2:1-28, the passage that we’ll look at in more detail next week.
