SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). Who wrote the book?
(2). When was it written?
(3). What's the big idea?
(4). So what?
SERMON BODY
Ill:
• Locusts trivia:
• Locust are insects that rub their legs and wings against their body,
• To make a humming sound.
• They can hear this hum and a range of other sounds;
• Through ears on their abdomens.
• Adults grow to 7 cm (3 in) long,
• They eating the equivalent of their own weight in a day.
• Locusts are larger than grasshoppers and have transparent wings.
• They can fly for 15 hours at a time.
• When a lot of locusts come together,
• They change colour and form a swarm that can be miles wide;
• Blotting out the sun and devouring every plant in its path.
Ill:
• New Planet Earth 2 footage (YouTube: https://youtu.be/AYPGOoijy8g );
• Captured one of the biggest plagues of locusts ever witnessed caught on camera.
• Billions of individual insects made up the mega-swarm;
• That stretched across 300 square kilometres (116 square miles);
• And munched its way through 40,000 tonnes of food a day.
• The presenter Sir David Attenborough sounds astounded;
• As he reveals how the battalions of crawling insects,
• Become even more devastating;
• As they suddenly start sprouting wings and turn into voracious whirlwind.
• TRANSITION: Locusts. Locusts everywhere.
• A devastating swarm had come to Judah, the Southern Kingdom.
• This was no small infestation; the people had never seen anything like it:
• Chapter 1 verse 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.”
• The crops were gone.
• The people were hungry.
• The cattle were hungry.
• Question: What was happening—and why?
• Answer: The day of the Lord was upon them.
• When God was delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt,
• He sent a plague of locusts on the Egyptians’ crops.
• Now, hundreds of years later,
• He was judging His people with the same kind of plague for straying from Him.
• Now before we go much further;
• Let’s just pause and fill in some background information.
(1). Who wrote the book?
(a).
• This short book was written by ‘Yo’el’ (Hebrew “Yahweh Is God.”),
• The Greek equivalent is ‘Ioel’, and the Latin & English is ‘Joel’.
• Twelve other men in the Old Testament have this name,
• But none of them can be identified with the author of this book.
• We know almost nothing about him.
• Just the name of his father, who is identified ‘Pethuel’,
• And even the name of his father is not mentioned elsewhere in the OT.
(b).
• He preached to the people of Judah (Southern Kingdom),
• And expressed a great deal of interest in Jerusalem.
(c).
• Joel makes frequent references to Zion and the house of the Lord;
• He comments on the priests and the temple,
• (1:9, 13–14; 2:15–17, 23, 32; 3:1, 5–6, 16–17, 20–21),
• This would suggest that he probably lived not far from Jerusalem.
• Some commentators think Joel was a priest as well as a prophet.
(2). When was it written?
• Most scholars agree that dating this short book is a very difficult task,
• The reason being unlike most prophetic writers,
• Joel gave no explicit indication of his time period.
Ill:
• Last week when we looked at the prophet Amos,
• He starts by giving us the names of two contemporary kings,
• And the fact of an earthquake that archaeologists could easily date.
• Not so Joel,
• With Joel we have no points of reference as far as dating the book.
• Now that does not stop Bible scholars from arguing a date;
• But it does stop me.
Ill:
• A father was visiting his son, who lived in London,
• The son gave his dad the usual tour of the city showing him various tourist attractions.
• As they rushed from venue to venue the dad hardly had time to breathe.
• The son rushed his dad to an underground station saying,
• "If we can just catch this next train, we'll save ourselves three minutes."
• The dad looked at him and asked,
• "And what significant thing will we do with the three minutes we are saving?"
• TRANSITION: rather than waste time on what we don’t know;
• Let’s focus a little longer on what we do know!
Quote:
“Nevertheless, while the date of the book cannot be known with certainty, the impact on its interpretation is minimal. The message of Joel is timeless, forming doctrine which could be repeated and applied in any age.”
(3). Why is Joel so important?
• The book of Joel is first to develop the idea and expression;
• “The Day of the Lord”.
• Joel mentions “The Day of the Lord” five times in his short book.
Ill:
• The people of Joel’s day were like the company and crew of the Titanic,
• They were carrying on day after day in their wicked ways,
• Unaware of the danger that was lying ahead
• But Joel the prophet/messenger of God could see the approaching ice-burg;
• That approaching ice-burg was what his book calls, “The Day of the Lord”.
Question: What do we mean by the expression: “The Day of the Lord”:
(a).
• The phrase “The Day of the Lord” is used nineteen times in the Old Testament,
• It is mentioned in eight Old Testament books*:
• Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi.
(*Isaiah 2:12; 13:6, 9; Ezekiel 13:5, 30:3; Joel 1:15, 2:1,11,31; 3:14;
Amos 5:18,20; Obadiah 15; Zephaniah 1:7,14; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi. 4:5)
• And it is also mentioned in five different New Testament books*:
• Acts, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 2 Peter, Revelation.
(*Acts 2:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10).
It is also alluded to in other passages (Revelation 6:17; 16:14).
(b).
• The expression: “The Day of the Lord”:
• Is not a single day but a period of time, during which God judges His enemies;
• And establishes His kingdom on earth.
(c).
• In using the expression “The Day of the Lord”
• Joel’s prophecy gives some of the most striking and specific details;
• That we have regarding this topic:
• e.g. Days cloaked in darkness,
• Joel chapter 2 verse 1b:
“a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains”
• e.g. Armies that conquer like consuming fire,
• Joel chapter 2 verse 3:
“Before them fire devours,
behind them a flame blazes.
Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,
behind them, a desert waste –
nothing escapes them.”
• e.g. And the moon turning to blood.
• Joel chapter 2 verse 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.”
(d).
• The Old Testament passages that deal with the day of the Lord;
• Often convey a sense of imminence, nearness, and expectation:
• e.g. Joel chapter 2 verse 1b:
• “…the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand”
• e.g. Joel chapter 3 verse 14:
• “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
• For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”
Ill:
• There was a king of England called Ethelred,
• In fact he was king twice
• (The first time was from 978 to 1013, and the second time was 1014 to 1016)
• History regards him as the king who was never ready to meet his enemies,
• And so he had to try to buy them off with bribes.
• He earned the nickname 'Ethelred the Unready'.
• In his reign the Danes made many successful invasions of this land.
• TRANSITION: Don’t be ill-advised, don’t be caught out;
• Joel says, “Be ready!”
(3). What's the big idea?
• Judgement on the people of God;
• That judgement is in the form of a plague of locusts,
• Locusts. Locusts everywhere.
• A devastating plague had come to Judah, the Southern Kingdom.
• And as we mentioned at the beginning of this talk;
• This was no small infestation of the creatures;
• This was a swarm, a cloud of locusts;
• The people of God had never seen anything like it:
• Chapter 1 verse 4 (The Message):
“What the chewing locust left,
the gobbling locust ate;
What the gobbling locust left,
the munching locust ate;
What the munching locust left,
the chomping locust ate.”
Ill:
• In Old Testament times,
• The economy was predominately dependent on agriculture.
• As an farming economy,
• That meant the people were always vulnerable,
• i.e. they could suffer hardship from any number of sources;
• Including droughts, insect infestations, and livestock diseases.
• In the book of Joel,
• The Southern Kingdom (Judah) was experiencing;
• Both a prolonged drought and a plague of locusts.
• As a result, there was considerable suffering of both the people and their livestock.
• The crops were gone. The people were hungry. The cattle were hungry.
Question: Why did this happened?
Answer:
• It was judgement, because the day of the Lord was upon them.
• But notice too that God also sends His prophet Joel to the people:
• Judgement is accompanied with mercy.
• Joel explains to the people what the Lord wants from them: ‘repentance’.
Quote: Joel chapter 2 verse 8:
‘Even now,’ declares the Lord,
‘return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.’
Ill:
• Miss Reside, is believed to be the first woman missionary;
• To the Kiowa Indians of Oklahoma, USA.
• When she arrived she was called by the people Miss Reside;
• But after she had been with the Indians awhile, they gave her a new name.
• They called her ‘Aim-day-co’.
• Chief Bigtree, in explaining the name, said,
• "When we Kiowas see anyone on the wrong road we call out, 'Aim-day-co!'
• ('Turn this way.')
• Our sister came to us from a far land, and found us all on the wrong road,
• And in great danger.
• She stood in a new road and called to us and said, `Turn this way,'
• And showed us the Jesus road.
• God bless Aim-day-co.”
• TRANSITION: Repentance is a recognition we are living the wrong way;
• Repentance takes place when we turn around and start to walk in the right way.
• God requires action and not merely words or just remorse!
• “With fasting and weeping and mourning.”
I would summarise Joel’s message like this:
(a).
• God is judging Judah,
• But He will bless and restore them again when they repent.
(b).
• God will judge all the nations on Judah’s behalf.
• God disciplines His people, but He also defends them.
(c).
• Joel says that although Judah is under God’s wrath right now,
• In the future holds many exciting things for the people of God.
• Chapter 2 verse 28:
“The Lord will pour out His Spirit on all mankind.
Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.
The Lord will avenge Judah of her enemies.
Judah will again become a land of plenty.”
(d).
• Joel’s message is stern for the disobedient,
• But it also highlights God’s love and desire to be with His people.
• And rather than let them starve after sending the locusts,
• God sends Joel to direct their hearts back to Him.
• Note: the theme verse of Joel (chapter 2 verses 12–13):
“‘Even now,’ declares the Lord,
‘return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.’
13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.”
To summarise:
• As we have seen much of the book of Joel concerns a terrible locust plague;
• This causes starvation for animals and humans.
• Joel takes this as a sign that people should lament and repent.
• God responds positively to repentance beginning in chapter 2 verse 18.
• After chapter 2 verse 29, the book changes;
• It moves from historical events to future events;
• End-time events when the world will be changed;
• And when strange and frightening signs will appear
• (chapter 2 verses 30-32).
• In the new age, all people will prophesy (chapter 2 verses 28-29).
• This section of Joel was quoted and an application of it made on the day of Pentecost
• (Acts chapter 2 verses 17-21).
Note:
• Peter did not say the prophecy was being fulfilled;
• The word ‘fulfil’ is not in the text.
• It was an application of the text not a fulfilment.
• To paraphrase Peter said;
• “This same Holy Spirit Joel spoke about, He is here!”
• Remember the Jewish audience in Acts chapter 2;
• Believed God’s Spirit was only given to a select few chosen people,
• But Peter tells them that is no longer the case;
• In fact the 120 believers were all experiencing the same Holy Spirit;
• That Moses, Elijah and David had experienced!
(4). So What?
• Let’s be honest, if not for the fact Peter quotes the well-known section of Joel;
• (chapter 2 verses 28-29) in the book of Acts,
• We probably would not pay much attention to Joel.
But, Joel does remind us of a number of important points:
• God is at work in the world, there are consequences to human behaviour.
• As sinful human beings we need to approach God with true repentance,
• And we should always remember for the people of God hope is always the last word!
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=v7xT2fpKahND0KxBzkOo3op1QBHNwN9F
