The great and terrible day of the Lord.
Are you afraid of God? Do you secretly harbour a fear of him? Maybe in your upbringing you were introduced to a god who scared you and this was reinforced as you read those violent stories in the OT.
Does a fear of God turn you away him?
The language that Joel uses is provocative and fearful. Is this truly what God is like?
The invasion of locusts with teeth like a lion and the fangs of a lioness. The fields ruined, the ground dried up. The promised human army in chapter 2. The land trembling. The day this army strikes is a day of darkness, gloom, clouds and blackness. The nations recoil in anguish and every face turns pale.
The great and terrible day of the Lord.
On this day the earth will shake and the heavens tremble, the sun and moon will be darkened and the stars will no longer shine. The Lord thunders at the head of his army as he brings judgement upon the earth.
In the Book of Joel, God reveals himself as absolutely sovereign. God is not afraid to speak his mind. He is not afraid to say that the nations of the earth are accountable to him. He is not afraid to say that he is the Judge of heaven and earth which were made by him and for him. And whether or not we be his treasured possession, God reacts to sin the same way every time. God’s reaction to unrighteousness is consistent and predictable.
His holiness demands that sin be punished and God is not afraid to use forceful images to make this point.
But the conclusion that God reacts strongly to human rebellion is often isolated from the gospel and therefore misunderstood. As someone wrote in a forum about God, “I was a Christian until reading the Bible”. Another said, “I am unafraid of this monstrosity of a God for I am much more moral than He shalt ever be”.
In the movie Mr and Mrs Smith, Angelina Jolie blurts out the line, “Happy endings are just stories that haven’t finished yet”.
God does not mince his words in the Book of Joel. He tells us what we need to know. The day of the Lord is coming and we ought to be prepared. Indeed, it is God himself who shows us how to prepare for the visitation of his anger. God is not immoral and he does not enjoy watching anyone suffer. God likes happy endings but the storyline is his to tell. And the storyline continues into chapter 3 which we turn to this morning. The future day of the Lord and Israel’s foes will not escape—those nations who rise up against God and in their arrogance seek to strike him down.
Come with me to chapter 3 and we see that it falls neatly into three sections.
First, God announces his judgement upon the nations (v. 1–8). Then the description of judgement in verses v. 9–16; and thirdly, the book finishes with ultimate restoration for those who returned to the Lord.
There’s a lot of judgement happening in the Book of Joel. Chapters 1 and 2 upon God’s OT people. Chapter 3 upon the foreign nations.
Joel is crying out to his audience and he is crying out to us. Judgement is coming! Not an unjust, vindictive, irrational, savage judgement. But a judgement totally deserving and yet patiently withheld for a long period of time. A judgement that the Jesus explores and in so doing he invents the word “hell”. The NT reminds us that the coming day of the Lord must shape the way we live now. The big, red flashing warning lights that tell us that the path ahead is dangerous without Christ by your side.
The BIG IDEA of chapter 3 is a simple one, “God will call to account those who reject him”. And the BIG APPLICATION is a simple one, “Don’t say you weren’t warned. Return the Lord”. OT history testifies that God is serious about sin; the cross testifies that God is so serious about sin it took the life of his Son to offer a remedy;
and the NT writers assure us that God is in control when this world seems out of control and persevere for the end is coming soon.
In verses 1 to 8, God announces his judgement upon the nations. And it’s done rather satirically.
Ok, you nations. You want a fight? I’ll give you a fight. Meet me at the Valley of
Jehoshaphat. I’ll put you on trial for what you did to my people.
Come on! Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors. Put on your gloves. Make your swords and spears. Put the weak on their feet because you’ll need them. Come on you nations! Pull yourselves together and meet me at Jehoshaphat and there we’ll have it out.
God summons all the nations to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The name may be symbolic because it means “the place where God judges”. These nations attacked God’s people which is an attack on the Lord himself. The nations emasculated God’s very own people. These foes exiled the Israelites and divided the land and treated the young ones with indignation. Remember the promise God made to Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Gen 12.3).
In the valley of judgment God brings his curses upon the nations. Judah aren’t singled out by God. The nations will also be put on trial, because whether Jew or Gentile, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3.23).
Tyre and Sidon and the Philistines are singled out in verse 4. Perhaps because of their attack on the Temple treasury. “For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples”. Then they exiled the people of Judah and Jerusalem and sold them to the Greeks. They sent them far away from their homeland with little hope of living as God’s people in the land of promise.
How will God respond to these nations? He will raise his people up in those places where they were sold—verses 7 and 8. Then these Israelites will grow strong and they will overwhelm their captors and sell the descendants of Tyre, Sidon and the Philistines to the Sabeans.
The announcement of judgement upon the nations. On trial they will stand in the Valley of Jehoshaphat for attacking the Lord and his people. The day of the Lord is coming and Joel speaks about it in a way that makes sense to his people.
But we know that the day of the Lord is a day for all people. The references to Tyre, Sidon and the Philistines expand into references for all the enemies of God. The announcement is for all the nations who rebel against God. They will meet him in the Valley of Judgement.
And the NT announces this same day in the light of the coming of Jesus who says in Matt 24, “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory” (Matt 24.30). 2 Pet 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”. Then John says in Rev 1.7, “Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen”.
Of course some will mock this coming day. Some will say it will never come—it’s a myth—it’s a lie intended to scare us. The Apostle Peter says that’s God’s word is trustworthy. Look back in history. God spoke and the heavens came into being. God spoke and the waters came and flooded the earth. God spoke and the leper was healed. God has a track record of keeping his Word. And he will keep his Word. The day of the Lord is coming. Big application, “Don’t say you weren’t warned”!
The description of judgment comes in verses 9–16. It was announced in verse 3, now it’s happening. Verse 12, “Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Joel is laying out the future before his people. The nations who attacked Israel will come into the valley believing that God is calling them into battle. But they are coming to hear his sentence of judgement. Verses 9–12,
Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!” Come quickly, all you nations from every side, and assemble there. Bring down your warriors, LORD! “Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side.
It will be a terrible day for those outside Christ and God uses every image he can to say it’s a day to be avoided. Reading from verse 13,
Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow— so great is their wickedness!” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The LORD will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble.
The Apostle John uses Joel’s imagery to describe the judgement Jesus brings on the nations. No cuddly Jesus with these words. Turn with me to Revelation 14.14,
I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one “like a son of man” with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
It is not pleasant reading. This is apocalyptic language. Here is imagery describing a tense reality. The language draws upon the richness of OT ideas and images. This is not a literal description. It is imagery but the images don’t overstate the horror of judgement day. This is the future for those outside Christ. This is the just outcome for those who go their own way and ignore the right of Christ to rule their lives.
The exalted Christ sovereign over all the world. His sharp sickle is a metaphor of judgement which fits Jesus’ role as reaper in the harvest at the end of the age. The sickle is sharp and it will do its job swiftly and completely.
In verse 16, the Son of Man casts his sickle into the earth and he reaps it. “So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested” (Rev 14.16).
Then, in verses 17–19, an angel also reaps with a sharp sickle and gathered the grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. Verse 20, “They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses bridles for a distance of about 300 kms”. One commentator describes this as a “slaughter commensurate with the inhabited world” (Charles).
I remember when ICAC (corruption commission) was set up to investigate corruption in New South Wales. The ICAC website said,
The ICAC aims to protect the public interest, prevent breaches of public trust and guide the conduct of public officials. The ICAC deals with corrupt conduct involving or affecting most of the NSW public sector, including state government agencies, local government authorities, members of Parliament and the judiciary.
We were all cheering from the sidelines because everyone wants justice. We want terrorists to be punished, paedophiles jailed, murders to never see the light of day. And now we cry out for justice in the financial sector after a scathing Royal Commission. God takes justice very, very seriously. Joel 3 and Rev 14 forewarn of just outcomes for those who choose to ignore God and his goodness.
A man appeared before a judge. Everyone knew he was guilty but he was getting off on a technicality. The judge said to him, “I know that you are guilty and you know it, and I wish you to remember that one day you will stand before a better and wiser Judge, and that there you will be dealt with according to justice and not according to law”. Sometime later the man was surprised while breaking into a house. As he fled, he scaled a nine-foot wall and to his surprise he landed himself in the Antwerp city prison.
Justice will be done!
The Book of Joel ends on a happy note only because of Jesus. Out third and last section verses 16b–21. “But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel”. The promise of God’s people dwelling in God’s presence. Despite punishment for the nations, verse 20, “Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations”.
Listen to these words from Charles Spurgeon (slide),
Before the first star was kindled, before the first living creature began to sing the praise of its Creator, God loved his Church with an everlasting love. He spied her in the glass of predestination, pictured her by his divine foreknowledge, and loved her with all his heart; and it was for this cause that he left his Father, and became one with her, that he might redeem her.
It was for this cause that he went with her through all this vale of tears, discharged her debts, and bore her sins in his own body on the tree.
For her sake he slept in the tomb, and with the same love that brought him down he has gone up again … he has gone into the glory, waiting for the marriage day when he shall come again, to receive his perfected spouse, who shall have made herself ready by his grace. Never for a moment … never has he changed in the love he bears to his chosen.
Conclusion. The Book of Joel shows us what a healthy fear of God looks like. It gives us legitimate grounds for fearing God and it explains how to deal with this fear. And the vivid language prods those with no fear of God to get a grip on reality.
When we read Joel in the light of the NT we see the prophet pointing us to Jesus. And it is Jesus who equips us to deal with the great and terrible day of the Lord. “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Joel 2.13).
The gospel says that God himself came and dwelt among us so we might endure the day of the Lord.
The day of the Lord is survivable because God takes the full force of his anger upon himself. Jesus bore our sins on his body on the tree so that we might live for righteousness. This is the gospel according to Joel. Repent—rend your hears—return to me with all your heart and I will forgive and restore you.
