The Eschatological Day Of The Lord -- Part 2 Series

Scripture

Today we are concluding a sermon series that I am calling, “Lessons from a Minor Prophet: Joel.”

The Prophet Joel was perhaps the earliest of the Old Testament’s writing prophets (writing in the eighth, or perhaps even in the ninth century BC). The people in Joel’s day had just experienced a massive attack of locusts. This was followed by an extremely severe drought. The resulting devastation crippled the economy and caused incredible suffering, not only for the people, but even for the land and the animals.

God led Joel to use the locust plague as the backdrop for his message to his people. In the first chapter of Joel, he urged the people to pay attention to what God was saying to them through their contemporary circumstances. Joel identified the locust plague as the “day of the Lord.” The “day of the Lord” in Scripture is a day of judgment and blessing. It could refer to either a contemporary day, an impending day, or the future day of the Lord (also known as the eschatological day of the Lord).

In Joel’s day, the people of God repented of their sin of spiritual half-heartedness. So, God wonderfully restored his people because of their genuine repentance.

Moreover, as we shall see today, God explained—through Joel—the sequence of events that will happen surrounding the day of the Lord, that great and ultimate day of God’s judgment for sinners and blessing for his people.

Let’s read about the eschatological day of the Lord in Joel 2:28-3:21:

28 “And it shall come to pass afterward,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;

your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men shall see visions.

29 Even on the male and female servants

in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

3:1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 3 and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. 6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. 8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”

9 Proclaim this among the nations:

Consecrate for war;

stir up the mighty men.

Let all the men of war draw near;

let them come up.

10 Beat your plowshares into swords,

and your pruning hooks into spears;

let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

11 Hasten and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves there.

Bring down your warriors, O Lord.

12 Let the nations stir themselves up

and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

for there I will sit to judge

all the surrounding nations.

13 Put in the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Go in, tread,

for the winepress is full.

The vats overflow,

for their evil is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

16 The Lord roars from Zion,

and utters his voice from Jerusalem,