THE LORD'S INTERVENTION
#040 (continued from #035) THE LORD’S INTERVENTION
Scripture Joel 2:18-3:21, NIV Orig. Date 11-14-71
Rewr. 4-26-89
Passage:
18 Then the Lord was jealous for his land
and took pity on his people.
19 The Lord replied[a] to them:
“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,
enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
an object of scorn to the nations.
20 “I will drive the northern horde far from you,
pushing it into a parched and barren land;
its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea
and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.
And its stench will go up;
its smell will rise.”
Surely he has done great things!
21 Do not be afraid, land of Judah;
be glad and rejoice.
Surely the Lord has done great things!
22 Do not be afraid, you wild animals,
for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit;
the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 Be glad, people of Zion,
rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers,
both autumn and spring rains, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm[b]—
my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
27 Then you will know that I am in Israel,
that I am the Lord your God,
and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.
28 “And afterward,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
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.
32 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance,
as the Lord has said,
even among the survivors
whom the Lord calls.[c]
3 [d]“In those days and at that time,
when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all nations
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.[e]
There I will put them on trial
for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel,
because they scattered my people among the nations
and divided up my land.
3 They cast lots for my people
and traded boys for prostitutes;
they sold girls for wine to drink.
4 “Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done. 5 For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples.[f] 6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might send them far from their homeland.
7 “See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done. 8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” The Lord has spoken.
9 Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Rouse the warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say,
“I am strong!”
11 Come quickly, all you nations from every side,
and assemble there.
Bring down your warriors, Lord!
12 “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.
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!”
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 moon will be darkened,
and the stars no longer shine.
16 The Lord will roar from Zion
and thunder from Jerusalem;
the earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
a stronghold for the people of Israel.
17 “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy;
never again will foreigners invade her.
18 “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk;
all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
and will water the valley of acacias.[g]
19 But Egypt will be desolate,
Edom a desert waste,
because of violence done to the people of Judah,
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
20 Judah will be inhabited forever
and Jerusalem through all generations.
21 Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?
No, I will not.”
The Lord dwells in Zion!
Purpose: Continuing a study in the Prophet Joel, here describing God’s response to His people’s repentance.
Keywords Bible Study God, Sovereignty Repentance
Series/Timeline Minor Prophets Sequential
Introduction
The concluding part of chapter 2 gives much of the weight of choice to those who believe the book to be apocryphal. He speaks of “wonders in heaven,” of “blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke” in the earth. The sun is pictured becoming dark, the moon, bloodlike. It is the terminology of the doomsayers. But Joel is a simple prophet who loves God, and who loves his people, and his wish is to call these people “back” to God.
I. He Holds Out to Them the Prospect of Intervention. V18f “Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity His people.” V21 “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice; For the Lord will do great things.”
What will be seen first are material blessings (vs 18-27): An abundance of crops, v19; deliverance from military peril, v20a; restoral of what they lost, v25—the stripped catalpa tree would be restored, the frost-bitten potatoes rejuvenated.
The second consideration is of spiritual blessings (Joel 2:28-32), when God’s Spirit comes to bring grace to His people (V28): on sons and daughters, on old and young, on bond and free. In a day of utter darkness, there will be light, v31. In a day of wasting, there will be a remnant to carry on, v32.
II. A Final Word Describes a Judgment of World Proportions. Joel 3:2 “I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, . . . whom they have scattered among the nations.” It is a temporal judgment because of the mistreatment of God’s people: “They have scattered my people;” “they have parted my land;” “they have abused the guiltless.”
The judgment will be thorough. There is accusation, v3, “They have cast lots for my people.” There is investigation: They have taken treasures, v5—not of God’s house, but of God’s; they have abused God’s people, v6. As they have done, so will it be done to them.
There is condemnation, v9, “Prepare war, wake up the mighty men”; they are to make plowshares into swords. Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 use the imagery, but it is reversed, and it is to God’s own people.
Joel paints a vivid picture of the final confrontation of the forces of flesh and the power of God. V11 “Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together, round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.” The heathen will appear in the valley of decision (Jehoshaphat). A day of terror is described.
III. The Concluding Thought Is of Blessing Upon Believers. V16b “The Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” God will be their hope. V16b “The Lord will be the hope of His people.” God is their dwelling. V17 “I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion.” God is their sufficiency. V18 “And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord.” God is their protector. V1--Egypt and Edom are described as desolate. Is the mention of Judah post-exilic? V20-21 “But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”