WHO CAN ABIDE THE DAY OF THE LORD?
#035 WHO CAN ABIDE THE DAY OF THE LORD?
Scripture Joel 1:1-2, 11 Orig. Date 1/20/65
Rewr. Dates 4/26/89
Passage: The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.2 Hear this, you elders;
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?
3 Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
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[a] have eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
for it has been snatched from your lips.
6 A nation has invaded my land,
a mighty army without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste my vines
and ruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their bark
and thrown it away,
leaving their branches white.
8 Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
9 Grain offerings and drink offerings
are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
those who minister before the Lord.
10 The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
the olive oil fails.
11 Despair, you farmers,
wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
12 The vine is dried up
and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple[b] tree—
all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
is withered away.
13 Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Declare a holy fast;
call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
15 Alas for that day!
For the day of the Lord is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.[c]
16 Has not the food been cut off
before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
from the house of our God?
17 The seeds are shriveled
beneath the clods.[d]
The storehouses are in ruins,
the granaries have been broken down,
for the grain has dried up.
18 How the cattle moan!
The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 To you, Lord, I call,
for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness
and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
20 Even the wild animals pant for you;
the streams of water have dried up
and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.
2 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times
nor ever will be in ages to come.
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.
4 They have the appearance of horses;
they gallop along like cavalry.
5 With a noise like that of chariots
they leap over the mountaintops,
like a crackling fire consuming stubble,
like a mighty army drawn up for battle.
6 At the sight of them, nations are in anguish;
every face turns pale.
7 They charge like warriors;
they scale walls like soldiers.
They all march in line,
not swerving from their course.
8 They do not jostle each other;
each marches straight ahead.
They plunge through defenses
without breaking ranks.
9 They rush upon the city;
they run along the wall.
They climb into the houses;
like thieves they enter through the windows.
10 Before them the earth shakes,
the heavens tremble,
the sun and moon are darkened,
and the stars no longer shine.
11 The Lord thunders
at the head of his army;
his forces are beyond number,
and mighty is the army that obeys his command.
The day of the Lord is great;
it is dreadful.
Who can endure it?
Purpose: Beginning a Prayer Meeting series dealing with the Minor Prophets, here introducing Joel’s call to repentance.
Keywords: Bible Study Judgment Repentance
Timeline/Series: Minor Prophets Sequential
Introduction
One thing is sure, the author, Joel, called the “son of Pethuel” has witnessed a frightsome event and he likens it to the “day of the Lord” (2:1). Little is known about him other than his fixation on the priesthood, and the region surrounding Jerusalem. There is no scriptural documentation. Other Joels are mentioned (I Chronicles 5:54), but nothing is found to tie them to this Joel.
The name means “Jehovah (or the Lord) is God.” His name probably does mean that he came from a family, whether out of Reuben as some believe, or out of Jerusalem herself, that worshipped the Lord God.
When he wrote is anybody’s guess. Pre-20th Century scholarship favored a pre-exilic view. He is positioned with Hosea and Amos among first mentioned prophets. Amos and Hosea are known from the 8th Century B.C.. The enemy nations are the Philistines, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Edomites. However, these were enemies after the captivity as well.
The lack of a reigning king fits the time when Joash was made king at age 7 (II Kings 11:21f). The priests actually governed the people.
But such circumstance fits a post-exilic date as well. There was no king. The priests ruled. The enemies were no longer Assyria and Babylon. But the message does not depend upon the selection of a date.
It is important to decide if the text is apocalyptic, allegorical, or actual. Those who take the first position say the locusts represent the enemies of God’s people in the end times. The allegorical view would represent these locusts as the traditional enemies of Israel. To see an actual locust invasion is to see Joel describing a natural event as an actual intervention of God to bring the people to repentance.
II Chronicles 21-22 may describe the period. Jehoram, fifth from Solomon, was a wicked king. There was a carrying away of people and possessions by enemies (II Chronicles 21:17). At Jehoram’s death, Ahaziah, his youngest son, became king. He was assassinated by Jehu, and his mother, Athaliah, ascended the throne. It was she who killed the royal sons, only to have Joash hidden by the priests.
I. Successive Plagues and Drought, Joel 1:1-20. V4 “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.” It is a scene of total destruction. Who has seen it before? Who will see its equal again?
The different names are thought to be the various stages in the life cycle. William Thomson was a 19th Century American missionary who worked for 25 years in Ottoman Syria. He writes in The Land and the Book: “Their number was astounding; the whole face of the mountain was black with them. On they came like a living deluge. . . . It was perfectly appalling as we watched this animated river as it flowed up the road, and ascended the hill above my house. For four days they continued to pass on toward the east . . . they devoured every green thing . . . . The noise they made in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower on a distant forest. . . . They all pursue the same line of march, like a disciplined army.”
The effect of all of this will be felt throughout the land. Desolation was as of a drunkard denied his bottle, v5. Despair was as of the young bride whose husband-to-be dies on her wedding day, v8. Desperation was as that of the farmer whose crops are destroyed at harvest, v11.
Thus, Joel issues his first call for repentance, v13-15. It is directed first to priests. The elders are to be brought together. The people are to assemble in “the house of the Lord.” It would be a “solemn day,” v14, a day to “cry out” danger.
Don’t lightheartedly pass over the semblance of the “house” of God.
Thus, in this context, Joel perceives “a day of the Lord.” He was given “the word of the Lord,” v1. He senses that word has directed him to an event, and the people are to be warned. Is it the activity of God’s righteous indignation? Is it man’s abuse bringing recompense on his own head?
The news told of the plight of an Australian sheepherder. Animals were dying by the hundreds. There was a caption with a picture of thousands of thirst-ravaged livestock: “Why doesn’t God hear their prayer? Who brought them to a dire land in such numbers that their needs could not be met?”
II. This “Day of the Lord” is Imminent, v 2:1-11. “For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” The meaning of the phrase: The prophets used this term of deliberate intervention by God—popularly, it was used of God’s intervention to bless Israel, curse their enemies. Amos used it as Joel here: “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! . . . The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.” It is a day of judgment and justice.
Joel uses the phrase five times: In relation to an event (1:15); as a symbol of a coming judgment (2:1,11)—also v31: “The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into ‘blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord’”; as a warning that personal response is required, v3:14—“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision or the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”
III. A Parenthetical Call to Repentance is Issued. V1f “Turn ye even to me with all your heart, . . . rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful.” Disasters of the gravest magnitude may be circumscribed, v13. Their “turning” must be acceptable—from the Hebrew “shub,” for returning. It appears over 1000 times in the Old Testament, 111 by Jeremiah. The same word is used in v14 of God.
Religious pretension without heart performance is hypocritical and useless. God has the power to act in response to our faith. The people of faith and covenant must act: Observe a feast (v15); gather together for declaration of unity (v15, 16); forgo personal liberties and pleasures, v16b. Let the priests express before God the will of the people for intervention.