July 19, 2025 • 19 mins
Have you ever wondered why certain challenging events keep repeating in your life? The ancient prophet Joel might have an answer that will transform how you view life's devastations.
Today we're unpacking Joel chapter 1 and discovering the profound concept of "The Day of the Lord." While this sounds ominous—and it certainly carries serious warnings—the message of Joel offers surprising hope. Writing during Judah's recovery from a dark political period, Joel uses a catastrophic locust plague to illustrate spiritual truths about judgment and restoration.
The devastation Joel describes is total: crops destroyed, joy vanished, even wild animals crying out in hunger. Yet within this bleak landscape lies an invitation. When everything falls apart, we face a crucial choice—retreat into isolation and self-pity, or pivot toward God with renewed intensity. As your host Pastor Brandon confesses, "I wish I could tell you that when everything's going wrong, my default is to turn to Jesus... but honestly, I tend to pout like a little kid."
What makes Joel particularly fascinating is how his prophecy extends beyond his own time. The spiritual principles he outlines continue to operate in our lives today, and his vision of God's Spirit being poured out famously connects to the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Joel teaches us a timeless truth: the level at which we experience spiritual warfare should be the level at which we turn to God.
Ready for a spiritual reset? Subscribe now, share this episode with someone facing their own "locust plague," and join our Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. Remember Joel 2:13—"Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon, today.
Joel, chapter 1.
And today's title and theoverall theme of the book of
Joel is the Day of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord, and we'regoing to get into all this in
just a moment.
And many of you have probablyactually heard of the book of
(00:23):
Joel, but maybe not because ofit being a book in the Old
Testament, but because ofsomething that happens in the
New Testament.
So, if you want to get yourBibles out and get ready to jump
into a book of the Bible thatyou probably are more familiar
with than you think you are,while you're doing that, if
you're new here, take just amoment.
Like, share and subscribe tothe YouTube channel and the
podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
(00:43):
it really does help and makesure you're going to the Bible
Breakdown Discussion on Facebook.
Man, I'll tell you there's agreat group of people doing a
wonderful job over there and, asalways, the more we dig the
more we find, and our hope inall of this is to create an
environment where we can justcelebrate reading God's Word and
just gather around the truth ofGod's Word, and it's just a
(01:06):
wonderful opportunity to do that, and so make sure you're going
to the Facebook page and makesure you're enjoying all of that
.
Okay, all right.
Well, if you have your Bibles,you open up with me to Joel,
chapter two.
Remember, the idea in the NewTestament is is so many things
in the New Testament werefulfillment of prophecy that
happened in the Old Testament,and so the book of Joel is very
(01:28):
important, because Acts, chapter2, actually speaks about the
prophet Joel, and so that's whywe want to take time and really
go through it, especially on thefirst part.
We always do this, but remember, the overall theme is talking
about the day of the Lord, andit's dual in its meaning.
It's the day of the Lord, as inthe day of judgment, but also
(01:51):
in the day when God restoreseverything again, and so the
prophet Joel had the opportunityto really warn the nation of
Israel about this.
And so let's dive in a littlebit deeper to Joel and get some
background information.
First of all, who wrote Joel?
Well, that's the good thingabout the book of Joel is it has
the name of the prophet as thetitle.
(02:12):
So it was written by a guynamed Joel, son of Bethuel.
We don't really know much aboutJoel, except that his name
means Yahweh is God.
Now, one of the ways to tellthis is the word Joel.
If you were to say this inHebrew, you could even call it,
say Joel, and that Joel part,the E-L is a Hebrew word for God
(02:35):
.
So Joel means is is God, so Godis Yahweh, or Yahweh is God.
That's how you can tell whathis name means.
And where was he?
But he was in Judah.
That's the southern kingdom.
If you remember, after the timeof Solomon you had Saul, which
is the first king of Israel,then you had David, the greatest
(02:56):
king of Israel, then you hadSolomon, his son, and then,
after Solomon, the kingdom splitinto two and you had most of
the tribes of Israel that wentaway from the house of David,
the son of Solomon, and theydeveloped their own kingdom that
we just simply call Israel, andthat was the northern kingdom.
But then you had Judah andBenjamin that stayed with the
(03:21):
house, the dynasty of David, andthat was the southern kingdom,
and they called them Judahbecause Judah was the main tribe
.
And so Joel is in the southernkingdom, probably living in
Jerusalem at the time.
And kind of when would this havebeen?
This would have been duringlike 835 to 796 BC.
(03:42):
So the people that would havebeen around that you may
recognize during the time ofJoel would be the prophet Elisha
, the prophet Obadiah and theprophet Jonah.
So while Jonah is beingswallowed up by fish, while a
guy named Obadiah is talkingabout the different things that
God is doing, joel is living inthe city of Jerusalem and he is
(04:04):
prophesying because of thewaywardness of the people of God
, but at the same time that Godis wanting to bring his people
back again.
So Elisha is out there doingall these miracles, and I think
that's important Already toremember that we sometimes think
that God is only doing onething in one place, but we can
(04:27):
already see that Elisha wasdoing all this great stuff that
you can read about in the OldTestament, but while he is out
and about doing that, there is aprophet in the city of
Jerusalem that's also obeyingGod and also doing some great
things.
And so the big idea of Joel,like I was saying before, is
it's all about a day of judgment, but it's also about a day of
salvation at the same time.
(04:48):
That God can do both at thesame time that God is always up
to something.
So it's a call to repentance,it's a warning of coming
judgment, but it's also thepromise of future hope.
Now, why is the book of Joelimportant?
Why are we not skipping thisone and going on?
Well, the reason why is becauseit reminds us that God uses
(05:08):
both natural and spiritual meansto get our attention, and we
could think deeply about thatfor a long time, couldn't we?
I mean, how many times have badthings happened in our life
that really did a wonderful jobat refocusing our mind on our
need for God, right?
The next thing is it's a callto repentance, which is timeless
(05:29):
, and then the one that I wasalluding to earlier is Joel's
prophecy that's going to come upin chapter 2 is actually still
being fulfilled today, and so westill get to see some of what
happened in Joel's life eventoday.
So what's going on in the timeof Joel give you a little bit
more background is Judah isrecovering from the reign of
(05:49):
Queen Ataliah, who was just adark and violent period, and if
you remember you go back andlisten to earlier podcasts this
was a time when they had to hidethis little boy who was going
to be a king from Queen Ataliah,because she was just absolutely
evil and her reign has come toan end.
But now they're grappling withtheir identity.
(06:10):
Are they going to turn back toGod or are they going to follow
all the idol worship by QueenAdelaide and some of the other
nations that have come up andsome of the just the you know,
jezebel and some of those people.
They're dead now, but some ofthe influences they brought.
The next thing is is this is atime when the temple is being
repaired, because under QueenAdelia some terrible things had
(06:31):
happened to the temple, and theyare in the process of restoring
these different things.
There's a lot of work thatneeds to be done and also kind
of foreshadowing.
The kingdom of Assyria isrising to dominant power in the
region.
Now, if you have been readingalong with us, eventually the
nation of Israel, the northernkingdom, falls to the invading
(06:55):
armies of the Assyrians becausethey don't repent of their sin,
and during this time it hasn'thappened yet, but they are
starting to gain power.
So a couple more things, someinteresting facts, and then
we're going to jump into this.
First of all, god uses thissituation that has happened in
the nation of Judah to point toa spiritual thing, and one of
(07:17):
the things is he's going to talkabout locusts.
He's going to talk aboutdifferent types of locusts that
do different kinds of things,and, depending on where you live
in the world, it is going tomean absolutely nothing to you.
You're going to be like, okay,ugly bugs, let's move on.
But here's the thing During thetime, and especially when their
primary source of food andmaking money and all that was
(07:38):
agriculture, a swarm of locustscould be like a death sentence,
because what locusts would do isthey would come in by the
thousands.
Just think of thousands offlying grasshoppers.
Right, that would come out ofnowhere and they would just land
on your crops and within justalmost no time at all, they
would destroy your crops, and soyou could have started out
(07:59):
having a great season and thenyou end in just devastation,
like it could be terrible.
And so when locusts would comethrough you, just I mean, people
would just fall apart.
And so he is using this locustmetaphor, but that's just it.
Many scholars believe it wasvery possibly a metaphor Because
, remember, the genre of Joel isapocalyptic literature, and
(08:24):
what that means is is you don'tread it like you would read, you
know, the book of Colossians orRomans, where Paul is saying do
this and do that, don't do this, don't do that.
This is a form of poetry, andso he will a lot of times write
in different prose and differentillustrations, to make a point.
And so many scholars believethat, yes, there was probably
locusts that were wreaking havocall over the place, but it may
(08:46):
have more, symbolized thedifferent invading armies that
would just come in and devastatethe different area and talk
about how that's what has beenhappening, but how God wants to
do something different in theirlife.
Joel another interesting factJoel is also one of the few
prophets who does not mentionspecific sins like idolatry or
injustice.
He's just saying we need torepent of everything Because of
(09:09):
what had been going on in thenation's history.
He's just like can we just havea general, just sorry before
God?
Also, peter quotes Joel too,that the day of Pentecost, when
it happens that he is sayingthis is the fulfillment of what
Joel had said, like almost athousand years ago.
And what I love is Joel endswith a note of restoration, with
(09:32):
God blessing for his people andpointing of the hope of final
redemption and so the overallfinal goal of the book of Job is
this idea that bad things arehappening, it's the day of the
Lord, but it's also a day ofpossible restoration, so there's
a lot of hope that's there aswell.
So, if you're ready, we're goingto jump into Joel, chapter 1.
(09:53):
And remember, he is talking tothe nation of Judah as they are
grappling with all of the sinthey have been committing under
these bad rulers, and he istelling them it is now time to
come back to God, even thoughall these bad things have been
happening, most of which we haveearned by turning our heart
from God.
So if you're ready, here we go.
Joel, chapter 1, verse 1, saysthis the Lord gave this message
(10:17):
to Joel, son of Bethuel.
Now one more time every time,remember you see capital L-O-R-D
.
It is talking about Yahweh, soit's just the covenant name of
God.
So God's saying me, thecovenant God, who has made
covenant with you, in otherwords, made promises with you.
This is the one who is talkingand he says this hear this, you
leaders of the people.
(10:38):
Listen all who live in the land.
All your history has anythinglike this happened before?
Tell your children about it inyears to come, and let your
children tell their childrenPass the story down from
generation to generation.
After the cutting locusts havefinished eating the crops, the
(10:59):
swarming locusts took over whatwas left.
After that came the hoppinglocusts, and then the stripping
locusts too.
Wake up, you drunkards and weepWail, all you wine drinkers.
All the grapes are ruined andall your sweet wine is gone.
A vast army of locusts haveinvaded my land, a terrible army
(11:22):
, too numerous to count.
Its teeth are like lion's teeth, its fangs are like those of a
lioness.
It has destroyed my grapevinesand ruined my fig trees,
stripping their bark anddestroying it, leaving the
branches white and bare.
Weep, like a bride dressed inblack mourning for the death of
(11:42):
her husband, for there is nograin or wine to offer at the
temple of the Lord.
So the priests are in mourningand the ministers of the Lord
are weeping.
The fields are ruined and theland is stripped bare.
The grain is destroyed, thegrapes have shriveled and the
olive oil is gone.
Despair.
(12:03):
All you farmers Wail.
All you vine growers Weepbecause of the wheat and barley.
All the crops of the field areruined, the grape vines have
dried up and the fig trees havewithered, the pomegranate tree,
palm trees and apple trees.
All the fruit trees have driedup and the people's joy has
(12:23):
dried up with them.
Dress yourselves in burlap andweep.
You, priest Wail, you who servebefore the altar, come spend
the night in burlap, youministers of my God, for there
(12:44):
is no grain or Verse 2.
And all the people of the landinto the temple of the Lord,
your God, and cry out to himthere.
The day of the Lord is near, theday when destruction comes from
the Almighty.
How terrible that day will be.
Our food disappears before ourvery eyes.
No joyful celebrations areheard in the house of our God.
(13:05):
The seeds die in the parchedground and the grain crops fail.
The barns stand empty and thebarns and the granaries are
abandoned.
How the animals moan withhunger.
The herds of cattle wanderabout confused because they have
no pasture.
The flocks of the sheep andgoats bleat in misery.
(13:27):
Lord, help us.
The fire has consumed thewilderness pastures.
The flames have burned all ofour trees.
Even the wild animals cry outto you because the streams have
dried up and the fire hasconsumed the wilderness pastures
.
Devastation, absolutedevastation.
(13:50):
And so when we read this and welook at this, what's going on?
Well, what is happening is thisinvading army of locusts have
come.
This bad thing has happened andit has absolutely devastated
everything.
And so what Joel is saying isit is time to get serious with
God.
And so what Joel is saying isit is time to get serious with
God, it's time to come back tohim and to ask for him to do
(14:14):
something about this terriblesituation that they're going
through.
And can I tell you, the lessonfor us today is that in the day
of the Lord, in other words, inthe day when it seems like
everything is falling apart,that's also the day when
everything can come backtogether again.
I don't know about you, but wheneverything is going wrong and
everything is bad, I wish Icould tell you, I wish I could
(14:37):
sit here and just brag, you know, and just say, man, when
everything's going wrong, I loveto just turn to Jesus.
I just get close to him, I callup my life group and they pray
for me.
Man, everything is great.
I wish I could tell you that ismy default.
But I'm just.
You go ahead and act like it's,you polish your halo, all the
(14:57):
good things, but can I tell youwhat I do whenever the day of
the Lord comes in my life, inother words, bad things starts
to happen, and usually you knowcause.
I've earned it.
You know what I mean.
Like the discipline of the Lordis coming upon my life because
I've not been faithful indifferent areas.
I will tell you, I pout like alittle kid.
I will isolate myself, I goover somewhere else.
I'll even tell my wife.
I'll be like hey, listen, Ineed you to leave me alone right
(15:17):
now.
I'll tell our staff at churchhey, I need you to give me some
space right now.
You know what I mean, because Ijust want to have a pity party
and if I'm not careful, I'lljust isolate myself, away from
everybody.
And that's honestly what thebook of Joel is saying.
That's exactly what we shouldnot do.
That actually, when the daylooks its darkest is actually
(15:40):
the day when God can do the mostIf we'll turn to him.
And so what Joel is saying?
Bad things have happened,horrible things have happened.
And one of the things that he'stalking about is he's saying
okay, look at all of thesethings that we've been doing.
And this is the result we haveturned away from God over and
over and over again.
We haven't trusted in him.
(16:01):
We've done our own thing andthis was the result, and so he
is saying so.
Then our next step is turn backto him as seriously as we can
and can I tell you what I'velearned to do and I'm learning
to do and I wish I could tellyou that I get it right all the
time is the level at which Istart experiencing spiritual
(16:22):
warfare or I start experiencingsomething bad.
I'm trying to learn that, withthat same energy, I need to turn
to God.
So if I'm having kind of a badday, then maybe on the way home
I'll turn on some worship musicand I'll just say God, I just
give it to you and I pray thatyou'll.
You know, whatever.
But when I'm talking about,everything hits the fan,
(16:43):
everything's going wrong.
It just seems like nothing'sgoing right and I'm trying to
learn to do is whatever energyis coming at me, like, however
big it is.
That's how much I turn to God,which means what I'll do is,
instead of coming home, I'll gosomewhere quiet and I'll say God
, I'm not leaving this placeuntil I feel like I have poured
out my heart before you and tomake sure my heart is right with
(17:05):
you, because the only one whocan do something about this is
you, and just turn over to himabsolutely as much as I possibly
can, because I have learned andI've learned the hard way that
only God can do something aboutit.
So here's my question for youIs there something in your life
right now that's just goingcrazy, just going wrong?
(17:28):
Maybe you call it the day of theLord in your life.
Maybe it's because of mistakesyou've made, maybe it's because
of things, or maybe not, butmaybe, maybe things are still
going wrong.
Can I tell you the number onething that God says is give it
to me.
You were never intended to dothis thing called life alone.
You were intended to bring itto me, and that's what Joel is
telling us.
(17:49):
When the day of the Lord comes,it's a bad day, but it can also
be the best day, depending onhow hard you pivot and you turn
it over to the Lord.
Let's pray together right now,god, thank you so much that
you're with us and you're for usin every way.
I'm so thankful, lord, that yousee us, that you're walking
with us even now and in thismoment, and I pray today, god,
(18:11):
that whatever we're goingthrough, lord, we won't waste it
.
But, lord, it will help usremember to turn our lives over
to you and to let you have yourway.
Let's pivot toward you andwatch what you can do.
In the name of Jesus, we prayAmen, amen.
Well, god's Word says in Joel 2, verse 13,.
It says Return to the Lord,your God, for he is gracious and
(18:33):
merciful, slow to anger andabounding in steadfast love.
That's my prayer for you today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Joel,chapter 2.
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon, today.
Joel, chapter 1.
And today's title and theoverall theme of the book of
Joel is the Day of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord, and we'regoing to get into all this in
just a moment.
And many of you have probablyactually heard of the book of
(00:23):
Joel, but maybe not because ofit being a book in the Old
Testament, but because ofsomething that happens in the
New Testament.
So, if you want to get yourBibles out and get ready to jump
into a book of the Bible thatyou probably are more familiar
with than you think you are,while you're doing that, if
you're new here, take just amoment.
Like, share and subscribe tothe YouTube channel and the
podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
(00:43):
it really does help and makesure you're going to the Bible
Breakdown Discussion on Facebook.
Man, I'll tell you there's agreat group of people doing a
wonderful job over there and, asalways, the more we dig the
more we find, and our hope inall of this is to create an
environment where we can justcelebrate reading God's Word and
just gather around the truth ofGod's Word, and it's just a
(01:06):
wonderful opportunity to do that, and so make sure you're going
to the Facebook page and makesure you're enjoying all of that
.
Okay, all right.
Well, if you have your Bibles,you open up with me to Joel,
chapter two.
Remember, the idea in the NewTestament is is so many things
in the New Testament werefulfillment of prophecy that
happened in the Old Testament,and so the book of Joel is very
(01:28):
important, because Acts, chapter2, actually speaks about the
prophet Joel, and so that's whywe want to take time and really
go through it, especially on thefirst part.
We always do this, but remember, the overall theme is talking
about the day of the Lord, andit's dual in its meaning.
It's the day of the Lord, as inthe day of judgment, but also
(01:51):
in the day when God restoreseverything again, and so the
prophet Joel had the opportunityto really warn the nation of
Israel about this.
And so let's dive in a littlebit deeper to Joel and get some
background information.
First of all, who wrote Joel?
Well, that's the good thingabout the book of Joel is it has
the name of the prophet as thetitle.
(02:12):
So it was written by a guynamed Joel, son of Bethuel.
We don't really know much aboutJoel, except that his name
means Yahweh is God.
Now, one of the ways to tellthis is the word Joel.
If you were to say this inHebrew, you could even call it,
say Joel, and that Joel part,the E-L is a Hebrew word for God
(02:35):
.
So Joel means is is God, so Godis Yahweh, or Yahweh is God.
That's how you can tell whathis name means.
And where was he?
But he was in Judah.
That's the southern kingdom.
If you remember, after the timeof Solomon you had Saul, which
is the first king of Israel,then you had David, the greatest
(02:56):
king of Israel, then you hadSolomon, his son, and then,
after Solomon, the kingdom splitinto two and you had most of
the tribes of Israel that wentaway from the house of David,
the son of Solomon, and theydeveloped their own kingdom that
we just simply call Israel, andthat was the northern kingdom.
But then you had Judah andBenjamin that stayed with the
(03:21):
house, the dynasty of David, andthat was the southern kingdom,
and they called them Judahbecause Judah was the main tribe
.
And so Joel is in the southernkingdom, probably living in
Jerusalem at the time.
And kind of when would this havebeen?
This would have been duringlike 835 to 796 BC.
(03:42):
So the people that would havebeen around that you may
recognize during the time ofJoel would be the prophet Elisha
, the prophet Obadiah and theprophet Jonah.
So while Jonah is beingswallowed up by fish, while a
guy named Obadiah is talkingabout the different things that
God is doing, joel is living inthe city of Jerusalem and he is
(04:04):
prophesying because of thewaywardness of the people of God
, but at the same time that Godis wanting to bring his people
back again.
So Elisha is out there doingall these miracles, and I think
that's important Already toremember that we sometimes think
that God is only doing onething in one place, but we can
(04:27):
already see that Elisha wasdoing all this great stuff that
you can read about in the OldTestament, but while he is out
and about doing that, there is aprophet in the city of
Jerusalem that's also obeyingGod and also doing some great
things.
And so the big idea of Joel,like I was saying before, is
it's all about a day of judgment, but it's also about a day of
salvation at the same time.
(04:48):
That God can do both at thesame time that God is always up
to something.
So it's a call to repentance,it's a warning of coming
judgment, but it's also thepromise of future hope.
Now, why is the book of Joelimportant?
Why are we not skipping thisone and going on?
Well, the reason why is becauseit reminds us that God uses
(05:08):
both natural and spiritual meansto get our attention, and we
could think deeply about thatfor a long time, couldn't we?
I mean, how many times have badthings happened in our life
that really did a wonderful jobat refocusing our mind on our
need for God, right?
The next thing is it's a callto repentance, which is timeless
(05:29):
, and then the one that I wasalluding to earlier is Joel's
prophecy that's going to come upin chapter 2 is actually still
being fulfilled today, and so westill get to see some of what
happened in Joel's life eventoday.
So what's going on in the timeof Joel give you a little bit
more background is Judah isrecovering from the reign of
(05:49):
Queen Ataliah, who was just adark and violent period, and if
you remember you go back andlisten to earlier podcasts this
was a time when they had to hidethis little boy who was going
to be a king from Queen Ataliah,because she was just absolutely
evil and her reign has come toan end.
But now they're grappling withtheir identity.
(06:10):
Are they going to turn back toGod or are they going to follow
all the idol worship by QueenAdelaide and some of the other
nations that have come up andsome of the just the you know,
jezebel and some of those people.
They're dead now, but some ofthe influences they brought.
The next thing is is this is atime when the temple is being
repaired, because under QueenAdelia some terrible things had
(06:31):
happened to the temple, and theyare in the process of restoring
these different things.
There's a lot of work thatneeds to be done and also kind
of foreshadowing.
The kingdom of Assyria isrising to dominant power in the
region.
Now, if you have been readingalong with us, eventually the
nation of Israel, the northernkingdom, falls to the invading
(06:55):
armies of the Assyrians becausethey don't repent of their sin,
and during this time it hasn'thappened yet, but they are
starting to gain power.
So a couple more things, someinteresting facts, and then
we're going to jump into this.
First of all, god uses thissituation that has happened in
the nation of Judah to point toa spiritual thing, and one of
(07:17):
the things is he's going to talkabout locusts.
He's going to talk aboutdifferent types of locusts that
do different kinds of things,and, depending on where you live
in the world, it is going tomean absolutely nothing to you.
You're going to be like, okay,ugly bugs, let's move on.
But here's the thing During thetime, and especially when their
primary source of food andmaking money and all that was
(07:38):
agriculture, a swarm of locustscould be like a death sentence,
because what locusts would do isthey would come in by the
thousands.
Just think of thousands offlying grasshoppers.
Right, that would come out ofnowhere and they would just land
on your crops and within justalmost no time at all, they
would destroy your crops, and soyou could have started out
(07:59):
having a great season and thenyou end in just devastation,
like it could be terrible.
And so when locusts would comethrough you, just I mean, people
would just fall apart.
And so he is using this locustmetaphor, but that's just it.
Many scholars believe it wasvery possibly a metaphor Because
, remember, the genre of Joel isapocalyptic literature, and
(08:24):
what that means is is you don'tread it like you would read, you
know, the book of Colossians orRomans, where Paul is saying do
this and do that, don't do this, don't do that.
This is a form of poetry, andso he will a lot of times write
in different prose and differentillustrations, to make a point.
And so many scholars believethat, yes, there was probably
locusts that were wreaking havocall over the place, but it may
(08:46):
have more, symbolized thedifferent invading armies that
would just come in and devastatethe different area and talk
about how that's what has beenhappening, but how God wants to
do something different in theirlife.
Joel another interesting factJoel is also one of the few
prophets who does not mentionspecific sins like idolatry or
injustice.
He's just saying we need torepent of everything Because of
(09:09):
what had been going on in thenation's history.
He's just like can we just havea general, just sorry before
God?
Also, peter quotes Joel too,that the day of Pentecost, when
it happens that he is sayingthis is the fulfillment of what
Joel had said, like almost athousand years ago.
And what I love is Joel endswith a note of restoration, with
(09:32):
God blessing for his people andpointing of the hope of final
redemption and so the overallfinal goal of the book of Job is
this idea that bad things arehappening, it's the day of the
Lord, but it's also a day ofpossible restoration, so there's
a lot of hope that's there aswell.
So, if you're ready, we're goingto jump into Joel, chapter 1.
(09:53):
And remember, he is talking tothe nation of Judah as they are
grappling with all of the sinthey have been committing under
these bad rulers, and he istelling them it is now time to
come back to God, even thoughall these bad things have been
happening, most of which we haveearned by turning our heart
from God.
So if you're ready, here we go.
Joel, chapter 1, verse 1, saysthis the Lord gave this message
(10:17):
to Joel, son of Bethuel.
Now one more time every time,remember you see capital L-O-R-D
.
It is talking about Yahweh, soit's just the covenant name of
God.
So God's saying me, thecovenant God, who has made
covenant with you, in otherwords, made promises with you.
This is the one who is talkingand he says this hear this, you
leaders of the people.
(10:38):
Listen all who live in the land.
All your history has anythinglike this happened before?
Tell your children about it inyears to come, and let your
children tell their childrenPass the story down from
generation to generation.
After the cutting locusts havefinished eating the crops, the
(10:59):
swarming locusts took over whatwas left.
After that came the hoppinglocusts, and then the stripping
locusts too.
Wake up, you drunkards and weepWail, all you wine drinkers.
All the grapes are ruined andall your sweet wine is gone.
A vast army of locusts haveinvaded my land, a terrible army
(11:22):
, too numerous to count.
Its teeth are like lion's teeth, its fangs are like those of a
lioness.
It has destroyed my grapevinesand ruined my fig trees,
stripping their bark anddestroying it, leaving the
branches white and bare.
Weep, like a bride dressed inblack mourning for the death of
(11:42):
her husband, for there is nograin or wine to offer at the
temple of the Lord.
So the priests are in mourningand the ministers of the Lord
are weeping.
The fields are ruined and theland is stripped bare.
The grain is destroyed, thegrapes have shriveled and the
olive oil is gone.
Despair.
(12:03):
All you farmers Wail.
All you vine growers Weepbecause of the wheat and barley.
All the crops of the field areruined, the grape vines have
dried up and the fig trees havewithered, the pomegranate tree,
palm trees and apple trees.
All the fruit trees have driedup and the people's joy has
(12:23):
dried up with them.
Dress yourselves in burlap andweep.
You, priest Wail, you who servebefore the altar, come spend
the night in burlap, youministers of my God, for there
(12:44):
is no grain or Verse 2.
And all the people of the landinto the temple of the Lord,
your God, and cry out to himthere.
The day of the Lord is near, theday when destruction comes from
the Almighty.
How terrible that day will be.
Our food disappears before ourvery eyes.
No joyful celebrations areheard in the house of our God.
(13:05):
The seeds die in the parchedground and the grain crops fail.
The barns stand empty and thebarns and the granaries are
abandoned.
How the animals moan withhunger.
The herds of cattle wanderabout confused because they have
no pasture.
The flocks of the sheep andgoats bleat in misery.
(13:27):
Lord, help us.
The fire has consumed thewilderness pastures.
The flames have burned all ofour trees.
Even the wild animals cry outto you because the streams have
dried up and the fire hasconsumed the wilderness pastures
.
Devastation, absolutedevastation.
(13:50):
And so when we read this and welook at this, what's going on?
Well, what is happening is thisinvading army of locusts have
come.
This bad thing has happened andit has absolutely devastated
everything.
And so what Joel is saying isit is time to get serious with
God.
And so what Joel is saying isit is time to get serious with
God, it's time to come back tohim and to ask for him to do
(14:14):
something about this terriblesituation that they're going
through.
And can I tell you, the lessonfor us today is that in the day
of the Lord, in other words, inthe day when it seems like
everything is falling apart,that's also the day when
everything can come backtogether again.
I don't know about you, but wheneverything is going wrong and
everything is bad, I wish Icould tell you, I wish I could
(14:37):
sit here and just brag, you know, and just say, man, when
everything's going wrong, I loveto just turn to Jesus.
I just get close to him, I callup my life group and they pray
for me.
Man, everything is great.
I wish I could tell you that ismy default.
But I'm just.
You go ahead and act like it's,you polish your halo, all the
(14:57):
good things, but can I tell youwhat I do whenever the day of
the Lord comes in my life, inother words, bad things starts
to happen, and usually you knowcause.
I've earned it.
You know what I mean.
Like the discipline of the Lordis coming upon my life because
I've not been faithful indifferent areas.
I will tell you, I pout like alittle kid.
I will isolate myself, I goover somewhere else.
I'll even tell my wife.
I'll be like hey, listen, Ineed you to leave me alone right
(15:17):
now.
I'll tell our staff at churchhey, I need you to give me some
space right now.
You know what I mean, because Ijust want to have a pity party
and if I'm not careful, I'lljust isolate myself, away from
everybody.
And that's honestly what thebook of Joel is saying.
That's exactly what we shouldnot do.
That actually, when the daylooks its darkest is actually
(15:40):
the day when God can do the mostIf we'll turn to him.
And so what Joel is saying?
Bad things have happened,horrible things have happened.
And one of the things that he'stalking about is he's saying
okay, look at all of thesethings that we've been doing.
And this is the result we haveturned away from God over and
over and over again.
We haven't trusted in him.
(16:01):
We've done our own thing andthis was the result, and so he
is saying so.
Then our next step is turn backto him as seriously as we can
and can I tell you what I'velearned to do and I'm learning
to do and I wish I could tellyou that I get it right all the
time is the level at which Istart experiencing spiritual
(16:22):
warfare or I start experiencingsomething bad.
I'm trying to learn that, withthat same energy, I need to turn
to God.
So if I'm having kind of a badday, then maybe on the way home
I'll turn on some worship musicand I'll just say God, I just
give it to you and I pray thatyou'll.
You know, whatever.
But when I'm talking about,everything hits the fan,
(16:43):
everything's going wrong.
It just seems like nothing'sgoing right and I'm trying to
learn to do is whatever energyis coming at me, like, however
big it is.
That's how much I turn to God,which means what I'll do is,
instead of coming home, I'll gosomewhere quiet and I'll say God
, I'm not leaving this placeuntil I feel like I have poured
out my heart before you and tomake sure my heart is right with
(17:05):
you, because the only one whocan do something about this is
you, and just turn over to himabsolutely as much as I possibly
can, because I have learned andI've learned the hard way that
only God can do something aboutit.
So here's my question for youIs there something in your life
right now that's just goingcrazy, just going wrong?
(17:28):
Maybe you call it the day of theLord in your life.
Maybe it's because of mistakesyou've made, maybe it's because
of things, or maybe not, butmaybe, maybe things are still
going wrong.
Can I tell you the number onething that God says is give it
to me.
You were never intended to dothis thing called life alone.
You were intended to bring itto me, and that's what Joel is
telling us.
(17:49):
When the day of the Lord comes,it's a bad day, but it can also
be the best day, depending onhow hard you pivot and you turn
it over to the Lord.
Let's pray together right now,god, thank you so much that
you're with us and you're for usin every way.
I'm so thankful, lord, that yousee us, that you're walking
with us even now and in thismoment, and I pray today, god,
(18:11):
that whatever we're goingthrough, lord, we won't waste it
.
But, lord, it will help usremember to turn our lives over
to you and to let you have yourway.
Let's pivot toward you andwatch what you can do.
In the name of Jesus, we prayAmen, amen.
Well, god's Word says in Joel 2, verse 13,.
It says Return to the Lord,your God, for he is gracious and
(18:33):
merciful, slow to anger andabounding in steadfast love.
That's my prayer for you today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Joel,chapter 2.
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