Joel Archives - Devotionals

Daily Devotional-September 22nd

September 22, 2020

A lot of us might tend to avoid spending time in the prophetic literature of the Bible, mainly because a lot of it is obscure and difficult to understand. But we find in these texts so much about who God is, who we are, what God has done and is doing to save us, and how we are to respond to Him in obedience! As we spend the next 3 days together in the book of Joel, ask the Lord to help you understand what He is trying to communicate through these visions of destruction, judgment, mercy, and restoration. Ask Him to help you to see the bigger picture of His Kingdom that He is trying to paint for us in this book!

In this chapter Joel describes the great Day of the LORD, the ultimate fulfillment of all days of the LORD that have come before. God will pour out his full wrath and judgment against human evil. The imagery here is graphic and dramatic: we usually think of God’s harvest in terms of those who are being saved, but here Joel uses it in terms of God’s judgment. You do not want to be on the receiving end of God’s wrath on that day.

But this chapter, this final Day of the LORD, does not only describe God’s judgment on evil, but also God’s salvation and restoration for His people! God’s judgment against the wicked nations is a vindication for His people, because those nations were the same ones that oppressed and persecuted them. God’s judgment on evil means rescue for His people.

The picture we see in the book’s ending goes beyond even the salvation of God’s people. It envisions human evil dealt with once and for all, God’s people living in everlasting peace and flourishing, and creation itself restored and renewed. This is God’s Kingdom, this is where all of history is heading! In this short book we see so much about God’s plan for the redemption of His people and the renewal of all that He has made.

We know that this plan has been set in motion in a new way in Christ Jesus and that its final fulfillment is coming soon when Jesus returns!

Joel 3

The Lord Judges the Nations

3 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, ²I 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, ³and 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. ⁵For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. ⁶You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. ⁷Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. ⁸I 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.”

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate for war;
    stir up the mighty men.
Let all the men of war draw near;
    let them come up.
¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords,
    and your pruning hooks into spears;
    let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

¹¹Hasten and come,
    all you surrounding nations,
    and gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
¹²Let the nations stir themselves up
    and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit to judge
    all the surrounding nations.

¹³Put in the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
    for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
    for their evil is great.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes,
    in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
    in the valley of decision.
¹⁵The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶The Lord roars from Zion,
    and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth quake.
But the Lord is a refuge to his people,
    a stronghold to the people of Israel.

The Glorious Future of Judah

¹⁷“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
and strangers shall never again pass through it.

¹⁸“And in that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    and the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
    shall flow with water;
and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
    and water the Valley of Shittim.

¹⁹“Egypt shall become a desolation
    and Edom a desolate wilderness,
for the violence done to the people of Judah,
    because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
²⁰But Judah shall be inhabited forever,
    and Jerusalem to all generations.
²¹I will avenge their blood,
    blood I have not avenged,
    for the Lord dwells in Zion.”

Family Discussion Question:

Why is it significant that God’s final salvation includes all of creation and not just God’s people themselves? What does that indicate for what heaven will be like for us? What is the most significant thing to you that the book of Joel teaches us about God and His work in history?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 21st

September 21, 2020

In chapter 2 the prophet describes the locust plague from the first chapter as a great army coming to destroy everything in its path. He makes it quite plain for the people to understand: this army is the LORD’s army, and He goes at their head to lead them (v.11). Before all is lost, the people are called to repent once more, to return to the LORD with all their hearts! It is significant that they are commanded to “rend [their] hearts and not [their] garments” (v.13). God is calling them not only to show the outward signs of repentance, but to truly experience inward transformation!

It is also significant the way the rest of the chapter goes. The people do repent, and God does respond with restoration and forgiveness. God does not merely command the people to be inwardly transformed and repent; He gives the grace which secures that inward transformation by pouring out His Holy Spirit on His people! The Day of the Lord is a day of great judgment, but it is also a day of great salvation for the people of God!

We have to recognize and acknowledge the immensity of God’s grace towards us. He does not call us to repent and then leave us to our own power and resources, but gives us access to His power, presence, and resources through His Holy Spirit! Then God also moves to heal and to renew and to restore in response to our repentance, a repentance which He secured for us by giving us His Spirit!

Salvation is of the Lord; celebrate that truth today!

Joel 2

The Day of the Lord

2 Blow a trumpet in Zion;
    sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
²a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
    a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
    nor will be again after them
    through the years of all generations.

³Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
    but behind them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

⁴Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
    and like war horses they run.
⁵As with the rumbling of chariots,
    they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
    devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
    drawn up for battle.

⁶Before them peoples are in anguish;
    all faces grow pale.
⁷Like warriors they charge;
    like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
    they do not swerve from their paths.
⁸They do not jostle one another;
    each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
    and are not halted.
⁹They leap upon the city,
    they run upon the walls,
they climb up into the houses,
    they enter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰The earth quakes before them;
    the heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹¹The Lord utters his voice
    before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
    he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;
    who can endure it?

Return to the Lord

¹²“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³    and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
¹⁴Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?

¹⁵Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶    gather the people.
Consecrate the congregation;
    assemble the elders;
gather the children,
    even nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
    and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷Between the vestibule and the altar
    let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
and say, “Spare your people, O Lord,
    and make not your heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’”

The Lord Had Pity

¹⁸Then the Lord became jealous for his land
    and had pity on his people.
¹⁹The Lord answered and said to his people,
“Behold, I am sending to you
    grain, wine, and oil,
    and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you
    a reproach among the nations.

²⁰“I will remove the northerner far from you,
    and drive him into a parched and desolate land,
his vanguard into the eastern sea,
    and his rear guard into the western sea;
the stench and foul smell of him will rise,
    for he has done great things.

²¹“Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
²²Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit;
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

²³“Be glad, O children of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given the early rain for your vindication;
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

²⁴“The threshing floors shall be full of grain;
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵I will restore to you the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

²⁶“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

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.
²⁹Even 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. ³¹The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.³²And 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.

Family Discussion Question:

How do we see God’s love and provision for His people in this chapter, even though He was disciplining them? How does knowing that God responds to our repentance encourage us to live before Him?

Devotional

Daily Devotional-September 20th

September 20, 2020

The first chapter of Joel describes a plague of locusts that has left the land in utter desolation. This locust invasion has comprehensively decimated the good things of the land, leaving the people in a state of famine so severe that even the animals have nothing to eat. In poetic language, the prophet describes this swarm of locusts as an army, devouring all in its path and leaving absolute destruction in its wake.

While there is no indictment of any specific sin the people have committed that would result in such judgment, the prophet’s call to repentance and his designation of this event as a “day of the LORD” makes it clear: this destruction is a judgment from the hand of God. The people of Judah had in some way or another drifted from their loyalty to their God, and He had sent this swarm of locusts in order to get their attention and lead them to repentance.

This “day of the LORD” which Joel describes is what theologians call a type, which essentially means that it is a picture or representation of something greater which is to come in the future (the antitype). Understanding this is pivotal to understanding the message of the book of Joel as a whole; the great day of the Lord’s judgment is indeed coming, and it will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). The prophet calls the people to repentance before that day arrives!

We see the destructive consequences of sin all around us. In many ways, the world around us lies in desolation, and we perceive the destruction and death that rebellion against God always produces. As we await the day of our Lord’s coming, the day when His judgment and salvation will be fully revealed, may we repent as a people from any rebellion against God which we have participated in, and may we be a prophetic voice in our culture calling others to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ before it is too late!

Joel 1

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

An Invasion of Locusts

²Hear this, you elders;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
³Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children to another generation.

⁴What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶For a nation has come up against my land,
    powerful and beyond number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷It has laid waste my vine
    and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

⁸Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
⁹The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰The fields are destroyed,
    the ground mourns,
because the grain is destroyed,
    the wine dries up,
    the oil languishes.

¹¹Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil;
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹²The vine dries up;
    the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

A Call to Repentance

¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵Alas for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
¹⁶Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods;
    the storehouses are desolate;
the granaries are torn down
    because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.

¹⁹To you, O Lord, I call.
For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.
²⁰Even the beasts of the field pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

Family Discussion Question:

How can you see the consequences of sin in a communal sense in the world around us? Might it be the judgment of God against those things? How can you as a believer in Jesus be a prophetic voice calling people to repentance before the great day of the LORD arrives?