What Joel Says About Israel

What Is God Going to Do with Israel? –

According to Joel

Joel the son of Pethuel says little more than my saying, I’m Harley Pinon. He identifies who is, and says nothing of his family or occupation. Only one thing matters: The word of the LORD!

(Joel 1:2 NKJV) Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers?

He wants their attention! Something important is happening! God is calling! Is anyone listening? Jesus used similar words:

(Joel 1:3 NKJV) Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, And their children another generation.

(Joel 1:4 NKJV) What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; What the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; And what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.

What are you to say in face of all this?

“Boy, we have really had a lot of bad luck lately haven’t we?”

“Man, have you ever seen anything like it?”

Maybe it’s time to say, “Somebody must not be paying the preacher very well.”

Maybe someone is starting to think right, but what Joel is saying is that God is sending wave after wave of judgment on His people. They will either correct or destroy them!

(Joel 1:5 NKJV) Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, For it has been cut off from your mouth.

It matters not whether they were drunk with wine, or just so preoccupied with worldly pursuits so that “There is no fear of God before his eyes.” (Psa 36:1 NKJV)

(Joel 1:6-8 NKJV) For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion. {7} He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white. {8} Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth.

An interesting answer to their problem! It isn’t pesticides, or preparing an army, but rather it is getting right with God!

(Joel 1:9 NKJV) The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD.

This probably happened in two ways: (1) There was no grain or drink to offer, or at least very little, and not of the quality they were to offer, and (2) Their hearts were not prepared to worship God. That’s why they are described as drunkards.

(Joel 1:10 NKJV) The field is wasted, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The oil fails.

(Joel 1:11) Be ashamed, you farmers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field has perished.

It’s not their farming skills that are the problem. Their problem is a heart problem! The need to Be ashamed and Wail. Their problems were real:

(Joel 1:12) The vine has dried up, And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate tree, The palm tree also, And the apple tree; All the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.

“Joy has withered,” so how do you fix it? Not with a pep rally, but more mourning, for a better reason: You are concerned because you have offended God! Crying over lost crops doesn’t make that much difference unless it is with the right spirit.

(Joel 1:13-14 NKJV) Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; Wail, you who minister before the altar; Come, lie all night in sackcloth, You who minister to my God; For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God. {14} Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.

(Joel 1:15 NKJV) Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

Is this a reference to the day of the Lord, or is this a preliminary judgment of God? Sometimes it is hard to tell because as we have shown before, God sometimes skips over thousands of years in mid- sentence.

(Joel 1:16-18 NKJV) Is not the food cut off before our eyes, Joy and gladness from the house of our God? {17} The seed shrivels under the clods, Storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, For the grain has withered. {18} How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, Because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

In a more general way, Paul speaks of the suffering of the animals because of the sins of mankind.

(Rom 8:22) For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

(Joel 1:19-20 NKJV) O LORD, to You I cry out; For fire has devoured the open pastures, And a flame has burned all the trees of the field. {20} The beasts of the field also cry out to You, For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has devoured the open pastures.

Man, in general, takes all of God’s blessings and just assumes He will just keep on giving and expect nothing in return. Even when He stops giving, most men will still not acknowledge God.

(Joel 2:1-10 NKJV) Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, For it is at hand: {2} A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.

(Joel 2:3) A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them.

{4} Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run.

{5} With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap, Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array. {6} Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color. {7} They run like mighty men, They climb the wall like men of war; Every one marches in formation, And they do not break ranks. {8} They do not push one another; Every one marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, They are not cut down. {9} They run to and fro in the city, They run on the wall; They climb into the houses, They enter at the windows like a thief. {10} The earth quakes before them, The heavens tremble; The sun and moon grow dark, And the stars diminish their brightness.

(Joel 2:11NKJV) The LORD gives voice before His army, For His camp is very great; For strong is the One who executes His word. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; Who can endure it?

(Joel 2:12) "Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." {13} So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.

(Joel 2:14) Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him; A grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God?

(Joel 2:15) Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; {16} Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room.

(Joel 2:17) Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'" {18} Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, And pity His people. {19} The LORD will answer and say to His people, "Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, And you will be satisfied by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.

We Never Know When He Will Have Mercy on a Nation, or a People!

So we need to do everything we can to obtain God’s mercy. Who knows when He will have mercy and when He will not. That is up to God.

There is still much left in this little short book of three chapter, but rather than skip over it, we plan to conclude our Study of Joel in our next lesson.

· One of the greatest is that of time! We do not know what time it is on God’s clock!

· One thing we know: We are dealing with Almighty God, and He will win decisively and in a tremendous way. We need to be right with Him!

What to do about it?