Joel Study Intro Pt 3

The Book of Joel and What Has Already Been Covered

Folks, we're going to start our third day now of looking into the book of Joel. So let's unwrap the book of Joel. The locust industry is where we left off and I want to just do a quick rehearsal of what we've already looked through last week.

Oops, that's our buddy the locust. So last week we looked at the general, what the scholars generally believed about Joel and what is agreed upon on the book of Joel. We quickly looked at what a prophet was.

To understand Joel and who he is, we have to know what a prophet is. So we looked at that very quickly. We also looked at some of the linguistic parallels with the other books, both New Testament and Old Testament.

These are very important and they give us a good understanding when we actually dig into the verse by verse on Joel. Also, we did a brief consideration of the locust invasion and armies. We're going to look at that a little more today as well.

We looked at the chiastic pattern of the book of Joel. By the way, the pattern that I showed you is not the only pattern that I've read about. There's multiple opinions on how that book plays out, how Joel plays out.

We looked at sentences, clauses, and phrases used to demarcate the book of Joel. And we considered the day of the Lord. We'll look at that a little more closely too as we go the verse by verse, a very important theme in the book of Joel.

We also looked at, and we'll continue to look at, the imagery of locust. Okay, so locust, this is something that we really need to consider here. Locust was a promise by God to be a curse for disobedience.

The Locust as Covenant Curse in Deuteronomy and Exodus

Deuteronomy 28, 36 through 38 says this, the Lord will bring you and your King whom I set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone and you shall become a hara, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.

You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of wine nor gather the grapes for the worms shall eat them.

This is one of the curses that was promised to Israel with disobedience. And here we have it, the Lord, the Lord did this, the Lord will bring you and your King among whom you set over, whom you set over you and, and you shall carry in much seed into the field, but what will happen?

The locust will consume it. This is nothing new in scripture. This is not a new concept. This is been told to them previous, and they would have known this, meaning the audience of Joel. Continuing with this, the same idea of the locust plague and the curse of it.

Here we have Exodus 10, four through six, for if you refuse to let my people go behold tomorrow, I will bring what locust into your country and they shall cover the face of the land so that no one can see the land and they shall eat what is left after the hail.

And they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field. And they shall fill their house, fill your houses, and they shall, your servants, and you can see all that these locusts will do. The locust, again, is not a new concept.

They're going to eat all that's left after the hail. This concept of the locust, again, I must say, here we're talking about the eighth plague. Joel's people would have known this. They would have understood this.

They should have understood it. Something else that we want to keep in mind here, too, this event was not only to teach Pharaoh, it was to teach all of Israel. So again, I have to repeat, Joel's people should have known this.

This whole aspect of this curse, if obedience is not there, if God is rejected and not obeyed, there is consequences. There's big consequences. In this case, we saw the plagues and we're talking now about the eighth one.

This is also a far bigger event if we want to look at the big picture. It's the salvation of God's people. We have to understand this, too, that these plagues, these curses and everything have an ultimate goal, the salvation of God's people.

God's plan, for instance, with Exodus, we have Moses, a savior figure. We have sin, right? Israel coming out of sin, being brought out of sin and headed where? So it's the promised land. Okay, this is the big picture.

And we'll talk more about that as we get into the verse by verse as well. Next, I want to talk about Deuteronomy 6, 20 through 25. Again, we're still playing on this same idea, but I want to show you that scripture is full of this aspect.

All right. Here we have when your sons and daughters ask you in time to come, when your sons and daughters ask you, that means they were told, they were taught, they are to remember this. What is the meaning of the testimony and statutes and the rules that the Lord, our God has commanded you?

Then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. We were slaves to sin. All right, if you want to take it to that level. All right, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

We didn't bring ourselves out of Egypt. The Lord brought us out of Egypt. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and the Lord showed signs and wonders and great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes.

And they brought us out from there and they that they that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to our fathers coming out of Egypt into the promised land. Remember that. Remember this, my sons, that he might bring us out and give us the promised land.

And, and the Lord commanded us to do all the statutes. So at this time, here they come out of Egypt, right? They come to this sinful situation. The Lord brings them out. And what does he remind them to do?

To keep the statutes, to keep my laws, keep the statutes, to fear the Lord, our God for our good always. Okay. Is it that's an important point to keeping these statutes, obeying these laws. It's not just a matter of legalities.

It's a matter of the good of the people of God. Okay. For the good that, that he might preserve us alive as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, righteousness for us. Okay. If we are careful to do all his commandments before the Lord, our God, as he has commanded us and the Lord commanded us to do all the statutes, to fear the Lord, our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive.

And as we are this day, and it will come, it will be righteousness for us. If we are careful to do all these commandments before the Lord, our God. Joel's people should have known this. You're going to hear me say this over and over again.

Locust imagery, locust was a promise cursed from God for disobedience, but with repentance, there was a promise of restoration. We're going to see this same theme in Joel. Second Chronicles 6, 28, 30.

Prayer, Repentance, and Restoration in Second Chronicles

If there is a famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemies besiege them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all of your people, Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own sorrow and stretching out his hand toward this house, meaning the temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart, you know, according to all his ways, for you, you only know the hearts of the children of mankind.

So crying out, yes, the locust and the caterpillar are going to come, the enemies are going to come, but crying out in prayer, making a plea before God, this is necessary. This is required. Okay. This is clearly in scripture that Joel's people would have known, that we should know.

Then hear from heaven. Who hears from heaven? God. God hears the prayers of a righteous man. Continuing the same thought, Second Chronicles 7, 13 through 15. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locust to devour land or to send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

Now my eyes will be opened and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made. Doesn't matter whether it's the COVID virus, whether it's 9 -11, whether it's a locust plague, whether it's some dramatic storm, no matter what it is, whether it's armies coming in, bow your knee to the Holy God, confess your sins, and he will heal your land.

It's so clear. When I, who? God. God's the one that shuts the heavens up. God's the one that brings the locust. God's the one that devastates the land with pestilence and wicked people coming in. God is in control of all of this.

You can see here where I've highlighted. Continuing with the same vein of thinking and the whole idea that Joel's audience should have known this, and they should have been in a repentant state of mind rather than a drunkard, stupid, sleeping, not awake state of mind.

1 Kings 8 .35 -37, when heaven is shut, this is almost the same verbiage, when heaven is shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sinful ways again.

Who does it? Who is bringing this affliction? God. Who is hearing their prayers? God. Who is to be on their knees and praying? God's people. 1 Kings 8 .38 -40, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all my people, Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hand toward this house again.

Who's hearing from heaven? God's hearing from heaven. Who's doing the praying? The sinful man is doing the praying. In these verses, we see Solomon praying, right? And he acknowledges the curses are of the Lord.

He acknowledges that disobedience bring them, that God brings them with disobedience. This, to me, is very reminiscent of Romans 8 .28 -30. And we know that for those who God loves, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that we might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. All these situations have a purpose, have a reason. We also know in 1 John 1, 9 -10, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, he forgives our sins, and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

And if we say we have not sinned, we make ourselves a liar, and his word is not in us. I want to take a little sidetrack here now, and I want to talk about affliction. Why affliction? Why do we have to go through these things?

Well, I'm going to pull up a couple of verses here, and we're going to talk about them. Okay? Because affliction is all through scripture. Okay? God brings affliction, and I borrowed some of this from Thomas Watson.

He says this, affliction brings people back to himself. These are my paraphrased words of what Watson had to say. Affliction teaches us righteousness. We learn what sin is through affliction. Remember John Owen always says, to be killing, be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.

Micah 6, 9 says this, the voice of the Lord cries out to the city, and it is sound wisdom to hear your name. Hear the rod of him who appointed it. The rod of correction. Hear it. Understand it. Know why the Lord has brought this upon you.

To put this in today's sense, why COVID? Have we sought the Lord to figure out why God brought this on us? Right? God is a sovereign God. All that happens is under God's control, whether it's pestilence, whether it's war, whatever it is.

So why? Why? We need to be asking God that. The rod has been brought upon us. We need to ask God why. We need to be searching this out. He went on to say this, affliction makes the heart more upright.

Our hearts partially cleave to the world, and our hearts partially cleave to God, those of us who are believers. That's a constant state of battle, right? And Hosea 10, 2 says this, their heart is false.

Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars. In this case, they're talking about a non-believer, but the aspect is those altars need to be destroyed.

The pillars need to be destroyed. We need to do that in our own lives. When affliction comes upon us, we need to question, is it because of something like that? It conforms us to Christ. Isaiah 53, 3, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And as one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we esteem them not. It always reminds me of the hymn, stricken, smitten, right? Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see him dying on the tree.

Tis the Christ by man rejected. Yes, my soul, tis he, tis he. Affliction sometimes is used to bring us to that level of understanding of what our Lord Jesus did for us. The afflictions that were put upon him are so great and so magnanimous that we could never experience affliction like that.

But sometimes we need to be humbled and reminded. Affliction is like a fire which brings, draws out of silver or gold, right? That affliction comes to try us and to burn through us so that what is left is worth something.

In Proverbs 25, 4, it says, take away the dross from silver and the smith has material for a vessel. He has good sound material to work with. Sometimes God puts us through affliction so that we come out on the other side of that affliction able to do the purpose he has us for.

It's again, this situation we're in now. Is this going to bring us out where we are far better able, far better willing, far better desirous to serve our Lord? It had better. It also loosens the heart from the world.

This is an interesting concept. When you got to pull a tree out of the ground, you have to loosen all that dirt around it, right? You have to dig and dig and dig and dig until finally the root is born free from that dirt.

Well, often our tentacles are dug into the world. They're deep into the soil of the world and affliction is needed to dig around us, keep digging at us and keep digging at us until we're loosened from the world.

Romans 12 .2 says this, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, by the testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Affliction actually can make us comforted. Strange concept. No, but in Joel, Joel 2 .25, after they went through all the affliction, God promises them something. God promises his people, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten.

Yes, we're going to go through affliction. Yes, we're going to go through difficulties. And we're going to be conformed and we're going to learn and we're going to grow and we're going to be more useful.

Ultimately, when it's all done, we have such a wonderful promise from our Lord. He's going to restore what the locusts has eaten. He's going to restore our hearts to perfect purity. He's going to restore our minds.

He's going to restore our relationship with him to a perfect degree. It shows us God's love for us in that he thinks us worthwhile smiting. Job 7 .17 says this, what is a man that you make so much of him and that you set your own heart on him?

Why would God even bother with such wicked people? Because he loves his people. He's concerned for his people. He thinks we're worth something. But we're only worth something because he's made us that way through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another thought is this, affliction comes so that we can be disciplined, right? For his children can be disciplined for the good and for the good of others, for their good as well. Hebrews 12 .7 says this, it is for discipline that we have endured.

God is treating us, treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? We know this concept. If we're parents, we've known the situations where we've had to discipline our children.

Perhaps it's a rod to the bottom. I know I cried the first time I had to spank my children when they were little. After that, it wasn't so much a tear. But, you know, why did we do that? Did we do it to hurt them?

No, of course not. We did it to train them because we cared about them. It's for our blessing. Affliction is for our blessing. Job 5 .17 says this, behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves. Therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.

It silences the lips of the wicked. Remember again, Job. Satan came to God and said, you know, what about Job? God said, go ahead, right? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason?

And Job was put to the test. We're being put to the test. Do we fear God? How do we react in affliction? How do we react in difficult situations? How do we react in COVID -19? Do we fear God? And where is that played out in the whole picture of this?

It also makes a way for God's glory. John 9 .3, Jesus answered, and this is the blind man. It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. It was for God's glory.

It's also for our glory. 2 Corinthians 4 .17, for this is a light momentary affliction. It's prepared for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension. Why affliction? There's many reasons why affliction.

Why for us, the Christian, there is so many things that we can come out of any affliction with and be that much better. God has a purpose for all things. God has a reason for all things. How much time do I have?

10 more minutes?

The Meaning of Affliction and the Hope of Restoration

Joel 1 through 4. We're going to just real quick look at a little bit more about the locust swarm and be done with that. We need to understand a few things with regard to this. There's four different species.

We're treading back to Joel now after talking about affliction. There's four different species that are called out in Joel 1 .4. There's the cutting locust, the swarming locust. There's the hopping locust and there's the destroying locust.

In King James, it's the palmy worm, it's the locust, it's the canker worm, and the caterpillar. I'm not going to go through the Hebrew of it. I can give you that later. But each one of these was a different type or a different growth of the locust.

The reason I say this is many associate with the armies of men. Before I go into that though, I want to read something to you and it'll help us understand perhaps.

What.

Joel's people went through with the locust. In 1915, there was a plague of locusts that covered Palestine and Syria from the border of Egypt to the Tarsus mountains. The first swarm appeared in March.

These were adult locusts. They came from the northeast and moved toward the southwest. They immediately began laying eggs. They would dig holes in the soil and about 100 eggs in each hole. These holes were everywhere.

This has been witnessed and it was estimated that as many as 65 ,000 to 75 ,000 eggs were concentrated in a single square meter of soil and the entire land.

Was covered.

That's a huge amount. Having laid their eggs, the locust flew away. Within a few weeks, the young locusts hatched and within a few days, they began moving forward by hopping along the ground and they would cover about 400 to 600 feet a day, devouring every bit of vegetation.

By the end of May, they had molted. They moved forward by walking, jumping when frightened, and again, eating everything in sight. Finally, the locusts molted again, and this time becoming fully developed adults that had invaded the land initially.

So it took a whole cycle around. This is all in this one area in.

1915.

John D. Whiting said this about this event in December of 1915. It was in the National Geographic magazine. Once entering a vineyard, the sprawling vines would in the shortest time be nothing but bare bark.

When the daintier morsels were gone, the bark was eaten off of the young topmost branches, which after exposure to the sun were bleached snow white. Then seemingly out of malice, they would gnaw off the small limbs, perhaps to get the pith within.

Whiting describes how the locusts of the last stage completely destroyed everything. They stripped every leaf, berry, every tender bark. They ate away layer after layer of cactus plants, giving the leaves the effect of having been jack-planted.

Even on the scarce and prized palms, they had no pity. Gnawing off tenderous ends of the swords like branches and diving deep into the heart, they tunneled after the juicy pith. This is precisely what Joel's people experienced.

This is a real huge devastation, and we'll go into how this affected their economy and everything when we do the verse by verse,.

But.

This isn't just a flyover by the locusts.

They.

Inhabited,.

And they dug in, and they devastated. You can see the four different terms that Joel uses and perhaps why he used them. Some commentators associate these with conquering empires. The first would have been Assyria and Babylon, the second Middle Persia, the third Greek and Macedonia, and the fourth would have been the Romans.

Though the primary reference is to be literal, the locust. If you remember, I think it was last class we talked, or might have been the first class, we talked about the metaphor. Is it locust? Is it human armies?

Or is it both? I think in this case, it's both. Okay. The success of empires which assailed Judah, ever worse than its predecessor, it just kept going and kept going. Rome being the climax. Joel had witnessed this devastation by the locust of Judah and recognized that God himself was the one who had sent this, and it was not mere chance or just a happenstance.

Here's another thought though. The locust can be seen as the progression of sin. Think about that. And how in the beginning, if sin isn't addressed, in the beginning stages, if it's not addressed, and we look the other way perhaps, perhaps we rationalize or false rationalization, we justify it or we condone it.

It causes it to manifest quickly, spiraling out of control, and opens the door of destruction and devastation in our lives for generations to come. It's just a thought to put into that. We're going to stop now because the next thing we're going to be getting into is the imagery.

Of.

Locusts associated with armies of men. I hope this has been a blessing to you, and I hope that you'll continue to dig into the book of Joel. This book of Joel is very, very deep, even though it's only three chapters.

There's so much that can be learned and it's so important to us today. Let's close in prayer.