Bristol Conference 1962 - Part 4 — William MacDonald

I don't think we'll read any, because we'll be reading down to it anyway, going to it portion by portion. Not very much is known about the prophet Joel. It tells us here that he's the son of Tehuel, but apart from that and what we have in the prophecy, we really don't know anything about his personal life.

Joel's Name and Prophetic Significance

His name means, Jehovah is God. And then it's kind of interesting that many of these prophets, you find their name woven into the text of the gospel. For instance, this prophet's name is found in chapter 2, verse 27, although it isn't too obvious, and in English, yet in the original it is quite clear.

Chapter 2, verse 27, and you can know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed. Joel has been called the John the Baptist of the Old Testament, and also the prophet of Pentecost, because he gave us that wonderful prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God.

The Date and Central Theme of Joel

Now, another interesting thing about the book is that we do not know exactly when Joel prophesied. It's generally believed that he prophesied the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom between the reigns of Joach and Ahaz.

The key phrase of the book is, the reign of the Lord. That expression is found five times in the book of Jello. Chapter 1, verse 15, chapter 2, verse 1, chapter 2, verse 11, chapter 2, verse 31, and chapter 3, verse 14.

And there is a distinct break in the book of Jello up to the 18th verse of the second chapter. The subject is all desolation, and from the 18th verse on to the end of the book, the subject is all deliverance.

Applying Joel's Message to Personal Circumstances

As we go through this little prophecy tonight on the whirlwind tour, I would like you to notice that each one of us is seeking to find applications for our own lives in the book. The book was written primarily for the kingdom of Judah, but John put it in the Bible for us, too.

And as we study a book like that, we should be thinking to ourselves, what is God trying to say to me through this book? Now, the first section of the book is chapter 1, and in this chapter we have the very vivid description of a locus plague.

Grasshopper? That's how we know it best. And this reminds us that everything in life, all circumstances and experiences of life have a spiritual meaning to them. Perhaps a grasshopper plague comes to our country and the people think, well, these are the things that happen in life.

But as you turn to the word of God, you find that nothing in life happens by chance. And in all the circumstances of life, be it a plague or a flood or an earthquake or even in our own lives, a sickness or a calamity or a death in our family, there's a spiritual meaning to everything.

Sometimes I feel sorry for doctors and psychiatrists. I say that with respect when I say I feel sorry for them. People come to them with difficulties, sometimes with diseases, sicknesses, with stressors.

And a doctor, for instance, can go by the physical symptoms, but he doesn't know anything of the spiritual. Sometimes it is good to remember this, or it's good to remember that before we go into the medical cabinet and vote down a system of pills, we should first rest to our knees and ask God that we might learn what his voice is saying to us in it.

Because God was speaking to Judah in this locust plague that Judah was infected with. So section one, a description of the locust plague, chapter one. Now, the first section is verses one through four, and this has to do with the unprecedented severity of this plague.

The Unprecedented Severity of the Locust Plague

You know, in the old days, how the old men used to gather around the sack or barrel in the local grocery store, and if a terrible snowstorm came along, they'd say, yeah, it's the worst storm I ever remembered in 1896.

And the prophet is saying here in verses one through four of the prophecy of Job. Tell me, you old tiger, have you ever known a plague like this one to come upon the land and they paint back in their memory, and all the time that they remember themselves or heard their forefathers, they couldn't remember anything specifically like this.

The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Peckuel, hear this, you old men, and give ear all the inhabitants of the land, and which then in your days or even in the days of your fathers, what did the locust plague like this concern them?

It's so severe. Tell me your children of it, and let your children tell their children and their children another generation. In other words, this is going to be passed down from one generation to the other as the pinnacle, as far as locust plagues are concerned.

And here's the description of what it's like. That which the carnivore has left has the locust eaten, and that which the locust has left has the canterworm eaten, and that which the canterworm has left has the caterpillar eaten.

So you find here that the plague comes in four successive stages by a certain form of form. It has been suggested by some that these four insects are typical of the four world kingdoms that held dominion over the Jewish people.

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Cyprus, Cyprus Judea. Yet some remain in trouble at figuring out the numerical values of the names of these four. Numerical values exactly coincided with the years that we suffered, how far we pushed the subject of America.

I just suggest that to you, that perhaps these four changes of that locust plague suggest the current way of the people of God. Then the Lutzer Dictatory describes the effect of the locust plague upon various segments of the population.

The Locust Plague's Effect on the Drunkards

First of all, verses 5 through 7 describe the effect of the plague on victors. Awake ye drunkards in wheat, and hire all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine that is cut off from your mouth. ...upon my land strong and without number.

This is the invader at first. The invader. And of course it's the locust primarily, but there's something behind the locust. It would be the Babylonians. A nation has come up upon my land strong and without number, whose feet are the feet of a lion, and he hath the feet of a great lion.

He hath laid my vine waste and barked my city tree. He hath made it clean there, and casted away the branches thereof, and made it white. Notice the expression, my land, my vine, my big tree. I think there's a lesson in this section spoken to the drunkard, saying the source of your drink is currently cut off.

The locust has come in and everything's clean. The fire's been taken off. It's clean, let alone the fruit or the vine. And you know, this is the pathetic thing of men living for anything or anyone outside of Christ.

If your trust is in anything or anyone but the Savior, it'll fail you when you most need it. This is so accurate of a description of men of the world and the things that they live for. They come to that Christ that's in their life, and they really need something or someone to lean on.

They don't have it. What a blessing it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ, and to know he's a friend that's a brother. And when you need him, he's always there. So you have the drunkard in verses 5 -7. Then you have the priest in verses 8 -10 and 13 -16.

The Priests' Loss of Worship and Fellowship

Kind of skips over here with the priest. First of all, verses 8 -10, lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord.

The priest to the Lord's ministers mourns. Why do they mourn? Because there's nothing to offer to the Lord. And you know, I think this becomes all the more tragic when you remember that these offerings spoke of Christ.

The offerings spoke of Christ, and here the priests are desolate. The field is wasted, the land, the oil for the corn is wasted. The new line is dried up. The oil ran with it. And then over verses 13 -16, still speaking to the priest, gird yourselves and lament, ye priests.

Howl, ye ministers of the altar. Come lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, for the meat offering and the drink offering is retained from the house of your God. Sanctify your fast. Call a solemn assembly.

Gather the elders of all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord. Alarm for the day. The day of the Lord is at hand. And as a description from the Almighty shall it come.

Nothing needs to be cut off before our eyes. Joy and gladness from the height of our God. Now we're just paused there to say a word about the day of the Lord, because this is a common expression in the word of God, and I think it's helpful if we get clearly in our mind what is meant by the day of the Lord.

The Meaning of the Day of the Lord

First of all, I think we want to be clear. It doesn't mean a day of 24 hours. In the prophetic world, many times words are used like this that are not to be taken in their most literal sense. The day of the Lord is a period of time.

The day of the Lord existed in the Old Testament, and it will exist again in the future. And if I were to give a definition of the day of the Lord, I would say the day of the Lord is a period characterized by God acting in judgment on men and by his glorious triumph.

In the Old Testament, when the armies of Israel marched forth into battle to conquer their foes, people thought this was the day of the Lord. It was. It was the day when the armies of the Lord were marching and when God gained the glorious victory.

Now, after the Lord Jesus comes and rashes his church home to heaven, the day of the Lord is going to start again. We speak of it as the tribulation period. That's the day of the Lord. And then when the Lord Jesus comes in his second advent to put down his enemies, this is the day of the Lord, and we're going to come to that in this prophecy, too.

And then the millennial period, when Christ reigns in solitary splendor over the earth, that's the day of the Lord, too, the day of his triumph. And then at the end of the millennial period, when God sets up the judgment of the great white throne and when the wicked are destroyed, that's the day of the Lord, too.

So it's really a period of time characterized by certain things rather than any set time at any one period in the history of the world. It's God acting in judgment on his foes and also triumphing wonderfully.

Here the day of the Lord was at hand in the sense that the Babylonians were about to enter in. That was the immediate day of the Lord, and then of course it looked forward to such events as the king of the north sweeping down upon the land of Israel in the latter days.

The Locust Plague's Effect on Farmers

Then you have in chapter 1 also the effect of the plague on the farmers here called husbandsmen. Farmers, and you have that in verses 11, 12, 17, and 18. Verse 11. Be shamed, O ye husbandmen, howl, O ye vinebreakers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished.

The vine is dried up and the fig tree languishes, the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, also the apple tree. Even all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

And then verses 17 and 18. The seed is rotten under their squads, the gardens are laid decadent, the barns are broken down, the places for storing the grain, for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan?

The poor animals, you can see their ribs sticking out through their sides, but out there in the field there is nothing for them to feed on. Why, the locusts have devoured it all, they have stripped the land bare.

How do the beasts groan? The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture. And then finally, in the last two verses of this chapter, you have the effect of the locust plague upon the Prophet himself, upon Jehovah.

He says, O Lord, for thee will I cry. The voice of a man of God, in the midst of calamity and distress, he looks heavenward to God. O Lord, for thee will I cry, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

And of course, the fire there is used as a figurative expression for the locust plague. The plague and the flame have burned all the trees of the field. This is used again in the second chapter, just as if a fire struck through the field of Judah when these armies of the locusts began to march.

The Enemy Invasion in Joel 2

The beasts of the field cry also unto thee, for the rivers of water have dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Now, in chapter 2, verses 1 -11, you have a description of the enemy invasion.

And as you read this, it's pretty difficult to determine at times whether it's speaking about the liberal army or whether it's speaking about the locusts. And the thought is that as the liberal army of the Babylonian Christian is so much like a plague of locusts.

Very vivid description. So you have the description of the enemy invasion, verses 1 -11. No, it says, "...and sound an alarm in my whole mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is nigh at hand.".

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness is a morning spread upon the mountain. A great people and a strong, this is the enemy, a great people and a strong, there has not been ever the like.

Neither shall there be any more after it, even for the years of many generations. Now, here is that picture of the fire again. And verse 3 says that when the locusts, or us, the enemy, when they came, they came to a land that was like the Garden of Eden.

And they swept through the land, and here is Eden before them, and deserts behind them. When they leave it, they leave it without vegetation. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns.

The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, behind them a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them. Now, what does this army look like? Well, it looks like locusts, and the appearance of them is an appearance of horses.

You know that, the head of the locusts, when you come to think of it, does somewhat look like a horse's head. That is it. Kind of long and coming down at that same angle. It says the appearance of them is the appearance of horses, and if horses can go, so shall they run.

Like the noise of chariots from the tops of the mountains, shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble of the strong people, shall they battle away. Now, here is the army coming in with its tank and its mortar.

Before their face the people shall be much tamed, all faces shall gather blackness, they shall run like mighty men, they shall climb the walls like men of war, and they shall march every one in its ways, and they shall not break their rank.

That is, they come in as a well-disciplined army, and each soldier, he seeks that, he has his place in the rank, and he keeps that place. Neither shall one thrust another. Now, when they come into the city, they are not jostling one another and pushing one another aside, no, not for a moment.

And they shall walk every one in its path, and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. In other words, this is a figurative expression, and it means that when the inhabitants of the land use the sword on the invaders, weapons are useless against them.

This is, when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

They are just a group of his people. And then, as we mentioned before, you've hit the, you might say, low tide in the book, all the way now, it's been desolation and destruction up to verse 18, but now you have a distinct change in the book, and from verse 18 on to the end of the book, you have a promise of divine deliverance.

Divine Deliverance and Material Restoration

Promise of divine deliverance. This would be the fifth and final section of this wonderful prophecy. First of all, you have promises of material prosperity. You know, when the Jews were faithful to the Lord and obeyed him, he rewarded them with material prosperity.

Our missions are spiritual blessings in the heavens, in the heavenlies, in Christ. There were material prosperity on the earth. And so in verses 18, 19, 21, and 227, you have God's promise of fertility, faithfulness, and restoration.

Verses 18, 19, 21, and 27. Let's just look at those verses. Verse 21. Here is the promise of God. Fear not, O Lamb, be glad and rejoice to the Lord, for he gives great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness shall spring, for the tree bringeth her fruit.

Now I've got a contrast. A minute ago it was a desert, and now the people have returned to the Lord, and look what's happening. Fruitfulness again. Be glad, then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God.

He has given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down to you the rain of the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. In other words, there will be a superabundance of rain in that day, the land will spring forth, the wilderness will blossom, and the desert will rejoice.

His floors shall be full of wheat, and the fat of that grass shall overflow with wine and oil. Notice verse 25, very, very beautiful. I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten the cantaloupe and the caterpillar and the carnivore and my great army which I sent among you.

You know, only God can restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten. What an incentive to us when we do grow cold in our historical order, when we live out his fellowship to him, to know that we come back to him to can restore the years that the locusts have eaten.

And you shall even thank him and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that has dealt wondrously with you. My people shall never be ashamed. This is the restoration of his people, not only the restoration of the land and the crops, but of his people as well.

The Destruction of Israel's Enemy

And so know that I am in the midst of Israel, and my people shall never be ashamed. Then the second promise of divine deliverance goes back to verse 20. It's the destruction of their enemy. The destruction of their enemy.

I will remove far off from you the northern army that would be Assyria of the future, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate with his face toward the East Sea, that's the Dead Sea, and his hinder part toward the Atmos Sea, that's the Mediterranean.

And his sin shall come up, and he will save us. For from us he said he would send great things. When we begin to know that God is over the nations of the world, then we can exalt them and put them down.

The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

Then in verses 28 and 29 you have the third wonderful promise in connection with God's divine deliverance, and that's the falling out of the gracious spirit of God. It says it shall come to pass after you that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy of old days of dreams, dreams of young men such as these.

And also upon the servants and upon our handmaids of those days will I pour out my spirit. Now this is a prophecy which the Apostle Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost. And I think we can say that Pentecost was a partial fulfillment, but it certainly didn't exhaust the prophecy.

This prophecy looks forward primarily to the time when the Lord Jesus Christ will come back and reign on the throne of David, set up his millennial kingdom, and then the spirit of God shall truly be poured out upon all flesh.

We'll leave that for the moment. And in verses 30 through 32 you have signs preceding Christ's second advent. Now actually, as far as time is concerned, as far as chronology is concerned, verses 28 and 29 come after verses 30 through 32, as I understand it.

You might ask me, well, why is that? Well, I frankly don't know the answer, perhaps some of the others can give us help on that. But before the pouring out of the spirit, in verses 28 and 29, you do have these signs in the heavens.

We read in Matthew's gospel. It says, verse 30, I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes.

Now here the day of the Lord is Christ's literal, personal second advent when he comes to crush his enemies with all those who have laid the ship in rebellion against him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord to be delivered from Mount Zion and Jerusalem shall be delivered as the Lord has said, and it will then be when the Lord shall call.

Judgment of the Gentile Nations

And then the next section is in chapter 3, verses 1 through 16a, and it's the first part of verse 16, and you have the judgment of the Gentile nation. And in those first 15 and a half verses, you have God gathering the Gentile nation into the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of Jehoshaphat right outside the city of Jerusalem.

And so he's going to plead for his people who have been scattered throughout the earth and who have been attacked by the Gentile people. He's going to plead for them. It's really what he's going to do, he's going to try the Gentile nations for their treatment of the Jewish people.

It says, verse 2, I will also gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there. Well, it isn't God taking a low place and pleading with these nations as subject to a superior, but it's the case of God sitting in judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ will sit in judgment and rectify some of these wrongs.

And notice verse 4, it says, Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zion and all the coast of Palestine? Will you render me a recompense? Now, when you read that, it almost sounds, will you give me a reward?

But that isn't what it means. What it really means is, will you fight against me? Do you think you can come up against me with your tank and your atom bombs and fight against me? And if he recompenses me swiftly and speedily, will I return your recompense on your own head?

You try to fight against me and I'll soon show you who holds the scepter of government. And then it goes on to list the offenses that have been committed against the Jewish people. Then it says in verse 9, Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles, prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war go on the earth, let them come up.

God says to the Gentiles, you better get mobilized, which you better do, and you better eat your fowl shares of the sword and your queen, let's get a spear. You know, that has a familiar ring to it, only we're used to hearing the opposite, because in the millennial reign of Christ, the sword will be eaten to fowl shares.

The armaments of the world will be used for agricultural purposes, but here the Gentiles are told to really get on the job with armaments. One of the greatest armament races that the world has ever known will take place in that day.

In fact, that's one of the reasons why the millennium will be a period of such peace and prosperity, is that there will be complete worldwide disharmony, but preceding it here, when the Gentiles are called up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, they're told really to get ready for war.

Assemble yourselves, and come all ye even, and gather yourselves together. Now, I skipped something that I wanted. Notice the end of verse 10. It says, Let the weak say, I am strong. In other words, there will be no exemption in those days for any physical reason.

He's saying that so intensely, when you come up to fight against you, God says, you better use the weakest of your strength, because they'll eat what they want of you, and it still won't do any good. Assemble yourselves, and come all ye even, and gather yourselves together, round about, until you're caused by mighty ones to come down on you more.

I said, by mighty ones, I mean the heads of the youths of the world. Gather together in the valley of Jehoshaphat, until you're caused by mighty ones to come down on you more. He sends his angels down to do a good job.

It's that simple. Let the heathen be waken, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there will I sit, to judge all the heathen round about, put thee in the sickles of a harvester. And when the light comes, it'll get you down to the second hole, the fast overflow there with the disciples.

Multitude, multitude, in the valley of the city. Multitude, a lot. Multitude of Gentile nations, gathered together in the valley of the city. The day of the Lord is near. In the valley of the city, where God is.

Restoration and Future Blessing for Judah

The Lord Jesus Christ is about to sit down and make short work of them. The sun will be darkened, and the stars will be shining. The Lord asks us, so we're out of time. Restoration and future blessing of the Jews.

Verses 16 through 21. Says, but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall you know that I am the Lord your God dwelling. In other words, God will be in the midst of his people, and they'll be absolutely safe.

Nothing to worry about. For Timothy will be brought in again. Verse 18. It shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk. Isn't that picturesque language?

The beauty of the language of the word of God. In other words, the hills are so fruitful with vines, and it's depicted as if the wine were flowing down the hill. And here are herds of cattle grazing out on the mountainsides, and the poet, as it were, says, why the mountains are just flowing with milk.

And all the rivers of Judas shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth at the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Sidon. And then it says that the nations that have been cruel to Judah will be recompensed.

Egypt shall be a desolation, and Eden shall be a desolate wilderness. For the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land, but Judah shall grow forever.

The Spiritual Lesson of Joel's Prophecy

And Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood. What I have not claimed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. Now I come to the end of a book like this, and I ask myself the question, what does God say to me in the message of a prophet's story?

And the outstanding, there are many lessons in it, but the outstanding lesson is this to me. That God allows us to get down to a very great place, and when we get there and realize our condition before Christ, he convenes and calls us back to himself.

Calls us to fasting, calls us to repentance, and calls us to the restoration of fellowship. And then he gives us the promise of the gracious outpouring. You know, it's possible to go on in the Christian life and not realize that we're actually living in a holy place and in the midst of a local plague.

It's possible to be absolutely content with our spiritual status and the faith that we have alive. And such spiritual satisfaction is the graveyard of prophets. God has, and there are crises of the Holy Spirit that come along in the Christian life when we take our prophet's place before God.

And then our lives are filled with peacefulness and fertility for God and for man. May the Lord fill within us a deep thirst for a new and great life.