We open the second chapter with continued warnings about the impending onslaught of devastation. Joel tells that judgment is immanent! There is no escape outside of complete repentance.

Vs1. Blow the trumpet and sound the alarm is not a call to battle it is a call to get on their knees. Some battles are fought through man’s power but the battle for the repentance of the nation could only be fought through deep sorrow and turning away from their sin. The call here is desperate. Is there remorse when we sin or have we become nonchalant about it? Just confess it and it will go away?

Vs 2-11 These verses continue to describe the judgment that is coming. Joel is pleading with them to repent before these things happen. He has glimpsed the dark time that are to come and he is describing the depth of devastation. He eludes to that land being beautiful like the Garden of Eden before the fall and then calls it a wasteland after the locusts come through.

Vs 12 Yet even now.. That is still God’s call today. Come back to me. Think for a moment the magnitude of sin that is in the ranks of Christians. He still calls us back as a loving Father who wants to save His children from harm.

Vs 13 Tearing of the garments was an outward sign of sorrow. God says rend your heart. He wants us to repent on the inside. He is not concerned or impressed by outward emotion or acts if they are not heartfelt. What about worship? What about us trying to fit in with the world to get others saved? Quote from Mark Hall

Vs 15-17 Deep remorse on a national level will bring mercy. Last week we discussed the progression of judgments on America; 911, Katrina, economic collapse. What will it take for America to wake up? Are we destined for total devastation before we turn back to God? I don’t see much difference between Judah and America. Remember in history what has happened to the Jews; first the Assyrians & Babylonians, then the Romans & Greeks, and finally in a more contemporary time, Hitler. Do we think that we are so strong that we can’t be taken down? The scary realization is that we can lose it all if we don’t get right and stay right on a personal and national level.

Vs 18-20 Look at the difference when God’s people do repent and turn back to Him. He destroys His own army in favor of the people who love Him.

Vs 21-26 Do not fear, rejoice. I will restore all that you have lost and give you more than you had before.

Vs 27 Who gets the Glory?

VS 28-29 The promise of the Holy Spirit. These are the days we live in. Scofield calls it the dispensation of Grace.

VS 3-32 These verses speak of the days of final judgment that are yet to come. These are end times prophesy of what will come in the future. How far into the future are these days? How long will we, God’s people, be allowed to do as we will? Are we really on the brink of time’s end as we know it here on earth?

We studied last week that there are three themes in this book: Punishment, forgiveness and promise of the Holy Spirit. We continue this week in Chapter 1 verse 8.

Vs 6 & 7 The literal destruction caused by the invading army is far reaching just as the infection of sin permeates the being of the sinner. The teeth and fangs tear and rip flesh just like sin tears down and destroys our flesh and spirit. When we are in sin we are emotionally and spiritually defunct. The only way to maintain health is to keep the lions away otherwise we are “Stripped bare and cast away” like the bones of a fresh kill. We do not have to be casualties of spiritual warfare.

Vs 8 The wailing of the virgin is a metaphor showing the intensity of sorrow. It would be as if a young woman’s fiancé was killed before the marriage was consummated. To be betrothed in ancient times carried much more weight than it does today. Marriage was for life and a woman betrothed was bound not only socially and emotionally but spiritually. The intense pain of mourning that she would feel at the loss of her to be husband would be a darkened future that carried a premonition of doom on her life.

Sack cloth was that garment of mourning and repentance. It was like burlap, rough and scratchy. When in mourning the Israelite would put on sack cloth and spread ashes on their heads. This was also used in a sign of complete repentance. It was a sign to God that a person was truly sorrow for their sin.

Vs 9 The grain (Meat) offering Lev 2:1 was an expression of thanksgiving and dedication to God. The drink offering Lev 23:13 was poured on to the grain offering as a symbol of joy for a full harvest. What is an offering? The root of the word means to draw near. It is a means of drawing near to God by giving up something that is special or precious to us. We see in this verse that even the priests mourn because they have nothing to offer i.e. they can’t worship.

We can easily get ourselves into a place of spiritual abandonment through sin. It’s a place where we can’t worship and we find no joy.

Vs 10 This verse seems to explain the cause or reason that they have no physical means to give the offerings.

Vs 11-12 Be ashamed? Not a word we use anymore because there seems to be no shame in our society. To be shamed as a child was worse than physical punishment; it hurt deeper.

Now we are told if we shame a child we damage their psyche and limit their self worth. Imagine that the farmers were to be ashamed because it is their responsibility to provide for the community. They can’t do their job because there is nothing left in the field. There is no joy in the land because of the devastation caused by the locust. The locust are punishment because of sin.

Vs 13 The Holy men were to suffer and start the repentance. (Imagine wrapping yourself in burlap) They were responsible for the people as leaders. We, as Christians, are called priests in the New Testament. If our land is to be healed it has to start with us being in repentance of our sin. We must offer the sacrifice of prayer and a sanctified (set aside) life where we walk in the word but are not of the world and Paul told us. We are to be that peculiar people if we are to see the joy return to our land.

Vs 14 A fast was a time to refrain from food, enter into urgent prayer and turn to God in repentance asking for help. Notice in this verse that everyone was to be involved, not just the priests. They were to proclaim a solemn assembly. It was very serious and they were to be united in the cause. This was to be the entire southern kingdom of Judah. Everyone was to come to the house of the Lords, fast, pray, repent and get right with God. What power could we see if we did just that? What if all Baptist did this? What if just Oakdale did this? Carry it on out to personal application; what if you and I and our families did this? Would it make a difference of is this just Old Testament stuff that does not apply on our modern world?

Vs 15-18. In context, the Day of the Lord refers to the present happening, the plague of the locust. It is a common phrase that also gives premonition of the coming day of judgment when the Lord will finally deal with sin and righteousness and truth prevails. We have already seen destruction of crops; what follows is starvation. We can be so spiritually bankrupt that we are starved for of source of strength. There is no help outside of God’s provision. In John 15 The Lord talks about being the true vine and our Father being the vinedresser. We have no strength or sustenance without the true vine. We can not flourish as God wants us to without Him in our lives. Joel is compelling them to turn back from sin.

There is no joy with God’s people. No food, nothing to drink except water. Even the cattle suffer for lack of food. Have you ever been hungry? How about spiritually hungry? Have you ever had a time when you just needed to hear from God? That is where these folk were, they needed to hear from God, they needed Him to make their world right. They had to get there through the repentance that Joel was pleading with them for. God sent His man to tell them what was going to happen if they didn’t turn back.

Vs 19 To You, O Lord, I cry. Everything is gone we don’t even have water for our animals to drink. There is no nourishment; the land is wasted; now we turn to the Lord.

Before we are quick to judge our ancestors we should take a look at us. On 911 what happened? Our national leaders stood hand in hand and sang God Bless America. These are some of the same leaders that are doing everything possible to take God out of the public eye. They were scared and as a nation, most people were afraid. Everyone started taking a real look at themselves and how they were living; but it didn’t last. Our attention span is so short. Look at us now in the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Do we see national repentance or is it business as usual, we’ll bounce back? I’ll refer you back to last week’s lesson concerning the problems America has encountered since the turn of the century and ask you again to consider, are these judgments? If they are what must each of us do?

The book of Joel was written somewhere between 835-796 BC. This would be around 13 years after Elisha became a prophet. Little is known about the author. The book is written to warn Judah (Southern Kingdom) of an impending judgment because of sin and to urge them to turn back to God. The application of theses scriptures is universal in nations such as ours and in individual lives.

God sent a warning to His people compelling them to turn back to Him and repent. He issues the same call today through His men who preach. Our sin nature is at odds with God’s plans for us. We naturally rebel and turn toward sin. It is a constant battle that requires vigilance, resolve and persistence. The rewards of living that separated, devoted life are great. The consequence of rejecting and turning to our own devices and desires are devastating.

Israel constantly struggled with idolatry. The idea of worshiping carved statues of wood or stone seems alien to us. They were simple, mostly uneducated people that were swayed by the whims of popular culture. If we look at worship in it truest form Americans, with all our education sophistication are not any different. We are also swayed by popular culture and thought. What is worship? It is the devotion of ourselves to something. In the worship service, we are devoting our time, attention, will and spiritual essence to God.

Americans devote inordinate amounts of time to pleasures and entertainment. Our minds are swayed by the thoughts we absorb through media and entertainment. We worship our own pleasure; that is idolatry. We are quick to condemn ancient cultures such as the Romans for their sporting games of gladiators fighting or the practice of murdering children in sacrifice to gods such as Molech or Baal. America is not much different. When you recognize that we glamorize beastly fighting in the UFC and we kill thousands of babies in the interest of self. Our education and sophistication has not helped us rise above the infection of sin that has plagued mankind since the fall. Whether it be blood lust, sexual perversion or just pervasive thoughts and images of sexual ideas that bombards our minds through the media, greed or some other pursuit of the constant need for pleasure or self fulfillment; it’s all idolatry. It is against the life that God would have us live.

We look at all the trails we face, natural disasters, economic collapses, marriages failing in historic numbers, the moral decline of our nation and wonder is there any hope. As we look at the book of Joel we will see that God sent a warning (In our case, many warnings) and the hope was in turning back to God as individuals and as a nation. The hope for America does not lie in a new President, as badly as we need one, it lies in our retuning to God.

This book encourages us to repent if we have fallen away or stay close to God if we are walking with Him. There are three themes in the book of Joel: Punishment, forgiveness and promise of the Holy Spirit.

Vs 1 & 2. The word of the Lord that came to Joel. He is the proclaimer of God’s Word, he is the Preacher, the messenger who shares prophesy.

Vs He is speaking to the leaders (elders) and expecting them to pass it on. His question, rhetorical, as it may be, resounds with us today. Has there ever been a time like now? We can look at all the bad around us and say these are dark and evil times.

Let me give you the good news; we are much better off than any generation that has ever lived. We are wealthier and healthier than any other nation in the history of the human race. As bad as times seem and as evil as the world and our nation is; we are much better off than our forefathers. History reveals it; we naturally want to believe times were better in days gone by.

Vs 3 Are we passing on to our younger people the story of light and goodness. Does it from their viewpoint, outweigh the pull of the world. Is our story compelling enough to draw younger generations? If we don’t live it before them it won’t be. We must tell but we must also live what we say.

Vs 4 Four types of locust, each with progressively worse affects. Gnawing, swarming, creeping and stripping. In the literal sense speaking about the insects, they come in the number of millions and infest and destroy every living plant in their path. They come in progressive waves of devastation. When one type of locust eats its fill another comes and behind it to deepen the level of devastation by not just eating more but to a deeper level. The first wave will eat the head of grain, the second will strip away all the leaves, the third will eat the stalks and the final wave will finish by eating anything left above ground.

From a prophetic standpoint this could be viewed an army that comes in waves of increasing power or even cultural changes that have increasing dominion infesting and devastating the nation God had established. (Think back to taking prayer out of school; then came the sexual revolution of the 60s, the rise in drug culture of the 70s, abortion on demand began in the 80s, greed and decadence in the 90s) What came after the turn of the century? 911, Katrina, economic collapse Are these judgments? It’s your call.

I think most applicable on the personal level is the parallel of sin. It is progressive, aggressive, pervasive and unstoppable outside the power of God. The longer a person lives with sin the more deeply it affects that person. We play games with ourselves about sin but it leads to the same progressive devastation as an army of locust.

Vs 5 Even the lowest sect of society would be affected by the onslaught of the locusts. No wine to drink. Maybe this is a call to us sleeping in the drunken stupor of complacency where we pat ourselves on the back for attending Church but never live the separated life we are called to. Are Americans basking in the hallucinogen of apathy where ignorance is bliss? Even the drunk will eventually sober up when he runs out of something to drink. Joel says to weep for the loss of the wine. Why would you bemoan the loss of your tormentor? Think about Israel when they left Egypt. It wasn’t long before they were wishing they were back in slavery; at least the had something to eat? What did God have in store for them; something far better.

I think Joel uses a little sarcasm to bring to light that we can either long for the loss or live for the glory that is to come. There is hope and deliverance if we want it but we have to turn loose of our sin and live for what God has in store for us.

Vs 6 & 7 The literal destruction caused by the invading army is far reaching just as the infection of sin permeates the being of the sinner. The teeth and fangs tear and rip flesh just like sin tears down and destroys our flesh and spirit. When we are in sin we are emotionally and spiritually defunct. The only way to maintain health is to keep the lions away otherwise we are “Stripped bare and cast away” like the bones of a fresh kill. We do not have to be casualties of spiritual warfare.