Joel: Grasshoppers and Grace

We trace Joel’s urgent warning through locusts, loss, and the Day of the Lord, then turn to a hopeful promise of restoration and the Spirit poured out on all people. Along the way, we tie the minor prophets to Israel’s homecoming and ask what real repentance looks like now.

• why minor prophets fit the homecoming season
• reading Joel aloud with context and chronology
• locust invasion as a picture of national and spiritual ruin
• the Day of the Lord as both near event and future horizon
• call to return with whole hearts, not just rituals
• restoration of grain, wine, oil, and lost years
• the Spirit poured out on all kinds of people
• judgment of nations and refuge for those who call on God
• practical repentance starting with heart, home, and habits

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Series Shift
• 1:51 Why Minor Prophets And Chronology
• 4:01 Kings And Prophets Visual Guide
• 5:51 Setting Up Joel’s Context
• 7:36 Reading Joel: Locusts And Lament
• 12:11 The Day Of The Lord Imagery
• 16:41 Call To Return And Restoration
• 20:11 Resource Reminder And Next Steps
• 21:11 Spirit Poured Out And Judgment

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Welcome back to the Outloud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike, and uh last episode we finished 2nd Chronicles, and I let you know that we're going to be jumping to another part of the Bible, and we're going to be starting the minor prophets. Minor, not because they're less important, just because they're smaller. Just the prophets had less to say. Maybe they're more concise. I don't know, but they they're uh their messages, their letters are just a lot shorter than the major prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. And uh and so we're gonna be able to get through a lot of books of the Bible pretty quickly here in the upcoming weeks. We're not gonna be going through the books in the order that they appear in the Bible. Those were ordered not by God, but by the people who kind of compiled the Bible and affirmed their inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Um, and so there's nothing wrong with the way they're ordered. They're ordered roughly chronologically, also kind of they're put together. Uh, some pairs of books that talk about the same things are kind of put next to each other. Um there, there's a number of factors. It's not wrong, uh, but I just looking at what we have left to go through in the Old Testament, I see the minor prophets, and then I also see the post-exile or mid-exile books like Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. And I think it's important to kind of take these and and do them all chronologically, as best as I can figure that they occurred. Um, as we're in this season of the podcast called Homecoming. Uh, we we take a look at the history of Israel through the lens of, okay, what is it, what is their journey coming home from exile? We read about all the kings of Judah in the books of the Chronicles and saw the decline of their kings and what ultimately sent them off into exile. Now, those books of Chronicles were written and given on the time that they were coming back from the exile to say, hey, remember what happened, not as a guilt trip, but as a remember where you came from, remember your heritage, remember your ancestry, and remember what God wants for you moving forward. And so we're gonna take a look at the books here in the minor prophets, as uh yes, we're taking a step back in the timeline as we're gonna take a look at some of these that uh occurred earlier on before the exile, um, but we're going to kind of proceed chronologically here so we can kind of build what God is saying to the people in the meantime. Because remember, what we read about the kings is happening at the same time as what we read about the prophets. And the prophets and the kings are all working together, and the prophets are approaching the kings throughout this long season, this few hundred years of Israel and Judah. And uh, it actually helps to visualize what this is, uh what kind of what's going on here and who's talking when. And so I put together a worksheet. It's not a worksheet, it's it's more of a visual aid. You don't have to do any work unless you want to. I did the work for you. It's a visual aid called Kings and Prophets. You can get it from the website outloudbible.com. You can go to our resources page and uh you can find Kings and Prophets. And uh I I couldn't find exactly the the kind of visual guide that I wanted that helps me. So I just made it. I I compiled a bunch of other things that are out there into one. I think it's easy to read and easy to visualize uh as you're studying the kings and chronicles and then also the minor prophets and the major prophets to see where they line up in Israel's history. I think it's uh I think it's helpful. So I'd recommend going to check that out outloudbible.com slash resources at the resources page. And uh it's called Kings and Prophets. Go check it out. It's free. Download it, let me know what you think and uh and how it helps you. That might be helpful even now as we're getting into the minor prophets to see where they line up because they're not speaking in a vacuum, they're not just writing general notes to everyone, they're writing to a specific group, whether it's Israel or Judah or a king or maybe even a surrounding nation, at a specific time. And it's interesting to see where they kind of cluster in the timeline. It's usually right before a couple generations before an exile is gonna happen. Like these prophets are a reminder that God is still working and uh that God is patient and that he gives plenty of warning and he wants his people to repent. So check out that resource as we read through these books of the minor prophets, and we're gonna start now with the book of Joel. It's tough to date exactly when Joel was written and delivered. It generally is agreed that it's fairly early on before any of the exile, uh, but he's talking about the day of the Lord, and he's using an imagery that you'll see uh about locusts. And when I'm gonna be reading the New English translation, it's gonna be using Hebrew terms for these locusts. You're gonna hear a couple times in this short book of three chapters, a couple times uh different types of locusts, like Ghazam locust, and Arba locust, and Yelek locust. That's a hard one to say, and Hasil locust. And uh I'll read them as Hebrew words as they appear in the translation I'm reading. Um, but it's good to know that that's referring to different types of locusts. Some people who have done a way more research on Old Testament locusts than I have uh have determined that, oh, it's different stages of their development. Maybe. I no one knows for sure. Um, some other translations just translate them like swarming locusts and young locusts and mature locusts, or uh or creeping and hopping and destroying locusts based on how they affect the environment. Okay, we don't need to get too caught up in the different types of locusts, except to say that Joel is probably referring to a real-life locust invasion that happened in recent history for Israel, and is using that to allude to what the day of the Lord is going to look like. Now, some of the day of the Lord was fulfilled when the exile finally did come and Jerusalem was destroyed, and judgment was delivered on God's people. Some of it is not yet fulfilled as we look forward to another day of the Lord when Jesus comes as a conquering king. So, as is the case with a lot of the Old Testament prophets, we have to take a little bit of discernment to figure out if what they're talking about already happened or if it's still something to come. And uh also just with an admission of the fact that we don't necessarily know. So that's that's the feel of Joel here. He's got some looking back in Israel's past to make some predictions or or prophecies regarding their near future, and also have receiving and sharing a glimpse of the distant future, which we're still waiting for. So that's all you need to know for the book of Joel. I know I could have read it by now and been done at this point, but I thought it would be helpful to understand what we're getting into before we get into it. Uh but now we can read the book of Joel, all three chapters in the New English Translation. This is the Lord's message that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. Listen to this, you elders. Pay attention, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life or in the lifetime of your ancestors? Tell your children about it. Have your children tell their children, and their children in the following generation. What the Gazam Locust left, the Arba Locust consumed. What the Arba Locust left, the Yelik locust consumed, and what the Yelk locust left, the Hasil locust consumed. Wake up, you drunkards, and weep. Wail all you wine drinkers, because the sweet wine has been taken away from you. For a nation has invaded my land, mighty and without number. Their teeth are lion's teeth, they have the fangs of a lioness. They've destroyed my vines, they've turned my fig trees into mere splinters. They've completely stripped off the bark and thrown it aside. The twigs are stripped bare. Wail like a young virgin clothed in sackcloth, lamenting the death of her husband to be. No one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of the Lord any more. So the priests who serve the Lord are in mourning. The crops of the fields have been destroyed, the ground is in mourning because the grain has perished, and the fresh wine is dried up, the olive oil languishes. Be distressed, farmers, wail, vine dressers, over the wheat and the barley, for the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, the fig tree languishes, the pomegranate, date, and apple as well. In fact, all the trees of the field have dried up. Indeed, the joy of the people has dried up. Get dressed and lament, you priests, wail, you who minister at the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of your God any more. Announce a holy fast, proclaim a sacred assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the temple of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord how awful that day will be, for the day of the Lord is near. It'll come as destruction from the divine destroyer. Our food has been cut off right before our eyes. There's no longer any joy or gladness in the temple of our God. The grains of seed have shriveled beneath their shovels. Storehouses have been decimated and granaries have been torn down because the grain has dried up. Listen to the cattle groan, the herds of livestock wander around in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. To you, O Lord, I call out for help. For fire has burned up the pastures of the wilderness, flames have raised all the trees in the fields. Even the wild animals cry out to you, for the riverbeds have dried up, fires destroyed the pastures of the wilderness. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound the alarm signal on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land shake with fear, for the day of the Lord is about to come. Indeed, it's near. It'll be a day of dreadful darkness, a day of foreboding storm clouds, like blackness spread over the mountains. It's a huge and powerful army. There has never been anything like it ever before, and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come. Like fire they devour everything in their path. A flame blazes behind them. The land looks like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them there's only a desolate wilderness, for nothing escapes them. They look like horses, they charge ahead like war horses. They sound like chariots rumbling over mountaintops, like the crackling of blazing fire consuming stubble, like the noise of a mighty army being drawn up for battle. People writhe in fear when they see them. All their faces turn pale with fright. They charge like warriors, they scale walls like soldiers. Each one proceeds on its course. They do not alter their path, they don't jostle one another, each of them marches straight ahead. They burst through the city defenses and don't break ranks. They rush into the city, they scale its walls, they climb up into the houses, they go in through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them, the sky reverberates, the sun and the moon grow dark, the stars refuse to shine. The voice of the Lord thunders as he leads his army. Indeed, his warriors are innumerable. Surely his command is carried out. Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome and very terrifying. Who can survive it? Yet even now the Lord says, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning, tear your hearts, not just your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he's merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love, often relenting from calamitous punishment, who knows, perhaps he'll be compassionate and grant a reprieve and leave a blessing in his wake. A meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, announce a holy fast, proclaim a sacred assembly, gather the people, sanctify an assembly, gather the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom and the bride from her private quarters. Let the priests who serve the Lord weep from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. Let them say, Have pity, O Lord, on your people. Please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked, to become a proverb among the nations? Why should it be said among the people, where is their God? Then the Lord became zealous for his land. He had compassion on his people. The Lord responded to his people, Look, I'm about to restore your grain, as well as fresh wine and olive oil. You'll be fully satisfied. I'll never again make you an object of mockery among the nations. I'll remove the one from the north far from you. I'll drive him out to a dry and desolate place. Those in front will be driven eastward into the Dead Sea, and those in back westward into the Mediterranean Sea. His stench will rise up as a foul smell. Indeed the Lord has accomplished great things. Don't fear, my land. Rejoice and be glad because the Lord has accomplished great things. Don't fear wild animals, for the pastures of the wilderness are again green with grass. Indeed trees bear their fruit, the fig tree and the vine yield to their fullest. Citizens of Zion, rejoice, be glad because of what the Lord your God has done, for he's given you the early rains as vindication. He sent to you the rains, both the early and the late rains as formerly. The threshing floors are full of grain, the vats overflow with fresh wine and olive oil. I'll make up for the years that the Araba locust consumed your crops, the Yelik locust, the Hasiel locust, and the Gazam locust, my great army that I sent against you. You'll have plenty to eat, and your hunger will be fully satisfied, and you'll praise the name of the Lord your God who has acted wondrously in your behalf. My people will never again be put to shame. You'll be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God, there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame. After all this I'll pour out my spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your elderly will have prophetic dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on male and female servants I'll pour out my spirit in those days. I'll produce portents both in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke, the sunlight will be turned to darkness, and the moon to the color of blood before the day of the Lord comes, that great and terrible day. It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive, just as the Lord has promised, the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call. For look, in those days and at that time I'll return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem, then I'll gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. I'll enter into judgment against them there concerning my people Israel, who are my inheritance, whom they scattered among the nations. They partitioned my land, and they cast lots for my people. They traded a boy for a prostitute. They sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? If you are, I will very quickly repay you for what you've done. For you took my silver and my gold, and you brought my precious valuables to your own palaces. You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks, removing them far from their own country. Look, I'm rousing them from that place to which you sold them. I'll repay you for what you've done. I'll sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. I'll sell them to the Sabaeans, a nation far away. Indeed the Lord has spoken. Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare for a holy war. Call out the warriors, let all the fighting men approach and attack, beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I too am a warrior. Lend your aid and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves to that place. Bring down, O Lord, your warriors. Let the nations be roused, and let them go up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations. Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, stomp the grapes, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great. Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon are darkened, the stars withhold their brightness, the Lord roars from Zion, from Jerusalem his voice bellows out, the heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people. He's a stronghold for the citizens of Israel. You'll be convinced that I, the Lord, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy. Conquering armies will no longer pass through it. On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills will flow with milk. All the dry stream beds of Judah will flow with water. A spring will flow out from the temple of the Lord, watering the valley of Acacia trees. Egypt will be desolate, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood, but Judah will reside securely forever. And Jerusalem will be secure from one generation to the next. I'll avenge their blood that I had not previously acquitted. It is the Lord who dwells in Zion. Well, at the beginning of this episode I mentioned that not everything in this book of Joel has happened yet. He prophesied some things that happened, and there are other things that we've not seen. For example, we've not seen the land of Egypt lay desolate. We've not seen the surrounding nations be desolate land yet. The reason that matters is because what else Joel talks about in terms of repentance is still applicable to God's people. We still have time to repent and turn our hearts to God. In the Living Out Loud segment, I think we're going to go a little bit deeper on the tear your hearts and not your garments and what that looks like practically for us today. But for now, let's just leave it at the fact that we still have time to get our hearts right with God, to still line up our hearts with God's hearts as we look forward to the day of the Lord that's still to come. He's still the same God yesterday and today and forever. And if he says that his heart is still leaning toward compassion, if his heart is still leaning toward reconciliation, And forgiveness, then we have a responsibility to turn our hearts to him and help others, as many as possible, turn their hearts to line up with his as well. Join us on the next episode of Living Out Loud, where we'll go deeper into that. But for now, that's the thinking out loud, dot for the day, and we'll see you next time. Go to church and say amen to the pastor and sing your heart out during the worship time, but go home to the same old sins that you're not willing to confess to anyone? Have you ever been so heartbroken over someone's bad news that you said, Oh, I'll pray for you? But then don't actually pray for them? Do you send money to some missions or some overseas ministries because you really value the work that they're doing to help widows and orphans across the world, but it's so that you don't have to feel heartbroken over it yourself and do anything personally about it? Ask God to break your heart for what breaks his heart. And then let's actually do something about it. He's not expecting us to solve all the problems in the world that break his heart, but he is asking you to start with yourself. Start with your heart, start with your home and your family. Let God do the heart surgery that only he can do, and watch him put it together to be a heart that beats like his for him. That's the thinking out loud thought for the day.