Perspectives - A Journey through the Book of Joel Part 1 - Joel 2

Perspectives - A Journey through the Book of Joel

Part 1 - Joel 2

11 The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty is the army that obeys his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?

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• OT writers saw
• 2 ages
• and evil age
• a coming age of righteousness 
• God would intervene in history through His Messiah to launch this new age
• None of the Jewish people
• expected a divine person
• only a divine intervention 

WHY?

• Dualism of Evil vs. Good
• Jewish people desired an age of Evil-less
• God created, through the Righteous One, an age of Righteousness 

• The age of righteousness could be for
• blessing (believers) culmination of salvation
• judgment (non-believers) consummation of judgement 

• The Day of the Lord (Joel 2:11)

Rend Your Heart

12 “Even now,” declares the Lord,

    “return to me with all your heart,

    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

• temporal judgement
• turn or repent - change of action(s)
• fasting - during crisis
• weeping - repentance 
• mourning - contrition
• a whole-hearted trust in and love for God
• manifested through outward life of faith & obedience
• the world will know of God through His covenant people 
• repent & turn from evil
• easy access to God
• a kingdom of priests for God
• God
• judges & restores
• devastated the land & will renew it
• when His people repent
• Creation is the means to interact with God

13 Rend your heart

    and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God,

    for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

    and he relents from sending calamity.

• heart vs. garments
• MOTIVES first
• gracious 
• compassionate
• slow to anger
• abounding in lovingkindness 
• relenting of evil

14 Who knows? He may turn and relent

    and leave behind a blessing—

grain offerings and drink offerings

    for the Lord your God.

• God’s sovereignty - God will visit
• Men’s free will - judgment or grace
• judgment (end time)
• repentance
• recommitment to His covenant
• “Who knows?”
• the need for Jesus
• we not always understand God & His acts
• “turn…relent”
• human terms for changing 
• tension when trying to describe God 
• God doesn’t change…
• PICTURE - young Lebron vs. Current LBJ
• steadfast & long-suffering is eternally the same
• our response in repentance of sin and reconnection to His covenant OFTEN determines God’s actions in a particular situation (JONAH)
• GOAL - a righteous people who reflect His character through a New Covenant
• God has chosen GRACE over JUDGMENT!!
• the Lord your God
• His rightful place among His people

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,

    declare a holy fast,

    call a sacred assembly.

• “blow the trumpet…”
• warning for battle v.1
• assembling for a holy convocation
• How we respond to God determines which one characterizes our culture

16 Gather the people,

    consecrate the assembly;

bring together the elders,

    gather the children,

    those nursing at the breast.

Let the bridegroom leave his room

    and the bride her chamber.

17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,

    weep between the portico and the altar.

Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.

    Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,

    a byword among the nations.

Why should they say among the peoples,

    ‘Where is their God?’”

• God is willing for His own reputation to be impugned so that His people might return to Him
• God chose one man, one family, one nation to choose a world.

11 Truena la voz del Señor

    al frente de su ejército;

son innumerables sus tropas

    y poderosos los que ejecutan su palabra.

El día del Señor es grande y terrible.

    ¿Quién lo podrá resistir?

16 Congreguen al pueblo,

    purifiquen la asamblea;

junten a los ancianos del pueblo,

    reúnan a los pequeños

    y a los niños de pecho.

Que salga de su alcoba el recién casado,

    y la recién casada de su cámara nupcial.

17 Lloren, sacerdotes, ministros del Señor,

    entre el pórtico y el altar;

y digan: «Compadécete, Señor, de tu pueblo.

    No entregues tu propiedad al oprobio,

    para que las naciones no se burlen de ella.[a]

¿Por qué habrán de decir entre los pueblos:

    “Dónde está su Dios?”»