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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester podcast.
We are glad that you have joined us on this fifth season, episode number three.
I am one of the hosts, Brian Kenyon, and with me are...
Forest Antemesaris,
Steven Ford
and we are just excited to bring you a lesson and the title this is majoring in the miners
this season and majoring in the minor profits that is and so this third episode we've
already laid an introductory episode on one and then to we look at host cia and today we
look at the book of joel and sometimes people pronounce and joelle have you heard that
pronounced
Yeah, the only Joelle I know is Joelle Embiid.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
I guess I don't know if it's a-
spells his name the same.
Yeah.
Okay.
So anyway, I pronounce a Joel, but
Maybe depends
well yeah okay anyway enough i've just sideline note i've heard a lot of new
pronunciations and what i grew up with and i don't know if we just learn more about hebrew
or we're just trying to put the accents in there i don't know but anyway there's a
sideline thing but anyway the prophet joel is very interesting prophet and we would
probably not know anything about him except of course he is in the bible but he wouldn't
be that significant except that he is mentioned in the book of
Acts very prominently and so we mainly know at least our familiarity with them the book of
Joel from the book of Acts in Acts chapter 2 but Joel is a great prophet all by himself
and one of things about Joel Joel as you notice that there's not a whole lot of historical
information that ties him into a period and so the exact time of his writing is uncertain
I want to compare that with Hosea chapter 1 verse 1, the word of the Lord that came to
Hosea, the son of Birei, in the days of uh Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.
And so with Hosea, for example, you have historical background, all kinds of ways to put
him in the data, very precise time of his prophesying with the mention of those kings.
But in the book of Joel,
One verse one, all you have is the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pithuel.
All right, that's all you have about him.
And of course, the son of Pithuel distinguishes him from other Joels, but you don't have a
whole lot of background information on his history.
Now he is grouped with Hosea and Amos and others in that part of the Minor Prophets.
And so that seems to indicate that he did
prophesied during the Assyrian period, the Assyrian period, but again it's uncertain.
Some background material about Joel.
He is familiar, well actually some some think that he may have been a priest.
He is familiar with the temple practices and procedures.
He has knowledge of public worship procedures and he features the priest's role in
suffering and recovering from this plague.
Now there is a main event
that is spoken in the book of Joel and that is a locust plague.
And that locust plague is mentioned nowhere else.
And it's definitely not the same one as the, you know, one of the things that plagues in
Egypt is way past that period of time.
But we don't have that mentioned anywhere else.
And that's one of the things that is featured.
And you know, some people will take that locust plague figurative.
I'll take it literal.
ah
you literal locust plague uh...
he does mention that his northern army he mentions that army uh...
that army is uh...
the locust and so he is using that kind of figuratively and we'll get to that in the text
as we come across it but anyway you should do you have that locust plague in there and i
don't know uh...
none of the host here have ever seen locust plague experienced it
i guess this into congregation sometimes i teach this and there was also a razor hand but
i guess back in the dust bowl or whatever
Yeah.
I know they can be destructive, I don't think I've ever...
Yeah, no Oklahoma, I guess they've had them and people out West.
They've had them.
my own experience with that is when I was a young kid in Apollo Beach, Florida, they were
just digging out canals and everything.
We used to have mole crickets come out and swarms and we get a little wood swords and
fight them off and stuff as a little kid.
know, that's, about it.
But these things are real.
Yeah.
And you can read about them in history.
In fact, some of the commentaries in Joel, they'll, they'll mention a big locust plague.
And there's pictures of it, think, if you Google it or something, you'll see pictures of
it.
Yeah, Homer Haley mentions one that happened in Palestine like the 1900s.
I think they had some photographic evidence of and they picked everything clean.
I mean, even eat the bark off the trees and everything.
Right.
So I mean, it would be if you're an agrarian society, that would be just as bad as a
literal army coming through because you're going to starve and you're going to.
The should be gone,
It might even be worse because with the army at least you can fight against the army.
I mean, but like, you know, like you mentioned, like with the mold crickets, I think you
called them.
Yeah.
You can't go out with a sword and fight, you know, millions and millions and millions of
locusts.
There's nothing you can do.
Right.
And so that might be even worse.
can't reason with them you can't defect to their side again they're there to eat
Now if you had a blow torch, could blow them, torch them away.
then the same result, the same result.
A of them though.
Only ones that came in contact with the flame.
There's probably billions of those locusts and then you might get a couple hundred of
them.
Yeah, pretty destructive.
really this locus play he does mention in chapters one through chapter two this locus
plague is kind of a forerunner of the day of the lord uh...
it's a devastating locus plague it's urgent call to repentance from that and and and as a
matter of fact just some of the information on the locusts uh...
inverse to hear you elders and give here or inhabitants of the land has anything like this
happened in your days or even in the days of your fathers
tell your children about it, let your children tell their children and their children
another generation.
And so three generations, it's such a tremendous event that three generations are going to
know about it.
And then in verse four, and this is very interesting in the Old King James, I don't think
it makes a distinction, it just says locust, locust.
But in the New King James, from which I read, it gives what the chewing locust left, the
swarming locust has eaten.
what the swarming locust has left, the crawling locust has eaten, and what the crawling
locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.
And so it gives all these stages of the locust, you know, life, again, it's being used for
emphasis, you know, the larval stage, the pupa stage, and all this kind of stuff, uh just
to show the intensity of it, the intensity of it.
And then you have verse seven, he has laid waste my vine and ruined my fig tree.
and has stripped it bare and thrown it away.
Its branches are made white," he says, lament, verse eight, like a virgin girded with
sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
And this is very interesting phrase.
I've heard a lot the expression, the wife of your youth, the wife of your youth.
And as far as I know, this is the first time he's ever talked about the husband of your
youth.
But anyway, does mention, and...
with the wife of your youth is the covenant husband, the one to whom you belong, ah but a
virgin.
And so they haven't even reached the stage of marriage yet where that relationship can be
had.
But you have the husband of her youth.
Notice the grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off because if you don't
have any grain, you cannot have a grain offering.
If you don't have any grapes, you cannot have the drink offering.
And so the offering is there.
Notice also these parts of creation, these agricultural items that are mentioned.
Verse 10, the field is wasted, the land mourns, the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried
up, the oil fails.
Notice the wheat in verse 11, be ashamed, you farmers.
And notice also the language of mourning.
In verse 8, lament.
In the middle of verse 10, mourn.
Here you have you farmers' whale, you vine dressers for the wheat and the barley, because
the harvest of the field is perished.
Verse 12, the vine is dried up, the fig tree is withered, and of course the vine and the
fig tree are often used as symbols of prosperity, has withered the pomegranate tree, the
palm tree also, and the apple tree.
All the trees of the field are withered.
Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.
And then he says in verse 13, "'Gird up and lament, you priests and wail, you who minister
before the altar.'" And here's again the priestly perspective.
"'Come, lie on night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God, for the grain offering and
the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.'" And then notice also, if you
skip down to chapter 2, he does mention in verse 1, "'Blow the trumpet and Zion, sound an
alarm.'
in my holy mountain let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is
coming for it is at hand and the day of darkness and gloomy a day of darkness and
gloominess and verse 2 and of course we know that day of the Lord is a feature in in all
the prophets really but especially the minor prophets now is the day of the Lord a good
day or a bad day yeah depends on what what side of the Lord you're right depends on what
side of the Lord you're on and so in this case verse 2
It's a day of darkness and gloominess.
Now notice he does mention in verse 2, in the middle of that verse, a people come great
and strong, the like of whom has never been.
And he says in verse 3, a fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness.
Surely nothing shall escape them.
Their appearance is like the appearance of horses and here he's talking about the locust
plague, but again, it's a typological thing that's going to happen later in a localized
judgment and like swift steed So they run with the noise like chariots over mountains They
leap like the noise of a flaming fire that devours a stubble like a strong people set in
battle array In verse 7 they run like mighty men.
They climb wall the wall like men of war
Everyone marches in formation and they do not break ranks.
And I just picture a swarm of locusts, kind of like an Indiana Jones movie.
You you ever seen those Indiana Jones movie where uh he looks on the bottom and it's
nothing but bugs or insects or snakes or something crawling around?
And uh it's kind of the picture I get.
um But then verse four, their appearance, like the appearance of horses.
Well, we read that.
They run like mighty men, verse 8.
They do not push one another.
Everyone marches in his own column.
Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down.
They run to and fro in the city, verse 10.
The stars diminish their brightness because of the swarm.
It actually blocks out the sunlight and the moonlight.
Verse 11, the Lord gives voice before His army.
Again, they're being used for His purpose.
Strong, continuing in verse 11, for strong is the one who executes His Word, for the day
of the Lord is great and very terrible.
Who can endure it?
And so we have that locust plague described there.
And then also, well,
when he goes in chapter two verse eighteen the Lord will be zealous for his land and
piteous people and he'll talk about the reversal of all that and we'll talk about that in
a moment but if you look at chapter two verse twenty but I will remove far from you the
northern army and would drive him away into a barren and desolate land his fate and so
he'll talk about getting rid of the locust plague
and his foul odor will rise because he has done monstrous things in verse 20.
And then he does say, uh fear not, verse 21, and then he'll talk about a reversal.
We'll talk about that in just a moment, a reversal of that whole locust plague.
But in verse 25 is the verse I referred to earlier.
So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.
crawling locusts the consuming locusts and the chewing locusts he says my great army comma
my great army which i sent among you and so that locust play that's what he's referring to
as his army that literal locust plague but there's some implications here that will look
at in a moment uh...
that's that locust play was just a typological thing of what's going to happen if they
don't repent
and we'll see that through there in just a moment.
When you start in chapter one, as you were describing, I can imagine as the people are
hearing this and you maybe envision it in your mind, looking around and everywhere you
look, left, right, up, down, north, south, east, west, everything is just in ruin, is
barren.
You look in the fields, you look for the wheat, you look for the wine, you look at the
mountainside, look in everywhere you look, there is chaos, destruction, emptiness, and
it...
it seemed like on their side they would, you know, look and say, oh, you know, this is
terrible, God, this army.
But then as God could look around the land, spiritually, there is emptiness and ruin and
all those sorts of things.
And so it is on the one hand for their perspective, it's terrible, you know, we're wasting
away, there's all this destruction.
But then from God's perspective, it could be a thing, well, you've already wasted away and
what's going to happen is only a reflection of what you've already.
allowed to happen on the inside.
right and that's a very good point and when we if I were not leads right into this and so
I wanna really the rest of this we're gonna look at some take away some things we can
learn from this but will make reference back to the text as we go along and the first
thing we want to notice is that natural disasters sometimes are wake-up calls they should
be used for wake-up calls and I think uh when uh the Lord answered Joe from the whirlwind
and started just firing off all these questions uh to Job that he could not answer.
Of course, on Job's end, that was all it needed for him to feel like God was still with
him.
But one of the he mentions in chapter 38, verses 22 through 23, is about the snow and the
hail, how God uses that to chastise His people sometimes.
so natural disasters
you are not necessarily brought on because of people sin but they are always can be
learned from that they were not in control that uh...
you know god is in control we need to be right with god
Yeah, and think you see that in the book of Revelation where you have these plagues that
come up and over and over and over again at the end of them they'll say, and the people
still did not repent.
Right.
Right.
So God is really trying to get them to recognize, hey, you need to turn to me, right?
Stop worshipping the beast, all the different kind of stuff.
And one of the ways he does that is through those natural calamities, plagues, whatever.
know C.S.
Lewis has a quote where he says, God whispers to us in our pleasures, but
yells to us in our pain.
And there is times where, you when you're in pain, you really start thinking about God in
a way that you don't otherwise, you know, and sometimes it takes the loss of crops or the
loss of whatever to really, for me to humble myself and to uh turn to the Lord.
You know, sometimes people can, that's one of the arguments that people have relative to
atheism and Christianity and belief.
Why do these things happen?
Why does natural disaster happen and those sorts of things?
And while I don't necessarily hold that God makes every thunderstorm happen for the
purpose of punishing people, those things are big enough and so far outside of our control
that it should,
arrest our attention.
And it's crazy that that happens all the way from the beginning of the Bible to the end of
the Bible.
That you'll see these events taking place that should grab people's attention.
And I guess it's just a condition of the heart.
know, like an axe, excuse me, axe two versus like an axe seven.
Okay, well, how are you going to respond?
You know, you're going to have a heart that melts and is cut.
or you're have a heart pricked or a heart that is rebellious and is cut and then you'll
still reject God.
It's just, guess, the condition of the heart of the person.
And sometimes people like, everything's going well.
Well, I don't need to, I don't believe in God.
I don't need him.
My life is good.
And then something goes bad.
I don't believe in God.
He made this bad thing happen.
You know what I mean?
So it's kind of like you try to have, some people try to have it both ways where it's
like, well, this is meant to be the goodness of God has meant to lead us to repentance.
But also the severity should be a wake up call.
Right.
And sometimes that severity comes in natural disasters, at least it was recorded in the
Bible, but like Stephen said, we can't say that for every disaster.
I know when Katrina hit New Orleans, everybody said, oh man, they deserve it.
Sin City and all that stuff.
But anyway, that leads us to the second takeaway here from the book of Joel, is that true
repentance will bring blessing.
True repentance will bring blessing.
And one of the, I think one of the most powerful passages on repentance,
especially in the Old Testament, as right here in Joel chapter 2 verse 12 and following,
Now therefore says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping,
and with mourning.
So rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great
kindness, and he relents from doing harm.
And then down in verse 16, there's a call for
Repentance, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the
children and nursing babies.
Let the bridegroom go out of his chamber and the bride from her dressing room." And so
here's an urgent call to repent.
Let the priest who minister to the Lord weep between the porch and the altar.
Let them say, spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach that
the nation should rule over them.
why should they say among the people's where is there god but notice and and and this is
just you know even in the old testament god wanted the heart not just the outward flesh
but the heart and these verses definitely indicate that repentance that will bring true
blessings
I was thinking about 2 Corinthians 7 as you were reading that, because he says, don't tear
your clothes.
Tearing the clothes, that shows everybody, man, wow, he must really be penitent and sorry
and all that kind of good stuff.
But God's like, no, I'm not concerned about the clothes.
You can tear your clothes and still be wicked.
He's like, no, I want the heart.
So it's always been the case that God has desired the heart of man to be right with him,
which is kind of funny because people will always say, well, the God of the Old Testament,
as though he's different from the new.
And Jesus points out, no, we are one and the same in John 14.
But God wanted the true repentance debt, which David even talked about in Psalm 51 about
his, it's not the outward sacrifices, God wants a contrite and broken heart.
Yeah, 2 Peter 3, 9, you know God is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And that godly sorrow, as you mentioned from 2 Corinthians 7, 10, notice godly sorrow
leads to repentance, salvation.
you know, godly sorrow has nothing to do with the flesh, has nothing to with the outward.
It's all inward, inward from the heart.
And uh it's interesting where this is placed.
The repentance here is between the day of the Lord as described by the locust plague, and
then in chapter 2, uh verses 18, all the way through chapter 321 is the day of the Lord,
know, blessings and judgment.
But particularly in chapter 2, 18 through 32, God promises blessings upon God's people.
I notice again that section of repentance is right there in between, and when God starts
talking about blessings, and this is very typical in Old Testament prophets, He'll
describe the blessings first in a physical way that they can identify, that they can be in
touch with, but then He'll also give the blessings in a spiritual blessings that will come
upon.
And so in the book of Joel that's no different.
He gives the physical blessings
and the physical blessings that he promises is a reversal of the locust damage and that's
in chapter two uh...
eighteen through twenty seven and if you look at some of these passages in here verse
eighteen chapter two eighteen then the lord will be zealous for his land and piteous
people and notice again is coming right after he tells him how to repent and to call for
this public assembly this urgent assembly for corporate repentance if you will as well as
individual repentance
Then he says, Lord will answer and say to his people, Behold, I will send you grain and
new wine and oil.
And again, everything he mentions here is a reversal or a restoration of what the locusts
took away.
In verse 20, I will remove far from you the northern army.
Down in verse 22, do not be afraid, you beasts of the field, for the open pastures are
springing up and the tree bears its fruit.
The fig tree, the vine, will yield their strength.
And again, the fig tree and vine are symbolic of prosperity.
Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God.
He has given you the former rain faithfully and the latter rain in the first month.
Verse 24, the threshing floors will be full of wheat.
The vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
So they will be able to give those sacrifices once again.
so i restore to you the years of the swarming locust has eaten and notice that restore to
you the years and just heard something on the news not too long ago about wildfires out in
nebraska of all places and it said that uh...
you know they have a lot of cattle out there and it would take three years for that those
pastor lands to be back to normal after fire but yet here says i will restore to you the
years
that the swarming locust has eaten.
And then he mentions a different kind of locust.
Verse 26, you shall eat plenty and be satisfied.
Again, just the opposite of what happened that the locust took away.
And then verse 27, and this is common in the prophets too, then you shall know that I am
in the midst of Israel.
I am the Lord your God and there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.
And then he offers these spiritual blessings.
And again, know, true repentance
brings blessing and the spiritual side of that and notice that physical restoration would
take place first and this is something else is common in the prophets you know something
has to happen before the prophecy can be fulfilled or at least as you talk about the
spiritual prophecy now that doesn't mean right afterwards but it does mean this has to
happen first or this will happen first and then this all right and then verse 28 is the
spiritual side of that
and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons
and your daughters shall and your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see
visions actually your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream
dreams your young men shall see visions and also on my maids men servants and on my maids
servants I will pour out of my spirit in those days and I will show wonders in the heavens
and earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke
The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the coming of the great
and awesome day of the Lord.
And it shall come to pass that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among
the remnant whom the Lord calls." And so you have that famous verse made famous by Peter
in Acts chapter 2 of this spiritual restoration.
in acts to when peter refers back to that he takes jules it shall come to pass afterward
uh...
he'd he interprets that as my inspiration it shall come to pass in the last days and
remember he says this is that which is spoken by the prophet joe you know you're not drunk
and as you suppose seeing it is but the third hour of the day but this is that which is
spoken by the prophet joel and so so peter through inspiration
shows the fulfillment of Joel 2, 28-32 as being on that day of Pentecost when the church,
the inauguration of the church, when the church was established.
Yeah, and it's interesting to me.
I never really thought about this, but just before that prophecy in Acts 2, 28 through 32
is all this language about restoring the years and you'll eat and plenty and, you know,
the grain and everything.
And Pentecost is that feast where you go and it's like the end gathering feast where you
celebrate and acknowledge the harvest, you know, so that you see even that connection
where it's almost like a hint.
Yeah.
This is going to be on.
A Pentecost,
I never noticed that either.
But yeah, the day of Pentecost.
And notice this prophecy of Joel involves two congruent happenings.
Number one, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and it shall come to pass afterward.
I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
And then secondly, verse 32, and it shall come to pass.
So it shall come to pass connects verse 32 with verse 28 as two congruent things.
not one happening after the other.
The other one is, verse 32, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And so, you know, and notice that as Peter interprets that by inspiration, that's part of
the last days.
You know, we do realize that the first part of the last days involved the miraculous.
You know, your sons and your daughters prophesying, seeing visions, dream dreams and all
this.
But it's not like there's two sets of last days, the miraculous set and then secondly the
calling upon the name of the Lord set.
It's all one set of last days, the beginning of which involved the miraculous.
And again, without the miraculous, know, how are you going to know whether the spokesmen
or whether the prophets are really truly speaking for God?
You know, I've noticed, especially recently in some Bible studies I've been having at the
coffee shop,
that most of the time the miraculous is to confirm the messenger, that the message is
truly from God.
Every once in a while, know, God just had a, you Jesus just said of this compassion will
heal somebody, but it's usually going along with a message and going along with the
teaching.
know, anybody can claim to speak for God, but how are you going to prove that?
Right.
You know, today we have the scriptures to prove that, but back then,
it was to the miraculous signs that were done in accompanying with the message
And even the sort of like miraculous outpouring of the spirit and that's pretty figured
here in Joel too.
You know, my understanding is you only see that in Acts two and X 10.
And in both times you really have, it's like for a purpose.
not just like willy nilly, like everybody, know, some lot of people today, they expect
everybody who's baptized in water to receive
baptism of the Holy Spirit and be able to speak in tongues and all this different kind of
stuff, you know what mean?
But I was like, even that was an exclamation point on, look at this, this is what God is
up to in Acts 2 and Acts 10.
know, Acts 2 proving these are the apostles, the new covenant is here.
And then Acts 10, hey, the Gentiles, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The Gentiles can be saved.
That's why Peter could say, who can forbid water?
Right?
These people be baptized who've received this the same way we have, speaking of the
apostles.
um
But yeah, just confirming and letting people know, hey, this is what God is doing.
That's where various denominations kind of veer off because they think like you were
alluding to that if you are saved and immediately You should be able to demonstrate
speaking in tongues, this miraculous gift when, like you just mentioned in Acts 2, that's
this inaugural sermon bringing in the church age and then in Acts 10 later on, now the
Gentiles are being completely brought in.
And so there's these moments that God is like, hey, hey, look here, look here, instead of
just like making it, I guess you say, like arbitrary.
It's like, any person, every person, all the time.
Yeah, and I think baptism of the Holy Spirit that happened only twice on the Apostles and
the house of Cornelius I think that's part of this promise, but I don't think this is just
limited as pouring out My spirit is just limited to those two events right because notice
He says your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and I don't know of any Daughters,
and there may have been some daughters that prophesied in Acts 10.
We don't know who all was there Old men young men shall dream dreams
But notice, as long as people are able to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved,
then His Spirit is still being poured out.
Now, of course, it doesn't mean the miraculous ways, obviously, but, you know, this is
the, you know, age of the Spirit, if you will, so to speak, but...
uh
And it seems like throughout the prophets, like the new covenant is kind of portrayed in
that way.
Like that's part of it.
Like, think of the book of Ezekiel, I'll give you a new heart.
My spirit will dwell within you.
You know, just all of that imagery.
And I think Joel too goes along with that.
When we are inaugurating this new covenant, that's a part of it.
Yeah, and that phrase, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, does
occur in two other passages.
Of course, Acts 2-21, and of course, this is after he's already referred to Joel's
prophecy.
Well, I guess he does refer to it at the end there, whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved.
And then we know in Acts, actually, guess it appears more than...
twice.
Acts 221 is repeating Joel, but then also Acts 22, 16.
When Saul of Tarsus, well actually Paul, is recounting his conversion and why Tareus now
arrives and be baptized, wash away your sins, calling on the name of Lord.
So calling on the name of the Lord there, that's how we do it.
And of course, that's made possible because of the new covenant and the Gentiles are fair
game and recipients of that gospel call.
And then of course, in Romans 10, 13, when Paul, know, whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved, and then he launches into those questions, how can they call
on him in whom they have not believed?
How can they believe in him in whom they have not heard?
how shall they hear without a preacher?
How beautiful are the feet of them that bring the gospel of peace, etc.
And so whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord is a feature of that new covenant.
And in Romans 10.13, when Paul quotes it, the verse before, he says, there's no
distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon
Him.
So kind of, the inspired interpretation, if you will, of Joel's prophecy there in chapter
two, verse 32, is that Jew and Gentile both are going to be saved in this new covenant in
the last days.
Which is, I always wonder, so when you go to the New Testament, you know, we read it, we
have the blessing now, as you just cited, that you can look at this inspired commentary on
it.
But in Joel's day, when they're hearing this for the first time, okay, all this stuff is
gonna happen, this army of locusts, these things are gonna be, and then God is gonna bring
restoration, he's gonna bring healing, and then there's gonna be this period of time.
where everyone who calls upon them will be blessed and then they hear this everyone,
whosoever.
kind of, sometimes I wonder how did they immediately receive that?
Did they immediately think, this is just all the tribes?
Or did some of them say, hey, this has to be everybody, how they may have felt about those
sorts of things?
It's just kind of a curiosity I have.
How did they initially receive that?
That idea of God being as good to everybody as he is to Israel.
That you could be grafted in.
the Gentiles.
Yeah, including the Gentiles.
had to see the bright, brilliant spot of these blessings.
It's gonna be amazing when he said, I'm gonna restore these years, And then to think,
well, he's gonna give this to everybody.
What that would have been like in their minds.
Yeah, that's probably one of those passages that would fall.
Peter talked about it, even the angels and prophets desired to make use of those things.
ah But that's why think verse 27, Joel 2.27 is pretty important.
Then you shall know that I'm in the midst of Israel.
And this kind of makes a connection with maybe why God would restore the physical first in
such a way that you know this has to be from God.
Right.
And so just trusting God, kind of what he's saying in verse 27, when you see this happen,
you'll know that I'm in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God, there is no
other.
So what I say next, you can bank on.
Right.
Even though you may not understand it, but you can bank on it.
Well, even, mean, I think this is something everybody struggles with.
Honestly, the idea of whoever calls on the name of the Lord, she'll be saved.
You know, I think Peter struggled with it.
Obviously he had to see that vision three times and even Christians today, sometimes, you
know, if we're not careful, we can kind of think in our head, oh, this person could be a
Christian, this person, they would never buy it.
You know what I mean?
It's kind of like, if we're not careful, uh sometimes we, I think we even forget that
like,
Maybe some people are too far gone or some people just would never come around or whatever
But it's like no if you get to this point where you call on the name of the Lord the way
the New Testament describes Doesn't matter your past doesn't matter where you came from
doesn't matter who you're related to you can be saved, you know, I think that's a Even
still today.
Sometimes it's hard to wrap our minds around
That's what makes, like when Paul talks about grace, Romans 5 and Romans 6, it makes
grace, God's grace is so amazing that it does tempt the immature heart, I'll call it, to
take advantage of it because it's so good.
So it's like, wait a minute.
So I could be like one of these laborers that comes at the last minute and I can get all
the same blessing as everybody else?
Really?
Okay.
You know, if you're not taking God for who he is, appreciating his identity and
recognizing who he is and what he is and then immediately having reverence for him, it
will cause you to take advantage of it because it's just so amazing.
But that's the great part of it.
He said, yeah, everybody.
Gentile, doesn't matter what they've done in the past, how I doubt you say a word, just
like you guys, he can say the things.
I'm gonna take everybody.
And that reminds me of some of those passages in Romans chapters nine, 10, and 11 about
the Gentiles who were not looking for him found, et cetera, because people are people.
And they know a good thing when they see it, and they can rebel against a good thing
because they want to do their own way.
So we see that throughout.
And that leads us to the final point I want to look at here is that in the book of Joel
teaches us that Zion is the only place of deliverance.
In chapter, of course,
2 verse 32, He did talk about in Zion, but then also in chapter 3 verse 17, "'You shall
know that I the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no alien shall ever pass through her again.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the
hills shall flow with milk.'" And notice the description here in these physical terms.
And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water.
A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the valley of Achaus." And so
Zion, he mentions there, verse 16, I guess I should started with that, but, the Lord will
also roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem.
The heavens and the earth will shake, but the Lord will be a shelter for His people and
the strength of the children of Israel.
and so zion is that place of refuge zion is the place where we need to be and that reminds
me these passages in he bruise and he was chapter twelve verse twenty eight uh...
for well actually verse twenty eight will look at that too but also he bruise uh...
twelve twenty two through twenty three which is kinda leading up to uh...
verse twenty eight but in that passage
you he's talking about the church there in but he's using the imagery of zion uh...
when he talks about the church in herews twelve uh...
verse twenty two but you have come to mount zion and to the city of the living god the
heavenly jerusalem to an immeasurable company of angels to the general assembly in church
of the first born who are registered in heaven to god the judge of all
into the spirits of just man made perfect and of course it should be pointed out here that
the the uh...
church of the first born were first born there's not talking about jesus essentially a
plural word as you see from the rest of the verse who are registered in heaven but that
literally the first born ones and that could be their chronologically the church in
jerusalem you know as a first one acts to are also preeminently you know first born
sometime use that way
And here it could be used either way.
But the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, but notice he calls that
Mount Zion the city of the living God.
And then in verse 28, therefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have
grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
And so that spiritual Zion is actually fulfilled in the church.
That's the church.
Yeah, and even Joel 3, 20 through 21, the last two verses says, will abide forever
Jerusalem from generation to generation.
I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed whom I had not acquitted for the Lord dwells
in Zion.
And that's not about Jerusalem today or Israel today.
You know, that's about, and I think Hebrews 12 makes that clear that that promise is
fulfilled in the church and the Lord dwells in his body.
You know, we are, the church is the temple of God today.
That's where he is.
course he's omnipresent, but there's a way in which, a special way in which he dwells in
the church.
uh, and I think you see that again, you know, Joel, there's a lot, you know, obviously Joe
to 28 through 32, but there's a lot in Joel that points to the new covenant and the
church.
Yeah, that's very good point.
I like that God seems, well not seems to, he understands the nature of man so well that as
you were talking about, Brian, he restores the physical to help, it seems in my opinion
anyway, help to bolster maybe the faith of men to trust him for the spiritual.
So if I can see that God can, if I can see God can make the fields come back, okay, I can
see the future of restoration.
And it just makes me think of when Jesus tells a man to,
His sins are forgiven.
Which one do you think is easier?
To let this guy get up and walk or tell him his sins are forgiven?
And so they can see the man walking.
But Jesus said, there's something far more important and deeper that I'm gonna be able to
do.
And it's like God is restoring all these physical things for them to help their trust and
faith in Him as they go forward looking at the spiritual kingdom, the spiritual blessing,
the spiritual restoration, all those things.
Yeah, because the spiritual is where it's all at.
That's where it's all about in these prophets.
mean, you know, but against couch and physical terms, but the spiritual is the enduring,
long-lasting part of it.
And so we appreciate that.
Well, there's a lot more things we could look at in the book of Joel.
Just like with every verse in the Bible, we could spend a whole month on.
But we're going to wrap it up here.
We appreciate you joining us for this episode of The Minor Prophets, majoring in the
minors.
And we'd appreciate your feedback if you have any.
and we look forward to studying the book of
Amos.
and amazement and so we'll look at that in the next episode thanks for joining us