Nancy: Welcome to immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
day 200 and 82
immersed in Joel.
It's not clear when Joel lived and prophesied and we
know very little about him.
However, there are some good reasons to believe that he was
one of the latest prophets.
This is suggested by several elements in his prophecies.
For example, he makes reference to the Greeks whose influence
did not reach the land of Judah until after the return from exile.
Another indication is that he appears to make allusions to many earlier prophets.
He frequently echoes their phrases, probably to show that the whole prophetic
tradition stands behind his message.
For example, in a combined illusion, Joel echoes both Ezekiel's frequent statement.
Then you will know that I am the Lord and Isaiah's repeated insistence.
I am the Lord and there is no other.
Sometimes Joel ironically reverses the images found in earlier prophets.
Oracles Micah and Isaiah share an oracle that says, They will hammer
their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks.
But Joel says, hammer, your plow shares into swords and
your pruning hooks into spears.
Such reversals are effective only, of course, if the image is
already known in its original form.
A standard feature of God's covenant with Israel was that the people's
response to God would determine whether they experienced blessings or
curses in the land God had given them.
This element can clearly be seen in the presentations of God's instructions in
books like Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
Israel's prophets assume this structure in Israel's covenant relationship with God.
Announcing the consequences both for the people's loyalty
and for their unfaithfulness.
The prophets frequently follow a certain order in their writings.
First, they address the wrongdoings of God's covenant people, including
promises of just punishment.
Next, they typically present oracles against other nations,
followed by hope-filled visions of ultimate restoration and renewal.
Joel's.
Oracles begin in the usual way describing judgment against Israel,
but then he changes the common pattern.
Speaking of Israel's restoration, before turning to announce judgment against other
nations, Joel identifies the judgment as the day of the Lord coming in the
form of a devastating locust attack.
Ahead of them.
The land lies as beautiful as the Garden of Eden.
Behind them is nothing but desolation.
Not one thing escapes.
God calls the people to respond to this plague With repentance, then in a stunning
oracle revealing God's longing to bless the land and make it flourish again.
Joel presents an extended vision of renewal and life.
Surely the Lord has done great things.
Don't be afraid Oland.
Be glad now and rejoice for the Lord has done great things.
Don't be afraid you.
Animals of the field for the wilderness.
Pastors will soon be green.
The trees will again be filled with fruit.
Fig trees and grape vines will be loaded down once more.
Like many of the other prophets, Joel looks forward to an era
when God will do brand new things in his dealings with humanity.
Just as Jeremiah foresaw a new covenant and Ezekiel envisioned a people
with a new heart and new spirit, God says through Joel, I will pour
out my spirit on all people and.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
The prophets serve as God's covenant messengers to the people of Israel in
their own day, but Joel reveals that God's purposes have always been to extend
his covenant of love to all nations.
The prophet Joel.
The Lord gave this message to Joel, son of Peto, hear this, you leaders
of the people, listen, all who live in the land, in all your history, has
anything like this happened before.
Tell your children about it in the years to come and let your
children tell their children.
Pass the story down from generation to generation.
After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming
locusts took what was left after them came the hopping locusts, and
then the stripping locusts too.
Wake up, you drunkards and weep whale.
All you wine drinkers, all the grapes are ruined and all your sweet wine is gone.
A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, a terrible army to numerous account.
Its teeth are like lion's, teeth.
It's fangs like those of a lioness.
It has destroyed my grapevines and ruined my fig trees, stripping
their bark and destroying it, leaving the branches white and bare.
Weep like a bride dressed in black, mourning the death of her husband.
For, there is no grain or wine to offer at the temple of the Lord,
so the priests are in mourning.
The ministers of the Lord are weeping.
The fields are ruined, the land is stripped bare, the grain is destroyed.
The grapes have shriveled, and the olive oil is gone.
Despair.
All you farmers whale, all you vine growers weep because the
wheated and barley, all the crops of the field are ruined.
The grape vines have dried up and the fig trees have withered.
The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees.
All the fruit trees have dried up and the people's joy has dried up with them.
Dress yourselves in burlap and weep you priests whale you
who serve before the altar.
Come spend the night in burlap.
You ministers of my God, for there is no grain or wine to
offer at the temple of your God.
Announce a time of fasting.
Call the people together for a solemn meeting.
Bring the leaders and all the people of the land into the temple of the Lord
your God, and cry out to him there.
The day of the Lord is near the day when destruction comes from the Almighty.
How terrible that day will be.
Our food disappears before our very eyes.
No joyful celebrations are held in the house of our God.
The seeds die in the parched ground and the grain crops fail.
The barns stand empty and grainery are abandoned.
How the animals moan with hunger.
The herds of cattle wander about confused because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep and goats ble in misery.
Lord, help us.
The fire has consumed the wilderness.
Pastures and flames have burned up.
All the trees, even the wild animals cry out to you because the
streams have dried up and fire has consumed the wilderness pastures.
Sound, the trumpet in Jerusalem.
Raise the alarm on my holy mountain.
Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us.
It is a day of darkness and gloom.
A day of thick clouds and deep blackness.
Suddenly like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army,
appears nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again.
Fire burns in front of them and flames follow after them ahead of them.
The land lies as beautiful as the Garden of Eden.
Behind them is nothing but desolation.
Not one thing escapes.
They look like horses.
They charge forward like war horses.
Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops, listen to the noise they
make, like the rumbling of chariots, like the roar of fire sweeping across a
field of stubble or like a mighty army.
Moving into battle, fear grips all the people.
Every face grows pale with terror.
The attackers march like warriors and scale city walls like soldiers.
Straightforward, they march, never breaking rank.
They never jostle each other.
Each moves in exactly the right position.
They break through defenses without missing a step.
They swarm over the city and run along its walls.
They enter all the houses climbing like thieves through the windows.
The earth quakes as they advance, and the heavens tremble.
The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars no longer shine.
The Lord is at the head of the column.
He leads them with a shout.
This is his mighty army and they follow his orders.
The day of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing Who can possibly survive?
That is why the Lord says, turn to me.
Now while there is time, give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping and mourning.
Don't tear your clothing and your grief, but tear your hearts instead.
Return to the Lord your God, for he's merciful and compassionate, slow to get
angry and filled with unfailing love.
He's eager to relent and not punish.
Who knows?
Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing.
Instead of this curse, perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine
to the Lord your God, as before.
Blow the Rams horn in Jerusalem.
Announce a time of fasting.
Call the people together for a solemn meeting.
Gather all the people, the elders, the children, and even the babies.
Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room.
Let the priests who minister in the Lord's presence stand and weep between the
entry room to the temple and the altar.
Let them pray.
Spare your people, Lord.
Don't let your special possession become an object of mockery.
Don't let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say,
has the God of Israel left them?
Then the Lord will pity his people and jealously guard the honor of his land.
The Lord will reply, look, I'm sending you grain and new wine and olive
oil enough to satisfy your needs.
You will no longer be an object of mockery among the surrounding nations.
I will drive away these armies from the north.
I will send them into the parched wastelands.
Those in the front will be driven into the dead sea and those at
the rear into the Mediterranean.
The stench of their rotting bodies will rise over the land.
Surely.
The Lord has done great things.
Don't be afraid O land.
Be glad now and rejoice for the Lord has done great things.
Don't be afraid you.
Animals of the field for the wilderness pastures will soon be green.
The trees will again be filled with fruit.
Fig trees and grapevines will be loaded down once more.
Rejoice you people of Jerusalem.
Rejoice in the Lord your God for the rain he sends, demonstrates his faithfulness.
Once more, the autumn reigns will come.
As well as the rains of spring, the threshing floors will again be piled
high with grain and the presses will overflow with new wine and olive oil.
The Lord says, I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts,
the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.
It was I who sent this great destroying army against you.
Once again, you will have all the food you want.
You will praise the Lord your God, who does these miracles for you.
Never again will my people be disgraced.
Then you will know that I am among my people Israel, that I am the Lord
your God, and there is no other.
Never again will my people be disgraced.
Then after doing all those things, I will pour out my spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
In those days, I will pour out my spirit, even on servants, men and
women alike, and I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood and fire, and columns of smoke.
The sun will become dark and the moon will turn blood red.
Before that great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.
But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
For some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape just as the Lord has said.
These will be among the survivors whom the Lord has called at the
time of those events, says the Lord.
When I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather the armies of
the world into the valley of Jeh Shaphat.
There.
I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession for
scattering my people among the nations and for dividing up my land.
They threw dice to decide which of my people would be their slaves.
They traded boys to obtain prostitutes and sold girls for enough wine to get drunk.
What do you have against me?
Tire and Sidon and EU Cities of Philistia.
Are you trying to take revenge on me if you are?
Then watch out.
I will strike swiftly and pay you back for everything you have done.
You have taken my silver and gold in all my precious treasures and have
carried them off to your pagan temples.
You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, so they could
take them far from their homeland, but I will bring them back from all the places
to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for everything you have done.
I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah and they will
sell them to the people of Arabia.
A nation far away.
I the Lord have spoken.
Say to the nations far and wide.
Get ready for war.
Call out your best warriors.
Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.
Hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears.
Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
Come quickly.
All you nations everywhere, gather together in the valley.
And now, oh Lord.
Call out your warriors.
Let the nations be called to arms.
Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I, the Lord will sit to pronounce judgment on them all.
Swing the sickle for the harvest is ripe.
Come tread the grapes for the wine presses full.
The storage vats are overflowing with the wickedness of these people.
Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision there.
The day of the Lord will soon arrive.
The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.
The Lord's voice will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem, and the
heavens and the earth will shake, but the Lord will be a refuge for his people.
A strong fortress for the people of Israel, then you will know that
I the Lord your God, live in Zion.
My holy mountain, Jerusalem will be holy forever, and foreign armies will
never conquer her again in that day.
The mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills will flow with milk.
Water will fill the stream beds of Judah and a fountain will
burst forth from the Lord's temple watering the arid valley of Acacia.
But Egypt will become a wasteland, and edem will become a wilderness because
they attacked the people of Judah and killed innocent people in their land.
But Judah will be filled with people forever and Jerusalem will
endure through all generations.
I will pardon my people's crimes, which I have not yet pardoned,
and I, the Lord will make my home in Jerusalem with my people.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.