Come back.
The Promised Land! God made a covenant with His people as they entered the promised land as His chosen people, that God would bless His people as long as they remained faithful to Him. He blessed their wombs and their flocks and their fields. He brought the increase of all these things. They enjoyed things like new wine and extra virgin olive oil and fresh figs and pomegranates. Milk and honey. And God caused their enemies to fall before them. Their borders were enlarged. This continued largely until the time of David and Solomon. They were unstoppable - the only thing which could stop them - was them.
Which actually happened. God’s people began to go astray in their hearts. Actually they strayed from the very beginning. But as they strayed further and further something began to happen. The land began to fight back. It began to withhold some of its abundance. And a few things began to proliferate. Disasters. Swarms. Adversaries. Enemies - the surrounding nations began to fight back. Began to oppress them. And do you know when this all started? Everything was going mostly great - until…wait for it… Solomon. 1Kings 11. Let’s turn there…
Do not make a covenant with these idol-worshipping nations, God said (Ex 23, Ex 34). Do not intermarry with them, He said (Deut 7.3-4). They will turn your hearts away from Me. But Solomon son of David did exactly that. He had 700 wives - many of them were idol-worshippers - and his wives turned his heart away from the Lord. He even built altars to these detestable idols. He did this for all of his foreign wives. You can feel the sadness dripping from the pages of Scripture and from the heart of his heavenly Father. And thus Solomon helped to lead the hearts of the nation away from the Lord. God's chosen people fell right in line with their king's waywardness. Cascading idolatry. Spiritual infidelity. Sadly, we don’t read that Solomon EVER repented. Unlike his dad. As far as we know, Solomon went to his grave in this tragic state of divided loyalties. And there are consequences. God is angry. There are going to be serious consequences. People’s devotion is divided, and the nation is going to become divided. So look at the very next thing God’s Word tells us: God raises up adversaries. After centuries of shalom, peace and prosperity and abundance and fruitfulness, now the enemies of God’s people manage to grab a foothold of opposition. They begin to make inroads against God’s people.
Let me just say as an aside. Safe to say there is no more important decision you make in this life than the choice of who you marry. Other than choosing to follow Jesus. The person you choose to spend your life with will affect you and your children and those around you for years and generations to come. If you are following Jesus, and if God calls you to marry, you want to be darned sure you look to the Lord to find someone who is following Him. I like how Tommy Nelson puts it - run the race God puts before you, and look for someone who is running beside you.
For Israel, some of what they began to experience in the wake of Solomon’s great departure was simply natural consequences. Some of it however was God trying desperately to get His people’s attention. He does not force our love. He pleads with us. This is why after David and Solomon we also see a proliferation of prophets. Messengers. God began sending messengers to His people, warning them, urging them, pleading with them - COME BACK.
Come back. They never left the land God gave them, the promised land, but they left His promises. They left Him. They turned their backs on Him. They forgot Him. He had warned them. Moses had warned them. Never forget. Beware. Watch out. Watch yourselves. Give heed to yourself and watch your soul diligently. Make every effort - so that you don't forget, that you do not forget what you have seen and learned:
Deuteronomy 6:10-12
“Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
Write God’s Words on your houses and on your heads and on your clothes even, so that it will not depart from your heart and so that you will not depart from Him, said Moses. So that you do not forget Him - you and your sons and your grandsons. Remind yourselves. Constantly. Set up memorial stones and other things which will help you remember what you have seen and learned. And here are some annual festivals and regular rituals and even some leaders - these all will serve to help you never forget the Lord. He is your Help and your strength. You need Him. Every day. Never forget. Because the default position of fallen humanity is wandering. Our hearts come pre-wired to wander - thanks to our first parents. Born to wander away from the Lord, as sparks fly upward. Naturally looking to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts with anything but the One Who alone can fill it, the One Who made us. And in spite of repeated warnings and reminders and rituals, that’s exactly what happened. God’s chosen people wandered. They forgot. Not only did they began to take the Lord (and His blessings) for granted, but they began to give their hearts to other things. They allowed other things to take His place in their hearts and lives. And so the Lord - Who is so slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness - and patience and faithfulness - began to send messengers. After Samuel, and down through the time of the united kingdom, we see just one prophet sent to God’s people, Nathan to David. All these others, so-called major prophets and minor prophets, came AFTER Solomon, as the people’s hearts began to forget, further and further removed from the Lord. And these prophets had one main message - come back. Come back.
As another aside - God’s chosen people wandered. Even the ones who witnessed His miracles - they wandered, and they wound up in a wilderness. Are we any better than they? The "Watch out" warning is for us too, just as much as it was for them.
1Peter 1:10-13
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look. Therefore, prepare your minds for action…
Prepare your minds. Be on the lookout. Watch out. Watch your heart, child…
Prophets. There were some who left us no writings. We have a record of their ministry in the books of Samuel and Kings and Chronicles. Nathan, who had his ministry before the nation of Israel divided into two kingdoms. And then men like Elijah. Michaiah. Elisha. And then we come to Joel.
Joel gives us very little clue as to when he lived. Since we have fairly accurate dates on the kings of Israel, we can date most prophets by the kings they spoke to. But no kings are mentioned in Joel, nor does he appear in the books of the Kings. Perhaps no book of the Bible has a wider variety of dates assigned to it than Joel. But more than a few commentators seem to feel that he was probably the first of the writing prophets to bring this message of “Come Back” to God’s people. Let’s take a look...
Just three chapters. The Hebrew text actually has four - 2.28-32 is a separate chapter in the Hebrew. And Joel tells us that the Word of the Lord came to Him.
First thing we see is a swarm. Joel says no one had EVER seen such a thing.
Have you ever seen a swarm? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZamBZEDmKU]
"Memories fifty years old are as vivid as yesterday. We would wake up one morning in west Texas to a darkened sky. The crickets had paid another visit. Walk out your door, and every step went crunch, crunch, crunch as you made your way to the morning paper or the morning milk bottles by stepping on the swarming crickets that filled the sidewalks and driveways.
How can you drive when front and back windows are crawling with crickets? Shopkeepers had an even worse nightmare. The sidewalks in front of their stores as well as their plate glass windows were covered with crickets. But the worst cricket problem belonged to the farmers and gardeners. Whatever crops the perpetual west Texas drought had left, the chirping invaders gobbled up.
What a helpless feeling! All we knew to do was wait it out and sweep up the dead bodies when the swarm moved on eastward."
But these were locusts. A plague of locusts is a devastating natural disaster. These infestations have been feared and revered throughout history. And they wreak havoc still today"
When environmental conditions produce many green plants and promote breeding, locusts can congregate into thick, mobile, ravenous swarms. Locust swarms devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage and attendant human misery—famine and starvation. The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is notorious. A desert locust swarm can be 460 square miles in size and pack between 40 and 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile.
Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day.
Locust swarms are typically in motion and can cover vast distances. In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain. In 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean.
1.1-20
- All food and drink has been destroyed
- They are facing a famine
- Even the flocks and herds have nothing (1.18)
- There is no water - drought (1.19-20)
- There is a burn ban - and fire has already razed the land
- Total devastation
- To such an extent that there is no food/drink to present as offerings to the Lord (1.13)
- Not a time for celebration either (1.16) - grain and drink offerings were celebratory. They were occasions of gladness, they represented the increase of the field and vine. Signs of God’s blessing. And what we have here is God’s blessings removed.
- Plus there is a nation about to invade...
The people are understandably concerned over the physical devastation they are facing. They’re focused on what they can see. But these are just symptoms. And Joel is sounding the alarm. Something is wrong here. Something is definitely wrong here.
He calls for a fast. Why does he do that? Why fast? Fasting is directing our attention and focus to the Lord. It is telling Him that we (finally and really) mean business. And is this not sometimes the ultimate goal of the swarm? To get our attention? What does our heavenly Father have to do do get our attention? To what lengths is He willing to go, must He go sometimes, to get our attention?
Back in the 90's Josh McDowell started saying that the new battle was not going to be just for our time but for our attention Evidenced by one thing: Caller ID. An innovation of that late 80's - Caller ID let's us decide not only if we will give someone our time but also our attention. So many of the advances of our day serve to exacerbate the question of whether or not you can even get (and hold) my attention.
Sometimes it takes a swarm, some kind of a swarm, for Him to get our attention…
Joel mentions the day of the Lord. This WAS a day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is for getting our attention. Look at how this repeatedly shows up throughout this book
- Hey, elders, leaders! Listen up, people! (1.2)
- Wake up! (1.5)
- Blow a trumpet! (2.1)
- Blow another trumpet! (2.15)
- The Lord roars from Zion. His voice thunders from Jerusalem. (3.16)
God trying to get His people’s attention. Remember how it was at Mount Sinai? God came down, and there was fire and smoke, and violent quakes, and dark clouds, and a blaring trumpet sound, and lightning and thunder, and God was speaking, and all the people could hear was the terrifying thunder. They were so scared. They trembled, and stood back, and they told Moses, Don’t let God to speak to us, or we will die! (Ex 20.18-21)
And the Lord is still roaring, trying to get people’s attention, multitudes and multitudes in the Valley of Decision (3.14).
Joel 3:14
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Every day is full of decisions. And one big one: decide today - and every day - to give your attention to the Lord. Most of us struggle with distractions. Increasingly so. And too many people, they stand back. They’re afraid. Afraid of what God might do to them. But look at what the Lord tells us here, right in the middle of this shot across the bow: return to the Lord, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of destruction (2.13).
Joel repeats this phrase, over and over: The day of the Lord… (1.15, 2.1, 2.11, 2.31, 3.14). The great and awesome day of the Lord. Awesome in the Hebrew is a word which most often is translated, to fear. Something to be afraid of. Something terrifying. More than 300 times it is something to fear. And then a couple of dozen times, our English translators choose the word, awesome, or revere. Something which we do not particularly need to be afraid of for some reason - but it depends on which side of the decision you are.
The great and TERRIFYING day of the Lord… (2.31) I do think that every day at a certain level is the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is near, in the Valley of Decision. God is trying to get our attention, pulling out the stops. And this is nothing new.
Ravi Zacharias, in his book Cries of the Heart, calls our attention to Michelangelo’s masterpiece of art [The Creation of Adam] in which God reaches out to Adam. God’s arm is extended full-length, every muscle tense and taut. Contortion shows in his face, as God strains with great effort to reach down to sinful man. As Zacharias describes the painting: “By contrast, Adam lackadaisically lets a limpish hand dangle with apathy in an attitude that seems to say, ‘If it meets, it meets’” (p. 182).
Like Solomon before us, ours is the heart prone to wander, and our faithful God faithfully tries to get our attention, to call us back. Come back. Constantly. Sometimes He allows the wind to blow just right and it brings a swarm. And it’s not so much about the devastation caused by the swarm. That’s not the end game. It’s no game. It’s about our heart. What He cares about is our heart…
Now one response to this kind of catastrophe was/is to fast. Another was to either tear your clothes, or put on sackcloth, something like burlap. Gloom despair and agony on me. But the Lord says this to His people:
Joel 1:13
“…rend your heart and not your garments.”
It’s not about our clothes, it’s our heart. For those who do, there is a promise…
Joel 2:23-25
“So rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in the LORD your God; for He has given you the early rain for your vindication. And He has poured down for you the rain, the early and latter rain as before. The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. Then I will make up [shalem] to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten…”
The people are going to make a come back in the land. And right on the heels of this there is this familiar Messianic promise…
Joel 2:28-29
“It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
This is the scene in Acts 2:1ff. In Joel these verses begin a whole new chapter in the Hebrew. A new thought - where we get a glimpse of God’s final solution. How would God ultimately address this problem of the wandering heart? Just as the blighted, devastated land would be restored by the rains, God was going to rain down His Spirit into our wandering hearts. The ultimate solution for God’s people was water, living water, flowing down from heaven and into their hearts and flowing out to the nations. God’s Spirit, raining down and flowing in rivers of living water, carving God’s Word and His desires onto fleshy tablets of human hearts.
Joel 2:32
“And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered.”
Peter quotes this verse in Acts 2.21. Paul quotes it in Romans 10.13. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered, saved, rescued - from the penalty and power of sin. Our wandering, fallen heart.
When the people tear their hearts, when they repent and return and come back to Him in their hearts, God promises a comeback! The nation will make a comeback. The land itself will make a comeback. There will be this incredible spiritual comeback. And God Himself will come back. One day, Joel says, the Lord dwells in Zion (3.21). You will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain (3.17). There is imagery of the heavenly Jerusalem in fact. “A spring will go out from the house of the Lord to water the valley of the acacias.” (3.18)
But before that, there is another valley. The valley of Jehoshaphat - which means "Jehovah judges". Mentioned twice (3.2,12). It’s the valley of decision - same valley. The Lord is going to come back and gather the nations for judgment. Most commentators tell us that this is the Kidron Valley.
The armies of the nations will gather together and come against the people of God, in this Kidron Valley, and it will become the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Judgment. The Valley of Decision. The winepress will have been filled up with the wickedness of the nations and God will tread out His judgment on them. In 3.2 God says He will do this on behalf of His people and His inheritance, Israel. Some limit this judgment to those nations who oppressed the Israelites during those days of oppression and exile and captivity, even down through the time of the Roman empire. Others extend it to a future time, more akin to a future come back of the nation of Israel, and the battle of Armageddon which precedes the final judgment of all mankind. I think the language probably favors the latter, but I only have time at this point to let you decide.
The day of the Lord. The Valley of Decision. It reminds me of another day of the Lord, a day when the Son of David rode through that same valley towards the gates of Zion, the city of Jerusalem, the would-be home of the King of heaven - and He wept.
Luke 19:41-44
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
God’s people had wandered so far away, that they didn’t even recognize Him when He showed up at their gates. He rode right into their midst. That very day we remember today - Palm Sunday. Just as He did 2000 years ago, riding a donkey up that dusty ascent towards Zion, that city on a hill, today the King of heaven would ride through the gates of your heart, if you would recognize the time of your visitation. He would pour out His Spirit into your heart and give you a new heart, full of eternal life, full of the assurance of His forgiveness and love and peace and joy, full of the knowledge of His truth, a new heart, a heart in tune with His, which beats with His heart, for Him, for His people, for the nations. The day of the Lord is near. Today is the day, if you hear His voice - and if you do, I beg you, please do not harden your heart…
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