GRACE BIBLE CHURCH
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Thursday
January 31, 2019
Pastor Rick Bettez
Joe 2:1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near,
What Joel chapter 2 begins to describe is carried over from the warning of the locust attack in Joel 1. This also describes the future march of the Assyrian armies with more significant description touching into the future Tribulation period.
Joel 2 has significance concerning more than one future event. Similarly, Rev 16:12-16, Dan 11:40-45, Zec 12 & 14, Ezk 38 & 39. Each having a prophetic indication of the Tribulation period culminating with the return of our Lord (2nd Advent).
The reference to Zion & Holy Mountain (Joel 2:1) speaks to Jerusalem as the geographical location. The day of the Lord is often used as a term that points us to the 2nd Advent or events that occur after the Rapture of the Church.
Dan 11:45“He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain (Jerusalem); yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.
Joe 2:2 A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. The end point of the Tribulation will be so dark and gloom (horror) will cover the earth, this darkness was also witnessed during our Lord’s sacrifice on the Cross.
Eze 38:9 “You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.”
The darkness of the Second Advent is described in Isaiah 13:9-10; Zechariah 14:6,7; Ezekiel 32:7,8; Joel 2:10,11; 3:15; Amos 5:18; Matthew 24:29; Luke 21:25-27; Revelation 6:12.
Joel 2:3 - “A fire consumes before them.” Just as a fire burns up everything so is the fierceness of the invasion of the king of the north. This Hebrew verb - 'akal = means to consume completely, devour or to eat up. (The locust, the armies and Tribulation attack)
There are times God allows enemies (Kingdom of Darkness) to attack Bels for the sake of testing & witnessing in the AC. The other time is when that Bel or Bels have willfully ignored His word. It’s God’s desire that we turn to Him, sometimes painful repercussions are the medicine to make a stubborn heart turn back.
(Joe 2:3) The garden of Eden indicates that in the Tribulation, Palestine really has great prosperity but the invasion of all of these armies eliminates it. This speaks to the width of the repercussions that occur when the plan of God is ignored by a nation.
Joe 2:4-5 Points out the appearance of horses & chariots. The oncoming Assyrian armies would be well equipped and trained. During the Tribulation the demon armies will also have heavy artillery and disciplined soldiers.
“one spectacular decade in the middle of the nineteenth century, when Austen Henry Layard and Paul Emile Botta rediscovered in northern Iraq the ancient remains of three Assyrian cities [including Nineveh] and evidence of the military panoply that had crushed all resistance from the Tigris to the Nile. The Assyrian empire…in all its awesome power had been resurrected through archaeology” Magnus Magnusson 1977
Joe 2:10 Before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness.
Mat 24:29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Rev 19:15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
There are times Bels have strayed so far outside the plan of God that the repercussions will not be removed and though their salvation is secured our blessings & rewards have been hindered.
Eph 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (Unbels). 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them;
Gal 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
(Love for God & love for others)
Gal 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Jer 12:13 “They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns, they have strained themselves to no profit. But be ashamed of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”
Joe 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
Whenever a person lives in a time of major catastrophe it should wake him up to the importance of accepting Christ as savior. And Joel was saying to the Unbels of his day: “Accept Christ as your savior.” Joel was also trying to wake up what was left of the Bels (remnant).
For the Bel who has been apostate it takes humility and a full restoration of their spiritual walk. Repenting and falling back into their love relationship with the Lord is the only way back.
Job 22:23 "If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; If you remove unrighteousness far from your tent,
God is always open but there is a change in lifestyle & choices that has to occur for the apostate Bel to gain back spiritual ground.
Lam 3:40 Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD.
Hosea 6:1 "Come, let us return to the LORD For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
Jer 29:12 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
Deu 7:9 “Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Pro 14:14 The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied with his.