College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

Joel 2:12-17

II. PLAN FOR REPENTANCE

Yet even now, saith Jehovah, turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Who knoweth whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal-offering and a drink-offering unto Jehovah your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly;

gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the old men, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Jehovah, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the peoples, Where is their God?

QUERIES

How may the people rend their hearts?

Does God repent?

Why were the priests called upon to weep and pray?

PARAPHRASE

But, the Lord says, there is still time, even now, to avert the full judgment predicted if you will come back to Me and do My will with all your heart and soul. Show that you are coming back to Me by the self-denial of fasting and self-abnegation of mourning for your sins. You must tear and break your hard heart until it is contrite and penitent and then return to My ways. Mere ceremonial tearing of the garments will not suffice.
Let your motive for coming back to the Lord be His grace and mercy, His longsuffering toward sinners, His immutable love and His promise to withhold judgment from those who repent.
If you persevere in your repentance you may hope for acceptance in the Lord's eyes and He shall withhold judgment and give blessing instead. You may indeed hope that He will give you so much that you can once again offer your grain and wine as offerings in the temple as before.
Sound the long alarm blast on the far-sounding horn from the midst of the Holy City; declare a time of fasting; call the people together for a serious and solemn meetings Call the entire congregation to rededication; from the elders to the children, even the infants. Let all festivities cease in this most solemn and serious hour, even the bride and the bridegroom should forego their honeymoon to assemble to hear the word of the Lord.
Let the priests, who are ministers of the Lord for the people, come to the entrance of the Holy Place on behalf of the people and there, between the vestibule and the altar of burnt offering weep, praying, O, Lord, do not cause your peculiar people to be poverty stricken, but spare them this degradation. Do not cause those who are yours in a special way to be reproached and slandered by the heathen and to become dependent upon the heathen for sustenance. Why should they be permitted to shame your chosen ones by taunting them with Where is this God of theirs? How weak and helpless He must be!

SUMMARY

Jehovah now, through the prophet Joel, declares there is yet time for salvation from impending judgment through repentance. It must be a true repentance which manifests itself in self-denial, self-abnegation and prayers of dependence upon God.

COMMENT

Joel 2:12-13. TURN UNTO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART. AND REND YOUR HEART. FOR HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. AND REPENTETH HIM OF THE EVIL, This is one of the clearest statements of the Bible on the meaning of repentance. The Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament translated about 300 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt, by 70 Jewish scholars), uses the word, epistraphets, which is in the aorist tense. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary the aorist of this verb indicates an immediate and decisive change, consequent upon a deliberate choice; It is nothing less than a conversion! The Hebrew word is Shoov which means return. Repentance means a complete turn-about, and not only so, but a turning toward the Lord, Reformation is not repentance! One must not only change by giving up former habits and sinful ways but one must in a positive way turn unto the Lord and do His will and walk in His way! It is all the heart which God demands. The heart, of course, means the dwelling place of the personalitythe intellect, the will, the emotions. All of man's mind, all of man's will, all of man's desires are to be turned toward God's will. None of it is to be reserved for self. We remember the Rich Young Ruler, whom Jesus loved, holding back his great riches but wanting to give the rest of himself in discipleship to Jesus.

The prophet points out that this turning unto the Lord involves self-denial (fasting) and self-abnegation (weeping and mourning). The people of Joel's day needed to cease concentrating upon themselves and concentrate upon God and His will, and this they could best do by fasting. They had need of self-examination and self-abhorrence for sinning against a gracious and merciful Fatherthey needed to weep and mourn over their sins. Rend and tear your hearts, Joel said. Their hearts were hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. They had become calloused. They were impervious to God's goodness because in their material abundance they had forgotten from whence their abundance came and said, Mine own hand hath gotten me this. (cf. Deuteronomy 8:11 ff). They needed to have their hearts broken in contrition (cf. Psalms 51:17; Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2; Ezekiel 36:26). They must break up the fallow ground of hearts which have too long lain unbroken (cf. Jeremiah 4:3; Hosea 10:12). This must be a turning of the inner man, not merely an outward, ritualistic rending of the garments.

The repentance of which Joel speaks implies a conscious, moral separation, and a personal decision to forsake sin and to enter into fellowship with God. It means turning away from sin and turning unto righteousness (cf. Deuteronomy 4:30; Nehemiah 1:9; Psalms 7:12; Isaiah 1:16-17; Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 25:5; Mark 1:15; Acts 2:38; 2 Corinthians 7:9-10). Repentance is always conjoined with faith. Where there is true faith there will always be true repentance. And this is exactly the appeal Joel makes as to the motive for the people's repentance. They must have true, unreserved faith in the grace and mercy of God. They must trust in His lovingkindness. They must also believe that He will punish sin. In order to come to this trust in Godin both His mercy and His wrathGod has more than abundantly revealed His character in both instances. Prophets were sent to preach the call of God for repentance. Prophets were sent to prove the existence of God and declare His nature. Preaching is still the only means by which men may be called to repentance. The existence of God, the deity of Jesus Christ, the infallible authority of the Bible is the call to repentance (cf. Acts 17:22-31). The nature of God must also be preached to lead men to repentance (cf. Romans 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

Joel 2:14 WHO KNOWETH WHETHER HE WILL NOT TURN AND REPENT, AND LEAVE A BLESSING BEHIND HIM. ? To adapt the action of God to finite understanding the Bible speaks of God repenting. God does not change (cf. Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17; Malachi 3:6; Numbers 23:19). He does not even change His mind. He has spoken His will once for all. His word is immutable. His covenant is irrevocable. Man may changeman must change! God's immutable Word has said: For sin a curse and judgment; for repentance a blessing and salvation. Only because we know that this is the immutable Word of God may we have hope! If God changed, how could we repent in hope of blessing? And so this verse should be understood as we have paraphrased it, If you persevere in your repentance you may hope for acceptance in the Lord's eyes and hope for withholding of judgment and hope for blessing instead. As Keil and Delitzsch put it, On the strength of these facts (facts about God's immutable nature of mercy upon repentance of man) he hopes. for forgiveness on the part of God, and the removal of judgment.

Joel 2:15-16 BLOW THE TRUMPET. SANCTIFY A FAST. CALL A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY; GATHER THE PEOPLE. THE OLD MEN. THE CHILDREN. THOSE THAT SUCK THE BREASTS. THE BRIDEGROOM. AND THE BRIDE. Again the trumpet was to be sounded to herald the solemn meeting (cf. comments on Joel 2:1). The trumpet was customarily used to call together the people for holy meetings, to usher in the beginnings of their months and their feasts with festival gladness. Now in the Holy City the trumpet is to be used for the sounding of alarm. They were to be called to rigorous self-denial. They were to fast in order that their minds might be directed away from the earthly and concentrated on the heavenly. This was a time for seriousness, for solemnity. No one was to be absentthere were no exceptions to be made, Even the infant children nursing at the breasts of their mothers were beckoned, The bride and bridegroom must forego their honeymoon to assemble for penitent worship. When the Lord of all the earth beckons nothing is so important that it cannot be left in favor of listening to Him.

Joel 2:17 LET THE PRIESTS. WEEP. AND. SAY, SPARE THY PEOPLE, O JEHOVAH, AND GIVE NOT THY HERITAGE TO REPROACH. A priest is a mediator between man and God, He is a bridge, a go-between. He receives his appointment by the grace and mercy of God. Only one priest ever merited the office by His own nature and that was Jesus Christ, High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Priests are ministers serving both God and man.

In this serious and solemn hour when God was calling man to repentance and when man was seeking the favor of God the priests of God were bidden by God to perform their ministry of intercession. They were summoned to the space between the door to the Holy Place and the altar of burnt offering, This seems to have been a place especially consecrated for intercessory prayer.

The prayer is that God might withhold further judgment and at the same time bless the devastated land with new abundance. This prayer assumes, of course, that the people have repented. This is actually the case as Joel 2:18-19 show. Keil and Delitzsch believe that the word rule in this verse is an unfortunate translation. There was no immediate (or future, for that matter) prediction by Joel that the people would be subjugated by heathen. Joel 2:19 seems to indicate that the Lord removed what the people prayed would be removed, reproach from the heathen. K & D translate it, Spare, O Jehovah, Thy people, and give not up Thine inheritance to shame, so that the heathen scoff at them. Except the Lord restore, upon their repentance and calling upon Him, that which He has taken away by the locust plague and the drought, the heathen would scoff and taunt those who claimed to be the Lord's chosen with, Where is this God of yours? You have repented and called upon Him, but He does not hear you! The heathen would sneer at Jehovah, the God of the Jews, and the people plead that God should protect His own honor and glory. This is always the right attitude. We ought always to pray for the Lord's deliverance not for our sake but that the Lord might be glorified. The Lord does not save us for our own merits but in order to glorify, vindicate and exalt Himself and His Son, Jesus Christ. He saved the penitent elect of the Old Testament for the same purposeto glorify His name (cf. Ezekiel 36:21 ff).

QUIZ

What does the word which is translated turn mean here?

What connection does fasting and weeping and mourning have to their turning to the Lord?

What motives and what means direct men to repentance?

Why is it important that God does not repent?

Why was everyone without exception called to the assembly?

What were the priests instructed to pray for?

Why were the Jews desirous that the heathen not be given an opportunity to scoff at Jehovah?

REPENT
SERMON ON JOEL

Joel 2:12-14

INTRODUCTION

JOEL THE AUTHOR

Nothing but what is known about him in this book can be discovered

Name means literally, Jehovah is God, which is providentially according to his message

The name Joel is a common one among O. T. people, cf. 1 Samuel 8:2; Nehemiah 11:9

His style

A literary master

Carefully polishes and beautifies his work as no other O. T. writer

Everything is set before us vividly as though we ourselves were witnessing it

He adds detail to detail; parallelism to para.; each clear, brief, distinct, a picture in itself, yet adding to the effect of the whole

His character

The tenderness of his soul is evidenced by his lingering over the desolation which he foresees

He was, evidenced by his description of repentance, a man of deep religious feelings, heartfelt experience and warm sympathy

He threatens, warns and penetrates into the very recesses of the soul with his figures of speech

He is a poetic man, yet one of strength, tenderness, insight and dignity

He was a man of moral integrity, undoubtedly a native of Judah being familiar with the Temple and the ministry of the priesthood

II.

BACKGROUND OF THE TIMES

Disastrous locust plague and drought has devastated the land

So severe that there is not enough even to present cereal or drink offerings at the Temple

So severe that it is a Day of Jehovah

Prior to Joel's time Athaliah (wicked woman) ruled

But Jehoiada, high priest, led a revolt which deposed her and put Joash, boy king, upon the throne

It was really Jehoiada, the high priest who was the voice behind the throne. the priesthood was in the ascendency in Joel's day. they were the leaders of the people. to them Joel appeals for repentance.

Jehoiada started a revolt but it was short-lived and the people had returned to formalism

So God sent these calamitous calls to repent. and sent Joel to interpret the events

Already the people were on their way to moral downfall

III.

PURPOSE AND TEACHING OF JOEL

Joel has been sent to call the covenant people to repentance and holiness

God desires a sanctified people through whom He may fulfill His covenant promises

To bring this people to repentance and holiness of life, the great day of Jehovah's chastening judgment has come upon the land in locust and drought.

Thus the ever-recurring method of God in saving the world is chastening judgment causing repentance, followed by redemption as He purifies a people fit for communion with Him

This method reached its perfection in the Messiah and His spiritual kingdom

Even the first coming of the Messiah is spoken of as a day of Jehovah's judgment cf. Malachi 3:1-4; John 9:39; John 16:11

So combined in the Messiah and His kingdom is the method of God's salvationjudgment and redemption

Each judgment/redemption experience of national Israel fore-shadowed and predicted that final and complete judgment/ redemption experience realized in Jesus-' 1st advent and the consummation awaits only His second advent a. This is the message of Joel

And his message was primarily directed to his contemporaries

Judah was soon to come under the oppression of successive world empires

The cruelty and corruption of these pagan oppressors would cause many of God's elect to think God had forgotten His covenant promises

Joel was commissioned to preach the ultimate act of God's conquest over the powers of the world darkness. God brought them to the valley of Jehoshaphat in Christ (Colossians 2:15)

THE DWELLING OF JESUS AMONG HIS PEOPLETHE RESTORATION OF THE COMMUNION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, IS THE FINAL GOAL OF JOEL'S PROPHECY. THIS IMPLIES, OF COURSE, THAT GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE BEEN FITTED FOR GOD'S PRESENCE AMONG THEM. JOEL CALLS THE COVENANT PEOPLE TO REPENTANCE AND HOLINESS SO THAT GOD CAN FULFILL THESE COVENANT PROMISES

DISCUSSION

PLEA FOR REPENTANCE, Ch. 1 & 2

The ExclaimerGod's spokesman, the prophet

The prophet Joel is commissioned to put his message in the form of an exclamation

So unprecedented were the calamities which had come to Judah that for generations and generations back no one could recall such a thing

So unprecedented were they, they were to serve as a reminder for generations to come

When God does such a thing there is no doubt about it. He has done it again and again but men deceived by their own pride have not learned what God wants them to learn

The extent of God's call to repent: IT IS VIVID, ARRESTING, FORCEFUL, UNMISTAKABLE

The crops, vineyards, fig trees were stripped of their bark, splintered, chewed up, burned up

Something like no man's land in the battle zone or like the woods around an ammunition plant when it blows up

Joel represented even the beasts of the field and the ground itself mourning

v. Joel 1:11 represents the farmers as unable to comprehend. completely dumbfounded

The food vanished. there was nothing whatsoever to joke about nothing to make one glad

Barns and granaries falling into disuse and ruin.

The beasts perplexed and dismayer, crying unto God for water

IT WAS A DAY OF GLOOM (like declaration of war) A DAY OF DARKNESS. THICK DARKNESS. PEOPLE WERE LIKE THOSE OF DUST BOWL DAYS. EARTHQUAKES

The Executor of the pleaGOD, using natural agents

The locusts are called a nation

What has come is a day of the Lord. destruction from the hand of the Almighty

God used the drought to burn up the crops and pastures Joel 2:19-20

The terrible nature of the locusts is described in Joel 2:4-10

In Joel 2:11 they are called God's army. Hs is their general. He commands them

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, GOD COMMANDS ALL OF NATURE AND USES IT TO SERVE HIS PURPOSES OF CALLING MEN TO REPENTANCE THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE FORM OF HUMAN GOVERNMENT ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH EXCEPT GOD HAS ORDAINED IT TO BE SO. HE ESTABLISHES THE BOUNDARIES OF NATIONS. HE SITS UPON THE THRONE OF THE UNIVERSE. ALL NATURE AT HIS COMMAND
II.

THE PLAN FOR REPENTANCE, Ch. 1-2

What we have done here is go through the two Chapter s selecting the words Joel uses to signify THE MANNER REPENTANCE IS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED

The People

Awake, like the prodigal who came to himself

Repentance involves the powers of reason as well as emotions

PEOPLE NEED TO WAKE UP TO WHAT GOD IS DOING IN THIS AGE OF GRACE AND MERCY IN THE GOSPEL CALL TO REPENT!

THEY NEED TO WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT IN CHRIST THE WORLD HAS BEEN JUDGED AND CONDEMNED

Wail, lament, weep, like Peter

There needs to be sorrow for sin.

There needs to be wounded hearts, pricked consciences, shame

Be confounded, men need to be humiliated before God. to feel the futility of their own righteousness and wisdom

They need to be brought to the very point of death so that they will learn to depend on God! 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

Blow the trumpet in Zionrepentance must be proclaimed a. Few people ever hear sermons on repentance today

There are two kinds of promises in God's book. one equally as emphatic as the other: Curses and Blessings; warnings and blessings

Tremble, again, that which God does in nature and through His revelation in Christ should cause men to fear and reverence God. THIS IS WHY THERE IS A LACK OF REPENTANCE. THERE IS A LACK OF FEAR

When Jesus demonstrated His deity, Peter cried, Depart from me for I am a sinful man

Men trembled when in the presence of angels

We had better tremble when we read His word which is just as penetrating, discerning and Holy in nature? THERE JUST ISN-'T ANY EXCUSE FOR IRREVERANCE WHEN THE WORD IS BEING READ OR PREACHED. FOR THIS IS THE GOD BEFORE WHOM WE TREMBLE SPEAKING!

Fast, mourn. GIVE YOURSELF TO CONCENTRATION ON THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL. SET YOUR MIND ON THINGS ABOVE

RETURN TO THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART

The Priests

Gird on sackcloth, pass the night in penitent prayer

IF THE SPIRITUAL LEADERS CANNOT LIVE PENITENT LIVES HOW CAN ONE EXPECT THOSE OF THE FLOCK TO REPENT?

FOR SOME REASON OR ANOTHER SOME PREACHERS AND ELDERS AND DEACONS HAVE GOTTEN THE IDEA THAT WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH IN REPENTANCE DOES NOT APPLY TO THEM

These are the kind of shepherds of the flock of whom Ezekiel writes, Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep.

Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly

Religious leaders are to lead in CONCENTRATION ON SPIRITUAL THINGS

Cry to the Lord

Prayers of intercession, supplication to the Lord

Prayers of dependency get men in the right frame of mind and attitude toward God in order that God may truly bless them

PRAYERS DO NOT CHANGE THE MIND OF GOD. GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE AND WITHOUT VARIATION. PRAYERS ARE MANIFESTATIONS THAT MEN ARE GETTING THEMSELVES INTO THE RIGHT RELATIONSHIP TO GOD. MEN ARE SURRENDERING TO HIS WILL WHICH IS TO BLESS AND GIVE MAN ALL HE NEEDS FOR LIFE AND GODLINESS

4. And so the priests are charged to lament and wail.

III.

PURPOSE OF REPENTANCE, Ch. 2 & 3

Immediate blessings

Restoration of the crops, Joel 2:18-19

THESE ARE THE MATERIAL BLESSINGS GOD GAVE TO JUDAH FOR HER REPENTANCE

THESE SAME PRINCIPLES HOLD TRUE FOR ANY NATION IN THE MATERIAL SENSE TODAY WHO WILL WALK HUMBLY IN THE PENITENCE BEFORE THE GOD OF ALL THE EARTH. THEY CAME TO GOD FEARING FOREFATHERS OF AMERICA, BUT HOW LONG THEY WILL REMAIN IN VIEW OF AMERICA'S GROWING UNGODLINESS IS UNCERTAIN!

Removal of the Plague, Joel 2:20

GOD HAS POWER TO TAKE AWAY THE SCOURGE OF HIS JUDGMENTS AND TO RENEW THE LAND AS IF IT HAD NEVER BEEN JUDGED

Remembrance by the Lord, Joel 2:26-27

HERE JOEL BEGINS TO PASS FROM THE MATERIAL BLESSINGS INTO THE SPIRITUAL

The Lord will remember His people toprotect them, guard them and guide them

Future blessings, spiritual blessings, Joel 2:28, Joel 3:21

God will prepare a new people

He will pour out His spirit upon all flesh

THIS PROPHECY WAS FULFILLED, OF COURSE, IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH Acts 2. THE PROPHETS SPOKE OF THIS FUTURE EVENT IN DIFFERENT WAYS

God's victory over the enemies of His people

THIS WAS INTENDED TO BE FULFILLED AT THE COMING OF THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM ALSO

IT IS JUST THAT JOEL PUT IT IN THE VERNACULAR OF THE PEOPLE OF HIS TIME! OF COURSE THERE WERE JUDGMENTS UPON THE NATIONS THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF THE O. T. PEOPLE BUT IT WAS ALL POINTING TO THE FINAL OVERTHROW OF ALL WORLDLY POWER IN THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH AND HIS KINGDOM

God's presence among His people, v. Joel 3:17-21

GOD DWELLS IN ZION, THE CHURCH. THE CHURCH IS A HABITATION OF GOD IN THE SPIRIT!

THE FOUNTAIN COMES FORTH FROM THE HOUSE OF THE LORD TO REFRESH THE COVENANT PEOPLE

ZION WILL BE A HOLY KINGDOM AND IT WILL NEVER AGAIN BE CONQUERED. STRANGERS WILL NEVER AGAIN OVERCOME GOD'S PEOPLE

CONCLUSION

THE LESSON THAT GOD'S WAY IS THE WAY OF DISCIPLINE

Paul writes to the Hebrews that the Israelites of old did not know God's way and fell through unbelief

II.

GOD DOES NOT CHANGE BUT MAN MUST IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE BLESSINGS OF GOD

III.

THE LESSON THAT GOD'S ULTIMATE PLANS WERE TO BE PERFECTED IN THE MESSIAH AND THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM

We are the sons of the covenant. heirs of the promise

We are to be a new people, victorious, with God's presence in our midst, protecting, sustaining, guiding

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

Joel 2:12-17

Old Testament

New Testament