The Run Down
I. Context, setting, date, contemporaries
II. Hear and tell
III. People
IV. Locusts
V. Awaken, lament, mourn, shame, sackcloth, fast, call.
VI. Religious ceremonies ended
VII. Prosperity broken
Joel
I.Show timeline of contemporaries from Hosea study.
Written around mid 8th Century BC.
King Jeroboam II of Israel, same period Hosea of Israel (northern kingdom) dealt with.
Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser III western campaign 743BC.
In Judah, King Uzziah, 792-740BC. 2 Chron. 26:1-13.
Strong military strategist and fortifier, started doing “right in the eyes of the Lord”… ended “proud, unfaithful, angry, cursed – leprous.”
Time of prosperity, great expansion, militarily, administratively, commercially, and economically.
Same territorial dimensions as Davidic/Solomon Kingdom.
In this period, God raised up the “writing” prophets.
Joel, Unifying theme: terrible locust plague a forerunner of things to come, “the Day of the Lord”, historical occurrence and spiritual lesson.
Joel is very familiar with the Temple and its ministry which is in the southern kingdom, Judah, he knows the geography and land.
Among the dated minor prophets of Hosea, Amos, and Jonah and also Isaiah.
Similar dated references:
Locusts- Amos 4:9, 7:1-3.
Earthquake- Amos 1:1 and Joel 3:16 and Zechariah 14:5
The agricultural loss threatened the continuance of the sacrificial offerings.
2 Chron. 26:16 of Uzziah, is representative of Judah.
“But when he grew strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.”
Joel – locust plague just a precursor to real judgment if Judah doesn’t repent and turn to God.Joel will also speak to eschatological (last things) times.
God will deal ultimately with the Jewish people, keep a remnant, pour out His Spirit 2:28-29, marvelous signs, gather to Promised Land, judge the nations, fight a great battle, bring peace and prosperity.
The Day of the Lord.
II. Hear and tell.
Vss 1-3, hear.
Claim to prophetic word. 1) foretelling 2) teaching/preaching.
1) Elders.
2) All inhabitants of “the land”.
And
Tell
3) To your children, and them to theirs, and them to theirs.
Are you listening to the Word of the Lord.
Not just hearing… but listening. Like Jesus says with ears to hear…
Ok… if you are “hearing”…. “applying” “living”…
The events and actions of God.
Are you then telling to your children.
And then how well is that getting or will it get to their children.
How is your commitment in “hearing” doing?
Psalm 78:1-8, listen, tell it.
Are you listening to God,… then telling it in your home? To others?
QT… Bible Study… Prayer…. Speak to your family the things of God… testimony… in car explanations… Giving
Are you teaching your children the ways of the Lord?
Prov. 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Children are you obeying?
Eph. 6:1ff… children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right….Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Working relationship… 1st telling, 2nd persuading, 3rd counseling.
Jesus takes it…
Matthew 13:9-13 9 He who has ears, let him hear.” 10Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
III. Elders, inhabitants of ‘the land’, children, drunkards, farmers, priests/ministers.
All people… including enjoying too much wine… showing excess, prosperity, farmers for economic gain… and priests for religious ceremonies.
God has sent his army.
IV. Show a locust phenomena on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uURqcI08IC4&list=FLI4rdHqOOLTVaEvjJa2Tujw&index=3
Vs. 4. Cutting, swarming, hopping, destroying… locusts.
Vs. 5. Wake up you drunks!
Like 1 Thess. 5:7, children of the day, don’t sleep, don’t be drunk at night…
New wine is snatched.
Vs. 6. A nation (locusts).
Vs. 7 laid waste vines and ruined my fig trees.
3 groups get called out: regular citizens, farmers, priests.
“As in the northern kingdom, so in Judah, prosperity had disastrous effects. Despite a basic concern for spiritual things, Uzziah’s spiritual progress was not consistent and his varied successes were to lead to his downfall.”
V. Awaken, lament, mourn, shame, sackcloth, fast, call.
Vs. 8 Lament. Weep.
VI. Religious ceremonies ended
Vs. 9 Grain offering/drink offering.
The fruit of the vine was not evil in and of itself, but misuse was. It could be a sign of God’s blessing and poured out to God as a drink offering Lev. 23:12-13, Number 6:17.
Formal religious system, internal moral decay.
“While formal worship services are an essential part of the Israelite’s religious experience, a mere externalism is insufficient before God.”
Hosea 2:8-9 God gave her, will take away.
No grain offerings, no wine offerings, meant soon no meat burnt offerings.
Forced denial vs disciplined self denial.
Vs. 10 Signs of prosperity, religious life, and God’s blessing, eaten by the army.
Vs. 11 Be ashamed.
Vs. 11 Be ashamed farmers. Are there things we should be ashamed of that we are hiding from. Ashamed of our words, actions, hatred, bitterness, drunkenness, sexual actions, disobedience, obstinence, pride, selfishness?
Vs. 12. All dries up, drought, locusts.
Should we be ashamed of “religiousness” without “true religion”.
James take care of our family. Care for widows, orphans, elderly. Worship in spirit and in truth.
Love God and one another. Be selfless in how we treat our wives,… respect our husbands, obey our parents, live it before our children.
Vs. 13 Sackcloth and lament. Priests… ministers.
Vs. 14, fast, assemble, elders, inhabitants, and repent and pray.
Hosea 7:14 says the northerners end up crying for the wheat and the wine… but not for God.
Let’s examine our hearts and see if we only want God’s blessing yet not God, the one who blesses.
Why do we turn? For what? The blessings, derivatives of relationship from God, or for God?
VII. Prosperity Broken.
Vs. 15 “The day of the Lord.”… Historically then… God’s current judgment of locusts… to a further day of coming judgment on Judah… then develops into a future future day of the Lord.
Prosperity ended.
Vs 16-18… no food, joy, gladness, in God’s house, storehouses, granaries, beasts, herds of cattle, sheep… all suffering under God’s judgment.
Think of the US Financial woes… God can uses natural disaster, political means, financial, religious, … to chastise His people. When the system goes down… think… even the faithful hurt with the majority of unfaithful. Yet God says He’ll take care of us.
Vs. 19-20, the plea to the Lord. Locusts, heat, drought….