From ancient history to future acts of God, Joel 2 has it all!

It is an amazing swath of Scripture!

Truthfully, it will take us several days (several lessons) to cover its content.

I at first wanted to say that Joel chapter 2 (at least its first 9 verses) was describing the day either Assyria invaded Israel (721 BC) or the day Babylon invaded Judah (586 BC). BUT … there is more than any one local crisis being described (prophesied) here!

Plus, Joel 2 is quoted in the New Testament. In a unique way too, I might add.

This week I am preaching twice a day. Bible Conference in the mornings and Revival in the evenings. That leaves little time for my studies of Joel. (I have some of my research material in the motel room here, but no opportunity to delve into it!)

So, rather than speculating … I will say no more about Joel 2 until tomorrow morning.

I have several questions about the context concerning which I need to pray and study prior to writing again. I hope you understand. (Concerning Joel 2 there is great variation of opinion, interpretation … even among good, fundamental Bible-believing men!)

As they say, my work is “cut out” for me.

And I am anticipating it joyfully!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

In … Joel chapter 1 … not only has God sent “locusts” to devour the Land of Israel, but also has He withheld the rain! Thus, sort of a double judgment has fallen upon the people! (Yet 90% of the preaching from Joel 1 concerns the insects, seldom the dry skies!)

I base my “draught” conclusion on these verses: “The vine is DRIED UP, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, ARE WITHERED: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord, Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn IS WITHERED. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the FIRE (BLISTERING HEAT, DRAUGHT) hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame HATGH BURNED all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for THE RIVERS OF WATERS ARE DRIED UP, and the FIRE HATH DEVOURED THE PASTURES of the wilderness.” Joel 1:12-20, with a few enlightening verbs capitalized.

Therefore, based on a host of Biblical material (but today contextually and primarily Joel chapter 1), I conclude that God not only controls His animal world (as in “locusts”), but His weather world (as in “no rain”) too.

Yes, God can decide not to bless His creation with ample moisture!

In fact, back in Leviticus chapter 26, the Lord forewarns Israel of such a calamity … if she disobeys the Word, the Law of Almighty God! Here’s the exact verse: “And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto Me (the Lord), then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will MAKE YOUR HEAVEN AS IRON, and YOUR EARTH AS BRASS: and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.” These being verses 18-20 of Leviticus 26, where an “iron” Heaven and a “brass” earth equate to extreme draught, rainless skies and parched farmland! (Earlier in Leviticus 26 God had already promised His people plenty of “rain” should they diligently obey His Word! “Then I will GIVE you RAIN in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” Leviticus 26:4)

I realize that today so-called “science” has usurped the “throne of God” in many ways. We now attribute to various weather systems what used to be called “acts of God.”

But I still assert … that behind every “high” and “low” pressure front that advances across our land … is the Mighty Hand of a Creator God!

Why, in Numbers 1:3 the “clouds” are said to be “the dust of God’s feet!”

And Psalm 135:7 informs us: “He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.”

And do recall that Elijah prayed … “and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.” James 5:17, Elijah’s God thus being the Giver of rain!

And I believe … in 2016 even … that God sill in control of the weather!

The He is yet literally the Chief Meteorologist!

And that sin in the human heart can reap consequences in the world of nature!

“Thus saith the Lord!”

Draught … in Joel chapter 1.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

In Joel chapter 1 the Land of Israel is being ravaged by a giant swarm of locusts.

They are “eating” everything, too, all vegetation.

These little pests are described by Joel as “palmerworms, cankerworms, and caterpillars.” These terms are either slightly different forms of the insects, or maybe refer to different stages in their life cycle, growth.

There are so many of them that God calls them a “nation!” (In fact, they do prefigure a Nation that will some day invade Israel, Judah as well! What Joel here presented as prophecy is now partly history, too!)

But for today (the emphasis for this Lesson) is found in verse 7. “He (meaning the locusts collectively) hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.” God is here talking, Joel 1:7.

Look what God calls Israel, “my fig tree!”

And students reading here today, all the way through the Bible God’s People (the Jews) are symbolized by this special little tree, the fig tree!

It was in fact the only tree mentioned (by name) in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:7. “And the eyes of them both (Adam and Eve) were opened, and they knew that they were naked (having sinned); and they sewed FIG LEAVES together, and made themselves aprons.”

Yes, consistently throughout the Scriptures right up to the Ministry of Jesus … as in Matthew 21 and Matthew 24 and Mark 11 and Mark 13 and Luke 13 and Luke 21.

Wow!

“MY FIG TREE,” says God!

I have some advice for the Nations of the world, do not harm God’s “fig tree!”

The verb “barked” in Joel 1:7 means “splintered, snapped” with the subsidiary meaning “to be angry!”

It’s Genesis 12:1-3 all over again. Where God dramatically promises to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse that little Land and her people.

By the way, in reality I LOVE FIGS!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

 

When I was younger they called them “calamity howlers!” Or purveyors of “doomsday!” Today, merely “pessimists,” I guess. Or are they “realists?” Those who presciently realize that disaster is rapidly approaching!

Well, the Old Testament Prophet Joel would have qualified on all the foregoing terms!

He, all the way through his short 3 chapter (only 73 verses) Document, WARNS of danger, to the people of Israel, of Judah.

In chapter 1 he cautions about “natural disaster.”

In chapter 2, about “political (national) disaster.”

And in chapter 3 about “global (worldwide) cosmic disaster!”

In other words, an ever expanding circle of calamity!

Today I’ve posed this question, “To whom is Joel writing in chapter 1, the specific people who should respond (in some way) to the literal insect invasion that had recently occurred?

First mentioned … all the citizens of Israel, the “old men” specifically and the nation’s “inhabitants” generally. “Hear this, ye OLD MEN, and give ear, ALL YE INHABITANTS of the land.” Joel 1:2

Secondly … the alcoholics among the Jews! “Awake, ye DRUNKARDS, and weep; and howl, all ye DRINKERS OF WINE, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.” Joel 1:5

Thirdly … the farmers of the land. “The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye HUSBANDMEN; howl, O ye VINEDRESSERS, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” Joel 1:10-12

Then, to the priests, God’ s men. “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye PRIESTS: howl, ye MINISTERS OF THE ALTAR: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye MINISTERS OF MY GOD: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord.” Joel 1:13-14

Bottom line, everyone is impacted, suffers, is to grieve.

And these “locusts” are merely a “minor” irritation compared to what is on the horizon for (spiritually lackadaisical) Israel. Remember, Joel chapters 2 and 3 are yet to be studied! And in some ways yet to be fulfilled!

Is there a Lesson for us today, in Joel’s opening Message?

Yes, of course.

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Paul in Second Corinthians 10:11

“All these things,” including that locust plague!

“Them,” as in the Jews of Joel’s day!

“Ensamples” (in Greek “tupos,” or “types”), impressive teaching tools of the Holy Spirit!

“Our admonition,” literally “to put us in mind,” to warn us!

“The ends of the world,” the latter days in which we now live, for sure!

Wow!

More than “locusts” may be invading the United States of America!

At this very moment.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Today’s Lesson will be “politically incorrect,” I suppose.

And I’ll be the first to admit the thesis is not always 100% applicable in every situation. The man Job comes to mind, for example. There a follower of God endured crisis after crisis … none of which were due to overt, blatant sin in his life. He was a paragon of Righteousness, in fact.

That being said, the Text today is Joel 1:1-3.

And clearly something “bad” has happened in the Land, in Israel.

Nearly unprecedented, in fact. I guess you could term this reversal a “once-in-a-lifetime” tragedy.

“The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath THIS been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.” Again, Joel 1:1-3.

By the way, Joel’s Father is named “Pethuel,” meaning “God has opened (something).” This dramatic name is found only here in all the Bible! And the verb “opened” (as specifically used in this name) often carries pejorative overtones, various shades of impending judgment!

The old men are first addressed because they have the longest memories, have lived the greatest number of decades. And they too (in the culture of the Middle East) are the God-appointed “teachers” of their own children and Grandchildren, usually quite a numerous group of young people.

Word (news) should be relayed through the ages, of some event that has plagued the Land! Four generations anyway, I count. All the way to the great-grandchildren!

But what has happened?

An invasion!

This time (merely) by animals, insects!

Locusts, to be precise.

And the results are devastating!

And the cause?

Glance at verse 15 of this same chapter, Joel 1. “Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.”

God is the Author of this situation.

Why?

No doubt because of many sins, but only “drunkenness” is specifically mentioned! “Awake, ye DRUNKARDS, and weep; and howl, all ye DRINKERS OF WINE, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.” Joel 1:5

Today … anathema is pronounced on the man who even hints that … a Nation’s Hardships may be due to sin! He is censured in the Press, mocked in the streets, and often disgraced in his profession.

But he well may be “right on target.”

At least, Joel certainly was!

AMERICA, BEWARE!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell