All That is God’s

Joel is a very powerful book in that the prophet has a distinctive way of gathering the voices of the other prophets and weaving their messages into his own. We then find these prophecies intertwined in Yeshua’s words in Matthew 24 and then see them in John’s visions in Revelation. Together, these voices form a sweeping panorama of the things to come.

Studying Joel brings us directly into the realm of end-time prophecies, a period stretching from our present age to the final events of history. Another striking feature is how God is so deeply involved in carrying through with all the details. In Joel, we hear the Lord speak with passion about His love for Israel and for all who believe in Him. It is moving to notice the way He speaks, not in distant or detached terms, but with the intimacy of the One who feels the pain of His people.

For instance, the repeated use of possessive pronouns makes this very clear.  He speaks of the Jewish nation as My people 2:26, 27, 3:2,3, pointing out their suffering as if it were His own as well. And twice He calls Israel, My land and spoke two times of Jerusalem as My holy mountain 2:1, 3:17, for it is His. He also spoke of the Jewish people as My inheritance in Joel 3:2. He says My silver, My gold, My treasures 3:4, when referring to the Temple.  We can almost perceive a nostalgic desire to have His dwelling among man, as it will be in Revelation 21, when He speaks of My great army (2:25), referring to those who will come back with Him.

All this attests to how God takes to heart so much of today’s Middle East events. On eighteen different occasions, the Lord uses possessive pronouns (my), mentioning Zion seven times, and Jerusalem and Judah six times each.

We observed that the book of Joel begins quite abruptly, without any kind of formal introduction, as we find with the other prophets. This absence is intentional, so when we turn to the very first verse and study it carefully, we discover that it functions as the book’s own introduction. In one single line, Joel sets the stage for the weighty message that follows. This first verse becomes the doorway through which we step into the rest of the prophecy.

Joel 1:1 “The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.” The very first words we encounter are, “The word of the Lord.” Why begin this way? Perhaps it is because what follows will be, for many, difficult to accept, hard to believe, and even harder to imagine. But it is all His word. The problem is that we are accustomed to hearing the side of God’s message that comforts us; the promises of peace, blessing, and salvation.  Yet there is another side that is just as real: the side of justice, judgment, and accountability. And it is this side that often feels foreign, even unsettling, to our ears. But Joel is bringing to us both sides of God, and this reality is seen in his very name, Joel, which contains the two names of God.

“Joel” (יוֹאֵל, Yo’el) is made up of two divine names: Ya, which is the abbreviation of Yahweh and El. Together they reflect two great facets of God: Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, the covenant-keeping Lord who is full of mercy and grace, and El, the Almighty Judge who rules in holiness and righteousness. From the very first verse, then, Joel reminds us that the message we are about to hear is not the word of man, but the Word of the Lord, a word that reveals the fullness of who God is. This word will comfort and it will confront; it will promise hope, but it will also announce judgment. And only when we receive both sides of this message can we truly begin to understand the heart and nature of God.

This is the moment when the prophecy takes hold of us, like a roller coaster straining upward, slow and deliberate, until it reaches its highest point before its vertical drop. And then, suddenly, the plunge, which is swift, breathtaking, and overwhelming. This is the force of the moment as we are swept into the message that leaves us astonished.

Let us read Joel 1: 2-3 and fasten your seatbelts! “Hear this, O elders, and listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your fathers’ days? Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation.”

Hear, שָׁמַע  (šāmaʿ), means obey. Listen, אָזַן (āzan) means pay close attention. So then, what is it that they should tell, repeatedly to their children and their grandchildren, on and on, never to be forgotten? And what is it that Joel asks? “Has anything like this happened in your days or in your fathers’ days?” The obvious answer is, no, nothing like this has ever happened to us yet.

What then are they to remember that will eventually happen in the future?

There is a hint in the last words when it says, “Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation.” Several times in the law, and especially for Passover, we find this command. The first time it is mentioned, it was in relation to the plague of locusts, something Joel is about to explain. Joel may very well be bringing the Jewish people back to the time of the Exodus, when God revealed His power and His name to Israel, something He will also do in the end times.

In the book of Exodus, the plague of the locusts was very fierce and damaging and the language we encounter here in Joel is very similar. As in Joel, Moses warned the Egyptians about the coming locust plague and told them, which neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day that they came upon the earth until this day.  Exodus 10:6.

And it is in connection with this plague that the Lord then told Moses, “That you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” Exodus 10:2. This is similar to what Joel says in vs.3 of chapter one. In fact, the remembrance of this plague of locusts along with the Passover is something that is embedded in the tradition of present day Judaism. It is here that we find the first commandment: to tell our children. Here lies the root of the creation of the Haggadah, which is read every year at Passover in Jewish homes; it is with this event of the 8th plague that we learn about the invasion of the locusts.

It is deeply significant that Joel brings us back to the Passover, the moment when Israel was born as a nation and when God displayed His mighty powers. Yet the warning is clear: the very same power that delivered the Jewish people out of Egypt will one day be unleashed at the end, to judge both Israel and the nations. Locusts are a powerful way to humble a man. The truth is, no matter how much we project control, without God, all control is an illusion.

Click Here for the Video :  Joel and Beyond : Tracing End-Time Prophecies