Salvation Is From God The Book of Joel

Salvation Is From God

The Book of Joel

Joel 2:11The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?

Joel 2:12-13“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

National GeographicAt the end of February, great clouds of locusts began flying into the land from a northeasterly direction, so that “attention was drawn to them by the sudden darkening of the bright sunshine.” They came in enormous numbers, settling on the fields and hillsides. There they laid their eggs in vast numbers (it was calculated that some 60,000 could come from the eggs planted in

National Geographic39 square inches of soil, and that figure involved a 30 percent loss rate!). Once hatched, the new broods started crawling across the ground, at a rate of 400 to 600 feet per day, devouring every scrap of vegetation in their path.

A Sovereign GodHe alone is God

A God…• Of grace and mercy• Of lovingkindness & patience• Of justice• Of righteousness

Matthew Henry From the desolations about to come upon the land of Judah, by the ravages of locusts and other insects, the prophet Joel exhorts the Jews to repentance, fasting, and prayer. He notices the blessings of the gospel, with the final glorious state of the church.

2 Chronicles 7:14…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Isaiah 55:6-7Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Joel 2:15-16Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

Salvation is From GodI. God Answers His People’s Prayer

Joel 3:2I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people.


II. God Provides for His People’s Material Needs

Joel 2:20I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things.

Joel 2:23Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.

Joel 2:19I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied

1 Timothy 6:6-9Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

Joel 2:24The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

Joel 2:22Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green



III. God Removes His People’s Shame

Joel 2:17Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ ”

Joel 2:19, 26• I will no more make you a

reproach among the nations.

• …my people shall never again be put to shame.

Joel 2:25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.




IV. The Reason for Blessing His People

Joel 2:26You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.

Deuteronomy 8:10-11And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Take care lest you forget the Lord your God

Joel 2:27You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else.




IV. The Reason for Blessing His People

V. God Provides for His People’s Spiritual Needs

Spiritual Needs1. I will pour out my Spirit

Deuteronomy 8:3 …man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.


Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him


Acts 2:23 …this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.


Acts 2:36-38 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ


Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Matthew HenrySpirit was poured out, and it was continued in the converting grace and miraculous gifts conferred on both Jews and Gentiles. The judgments of God upon a sinful world, only go before the judgment of the world in the last day. Calling on God supposes knowledge of him, faith in him, desire toward him, dependence on him, and, as evidence of the

Matthew Henry…sincerity of all this, conscientious obedience to him. Those only shall be delivered in the great day, who are now effectually called from sin to God, from self to Christ, from things below to things above. Matthew Henry

Spiritual Needs2. I will pardon

Joel 3:21 I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.

Spiritual Needs2. I will pardon Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Spiritual Needs24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Spiritual Needs2. I will pardon

Joel 3:17 So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy…

Spiritual Needs3. I will sit to judge

Joel 3:12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.


Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.


Like waters collecting behind a great dam, God’s wrath has been gathering and increasing as it awaits the day when it will be released in fury against individuals and nations. James Boice


Joel 3:16 The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.


Acts 17:30-31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.


Joel 3:16 The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.


Joel 2:21 …for the Lord has done great things!

Joel 3:16bBut the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.

1 Peter 1:18-19…knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Salvation Is From God The Book of Joel

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desolate land

land of judah

prophet joel

great things

early rain

great clouds of locusts

peoples prayergod

peoples prayerjoel