Joel

On Tuesday morning I was reading Acts Ch 26. The verse that had struck me in particular was verse 8. God raises the dead.

In the latter part of the week I have read the book of Joel.

I do not feel that it has opened up in a specific way, nor am I confident that it has been a specific leading to be in this book. However, the great safety of reading the scriptures is that God ministers through them, and uses them as seedlings upon which he can encourage and strengthen.

The book of Joel opens with a distinct sense of the Immanuel. The Word of the Lord came to Mary, and that Word was the linear outworking of the Words of the Lord to the prophets.

The truth of God contained in the prophetic message, must touch upon the reality of the human inward condition. It can not be restricted to; topography of a nation, territorial and material gains. Therefore, the Word of the Lord, comes to save people from their sins, the word of the Lord comes to touch the primary of the internal, not just to speak concerning external change.

The book of Joel has a clear direction that presses towards internal reformation, and external change as a consequence.

Some commentaries suggest that Joel was written before some of the other minor prophets and even Isaiah, and suggest that some of the other prophets were influenced by his message. Whether, you believe the prophetic messenger can do that or not is an interesting discussion. However, we do know that Jesus regularly used scripture, in this vain. So if it was good enough for Jesus, then it was certainly good enough for Isaiah and Amos. That God is consistent and mindful of that Word that he has committed and entrusted to men, should not lessen are faith, rather it should establish it.

Pulpit commentary says the following concerning the book of Joel:

‘Joel’s style is pre-eminently pure. It is characterized by smoothness and fluency in the rhythms, roundness in the sentences, and regularity in the parallelisms. With the strength of Micah it combines the tenderness of Jeremiah, the vividness of Nahum, and the sublimity of Isaiah. As a specimen of his style take the second chapter wherein the terrible aspect of the locusts, their rapidity, irresistible progress, noisy din, and instinct-taught power of marshalling their forces for their career of devastation, are painted with graphic reality’.

That’s quite a compliment from the Pulpit, but rather it is the hand that guides and inspires the prophets pen that is able to combine strength and tenderness within the ink.

In Chapter 1 I tend to think that perhaps their is some future inference to the Babylonians, Syrians and Romans! One commentary points out that the lack of direct reference to the latter enemies of Judah is indicative of when it was written, speculating it to be pre these enemies of Judah.

Now given that Peter quotes Joel on the very day of Pentecost we ought to consider it as certainly holding a prophetic fulfillment for that time period too. Thus, I am inclined to agree with those who are of the opinion that Ch 1 is referring also to the Romans.

However, this does leave verse 11 of Ch 2 needing an interpretation that has its context too.

During the days of Noah, the Lord flooded the whole earth, the whole earth. The Lord did not flood every nation accept the land of promise. And given the parting of the Red Sea, we should be of no doubt that he could have land locked the land of promise had he so desired. But no, the Lord covered all land by the rains. And biblically, it first rained in the days of Noah.

Within this consideration is a ‘Return unto the Lord your God’. God is jealous not for one parcel of ground, God is jealous for the whole land. God wants to be gracious unto all people, he through whom all things were made, desires to bless all.

Verse 13 Ch 2, ‘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.

‘and he relents over disaster’ – is that not a lovely consideration regarding the nature of God. Our lives may have been a disaster, are decision making. But God relents over disaster. He who is the ark for our salvation, stoops down to lift himself up on our behalf, and out of the currents of condemnation.

‘Then the Lord, verse 18, became jealous for his land and had pity on his people’.

Here we have the clear source of the Pulpit inspiration.

Jesus came and gathered twelve men to follow him, to whom he entrusted the teaching of breaking of bread and poured out wine. Due to his example and presence among them, and most of all the relenting with them despite the denial of his cross, 120 people gathered in an upper chamber: awaiting the response of heaven, to a man sacrificed upon the mainframe of the ark.

If God, had foreknown a willing sacrifice, the Word that is the Lord Himself! Who although perfect in fellowship with his Father, would provided himself as the sacrifice, in response to the necessity for one and thus revealing the unrelenting desire of God to pour out latter rain, of grain, wine and oil!

Gods jealously is not akin to human. His is so pure, that it commands tender mercy be shown towards all men.

When Peter declared that these men are not drunk as you suppose but that ‘this is that’, it was the clearest sight yet, that the desire of God was to address the inward condition of his creation, as a priority far over the external. This penultimately is shown with Johns vision in the book of Revelation Ch 21 & 22. And this is why Christians, although not ignorant concerning the environment, should never make eco issues the driving force of their lives.

God is eternally concerned with our union to his supply of every good thing, to the perpetual supply of his love. God is jealous to abide with man, he created this world to express and share his abundant love with us. Our communion with Him, is the source of tenderness, a pillow we all long to lay our heads upon.

Kindness to animals and concern for the environment are not a tension to this communion, they are an implicit outworking of it, but they are never the dominant campaign. The salvation of other men’s souls, for that kingdom still to come is. He gave of himself, when the sun and moon were darkened and when the stars ceased to shine too.

His ears heard the cry of the multitude! Crucify him, Crucify him! A known cruel and painful death. Did the rivers weep. Did the grass wilt, did the oil evaporate from every storage pot. Did the whales cease from singing, and did the stars cease to shine. Darkness is the absence of the vine of life – but if the gardener was cut so precisely to graft us in again, is he not able to create a garden out of stones of disaster, out of darkness can not light shine forth.

And God said: The Word of the Lord is Light.

The NIV study bible has a helpful footnote on Ch 1 v 13. My God…your God. It refers to verse 7, and implies that the personal pronouns here and elsewhere in Joel offer a hint of hope, since they indicate that the people belong to the Lord.

To me this is the same truth as shown between John Ch 8, and the dawn of a new day in John Ch 20. Where, a women, who was not a virgin in Ch 8, comes mourning (Joel Ch 1 v8) and is greeted by the bridegroom to communicate the unrelenting message of union with Gods tender love. My Father and your Father, My God and Your God. The two being made one through the blood of the lamb.

She was a maiden fully restored as a virgin to bear forth the words of life: Mary! Mary! The travail of his sacrifice. A jealous love consistent with the divine order of creation, and God saw that it was good. Violence and lust God saw were evil and a corruption of his design for mankind.

And was not Rome itself touched by tender love! A City where its sense of space and purpose, field of Mars, was given to the training of its warrior locust army and pagan Gods of war and empire/Pantheon. The City itself having its very roots to such cosmic deception/darkness.

‘In God, we live and move and have our being’. Proclaimed by a man who believed in stone, but had since seen the primary purpose of God, having been handled by the gardener.

The Lord dwells in Zion

The NIV footnotes states: Ch 3 v21: This book of Judgement ends on a promising and encouraging note: “The Lord dwells in Zion”, therefore all is right with those who trust in God and live with him.

Acts Ch 11 v23: When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

The reluctant evangelists of the first and section sections of Acts Ch 11 is also merged with a line of prophets, one in particular who spake concerning a famine that impacted the whole world. But the Church, the new born Church of Gentile believers determined to send relief to Judea!!! The wine of his love demonstrating in action, the tenderness of God from one nation towards another. The primary Church, in Jerusalem/Zion was shown respect and honor! The word did not return void, God is good and his mercy endures forever, and ever, Amen.

The prophetic word had been that all the world would suffer from this famine! Yet Judea is specially cherished by the gentile believers. Not a surprised that the Spirit spake from this internal field, to separate a man from Cyprus (not material this gospel/but loves sacrifice) with a restored Pharisee to establish other nations in the good news of the resurrected one from Hades. Pluto nor Pharaoh, had no power over this bright and morning star.

“And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water, and a fountain shall flow with water; and a fountain from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim”.

The gentiles believed it, because the latter rain had not been withheld from them.

Romans Ch 11.

Part of email received at 8:47 am. Four minutes before posting this.

Come, we that love the Lord,
And let our joys be known;
Join in a song with sweet accord,
And thus surround the throne.
Refrain:
We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.
The sorrows of the mind
Be banished from the place;
Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.
Let those refuse to sing,
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heav’nly King
May speak their joys abroad.
The men of grace have found
Glory begun below;
Celestial fruits on earthly ground
From faith and hope may grow.
The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground
To fairer worlds on high.