Joseph Shulam: Joel - From Devastation to Restoration (Part 1)

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. In our study of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible we did Hosea, Amos, and now we are doing Joel. You ask, why did I do Joel after Amos? Well, the answer is simple. Amos is a very programmatic prophet and much larger than Joel, and he sets the stage of God. Not only as the God of Israel, but the God of all the nations. Joel follows that pattern, but doesn't make it as clear as Amos. Also, Amos is one of my favorite prophets because he actually denies to be a prophet. He says, "I'm not a prophet and I'm not a son of a prophet. I'm a farmer. I'm a sheep herder." And I like that.

And the material in Amos serves kind of as an introduction to Joel's prophecy. Joel is three chapters, it's a short book. It has actually less than a thousand words, 900 and some words in the book of Joel, about 175 verses. But it's an important book because actually the Apostle Peter quotes from the book of Joel in Acts chapter two, in Pentecost, in Shavu`ot, when the Holy Spirit comes down on the disciples of Yeshua and the apostles in an upper room on Mount Zion and it is recorded in Acts chapter two.

So, Joel has some very important things. The name Joel is actually one of the more popular names in the Bible. It means Jehovah is God. "Jo" is short for Jehovah, an acronym for Jehovah, and "el" means God. So, it appears many times. The first time is actually in the book of Samuel, chapter eight, verse two. Samuel's son is called Joel, but the Joel that wrote the prophecy, the book of the Prophecy of Joel, is not the son of Samuel, it's the Son of Pethuel, a different Joel. But we have Joels several times in the Book of Chronicles and in the book of Ezra and in the book of Nehemiah, it's a name that became popular in the Post-Exilic when the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile. It was a popular name, a confirmation that the Lord is God.

Joel chapter one starts, in my opinion and the opinion of most Western scholars, with a parable. The parable is horrible devastation of the land by locust. And the locust here have several different names. It is the opinion of most of the scholars that the names talk about different stages of the development of the bug locust when he was, you know, younger and mature and more mature. And in the developmental stages of locust, the bug, that eats everything that's on its path, everything green that is on its path. Now, Joel starts immediately addressing the leadership. Verse two of the book of Joel, chapter one of Joel,

"Hear this you elders, and give ear all the inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or even in the days of your fathers?"

In other words, what is about to happen is a unique event, a unique time in history that things that have not happened before are going to happen and are happening actually. As Joel speaks this parable story of the locust that comes and chews everything on his way, swarms around the land, eats, nothing is left behind it. First of all, this phenomena of locust attacking in the Middle East is not a new phenomena. It first of all happened, as one of the 10 plagues over the Egyptians, it was a locust plague that devoured the fruit of the land, the wheat, the grain and everything in Egypt as one of the 10 plagues that God sent against Pharaoh and Egypt, so that he finally after the 10th plague released the children of Israel, Moses and Aaron, and send them on their way to the land of Canaan.

But even in my own days, we have seen locust plagues attack this land. It happens every few years. And of course we have now modern means that they didn't have in those days of planes with poison that sprayed the locust in the fields and try to eradicate them, that they didn't have then. But as Joel describes it, the locust is eating everything. It's crawling everywhere. Nothing is left after the locust visits a field. Yeah, but already in chapter one, verse six, we understand that the locust is really a parable, actually, it's something that does happen in the land. But in the way that Joel uses it, it's a parable because in verse six he tells us what he means,

"For a nation has come up against my land, strong and without number. His teeth are the teeth of lion and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste my vine and ruined my fig tree. He has stripped it bare and thrown it away."

Now notice here that Joel uses two trees as symbols representing Israel, the fig tree and the vine, the vineyard. And we have that in several of the prophets. Isaiah chapter five talks about the Lord planted a vineyard and took care of it and move the stones and trimmed it and prepared it to have a good crop of grapes and good wine. And instead of a good crop of grapes, he got things that were not usable, not much crop and the crop that was, was not good, after God invested a lot into the vineyard, his vineyard. And of course Jeremiah uses the fig tree as a symbol of Israel and the gospels. Yeshua uses the fig tree as a symbol of Israel, both as symbol of God's judgment because the fig tree didn't have fruit. Even when it does not season, the Lord wanted a fig tree to have fruit and the fig tree withered. Yes, in the gospel. So, we have here the vine and the fig tree is symbols of Israel and the enemy, the locust, devoured everything in its way, left everything bare. In verse seven:

"Stripped, no fruit on the fig tree, its branches are made white, they rotted."

In verse eight, he has another kind of parable similar to the one that Amos had and similar to the one that especially Hosea had. Israel in this, in verse eight is a virgin, a woman, and it's called a 'lament'

"...like a virgin girded with sack-cloth for a husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord. Priests mourn who minister to the Lord. The field is wasted, the land mourns for the grain is ruined. The new wine is dried up, the oil failed."

All the staple goods that are used by every family in Israel are gone, according to Joel. As I said, it is the imagery, a parabolic imagery, but is talking about the people, the leadership, the priests, the elders of the land in the days of Joel,

"...vine has dried up and the fig tree withered, pomegranate tree, palm tree, apple tree, all withered away from the sons of men."

When that happens, what is the normal reaction when the land is not producing? What should men do? Lament. Understand that our behavior, our relationship with the almighty, especially in the land of Israel, depends on our livelihood, on our agriculture, on our produce, on our wine and oil and grain. In Amos we find this, and in Hosea it's very clear in chapter two that Israel is looked upon as a woman that was unfaithful and she thought that Baal and the local gods of the neighbor pagan countries around us are the ones who supply us with the grain and the oil and the wine. And God says, "I'm gonna fence you in and I'm going to show you who is your real friend, who is your real husband, who you have been unfaithful to."

We have similar imagery here in Joel. Israel is a virgin wrapped in sack cloth because she's mourning, because she doesn't know who ministers to her and has to confess,

"You who minister to my God the grain offering and the drink offering withheld from the house of your God."

Yeah, not only from the people, but from the house of God itself has no grain, no wine, no oil. Verse 16:

"The food is cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness cut off from the house of God. Seed shriveled, storehouses are in shambles, barns are broken down."

The animals, the livestock, the sheep, the goats, the cows the, well, if they had chickens, birds, whatever, they're crying, groaning. They are restless because there's no pasture. That calamity that Joel is talking about, there are scholars who believe that it really happened physically, not only prophetically as a parable, but that Joel takes a situation that exists and makes a parable of that reflecting the relationship of the people of Israel with their almighty God who supplies all our needs. The description is harsh. Yes, it's harsh. Nobody likes that, that there will be such calamity on the people, on the inhabitants, on the citizens, on the land itself. But like Isaiah, like Jeremiah, like Amos, like Hosea, prophets sometimes are very harsh, warning the people, explaining to the people why they are in the state that they're in now or in the state that is about to happen to them.

I believe that in Joel's case, the state of this devastation of the land was actually happening as he speaks, as he writes his letter, it's real to him. It's real to the people. They're experiencing it by the language of Joel. I understand that I'm not the only one. Most of the scholars understand that this was actually happening already in his day. But then comes the salami inside the sandwich. Oh, okay, we vegetarian, then maybe the cheese, if you are more than vegetarian, a vegan, maybe the cucumber inside between the two pieces of bread, the sandwich. And he announces:

"Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of cloud. Thick darkness like the morning cloud spread over the mountains and people come great and strong, like of whom you have never seen before. Nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations, fire devours before them. Behind them, flames are burning. The land is like the garden of Eden, before them and behind when they leave the isolation of wilderness, surely nothing shall escape them."

He continues, instead of having a sweet second chapter after the first hard chapter, he continues with this very strong description of the enemy. Of course, we know that not much later than Joel, Israel was beaten by their enemies from the north. The description of the enemies, the appearance of horses. Swift steeds, they run fast, their noisy chariots, they leap over mountain tops, like the noise of flames, fire devours the stubble. The enemy is very harsh, very strong. And yes, Israel fell, fell into the hands of the Babylonians. They were taken to exile. They stayed in exile 70 years 'till the Persian king sent Ezra and Nehemiah back.

So, Joel is a prophet that is short, like I said, less than a thousand words, but the words that he uses are very descriptive and very strong. But in the end there are also great promises of restoration. Verse 15,

"Blow the trumpet in Zion,"

Again, the second time he said the same thing.

"Consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babies, let the bridegroom go out of his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room, let the priest who minister to the Lord weep between the porch."

There is a repentance. There is a concentration of understanding that this calamity that has happened, as hard as it is, as terrible as it is, and they are ruled by the nations around them right now, they are not free. But if the people return and they consecrate themselves and they ask where is their God? The neighbors start noticing where is their God? This argument already was used by Moses in the wilderness.

"...Then the Lord will be zealous for his land and his people. And the Lord will answer and say to his people, "Behold, I will send the grain and the new wine and the oil....""

There will be a restoration of all that is lost in the land and all the unfaithful of the people will be removed by their repentance and by God who loves them and leads them. And there is a call of the prophet:

"Oh land, be glad and rejoice, the Lord has done marvelous things. Do not be afraid. You beasts of the field. The open pastures are springing up. The trees bear fruit again, and the fig tree and the vine yield their strength again. Be glad children of Zion, rejoice. The Lord your God is giving you your former rain back faithfully. The land will be fruitful again. The rain will water the fields. The threshing floor shall be full of wheat. The vats full of new wine and oil."

There will be a restoration. And I can tell you what, I get goosebumps when I read this 'cause I know what we deserve but I also know the grace of God. I know the past and I can read the future here that gives hope. Not only to that generation that returned with Ezra and Nehemiah back to the land, but to my generation that returns to the land. We are a nation of sojourners and strangers. We're a nation that were in the diaspora. Even in our office, we've got children of people that came from the diaspora and settled in the land and worked the land and have families and grow children. They go to the army and they serve, hallelujah.

But the great promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit over Jerusalem, over Zion, that took place when Peter and the apostles in the day of Pentecost are standing on the square on the courtyard in front of the temple, outside the wall above the marketplace, Joel is saying:

"And it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my spirit on old flesh."

Just like the punishment of God came to all the nations, also in Amos and also in Joel. Now the spirit of God will be poured on old flesh.

"...and your sons and your daughter shall prophesy. The old man shall dream dreams. The young men shall see visions and on all my man servants and all my maid servants I will pour my spirit in those days and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance, as the Lord said. Among the remnant whom the Lord calls."

These are the texts that Peter and the apostles quote on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on them on Mount Zion and proclaim the great message God sent the prince of life and you killed him. But don't worry, there is salvation, there is repentance. The gates of God's mercy have opened through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh. And this is the message of the prophet Joel. It is a message that starts very harsh, very difficult, but ends with his magnificent promises of hope, of salvation, of redemption, of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And it is a kind of a capsule of our history as a nation. It's kind of a capsule of our past and of our future in Jerusalem and in Zion. God bless all of you. Read the book of Joel. You'll love it.