Joel

Overview – July/August 2016 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Joel

“The LORD gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the one who executes His word. For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it?” —Joel 2:11 NKJV

Joel, meaning “Jehovah is God,” gives no indication of the time of his prophecy, but his subject is the day of the L ORD with its great and terrible judgments.

A devastating invasion of insects had left the land of Israel famine-stricken. Joel uses this as a vivid illustration of the invasion of Israel in the last days by the King of the North – the wicked leader of nations just to the north of Israel – and his confederate armies. They are proud, fierce and ungodly, yet they are the means God will use for the punishment of His people Israel. Covering the land like swarming parasites, they will bring Israel to her knees before God. When this end is reached, the Lord will judge these Gentile nations unsparingly and deliver the afflicted children of Judah and Israel.

The signs and wonders spoken of will take place before the coming of the day of the LORD (2:30-31), that is, during the first 3-1/2 years of Daniel’s 70th “week” (Dan. 9:24-27). Therefore they are before “the great tribulation” (Mt. 24:21), which begins at the middle of this future week of seven years. The pouring out of God’s Spirit, mentioned in the previous verses (Joel 2:28-29) is “afterward,” meaning in the millennial age of blessing. Peter’s quotation of this in Acts 2:18-21 does not infer a complete fulfillment at the time of his own writing, but simply an application for those days.

The book of Joel illustrates the solemn warning that they who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind (Hos 8:7).

By Leslie M. Grant

This column is taken from the book: “The Bible, Its 66 Books In Brief.”
It is available for purchase from Believers Bookshelf USA.