Two Cherished Promises

Joel 1-3

This whole book concerns the Day of the Lord.

It will come in two distinct parts: 

First the desolations.

Then deliverance.

2:32

And it will come about that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be delivered.

Calling on the Name of the Lord today is recognizing that they deserve death, and Jesus as God's Sacrificial Lamb died in their place on the Cross. 

He fulfilled the first chapter in the book of Leviticus, the personal sacrifice that the individual person would bring. The first sacrifice every person needed to bring first, admitting that the animal died in his place, the animal's blood splattered on the sides of the Altar to cover his sins. 

Jesus' sacrifice for each of us doesn't just cover our sins; it's God's own Blood that actually washes away our sins completely, removing every stain. That's what makes us fit to live with God where He lives.

The Old Testament saints only had their sins covered, so they could be forgiven, but not go to Heaven. Everyone died and went to Sheol, the place of the dead. Jesus gave us a picture of this place, as having two sides: the fire side we call Hell, and the Paradise side that Jesus called Abraham's Bosom. Jesus told the "good thief" on the cross beside His, that "today you will be with Me in Paradise," not Heaven (Luke 23:43). 

Now that Jesus has fulfilled that Sacrifice, our sins are completely washed away, into the deepest sea, never to cling to us again. So Jesus took that thief with Him into Sheol to carry the whole Paradise area into Heaven with Him. 

2:25

Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust; My great army which I sent among you.

God had sent His armies of locusts against Israel, and He allows all kinds of "locusts" in our lives, eating away the good that we would have enjoyed had we not made all those foolish choces. 

These are two promises that have been cherished throughout Christendom from the start.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!