Revelation 2: 1- 8: 1
Let's begin to see if we can discern God's timeline of how and when He's told us all these end-time events will roll out.
When we look at the Book of Revelation, we can see the things that will happen, and the other prophets and Jesus can fill in a lot of the details of how it will all look.
John's writing of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is not strictly chronological. Many of these things can overlap and happen in a very chaotic manner, so I see John putting a little order into the message by arranging all the seals in order, all the trumpets in order and all the bowls or vials in order. But the happenings they reveal could all be going on at overlapping times.
The letters to the churches come first. These are actual congregations in real geographical places that were all concurrent in John's time, for him to write to them. And they were also prophetic (2: 1- 3: 22).
This Church Age is almost finished, and we can look back at history to see that all the same characteristics that were in those congregations in John's day would also display in the Church throughout the Church Age. There is no specific demarcation line ending one church personality before the next is evident, as all the characteristics have overlapped in different times and in different places through these centuries.
We can look at the rest of this Book of Revelation the same way.
Toward the end of the Church Age, John was called up into Heaven to witness the opening of the Scroll, which was in Heaven. But the events written in the Scroll will take place both in Heaven and on Earth (4: 1).
John describes the scene in heaven, and it looks like all these angels and elders and living beasts are all heavenly beings (4: 2- 5: 14). They are worshiping and praising the Lamb who was slain and purchased men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and "they" (the men, not "we") will be a kingdom of priests and reign upon the Earth (5: 8-10).
Then the seals were broken and the Scroll was read.
The first four Seals are the "Four Horses." This looks to me like the heads of governments in the world, and what is happening is how the governments' actions are affecting the people of the world (6: 1-8).
The first is a "king" who comes to his position of authority with military power that he does not need to use, as he has a bow but no arrows. This looks like subterfuge or an election (6: 1-2).
The second Seal reveals that the governmental heads are waging war with one another, much bloodshed all over the world in different places. Wars and rumors of war (6: 3-4), (see also Matthew 24: 6).
The third Seal shows that all these governmental edicts are resulting in a famine among the people everywhere, with the price of a small meal equal to a whole day's work; but the oil and wine for the affluent will not be affected by this economic devastation. The haves and the have-nots (6: 5-6).
The fourth Seal reveals the demonic authority behind the governmental entities, which brings death to a fourth of all humanity, being exposed to warlike bloodshed, persecution, starving, disease and sickness, and even wild animals let loose (6: 7-8). (Could these be animal-derived sicknesses unleashed upon the world?)
All these events are on this Earth. The next Seal will show us what is happening in Heaven at this time.
The fifth Seal brings the scene back into Heaven, and John looks into the heavenly Temple, and hears from under the altar there the cries of the martyrs who have lost their heads in the severe persecution that has been happening during the time of all four of these government heads (6: 9-11).
They are told to be patient to wait for the rest of the martyrs that will be killed through the rest of the time allotted to the world, during the World Government takeover, which will begin the Tribulation. This power will only endure for seven years.
The sixth Seal brings us back down to Earth to witness the extraordinary and miraculous happenings when the End comes and the Lamb is appearing, breaking through the clouds into the sky (6: 12-17), (see also Matthew 24: 29-31).
This terror of the world-wide earthquake, darkening and reddening of the sun and moon, stars disappearing, the sky splitting apart, and all the mountains going flat and the tsunamis completely overflowing all the islands of the world will cause all the wicked and evil people to panic, because the wrath of the Father and the Lamb are coming down upon them as He appears.
The seventh Seal brings us back to Heaven, where there is silence for about a half an hour (8: 1). Why would Heaven be silent, if all the angels and elders and living creatures praise and worship God continuously without pause?
Could it be because King Jesus has gathered them all to bring them with him for the Battle of Armageddon? We are told, the Lord my God shall come, and all the qadowsh, (holy ones) with you (Zechariah 14: 5). Saints are "holy ones" as also are the holy angels and other residents of Heaven. So if the Lamb will bring "all the holy ones" with Him from Heaven to the Earth to reap and judge and set up His Kingdom, maybe the passing of time is different in Heaven than it is on Earth, like illustrated in The Chronicles of Narnia books. A half-hour in Heaven could be hours, or even days, or longer, here on Earth.
We have begun to look at some of the things that we should expect to be happening around us, now at the end part of the Church Age. These Seals being opened in order may give us these events in chronological order in themselves, but what else may be happening during this same time?
O my Father, please open our eyes to see what You want us to understand. Father, there have been great and godly people who have written about these things, but they all do not agree with each other on how to read them. Please help us understand according to Your Truth in order to recognize when we are in the midst of Your fulfilling these prophesies.
O Father, it's not easy to see the whole picture when we're still in the middle of it! We can only see what is in front of us, and around us. Show us how to put these pieces together properly to get a glimpse of what the puzzle is all about. That way we will be able to fill in the gaps of the pieces that are still missing.
Father, You have given us all the pieces we need, to see what we need to understand; please give us wisdom and discernment to make it all out, and be prepared to face what is next in Your Program.
Strengthen us and give us courage to stand up to the onslaught of what the enemy's minions attack us with, and fight them with the spiritual armor and weapons You have given us, and after having done all, we will stand.
And we will get the victory through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, willing to die for our King! (12: 11).
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lamb of God, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Final Earthly Kingdom
Joel 3: 17-21
We've seen how God judged all the evil in the world at the Battle of Armageddon, now we will see how he will begin to set up His Kingdom on this Earth.
(17) Then you will know that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.
So Jerusalem will be holy,
And strangers will pass through it no more.
His throne will be in Jerusalem, the spot He chose way back in Abraham's day (Genesis 22: 2), where He had Solomon build the Temple (II Chronicles 3: 1). That is the center of the land masses of the Earth, geographically, and God chose to "set His Name" there, to be His center of operations.
(18) And in that Day
The mountains will drip with sweet wine,
And the hills will flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah will flow with water;
The climate of the land of Israel will bring about a paradise with the rains and seasons growing all the crops, and feeding all the animals, and all the rivers, streams and wadis flowing abundantly; giving great wealth and abundance to the inhabitants.
And a spring will go out from the house of the Lord
To water the valley of Shittim.
This spring will be flowing out of where the throne sits, and will fill the Dead Sea with fresh water to make it alive. We know from Zechariah 14: 8 that this fountain of "living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea [the Mediterranean Sea] and the other half toward the western sea [the Salt Sea]; it will be in summer as well as in winter." This river will not ever dry up as other streams and wadis would, but will flow dependably all the time.
(19) Egypt will become a waste,
And Edom will become a desolate wilderness,
Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah,
In whose land they have shed innocent blood.
Those areas where the enemies of Israel lived will experience devastation, showing how evil the people were, who died in the Battle of Armageddon and the reaping of the angels.
(20) But Judah will be inhabited forever
And Jerusalem for all generations.
Judah and Jerusalem will prosper and be the Royal City where the Lord God, King Jesus sits and reigns. And He will rule the whole world as King, with His viceroys (His resurrected saints) ruling all the areas of the Earth where people live.
(21) And I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged,
For the Lord dwells in Zion.
The Lord will settle all accounts as He rules, and whatever hadn't been taken care of before, will be done. He will not leave any strings hanging, He will tie them all up.
And He will rule and reign for a thousand years on this Earth. His generosity will be known by everyone everywhere, and His justice will be instant and complete to everyone who decides to rebel. We will need no locks on our doors, because if anyone decides to enter to rob, they will be stopped by our Lord King before they have a chance to carry out their plan.
We as human people cannot know the thoughts of another, like our Lord God can, so human rule must depend on the actual actions of the ne'er-do-wells. Any kind of "thought-crime" is foreign to human rule, and those who try to enforce these laws are trying to be god. These people think they're gods, who can do whatever they want without accountability, and are not subject to the same laws and rules they set down for the rest of us. Pay attention to who these people are, and respond accordingly: Do not re-elect them; call them to account for their crimes; and pray for them, because they have been deceived.
Joel is looking only at Israel and writing to those who are Hebrews, and ends his book here. He only mentions other nations as they touch on Israel, and is not concerned with the rest of the world and the end of the Time Line for this Earth and our Universe. We must go to other prophets who wrote other parts of our story as God told them.
O my Father, thank You for all the people You spoke to, to record Your words in the messages You want us to hear. You want us to know who we are, and who You are, and how You have dealt with all the problems we have made!
Father, You knew before You ever made anything in this Creation we live in, what would happen, and how You would use everything to further Your plans for us, to enact Your whole Plan of the Ages.
We are not Your puppets, my Father, because You have given us the power of choice, that we call "free will." But our will is only free within the parameters You have set; and You use everything we choose, good or bad, to work out Your plan for each of us, and for all of us.
O Father, when we choose to harm ourselves and one another, when we see no way out of the negative consequences, then You show up. At the last minute, when we think it's too late, is when our Hero enters the scene and miraculously rescues us from the jaws of destruction!
My Father, You want only what is best for us! You take the worst circumstances, the most evil and wicked, and You bring the most good from them for us! The worst thing that ever happened, the most evil and wicked, is when men executed our King of Glory as a criminal! But from that, Father, You drew the most magnificent, most glorious, most miraculous result--You save us from the power of sin and wash us pristine clean; and cause us to be born into Your own family, as Your Royal children, when You place Your Holy Spirit in us.
This is all according to Your Plan that You planned out before You created anything! And Your Son, Our Lord, agreed to this plan, and was willing to go through the exquisite suffering both physical and spiritual, and emotional too, so that we could be made fit to live with You where You live, without being destroyed.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
We've seen how God judged all the evil in the world at the Battle of Armageddon, now we will see how he will begin to set up His Kingdom on this Earth.
(17) Then you will know that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.
So Jerusalem will be holy,
And strangers will pass through it no more.
His throne will be in Jerusalem, the spot He chose way back in Abraham's day (Genesis 22: 2), where He had Solomon build the Temple (II Chronicles 3: 1). That is the center of the land masses of the Earth, geographically, and God chose to "set His Name" there, to be His center of operations.
(18) And in that Day
The mountains will drip with sweet wine,
And the hills will flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah will flow with water;
The climate of the land of Israel will bring about a paradise with the rains and seasons growing all the crops, and feeding all the animals, and all the rivers, streams and wadis flowing abundantly; giving great wealth and abundance to the inhabitants.
And a spring will go out from the house of the Lord
To water the valley of Shittim.
This spring will be flowing out of where the throne sits, and will fill the Dead Sea with fresh water to make it alive. We know from Zechariah 14: 8 that this fountain of "living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea [the Mediterranean Sea] and the other half toward the western sea [the Salt Sea]; it will be in summer as well as in winter." This river will not ever dry up as other streams and wadis would, but will flow dependably all the time.
(19) Egypt will become a waste,
And Edom will become a desolate wilderness,
Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah,
In whose land they have shed innocent blood.
Those areas where the enemies of Israel lived will experience devastation, showing how evil the people were, who died in the Battle of Armageddon and the reaping of the angels.
(20) But Judah will be inhabited forever
And Jerusalem for all generations.
Judah and Jerusalem will prosper and be the Royal City where the Lord God, King Jesus sits and reigns. And He will rule the whole world as King, with His viceroys (His resurrected saints) ruling all the areas of the Earth where people live.
(21) And I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged,
For the Lord dwells in Zion.
The Lord will settle all accounts as He rules, and whatever hadn't been taken care of before, will be done. He will not leave any strings hanging, He will tie them all up.
And He will rule and reign for a thousand years on this Earth. His generosity will be known by everyone everywhere, and His justice will be instant and complete to everyone who decides to rebel. We will need no locks on our doors, because if anyone decides to enter to rob, they will be stopped by our Lord King before they have a chance to carry out their plan.
We as human people cannot know the thoughts of another, like our Lord God can, so human rule must depend on the actual actions of the ne'er-do-wells. Any kind of "thought-crime" is foreign to human rule, and those who try to enforce these laws are trying to be god. These people think they're gods, who can do whatever they want without accountability, and are not subject to the same laws and rules they set down for the rest of us. Pay attention to who these people are, and respond accordingly: Do not re-elect them; call them to account for their crimes; and pray for them, because they have been deceived.
Joel is looking only at Israel and writing to those who are Hebrews, and ends his book here. He only mentions other nations as they touch on Israel, and is not concerned with the rest of the world and the end of the Time Line for this Earth and our Universe. We must go to other prophets who wrote other parts of our story as God told them.
O my Father, thank You for all the people You spoke to, to record Your words in the messages You want us to hear. You want us to know who we are, and who You are, and how You have dealt with all the problems we have made!
Father, You knew before You ever made anything in this Creation we live in, what would happen, and how You would use everything to further Your plans for us, to enact Your whole Plan of the Ages.
We are not Your puppets, my Father, because You have given us the power of choice, that we call "free will." But our will is only free within the parameters You have set; and You use everything we choose, good or bad, to work out Your plan for each of us, and for all of us.
O Father, when we choose to harm ourselves and one another, when we see no way out of the negative consequences, then You show up. At the last minute, when we think it's too late, is when our Hero enters the scene and miraculously rescues us from the jaws of destruction!
My Father, You want only what is best for us! You take the worst circumstances, the most evil and wicked, and You bring the most good from them for us! The worst thing that ever happened, the most evil and wicked, is when men executed our King of Glory as a criminal! But from that, Father, You drew the most magnificent, most glorious, most miraculous result--You save us from the power of sin and wash us pristine clean; and cause us to be born into Your own family, as Your Royal children, when You place Your Holy Spirit in us.
This is all according to Your Plan that You planned out before You created anything! And Your Son, Our Lord, agreed to this plan, and was willing to go through the exquisite suffering both physical and spiritual, and emotional too, so that we could be made fit to live with You where You live, without being destroyed.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Judgment Of The Nations
Joel 3: 9-16
Joel is continuing to tell how the Lord's coming will look to Israel and her surrounding nations. This gives us a little more information to add to what Jesus said in Matthew 24 and what He told John in Revelation 14: 9-20 and 19: 11-21.
(9) Proclaim this among the nations:
This is to the nations who surround the nation of Israel, who hate her.
Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men!
Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up!
The Lord says to prepare the armies, gather all the soldiers for battle.
(10) Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears;
They are to put their economies onto a war footing, and re-calibrate their machine-making from agricultural to military implements.
Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man."
Let every able-bodied person enlist, even if they physically aren't quite up to military standards.
(11) Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations,
And gather yourselves there.
God will gather all the armies of all the nations who oppose Israel.
Bring down, O Lord, Your mighty ones.
Our Lord God will gather all the earthly armies, then He will break through the clouds into the atmosphere of our Earth with all His holy ones, His angels and saints.
(12) Let the nations be aroused
And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
For there I will sit to judge
All the surrounding nations.
This valley of Jehoshaphat is not a word that signifies a geographical location, but we know from other scriptures that it will be the Valley of Armageddon.
King Jesus will battle them; the word Joel uses for "sit" to judge, is a primitive root word, yashab, which refers to every kind of settling down or setting up; so He will "sit in judgment" on them by slaughtering them with His Word (the "sword that comes out of His mouth"! (Revelation 19: 15).
(13) Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
This is referenced in Matthew 13: 36-43 in Jesus' explanation to His disciples of the parable of the Sower and the Seed. He said, "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (vs. 41-42).
Come, tread, for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
Here is another picture of the judgment upon the wicked, that they are the grapes in the Lord's wine press, to pour out the blood "up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles" (Revelation 14: 19-20).
(14) Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
Yes, it will be thousands upon thousands of soldiers from all over the world that have gathered against God's people and find themselves facing the Lord God Almighty! And He will judge them all with true judgment, immediate and complete.
(15) For the sun and moon grow dark
And the stars lose their brightness.
It is at this time that the sun and moon will stop, to make that Day like no other day in the history of the Earth, when Zechariah 14: 4-7 says that:
(16) The Lord roars from Zion
And utters His voice from Jerusalem,
And the heavens and the Earth tremble.
All this happening will cause earthquakes and the whole Universe that we can see to tremble and shake. Nothing like this has ever happened before.
But the Lord is a refuge for His people
And a stronghold to the sons of Israel.
All this destruction and violence will be happening all over the world, but God's people who are still on the Earth will be spared and protected, because this is the wrath of God falling on everything that is not perfect. The people of God are His because His blood shed at Calvary has washed us perfectly clean, and because Jesus took upon Himself the wrath that is due us.
These are the people who will enter into His Kingdom on Earth in their flesh, to repopulate the Earth as He reigns as the sovereign King of the World.
When I look at the End Times and the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation, and the Rapture and the Second Coming of the Lord, and all that will transpire, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the immensity of the information God has given us, and the seriousness and intensity of God's love and justice.
O my Father, You are so good, and You love us so much. You want us to know what will happen, very soon now, and You want us to know and be prepared to face it. And to trust You to carry us through whatever we will have to face, wherever we find ourselves on Your timeline.
My Father, You have told us what looks like a complete account of everything that will take place until the end of this Earth itself, but I know that You really haven't told us everything. But we can know a tremendous amount of what to expect, so we should be able to recognize when it comes to pass. Please open our eyes to see and to recognize when these End Time events come. Then we will lift up our eyes, for our Salvation is at hand!
O Father, until then, send out Your children into all the world, so that every living person will hear and understand clearly enough to make a fully informed choice to accept or reject Your most gracious and generous gift.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
Joel is continuing to tell how the Lord's coming will look to Israel and her surrounding nations. This gives us a little more information to add to what Jesus said in Matthew 24 and what He told John in Revelation 14: 9-20 and 19: 11-21.
(9) Proclaim this among the nations:
This is to the nations who surround the nation of Israel, who hate her.
Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men!
Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up!
The Lord says to prepare the armies, gather all the soldiers for battle.
(10) Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears;
They are to put their economies onto a war footing, and re-calibrate their machine-making from agricultural to military implements.
Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man."
Let every able-bodied person enlist, even if they physically aren't quite up to military standards.
(11) Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations,
And gather yourselves there.
God will gather all the armies of all the nations who oppose Israel.
Bring down, O Lord, Your mighty ones.
Our Lord God will gather all the earthly armies, then He will break through the clouds into the atmosphere of our Earth with all His holy ones, His angels and saints.
(12) Let the nations be aroused
And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
For there I will sit to judge
All the surrounding nations.
This valley of Jehoshaphat is not a word that signifies a geographical location, but we know from other scriptures that it will be the Valley of Armageddon.
King Jesus will battle them; the word Joel uses for "sit" to judge, is a primitive root word, yashab, which refers to every kind of settling down or setting up; so He will "sit in judgment" on them by slaughtering them with His Word (the "sword that comes out of His mouth"! (Revelation 19: 15).
(13) Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
This is referenced in Matthew 13: 36-43 in Jesus' explanation to His disciples of the parable of the Sower and the Seed. He said, "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (vs. 41-42).
Come, tread, for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
Here is another picture of the judgment upon the wicked, that they are the grapes in the Lord's wine press, to pour out the blood "up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles" (Revelation 14: 19-20).
(14) Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
Yes, it will be thousands upon thousands of soldiers from all over the world that have gathered against God's people and find themselves facing the Lord God Almighty! And He will judge them all with true judgment, immediate and complete.
(15) For the sun and moon grow dark
And the stars lose their brightness.
It is at this time that the sun and moon will stop, to make that Day like no other day in the history of the Earth, when Zechariah 14: 4-7 says that:
In that Day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! In that Day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique Day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light.God gave the whole story, and when we look in the different places for all the different parts of it, we can put it together in a tentative time line. We won't know the exact way everything will actually work out until it happens (hind-sight is always 20-20).
(16) The Lord roars from Zion
And utters His voice from Jerusalem,
And the heavens and the Earth tremble.
All this happening will cause earthquakes and the whole Universe that we can see to tremble and shake. Nothing like this has ever happened before.
But the Lord is a refuge for His people
And a stronghold to the sons of Israel.
All this destruction and violence will be happening all over the world, but God's people who are still on the Earth will be spared and protected, because this is the wrath of God falling on everything that is not perfect. The people of God are His because His blood shed at Calvary has washed us perfectly clean, and because Jesus took upon Himself the wrath that is due us.
These are the people who will enter into His Kingdom on Earth in their flesh, to repopulate the Earth as He reigns as the sovereign King of the World.
When I look at the End Times and the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation, and the Rapture and the Second Coming of the Lord, and all that will transpire, I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the immensity of the information God has given us, and the seriousness and intensity of God's love and justice.
O my Father, You are so good, and You love us so much. You want us to know what will happen, very soon now, and You want us to know and be prepared to face it. And to trust You to carry us through whatever we will have to face, wherever we find ourselves on Your timeline.
My Father, You have told us what looks like a complete account of everything that will take place until the end of this Earth itself, but I know that You really haven't told us everything. But we can know a tremendous amount of what to expect, so we should be able to recognize when it comes to pass. Please open our eyes to see and to recognize when these End Time events come. Then we will lift up our eyes, for our Salvation is at hand!
O Father, until then, send out Your children into all the world, so that every living person will hear and understand clearly enough to make a fully informed choice to accept or reject Your most gracious and generous gift.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
How The Rescue Will Begin
Joel 3: 1-8
Joel has taken the recent locust plague that the people had just suffered through as a picture of the Assyrian attack that was coming soon, and both of these as showing how much worse the final antichrist would treat the people.
Then he encouraged them with the news that the Lord God Himself will come to rescue His people, to fulfill all His promises and restore everything they had lost.
Now he will show them how the rescue will begin.
(1) "For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
He is setting the stage here.
(2) "I will gather all the nations
And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
This valley of Jehoshaphat is not named here as a geographical place, but a scene of judgment and decision. The Lord will gather all the nations who have fought against His people. We know from other scriptures, that this will be in the Armageddon valley.
Then I will enter into judgment with them there
On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,
This is the charge that they will be accused of:
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
And they have divided up My land.
(3) "They have also cast lots for My people,
Traded a boy for a harlot
And sold a girl for wine that they may drink.
They have dominated the people and taken them out of their own land, scattering them into all the other parts of the world to deprive them of their nationality, trying to blend them into all the other cultures, erasing their own.
They have divided up the land into parcels that have been given to their enemies to occupy and defile.
They have devalued the people, reducing them to cheap property, paying for a night with a harlot with a boy, and a flask of wine for a girl.
(4) "Moreover, what are you to Me, O Tyre, Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? But if you do recompense Me, swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense on your head.
These areas are the well-known ancient centers of the slave-trade. God says that because they have a grudge against His people Israel, to want to exact revenge on them in order to attack the Lord God; then God will turn the tables on them and do to them what they do to His people.
(5) "Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples,
They have robbed the people of all their wealth when they were prosperous, and robbed the Lord's temple of everything valuable to use in worship of their idols.
(6) "And sold the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them from their territory,
They sold the Jews, not just for monetary profit, but to erase them from the world as Jews, making them part of the other worldly cultures. This is an effort to nullify the promises God made to Israel, to make it impossible for Him.
(7) "behold, I am going to arouse them from the place where you have sold them, and return your recompense on your head.
God knows who His people are, and He will allow them to maintain their identity as Jews and bring them back to their land. God will show that revenge belongs to Him, and He will give them back what they gave His people, trying to attack their Lord God.
(8) "Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the Lord has spoken.
The Sabeans are the nation that derived from Sheba, the grandson of Noah, and they settled most likely in Africa. God uses them as an example of a far-away foreign place where He will have His people send the children of those who sold the children of Israel.
We never need to think that we should get even with anyone for anything. This is revenge, and we cannot handle it, it destroys us. We are to trust that our God will handle the situation, and forgive, which releases us from all the power they have over us.
God's enemies who worship idols and demons are the devil's minions, who are deceived by him. They attack God's people because they can't get to God to harm Him in any way.
Our Lord God is going to settle every score, pay off every debt, level every playing field. Our Lord God is perfectly just and fair, and He will see to it that everyone gets exactly what is due him, whether that be judgment, or whether that be reward for obedience.
O my Father, thank You for being God! You are so good, so compassionate, so gentle; and You are also just and powerful and mighty. You will make sure that everything is done and finished. You gave to Your Son to be our Lord, to move along the progress of Your Plan of the Ages, to dispatch the spiritual help to combat the spiritual forces that war against You by attacking Your people.
My Father, You are protecting Your sons and daughters from the machinations of the enemy. You are taking everything he means for evil, and bringing tremendous good out of it for Your people. You are showing Yourself powerful against his increasing fury, because he knows his time is short.
O Father, strengthen Your children against our enemies. Let Your love in us demonstrate Your positive strength against the negativity and attacks of the enemy. Help us to overcome the evil with good. Hold us up in Your mighty hand in the fight, and after all is done, we will stand.
Even though we may stumble, we will not fall. We can be troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We can be perplexed, but we'll not be without help. We can even be persecuted, but we won't be forsaken; and cast down, but not destroyed (II Corinthians 4: 8-9). Father, You have provided everything we will ever need, in every area of living and thinking and thriving.
And even when we don't see how it could ever work out, You already have done the rescuing and reviving and redeeming. You have already finished everything, and told us how it will go, as we live through it. When things aren't going right, that's when we'll look up, for our redemption draweth nigh!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Joel has taken the recent locust plague that the people had just suffered through as a picture of the Assyrian attack that was coming soon, and both of these as showing how much worse the final antichrist would treat the people.
Then he encouraged them with the news that the Lord God Himself will come to rescue His people, to fulfill all His promises and restore everything they had lost.
Now he will show them how the rescue will begin.
(1) "For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
He is setting the stage here.
(2) "I will gather all the nations
And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
This valley of Jehoshaphat is not named here as a geographical place, but a scene of judgment and decision. The Lord will gather all the nations who have fought against His people. We know from other scriptures, that this will be in the Armageddon valley.
Then I will enter into judgment with them there
On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,
This is the charge that they will be accused of:
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
And they have divided up My land.
(3) "They have also cast lots for My people,
Traded a boy for a harlot
And sold a girl for wine that they may drink.
They have dominated the people and taken them out of their own land, scattering them into all the other parts of the world to deprive them of their nationality, trying to blend them into all the other cultures, erasing their own.
They have divided up the land into parcels that have been given to their enemies to occupy and defile.
They have devalued the people, reducing them to cheap property, paying for a night with a harlot with a boy, and a flask of wine for a girl.
(4) "Moreover, what are you to Me, O Tyre, Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? But if you do recompense Me, swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense on your head.
These areas are the well-known ancient centers of the slave-trade. God says that because they have a grudge against His people Israel, to want to exact revenge on them in order to attack the Lord God; then God will turn the tables on them and do to them what they do to His people.
(5) "Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples,
They have robbed the people of all their wealth when they were prosperous, and robbed the Lord's temple of everything valuable to use in worship of their idols.
(6) "And sold the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them from their territory,
They sold the Jews, not just for monetary profit, but to erase them from the world as Jews, making them part of the other worldly cultures. This is an effort to nullify the promises God made to Israel, to make it impossible for Him.
(7) "behold, I am going to arouse them from the place where you have sold them, and return your recompense on your head.
God knows who His people are, and He will allow them to maintain their identity as Jews and bring them back to their land. God will show that revenge belongs to Him, and He will give them back what they gave His people, trying to attack their Lord God.
(8) "Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the Lord has spoken.
The Sabeans are the nation that derived from Sheba, the grandson of Noah, and they settled most likely in Africa. God uses them as an example of a far-away foreign place where He will have His people send the children of those who sold the children of Israel.
We never need to think that we should get even with anyone for anything. This is revenge, and we cannot handle it, it destroys us. We are to trust that our God will handle the situation, and forgive, which releases us from all the power they have over us.
God's enemies who worship idols and demons are the devil's minions, who are deceived by him. They attack God's people because they can't get to God to harm Him in any way.
Our Lord God is going to settle every score, pay off every debt, level every playing field. Our Lord God is perfectly just and fair, and He will see to it that everyone gets exactly what is due him, whether that be judgment, or whether that be reward for obedience.
O my Father, thank You for being God! You are so good, so compassionate, so gentle; and You are also just and powerful and mighty. You will make sure that everything is done and finished. You gave to Your Son to be our Lord, to move along the progress of Your Plan of the Ages, to dispatch the spiritual help to combat the spiritual forces that war against You by attacking Your people.
My Father, You are protecting Your sons and daughters from the machinations of the enemy. You are taking everything he means for evil, and bringing tremendous good out of it for Your people. You are showing Yourself powerful against his increasing fury, because he knows his time is short.
O Father, strengthen Your children against our enemies. Let Your love in us demonstrate Your positive strength against the negativity and attacks of the enemy. Help us to overcome the evil with good. Hold us up in Your mighty hand in the fight, and after all is done, we will stand.
Even though we may stumble, we will not fall. We can be troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We can be perplexed, but we'll not be without help. We can even be persecuted, but we won't be forsaken; and cast down, but not destroyed (II Corinthians 4: 8-9). Father, You have provided everything we will ever need, in every area of living and thinking and thriving.
And even when we don't see how it could ever work out, You already have done the rescuing and reviving and redeeming. You have already finished everything, and told us how it will go, as we live through it. When things aren't going right, that's when we'll look up, for our redemption draweth nigh!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
God's Amazing Plan Of The Ages!
Joel 2: 28-32
This is what Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost, when God fulfilled the first part of this prophecy. He had to go through the rest of what is still future, to get to the first part of verse 32.
Joel has just talked about how God rescued them from the locust plague, vindicating them by restoring the normal climate of regular rains, because they humbled themselves before the Lord.
Now he is looking at the future again, when the end times come.
(28) "It will come about after this
Peter quoted after this as "in the last days" (in Acts 2: 17).
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
(29) "Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Peter said that the different languages the people heard on the Day of Pentecost was because the world has just entered into the End Times, when God had said that He would pour out My Spirit on all mankind, rather than on just individual persons for a particular job.
Joel said, and Peter repeated, that God's Spirit would come on every kind of person from all nations, both men and women, old and young, slave and free. This was the beginning of the End Times, the Last Days.
This particular time period started on the Day of Pentecost and will go to the Second Coming. We are now in the Last Days, and God is pouring out His Spirit on people everywhere in the world, in every nation, every language, every tribe and family.
(30) "I will display wonders in the sky and on the Earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
(31) "The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
Joel says that just before the Day of the Lord, when the Lord actually comes, during the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation that immediately precede His Glorious Appearing, that there will be climactic and astrological "signs and wonders" to herald His coming.
(32) "And it will come about that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord
Will be delivered;
Peter quoted to here to announce to his audience that the time has now come, that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone, no matter who he or she is, no matter where they are or what they've done; if they would humbly turn to the Lord away from whatever else has been their focus, and realize how much He loves them, they can be delivered from their addictions, saved from the power sin has had over them, and be washed clean of all the filth they have been mired in.
That day is right now. Jesus has come to be our Lamb of God, to sacrifice Himself on His altar, the Cross, to fulfill the law of the personal sacrifice (Leviticus 1) for each one of us individually.
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the Lord has said,
Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls."
And Joel tells us that the Jews who are alive and living in Judah and Jerusalem on that Day who survive all the persecution and warfare (Zechariah 13: 8-9 says that only a third will survive), "will look on Me whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12: 10), and all Israel will be saved (Romans 11: 26), realizing that He really is their Messiah who died for them and rose again, and be brought into the Kingdom alive in their flesh bodies to repopulate the world.
When King Jesus bursts through the clouds with His army of Holy Ones (saints and angels) into the atmosphere on His way to the Mount of Olives, "every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1: 7) of everyone in the world alive at that moment.
Then "His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south." (Zechariah 14: 4). Through this new valley, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have been surrounded by the armies of the rest of the world, will run, escaping that certain doom. The Hero will arrive onstage at the last minute, when we all thought it was too late!
Joel is filling in some of these details, as the part of the picture God had him relate. It is up to us to look at all the varied parts of the story God gave us, and put it all together, connecting the dots, and filling in the spaces, all under the direction and leading of God's Holy Spirit in us, that Joel said would come.
O my Father, You are amazing! You have planned out the whole human story, before You ever created Time and made us to be in it. You created our Earth just for us to live here, and put in it everything we would need while we're here. And You told us everything we need to know and put into practice in our lives here with one another, and how to get along. And how to return to our Maker by following Your rules and precepts and laws.
Then You sent Your own Son, who you had appointed and anointed to be our Lord before You even started to create, to come and be one of us to fulfill all the Law and Prophets that explained what He would accomplish here. He came here to be with us so that He could make us fit to come and be with Him where You are.
So Father, our human story is just the beginning of our whole story! In Your wisdom You created the Earth and its environment, the Universe. And You planned out how everything would come about and be and go. You made it, and You will dispose of it when You are finished with its whole story. Then You will continue to create and make as many worlds and universes that You want to make.
We are Yours. And You are our God. And You have made us to be Your own children, royal princes and princesses, to rule with You in Christ's authority, as He rules in Your authority as our Lord. And as such, we will be Your kings and queens to govern all of Your future Kingdom realms!
O Father, You have so much wonderful compassion and graciousness and power and justice and wealth and bounty! Father, You will accomplish all of Your will, You will judge every evil that rebels against Your order, and You will reward everyone who turns to You and calls upon the Lord for mercy and forgiveness.
My Father, please send out all of Your children to broadcast to every living being how great You are, and how much You love us all, every one of us! Father, please, let every single person in the whole world understand what a wonderful, gracious, generous gift You are offering them all, so that every one of them will have a fully informed and free decision to choose, before their minds are captured by the enemy and they no longer have a free choice!
Because every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will have to confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, the Lawgiver, our Savior and Redeemer, the sovereign King over all Mankind and all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, to whom He will present it all, perfected, for ever and ever, Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
This is what Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost, when God fulfilled the first part of this prophecy. He had to go through the rest of what is still future, to get to the first part of verse 32.
Joel has just talked about how God rescued them from the locust plague, vindicating them by restoring the normal climate of regular rains, because they humbled themselves before the Lord.
Now he is looking at the future again, when the end times come.
(28) "It will come about after this
Peter quoted after this as "in the last days" (in Acts 2: 17).
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
(29) "Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Peter said that the different languages the people heard on the Day of Pentecost was because the world has just entered into the End Times, when God had said that He would pour out My Spirit on all mankind, rather than on just individual persons for a particular job.
Joel said, and Peter repeated, that God's Spirit would come on every kind of person from all nations, both men and women, old and young, slave and free. This was the beginning of the End Times, the Last Days.
This particular time period started on the Day of Pentecost and will go to the Second Coming. We are now in the Last Days, and God is pouring out His Spirit on people everywhere in the world, in every nation, every language, every tribe and family.
(30) "I will display wonders in the sky and on the Earth,
Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
(31) "The sun will be turned into darkness
And the moon into blood
Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
Joel says that just before the Day of the Lord, when the Lord actually comes, during the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation that immediately precede His Glorious Appearing, that there will be climactic and astrological "signs and wonders" to herald His coming.
(32) "And it will come about that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord
Will be delivered;
Peter quoted to here to announce to his audience that the time has now come, that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone, no matter who he or she is, no matter where they are or what they've done; if they would humbly turn to the Lord away from whatever else has been their focus, and realize how much He loves them, they can be delivered from their addictions, saved from the power sin has had over them, and be washed clean of all the filth they have been mired in.
That day is right now. Jesus has come to be our Lamb of God, to sacrifice Himself on His altar, the Cross, to fulfill the law of the personal sacrifice (Leviticus 1) for each one of us individually.
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the Lord has said,
Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls."
And Joel tells us that the Jews who are alive and living in Judah and Jerusalem on that Day who survive all the persecution and warfare (Zechariah 13: 8-9 says that only a third will survive), "will look on Me whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12: 10), and all Israel will be saved (Romans 11: 26), realizing that He really is their Messiah who died for them and rose again, and be brought into the Kingdom alive in their flesh bodies to repopulate the world.
When King Jesus bursts through the clouds with His army of Holy Ones (saints and angels) into the atmosphere on His way to the Mount of Olives, "every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1: 7) of everyone in the world alive at that moment.
Then "His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south." (Zechariah 14: 4). Through this new valley, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have been surrounded by the armies of the rest of the world, will run, escaping that certain doom. The Hero will arrive onstage at the last minute, when we all thought it was too late!
Joel is filling in some of these details, as the part of the picture God had him relate. It is up to us to look at all the varied parts of the story God gave us, and put it all together, connecting the dots, and filling in the spaces, all under the direction and leading of God's Holy Spirit in us, that Joel said would come.
O my Father, You are amazing! You have planned out the whole human story, before You ever created Time and made us to be in it. You created our Earth just for us to live here, and put in it everything we would need while we're here. And You told us everything we need to know and put into practice in our lives here with one another, and how to get along. And how to return to our Maker by following Your rules and precepts and laws.
Then You sent Your own Son, who you had appointed and anointed to be our Lord before You even started to create, to come and be one of us to fulfill all the Law and Prophets that explained what He would accomplish here. He came here to be with us so that He could make us fit to come and be with Him where You are.
So Father, our human story is just the beginning of our whole story! In Your wisdom You created the Earth and its environment, the Universe. And You planned out how everything would come about and be and go. You made it, and You will dispose of it when You are finished with its whole story. Then You will continue to create and make as many worlds and universes that You want to make.
We are Yours. And You are our God. And You have made us to be Your own children, royal princes and princesses, to rule with You in Christ's authority, as He rules in Your authority as our Lord. And as such, we will be Your kings and queens to govern all of Your future Kingdom realms!
O Father, You have so much wonderful compassion and graciousness and power and justice and wealth and bounty! Father, You will accomplish all of Your will, You will judge every evil that rebels against Your order, and You will reward everyone who turns to You and calls upon the Lord for mercy and forgiveness.
My Father, please send out all of Your children to broadcast to every living being how great You are, and how much You love us all, every one of us! Father, please, let every single person in the whole world understand what a wonderful, gracious, generous gift You are offering them all, so that every one of them will have a fully informed and free decision to choose, before their minds are captured by the enemy and they no longer have a free choice!
Because every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will have to confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, the Lawgiver, our Savior and Redeemer, the sovereign King over all Mankind and all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, to whom He will present it all, perfected, for ever and ever, Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
Monday, May 18, 2020
What God Promises Them
Joel 2: 18-27
When the people have already been devastated by the locusts, and been warned of the Assyrian invasion and the future antichrist, and they respond by humbling themselves before the Lord, seeking His mercy, throwing away all their idols; then this will be the Lord's response.
(18) Then the Lord will be zealous for His land
And have pity on His people.
This is what He wanted to do all along, He just had to wait until they were ready to receive His goodness!
(19) The Lord will answer and say to His people,
"Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied in full with them;
And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.
He says he will restore their economy and their reputation.
(20) "But I will remove the northern army far from you,
And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,
And its vanguard into the eastern sea,
And its rear guard into the western sea.
And its stench will arise and its foul smell will come up,
For it has done great things.
All the live locusts would blow away, leaving all the rotting dead ones.
(21) "Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad,
For the Lord has done great things.
This army locust plague did great bad things, but the Lord will do greater good things, when His people turn to Him.
(22) "Do not fear, beasts of the field,
For the pastures of the wilderness have turned green,
For the tree has borne its fruit,
The fig tree and the vine have yielded in full.
Even the wild animals will find plenty to eat, with the trees and vines and all the other vegetation getting enough moisture to grow and proliferate.
(23) "So rejoice, O sons of Zion,
And be glad in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the early rain for your vindication.
And He has poured down for you the rain,
The early and latter rain as before.
God will see that the climate goes back to normal weather, with the fall and spring rains coming on schedule to provide the water needed for everything to grow well.
(24) "The threshing floors will be full of grain,
And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil.
Bread will be plentiful and they'll have more than enough grape juice and plant oils, providing everything they need, and more.
(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 promises that He will "restore the years the locust has eaten." All the seasons of failed crops will seem like nothing in the face of the prosperity God wants to give to His people.
(26) "You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied
And praise the Name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
Then My people will never be put to shame.
When the people are faithful to the Lord their God, then they won't lack anything in any way; in their economy, in their relationships, and in their reputation among all the other nations.
(27) "Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
And that I am the Lord your God,
And there is no other;
And My people will never be put to shame."
Then they will have proper gratitude to the Lord, giving Him the credit and glory for everything He does; and admit that the Lord God is the only real God who is above every other god or idol that has ever been worshiped.
This is what God promises those who respond to Him positively, in humility and submission. This is God's character, and it is a promise, not just for Jewish people, but for all people who will turn to Him, away from all the other priorities they had before, putting Him first.
God made the human race to be His own children, but He gives us the choice to decide to love Him back. People who don't turn to Him, refusing to admit they deserve death, are not His children. Jesus called some of the people in His day, children of the devil, and these were the religious leaders! They were the ones who thought they could work their own way to God, and didn't think deserved to die, but wanted to kill Him to get Him out of their way.
But those who realize how much He loves us and done for us already, and humbly turn to Him for salvation from sin through His Son, then He turns to us and causes us to be born into His own family, as His children. He cleanses us in the Blood of Jesus, and puts His own Holy Spirit into our human spirit, making it alive. And this Holy Spirit cuts off our sinful flesh from this new spiritual life, nullifying the power it had over us in our bad habits and addictions.
O my Father, You are so great. You are so generous and gracious to us. We don't deserve any of Your goodness to us, but You want to lavish Your gifts upon us.
Father, send out Your children to share with every living person how much You love us all. Let every person hear and understand clearly enough to make a fully informed decision to accept Your gracious and generous gift, or to reject Your compassionate offer in their pride and delusion.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
When the people have already been devastated by the locusts, and been warned of the Assyrian invasion and the future antichrist, and they respond by humbling themselves before the Lord, seeking His mercy, throwing away all their idols; then this will be the Lord's response.
(18) Then the Lord will be zealous for His land
And have pity on His people.
This is what He wanted to do all along, He just had to wait until they were ready to receive His goodness!
(19) The Lord will answer and say to His people,
"Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied in full with them;
And I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.
He says he will restore their economy and their reputation.
(20) "But I will remove the northern army far from you,
And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,
And its vanguard into the eastern sea,
And its rear guard into the western sea.
And its stench will arise and its foul smell will come up,
For it has done great things.
All the live locusts would blow away, leaving all the rotting dead ones.
(21) "Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad,
For the Lord has done great things.
This army locust plague did great bad things, but the Lord will do greater good things, when His people turn to Him.
(22) "Do not fear, beasts of the field,
For the pastures of the wilderness have turned green,
For the tree has borne its fruit,
The fig tree and the vine have yielded in full.
Even the wild animals will find plenty to eat, with the trees and vines and all the other vegetation getting enough moisture to grow and proliferate.
(23) "So rejoice, O sons of Zion,
And be glad in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the early rain for your vindication.
And He has poured down for you the rain,
The early and latter rain as before.
God will see that the climate goes back to normal weather, with the fall and spring rains coming on schedule to provide the water needed for everything to grow well.
(24) "The threshing floors will be full of grain,
And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil.
Bread will be plentiful and they'll have more than enough grape juice and plant oils, providing everything they need, and more.
(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 promises that He will "restore the years the locust has eaten." All the seasons of failed crops will seem like nothing in the face of the prosperity God wants to give to His people.
(26) "You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied
And praise the Name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
Then My people will never be put to shame.
When the people are faithful to the Lord their God, then they won't lack anything in any way; in their economy, in their relationships, and in their reputation among all the other nations.
(27) "Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
And that I am the Lord your God,
And there is no other;
And My people will never be put to shame."
Then they will have proper gratitude to the Lord, giving Him the credit and glory for everything He does; and admit that the Lord God is the only real God who is above every other god or idol that has ever been worshiped.
This is what God promises those who respond to Him positively, in humility and submission. This is God's character, and it is a promise, not just for Jewish people, but for all people who will turn to Him, away from all the other priorities they had before, putting Him first.
God made the human race to be His own children, but He gives us the choice to decide to love Him back. People who don't turn to Him, refusing to admit they deserve death, are not His children. Jesus called some of the people in His day, children of the devil, and these were the religious leaders! They were the ones who thought they could work their own way to God, and didn't think deserved to die, but wanted to kill Him to get Him out of their way.
But those who realize how much He loves us and done for us already, and humbly turn to Him for salvation from sin through His Son, then He turns to us and causes us to be born into His own family, as His children. He cleanses us in the Blood of Jesus, and puts His own Holy Spirit into our human spirit, making it alive. And this Holy Spirit cuts off our sinful flesh from this new spiritual life, nullifying the power it had over us in our bad habits and addictions.
O my Father, You are so great. You are so generous and gracious to us. We don't deserve any of Your goodness to us, but You want to lavish Your gifts upon us.
Father, send out Your children to share with every living person how much You love us all. Let every person hear and understand clearly enough to make a fully informed decision to accept Your gracious and generous gift, or to reject Your compassionate offer in their pride and delusion.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Will He Relent?
Joel 2: 12-17
Joel has just told them how "the despicable person" (Antiochus) will come and destroy and persecute Israel, and that the antichrist will appear in the last days and be even worse.
So he encourages them in what they can do to put off these prophesies, if possible.
(12) "Yet even now," declares the Lord,
"Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
(13) "And rend your heart and not your garments."
Now return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
(14) Who knows whether He will not turn and relent
And leave a blessing behind Him,
Even a grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?
The Lord always wants us to turn to Him, because He is our Source for everything. Not just of prosperity and wealth, but of life itself, and the breath in our lungs, and the beat of our heart.
He is infinitely compassionate and gracious, and when we turn to Him with all our heart, honestly, sincerely, passionately, then He will respond to us and show us His Truth, and draw us into His own family.
And if the Jews would turn to Him emotionally, fasting and weeping and mourning over their sins; not outwardly with ripping of their clothes, but inwardly in their inner being, letting their heart break, then He might put off this judgment for a while longer, and give them enough crops and grapes to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, trusting that He will also supply food for them.
(15) Blow a trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,
The ram's horn (shofar) was sounded as an alarm to warn of an invading force. Now they are to sound it to institute a solemn assembly, a prayer meeting.
(16) Gather the people, sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.
Everyone was to come to the prayer meeting, the leaders, the kids, the families, even the bride and bridegroom, before they get married, this comes first. Stop everything and come to pray.
(17) Let the priests, the Lord's ministers,
Weep between the porch and the altar,
The leaders, the priests were to stop before they even approached the altar, to break their hearts for the people they were responsible for, the congregation.
And let them say, "Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not make Your inheritance a reproach,
A byword among the nations.
Why should they among the peoples say,
'Where is their God?'"
They are to beg God to have mercy on them, and to spare them from this harsh judgment they deserve. They are to care for the people, but they are to care more for the Lord's reputation among the other nations surrounding them. The prayer is to show the people who worship other gods and idols that the Lord God of Israel is kind and compassionate, and more powerful than all those other gods put together, and the only One worthy of worship.
Even today, when evil people attack good people, or when a natural disaster devastates a populous region, they ask, "Where is God?" Anne Graham Lotz (Billie Graham's daughter) had the correct answer. When we shove Him out of our lives and schools and government, and say we don't want or need Him to interfere, then, being the Gentleman He is, He will back away, and wickedness is let loose. So it is our own fault.
Each one of us is born with the damaged DNA from our first father, Adam, which is called "original sin," or the "sin nature," or "sinful flesh." This is why we think we can do whatever we want as long as we don't get caught. Our culture teaches us that it is getting caught that is wrong, not whatever harmful thing we want to do.
But God is just, He must judge all that is contrary to the good He created for us to have. Because He loves us so much, he will not shy away from taking us to the woodshed for a good licking now and then. It's called "tough love." It's being strong and courageous to teach our children what is right by allowing them to experience the consequences of wrong and evil choices.
God's character is sterling, it is strong and compassionate to discipline His children and to punish every wicked thing. He is fair to give each of us exactly what we need; and in the end, He will even all the odds, settle every debt, and level every path.
Joel is telling the people to throw away their idols and to worship only the Lord God Almighty. To be serious and passionate for the Lord, depending on His faithfulness to His own character.
And then maybe He might answer them.
O my Father, thank You for being our God. Thank You for Your goodness, and Your faithfulness to do what You said You would do.
Father, You are just, and You must administer true justice. But You are also compassionate and merciful, to relent in Your judgment for a while, as You did for Nineveh, when You sent Jonah to preach to them. They deserved the wrath You were ready to pour out on them, but when they all responded to Your word in humbling themselves before You, from the king down to the lowest servant; You relented and held off the disaster for the next generation.
O Father, You have had mercy on America in giving us our President, who is trying to clean out as much of the filth and evil that he can. He is powerfully working to bring Your goodness back into our national life, for the good of our people. And the wicked minions of Satan are vicious in their attempts to get rid of him.
Father, strengthen all of Your children, all over the world, to withstand the attacks of the enemy, and share Your love with all. Let Your peace in the midst of turmoil show our enemies Your care for us. And draw all Your embryonic children to the birth into Your own family.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Joel has just told them how "the despicable person" (Antiochus) will come and destroy and persecute Israel, and that the antichrist will appear in the last days and be even worse.
So he encourages them in what they can do to put off these prophesies, if possible.
(12) "Yet even now," declares the Lord,
"Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
(13) "And rend your heart and not your garments."
Now return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
(14) Who knows whether He will not turn and relent
And leave a blessing behind Him,
Even a grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?
The Lord always wants us to turn to Him, because He is our Source for everything. Not just of prosperity and wealth, but of life itself, and the breath in our lungs, and the beat of our heart.
He is infinitely compassionate and gracious, and when we turn to Him with all our heart, honestly, sincerely, passionately, then He will respond to us and show us His Truth, and draw us into His own family.
And if the Jews would turn to Him emotionally, fasting and weeping and mourning over their sins; not outwardly with ripping of their clothes, but inwardly in their inner being, letting their heart break, then He might put off this judgment for a while longer, and give them enough crops and grapes to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, trusting that He will also supply food for them.
(15) Blow a trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,
The ram's horn (shofar) was sounded as an alarm to warn of an invading force. Now they are to sound it to institute a solemn assembly, a prayer meeting.
(16) Gather the people, sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.
Everyone was to come to the prayer meeting, the leaders, the kids, the families, even the bride and bridegroom, before they get married, this comes first. Stop everything and come to pray.
(17) Let the priests, the Lord's ministers,
Weep between the porch and the altar,
The leaders, the priests were to stop before they even approached the altar, to break their hearts for the people they were responsible for, the congregation.
And let them say, "Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not make Your inheritance a reproach,
A byword among the nations.
Why should they among the peoples say,
'Where is their God?'"
They are to beg God to have mercy on them, and to spare them from this harsh judgment they deserve. They are to care for the people, but they are to care more for the Lord's reputation among the other nations surrounding them. The prayer is to show the people who worship other gods and idols that the Lord God of Israel is kind and compassionate, and more powerful than all those other gods put together, and the only One worthy of worship.
Even today, when evil people attack good people, or when a natural disaster devastates a populous region, they ask, "Where is God?" Anne Graham Lotz (Billie Graham's daughter) had the correct answer. When we shove Him out of our lives and schools and government, and say we don't want or need Him to interfere, then, being the Gentleman He is, He will back away, and wickedness is let loose. So it is our own fault.
Each one of us is born with the damaged DNA from our first father, Adam, which is called "original sin," or the "sin nature," or "sinful flesh." This is why we think we can do whatever we want as long as we don't get caught. Our culture teaches us that it is getting caught that is wrong, not whatever harmful thing we want to do.
But God is just, He must judge all that is contrary to the good He created for us to have. Because He loves us so much, he will not shy away from taking us to the woodshed for a good licking now and then. It's called "tough love." It's being strong and courageous to teach our children what is right by allowing them to experience the consequences of wrong and evil choices.
God's character is sterling, it is strong and compassionate to discipline His children and to punish every wicked thing. He is fair to give each of us exactly what we need; and in the end, He will even all the odds, settle every debt, and level every path.
Joel is telling the people to throw away their idols and to worship only the Lord God Almighty. To be serious and passionate for the Lord, depending on His faithfulness to His own character.
And then maybe He might answer them.
O my Father, thank You for being our God. Thank You for Your goodness, and Your faithfulness to do what You said You would do.
Father, You are just, and You must administer true justice. But You are also compassionate and merciful, to relent in Your judgment for a while, as You did for Nineveh, when You sent Jonah to preach to them. They deserved the wrath You were ready to pour out on them, but when they all responded to Your word in humbling themselves before You, from the king down to the lowest servant; You relented and held off the disaster for the next generation.
O Father, You have had mercy on America in giving us our President, who is trying to clean out as much of the filth and evil that he can. He is powerfully working to bring Your goodness back into our national life, for the good of our people. And the wicked minions of Satan are vicious in their attempts to get rid of him.
Father, strengthen all of Your children, all over the world, to withstand the attacks of the enemy, and share Your love with all. Let Your peace in the midst of turmoil show our enemies Your care for us. And draw all Your embryonic children to the birth into Your own family.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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