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Joel 2:18-20

Lesson # Joel 2:18-20
Study Material - Joel 2:18-20

You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.



Joel 2:18-20

18 Then will the LORD [Yahovah] be jealous [qana] for his land [erets] , and pity [chamal] his people [am] .
19 Yea, the LORD [Yahovah] will answer [anah] and say [amar] unto his people [am] , Behold, I will send [shalach] you corn [dagan] , and wine [tiyrowsh] , and oil [yitshar] , and ye shall be satisfied [saba] therewith: and I will no more make [nathan] you a reproach [cherpah] among the heathen [gowy] :
20 But I will remove far off [rachaq] from you the northern [tsaphowniy] army, and will drive [nadach] him into a land [erets] barren [tsiyah] and desolate [shamamah] , with his face [paniym] toward the east [qadmowniy] sea [yam] , and his hinder part [cowph] toward the utmost [acharown] sea [yam] , and his stink [ba'osh] shall come up [alah] , and his ill savour [tsachanah] shall come up [alah] , because he hath done [asah] great things [gadal] . KJV-Interlinear


18 Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, And will have pity on His people. 19 And 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. 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.' NASB


In return for a genuine repentance back toward God, then God will have great pity on those who belong to Him. He will treat those (believers) who belong to Him as a parent who jealously and zealously gives and restores gifts (grain, new wine, oil) to His own children. This is the representation of Gods response to those who move away from the embracing of the world and return to God and embrace His will.

Recall (again) our study of how God controls history - through His direct intervention, through His indirect intervention, and through His permission.

When the nation (or individual) turns away from God, then God graciously turns away from them. God does not impose Himself where He is not wanted. Thus those who turn to the world make themselves at risk to the ways of the world.

The invading forces of the world, be they man, beast, insect, virus or what have you, will be given permission to have their way with the negative believer. Since man is by far the lessor power than anything in the world, then mankind places himself at the worlds mercy. In our study we have called this the jungle environment.

Now, those who get the wake up call, and genuinely turn themselves back to God, to those, God is gracious and will return with His intervention in world history. He will take the insolent pride of the invading force and turn it into disaster. The invader thinking it has done great things will get its just punishment. And the ultimate result is that the invader, coming to destroy the land, to make it desolate, to make a mockery of the chosen of God, then God will return on them (the invader) that same intended destruction and ultimate reproach that it intended on its victim.

The enemy will be disbursed and defeated. The rod of discipline which God allowed to come on those who have been negative, will itself be thrown into the fire of judgment.

Will the entire enemy be defeated? Not always. Often remnants are left behind to become yet another force to be dealt with should the believing nation (or individuals) once again turn their backs on God..

Three things then drive history. First there is the attitude of mankind toward Jesus Christ (salvation or no salvation). Second there is the attitude of believers toward Bible doctrine (spiritual growth or no spiritual growth). And third, there is the history of humanity as recorded in the Divine Decrees. All three of these things are interrelated and cannot be separated out one from the others.

Often times attitude toward Christ will guide history, however God will override human attitudes in behalf of those who have a genuine desire for a relationship with God. Example: We have just finished the study of the gospels. In that study you recall the various attitudes toward Christ by various peoples or groups of people. The overwhelming attitude was against Christ. God did not however withdraw His support for the world but instead imposed His desire for salvation for the world. Christ went to the Cross to accomplish that.

Simultaneously, those who wanted a relationship with God, were blessed. Those who turned their back against God (Judea), were eventually wiped out in 70 A.D. So all three situations can occur virtually simultaneously in history.

The invading force, whether animal or human, is a very self righteous force. Now animals do not have self righteousness, however any anti-human actions follow the conceptual pattern of arrogance. That is, anything which presumes to pursue the laws of the jungle in a heartless and destructive manner.

The outcome, when people turn back to God, is the death of the invader. Death comes with great stench as with the decaying of huge numbers of locusts, which are in view here.

But the Day of the Lord, which we are really studying here, is going to happen at the end of the Tribulation. That stench which will rise out of the dead defeated bodies of all of humanity which turned and remained against God, will continue for six months after the Second Advent. It will take that long to bury the dead. Why so long? Why couldn't Christ simply evaporate all the dead from existence? Because the believers who will survive into the Millennium, need a very strong reminder, to carry them for the next 1000 years. There is nothing stronger than the memories of the stench of a very violent post war battlefield cleanup. We haven't gotten to the study of that final war, but we will in due course. Needless to say it is going to be gruesome ... a ... the war that is, not our study.

In our current history of today we have our anti-God attitudes in the form of liberal politicians, in the form of arrogant terrorists, in the form of indifferent common people of the world, and so forth. There is no shortage of negative attitudes, and of those who choose to operate within the environment of the jungle of life.

The result? Well, all we have to do is watch history unfold right in front of our eyes. Often we will not see the purpose of God until we can look back in hindsight and then we can usually see or understand where things are going and perhaps why. That is if we have a large enough window in history to view through.

Anyway, regardless of the history of the world and its current direction, our primary concern is how we are going to approach our spiritual life and our relationship with God. History for the world will be taken care of by God. Over that we have no control. But our own personal spiritual growth, we do have power over, and that power comes simply from our daily decision to study, to learn, to apply what we learn to our daily life, and to grow up to spiritual maturity. That is our ultimate objective in life. Without a spiritual life, then nothing else matters. Nothing!

God treats those who belong to Him with great generosity. Ever wish you had a very rich daddy who loved you dearly? Well you really do have an even better and richer connection than anything you could imagine.

End of lesson.

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.



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