SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/27/2015
11:12 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Joel
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Joel 1:1
Message of the
verses: In this evenings SD we want
to take a look at the book of Joel and give an introduction to this second
minor prophet.
We will begin with Joel 1:1 to get the information on who
Joel is: “The word of the LORD that came
to Joel, the son of Pethuel,” and that is all we have as far as who Joel
is. John MacArthur writes from his study
Bible “Extrabiblical tradition records that he was from the tribe of Reuben and
Gad. The context of the prophecy, however,
hints that he was a Judean from the Jerusalem vicinity, since the tone of a
stranger is absent.”
When we look at the order of where the book of Joel is in
the cannon of Scripture it is obvious that those who put the OT cannon together
thought that Joel’s writings were before the Jews went into exile, and not post
exile. In MacArthur’s Study Bible he
writes that “it is believed that a late ninth century B. C. date, during the
reign of Joash (ca. 835- 7:96 B. C.).”
Now as far as the theme of the book of Joel it is “The
Day of the Lord” as this subject permeates all parts of Joel. I have to say that after studying the books
of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and also studying the book
of Revelation this theme has been looked at a lot in our recent SD’s.
Warren Wiersbe writes the following in his introductory
commentary on the book of Joel: “Joel
may well have been the first of the writing prophets; he probably ministered in
Judah during the reign of King Joash (835-796 B. C.). You find the record in 2 Kings 11-12 and 2
Chronicles 22-24. Joash came to the
throne at the age of seven, and Jehoiada the priest was his mentor. This may explain why Joel says nothing about
the king, since Joash was learning the job.”
At
this time I want to quote an endnote from Dr. Wiersbe about The Day of the
Lord: “The term ‘Day of the Lord’ is
used to describe the fall of Israel in 722 B. C. (Amos 5), the fall of Judah in
586 B. C. (Ezek. 13:5), and the battle of Carchemish in 605 B. C. (Jer.
46:10). Each of these local calamities
was a precursor of the worldwide judgment that is promised by the prophets and
also our Lord (Matt. 24; Mark 13).”
However in his commentary he writes “but the main emphasis is on the
future ‘day of the Lord’ when the nations will be judged and Christ will return
to set up His glorious kingdom.”
In
his book Joel will refer to three important events that speak of the day of the
Lord, and the first has to do with the locusts which are seen in Joel
1:1-20. Next the invasion of Judah by
the Assyria which is found in Joel 2:1-27, and then the ultimate day of the
Lord is seen in 2:28-3:21. Dr. Wiersbe
concludes “In the first, the locusts are a metaphorical army; in the second,
the locusts symbolize a real army, and the third, the locusts aren’t seen at
all and the armies are very real and very dangerous.”
We
will begin looking at Joel chapter on in our next SD. 7/27/2015 11:44 PM
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