Believe His Promises (Joel 2:18-27)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2015 9:26 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  “Believe His Promises!”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Joel 2:18-27

            Message of the verses:  “18 Then the LORD will be zealous for His land And will have pity on His people. 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. 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." 21 Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad, For the LORD has done great things. 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. 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. 24 The threshing floors will be full of grain, And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. 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. 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. 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.”

            I can see the grace of God in this passage.  In our Bible study I had mentioned, as we were looking at chapters 15-16 of Ezekiel and someone mentioned that the Old Testament was all about the Law, while the New Testament is all about grace.  I said that there is grace in the Old Testament just as in the New Testament, for Paul wrote that we are saved by grace through faith and this applies to those who believed and were saved in the Old Testament as they looked forward to the Messiah and we look back at Him.  God is surely show His grace to Israel in this passage and we see this a lot in the books of the OT prophets as God seems to first of all speak of judging Israel for their sins and then next He speaks to them about what will happen in the future, and many times He is referring to what will happen during the Kingdom Age, the Millennial Kingdom.

            This passage also had an effect on Israel in the OT time as we have already mentioned that the Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrians which is described in Isa. 37:36-38.  Dr. Wiersbe writes that some believe that Psalm 126 was written or grew out of this event, “for it describes a sudden surprising deliverance that startled the nation,” and Judah’s return from their Babylon captivity was neither sudden nor a surprise. 

“1 A Song of Ascents. » When the LORD brought back the captive ones of Zion, We were like those who dream. 2  Then our mouth was filled with laughter And our tongue with joyful shouting; Then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." 3 The LORD has done great things for us; We are glad. 4 Restore our captivity, O LORD, As the streams in the South. 5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. 6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him (Psalm 126 1-6).”  Dr. Wiersbe writes Psalm 126:5-6 describe the restoration of  the ravaged earth and the return of the harvests.  This fulfilled what Isaiah promised to King Hezekiah (Isa. 37:30).”

Joel speak of what God will do for Israel in the future, and Dr. Wiersbe quotes Charles H. Spurgeon:  “You cannot have back your time, but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned…It is a pity that they should have been locusts-eaten by your folly and negligence; but if they have been so, be not hopeless concerning them.”

We can see from 2:27 “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.”  God is saying that He will do this for Israel so that they will praise His name, a name that indeed is worthy of all praise.

Dr. Wiersbe concludes by writing something that we need in our land:  “As never before, our lands today need healing.  They are polluted by the shedding of innocent blood and the exploiting of both resources and people.  We can claim God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 because we are ‘His people.’”

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”  (2 Chron. 7:14 AV)

8/5/2015 9:50 PM