Sunday February 5 2017

The Sermon Today Was Joel And The End Times - Part 1

Author: Joel, son of Pethuel

Date Written: 900-400 BC

Joel is a short prophetic book which speaks of the coming "day of the LORD." (1:15)  The name "Joel" means "Yahweh is God."  The book begins by describing a plague of locusts sweeping through the land of Judah, destroying crops and ravishing the land (1:2-12).  The prophet sees this plague as foreshadowing a future time in which God will bring his judgment on Israel and the surrounding nations.

Joel also figures in the new testament, with some 28 references; including the notable ones in Matthew 24 in the Olivet Discourse, Acts 2 at the day of Pentecost, Romans 10 concerning salvation by faith, and the book of Revelation. Joel is a seminal book for an understanding of this prophetic message.

  Joel 1:1-20 (NASB) 

The Devastation Of Locusts
¹  The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
²  Hear this, O elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers' days?
³  Tell your sons about it, And let your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation.
⁴  What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.
⁵  Awake, drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, On account of the sweet wine That is cut off from your mouth.
⁶  For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷  It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; Their branches have become white.
⁸  Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth.
⁹  The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off From the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, The ministers of the LORD.
¹⁰  The field is ruined, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine dries up, Fresh oil fails.
¹¹  Be ashamed, O farmers, Wail, O vine dressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
¹²  The vine dries up And the fig tree fails; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up From the sons of men.
¹³  Gird yourselves with sackcloth And lament, O priests; Wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth O ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Are withheld from the house of your God.

Starvation And Drought 
¹⁴  Consecrate a fast, Proclaim a solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.
¹⁵  Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
¹⁶  Has not food been cut off before our eyes, Gladness and joy from the house of our God?
¹⁷  The seeds shrivel under their clods; The storehouses are desolate, The barns are torn down, For the grain is dried up.
¹⁸  How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle wander aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep suffer.
¹⁹  To You, O LORD, I cry; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
²⁰  Even the beasts of the field pant for You; For the water brooks are dried up And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Verse For Today 

Luke 22:27 (NIV)
"For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves."