The Family Bible Journey Podcast

God shows His mighty power to redeem even calamity and disaster when He restores His Old Testament people. As the New Testament people of God, we receive His Spirit, to sense His work even when we are faced with loss. But Joel ends not with an earthly deliverance, but the promised eternal deliverance through Christ our Savior, Who has tread the winepress of God's wrath for us.

The locusts would wipe out the earthly wealth of Israel, but God would restore their fortunes. More importantly than earthly fortunes being restored, God promised to bless them with His Holy Spirit. This passage was fulfilled on Pentecost. When we, who have the Holy Spirit within us, experience earthly trial, we trust the Lord Who is powerful to restore and redeem.

The scroll John eats is both bitter and sweet, just like Revelation. Parts we love and savor. Others terrify us. We take them both together. It is often bitter medicine that makes us well. So too, God's terrifying judgments bring us to our knees, so that we may be restored in repentance and faith in Christ.

Life and love are found in the shadow of the Cross! When God encourages us to live in His shadow, He promises to cover and protect us with His love and mercy.

Joel is the locust prophet. Whether he predicted a literal swarm of locusts, or a metaphor referring to Assyria, or both, Israel would be stripped bare for her sin. Yet, God was merciful and had plans to restore her. Even greater than this, He promised salvation and the gift of His Holy Spirit, who would help His people discern His ways.

We are confronted with yet another uncomfortable reality in this chapter. The living dead are real. They are those who may physically be alive, yet are spiritually dead. We may not be able to tell the difference in this life, but let us live in Christ, knowing that God will reveal both the living and the dead when Christ returns in judgment.

God's heart is always soft towards His people, which is why we can always run to Him, even when we've been wrong. This is love and mercy. May we run to Him instead of hiding from Him, even when we are in the wrong.

Sow sin and selfishness, reap injustice. Sow righteousness, reap love. May we learn how our thoughts produce fruit we may not intend, so that we dwell on those things that are good for us and others.

We see the prayers of the saints, used by God in this chapter, to rain his wrath upon the earth. The incense reminds us of well-founded earthly worship where we participate in the eternal. May we worship and pray, aware of God's presence and power at work when we do.

Hear one of the clearest prophecies of Christ in these chapters. The prophet who loved a prostitute was blessed by God to foresee the undying love of the Savior. He prophecies Jesus's life death and resurrection over 700 years before He was born.