The Minor Prophets- #1 Joel

Joel “Wait for It!” (21:40)

"It is a good practice to sit back and reflect upon all the really great things God has done in our lives. Often times when things look hopeless, God will come through with his promises. Wait for it! He can bring swift and sudden judgment to his enemies, and yours! It is important to remember these God events and pass them down to your children and grandchildren. That way, they can hang on to them too! And boy, anything can happen in the kingdom of God!..."

Welcome to the story of the first of our prophets--Joel. I am sure you will enjoy this video, narrated by Bob Farrell. If you like, you may wish to watch this one in two parts, stopping at 11 minutes. This video is about 21 minutes long. It is the longest in the series. Most of the other videos are right around 10 minutes long. Be sure to watch the video below. As you are watching, fill out the worksheet for each prophet. Click Here for the link for the worksheet!

Here is a link for a last days timeline by Chuck Missler, found in the video. For the lesson plan, with scriptures and questions, click here.

After watching the video, spend some time reading the related scriptures. The highest priority is the book of the prophet himself. The other scriptures enhance the teachings.

Scriptures: Joel ( Entire Book), 2 Kings 9-12, 2 Chronicles 22-24

Other Related Scriptures:

Rev 6, Matthew 25:31-46, Romans 9,10, 11, Habakkuk 2:3,

Questions:

1. What was the main message of the prophet Joel?

2. What impacted you the most about this teaching?

3. What did God say to you personally through hearing the message of the prophet Joel?

4. If you could ask Joel a question, what would it be?

Supplemental Video: Locusts in the news! (Five Minutes)

(If you would rather read the text of the video, I have included it here:)

Well, I have gotten ahead of myself. Let me see, where was I? My name is Joel, which means “Yahweh is God.” I guess I should brag that I was the first writing prophet of this bunch of 12 “minor” prophets… that is, the first one to write down what Yahweh told us for his holy book. I lived in Judah, in the Southern Kingdom at the time of King Joash. He was king between 835 and 796 BC. Talk about drama! That is an entire story in and of itself! I can’t resist… I will fill you in a little.

In the Northern Kingdom of Israel during my days, Elijah was prophesying to King Ahab and Jezebel. As time went on, because of the wickedness they had brought to the land, Elisha was called to anoint Jehu as the next king, and to bring justice to Ahab’s “house.” No, not their physical house. When the bible talks about the “house” of someone, God is speaking of their descendants, their family. Anyways, Jehu brought swift justice, taking care of executing Jezebel herself, and also the king of Israel at that time whose name was Joram, the grandson of Ahab. Jehu also killed 70 other sons of Ahab. But he did not stop there. He also killed Ahab’s friends, counselors, great men, and the false priests that served him. Just when Israel thought they had spit in the face of God and gotten away with it, Yahweh had had enough and brought swift justice. Not only did Jehu kill King Joram, but also King Ahaziah of Judah. His father had married the daughter of Ahab, so they were related, sort of! So Jehu also killed the king of the Southern Kingdom and his 42 brothers!

If that was not enough, wait until you hear this. So here we are now, back in Judah, in Jerusalem. When Athaliah, the mother of king Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she killed all the heirs of the house of Judah. Her grandchildren! Can you believe that? What a wicked woman. This woman wanted to be queen!!! She took over the country and ruled Judah for 7 years. But what the queen mother did not know, was that Jehoshabeath, the sister of king Ahaziah took Joash, the last surviving baby son of Ahaziah and stole him away! They hid him in the temple. Jehoshabeath’s husband was the high priest of Yahweh named Jehoiada. The little boy was not their son, but their nephew. And he was the heir to the throne.

Eventually, the high priest was able to make a plan, along with the elders of Judah and the military to overthrow the wicked queen, and put Joash on the throne. At seven years old, he became the king of Judah. Things were going well with Joash on the throne, because the high priest, Jehoiada, who was really the one in charge, was a God fearing man, and he did many good things… especially restoring and repairing the temple of Yahweh.

However, Jehoiada, Joash’s surrogate father eventually died. The leaders of Judah now came before the king unfiltered, and unfortunately he listened to them. They left the temple of the Lord God of Israel and served wooden images again. Because of this, the wrath of God came upon Judah. Right about this time, Johoiada’s son, Zechariah, who was now a prophet, warned Joash that the Lord had abandoned him. But did he repent? Sadly, no. King Joash killed the prophet Zechariah… the son of his surrogate father!

Remember what I said at the first about sudden and total destruction? What happened next was unbelievable. An infestation of locusts! At times there were 120 million locusts per square mile! We had a wave of four swarms in the land. It was creepy. What each swarm left, another one came and ate! The destruction had been thorough and terrifying. We knew it was a judgment of God. In Deut. 28:42 God had warned this could be a consequence of our disobedience as a nation. After that, another group of “locusts” came too. This one was even more terrifying. They Syrian army! They came into Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people and sent the spoil off to Damascus. The Lord God delivered the people of Judah into the army of the Syrians as judgment against them, and Joash, who was wounded in the battle, was killed shortly afterward by his servants.

So this is where my prophecy comes in. I was directed to speak to the people! The elders, the common people , and the priests. They were to consecrate a fast, a sacred assembly. All of the people in the land were to gather to the house of the lord and to cry out to him. God always leaves us an open door, and this was the way out! We needed to return to him with our whole hearts. Eventually, God did give us a good king. King Uzziah, the grandson of Joash, was a strong follower of Yahweh! The fact that God did respond to His people in a crisis becomes a promise that in “The Day of the Lord” he will be reliable to save them from their enemies, too!

The two main messages I was to deliver through my book was this. Number 1, God is in control of world events. And number 2, God responds to our repentance. What about you? Do you believe that the Lord God is in control of world events? Sometimes it is hard to tell, whether plagues or disasters, like the forest fires or Covid 19 are judgments of God, or attacks of the enemy. Remember, God says he does nothing without first revealing it to his servants the prophets. But it is easy to see from the scriptures that judgments will come from God when a nation is disobedient to the word of God. Could 2020 have been a year of discipline, or just simply a consequence of America’s acts of disobedience as a nation? Could God’s protective hand simply been removed? But many in America, did consecrate a fast, a sacred assembly in Washington DC. They followed the prescription for a nation under judgment found in my book!! God loves a repentant heart! He wants his people to take seriously the condition they are in and cry out to him!

Well, I am merely speculating about your day. I’m not really privy to that information. Let’s get back to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Lots of times things happen in the scriptures as examples for what is coming in the future, and this situation is no different. God wanted them, and you, to see that this situation was a foreshadowing of the eventual “Day of the Lord.” It was SIMILAR to it in some ways, but I go on to prophesy what that day, the day of all days would be like. Actually most of the prophets say a little something about the “Day of the Lord” so it is necessary to take all of the pieces of the puzzle and put them together to get a complete picture. But I was the first prophet to write about “That Day”

What is “That Day?” or The Day of the Lord, or the Day of Jacob’s Trouble. It is easiest to explain it this way. First of all, it is not one physical day, rather is a period of time. Just like you might say to your son, “In my day, we only paid a nickel for a pop,” this is a period of time ranging from the beginning of the great tribulation and the second coming of Christ, through the Millennial Reign of Christ on the earth. There are many different ways of saying it, but it all describes this same period of “end times” or last days. It is called the Day of Jacob’s trouble in Jeremiah’s writings, because the seven-year tribulation is focused on the people of Israel. One of the requirements for the Day of the Lord, is that Israel would be gathered in the land. What a miracle that was in 1949 when the country of Israel was reborn!

My writings teach about the Day of the Lord and what will happen-- Sudden and total destruction will come upon the earth. Just like the locust judgment in our day, there will be four waves of judgment—the four horsemen of the apocalypse found in Rev. 6. There will be wars released, famines, disease, and financial ruin. An army from the North will come against Israel. They will have such advanced weapons of war that everything in their path will be destroyed. However, God, and his heavenly army will also join the battle. This will be the biggest of all battles!

But because the people of Israel have the writings of the prophets, they will know what to do! They will blow the trumpet in Zion, on God’s Holy Mountain in Jerusalem! They will sound an alarm. Remember! They need to remember! They need to do the same thing we did. Return to Yahweh! Rend their hearts, not their garments! There is a chance he will intervene! Yes, they are told to consecrate a fast, and call a sacred assembly. They are told to gather all the people, nursing babies and old, bridegroom and bride. They are to weep and cry out to God to spare his people, once and for all!

The awesome thing about this is that God makes an amazing prophecy in my book. Israel will do this! As a nation they will be saved! Christ will intervene and drive out the Northern Army, when all hope seems lost. He will restore the land and crops, renewing the earth with rain, and also the teachings of the Messiah, Yeshua! He will restore to Israel the years that the “locust” had eaten! They will praise God as a nation again.

But there is more to come. After these things happen, God will pour out his spirit on all flesh remaining at that time. Sons and daughters will prophesy, old men will dream dreams, and young men see visions. Both women and men will be filled with the spirit of the living God! They will receive the gift of the holy spirit, just as the believers had at the time of Jesus’ first coming!

There will be wonders in the heavens in those days, too, but the most wondrous thing of all is that the nation of Israel, the remnant of God’s people in that day will be saved. Saved by grace. Saved by the Lord Jesus. He will physically return with his angels and sit on the throne of his glory in Jerusalem! (Matthew 25:31) They will turn to him, and cry out to him as a people. Read Romans 9, 10, and 11! “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!” Sound familiar? That’s right. The apostle Paul quotes me, Joel, in the book of Romans 10:13. Right after the passages in which he explains salvation by grace. The blindness of Israel to Jesus’ true identity, which has been allowed for a time, will be removed, and the Israelites will be saved! They will finally see Jesus! Ruling and reigning as their king!

In my prophecy, I tell that there will be a judgment of the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Jesus himself explains it in more detail in Matthew 25: 31-46. He calls it the sheep and goat judgment. This is NOT the final judgment at the end of the age, but rather a judgment of the nations. In my book, it says the nations surrounding Israel will be “wakened” and come to the Kidron Valley for Judgment.

That’s right, Jesus will sit on a throne in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is now called the Kidron Valley (between the temple mount and the Mt. of Olives in Jerusalem) and judge the nations. What is the criteria upon which he judges them? It is the way that they treated Israel! He is angry that they have scattered his people and divided up his land. They have sold many of his people into slavery. They have raided his temple and stolen its treasures. Abraham warned long ago, in Genesis 12:3 that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. The nations who treated God’s people well, were the “sheep.” The ones that did not, were the “goats.” Jesus lets the nations know that whatever they did to his people, it was like they had done it to him personally.

During this time, Jesus will shelter his people and make Jerusalem holy again. The mountains will then drip with new wine. The hills will flow with milk, and the brooks of Judah will be flooded with water. A fountain will flow from the house of the Lord! What a sight that will be!

Edom, and Egypt will be a desolate wilderness, because of their treatment of the people of Judah. But Judah…. Judah will abide forever!

There is not one word of prophecy in the Holy Book that will not come to pass. Wait for it! Whether God gives a promise to the people of Israel, to us as his church, or to us personally, he will follow through. His ways are not our ways, and his timing is not our timing. But just when you are tempted to give up, God shows up in a dramatic way! Wait for it! Your deliverance is at hand!

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry. Hab 2:3