Your Family Blessed, Our Church Whole (Zach Doyle, 1/31/2021)
To many The Season of Joel 1 is comparable to 2020 – a crisis.
“What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.”
Joel 1:4 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.1.4.esv
Sleeping Beauty Awakes
“Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.”
Joel 1:2-3 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.1.2-3.esv
Consecrated for War
“The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?”
Joel 2:10-11 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.10-11.esv
Peter references this in Rev 6:13
Return to Lord
‘“Yet even now,” declares the Lord , “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? ‘
Joel 2:12-14
https://my.bible.com/bible/59/JOL.2.12-14
Seven Blessings
Double Blessing
““Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.”
Joel 2:23 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.23.esv
Abundance
““The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.”
Joel 2:24 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.24.esv
Restoration
“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.”
Joel 2:25 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.25.esv
Never a Lack
““You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied…”
Joel 2:26 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.26.esv
Miracle
““… and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.”
Joel 2:26 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.26.esv
Respect
““And my people shall never again be put to shame.”
Joel 2:26 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.26.esv
Divine Presence
“You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.”
Joel 2:27 ESV
https://www.bible.com/59/jol.2.27.esv
The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit
‘ “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. ‘
Joel 2:28-29
https://my.bible.com/bible/59/JOL.2.28-29
Prepare for Battle
‘ Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.” Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. ‘
Joel 3:9-10
