January 29 Daily Discovery

Read Joel Chapter 1

The Story of the Great Judgment

 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

² Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

³ Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

⁴ That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

~ Joel 1:1-4

Joel is the first of the prophets (a contemporary of Elisha) to develop details concerning a future judgement of Israel and Judah as well as the other nations, a great "day" of judgement he calls the day of the Lord.

This period of time (the day) would bring extreme pain and misery to God's people, but in the end God would redeem them.

A Terrible Story for Generations

¹⁵ Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

~ Joel 1:15

This would be such an awful time, that the history would be routinely spoken of for four generations.

A Pestilence

That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.

Their crops were going to be utterly consumed by insects.

An Invading Army

⁶ For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

⁷ He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

⁸ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

~ Joel 1:6-8

A Famine

A drought follows.  No water.  The army sets fire to the dry land.  Seeds that have been planted simply rot beneath the dry clods.

The Day of the Lord

This event was far in the future from the Old Testament prophets.  New Testament writers write this as an "imminent, yet future event."

• Jesus tells about it in Matthew 24.
• Paul explains it in 1 Thess. 5
• Peter expounds upon it in 2 Pet. 3

The New Testament writers spoke of this as "soon".

If we interpret the Bible literally, all of these events, including the return of Christ, the great tribulation, and the millenial reign of Christ with His angels and resurrected saints, are all in our past.

Where would that put us now? 

We would be in "the little season" following the millennium.

20 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

² And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

³ And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

⁴ And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

⁵ But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

⁶ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

⁷ And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

⁸ And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

⁹ And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

~ Rev. 20:1-9

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Continue Your Search

In this chapter, do you see any: Commands to Obey, Warnings to Heed, Promises to Claim, Examples to Follow, Vices to Avoid, Praises to Emulate, Prayers to Use, Principles by which to Live, Questions to Ask or Actions to Take?

See: Berean Fellowship Bible Study Method