Joel

Purpose: to warn Judah of God’s coming judgment 

• Day of the locusts
  • plague (devastated the land)
  • 
    
• Day of the Lord

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punishment——forgiveness

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Story: punishment…forgiveness

I currently watch two little girls after school. One is three and the other is five. The one who is five likes to put everything in her mouth, which is not the best thing if it’s not food. When she puts something in her mouth that is not food she gets one warning and then no longer gets to play with it. This week the girls were painting and the older one put the paint brush with paint on it in her mouth. She thought it was hilarious because by that point she had the entire rainbow one her paint brush so her mouth was very colorful, but I knew this was dangerous. I took the paint away and she screamed and cried. This was her punishment. She knew what she was not allowed to do and she did it anyways. 

The next day, she was able to use the paints again, with the same rules. I only had to give her one warning and she listened. 

I didn’t want to punish her by taking away the paint from her, but I knew that if she kept it and continued to eat it she would hurt herself. 

Today we are going to talk about the book of Joel.

Throughout this route 66 series we have talked about multiple prophets who pointed out the things the Israelites did against God

There are only three chapters in the book of Joel

• 1-2:11 Mourning Over the Locust plague (destroyed farms/crops)
• 2:12-17 A Call to repentance 
• 2:18 Lord's Promise of Restoration 

The main themes in the book of Joel are punishment and forgiveness

God wants his people to be successful and prosperous. 

This book is very similar to many others that we have read but I think it highlights the importantance of the message it gives

The plague of locusts represents the devastation caused by sin.

1:5 "wake up, you drunkards and weep! Wail, all you wine-drinkers! All the grapes are ruined, and all your sweet wine is gone

• The people's physical and moral senses were dulled, making them oblivious to sin
• Joel is calling them to wake up

We are so used to things how they are that we often fail to see the truth

• We often convince ourselves that it's okay because other people do it
  • Music
  • Movies
  • Jokes
  • Books
  • Teasing
• We are called to be better

In my opinion, this book is a bit drastic. It speak of God causing destruction if we do not turn away from our sin

• There is destruction caused by sin, but I do not think it is God causing destruction on us, I believe it is us causing destruction on ourselves. 
• When we sin, we might look/feel "cooler" but we become a darker version of ourselves.
  • Throughout the Bible it mentions God desiring us to be pure of heart
  • I believe is it the desire to protect our hearts that convicted Joel to warn of destruction

Where is Jesus? Promise to fill all people (2:28-32)

There will be punishment for every sin, but there is a promise of restoration if we repent. 

As we have heard in several books before, Jesus is the message of hope and restoration

The repetition of this is also powerful

Because it is before the time of Jesus,  the people had a different kind of hope than we do now

We are able to have a personal relationship with God, which makes the repentance and restoration process much faster

They were given the chance to change and so are we. 

God wants us, and he wants to give us multiple chances, but there needs to be a moment of repentance in order for us to change and grow 

In conclusion: this week I want to challenge you to wake up

Start noticing what is not right in your life and fix it

If you notice you are gossiping a lot, stop

If you are disrespectful to your parents, stop