Joel 1 - Have you ever seen anything like this?

 

Read Joel 1

We are beginning Joel, but I will start with Matthew 24 as we consider chapter 1.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Jesus told us that we can’t know the day or the hour but Joel tells us that we should see the signs of the times.

Had we kept on reading in Matthew, Jesus also told his followers to note the signs of the times.  He directed us to be ready at all times.

God’s Chosen People were sitting around fat, dumb, and happy not aware of what was coming in the way of calamity.  Actually, they might have been getting skinny and grumpy, but their attitude was same stuff, different day—life goes on.

Calamity was coming both in the near term and in what would be the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord.

The Babylonians would take care of the first part.  The conclusion of this age will involve the entire planet.

Joel’s message was Wake Up!

Your crops won’t grow.  Your priests are helpless to aid you.  The locusts invade like an army that doesn’t take prisoners.

Wake Up!

Those people should have known better.  They were God’s Chosen People—were they not paying attention?  I’m glad that we are not like them.  Right?

Because we wake up every morning saying this is the day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it.  I will work at everything I do as if I am working for the Lord.

Throw whatever problems you have at me. I will trust in the Lord over my own understanding.  I will acknowledge the Lord throughout the day.  The Lord himself will keep me on his path for me.

No weapon formed against me shall prevail!

Or do we get up thinking are we out of coffee?  I have to stop and get gas.  Who left their clothes all over the house.  Does the trash run today?

Do we ever begin the gift of a new day thinking, same stuff—different day?

Do we fall into malaise?  Do we pay homage to the twin gods of apathy and ambivalence?

Joel was telling his people to get out of their daily funk and get their God game on.  Can’t you see what is heading our way?

Hello 2021.

I don’t know if the election for president was legitimate or not.  I don’t know, but I have never seen anything like this before.

I don’t know why rioting suddenly became acceptable and enforcing the law is inherently evil.  I don’t know, but I have never seen anything like this before.

I don’t know why the color of my skin which was given to me by the God who knew me in the womb is suddenly something that makes me unworthy of being a person.  I don’t know, but I have never seen anything like this before.

I don’t know why people celebrate killing a baby but abhor a police officer shooting an armed criminal.  I don’t know, but I have never seen anything like this before.

I don’t know how one contagion can shut down most of the world but all other illnesses and diseases seem to have disappeared in the process.  I don’t know, but I have never seen anything like this before.

I don’t know why censorship only applies to patriotic posts and statements of faith in God.  I don’t know but I have never lived through this before.  I have studied this in history and know of it in other countries, but never lived through it.

The mores of society have abandoned the morals of God.  I am not going to give you a political platform here, but challenge you to Wake Up!

Calamity is coming upon this world.  I can’t say if it will be this year or ten years or a hundred years from now but the signs of the times tell us to Wake Up!

I have told the age-old story of the frog that you put into a pot of boiling water.  It will jump out and you will never see it again. Its skin is scalded but it is alive and plans to stay that way.

But put another frog into room temperature water and turn up the heat a degree every few minutes and in a couple of hours you have boiled frog.  It never knew what happened.

You remember the message in the Parable of the Ten Virgins.  It is to be ready.  All ten fell asleep but when they awakened, only five were ready to receive the bridegroom.

Joel prophesied to a people who knew only the law.  They did not know Jesus, but the stakes were high.  They are likewise high for us too.

Some today are like Jonah.  Intellectually, they know what to do but their hearts rebel against God.  How can you profess Jesus is Lord with a rebellious heart?

The message of Joel to today’s world is Wake Up!  Too many have given lip service to this profession that Jesus is Lord.  It’s time to Wake Up!

There is a term that has gained momentum over the past couple years.  It is Woke America.  It’s fairly accurate but not in the way those who embrace it think.

So many have awakened to the evil around us and have embraced it.  So many have awakened to see the gods of Apathy and Ambivalence as easy to serve.  They require nothing that runs against how you feel.

For those who hold firm to the word of God and do so to the end, we may not be able to do anything about the course the world is on.  I pray that we can but all that we might be able to do is Wake Up!

We are not helpless.  Our hope is in the Lord.

There is one thing that can help awaken this depraved world in the last days.  Read chapter 2 this week and see if you can find it.

Amen.