14
Kukaties hän kääntyy ja katuu, ja jättää jälkeensä siunauksen, ruokauhrin ja juomauhrin Herralle teidän Jumalallenne.
Joel 2:14
SWORD version by Tero Favorin (tero at favorin dot com)
Exploring the Meaning of Joel 2
Napsal(a) Rev. George McCurdy
In Joel Chapter 2, the inner story is this:
Because sensual people had destroyed the "whole church" with falsities and evil, it was time for the Lord to come and execute His judgment. The variety of insanities of the sensual people caused good and truth, and knowledges, to be dispersed.
The Lord was going to wage war against the sensual people. He blew the trumpet to sound the alarm. His approach would cause those who were opposed to Him to tremble. Upon the proud and resistant, there was to be a terrible judgment. The evil felt the approach of the Lord, and they did not want to lose their power.
So the evil took on the appearance of "steed horses." They hooked themselves up to chariots. They started fires in the stubble of the field. A call was made to form up a mighty army. They lined up in a formation and did not break rank. They lunged with their weapons, running throughout the city. They climbed the walls of the city, breaking through the windows of the houses like thieves.
The battle was not without some temporary negative aspects. The action of the sensual person caused the darkening of the sun and moon, and it made the stars of heaven fall from the sky.
Another call was made by the Lord to His people. He asked them to return to Him with "all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and mourning…Rend your hearts and not your garments." The exhortation here is to be converted and repent, and to be wise.
We are taught that the Lord will establish the church again; He will give it goods and truths, and He will remove evil and thus hell. The new church will have trust in the Lord and will acknowledge Him from the heart. The Divine of the Lord will fill those of the new church with all things, and He will vivify them. Falsities of evil and evils of falsity will dissipate in the "day of His judgment." Those who acknowledge the Lord will be saved.
The theme of this chapter is a call to "awake," to hear the Word of the Lord and respond to His battle cry. For there is no doubt regarding the outcome of this battle: The Lord will, in the end, win the battle for His Word and His Church.
Joel 1
1
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.
5
Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
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.
9
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn.
10
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
11
Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
12
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
13
Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
14
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
15
Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
16
Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17
The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
18
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
19
O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
20
The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
