The Valley Of Decision
Locust And The Day Of The Lord
The book of Joel is really divided into two parts. In 1:1–2:27 we read about a crazy locust plague that came over Israel as a judgment from God and how the people repented and God restored them.
Then in 2:28 to the end of the book we read about how God at some future time is going to pour out his Spirit to bless his people and how he is going to gather for judgment the nations that have rejected him and his people.
So the first half of the book describes how God fought against his own people to make them honor him alone. And the second half of the book describes how he will fight against the nations who refuse to honor him alone.
I want to take you through the whole book in a summary way, then go back and focus on the main messages of the two halves as they apply to us today.
The Locust Plague
Joel 1:1
"This is the Lord’s message that was given to Joel the son of Pethuel"
We know almost nothing about this prophet. And that doesn’t really matter too much in the end, because his intention is to be a mouthpiece for God, not himself. In verses 2 and 3 he says that his message should be passed on from generation to generation. Then in verse 4 he describes the catastrophe of the locust plaque:
Verse 4
"What the gazam-locust left the ‘arbeh-locust consumed, what the ‘arbeh-locust left the yeleq-locust consumed, and what the yeleq-locust left the hasil-locust consumed!"
The results of this locust plague were utterly devastating. Verse 5: all the sweet wine has been taken away.
Verse 7: the fig trees are splintered.
Verse 9: there is not even enough grain for the cereal offerings in the temple. So in verse 13 Joel calls for Israel to cry to the Lord, because he sees in this catastrophe the judgment of God leading up to the great and terrible day of the Lord.
Verse 13-15
Get dressed and lament, you priests! Wail, you who minister at the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of your God anymore. Announce a holy fast; proclaim a sacred assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the temple of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. How awful that day will be! For the day of the Lord is near; it will come as destruction from the Divine Destroyer.
Foreshadows Of The Day Of The Lord
Chapter 2 begins with another warning that the terrible day of judgment called "the day of the Lord" is coming and that this locust swarm or horde comes early before this day of the Lord.
Verse 2:2
"It will be a day of dreadful darkness, a day of foreboding storm clouds, like blackness spread over the mountains. It is a huge and powerful army – there has never been anything like it ever before, and there will not be anything like it for many generations to come!"
Then in verses 3–11 Joel describes the locust horde again like an army of war horses.
Verse 3
"Like fire they devour everything in their path; a flame blazes behind them.
The land looks like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness – for nothing escapes them!"
Verse 9
"They rush into the city; they scale its walls. They climb up into the houses; they go in through the windows like a thief."
And in verse 11 they are said to be the army of the Lord.
Verse 11
"The voice of the Lord thunders as he leads His army. Indeed, His warriors are innumerable; Surely His command is carried out!"
Then for a third time the locust horde is described as the advance troops of the day of the Lord: "Yes, the day of the Lord is awesome and very terrifying – who can survive it?"
God's Purpose
So far, then, we learn that God is fighting his people for some reason. We're not told why. Which probably means that Joel intended for us to learn more about God here than about ourselves. God has sent his army of locusts against Israel and threatened that the end is near. He is fighting against his people. But is only destruction in his mind? No. Verses 12–14 tell us more about this warrior God:
Verses 12–14
“Yet even now, the Lord says, return to me with all your heart – with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your garments! Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love – often relenting from calamitous punishment. Who knows? Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, and leave blessing in his wake – a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God!”
Even though God has threatened destruction of his own people he holds out the opportunity of repentance and salvation. If they will repent, he will stop.
So in verses 15–17 Joel calls for fasting, and the priests pray for God not to make his heritage a byword among the nations. They humbled themselves and appealed to God's jealousy for his chosen people; and he responded in
Verse 18
"Then the Lord became zealous for His land; He had compassion on His people."
He turned away from judgment; the climactic day of the Lord which had been threatening is withdrawn into the more distant future; and verses 19–27 describe the stunning restoration which God promises to the land.
Verses 25–27 show what God was really after in fighting with his people.
I will make up for the years that the ‘arbeh-locust consumed your crops – the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust – my great army that I sent against you. You will have plenty to eat, and your hunger will be fully satisfied; you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has acted wondrously in your behalf. My people will never again be put to shame. You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God; there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.
The purpose of God in sending the locust against his people is to secure their undivided allegiance: "You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the Lord your God; there is no other"
Evidently, the cause of the locust plague had been the people's half-hearted allegiance. Some of their affections had gone after things other than God. He was not their only love. So he fought against his own people. There are very few things more dishonoring to God and dangerous for us than half-hearted love of God.
The Day of Judgment and Blessing coming
In the second half of the book, Joel, predicts the events that will precede the day of the Lord.
Verse 28
"After all of this I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; your young men will see prophetic visions."
Sometime in the future Joel sees a time of overflowing spiritual blessing beyond the prosperity which God provided after the locust plague. But this benefit applies only to everyone who "call on the name of the Lord" (according to verse 32).
Verses 30–32
“I will produce portents both in the sky and on the earth – blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sunlight will be turned to darkness and the moon to the color of blood, before the day of the Lord comes – that great and terrible day! It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who survive, just as the Lord has promised; the remnant will be those whom the Lord will call.”
So Joel sees two things coming as the day of the Lord approaches: one is a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit (2:28, 29), and the other is a terrible time of Gods judgment. He had fought against his own people in the past to lead them to salvation. He will fight against the nations in the future who reject his salvation and his people.
This final world-end judgment is described in chapter 3. First, verses 1 and 2,
Verses 1,2
"For look! In those days and at that time I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem. Then I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment against them there concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance, whom they scattered among the nations. They partitioned my land"
The word Jehoshaphat means "Jehovah judges."
Joel sees a great day coming when God will vindicate his name by judging all who have rejected him. Verse 12 describes the scene as a great judgment: "Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about." Verse 14 describes crowds in the valley: "crowds in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!" This does not mean people come there to make a decision; they come to experience God's decision. God is the Decider in the valley of decision. The valley of decision is the same as the valley of Jehoshaphat, and "decision" (or verdict) is virtually the same as "judgment."
So Joel sees a future with two sides: salvation and blessing for those who call on the name of the Lord, but judgment and destruction for the people who go their own way and reject God. The contrast is laid out finally in Verses 16-21
Verses 16
"The Lord roars from Zion; from Jerusalem his voice bellows out. The heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people; he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel."
At the end of the age, when the day of the Lord comes, God will meet us either roaring or as a refuge and stronghold.
And now, just as the first half of the book ended in 2:27 with the purpose of God:
"You will be convinced . . . I am the Lord your God; there is no other"
the second half begins to close in 3:17 with the same purpose revealed:
"You will be convinced (in light of all this) that I the Lord am your God"
The purpose of God in the locust and the purpose of God in the final day of the Lord are the same: to make known that he alone is God and is to be loved and worshiped in allegiance and served above everything.
What does this have to do with me?
So now what is God's word to us in these two halves of Joel's prophecy? There are three things I think we should take to heart.
First, We must never lose sight of God's purpose in history. His purpose is to be God in the eyes of all the world. "You will be convinced . . . I am the Lord your God; there is no other" If we are God's people, everything we do must have this focus.
The church is rendered ineffective because we are full of people with dysfunctional relationships and feelings and self-concepts at the center of our attention. People are bored with the very un-amazing results of social media and our obsession with unrealistic pictures of ourselves. And it is time that, at least in the church, we focus on deeper things and truth. Ad nauseam gobs of weak and feeble personal problems would all be swallowed up if we could learn to stand and live on the real truth of God whose purpose is to be God alone.
The first lesson of the prophet Joel for our self-centered 21st century is this: God has a purpose, and he will achieve it—He will be God alone in the eyes of all the world.
Second, if our hearts wander from God, he will fight against us to bring us to repentance. He is a jealous God and will have our hearts 100%. When he says in
Joel 2:12
"Return to me with all your heart"
It is clear, what he is fighting for: all our heart, not a piece on Sunday and a piece at mealtime and a piece at bedtime. If you are his, he will fight you until you give him all your heart all the time.
Third, and finally, let’s pray and seek God intentionally for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit promised in 2:28, 29. At Pentecost Peter said that the coming of the Holy Spirit on Jesus' disciples was a fulfillment of Joel 2:28, 29: in Acts 2:16
But that was just the beginning of the blessing. We have only received the down payment of the Spirit. The prophecy is far from complete.
We know it has not yet been fulfilled, not only because the church is so far from ideal but also because the people of Israel persist in unbelief. They have been broken off because of their unbelief, and we Gentiles have been grafted in to the root of the covenant and made seed of Abraham and heirs of the promise (Galatians 3:14, 29; Romans 11:17ff.).
The scripture promises that one day Israel will be converted, accept Jesus as the Messiah; and then the prophecy of the Spirit will have its final fulfillment. So let us pray intentionally and ask God to pour out his Spirit and wake us up. Pray for the conversion of Israel that we might be united in one holy people of God. Then when the day of the Lord comes and all the nations are gathered for judgment in the valley of decision, the Lord will be our refuge, and we will confess with joy that he alone is God and is to be loved, worshiped in allegiance and served above everything.