JOEL Lesson 1
Joel (means Jehovah is God) was prophet in Judah and it is believed that his ministry was during the reign of King Joash. You can read about King Joash in 2 Chronicles 24.
The book of Joel is separated into three parts. The first is the Plague of insects (Joel 1), the second part is the day of the Lord (Joel chapter 2 through chapters 3:8) and the third part is the retrospect of the day of the Lord and the full Kingdom blessing (Joel 3:9-21).
The key phase is the day of the Lord. In Joel 1:15 (NLT) it states that “the day of the Lord is near and destruction comes from the Almighty.” How terrible that day will be. Joel 2:1 (NLT) states “sound the alarm in Jerusalem! Raise the alarm on my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the Lord is upon us.” Joel 2:11 (AMPC) “and the Lord utters His voice before His army, for His host is very great, and they are strong and powerful who execute God’s word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can endure it.“ Joel 2:31 (KJV) states “the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes.“ Joel 3:14 (KJV) “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.“ We will go deeper into these verses in up coming lessons.
The day of the Lord is separated into five parts. The first part is a time for judgements upon the people for their sins.
The first judgement is the plague of locust that we see in Joel 1:4-9.
The second judgement is severe drought and we find it in Joel 1:10-20.
The third judgement is the invasion of enemies that we see in Joel 2:1-10.
The second part is a call to repentance and prayer and we see this in Joel 2:12-17.
The second part is a call to repentance and prayer and we see this in Joel 2:12-17.
The third part is promises of future deliverances and we see this in Joel 2:18-20.
The fourth part will be a season of great refreshing. The first refreshing will be rains which will insure plentiful harvest and we see this in Joel 2:23-24. The second refreshing is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which will usher in a great revival and we see this in Joel 2:28-32.
The fifth part is in the valley of decision which is the Gentile nations who will be judged (Joel 3:1-16) and Zion shall receive a glorious blessing (Joel 3:17-21).
The fifth part is in the valley of decision which is the Gentile nations who will be judged (Joel 3:1-16) and Zion shall receive a glorious blessing (Joel 3:17-21).
In Joel 1:1-3 we see the introduction into the book of Joel. In verse one we see the word of the Lord came to Joel and that he was the son of Pethuel. We know that Joels name means Jehovah is God and Pethual means God’s opening.
In Joel 1:2 we see the Lord is telling the old men to listen and in that time the old men would probably have been the elders but he also goes on to say listen all the people that live in the land. The Lord is asking them, has anything like this ever happen in your day or in your ancestors days.
In Joel 1:3 we see the Lord is instructing the people of Judah to tell three generations about the prophecy. The third letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Gimel and it’s numeric value is three and it means to ripen, reward, nourish, mature, recompense, benefit, foot and camel.
I believe the key definition here is recompense which means to give something to by way of compensation as for services rendered or damages incurred according to the Websters dictionary. So the people of Judah were making compensation for their sins through prayer and repentance which we will see in Joel 2:12-17.
We will continue in lesson two.
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