Transcript
A (0:00)
Welcome to A Year in the Bible with daily grace. This year, we want to spend a few minutes with you every day walking through our study, Christ in All of Scripture. Each week we will dive deeply into two passages of scripture, one from the Old Testament and one from the new, seeing how they connect and point to Jesus.
B (0:17)
Whether you are doing the study yourself or just following along with us here, we are hopeful that through studying these passages each week, you will see how Christ is not only present throughout the entire biblical story, but but the center of it. Hi, friends. Welcome back to Year in the Bible. I'm Alexa and this is my co host, Beth.
A (0:35)
Hey, everyone. So today we are continuing our conversation about Joel 228 29. We're going to be unpacking the context of this passage and looking at what it teaches us about the character of God. That's right.
B (0:48)
So Beth, can you tell us about the context here? Where does Joel 2:28:29 fit in the biblical story?
A (0:54)
Yeah, so this is a fun question for this passage, because of all the prophets, Joel is one of the ones that we actually know the least about. So while many prophetic books begin with a description of where the prophet is, what king was reigning at the time they were speaking, and some even tell us exactly what year the prophet was speaking in. But Joel doesn't give us any of that information. All we know about Joel is his father's name. However, given what is written in the book, as well as some of the other historical factors, many scholars assume that this book was written in Judah before the people were exiled to Babylon. But even though we don't know for certain the historical context, we can still learn a lot about what Joel is speaking about from the book itself. So, like all of the prophets we have studied so far, Joel is pronouncing judgment on God's people for their idolatry and disobedience to his commands. The first half of chapter one condemns the people for their actions and tells them to prepare themselves for God's judgment, which is what he goes on to describe in the second half of chapter one and in chapter two.
B (1:53)
That's super helpful. Do you want to help us understand what this judgment will entail that Joel is speaking about?
A (1:58)
Yeah. So Joel tells his people about a day that is coming that he calls the day of the Lord. And this is a day that's actually mentioned in many of the different prophetic books. On this day, God's judgment will fall on the people, and it will not be be pretty. He says explicitly in Joel 2:11 that the day of the Lord is terrible and dreadful. Who can endure it? But then, after describing all the horrific events of that day, Joel goes on to call God's people to repentance. Joel 2:12, 14 is actually really important here, so I'm going to read it for us. It says, even now, this is the Lord's declaration. Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and he relents from sending disaster. Who knows, he may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him. So you can offer a grain offering and a drink offering to the Lord your God. So Joel here is encouraging the people to repent and turn back to the Lord.