December 19 (Joel 1–3; Psalm 139; 1 John 1–2)

Summary

Through the ESV Bible in a Year with Jackie Hill Perry

Episode: December 19 (Joel 1–3; Psalm 139; 1 John 1–2)
Date: December 19, 2025

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Main Theme

This episode presents readings from Joel 1–3, Psalm 139, and 1 John 1–2, weaving together prophecies of judgment and hope from the Old Testament, a moving meditation on God’s intimate knowledge and care for individuals in the Psalms, and fundamental New Testament truths about light, fellowship, and abiding in Christ. Each segment draws listeners into deeper reflection on God’s character, His justice, mercy, and the call for faithfulness.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Joel 1–3: Judgment, Repentance, and Restoration

[00:01 – 09:50]

• Locust Plague & National Crisis

  • Joel begins with a vivid description of a devastating plague of locusts as an image for severe judgment.
  • Repeated phrases reinforce the completeness of the destruction:
    • “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten…” (00:09–00:17)
  • The destruction affects all—crops, livestock, priests, and everyday people. Lament and mourning are called for.

• Day of the Lord

  • The locust plague foreshadows “the day of the Lord”: a future, terrifying event of divine judgment and reckoning.
  • Vivid imagery of armies, darkness, fire, and cosmic trembling:
    • “The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened…” (02:40–02:52)

• Call to Repentance and Promise of Restoration

  • Despite the coming judgment, God’s mercy remains accessible:
    • “Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping... rend your hearts and not your garments.” (02:54–03:04)
  • Assurance of restoration and blessings for those who return to God:
    • “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten…” (03:42–03:46)

• Promise of the Spirit

  • Forward-looking promise that God will “pour out my spirit on all flesh”; all can receive God’s presence and power:
    • “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions…” (04:08–04:15)
    • "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (04:29)

• Judgment of Nations and Hope for Israel

  • God promises He will judge nations for their treatment of Israel and redeem His people, culminating in ultimate restoration:
    • “But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.” (08:34–08:37)
  • Vivid visions of future blessing:
    • “In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk…” (09:21–09:25)
  • “For the Lord dwells in Zion.” (09:46)

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2. Psalm 139: God’s Intimate Knowledge and Presence

[09:50 – 11:50]

• God’s Omniscience & Omnipresence

  • The psalmist marvels at God’s detailed knowledge:
    • “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” (09:50–09:58)
  • God’s presence is inescapable—whether in heaven, Sheol, or the farthest sea.
    • “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (10:14–10:17)

• Wonderful Creation

  • The beauty of God’s creative handiwork in each life:
    • “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (10:42–10:52)

• God’s Sovereign Plan

  • Every day is written in God’s book:
    • “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written… the days that were formed for me…” (11:01–11:06)
  • The psalmist invites God to examine his heart and lead him:
    • “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! … Lead me in the way everlasting!” (11:43–11:50)

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3. 1 John 1–2: Walking in the Light and Abiding in Christ

[11:50 – End]

• Testimony to Jesus Christ—the Word of Life

  • Emphasis on the eyewitness reality of Jesus:
    • “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…” (11:53–12:01)

• God is Light: The Call to Walk in the Light

  • God’s nature and human response:
    • “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (12:09)
  • The demand for integrity:
    • “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth…” (12:10–12:14)
  • Importance of confession:
    • “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (12:33–12:41)

• Jesus as Advocate and Propitiation

  • For those who sin, hope and advocacy:
    • “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins…” (13:10–13:16)

• Knowing God, Keeping His Commandments

  • “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (13:20–13:26)
  • The necessity of loving others:
    • “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light…” (13:45–13:50)

• Warnings Against Worldliness

  • Distinction between love for God and love for the world:
    • “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (14:40–14:46)

• Warning Regarding Antichrists and Abiding in Truth

  • “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.” (15:35–15:41)
  • The call to abide:
    • “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you… And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” (15:53–16:00)
  • Encouragement to stand firm in righteousness and confidence at Christ’s coming.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On God’s Compassion in Joel:
  • “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…” (03:05–03:09)
• On God’s Restorative Power:
  • “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten…” (03:42–03:44)
• On the Universality of Salvation:
  • “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (04:29)
• On God’s Intimacy:
  • “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me…” (10:06–10:12)
• On Identity and Purpose:
  • “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (10:52)
• On Confession:
  • “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us… and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (12:33–12:41)
• On the Nature of Authentic Faith:
  • “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (13:28–13:32)
• On Love and Light:
  • “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.” (13:50–13:55)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Joel 1–3 (Prophecy & Restoration): 00:01–09:50
• Psalm 139 (God’s Intimate Knowledge): 09:50–11:50
• 1 John 1–2 (Light & Fellowship): 11:50–end

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Tone and Style

The readings are reverent, vivid, and emotionally powerful, with direct appeals for repentance and faithfulness. There’s a persistent theme of God’s both holy severity and deep, persistent mercy. The tone is urgent yet hopeful—calling listeners to view their own lives in the light of eternity and the character of God.

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For Listeners

This episode is an immersive encounter with God’s Word—moving from the devastation of sin and judgment in Joel to the wonder of personal creation and knowledge in the Psalm, and finally, the assurance of forgiveness, new life, and light in Christ from 1 John. It’s an invitation to awe, repentance, and transformation anchored in God’s love, knowledge, and faithfulness.

Transcript

[Reader 1]

A reading from the book of Joel, the word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Hear this, you elders. Give ear, all inhabitants of the land. Has such a thing happened in your days or in the days of your fathers? Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children and their children to another generation what the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. With the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and with the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. Awake you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number. Its teeth are lion's teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it down. Their branches are made white. Laments like a virgin wearing sackcloth for.

[Reader 2]

The bridegroom of her youth.

[Reader 1]

The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord. The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed. The wine dries up, the oil languishes. Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil. Wail, O vinedressers, who for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished, the vine dries up, the fig tree languishes, pomegranate, palm and apple. All the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man. Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests, wail, O ministers of the altar, go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God. Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day, for the day of the Lord is near. And as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

[Reader 2]

Is not the food cut off before our eyes?

[Reader 1]

Joy and gladness from the house of our God. The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate, the granaries are torn down, but the the grain has dried up.

[Reader 2]

How the beasts groan.

[Reader 1]

The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them. Even the flocks of sheep suffer to you, O Lord, I call.

[Reader 2]

For fire has devoured the pastures of.

[Reader 1]

The wilderness, and flame has Burned. All the trees of the field, even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Blow a trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is near. A day of darkness and gloom. A day of clouds and thick darkness, like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people. Their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness. And nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses. And like war horses they run as with the rumbling of chariots. They leap on the tops of the mountains like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in anguish. All faces grow pale like warriors. They charge like soldiers. They scale the wall. The they march each on his way. They do not swerve from their paths, they do not jostle one another. Each marches in his path. They burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great. He who executes his word is powerful, for the day of the Lord is great and very awesome. Who can endure it yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relentless and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber between the vestibule and the altar. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say, among the peoples, where is their God? Then the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The Lord answered and said to his people, behold, I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. I will remove the northerner, far from you and drive him into a parched and desolate land. His vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rearguard into the western sea. The stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. Fear not, O land, Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things. Fear not, you beasts of the field. For the pastures of the wilderness are green. The tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication. He has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter. My great army, which I sent among you, you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions even on the male and female servants. In those days I will pour out my spirit, and I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth. Blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. For. Behold, in those days, and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on.

[Reader 2]

Behalf of my people.

[Reader 1]

And my heritage, Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it. What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. For you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried my rich treasures into your temples. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them. And I will return your payment on your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah. And they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken. Proclaim this among the nations consecrate for war. Stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am a warrior. Hasten, and come all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors. O Lord, Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread. For the winepress is full, the vats overflow. For their evil is great multitudes, multitudes in the valley of Decisions. For the day of the Lord is near. In the valley of Decision the sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and the earthquake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. And in that day the mountain shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water. And a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water. The valley of Shittim, Egypt, shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness. For the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations I will avenge their blood. Blood I have not avenged. For the Lord dwells in Zion. A reading from the Book of Psalms to the choirmaster. A psalm of David.

[Reader 3]

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and.

[Reader 1]

When I rise up.

[Reader 3]

You discern my thoughts from afar.

[Reader 1]

You search out my path and my.

[Reader 3]

Lying down and are acquainted with all my ways even before a word is on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

[Reader 2]

You hem me in, behind and before.

[Reader 3]

And lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night. Even the darkness is not dark. To you the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well.

[Reader 2]

My frame was not hidden from you.

[Reader 3]

When I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me, when as yet, there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. Oh, that you would slay the wicked.

[Reader 2]

O God.

[Reader 3]

O men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.

[Reader 1]

A reading from the book of 1 John.

[Reader 2]

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon.

[Reader 1]

And have touched with our hands concerning.

[Reader 2]

The word of life. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also.

[Reader 1]

For the sins of the whole world.

[Reader 2]

And by this we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word in Him. Truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you. Because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in Him. There is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven. For his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I Am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the Evil One. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil One. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us.

[Reader 3]

For if they had been of us.

[Reader 2]

They would have continued with us. But they went out that it might be complaint that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist. He who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us. Eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you. And you have no need that anyone should teach you, but as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.