Journal Challenge: Day 1

This last week at Journey Youth Camp, I challenged my students to keep a journal for 30 days once we returned home. This serves multiple purposes. The first is it creates a habit of getting into the Word daily. The second is so that they can look back and remember what God taught them. Instead of writing mine down to myself, I decided I would keep a journal on my blog. As I was trying to decide where I should start, I felt I should look at the Old Testament minor prophets I had never previously studied. So, I am starting with Joel.

Journal: Day 1

The hard part with these minor prophets is that you get very little context to what was going on in the land of Israel or Judah at the time of the writing. Joel is one of those books where we just do not know when it was written. Best guesses put it somewhere between 800-835 BC during the reign of Joash in Judah. With Joel, God, again, is pronouncing judgment upon His own people for their disobedience and sin. However, he does proclaim grace and mercy upon His people once they return to Him. As I read this, I cannot help but draw parallels to Revelation. From the swarms and hordes of locusts to the sun being darkened and the moon turning to blood. If these events truly came to pass in Judah during this time, there would be a record of it in either 2 Kings or 2 Chronicles.

Alas, there is no record of this happening. This leads me to believe the words Joel received from the Lord were prophetic for a time 800 years in the future. My clues? After words of terror about earthquakes and the sun and moon being darkened, God says this: "'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.'" Now, to understand this "clue" of mine, you must understand the word "rend." The word "rend" means to "tear apart." In the Old Testament, the Jewish people would tear their garments in moments of great distress and agony, whether physical or because of sin. What God is calling them to do here is to tear their hearts instead. Allow themselves to be fully broken inside, not just make a show of it on the outside. The next step in this clue, is when God says that after they come back to Him, His people will "never again be put to shame." He says that twice (2:26-27).

Now, we know that later on in history, both Judah and Israel were taken captive and spent 70 years in captivity, so, what is God talking about? Simple. Look at verse 28: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those I will pour out my Spirit."

This isn't talking about some follow the rules and you'll be ok stuff. This is God saying that His Spirit will come and dwell with and within man. This is the reason why His people will never be to shame again. Listen, we WILL NOT be put to shame. Why? Look at Romans 5:5: "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

There is the fulfillment of Joel 2:28-29. It is through God's Holy Spirit that we have hope, and that hope is a symbol of love which will not put us to shame. It is also through God's Holy Spirit that we have our spiritual gifts, which include all manner of prophecy (verbal prophecy, dreams, and visions).

So, this is my challenge, based on my readings and diggings tonight: rend your heart before God. Be broken before Him over your sin and call upon His name as your source of life and meaning, and you will not be put to shame.