Blow A Trumpet In Zion (Joel 2:1)

Introduction

And so I got this idea of doing a sermon series on Joel. Now, if you were to ask me before I began this series in December, that has been postponed till now, what was found in the story of the prophet Joel. I could tell you a couple of things. But what’s really going on with this prophet, I could not have told you. So I want you to know that I have benefited greatly. Whether in these two lessons, you’re going, well, you know, I don’t know how helpful that was to me. I’ve learned a lot. It’s been helpful to me, and hopefully it’s going to be helpful to you tonight. So I’m going to be turning to Joel, as we’ll be getting there, Joel is hard to find in the Old Testament.

See, not when we get started heading in that direction. I want to talk to you about prophets, including the minor prophets. A quote from Thomas Finley, no relation to Tim that I know. He said, Words both ancient and powerful grip the reader who will take the time to become acquainted. If the success of a person is measured by the impact he has on later generations, then all the prophets were highly successful. In their own generations, however, they usually preached to plugged ears and hearts of stone.

There had been a departure, a decline, a spiritual decline. It started, of course, in the judges. But by the time these prophets came along, there were wholesale spiritual problems among the Lord’s people, and a lot of people didn’t listen. A lot of people didn’t respond to these men. But if we’re going to measure what these men did, look at the impact they continue to have even now. Many of them, probably like Joel nearly lived three millennia ago. The impact they’re having. And I just want to make this observation, beginning tonight. The life best lived, the one that is going to have the greatest impact as far as God determines such things, is the godly obedient, servant-minded life. Now, young people, if you could mark that down and take that with you, then this lesson tonight will have been successful in its first three minutes.

The life that is successfully lived, the life that is best lived, has God as its focus, renders itself submissive to the will of God, and is involved in assisting others in the journey. And that’s what these prophets were all about. And they serve not only the people of their time, but us, as we read in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 10 and following. As they searched for the meaning of God’s plan of redemption. And Joel actually talked far more about that than probably even he realized, as we will begin to see tonight and in the final lesson. Back in December, the first lesson, as we talked about this prophet of the Old Testament, the prophet Joel, this has to do with Jehovah’s March among the locusts.

A locust invasion that had come upon God’s people as a message. And so we talked about three things in relation to Joel chapter 1. This is the day of visitation, God’s wake-up call for a spiritually sluggish people. We talked about how to respond to adversity because we don’t have a prophet to tell us the meaning of events that happened in our world. Cataclysmic things, and whether it’s a direct message from God like this was.

We shall see at the end of this lesson, and certainly into the final lesson on Joel chapter 3, there’s an emphasis on Zion. The place of God’s presence among his people, his intentions for Zion, the temple, the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem. And we’ll be talking about that going forward. Now a not so good thing happened to me when I finished lesson one and sit down. You know, I like to do my sermon preparation before I preach. It always works better that way. But sometimes I’ll sit down and something will strike me and hit me out of the book. Like, man, why didn’t I say that? And so this gives me the fact that this is a series to come back and to say what I thought when I sat down.

And it’s not what these locusts had done. They had wrought havoc in the land. And I thought of something that would be an application of the results of Jehovah’s March among the locusts. Here’s a practical application that we could make. We could go right into the invitation after this. And that is, we’re not. Don’t put all your hopes in the grapes basket. And I think that’s what so many people do. And I talked a little bit about this morning, and this morning’s lesson goes well with this evening’s lesson, but people put all their hopes in things where there is no real security. You know, you could look at the prosperity of the people in an agricultural society where the product of the grapes, that was their livelihood.

They depended upon that, and everything seemed to be going great, and then all of a sudden, here come these devastating locusts, and it’s all gone. Your means of income is destroyed. And here were all of your hopes. Why do you think God sent the locusts as a wake-up call? Things that they depended upon for normal and everyday life. And so often we put all of our hopes in the grapes basket when those things are not guaranteed for us. Now, we may have had them for the last two decades for all of our lives. But there’s no guarantee that those things will continue. There are things beyond our control that could occur that all these things in which we have placed our hope and security and comfort can be removed suddenly in a blink of an eye, and God Himself could do it.

So, again, we could go right into the invitation. Don’t put all your hopes in temporal things. Because there’s no guarantee.

But in their time, so important to their livelihood and economy and to their nourishment. Faith has greater provision and promise. As we were talking about this morning, so many think faith is the last thing out each. But faith holds promise of so much more than the grapes that so many trust and love. And so, that’s an application that I wanted to make. And we come to chapter 2, and two times in Joel chapter 2, we have this statement. Blow a trumpet in Zion. Chapter 2 begins at verse 1. Sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Again, in Joel 2 and verse 15, blow a trumpet in Zion. Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly. I have another sermon title for this, other than blow a trumpet in Zion.

It’s an urgent summons, an urgent call. The blowing of the trumpet. I mean, you think about that. That would get your attention in first century society for somebody to blow the trumpet. This was a call to attention. You need to rivet your attention upon this. Understand the meaning of this event. And something we noted briefly in our first study in Joel chapter 1 and verse 3 is the importance of passing down the story. Look at verse 3 of chapter 1. Tell your sons about it. And let your sons tell their sons and their sons. The next generation. You see, if we would pass down the story, then we would have the confidence in the God of Psalm 97. The confidence that the Psalmist displayed as we saw this morning in the works of God and his very real presence and confidence in God and in his duties.

If we would pass that story down to generations that follow. How does this work? I can just hear it now. Do you remember that locust invasion back in 87? I don’t know what year it was. Again, we don’t know when this happened in the days of Joel. Remember that locust invasion way back when? For us, it’s hurricane. Remember Rita and I? Well, we used to remember those. Now it’s always going to be Harvey. You remember Harvey? Back in 2017? Wow, that was a year ago. That was 2017. Or 28. No, it wasn’t a year ago. It was several months. But it was in the year 2017. Remember Harvey? How long are we going to be talking about Harvey? You think maybe five years from now? Hey, you all remember Harvey?

Where we got 50 inches of rain. Do you remember that?

1. When God Acts, Never Anything Quite Like That

Tell your sons about the locust invasion. They ate and destroyed everything. It was like a wave. It was like an army that came in. It was God’s army. And God sent them to teach us a blessing. So I want to make a few observations from chapter 2 tonight. The first of which is that when God acts, we can say that there’s never been anything quite like that. In verses 1 through 3, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. Surely it is near. A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people. There has never been anything like it.

Nor will there be again after it. To the years of many generations. This is a standalone event. A fire consumes before them, and behind them a flame burns. I mean, they rake everything. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but a desolate wilderness behind them. And nothing at all escapes them. And he goes on to describe throughout verse 11 the Lord utters his voice before his army. Surely his camp is very great. For strong is he who carries out his word. The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome. And who can endure it? Locusts, like you’ve never seen in your life.

And I thought about it, but I had to redo everything. An outline of the first two chapters. Chapter number one, the first 14 verses, the locust trouble explained. Its unique nature and effects. The end of chapter 1, going into chapter 2 and the verses that we read, the meaning of the locust invasion, it is the day of the Lord. And then the destruction that is brought by the locust, as we’ve read in verses 3 through 11, and then we will see shortly the Lord’s covenant mercy in verses 12 through 14. And then the repentance of the people, the turn of the people, and future blessing. Really a marvelous message encompassing chapters 1 and chapter 2. But in this first few verses of Joel chapter 2, it says, You’ve never seen anything like that.

Some of you know that it was my goal when I went to Florida College, believe it or not, I was not going to be a preacher. I was actually planning to be a sports broadcaster. But I told this story before.

Some of you didn’t know that. I decided while I was at Florida College in my second year that I was going to preach instead of pursue sports broadcasting. But because that was something that I was really interested in as a young person and did some of that in high school for our local radio station, I have enjoyed it my whole life. And I’ll watch the guys on television and listen. And I have favorites, guys that I like more than others. And I tell you’re really good if you can do good at golf.

And one of the guys that I follow a little bit as a broadcaster is Gary Koch. And the reason for that is I’ve had his sandwich. Now, what I mean by that is Gary Koch lives in Temple Terrace, Florida, near the college, Florida College. And at the country club where my parents are members, that little course that winds in the Temple Terrace community, if you go in and eat in the restaurant, as they generally will take me when I go down there, on the menu is the Gary Koch Club sandwich. But I probably love club sandwiches. Had probably that six or seven times when I’ve been in there. One time I was in there, and Gary Koch himself was in the clubhouse eating, and then I saw him go out on the first tee and start his round.

So I love broadcasters, and so I told you the Gary Koch story, but I’m not talking about him. I want to talk to you about Bern Luntquist. Who did SEC football on CBS? And some of you were glad he retired from that. But he also has done golf, and here’s the thing in announcing. As lost a famous announcer, even this week, passed away. Jackson. Alright, I’ve lost it, forgotten his name. Okay, but I’m talking about Bern Luntquist. Keith Jackson. Bern Lundquist. You’ve got to be in the right place at the right time. One of the things about Gary Coke that I’m going to say, he called that butt of Tiger Woods on that island green at the TPC sawgrass. From the back of the green, it came down the hill and curved like this, and it gets toward the hole.

And he is the one that made that call. As he said, better than most, because others had made that putt and not come close. He goes, better than most, and he’s better than most. And then people are still talking about that call. And they talk about Bern Lindquist because of the 1972 Masters. When Jack Nicholas was making that charge on the back nine of Augusta National, and on the 17th hole, he hits that putt and he raises his putter. And as the ball goes in the hole, as Jack knew it was going to go in, Bern just said, Yes, sir. And it’s the classic call of the Master. People ever know Bern Lindquist for a yes, sir. Well, many thought he was lucky to have had that occasion at the Masters.

The announcer that got to make the call of the great putting. But then there was 2005. Tiger Woods seeking his fourth green jacket. Has missed the green on the par 316th. And he has a difficult tip. He’s got to knock the ball up the hill and then let the slope bring it back down toward the hole. They were talking about, Lady Watkins was talking about the difficulty of the shot, and yet could Tiger pull it off. And so he hits the chip, he has to keep it low, and it goes up the hill and as it starts to creep back down the slope. Vern Lundquist is on the call. Oh. Wow, as it got closer to the hole. And then it stopped right on the very edge.

And then a second later, it drops in. And he said, Have you ever in your life seen anything like that? Another classic call from Bern Lunquist. And I thought about that. I’ve never seen a shot quite like that one in golf. And one of the things I like about sports is when I see things, and I’ll tell Sherry, I’ve never seen that before. Something new. And that happens in football because you know the ball is oblong. And because it has little points on the end, weird things happen with the ball that’s not round. And so that’s one of the things that makes football sort of cool. And they can throw it, make it spin, a spiral, you know, all those kinds of things. The greatest concept of football is the ball is not round.

And so we can say about a lot of things. I’ve never seen anything like that. But when you think about God’s story.

How many things do we see in Scripture where you could say, never seen anything like that. Has it happened in your life that the sun stood still for a whole day? Right there. There it was, the sun. It just sort of came up and stopped, and there it was for a whole day. That actually happened in the Bible. In Joshua chapter 10. And you know what it says about that day? There was no day like it before or after. How about the flood? Water covering the whole earth. How many times has that happened?

One time. Never been another day like that. Remember the contest at Mount Carmel between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal? Hey, your God must be sleeping. Call on him a little bit louder, and they’re cutting themselves, these false prophets of Baal, and Elijah’s egging them on. And when it became Elijah’s turn to take the same, hey, let’s put water on the sacrifice. Well, that doesn’t seem to be conducive to fire coming down and destroying something. But it did.

Or the destruction of Sodom and the morals. Or an axe head floating. Like it did for Elisha. And we could go on. We could talk about the end of the world as we talked about this morning in 2 Peter chapter 3. And there has never been a day like that, but there’s going to be one day like that. So many things. And we are so drawn by things. Hey, we’ve never seen anything like that. Harvey, we’ve never seen anything like that. We’ll talk about it, talk about it. But things in the Bible, so many of the acts of God, we’ve never seen anything like that. And that’s what he says. This blow a trumpet in Zion. You’ve never seen anything like this. A march of the Lords.

2. Return to Me With All Your Heart

Devastating destruction. But here’s the silver lining in this picture of judgment. Greater judgments are going to follow. But isn’t it amazing? Despite the obstinates and rebellion of the people.

Yet even now, Joel 2 and verse 12 declares the Lord. Return to me with all your heart. Now, if your heart’s in it, you might go to such extremes as fasting, weeping, and mourning. Because you’ve gotten what you deserved for your sin. With all your heart, return to me. And rend your heart and not your garments. You might just put on an outward display of mourning. Oh, this is terrible. And they would cut their clothes and rend their clothes. This is terrible. And it could be not even true of what’s really in their heart, a real sorrow for sin. He goes, I don’t want your torn clothes. I want your torn heart. And that’s the way the gospel works. Jesus wants us to be penitent in our hearts for the sins that we’ve committed that caused Jesus’ death.

That’s why those on Pentecost were saved, because they were pierced to their hearts. We have murdered the Son of God.

Rend your heart and not your garments. And maybe we don’t overcome sin and transgression in our lives. Because we’ve not yet rendered our hearts for what we’ve done. And despite our failures, and they are many. He is gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil height. I take that for granted. Don’t you? That we serve such a God. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind. We have received such blessings. Extraordinary blessings, as we shall see in a moment. Even a grain offering and a libation. For the Lord your God.

3. When the People Turn, God Sends New Blessings

No matter what you’ve done. No matter the sin that you have littered your path with. No matter the fact that you have come to God and found yourself wandering away. People who should know better. People who should have done better. We have never gone so far and so deep in sin that the penitent heart cannot return. We would think he’s done too much, he sinned too much. But God is always ready to respond to those who truly read their hearts and come to him for forgiveness. I want to study something else here before I get to that. Verses 17 and 18. Interesting here. Where it says in verse 17, well, let’s tip one down to verse 18. Then the Lord will be zealous for his land and will have pity on his people.

Now, if you’re reading from the New International Version or the English Standard Version, they put that in the past tense of completed action. And this really confused the translators. The New American Standard put it as future tense because there’s no real response indicated by Joel’s message. But it seems to indicate that they have responded in repentance, and now God has changed course with them and speaks of completed action.

The Lord replied to them Behold, I am sending you grain, new wine, and oil. But here’s the thing about that. This verse, these two verses anticipate. What has always been God’s response. That when the people return, when the people turn, he comes to them with new blessings. And so whether it’s actually happening in the days of Joel or just being anticipated, God is now responding to them as they turn from transgression and bringing them bounteous provisions.

And then I’m going to make some observations and we’ll wrap this up tonight.

In your book, if you want to follow it number one hundred and eight.

Your small years of breath is my forstand, my fill my door with voice, my life for praise and breath night. Next song from our book is number fifty-six living water bread of life number fifty-six notes into the body flowing through the hill.

4. I Will Pour Out My Spirit

For us to be so he gives me of my soul God before things for our right just like he read for her king shall be for me soul is a rise of fill my soul, I wanted to sing those two songs because they express the bounteous provisions of the gospel for us, and that’s where Joel goes in this story. As we spoke of the changing fortunes of the future, he’ll go on to say in verse 26, he says, and you shall have plenty to eat. I know the locusts have destroyed everything, but down the road he says, you shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied. And praise the name of the Lord your God. Isn’t it interesting that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are filled?

Matthew 5 and verse 6. Who has dealt wondrously with you? That my people will never be put to shame. You’ve hit a you’ve hit a little hard place in the road. But if you fix your ways and deeds, it’ll go well with you. And my people will not be put to shame. After that mention of future in verses 18 and 19, he then calls upon the land to rejoice first. Because he’s devastated the land with locusts. And so first, the land is called to rejoice. And then in the next verse, the animals are called to rejoice. They need the land for their provision and sustenance. And then he calls upon the people to rejoice in this change. And then in verse 28, did you know this was here?

After he says, You know, better times are coming. If you’ll get your heart right with me, he says, and it will come about after this. Well, how long after this? About a good number of centuries, actually. Probably, depending on when Joel was written. I will pour out my spirit on all mankind. And your sons and daughters will prophesy. And your old men will dream dreams. Hey, now that’s part of Joel that sounds familiar. Why? Because it’s quoted by Peter and the apostles in Acts chapter 2. I will pour out my spirit in those days. Yes, this locust invasion is bad, but I’ve got great things coming for my true people. I’ll display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke.

5. The Bounty That God Has Provided

The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon and the blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The conclusion of the quotation in Acts chapter 2 and verse 21. Oh, the bounty. Oh, the bounty that God brought on the day of Pentecost. The blessings of abundance for those who read their hearts. Was anticipating. Joel was anticipating, not just the immediate recovery from the locust invasion, but our recovery from the guilt of our sin. Extraordinary. So I wanted to talk for just a moment about the bounty that God has provided. Can we not appreciate God’s redemption? My life was on a track to nowhere until I obeyed the Lord.

So was yours. This was this is not this is not just about being purchased from sin. This is about life reclamation. This is about the preserving of your whole life. As we talked about success in the very beginning. How the prophets have impacted time for generations, though they preached to people with plugged ears and cold hearts. This is about making our lives truly count for something. We’ve been redeemed people. I think we somehow just see that as a fix for sin. It’s so much more than that. It’s a life that’s headed on a dead end street and made something worthwhile by our God, though we have tragically rebelled against him. And not only has our life been made to something in Christ, we have been brought to relationship with God, our creator.

We talked about that this morning. So many people value relationships in this world above everything else, and those relationships are temporary and only minimally satisfying. At least not eternally satisfying. That’s what this relationship is. We’ve been brought to fellowship. We’ve been given purpose.

Why do I exist? Why do I live? You have a purpose. You’re using your lips that God created to magnify and exalt and praise him. That’s what he gave you this ability to do. And some of us don’t sound as good doing it as others do, but you think God cares about whetherries. You know, I get to sing next to Daniel, Julianne, and Sherry. It’s like a quartet, if we can only have a better bass. Sing there. And Sean’s behind them with some tenor, you know. I just sort of let them sing and try to join in. It doesn’t matter how good you sing. If your heart is invested. You being here among the people of God, trying to live a life of holiness out there in the world.

That’s why God made you. That’s what this whole scheme of redemption has been about. Everything was aiming toward this. And we must look at it through spiritual eyes and not physical eyes. And the fact that we have light. As we saw this morning, light is sown like seed for the righteous. The fact that our path is illumined. This is the way I’m supposed to live. This is what leads me to a blissful eternity in the presence of God. And then there’s the peace, knowing that when I go to bed tonight, that all is well in my relationship with God, and if I don’t awake the next day or the Lord returns, everything is going to be fine. I have a peace that surpasses all comprehension. That’s what we have in Christ when our sins are forgiven.

And then there’s the treasure.

Conclusion

Oh, the bounteous provision. The blessing of abundance. But I got to tell you tonight, as I talk about those six, I could talk about a lot of other things. And you’re probably going to be glad that I don’t. But I could talk about a lot of other things. But these six are enough. And I’ve got to tell you something. There is somebody who does not want you to know the truth about those things.

He doesn’t want you to value them. He wants you to think lightly of them. He’s going to want you to exalt the grapes in all of their forms above these things. And he will do whatever he can to undermine your confidence in these things. And he’ll tell you that there is a great and enduring happiness that is available in what he has to offer that is so much better than what God has. But whatever thrill he provides, rest assured of two things. It’s temporary. Oh, how temporary it is. And it’s inferior. You reject these six things. Let me tell you what you’ve chosen. Less success. Unlike the prophets. You have chosen temporary and you have chosen inferior. And I say that without an ounce of hesitation or concern that I’m wrong.

So have you embraced the bounteous pervision for the soul?

If you’ll just rend your heart and say, I’ve been wrong, I need the Lord. Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. Let’s stand and sing together.