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Joel 1:1

Lesson # Joel 1:1 Study Material - Joel 1:1 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Joel 1:1 1 The word [dabar] of the LORD [Yahovah] that came to Joel [Yow'el] the son [ben] of Pethuel [Pathuw'el] . KJV-Interlinear 1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. NASB The name Joel means 'Jehovah is God.' His fathers name, Pethuel, means 'sincerity of God,' or 'godly simplicity,' or 'persuaded of God.' Though we don't know much about the dating of when Joel lived, we do know a great deal about his attitude and that of his father, toward God. The date of his life is not really relevant. He gives us a picture of the devastation experienced by Judea when locusts swarmed across the land and destroyed everything. These locust swarms are described in Revelation, when Satan is evicted out of Heaven, given the key to the Abyss, and out from that bottomless pit comes the thick black smoke of what was described as locusts, and was in fact a huge army of demons (really bad dudes) who had been locked up in the Abyss for a long, long time and now (in the Tribulation) were being released into the world. This demon army will torment the planet for five months and then it will dissipate. It will then be followed by another army of demons who have been locked up under the Euphrates River. Their leader will have a name, Abaddon, and this army of 200 million demons will go out to the east and will kill one-third of mankind. All this happening after the mid-point of the Tribulation. After one-fourth of the world had already died during the first half of the Tribulation from disease, starvation, and crime. I mention this because we come to the study of Joel from our study in Revelation 14. The events of the Tribulation are not new to humanity in that human history has seen locusts swarm across lands at various times throughout history. But in that future time, the locusts will not be insects, but demons with only one objective - to torment mankind initially (a severe warning phase instituted by God), and then because mankind will not turn to God, the demons will be released to kill one-third of mankind. By the time the Tribulation gets to its fourth year, half of all human life will have died. That is a pretty significant percentage leaving not even one person unaffected. Now back to Joel. We are here because the theme of this book is the Day of the Lord. Joel was written several hundred years prior to Christ. He distinguishes the source of the words written here as those who came from the Lord. The use of the personal name of God is a reference to the Son, the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ. That distinction is repeated in his name Joel, Jehovah (the second person of the Trinity - the Son ), is God. Joel's attitude is also reflected in the name of his dad, Pethuel, indicating that Joel was persuaded within his own heart, that the Word of God was truth, and very simple to understand. Now remember that this is at a time when there is a great apostasy in Judea. That nation has not yet been over run, but soon will be. Now they face locusts and economic disaster. That is the warning. Turn around toward God or far worse will happen. The nation on the whole did not return to God, and the nation was eventually crushed by invaders, its people killed or taken into slavery and exile. Not something that people generally want to happen to themselves. But they bring it all on themselves by simply rejecting God, by ignoring God, by looking to an alternate God, by compromising Gods principles of truth with other ideas that they had. Though most of the population was negative in some form toward God, Joel was not. Joel's dad was not. So there were two generations of mature believers in God and His appointed savior, the Son, Jesus Christ. We can all look to our personal lives for good examples as to where we are in our spiritual life. I noticed on the news today, with the assassination of that Hamas terrorist leader (the second in a month - can't imagine anyone waiting in line for that job), that there were thousands of demonstrators, marching and angry over his death. Interesting that so many would get so angry over the death of a criminal, but then that is the way of the world. People without Bible doctrine in their soul, get things all turned upside down. They pursue the lie, and reject the truth of life. Criminals become heroes. And so the spiral of violence continues. When individuals are so twisted in their thinking then problems will occur within their local lives. But when nations become so twisted, then that is trouble on a much larger scale. Right now we are fighting terrorism on a global scale, but it does have its boundaries - in our current day in which we live. In the future, this attitude of bad attitudes, will be global and the mobs will turn on anyone and everyone they deem not of their group. Jews will be killed by the millions, Christians will be killed by the millions, then all of humanity will begin to kill its self off as everyone will turn against one another. We'll see this as we continue further in our Revelation study. But for now, look to your own life. Bible doctrine is the only thing that will prevent you from sliding off into the pit of bad attitude that those marching, ranting thousands are currently living in. Folks who take their Bible study seriously will see this and they will fear 'not having' a Bible study more than anything in life. Those who just want to be entertained by Bible stories, those who just want to put in their token time (once a week, once a year) for God, won't care one way or another whether their spiritual life has any direction or not. To them it is just another social subject that they fit (or don't fit) into their life's schedule. Unfortunately when the bulk of the world thinks like this, then big trouble is just around the corner. Of course they won't see it that way. Joel was alert to the signs of his time. People were negative. People were lazy in their spiritual lives. People compromised and rationalized and justified many untruths into their social norms and standards. This thinking blinds people and when one is blind, then you can't see trouble coming. End of lesson. Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.

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