Joel — The Promise Concerning the House of God
30/03/23 07:00
When we bring the book of Joel to mind we first think of the locust plague and then the promise of the Spirit. Had Peter not quoted Joel we might have forgotten the contents altogether. Indeed, the promise of the Spirit is both central and remarkable. Even more central though, is the house of God. Once we focus on the latter theme, we find that the former serves the latter.
Expositors of Joel easily get frustrated because of the absence of background information. The Holy Spirit must have intended to leave out historical facts, so that the reader is helped to look elsewhere for the prophet’s significance and relevance. What is evident is that there is a paradigm shift, a transition from one world to another, one era to another era.
In the first era we find the priests, the ministers of the altar, the ministers of God. ‘My God’, says Joel (1:13), ‘the LORD your God’ (1:14, 2:13), ‘the house of our God’ (1:16). But then in 2:17 the priests are called the ministers of the LORD. They are exhorted to 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?”’ Once the priests realize that Israel’s call is to be God’s heritage among the nations and that the LORD’s own reputation is at stake, things change.
Here we find a first hint to the significance of Joel for our own time. We hear the prophet speak, of course, from a different perspective. In his time the Spirit had not yet come. We now know that the promise of the Spirit has been fulfilled. But the underlying message remains the same. It is the message that it is essential for God’s people to realize that they are here for God’s sake and not for themselves. Yes, ‘if God be for us …’ that is true, but even the context of that phrase points to God’s ultimate purpose, to have a heritage for Himself, consisting of both Jews and gentiles glorifying Him together with one voice (Romans 15:5-6). This is key to understand the book of Joel. That there is scarcity of food because of God’s judgement is, of course, terrible. There is no joy in the land. Everybody is hungry. But to describe the seriousness of the situation and the severity of judgement Joel does not dwell on hunger, but on the fact that the priests do not have a grain offering or a drink offering. It is about worship.
In the second era we still find the house of the LORD (3:18), but now the Spirit has been poured out on all flesh. No human mediation between God and man is needed anymore. This is what can be called Kingdom reality. Joel speaks about salvation, which is twofold. It is salvation from destruction on the Day of the LORD and it is salvation unto mount Zion, the house of the LORD, the place where He is served, i.e. worshipped. ‘You shall eat in plenty’, is the promise after God has granted restoration, ‘… and praise the name of the LORD your God.’
Expositors of Joel easily get frustrated because of the absence of background information. The Holy Spirit must have intended to leave out historical facts, so that the reader is helped to look elsewhere for the prophet’s significance and relevance. What is evident is that there is a paradigm shift, a transition from one world to another, one era to another era.
In the first era we find the priests, the ministers of the altar, the ministers of God. ‘My God’, says Joel (1:13), ‘the LORD your God’ (1:14, 2:13), ‘the house of our God’ (1:16). But then in 2:17 the priests are called the ministers of the LORD. They are exhorted to 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?”’ Once the priests realize that Israel’s call is to be God’s heritage among the nations and that the LORD’s own reputation is at stake, things change.
Here we find a first hint to the significance of Joel for our own time. We hear the prophet speak, of course, from a different perspective. In his time the Spirit had not yet come. We now know that the promise of the Spirit has been fulfilled. But the underlying message remains the same. It is the message that it is essential for God’s people to realize that they are here for God’s sake and not for themselves. Yes, ‘if God be for us …’ that is true, but even the context of that phrase points to God’s ultimate purpose, to have a heritage for Himself, consisting of both Jews and gentiles glorifying Him together with one voice (Romans 15:5-6). This is key to understand the book of Joel. That there is scarcity of food because of God’s judgement is, of course, terrible. There is no joy in the land. Everybody is hungry. But to describe the seriousness of the situation and the severity of judgement Joel does not dwell on hunger, but on the fact that the priests do not have a grain offering or a drink offering. It is about worship.
In the second era we still find the house of the LORD (3:18), but now the Spirit has been poured out on all flesh. No human mediation between God and man is needed anymore. This is what can be called Kingdom reality. Joel speaks about salvation, which is twofold. It is salvation from destruction on the Day of the LORD and it is salvation unto mount Zion, the house of the LORD, the place where He is served, i.e. worshipped. ‘You shall eat in plenty’, is the promise after God has granted restoration, ‘… and praise the name of the LORD your God.’
