{"id":29131,"date":"2023-12-15T22:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T05:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hebrews-13_10-25-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-05T18:04:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T01:04:19","slug":"joel-1_1-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joel-1_1-12\/","title":{"rendered":"When Things Go From Bad to Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joel 1:1-12 <\/strong>\u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today we begin the book of\u00a0Joel.\u00a0 Not much is known about\u00a0Joel.\u00a0 We do know that he was a prophet living in Jerusalem and his name means “Jehovah is his God”.\u00a0 His dad’s name was Pethuel meaning “vision of God”.\u00a0 It is not clear when the book of Joel was written.\u00a0 In fact, there is quite possibly no book in the Bible whose date of composition is more widely debated than the book of Joel, with various scholars proposing dates as early as approximately 900 B.C. to as late as 200 B.C.\u00a0 As Robert B. Chisholm, Jr. of the Bible Knowledge Commentary writes, given the lack of clear historical clues, \u201cit is impossible to be dogmatic about the date of the writing of Joel\u201d<\/a>[1].\u00a0\u00a0Though overall preferring a 7th century B.C. date, D.A. Garrett from the New American Commentary also concludes that \u201c[a]ny suggested time frame for the book should be tentative, and the interpretation of the book should not depend upon a hypothetical historical setting.\u201d<\/a>[2]<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0That said,\u00a0Joel\u00a0is a powerful book with some important lessons for us today.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Joel 1:1-12. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joel 1:1-12 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0that came to Joel son of Pethuel.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers?
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0A nation has invaded my land, powerful and without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the husband of her youth.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the\u00a0LORD. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the\u00a0LORD.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree– all the trees of the field–are dried up. Surely the joy of mankind is withered away.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-12: \u00a0Here in very poetic language\u00a0Joel\u00a0talks about a locust plague that has ravaged his land (v4).\u00a0 The plague has left his people with little or no crops and vegetation. Fields are ruined (v10) and grain is destroyed (v10). \u00a0 Vegetation in Israel has dried up (v12) along with the joy of the nation (v12).\u00a0 It is a time of mourning for all the Israelites (v8), from drunkards (v5) to priests (v9) to farmers (v11).<\/p>\n

Later on in the book of\u00a0Joel, God will promise to repay the Israelites for the years that the locusts have eaten (2:25).\u00a0 He will promise to restore provision and joy to the people once again (2:22-24).\u00a0 But in the meantime, here in chapter\u00a01\u00a0Joel\u00a0leads the people in weeping, grieving and mourning their loss.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Two lessons:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 When you encounter an especially painful, hurtful time, it’s okay to grieve. \u00a0<\/strong>As Ecclesiastes 4:4 says, there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance”.\u00a0 Give yourself the time you need to grieve when you go through tremendous loss.\u00a0 When you grieve in God’s presence, you give God an opportunity to work in your life.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Sometimes things need to get bad and then worse before things can get better and we can see God’s glory.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0That’s what happened in the book of\u00a0Joel, and that’s what often happens in our lives as well.\u00a0 While none of us likes going through tough or uncertain times, it is also in our tough and uncertain times that God works His greatest miracles.<\/p>\n

So if you’re going through a difficult season, don’t despair.\u00a0 Don’t think that God is not there or He doesn’t care.\u00a0 God is not finished with your story.\u00a0 He is writing a story that is greater than anything you could write for yourself.\u00a0 But just like any great story, heartbreak, grief, disappointment, defeat, loss and failure often come before the hope, the lesson and the final victory. \u00a0So when things go from bad to worse, remember: God is not finished writing your story.\u00a0 The best is yet to come.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You that You are not finished with my story.\u00a0 Thank You in all things You work for the good of those who love You. \u00a0 Thank You that every hurt, every pain, every loss and defeat are things You will use to ultimately display Your glory through my life.\u00a0 Thank You that because of Jesus and the hope we have in Him, the best is always yet to come.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/a>[1]\u00a0Chisholm, R. B., Jr. (1985).\u00a0Joel<\/a>. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.),\u00a0The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures<\/em>\u00a0(Vol. 1, p. 1413). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.<\/div>\n
<\/a>[2]<\/sup>\u00a0Garrett, D. A. (1997).\u00a0Hosea, Joel<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Vol. 19A, p. 294). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today we begin the book of\u00a0Joel.\u00a0 Not much is known about\u00a0Joel.\u00a0 We do know that he was a prophet living in Jerusalem and his name means “Jehovah is his God”.\u00a0 His dad’s name was Pethuel meaning “vision of God”.\u00a0 It is not clear when the book of Joel was written.\u00a0 In fact, there is quite possibly no book in the Bible whose date of composition is more widely debated than the book of Joel, with various scholars proposing dates as early as approximately 900 B.C. to as late as 200 B.C.\u00a0 As Robert B. Chisholm, Jr. of the Bible Knowledge Commentary writes, given the lack of clear historical clues, \u201cit is impossible to be dogmatic about the date of the writing of Joel\u201d[1].\u00a0\u00a0Though overall preferring a 7th century B.C. date, D.A. Garrett from the New American Commentary also concludes that \u201c[a]ny suggested time frame for the book should be tentative, and the interpretation of the book should not depend upon a hypothetical historical setting.\u201d[2]\u00a0\u00a0That said,\u00a0Joel\u00a0is a powerful book with some important lessons for us today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Joel 1:1-12. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29134,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29131\/revisions\/29134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}