{"id":29193,"date":"2023-12-18T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T05:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joel-1_13-20-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-12T17:19:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T00:19:26","slug":"joel-2_1-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joel-2_1-11\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Unstoppable Army"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joel 2:1-11 <\/strong>\u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is\u00a0Joel\u00a02:1-11.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joel 2:1-11 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is coming. It is close at hand–
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste– nothing escapes them.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Before them the earth shakes, the sky trembles, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-11:\u00a0 After describing the impact of a recent locust plague on his land in chapter\u00a01,\u00a0Joel\u00a0in chapter\u00a02\u00a0turns his attention to the future.\u00a0 He sees the locust plague that his land has experienced as foreshadowing what he and other Old Testament prophets call the \u201cday of the Lord\u201d.\u00a0 Earlier in\u00a0Joel\u00a01:15,\u00a0Joel\u00a0already made mention of \u201cthe day of the Lord\u201d, but only in passing.\u00a0 Now in these verses,\u00a0Joel\u00a0goes into more detail about what the day of the Lord will be like.\u00a0 The day of the Lord is essentially a day in the future, or a time period in the future, when God will assert His power over all of the earth and bring final judgment against His enemies.\u00a0\u00a0Joel\u00a0calls it \u201ca day of darkness and gloom\u201d (v2), great and dreadful (v11).\u00a0\u00a0As mentioned previously, New Testament writers like Paul and Peter would equate this day of the Lord with the day that the Lord Jesus returns, not as a suffering servant, but as a conquering king arriving to establish His kingdom.<\/p>\n

In particular,\u00a0Joel\u00a0describes the appearing of a large and mighty army (v2) that leaves destruction in its path (v3) and causes all the nations to panic (v6).\u00a0 It is an army led by the LORD himself (v11).\u00a0 Like the locusts that had already ravaged Israel, this army would be very difficult to stop (v7), focused and united (v8), beyond counting (v11), strong (v11), coming against the city (v9).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 God is not only a gracious and compassionate shepherd, but also a mighty warrior who commands an unstoppable army.\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s wrath against sin is no laughing matter<\/strong>; it is as unyielding as the army\u00a0Joel\u00a0describes in these verses.\u00a0 So\u00a0may we give this holy, powerful, wrathful God the respect He deserves and not worship Him as less than who He really is<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Also, praise God that\u00a0through His Son Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, God has made a way for us to escape the day of His wrath<\/strong>. As\u00a01\u00a0Thessalonians 5:9 says, “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” \u00a0Praise God that when we have Christ in our lives, we don’t need to fear the day of His wrath.<\/p>\n

Finally, when verse 11 says \u201cmighty are those who obey His command\u201d, it reminds me that those who chose to obey God\u2019s commands experience God\u2019s strength.\u00a0 Just as God called weak and fearful Gideon a mighty warrior because He saw in advance how Gideon would obey Him and what Gideon would later become, God looks at us \u2013 seemingly weak, frail and broken people \u2013 and calls us mighty warriors too.\u00a0\u00a0Mighty in Him is what we become when we obey God\u2019s commands and step into His destiny for our lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, I worship You not only as my friend and shepherd, but as holy, just, mighty and awesome in power.\u00a0 Thank You that through Your Son Jesus Christ there is salvation from our sins and escape from Your wrath.\u00a0 And thank You that I can experience Your strength when I obey Your commands.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\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\u2019s passage is\u00a0Joel\u00a02:1-11.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joel 2:1-11 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0is coming. It is close at hand–
\n2\u00a0\u00a0a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-11:\u00a0 After describing the impact of a recent locust plague on his land in chapter\u00a01,\u00a0Joel\u00a0in chapter\u00a02\u00a0turns his attention to the future.\u00a0 He sees the locust plague that his land has experienced as foreshadowing what he and other Old Testament prophets call the \u201cday of the Lord\u201d.\u00a0 Earlier in\u00a0Joel\u00a01:15,\u00a0Joel\u00a0already made mention of \u201cthe day of the Lord\u201d, but only in passing.\u00a0 Now in these verses,\u00a0Joel\u00a0goes into more detail about what the day of the Lord will be like.\u00a0 The day of the Lord is essentially a day in the future, or a time period in the future, when God will assert His power over all of the earth and bring final judgment against His enemies.\u00a0\u00a0Joel\u00a0calls it \u201ca day of darkness and gloom\u201d (v2), great and dreadful (v11).\u00a0\u00a0As mentioned previously, New Testament writers like Paul and Peter would equate this day of the Lord with the day that the Lord Jesus returns, not as a suffering servant, but as a conquering king arriving to establish His kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29193","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\/29193","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=29193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29196,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29193\/revisions\/29196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}