Joel Series 2, Study #1 by Chris McCann, originally aired on December 7, 2014 Hello and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Sunday afternoon Bible study. Today is study #1 of Joel, chapter 2. We are going to be reading Joel 2:1-2: Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of JEHOVAH cometh, for *it is* nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, *even* to the years of many generations. I will stop reading here. In Joel, chapter 1, we saw that there was a tremendous emphasis upon the Great Tribulation as God’s judgment that began at the house of God on the churches and the congregations of the world. But, in Joel, chapter 2, the focus is going to transition to God’s final judgment on the world. The first verse begins that shift in focus, where it says in Joel 2:1: Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of JEHOVAH cometh, for *it is* nigh at hand; Of course the “day of JEHOVAH” is Judgment Day and at this point at the beginning of this chapter, God speaks of blowing the trumpet in Zion and sounding an alarm in His holy mountain, in order that the people hear and be warned. That is why it says, “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble.” The trumpet is a warning sign to warn the people that Judgment Day is approaching. Notice that in the opening verse, it says, “For the day of JEHOVAH cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” It does not say it is here yet, but this has to do with God opening up information from His Word during the Great Tribulation, which is the time of the end and the time of the judgment on the churches. While God was opening up information about His judgment on the churches, He also revealed the final appointed Day of Judgment, which would begin on May 21, 2011. That would be Judgment Day. God had His people sound the alarm about that Day of Judgment to broadcast it into all the nations of the world that they might hear. Then in verse 2 and the following verses, God continues to explain what that day would be like. Judgment Day will be a “day of darkness and of gloominess,” and a day in which this great army would go forth in the Day of Judgment and we will see that this great army represents the true believers that will judge the world with God, as it says in 1Corinthians 6, “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” It is the entire company of saints, “the ten thousands of saints,” or the completeness of all those that God has saved. But let us back up to verse 1. It says in Joel 2:1: Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain… This is similar language to that which we find in Jeremiah 4:5-6: Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities. Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. Here, God is speaking of bringing the Babylonians (the evil from the north) under King Nebuchadnezzar, a type of Satan, and it pictures the judgment that came against the New Testament churches. Notice that “Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem,” and “Blow ye the trumpet in the land,” is similar language to our verse, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.” The holy mountain would relate to the people of God and that is where God wanted the warning to go out that the church age was over and the judgment was on the congregations, but God also wanted the elect to hear of Judgment Day because it was His plan that through the message of the Day of Judgment being proclaimed to all the earth He would save all His elect – He would save spiritual Zion and His holy mountain and spiritual Jerusalem The message had to go out to all the world in order that all those predestinated to salvation might hear and become saved. Let us take a closer look at the word “trumpet” that is used in Joel 2:1. When it says, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion,” obviously, the Lord does not expect us to blow literal trumpets. Most of us are not qualified to do that and this is not what He has in mind when He speaks of blowing a trumpet. The blowing of the trumpet relates to the “sounding” of the Word of God. Since we are in the Book of Jeremiah, let us read Jeremiah 6:1: O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction. Historically, it is a warning of the approaching Babylonians. Then it goes on to say in Jeremiah 6:16-19: Thus saith JEHOVAH, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where *is* the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk *therein*. Also I set watchmen over you, *saying*, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what *is* among them. Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, *even* the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. God said He had set “watchmen” over the people that said, “Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.” Who were these watchmen? They were Jeremiah and Ezekiel and other prophets of the Lord that told the people of the Word of God. Jeremiah, especially, was used of God to let them know they were being judged by God for their unfaithfulness. God instructed Jeremiah to tell the people that they must go into captivity to Babylon, but they refused to “hearken.” They refused to listen with obedience. When they heard the warning of God, they did not actively obey by going forth into captivity. That is what they should have done. God tells us what He means by hearkening to a “trumpet.” In verse 17, He said, “Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.” Then, in verse 19, the Lord says that He will bring evil upon this people “because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.” This equates the Word of God, the Bible, to a trumpet. We are not surprised that this is the Biblical definition when we search out this word “trumpet” in the Bible. For instance, when Apostle John was on the island of Patmos, it says in Revelation 1:10-11: I was in the Spirit on the Lords day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book… John heard behind him “a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega.” This, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word made flesh. So God heard the Word of God and it was “as of a trumpet,” and this is exactly what the Lord is saying in Jeremiah, chapter 6. He “sounded the trumpet” to the people of Judah and the people of Judah rejected the sound of the trumpet; it was not a literal trumpet they rejected. God did not command someone to go up on a literal tower and blow a trumpet that would warn that the Babylonians would come in a year, or however long it would be. Instead, God had his prophets declare that Judah would be destroyed by a people out of the north. A great destruction would come out of the north. We also find the trumpet in view in the Book of Ezekiel. Many of us are familiar with this passage because we went to it often in the time period leading up to May 21, 2011. It was a passage the Lord used to direct us in sharing the information that He had given us concerning the approach of Judgment Day. Let me read this passage, in Ezekiel 33:1-6: Again the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take *any* person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchmans hand. In this passage God is stressing the great importance for the people of God who see the sword coming to warn the people. Again, a “sword” represents the Word of God, as Hebrews 4:12 tells us: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.” At the time of the end, God opened up the Scriptures and took off the seals to reveal “time and judgment” and to reveal the timeline of the Great Tribulation and the coming of Judgment Day at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation. God gave this information to His people and then He stirred up His people to carry this message to all the world. This passage tells us why God did this, as God instructs us to warn the people when we see the “sword” coming. We “see it” through the understanding of the Bible and we see that we are at the time of the end and that judgment has already begun on the churches. Then we looked at all the Biblical information that was opened up to our understanding, like the 23-year period of the Great Tribulation, with the exact 8,400th day of that period falling on May 21, 2011; then we saw that exactly 7,000 years from the flood also fell in that same year and the date May 21, 2011 also had the underlying Hebrew calendar date that matched perfectly with the date of the flood 7,000 years earlier, and so forth. All the Biblical information we learned was the act of God revealing the “sword” of judgment coming upon the earth on that appointed day. It was God putting His finger on a date and saying, “Now you have that information. Now you have that understanding. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to blow the trumpet? Will you share these truths with others? If you do, then you saw the sword, you blew the trumpet and you are free from their blood. You have no guilt or responsibility if you warn people. If they fail to take warning, then their blood is on their own hands. But, if you know these things in advance of the judgment and you do not warn the people, their blood is on your hands.” So God put this information in front of His people and, of course, those that were His people were moved by the Spirit of God “to will and to do of his good pleasure” and they felt a tremendous responsibility to warn the people of the world. So they went forth, as never before, and in a completely unprecedented action, God’s messengers got the message of Judgment Day out to the world. All the nations of the world heard that this would be the day. This was the trumpet warning that was broadcast into all the earth and God used this message to save a great multitude of people. The primary message that was broadcast (which I can tell you appeared on the bill boards) was “May 21, 2011 Judgment Day,” and there were thousands of bill boards all over the earth. Some people only saw these billboards and these did not say anything about the rapture or the character of Judgment Day, but it simply declared the date as Judgment Day. Now we were incorrect about all the details of what would happen on that date. We would have explained that it would be the time of the rapture, but we had some misunderstanding concerning the rapture because God had a spiritual judgment in view. We had thought it would be the final physical judgment, with a great earthquake (which did not happen), but the overwhelming message was that May 21, 2011 was Judgment Day (and this was true) and people had up until that day to seek the Lord that He might grant them mercy and save them. This was the important task that God had assigned to His people because the world must hear that the door of heaven would shut on that day and people had until that day to seek the Lord while He could be found. That was the urgent message that God gave to His people because the door would shut on that date and in order for the elect to be saved, they had to hear the Word of God in order for God to use that Word to save them. We read the first six verses of Ezekiel 33, but let us read Ezekiel 33:7: So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. This was the watchman’s “trumpet.” We heard the Word of God and we warned the people from God – this is what God is saying in His Word the Bible. I think we should also recognize that God’s people did this out of love. Remember what Jesus said: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” As we searched and studied the Bible, we saw the Bible pointed to that day in an astounding way; it was “locked in” as May 21, 2011. With that information and passages like Ezekiel 33 that highlighted the tremendous urgency to be faithful in sharing what we heard from the Bible as it related to the approaching sword of judgment, God’s people obeyed and they went about to “blow the trumpet, and warn the people,” out of love for God, first of all, and, secondly, out of love for our fellow man. We did not want them to perish. We did not want them to die without warning because the hope was that if we could share this with them, they can “take warning” and they can go to God; and God was a merciful God at that time, as He saved a great multitude of people from the nations of the world. It was a tremendous time of salvation and a “great door and effectual” was open at that time and we strongly desired that people hear the message. We prayed that they might hear and beseech the Lord for mercy and that is why we did share the message. When people say, “Do you not feel terrible and guilty that you were wrong? You told people things that were not true.” First of all, the overwhelmingly important message that it would be Judgment Day and God would complete His salvation was correct. The message that people had up until May 21, 2011 to seek the Lord for salvation was also completely true and accurate and people needed to hear it. But concerning other information we had misunderstood (like not discerning the spiritual judgment and it not being the time of the rapture), well, I feel badly whenever I do not properly understand any doctrine of the Bible. For example, I feel badly that I had misunderstood the doctrine of “Hell” for so many years, as most people in the world had also misunderstood that doctrine. I feel badly that I had misunderstood the doctrine of Christ having died from the foundation of the world and I had taught for some time that Christ paid for sins at the cross; that was also a misunderstanding and we have since made correction. I feel badly, but I do not feel terrible and I do not feel guilty because I know that truth is controlled by God, especially when they are truths that no one has ever known before. It is not like there was a Bible study that had laid out all these things and we had refused to look at it. There was no Bible study and there was no information because no one out there had it correct and that means that God had not yet opened up the information in His Word. He is in control of what His people know and when they will now it. For instance, concerning the cross, Christ had told His disciples directly that the Son of man must be crucified and be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, but His disciples misunderstood and they did not get it. Was that their error? Well, yes, there was a lack of understanding on their part, especially since Jesus had told them directly. But, obviously, it is still God who controls what His people “see” with their understanding and what they do not “see,” and it was not God’s plan for His people at that time to have a true understanding of the nature of the cross until afterwards when Christ had risen from the dead. Then they would see it. For instance, when a couple of the disciples were on the road to Emmaus, they met Jesus and He explained these things to them from the Scriptures and then they understood: “Now we understand and now we see why you had to be turned over to the Roman authorities to be crucified. We thought we were mistaken when we had thought you were the Messiah and we thought everything had gone wrong and, yet, it was all according to the predetermined plan of God and it all went perfectly, according to the will of God. Now we understand.” You see, that is how God operates. He is in control of what is understood and what His people do not understand. Some people want you to feel miserable and awful that you did not have everything correct, but now we have been corrected as God has continued to open up information, as He did after the cross and as He did after Judgment Day. We learned the spiritual nature of Judgment Day, just like the disciples learned after the cross the true nature of the cross. This is often how God works. For men to say, “Well, I did not understand that the earthquake would be spiritual and Judgment Day would be of a spiritual nature. I should have known! I should have known!” Then they mope around and feel guilty and apologize to everyone, again and again, and that is the working of pride. It is implying that a man should know all the teachings of the Bible, but is that what the Bible tells us? No – the Bible tells us that we do not know anything; we have no ability within ourselves to discern spiritual truths. It is only by the mercy of God that He opens up our understanding to reveal His truths. I fully acknowledge that. I fully admit that I do not know anything apart from the grace of God. When God wants to impart that knowledge and understanding to me, I recognize that is His business and He will do it when He does it. So, yes, it is true – I do not feel the least bit bothered by the fact that we did not have everything fully correct (about May 21, 2011), but after the fact, we have learned a more correct understanding of those things. Let us go to Amos 3:6-8: Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and JEHOVAH hath not done *it*? Surely the Lord JEHOVAH will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord JEHOVAH hath spoken, who can but prophesy? Notice, again, it starts out in verse 6 by saying, “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city,” and then it leads into God revealing “his secret unto his servants the prophets” and this leads to his servants prophesying. There is the connection between the blowing of the trumpet, the Word of God being revealed and the prophesying that comes as a result. The prophesying would be the equivalent to “blowing the trumpet.” God had told Daniel to “shut up the words and seal the book, to the time of the end,” and then God said that knowledge would increase at the time of the end when the Word was unsealed. We would then we gain understanding and knowledge would be increased concerning time and judgment, as God has revealed His secret to His servants. And “who can but prophesy?” Who will blow the trumpet to warn the people of the world? It is exactly what we have seen in regard to the trumpet in other places in the Bible. We have been focusing on the trumpet sounding in the days of the Great Tribulation leading up to Judgment Day. But we have to wonder if there is some duty or responsibility for the child of God to blow the trumpet today? After all, we are learning that God would have us to “prophesy again,” not to evangelize the world that people might be saved, but to participate in the reaping process as we publish the news that “Babylon is fallen,” and that the world is under the final judgment of God. It is the same thing, in a sense. We have to get the word out to all the nations of the world and Revelation 10 tells us to “prophesy again.” Does that mean we “blow the trumpet?” Well, to set the context, let us look at Matthew 24:29-31: Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. He shall send his angels (or messengers) “with a great sound of a trumpet.” Here, it is speaking of the time immediately after the Tribulation. If we were to go through this (which we do not have time to do), we would see that verse 29 is speaking of the spiritual judgment when the lights of the Gospel are put out. Verse 30 speaks of Christ coming in the clouds and “clouds” relate to the Word of God; as we see the judgment of God in the Scripture, we are spiritually seeing Christ coming in the clouds. We have also seen that God has sent forth the “messengers” in Revelation 15 and 16; “seven messengers” carry the seven last vials of the wrath of God. In Revelation 14, Christ “thrusts in the sickle,” and the Greek word translated as “thrust” in the King James Bible is most often translated as “send,” and it is a word commonly associated with sending messengers and God tells us as He “sends in his sickle” to reap the earth that the messengers are the reapers. In Matthew 24:31, it says, “And he shall send his angels (messengers) with a great sound of a trumpet.” Again, what is the Biblical definition of sounding a trumpet? It is the proclamation of the Word of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ speaks, it is like a trumpet blast. As God opens His Word and continues to reveal the righteous judgment of God, it is like a trumpet sound and His messengers go forth carrying that information, as Jeremiah 50:2 commands us to do: “Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken.” Notice it says that the messengers “shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” They are reaping. It is very similar to “sending in the sickle,” and the other language we have seen in the Bible concerning God’s people being actively involved in the gathering and bringing in of the elect. It is significant that October 7, 2015 is the last day of Tabernacles as God relates that day to the day of the rapture and the last day of earth’s history, as He uses the term “last day” twice in relationship to Tabernacles and six times concerning judgment and raising up the elect on the last day. But it is also significant that October 7, 2015 is the last day of harvest and it is the final harvest, the Feast of Ingathering – that is actually the term the Bible uses in the Old Testament. It is the Feast of Ingathering. We have been more involved recently, as God has revealed through His Word what we should be doing at this time and that is to share this information or “blow the trumpet.” As we do so the elect will be gathered. Let me just give you a small example. On Facebook, EBible Fellowship has opened up several groups and they are basically designed to bring in people for this very purpose. For instance, we have a group called “The Bible Answers Muslim Questions” and it was started in May of this year and by August there were about 300 members. But since August, more and more people have been coming in and the numbers have been “snowballing” and we now have over 10,000 people. Many are Muslims and they are joining the group from many nations. The pace is picking up more and more. Several thousand people are joining each month. We know there is a great multitude and 10,000 people are not many in comparison to the great multitude, but I am mentioning this because this is what God would have us to do – to bring in people to hear the true Gospel. The driving command for the people of God during this time is Christ’s command, “Feed my sheep.” We have to publish to all nations in order to feed the sheep, but as they come in to the group, we feed them. In a group with 10,000 people, you make one post (message) and it reaches all of them and this is true of all our pages on Facebook, and so forth. But it is interesting to note that the effect of these things is beginning to expand, as more and more people come in and we get closer to that final day of the Feast of Ingathering. I suspect that these efforts are going to continue to increase. To put it another way, why is it that suddenly EBible was able to broadcast into mainland China for one hour of every day and to reach tens of millions of people with this very message? God has opened up an opportunity with a QQ group that is similar to Facebook and we just starting to mention in our broadcasts that the Chinese listeners can go to an Ebible Fellowship group called QQ that has Chinese-speaking people that have been in that group for some time (they have been following and believing the EBible studies) and they will be able to meet with them. I expect that many people in mainland China will go into that group and, again, that would be another “gathering” that is in keeping with what God would have His people to do at this time. We are to gather together the elect around the Word of God so the Word of God can minister to them and spiritually nourish and feed them. Let us also look at Revelation, chapter 8, in regard to the “trumpet.” In this time of Judgment Day, there were seven angels having seven trumpets and four of them sounded to proclaim the judgment on the “third part,” which had to do with God’s judgment on the churches. It says in Revelation 8:13: And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! Then it goes on to say in Revelation 9:1: And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Then the trumpets begin to sound and that is the transition to the final judgment upon the world. Revelation 9 goes on to talk about the trumpets sounding and then, in Revelation, chapter 10, we have an “interlude” of sorts in the midst of these three trumpets. The trumpets sound and then in Revelation 11, the second trumpet ceases to sound in verse 14 and the “third woe” or trumpet comes quickly. So Revelation 9 has to do with the trumpets and Revelation 11 has to do with the final three trumpets, but Revelation 10 is given right in the middle and notice what it says in Revelation 10:10-11: And I took the little book out of the angels hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Is that not interesting that God does this? We know from elsewhere in the Bible (and from other verses we looked at earlier in this study) that God likens the trumpet to His Word. He also says that when He speaks, “who can but prophesy?” He said that back in the Book of Amos. Ezekiel, chapter 3 tells us that when we hear the trumpet we must warn the people of the trumpet blast. We are not to warn people today, because there is nothing to warn them about due to the fact that each person’s spiritual condition is fixed forever. It will never change. The righteous (the saved) will be righteous (saved) still. The filthy (the unsaved) will be filthy (unsaved) still. Blowing the trumpet will not change that and, yet, it is the sense that the “trumpet” is simply the truth of God’s Word and God blows the trumpet in the Day of Judgment, we saw from Matthew 24:31, where “with a great sound of the trumpet” the messengers go forth to gather the elect. So, in Revelation chapters 9 through 11 the trumpets are sounding in the Day of Judgment and God makes a point, in Revelation 10, of stopping, in a sense, to draw our attention to the fact that we must “prophesy again.” Look at Revelation 10:2-3: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and *his* left *foot* on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as *when* a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. Remember what we read in Amos 3 concerning the lion? Let us just go back there to remind us. I know I have a very short memory, but it says in Amos 3:6-8: Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and JEHOVAH hath not done *it*? Surely the Lord JEHOVAH will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord JEHOVAH hath spoken, who can but prophesy? The Apostle John heard a loud voice as when a lion roareth. That meant “The Lord JEHOVAH hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” We are to sound the trumpet during the reaping process in order to gather together the elect, as we share the information coming out of the Bible at this time. Let us go back to Joel 2:1-2: Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of JEHOVAH cometh, for *it is* nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, *even* to the years of many generations. Well, we really do not have time to get into verse 2 at this point, but, Lord willing, in our next study we will talk about this. We will look at these words and we do know that the Bible stresses that Judgment Day is a time of “darkness” and a time of “gloominess.” That word “gloominess” is a very interesting word. We are going to look at that “great people and a strong,” and see what the Bible has to say about them. We are also going to look at the phrase, “there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.” This reminds us a little bit of the language of Matthew 24:21: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. Again, Joel 2 is not speaking of the Great Tribulation, but it is speaking of Judgment Day. Why is it that the Great Tribulation period is singled out as a period unlike any other time and, yet, is not Judgment Day far worse? God has ended salvation for all the world and is that not far worse than those things that happened during the Great Tribulation?
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 22:38:33 +0000