Book Report~Joel

Notes taken from New Spirit Filled Life Bible-NKJV

Author: Joel
Date: Probably 835-805 B.C.
Theme: The Judgment and Grace of God
Key Words: Great and Awesome day of the Lord

"Joel" means "Yahweh Is God".

Joel prophesied in Judah at a time when a plague of locusts had caused enormous damage to plants and crops. A famine took over the land and people and animals were dying. Joel explained this damage as the judgment of God on a people who had turned away from Him.

He used Judah's situation to warn the nations of the world that there will be a time when all of us will be called before God. Although the book of Joel has only three chapters, we are able to see the correlation between what was present day Judah with the future of the church age which we are now in.

Although there is warning about the judgment of God there is also assurance that there will be a day of God's grace.

There are several familiar passages in Joel that the present church body applies to this day.

2:1-"Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, for it is at hand:..."

2:12, 13-'"Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning." So rend your heart...return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness;...'

2:17-"Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not give your heritage to reproach..."

2:25, 26, 28-"So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,...You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied...And my people shall never be put to shame...And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters all prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions, and also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days..."

3:14-"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, And the stars will diminish their brightness."

3:16b-"But the LORD will be a shelter for His people, And the strength of the children of Israel."

Sometimes we get excited if a prophecy doesn't come true right away. Joel's prophecy about the Holy Spirit being poured out on all flesh which was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost hung suspended in time for almost eight hundred years.

Joel's three chapters embrace more time than any other three chapters in the Bible. That's what I think, anyway.