Stripped

“He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.”

The Lord likens His people to a vine. Jesus also refers to us as the branches of the vine, as he is the true vine. Those who trust in Him are branches attached to the true vine and are alive and safe in His sustaining care. The people of God in Joel’s day had gone away from the Lord and were suffering under the chastising hand of the Lord. The Lord says that these oppressors of His people have cause them a lot of trouble and have laid them waste and stripped them bare. It is a picture that reminds us of the work of the locusts who have destroyed the land and now the effects of this are destroying the spiritual fabric in the lives of the people who are suffering. They are like branches that have been stripped of all foliage and are suffering the ravages of troubles.

Often the physical suffering that we experience has an effect on our spiritual lives for good or for ill. We either react in faith or in resentment. Those who are familiar with the love of God will know His comfort and strength and will see the value of the troubles and be able to be thankful for them. However at this time, the vine of life is laid waste and the fig tree is stripped of its luscious foliage and fruit. The bark of the covering of life is striped way and the bare flesh is revealed. The branches have become unprofitable and there is need of deep renewal and a fresh lease of life for them. The people of God are decimated because of their disobedience and lack of spiritual regard, and God has laid them bare to the ravages of the army of the locusts. They are truly destroyed by famine and war and are unprofitable servants.

Still, there is hope, for the Lord will not lift His hand against His people forever. He is able to restore them and show love and life to them. Even the most terrible devastation to the land by the locusts can be renewed. The Lord will again restore them, through their repentance and a turning back to Him. When we suffer the pains of our sin and folly, even as Christian believers, we will be renewed in Christ and He will enable us to stand up under the trouble. We must seek the Lord and examine our thought patterns and behaviour that we will be renewed and bear fruit again for Him.

“No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

1 Corinthians 10:13

God will again renew His vine and the fig tree will again bear fruit and flourish. Let us not be unprofitable and ruin our life with God by staying away from Him. Let us learn our lessons and have the faith to move on with the Lord, in the full armour of salvation.

“Therefore put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Ephesians 6:13

Teeth

“For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.”

This text likens the swarm of locusts that have come against the people of God, as being like an invading army. So they are and they have decimated everything. They might be seemingly small in themselves but the sheer number of them have overwhelmed the land and left the people destitute. It seems the hand of the Lord is against His people. It seems like punishment and we automatically begin to think it is more than is deserved.

We can feel like this in our Christian life, as the circumstances and experiences of our life seem to overwhelm us and cause us so much sorrow. We think the mercy of the Lord has left us and we have missed the mark so badly, that God has given up on us. We think we cannot cope and heap up worry and negativity to ourselves and start distrusting God, or thinking that He is not in control. Some days are just difficult and the enemy comes in like a flood, like a swarm of sharp-toothed invaders! We may not be able to work out exactly why, and at times our comfort seems far away, but we know and remember the Lord is near. No matter how troublesome is the trouble, He will provide a way of escape and pour in the oil and the wine.

There are times that can be devastatingly difficult. These locust invaders are described as lions and lionesses, with sharp teeth and able to tear us apart. We are not spared such distresses, but the Lord is able to succour us and help us to face the foe and look to Him in our times of trial. He will not let His people be torn apart by the troubles of life and will supply all our need according to His mercy and resources in the Spirit. We take our refuge in His word and remember His sure and precious promises and are sustained. The fangs and teeth may be bared against the people of God, but His protecting love is ever with them.

These unrelenting swarms of locusts have come against the people, and the people are suffering, but God’s purposes are to purify His people and not to harm them. What ever we are facing, God knows what we can bear and has a long term purpose of blessing on us. God will not allow the enemy to destroy us, but will protect and save His people from the teeth of the enemy.

Beloved, let us trust in Him and persevere under the trials and find the victory in our redeemer and Saviour, Jesus.

Weep

“Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.”

God gives us all things richly to enjoy. We take His blessings and enjoy them, but we can find ourselves using and abusing them for the feeding of our own desires. Things that are a blessing can become a curse to us. Alcohol is mentioned here as something that people do to excess and indulge themselves in its pleasures. The people have become so indulgent that they are called “drunkards” by the Lord, for they have replaced the love of God for the love of substances. This could be applied to almost anything. Some indulge in food, shopping, inappropriate romances, family bonds, internet games, films, violence… almost anything can take that treasured place close to our Almighty God. We can find ourselves valuing anything more that Him and not to delight to draw near to him in personal fellowship.

The people of God in this time of Joel are indulging themselves in ungodly living and enjoying themselves to the detriment of their devotion and service to God. God calls out to them about their preoccupations and shouts at them to waken up. He has now suddenly taken away the thing that is fascinating them and is putting them in very uncomfortable circumstances. All the streams of their pleasures have now dried up and they are left in the cold light of day. God tells them to weep. They are to come to their senses and realise what has happened to them and seek the Lord. Their pleasures are gone and their temptations are evaporated and they now face the cold reality of their situation before God.

We can find ourselves in this dilemma quite easily, when we stop examining our hearts and motives every day and stop keeping short accounts with God. We easily slide into indulgent behaviours and soon find that the pleasures of this life take over from our delight in God. We stop thinking about Him, or don’t have the time to spend with Him and become hardened to the delights of His presence, becoming happy with the good things of this life and spiritual exercise and activities become tedious to us. Before long we fall away and become lackadaisical about our spiritual life and we find ourselves attracted to the things we need to avoid. Often we fall into some sin, as a temptation comes along and we easily succumb, for it seems attractive to us. Our defences are down, for we have laid off our spiritual life with God and the world and our sinful self takes over.

It can happen so quickly and so effortlessly, for it is our natural inclination. The fires of our spiritual life need the daily attention and fellowship with the Lord our God, if we are to be over-comers.

The people of God have found themselves in this state and are now suffering the discipline of their Lord, as he seeks to divert them from worse consequences of their sinful mindset and life style. They have avoided the weeping for their sin, and now they have it in a great amount. Weeping over our weaknesses and failures is a healthy place to be, and we can bring them to the Lord for He will abundantly pardon us and give us the strength to be victorious. God will bring His people into a good place again, but for the moment, it is time to face up and take account of what is happening.

Locust

“What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.”

This catastrophic event that Joel cites for us here, takes the form of a massive and uncountable number of destroying locusts that have come upon the land and stripped it bare. The Lord has been thorough. Each succeeding wave of attack strips away what the last one overlooked. There are so many – billions of them, they cannot be counted. They are merciless and ruthless as they strip the earth of all growing things and leave barrenness and destitution behind them. Nothing stops them. Locust are notorious for destroying all plants and green life in the environment. They are relentless and did great damage to the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus. Here they are again but in greater numbers. They are sent by the Lord to do His work in the lives of His people.

We say, “it is too much Lord… why?”

This is the constant and universal cry of God’s people when trouble arises and we are sorely oppressed. We see the hand of God as being against us, and we complain and think that it is unjust treatment from the Lord. Our cry is “its not fair!” God does not deal with His people in judgment but in mercy. If we received justice, we would be in utter darkness and punishment forever. God is merciful and deals with us as He sees fit and that is right for us. Those who are trusting in Him will see that and remain faithful, whereas the impenitent will blame the Lord and fall away. Only when we remember that all that is sent to us, is sent in mercy, do we bring our troubles to Him, examine ourselves and seek the Lord.

When we are young in the faith, we all go through this thought process and have to learn our lesson from the Lord. No matter how oppressive the trial is, He gives us the strength to face it and will shoulder even blame, so that we can sort out out thinking and our crisis of faith.

There are many reasons why God sends trouble. This huge oppression was to test the people of God and to warn them against turning away from God. It was a precursor to worse judgment should they not return to their God. It was to bring home to them the reality of the coming Day of the Lord and imprint on their mind the holiness of the Lord in His intolerance of evil.

Beloved, let us listen to the voice of the Lord, so that trouble will not come and may we learn from the Word of the Lord, rather than receive chastisement and pains. God loves His people and will not permit us to be taken away by temptation, sin and this world, but will train us to trust and obey Him and serve Him only.

If you are not yet found by Christ, you must seek the Lord, for the Day of the Lord will surely come and you must be ready to meet Him.

Tell

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“Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation.”

To rehearse the truths of God and all He has done for us is such a spread of blessing. We are to tell the generations what the Lord has done and teach them the character of God as we discuss life. The purposes and acts of God should be part of our speaking and we should not be embarrassed to discuss with others what the Lord has done for us.

Why do we not do this naturally? Are we ashamed of our Lord?

This catastrophic event that has happened to the people of God, has stopped them in their tracks and God is going to show them a demonstration of His delivering power and teach them wonderful things about Himself that they can pass on to the succeeding generations in their families and nation. The glory of the Lord will be seen and experienced, and a warning will also be included. To rehearse our failures and demonstrate the forgiveness and mercy of the Lord is so wonderful. This is the witness of the Christian life and the humble way that we share the truth of God.

Perhaps we are unwilling to admit our failures or to praise the name of the Lord for all He has done for us. Perhaps we ourselves fail to rehearse the deliverance of the Lord and therefore forget what we have been saved from. Perhaps we are insensible to His ways of working and don’t even notice what He is doing in our lives.

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; for I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all your work, and consider your doings. Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What god is great like God?”

Psalm 77:11-13

We remember by the constant rehearsing of the blessings of the Lord and specifically the glory of salvation. We need to meet at the table of remembrance and break the bread and drink the wine that commemorates the death of the Lord Jesus for us. We must not neglect the daily study of the Word of God, for we forget so easily and quickly. Prayer should be our daily breath as we live in the presence of the Lord and in the consciousness of the Holy Spirit.

“Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.”

Jeremiah 33:3

Listen

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“Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?”

There is great responsibility in being an elder or a leader in a situation. We are all accountable to God, but those who have been given authority are more strictly measured and more closely accountable. It is a heavy duty to take upon oneself, in becoming a director of people and not a situation to gain importance or personal kudos for oneself. Joel calls the leaders to hear what he has to say, and not be proud in their attitude towards the Word of the Lord.

“Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.”

James 3:1

However, we are all accountable to God for our life and conduct. The prophet is addressing everyone, all the inhabitants of the land, and is charging them to listen and pay close attention to what he says. We also are constrained to listen to our God and to pay close attention to His commands and requirements. He is the LORD…

A dreadful physical calamity has occurred in the land, and locusts have destroyed everything. They have stripped the crops and neither the humans nor the animals have anything to eat. People are dying and the whole economic and social structure of the country has broken down and lawlessness is setting in.

Joel asks the rhetorical question….

Nothing like his has ever happened before in the history of the nation and the people along with the elders are devastated as the land has been stripped bare. This devastation is so intense and complete that no one can remember such a thing happened before. God has sent a severe trial to the people that no one in preceding generations has experienced.

Joel is speaking up about it and calls the people and their leaders to listen to him and hear what he has to say, for it is a message from the Lord to help them through warning.

Joel

“The Word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.”

This book of the prophet Joel is the Word of the Lord to us in our day, and in all days of history. Because it is the Word of God we need to pay careful heed to it, to meditate and learn what it says and put its teaching into the practice of our life. The Word of God never changes in any generation and this word is as cogent to us now as it was to the people all those millennia ago. The circumstances might change but the principles and direction of the Lord does not.

Joel is chosen to relay this message to us, as a set-apart and devoted servant of the Lord. The prophets suffered much as a result of their message, for it was not popular and they and their message were rejected by their own people. The words of Joel are authenticated in the New testament by the Apostles Peter and Paul and quoted in Acts chapter two. His words refer to that coming time when the Spirit of God would be poured out and all people would be blessed by the message of the gospel.

Joel is the son of Pethuel. When the Scripture expresses family ties in this way, it is indicating a godly father and family situation. It is thought that Pethuel was the son of the prophet Samuel, but I am unclear about this. If it is so, then the family line is intact by the mercy of God and through the faithful lives of Hannah, Samuel and Pethuel and now, Joel.

God does not necessarily save families. God saves all those who come to Him in repentance and faith and He deals with the individual and has individual relationships with His people. We do not have “Christian families” “Christian countries” and the like. We must all stand as individual beings before the holy God to give account of what we have done in the body. When The prophet Joel calls for repentance it mean that every soul must come to God and seek Him and seek forgiveness, not as a body of amorphous people, but as repentant sinners before God. God sees us all and we must close with Him in a personal way. He seeks those who will repent and believe and will give their will and heart to Him.

“Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.”

Joel 2:13

This is not a national symbolic act but the exercise of true contrition to God for our personal sin and seeking forgiveness and a new start. This is the key message from the Lord in the book of Joel. When the people repent and turn, then the healing of the nation can begin. God is full of compassion for us in our weakness and destitution and will heal both us and our land when we repent. Joel is the faithful messenger of this message from God.

Joel: an introduction

Joel was a prophet of the Lord, approximately 800BC, but it is very unclear exactly when he lived and worked for the Lord his God. His name means “The Lord is God” and his proclamation speaks the Word of the Lord to his generation and all after him, according as he is included in the Holy Scriptures. Joel may have been a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah and after the prophets Amos and Micah.

The book cites calamity, especially in the first chapter, which strikes the farming community with great destruction and desolation.

“Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?”

Joel 1:2

This is a calamity of calamities and brings total desolation to the land of Judah and death and disease to the people. It is a pestilence from the Lord and the land is brought to economic and social ruin by it. The whole countryside is destroyed and those who tend the fields and vineyards are reduced to poverty and sorrow. There is an outpouring of the grief in chapter one and this is developed through the three chapters of the book to show the spiritual desolation of the people of God and the restoration by the power of the Spirit of God.

There are no sacrifices to the Lord in this calamity because there is no provision for the people. The prophet calls for restoration and that the people repent and return to the Lord their God.

“Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.”

Joel 1:8

The return to God must be sincere and sacrificial and the Lord will relent and heal their land.

The prophet Joel also points us to the situation in these last days, when God’s Spirit will be poured out on all His people and there will be an ingathering of people from every kindred, tribe and tongue. These last days have cataclysmic calamity and the people of God are kept safe from this. It is a time of great conflict and trouble.

“I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.”

Joel 2:30-31

This apocalyptic writing denotes what is coming in future days and could be happening right now in our world. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises and He has promised to deliver His holy people, and so he will.

“And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the streams of Judah will run with water, and a spring will flow from the house of the LORD…”

Joel 3:18

Whatever happens around us, the Lord will not forsake those who love Him. The future is bright even though all around seems dark and foreboding. The prophet Joel reminds us of the mercy of the Lord when all around gives way to conflict, loss and destruction. Those who put their trust in Him are never confounded.

New book

I am hoping, by the grace of God, to begin a new book by focusing on the Book of the prophet Joel.

I will begin tomorrow by dealing with one verse every day and write a comment on the precious Word of the living God. I hope it will be of help to you as you read or listen, and that God will bless and teach you, as He teaches me.

Shirley Hamilton

Remember

“The salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand: remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.”

Paul says goodbye to the Christians at Colosse with a heavy heart, for he knows he will not see them again on this side of eternity. He signs the letter with his own hand, for he has written it in the straights of prison, and there were also many imposters. The best thing he can leave with the believers, is to confer the grace of God unto them. This is the greatest blessing in the Christians life – to have the work of the Holy Spirit within us and ministering to our souls. His grace to us is wonderful in the extreme and appreciated by those who walk closely with Him.

Touchingly, Paul reminds the believers that He is in prison and to not forget what he is facing every day. He is in prison for the cause of Christ and for speaking out the gospel to so many in a myriad of circumstances. He has carried the burden for them that they might be taught the truths of God and be guided on all truth. He is asking them to pray for him and to not forget him. It so easy to forget those who are out of the circle of our friends and acquaintances and we can be so hard-hearted about those who are alone in their lives. Some blamed the Apostle for his circumstances, saying he had surely sinned grievously and was being chastised, one of the many discouragements Paul must have faced in that dreadful place. Although in chains, he remains content in the Lord and continually gives of himself for the believers.

It must have been so difficult for the Apostle Paul as he faced the loneliness and the threat of death as he sat in a prison cell. He is humble and still asks for prayer that he might be sustained.

Still he is labouring for the Lord and remembering the saints in all the churches that he has had input into, and cares for them all so deeply. He asked them to remember him, and not forget him. He is in this position for their sake and deserving of sympathy and care.

“Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.”

Hebrews 13:3

His final words are full of the grace of God and the agreement of the Holy Spirit that the Colossian Christians and all who will read this letter will be filled with grace. So also we, in these last days enjoy the benefits of this great epistle. I pray the Word will dwell in you richly and bear eternal fruit.

Daughters of the Kingdom

Women who glorify God