With God Nothing is Impossible

“The Word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten.” Joel 1:1-4

Praise God for the entrance of His Word into our lives. Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of Your Words gives light. It gives understanding unto the simple.”

The Lord wants the elders and inhabitants to tell their children, their grandchildren, their great grandchildren, and their great-great grandchildren how the current plague is more severe than any previous one. It’s one for the record books. Four waves of locusts have consumed crops.

“Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against My land, strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste My vine and ruined My fig tree. He has stripped it bare and thrown it away. Its branches are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord. The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails.” Joel 1:5-10

Those dependent on alcohol wept because no alcohol was available. As lions devour meat the locusts devoured vines and grain. Branches were made white because the locusts consumed their outer skin. Priests mourn because they depended on farms for their food. The new wine and the olive oil which was almost ready for consumption was consumed by the locusts.

“Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree—all the trees of the field are withered; surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.” Joel 1:11-12

Grape juice, bread, figs, pomegranates and apples contain nutrients the body needs. Bread, grapes, figs, and pomegranates are listed among the “seven species” of Israel which were sacred and central to their diet. As these foods disappeared so did their joy.

“Gird yourselves and lament, you priests! Wail, you who minister before the altar come, lie all night in sackcloth, you who minister to my God; for the grain offering and the drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast! Call a sacred assembly! Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord.” Joel 1:13-14

Grief often proceeds positive change. Why do we endure broken until broken completely stops us from functioning? Those who wail... those who come to the altar... those who wear sackcloth all night... those who fast and gather to cry out to the Lord seriously want the broken mended. Why not cry out early on before everything comes to a standstill?

“Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand. It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.” Joel 1:15

The day of the Lord refers to a day on which the Lord sits as a judge over the crimes that have been committed by a nation. Before He renders a verdict of consequences for perpetrators!

“Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy, and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under the clods. Storehouses are in shambles. Barns are broken down for the grain has withered. How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.” Joel 1:16-18

In various cultures, eating together after a time of worship unto God is common. The four waves of locusts took that blessing from God’s people. Joy, gladness, seeds, cattle and sheep are shriveled up.

“O Lord, to You I cry out for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.” Joel 1:19-20

Rainless days caused dry conditions so that orchards and flocks withered

“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: a day of darkness and gloominess... A people come, great and strong, the like of whom has never been, nor will there ever be any such after them, even for many successive generations. A fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns; the land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them. The Lord gives voice before His army, for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His Word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible. Who can endure it?” Joel 2:1-3, 11

The four waves of locusts were just the first round of judgments against the land. Here it appears that the next wave of tribulation will be an army of real people. The Lord is leading them with His voice. He is executing His Word of judgment on an idolatrous nation. The question is, will anyone be able to endure it?

“Now, therefore, says the Lord, turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him—a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?” Joel 2:12-14

The Lord says their best option for survival is to open their hearts to Him, fast, weep, and mourn before the Lord. Don’t hold it in! Be desperate for rescue! The goal is to 100% know that God is greater than their problem. Don’t wait until the enemy is at the gate! Look to the Lord now! Read His Word. Build your faith in His grace, mercy and kindness.

“Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes. Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, and the bride from her dressing room. 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, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, where is their God?’” Joel 2:15-17

All hands on deck... the elderly, the young and the married couples with the priests... seek the Lord and ask Him to spare you from becoming slaves of the world. Pray for the witness of God among the nations. There’s still hope...

“Then the Lord will be zealous for His land and pity His people. The Lord will answer and say to His people, ‘Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied by them. I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. But I will remove far from you the northern army and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea. His stench will come up, and his foul odor will rise, because he has done monstrous things.” Joel 2:18-20

As their zeal for God is rekindled, He adds zeal and pity upon them. He provides grain [bread], new wine and oil which are all symbolic of Christ His Son and of His Holy Spirit. The Word and the Spirit are like two hands of God reshaping people into God’s likeness. Previously, when their eyes were set on images made by human imaginations and human hands (idols), they became like them: contemptible. After becoming godly, God removes reproach and enemies from them.

“Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things! Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field; for the open pastures are springing up, and the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you—the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.” Joel 2:21-24

The Lord urges them to replace fear with gladness and rejoicing. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” God did and will continue to do marvelous things for them. The Heavenly Father gives the rain that yields green pastures, fruitful orchards and productive vineyards. With God there is abundant grain [bread], new wine and oil... symbolic of Christ God’s Son and of His Holy Spirit.

“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.” Joel 2:25-27

Now, that His people have returned to Him with all their hearts, He blesses them by undoing the damage that idolatry previously did unto them. The Lord satisfies our souls so that we have an abundance of joy to praise His Name. We know that He is with us, and we with Him.

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall 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.” Joel 2:28-29

The greatest harvest of happiness is being filled with God’s Spirit! To see sons and daughters prophesying for God. To be old and still have dreams due to God’s Spirit in your life! To have young men in one’s nation with visions of God and of what God wants to do.

God will pour out His Spirit on His servants. In Acts 5:32, Peter and the apostles told a group of religious leaders, “We are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.” As we give our hearts to Christ, He gives His Spirit to us.

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.” Joel 2:30-31

In Acts 2:17-21, Peter quoted this passage as coming to pass with the pouring out of God’s Holy Spirit by the baptizer in the Holy Spirit, that is JESUS. The signs of the last days can be released because the servants of Christ have been sealed by God’s Holy Spirit.

In Ezekiel 9:4, 6, the Lord said to His angel, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.”

In Ephesians 1:13, Paul wrote, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” In Ephesians 4:30, Paul wrote, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” In Ephesians 1:14, the Holy Spirit “is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” His presence in our lives is God’s down payment on our soul guaranteeing that it shall be with Him forevermore.

In Revelation 7:3, before the signs begin that turn the sun into darkness and the moon into blood, an angel cries out to four destroying angels, saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” The Lord said prior to these end-time events via His prophet Joel, and later through His apostle Peter, “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” Calling upon the Name of the Lord and being filled with His Holy Spirit is the way of salvation.

Joel’s prophecy and Peter’s Pentecost sermon were not just for the people of their days. God preserved these prophecies for all who suffer setbacks in this world. For all who have experienced wave after wave of loss and need no less than God to rescue them and fill them with His presence. With God nothing is impossible! Praise the Lord!