A Once & Future Day of the LORD

Joel 1: 1 to 2:17

The Reformer's Fire
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Exposition by Max A Forsythe

Here we are only 327 days away from the electronic speed bumps of a millennium bug. A computer bug, not unlike the locusts of ancient Israel, which can affect not only our livelihood but our precious freedoms as well. A few people are concerned that some utilities will not promise to deliver power after midnight next December 31st. Never mind, that the utility workers are under appropriate legal orders to not promise delivery of a critical service that may see a minimal 5% disruption. Perhaps more, depending on where the disruptions are? You see, if the utility promises to deliver and is unable, then there may be a legal claim filed against that utility. In my own little web business, my partner and I are not billing into the next year, because when I checked on the nature of my business insurance, that promise is not backable. So it is better to be safe than legally vulnerable!

At least we know that these electronic disruptions are on the horizon. Our microwaves may or may not work, so may other devices, all according to where and how sophisticated any embedded chips are? Already, we are reading of minor breakdowns needing some repairs. The harbor navigational system in Hong Kong was down for some hours just last week. Minimal electronic glitches in other sections of the world are also on going. Even without a millennium bug, these things happen. A large number of cell phones were off line just last summer and telephone service in my area was disrupted some months ago because a digger had broken a critical connection. Once our school was canceled in the middle of a fall heat wave. The reason, a motorist had run down an electric pole forty miles away which carried a dedicated connection for our institution.

Yes, there will probably be disruptions next winter, but nothing that we haven't faced before. Rest assured that there are still cattle on a thousand hills in the country side. The grain bins will be full, the warehouses will be stocked and if you carry a month's supply of canned food in your pantry as you always ought to do, then we may all be able to camp out for a few days while any critical connections are replugged.

Even a natural disaster can do far more damage. And only if we allow our emotions or our politicians to make enormous pot holes out of the coming speed bumps, is there any great danger! In a worst case scenario, imagine an undisciplined, power hungry "dictator" who might declare martial law in anticipation and then suspend any future elections because of resistance to his readiness to make much of such an electronic opportunity!

Now, the millennium bug is just as real as the locusts reported in Joel. A similar manifestation is reported by James Montgomery Boice, which happened in Palestine in 1915. The December 1915 issue of National Geographic will enumerate all the gruesome details and support fully the description given by Joel. Unfortunately, we cannot date the event described by Joel. You see life in Israel went on before the locust plague and afterwards as well. This does not mean that the people didn't suffer and that the herds and flocks were not downsized for lack of forage! It meant that for at least one growing season, all of the cereal and fruit crops were non existent.

Now this is tragic in an age and area where local crops spell the difference between life and death. For some years in the seventies my family made an attempt to raise and consume most of our own food. Some years we had an abundance to put away in storage, other years we had nothing to show for our efforts. I am glad that my survival is not dependent upon what food is grown in my neighborhood because I am not as good at growing things as my sons are! But even they have bad years. Two years into their farming partnership - the question was seriously asked if it was likely they could make a go of it. Grandpa assured them that they should expect two bad years out of every five and go on and make an attempt to live from the land. And so they are, yet part of their success is their ability to sell their crops four and five hundred miles away. A possibility unheard of in ancient times. Only in the era of Solomon, when the King's Highway was open and the king of Israel had access to several ports did that trade enrich the nation of God's elect.

The locusts are real in Joel's report and their impact is great - four specific stages or species of locusts are identified. Specific crops are mentioned. The joy of the new wine from the grape crop must be put off until another year! And the bitter gall of alcohol put up with until a new season. Even the priests and levities must suffer from a declining tithe. The nation's verdant herbage is a barren desert. And what does the prophet say: 'You think this is bad, the God of heaven can whistle up worse enemies and just wait until the Lord finally comes at the end of the age!' You see, God can and does speak through the national and natural calamities of history. Every disaster will carry some away to final destruction, but even in the midst, those to whom the Spirit ministers find a final salvation in the midst of woe. Very much of the population will not notice the hand of God at work! Yet, He is working in the natural forces of His own creation. And those to whom He is calling to Himself will hear His voice and answer the call of His Spirit.

O Palmer Robertson in his commentary tells us that "having introduced the subject of God's judgment, Joel proceeds to develop his theme along three lines in" the first chapter.

1st (1: 5-14) Judgment requires a response.
2nd (1: 15-18) Judgment anticipates God's final Great Day.
3rd (1: 19-20) Judgment calls forth our prayers.

With these three points we may concur. In the first case, we may well acknowledge that any judgment of our God and King requires a humble confessional response on our part. God is indeed the great Potter and we are the unrighteous clay that He would shape into vessels useful for His great and glorious kingdom. The drunkards are called away from their favorite habits, the innocent bride must consider her true innocence, the farmers and workers must confess their need of the Lord to grant them prosperity. In short, all of life must be judged in and through our relationship to the Almighty Creator God of heaven. And then we must look forward to the final Great Day of the Lord when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

Judgment is not only once, but future as well. The natural tragedies that beset us are minor compared to spending an eternity without God. Thus, any event that brings us close of God in Christ must also lead us on to a future final relationship in heaven as well. And even as we realize that it is the Lord speaking to us, we are obligated to go to Him in prayer. A sincere prayer where we humble ourselves before His great and awesome throne. There we can share the despairs of our heart and find healing in the sacrifice of God's only Son Jesus Christ.

Just as some in Israel and Judah heard the voice of Joel and returned to the Lord, others did not, they ignored the plague and waited it out, and by so doing, remained their natural self-focused selves. Those who would be unmoved by a plague of bugs are reminded in the second chapter that the Lord God Almighty can call forth even worse disasters. Armies on the march come to mind as we move into chapter two. Well, what could be worse than a locust plague to the people of God? In ancient times, there were the Assyrians, Babylonians and even Egyptians, Persians and eventually Romans. When those ancient empires collided in the Mid-East - finally not one stone of Jerusalem was left unturned! Many, many more were carried away to destruction, slavery and death who did not repent and seek the Lord's promised Messiah.

You may think that the coming Y2K problem is small potatoes indeed, yet others cannot imagine anything worse? In a false sense of post-coldwar security, the normal defenses of our Republic have been run down. If the Y2K bug is the only enemy perceived, we are naive indeed. Yes, there are terrorists, there are Chinese missiles and rogue Russians remain a possibility. Even the mad man of Baghdad may possibly electronically slide a load of bio-technical weapons up a mountain-side railway to infect a distant enemy? More likely dangers include: corporate and political miscreants who would use the forces of economics to attain their true measure of empire? American distemper can even lead to cultural disaster if we do not read the signs of the time a-right.

The God of heaven would still speak to us today, even as He would speak to the people of Joel's time. Will we listen and repent as the first half of chapter two admonishes us? If our Senate leaders decide to allow the presidential libido to go unpunished, our Sovereign God will have our national heartfelt response. Having no repentance or even any public shame over such deep deep spiritual rot is deadly dangerous to the future of the Republic. Just as the Almighty God can use tiny little bugs to wreck His vengeance, so may He whistle up even more deadly enemies to accomplish His righteous judgment upon the earth. And if we as a nation will not repent in the face of possible and probable providences, then neither will we stand at the last judgment either.

In times like these, where the crossroads of history hinge upon an apparent political vote in the coming week - it is time for everyone who hears the still small voice of the Spirit to fall on their knees and weep and wail for the monstrous sins heaped up like sky scrappers in our land. It is time for us to pray that God's sovereign call to repentance be heard before the bugs and enemies even now being incubated come to fruition and attack our pleasant land. At least as Christians, we may know that if the Creator God brings judgment upon these disunited states, that judgment is friendly fire indeed. In worldly and natural crises even if the elect are carried away - it is to a far better paradise than we now know.

Further blessings may come through God's righteous judgment as well, those who have ignored His Spirit in the past may come to their senses and turn to Him in time - that they too may understand their need for salvation. Let us pray that whatever events come our way in the next months or years may be understood to lift high the banner of Christ and Him crucified. Into Your hands Father, we commit the future of our Republic. Do with us as You will and may Your glorious Name be raised up for all to see.

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