The
prophet JOEL left a message written for our day---a warning which, If we had
heeded it, would have kept us out of the troubles we now face, both within our
nation and from outside. Like all men of his century, he was familiar with war
and trouble, for war was almost the normal condition of the kingdom of that day;
and conquerors then did not help their defeated victims back to prosperity, as
we do --- if the losers were not exterminated, they were either enslaved or put
under heavy tribute taxes, after first being thoroughly looted by the
conqueror. Therefore, it took a startling vision, indeed, to arouse Joel to the
excitement he displays in this short book: It is something unlike anything
previously seen.
He
begins, "The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: "Hear this,
ye elders, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your
days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let
your children tell their children, and their children another generation." There
had been nothing like it In the past; neither was It for the near future, but
the prophecy was to be preserved for many generations. His prophecy deals
with the Day of the Lord"---something which has not yet come, but which all the
signs of both prophecy and current history prove to be just a short time ahead
of us, today.
But the
Day does not come without long preparation---it is the result of a very
extensive cause, and it develops gradually over many years. The signs of that
development, and how It ripens into the final conflict of the age, are taken up
by Joel: but we cannot get the complete picture by reading just the book of
Joel: the Bible was not written that way. Many men have written whole volumes on
some one book of the Bible, but never have they given us a true and accurate
picture: for the writings of each prophet must be confirmed and amplified by the
further details given by other prophets---indeed, this mutual corroboration is
the only proof of the genuineness of each one. Several other prophets have
also written of the Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord; and we will see how they
amplify Joel's prophecy. The Day of
the Lord erupts Into the greatest World War ever known, of course; but that war
has its beginnings in the long period of "cold war" of evil against good, by
which we are being broken down and "softened up" for the final attack. God has
blessed us with great strength, because we are His People; and the enemy dares
not attack us until that strength has been wasted. Therefore, the attack really
begins from within, by infiltration, corruption and treachery. Mere numbers will
not make a nation strong enough to conquer the world --- or to defend it---its
real strength depends upon the economic resources which can supply the army with
modern weapons. The numbers of our soldiers were not enough to tip the scales in
either World War: we won because we could overwhelm the enemy with such an
enormous flood of weapons and munitions. Therefore, the way to defeat us would
seem to be to break down our economic strength.
Lenin
said, "We will make the United States spend itself Into bankruptcy;" and Stalin
and Kruschev have many times said that they would make our strength collapse
from internal troubles. For a whole generation, our own government has been
infiltrated and infested with men who are Marxists, completely devoted to
the ideal of totally destroying our whole economic and political System so
that they can replace it with Socialism. These men who are Communists in
everything but name always call themselves "Liberals." This, also, was foretold
in the Bible to for Isaiah 32:5 encourages us to wait for a time when, as the
prophet says, The VILE person shall be no more called 'Liberal.
The
prophet Joel compares the work of these men to a plague of insects, saying,
"That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the
locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm
left hath the caterpillar eaten." (1:4) lie know that he was not speaking
of a succession of real insect plagues, for the locusts leave nothing
edible for others to eat: it is symbolic of something which impoverished
us. Do other prophets give us further clues? Yes: Haggai 1:6 shows that we
produce much, but have little for ourselves: "Ye have sown much, and bring in
little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with
drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth
wages to put into a jar with holes." We earn the wages, but can't keep them; we
produce the food, yet many are hungry. WHERE DOES OUR PRODUCTION GO? That is
what Joel is talking about. We know that God is bringing upon us the innumerable
masses of Russia and Asia as the natural Inevitable punishment of our misdeeds:
In Ezekiel 38:16, speaking of Russia, s coming attack upon us, God says of them,
I will bring thee against My land, that the heathen may know Me, when I shall be
sanctified In thee, 0 Gog, before their eyes.
In Joel
2:25, God again speaks of "the locust * * the cankerworm, and the caterpillar,
and the palmer worm, My great army which I sent among you." Since we already
know that these insects are here used only as a symbol, this identifies them as
being part of Russia's general Communist apparatus. We produce more of
everything good than any other nation In the world; yet we are getting less and
less of it --- our wages go Into a bag with holes, because the pro-Red
"liberals" in our government are bleeding off more and more of our earnings to
distribute among our enemies, so that our enemies may be made strong.
Remember how they always give more to so-called "neutralist" nations and those
which openly side with Russia than they give to our few friends? Remember how
they always Insist that our aid must be given "with no strings on It", no
requirement that those who receive our bounty shall not help our enemies? All
this is part of the Red plan to "make the United States spend herself into
bankruptcy, as Lenin said: it is to soften us up before the kill.
Joel
sees that this is the preparation for the final military attack upon us, and he
tries to awaken our leaders. "Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; * * For a nation is
come up upon My land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a
lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion."(1:5-6) There is no reply,
those who are not corrupt are sound asleep. But who should have given the alarm
first? The priests and ministers, for this Is all prophesied in the Bible,
and they should know it. They should warn the people of the impending punishment
for our abandonment of God's laws; they should bc leading the people back to
repentance, seeking God's pardon before the disaster falls. He urges them,
"Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests'. howl, ye ministers of the altar:
come, lie all night In sack-cloth, ye ministers of my God: * * sanctify ye a
fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the
land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord." (1:13-14)
There is no answer. All that our ministers can suggest, today, is that we cry
unto Russia and make the devil's peace with them on the devil's own terms.
Joel
sees the Inevitable disaster: It Is no use to turn to man, but only to God.
"Alas for the day! For the Day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction
from the Almighty shall It come. * * 0 Lord to Thee will I cry.
To
those of us who study God's word, the present world situation is so clear,
because He foretold it all 2,500 years or more ago. The entire picture is there
for all to see---if they will only believe Him. But they prefer to believe the
politicians and the left-wing "commentators", of whom God says, "They bend their
tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the
earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not Me, saith the
Lord." (Jeremiah 2:3 Other
prophets confirm this. Isaiah 56:10-12 says, "His watchmen are blind: they are
all Ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; Sleeping, lying down,
loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and
they are shepherds which cannot understand; they all look to their own way,
every one for his gain* * Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill
ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more
abundant.
But we
have turned against all who gave warning: and how many have been terrified into
silence? As the prophet Amos told us, 2700 years ago, "They hate him who
reproves in the gate, and loathe him who speaks the truth. * * Therefore, he who
is prudent will be silent at that time: for it will be an evil time." (Amos
5:10,13)
Joel
cries his earnest warning, "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
the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Nahum 2:1 confirms this: "He that
dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way,
make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily." Since we will not reform and
avoid the need for war, then prepare at once: Russia, which has shattered many
nations, stands before us; we must stockpile munitions, increase our
fortifications, watch every way the attack may start.
God's
warnings always fall on deaf ears: this time also. As Jesus Christ said to the
Pharisees of His day, "0 ye
hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs
of the times?" (Matthew 16-3); so He also prophesied of this coming Day of the
Lord, as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole
earth.
So Joel
now announces the coming of the war: "Proclaim ye this among the nations:
prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them
come up: beat your plowshares into-swords, and your pruning-hooks into
spears: let the weak say, 'I am strong.' Assemble yourselves and come, all ye
heathen, and gather yourselves round about." (3:9-11) "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. (2:2) We know that this Is the attack of
the Asiatic hordes led by Russia, spoken of In Ezekiel 38 and 39 "a great
company, and a mighty army, says Ezekiel.
Joel
pictures the use of terrible new weapons, and a , total war" of complete
devastation: "A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the
land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate
wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them." They move with for they are
modern mechanized cavalry of tanks and troop carriers. Both Russia in World
War II and China in the Korean war showed a total disregard of the slaughter of
their own men, forcing them to attack straight ahead through mine fields
and artillery barrages, regardless of losses, to overwhelm their foe under the
tide of a "human sea". These tactics also Joel prophesies: "as horsemen, so
shall they run. * * They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall
like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not
break ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his
path.
The
prophet Isaiah also foretold the coming of this nation "that hath the teeth of a
lion", for he says, "And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and
will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and behold, they shall come with
speed, swiftly. None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber
nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be losed, nor the latchet of
their shoes be broken, whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their
horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yes, they
shall lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver
it. And In that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the
sea: and if one shall look Into the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and
the light Is darkened in the heavens thereof." (Isaiah 5:26-30) The Communist
hordes do plunder the conquered lands of everything of value, from fountain-pens
to factory machinery; they leave only a day of clouds and thick darkness, * *
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the
moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining." (Joel 2:2,10)
Meanwhile,
what of the enemies with our own ranks, the "Liberals" In our own government who
betray us at every opportunity? They have not repented: they cannot! "Can
the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do
good, that are accustomed to do evil", says Jeremiah 13:23; Isaiah 26:10
pictures them, "Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn
righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not
behold the majesty of the Lord." They are still traitors: Joel says "They
shall run to and fro In the city; they shall climb upon the wall, they
shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter In at the windows like a
thief." (2-9)
So the
picture develops: our preparation for defense lags, both because our leaders
will not give the warning to arouse the nation to full activity, and because
"Liberals' within our ranks still sabotage every effort to oppose the gathering
might of Asiatic Communism; meanwhile, the enemy masses against us all the
hordes of the heathen, getting ready for the military attack.
Joel
realizes that our human and material resources are not enough to stand against
this massing of all the powers of evil against us---only by God's help will we
be able to defeat them --- so he Implores God's aid. "Assemble yourselves and
come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves to ether round about: thither cause
Thy mighty ones to come down, 0 Lord." God's reply is swift: "Let the heathen be
wakened, and come up to the Valley of God's Judgment: for there will I sit to
judge all the heathen round about." (3:12)
This is
supported by other prophets; God told Isaiah ' (54:15,17), "Behold, they shall
surely gather together, but not by Me: whosoever shall gather together against
thee shall fall for thy sake. * * No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee In judgment thou shalt
condemn. This Is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their
righteousness Is of Me, saith the Lord.
But It
takes more than just Joel's personal prayer to accomplish this: we, as a nation,
must return to God and seek His help. Joel warns us, "Blow the trumpet In Zion;
sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the
congregation, assemble the elders * * Let the priests, the ministers of the
Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, 'Spare Thy people,
0 Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule
over them; wherefore should they say among the people, Where Is their God?' Then
will the Lord be jealous for His land, and pity His people." (:1:15-18)
Isaiah
13:3-11 confirms this: "I have commanded My sanctified ones, I have also called
My mighty ones for Mine anger, even them that rejoice in My highness. The noise
of a multitude In the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous
noise of the kingdom of nations gathered together: the Lord of Hosts mustereth
the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from, the end of heaven,
even the Lord and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole
land. Howl ye; for the Day of the Lord Is at hand; it shall come as a
destruction from the Almighty. * * Behold, the Day of the Lord cometh,
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall
destroy the sinners thereof out of It. * * And I will punish the world for their
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of
the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isaiah
speaks of the weapons of God's Indignation: we saw these in Ezekiel 38 & 39, which clearly
refers to the same war. They tell how God destroys the innumerable hordes of
Asiatic Communism with His weapons: earthquake and volcanic upheavals, storms
and floods, pestilence, panic and mutiny among the Red troops which fight each
other in their madness to escape the horrors that come upon them. They are
completely destroyed.
But
this is much more than just a war between nations, however great: it Is the Day
of the Lord, which is the climax, the judgment of the age. Joel keys his
prophecy into that of the Book of Revelation, given 900 years later. God tells
him, "Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the Valley of God's Judgment:
for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press Is full, the vats
overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the
Valley of Decision: for the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision."
(3:12-14) Now, we are on familiar ground, for we remember Revelation
14:14-20, "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat
like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and In His hand a
sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice
to Him that sat upon the cloud, 'Thrust in Thy sickle and reap; for the time is
come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.' And He that sat
upon the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And
another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp
sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire;
and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, 'Thrust in
thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her
grapes are fully ripe.' And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and
gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the winepress of the wrath of
God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the
winepress even to the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred
furlongs.
By our
apostasy from the laws of God, by allowing those who are the sworn enemies of
our Redeemer Jesus Christ to immigrate, infiltrate our businesses and
professions, our government, even our churches, we have made evil
triumphant. We see every effort to rally the nations against evil
frustrated.
The
prophet Hosea gives both the trouble, and the cure: "My people are destroyed for
lack of knowledge: * seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also
forget thy children." (4:6) But God still provides the solution, for He tells
Hosea, "0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help. I will
be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities?" (13:9-10)
God
promises us deliverance, telling Joel, "But I will remove far off from you the
northern army, and will drive him Into a land barren and desolate, with his face
toward the east sea and his hind part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall
come up, and his Ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things."
(2-20) After God restores His way in the nation, He will even give us back the
prosperity, which the "Liberals' among us squandered among our enemies, for
He says, "I will restore to you the years which the locust hath eaten." (2-25)
So we
see the entire picture. It is now too late to avoid the world shaking
catastrophe which threatens us: it will begln as our enemies have planned It.
But God has never let our enemies destroy us, nor do more than punish us to
bring us to our senses; and He will not let us down this time. War such as the
world has never seen will break out, and that in the near future; but God will
turn it Into the Day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment for the heathen and wicked
nations; and He will preserve us, those who trust in Him.