CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
November 8, 2009
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
LIFT UP IN PRAYER:
God’s
will for our congregation Various
friends, relatives, and co-workers
Our
nation, military, and leaders The
persecuted church
LOCUST PLAGUES AND THE GOSPEL
“No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: In the last days, God says, I will pour out
my Spirit on all people. Your sons and
daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will
dream dreams” (Acts
2:11-12).
Peter
has stood up in front of a crowd of people fifty days after the resurrection
and ten days after the ascension of Jesus.
Just a little bit earlier, the sound of a violent wind and tongues of
fire had come on those in a house. Then
people heard these people, these followers of Jesus, speaking in their own
languages. When Peter began to speak,
the first text he quotes comes from Joel.
Joel is famous for a very extreme locust plague. Why begin here? It’s not so much the plague as to what the
purpose of God’s judgment on Israel at the time was leading to and which, we
will find, was similar to what Peter would say.
Let’s take a look (1).
The
date of Joel is difficult to know since no kings or other people are
mentioned. Some think it was written
early, somewhere in the 800s B.C. and that the locust plague was real. Others think it was written later, after some
captivity, and that the locust plague was a metaphor to the collapse of the
nation. Chapter one describes the locust
plague, its destructiveness, and the results, with a plea for mourning on the
part of the people. Chapter two, verses
one through eleven describe it as the day of the Lord, which is a term for
judgment in its context. Verse three
compares it to the contrast around the fall in Eden. This army of locusts is God’s army (vs. 11).
We
now get into the message from which Peter draws. “Even now, declares the Lord, return to me
with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning” (2:12). It is Joel’s call to repentance on the part
of the nation (2). In this call for
repentance we see God’s grace (vs. 13). “Return
to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” Those words should sound familiar. This is how Yahweh describes Himself to Moses
in Exodus 34:6 and is repeated a number of times in some form as a reminder of
who God is (3). One of our problems has
been to read the covenant with Moses, what we call the Law of Moses, as
exclusively a legal document. This has
led to a misunderstanding of the covenant and our understanding of God
(4). This judgment in Joel’s day was a
gracious act of God to lead the nation to repentance.
Covenant
language is used in vs. 17 when God appeals to His inheritance to recall that
inheritance as seen in the covenants with Abraham and Moses. Likewise, God’s honor is appealed to as well
when He says that they should not become a byword. During the wilderness journey, Moses often
appealed to this honor so that God would not destroy the nation in the
wilderness, but would fulfill His promise to take them to the Promised
Land.
In
2:18-27, we find that when repentance occurs, there is forgiveness. It is seen in the restoration of the land and
being blessed by that land. “Then the
Lord was jealous for his land and took pity on his people.” Again the covenant is called in as a
witness. In vs. 27, the words remind us
that “Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God,
and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.” Powerful words to the repentant. Throughout this description we find that God
will drive the enemy -- the locust -- away and will renew the land. Crops will grow and the people will be
blessed. God’s grace is seen in this
imagery. Sin has consequences. It damages and destroys, both now and in
eternity. But God can redeem, often in
amazing ways.
We
now look at Peter’s text, Joel 2:28-32.
God will pour out His Spirit on all people, making it a universal
application. It took Peter some time to
understand this but it becomes clear beginning in Acts 10. The references to the gift of the Holy Spirit
in Acts 2:38 is a fulfillment of what both Joel and Peter had in mind, and
notice, it was based on repentance and baptism.
In Christ there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
It
is cosmic as well. “I will show
wonders in the heavens and on the earth” (Joel 2:29). “This is the kind of language that biblical
writers used when they wanted to intensify the significance of some event they
were describing or anticipating”
(5). It is also used as a way to
express something that is amazing or earthshaking. While some might understand this
figuratively, just consider the following.
At the cross, the sun turned dark and at Jesus’ death, the earth
quaked. Another point to be made is that
God intends to redeem not only humankind but the creation as well.
Then
there is the salvation aspect of the text.
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
(Joel 2:32). In Joel’s day, they
probably related that to the restoration of the land after the locust plague,
salvation in this sense being used of God’s deliverance from a natural
calamity. Peter however looks at it
differently. His application is to Jesus
Christ, the One they, the Jews, by the hands of lawless men, the Romans,
crucified. This was God’s plan and God
raised Him from the dead and exalted Him to His right hand. Jesus is both Messiah and Lord (6).
Peter’s
use of Joel would certainly draw to the Jewish audience the context of Joel and
the fulfillment of the giving of the Spirit.
Repentance, restoration, and salvation are all in view and the audience
would have grasped that as Peter continued his sermon leading to Acts 2:38-39
and the response to the message.
Much
more could be said about what was in view from Peter’s use of Joel 2. Notice that all would be involved. This was not limited to the apostles. All will prophesy, men and women (see 1
Corinthians 11-14). We have, in churches
of Christ and among others, attempted to limit this but I am not sure we can do
that. Just one point here; prophesy is
not exclusively telling the future. When
we speak of the prophets of the Old Testament (and the New as well), they were
often delivering God’s message for an immediate situation, explaining God’s
position and the problems that the people needed to address. Prophesy, while more than a sermon, was often
a means of teaching Israel. If we
understand it this way, it might help us better understand Peter’s use. We also need a better understanding of the
Holy Spirit but that is for another time.
We also see that God is active among His people, both in Joel’s day,
Peter’s day, and now.
George
B. Mearns
(1)
Some thoughts for this article come from Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing
the Holy Spirit Through The Old Testament, IVP, 2006.
(2)
We could see something similar in Jonah.
(3)
See Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Jonah 4:2; Nahum
1:3.
(4)
See Jim McGuiggan, Torah and an Eye for an Eye, www.jimmcguiggan.com
copied 9/7/09.
(5)
Wright, ibid., p. 151.
(6)
N.T. Wright states that Acts 1-12 shows Jesus as the Messiah and 13-28 shows
Jesus as Lord.