Joel Chapter 2 – part 7 of 9

Well, we are at verse fifteen now, thank God! Joel now says “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly.” So they did just that. They heard the sound of the trumpet, and they assembled behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. And – watch! Here He comes! The Champion of the World! The King of Kings! The Lord of Glory! And He shewed them His hands and His side. But Thomas is absent – ah! he has missed it. Blow the trumpet again. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. And this time, Thomas is there. Now hear Thomas say, “My Lord – and my God!” Amen. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive our homage, our worship, our adoration. We may not know, we can not tell, what pains He had to bear, but we believe it was for us He hung – and suffered there. The trumpet blows yet again. “Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders” – but this time many more are gathered, even the first ‘babes in Christ,’ to an upper room. “Gather the children, and those that suck the breasts,” pleads Joel, and for the first time we see that what is gathered there is the nucleus of the church; the apostles and elders, Mary, Mary Magdalene, right down to the babes in Christ. Joel says, “Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.” No, it is not midnight, but the day of the church’s beginning, in Acts chapter two. Yet we see from Joel that in fact the bride and the Bridegroom are represented in the upper room setting. There were about a hundred and twenty, but One is there who isn’t numbered, so we cannot be exact. And what are they doing there? They are engaged in priestly intercession, as Joel says, “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O 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?” We like to think that on the actual day of Pentecost the apostles were reading from the little book of Joel!