The book of Joel is a rather short, but very important, part of Old Testament scriptures. From verse one to the end it is the word of the Lord, and the chief apostle Peter turns to it for his first sermon. Neglect of Joel has, in every generation since the days of the apostles, proved the undoing of God’s people. “The Word of the Lord that came to Joel…” has been put aside in favor of other considerations – who Joel is, for example, and who his father may be. If our present-day apostles, preachers, teachers, and leaders would follow the inspiration of Peter and lead-off with the word of the Lord that came to Joel, the church of our day would be vibrant and afire. Instead, we are fobbed off with lengthy dissertations on who Pethuel might be, (“Joel, the son of Pethuel,” it says) and the likely (or unlikely) historical background to the book of Joel, if ever Joel is mentioned at all in the assembly. Any other prophet seems to be preferred first, and Peter’s example put wantonly aside. But were the apostles wrong? Was the chief apostle on the day of Pentecost mistaken? Why then will none follow this example? Could it be that we are wrong, or that our leaders are far mistaken? We hope to see here why this is so very important, generation by generation, and why its neglect has had such far-reaching consequences, so that our daily lives are affected by it to this very hour, adversely. For Joel tells us about the Holy Ghost, and we do well to listen. Others may dwell more on other important subjects, but for the church as a whole and our own assembly in particular, this one subject is vital to our continued well-being. Joel is not put first among the prophets, any more than Pentecost is put first in the New Testament, for our redemption has the priority at all times, and the gospel is about Jesus, not the Holy Spirit; but the Acts of the Apostles follow on from Pentecost, and our own acts should do likewise. Without Christ, we are nothing. But without the Spirit, our ‘acts’ make dismal reading.

“The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.” What is God saying? “Hear this – hear this – hear this.” “And give ear,” or pay attention to this. Listen so as to hearken. If what follows is of little relevance to us, why should we be so commanded? It surely must be important, if God so calls on us to give ear to it. But it is addressed to “old men,” is it not? No, it is for all the inhabitants of the land, and the elders in particular. The word of the Lord to the elders is, “Hear this”; and the word of the Lord to every other inhabitant is, “Give ear.” Who then is left out? None! Therefore hear God – so as to pay earnest heed. Joel’s book is not long. God knows our attention span is short, therefore He has kept His word short, that we might the more easily comply with the instructions. He led His early apostles this way – then let not us veer from it. But perhaps He is speaking only to ancient Israel, or perhaps to the first apostles only? Verse three would enlighten us on that point. “Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.” It is for each generation in turn, is it not? Now if we be the children of Abraham by faith, then it is instructing us, is it not? So none is left out, you see. Whatever it is we are to learn from Joel, these opening verses make it clear that even today, in our generation, all those who profess to have the faith of our fathers should pay attention to this. Old and young, let all hear. The elders, and the saints likewise. The apostles of the early church, and the disciples of Jesus in every generation. Peter paid attention from day one, as it were, and we are not some other group. but like-minded as the apostles. Therefore we stress from the outset the relevance – nay, the importance – of the word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. If the chief of the apostles found it so important that he based his preaching and teaching on it, we are surely not so conceited as to think we do not need it, want it, or desire it today.

Very well, then, just what is it that Joel is prophesying about? It is something new, is it not? “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in you days, or even in the days of your fathers?” It is something new, we are given to understand. It is something wonderful from God. It is something different and delightful. Yet it is something about which we can “Tell your children of it,” generation by generation. What is it? It is the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon all flesh. It is joy undreamed of by those who missed it. It is excitement such as only God can give. It is the bubbling up of the wells of life. It is rivers of living water that flow and flow and flow in ever-increasing abundance. It is blessing. It is the promise of the Father fulfilled in the children of God. It is hope. It is the assurance of the gospel. It is the earnest of our inheritance. It is life. It is a taste of new creation. It is Christ in us as never before. It is tongues of fire. It is a rushing mighty wind. It is “By My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.” It is comfort. It is release. It is sustenance. It is throbbing bliss. It is shouting victory. It is proof of Christ risen, and knowledge of Christ Returning. It is the difference between defeat and triumph. It is glory come down upon us. It is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. It is psalms; it is hymns; it is spiritual songs at midnight. It is a welling of worship, a glory of praise, a wonder of enrichment. It is health and strength. It is rest in the midst of conflict. It is renewal in the weariness of never-ending war. It is a fountain of youth, an oasis in a wilderness, an underground river to put roots into. It is the heart of the assembly, the bowels of the saints, the innermost part of the Christian. It is the passing of care, the ending of all anxiety, the answer to every problem. What is it? It is the Spirit of the Living God breathed into His new creation so man may be a living soul, alive unto his Creator, vibrant with life amid the darkness of death in the world around.

“Hear this!” Is it important? “Give ear!” Does God mean us? “All ye inhabitants of the land!” Was it perhaps only for the forefathers? “Let your children tell their children.” How could your children tell their children if you never heard, never paid attention? It has to be for you, you see, otherwise the prophecy is void at that point. Are you part of the Israel of God spoken of by Paul? Are you ’seed of Abraham’ by faith? Do you hold to the doctrines of the apostles? Then the word of the Lord includes you. When God says, “All,” none is left out. Read the first three verses of Joel again and see it for yourself. This is something new; therefore it can only pertain to the new creature in Christ Jesus, to the new Israel of God, to His new creation of which you are a necessary part, if so be you are in Christ and not in Adam. Let a man examine himself. This is the word of the Lord, according to the prophet. Peter himself verified it. Many today are living proof of it. Yet in the assembly this truth is often hidden away as though we were ashamed of it. “Tell your children of it,” God commands, and we reply, “They are too young.” The elders of the church believe it is something for younger men to care about, but God Himself says, “Hear this, ye old men.” The younger men say it is not for all, contradicting the very word of the Lord – “all” the inhabitants of the land. The universal experience is to hush it up, to keep quiet about it, to never even mention it unless asked. “Tell it!” says God. It is good news. It is part of the gospel, part of the apostles’ doctrine, part of church history. Tell it! “Tell ye your children of it” – that is the word of the Lord. How can we profess to love God if we do not the things which He says? Are these first three little verses in Joel not plain enough? Is there controversy here? Surely all who hear so as to pay heed can hear what God is plainly saying by His great prophet Joel, at least as far as verse three of chapter one. Do we need more revelation to reveal to us a matter so uncontentious as this? This is the word of the Lord. Hear this, then. Give ear. And tell ye your children of it!

Verse four says, “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 hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.” We understand that these are three stages or steps to total devastation. If we were to say that famine struck, and the famine was followed by a plague, and the plague was followed by a flood, we would see that the area indicated was destroyed by one calamity after another. So Joel here is prophesying of ancient Israel, and he is saying that in three steps or stages they have lost the ancient inheritance. First they rejected God – the Old Testament is full of that rejection of Jehovah. Then they rejected the Son of God – the New Testament leaves no doubt on that score. Then they lost the Spirit – and two thousand years of disaster made their history. “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 hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.” And only by the mercy of God was a remnant left that might return to the ancient inheritance of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob eventually. But Joel goes on in verse five to spotlight this loss of the Spirit among God’s people! “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep,” he says, “and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.” Here was a nation renowned for its prophets. Here was the nation who once enjoyed the distinction of having the oracles of God. Their Old Testament scriptures were divine. Their law was divine. Their temple was divine, their worship divine, their priesthood divine, in that sense. They were at one time the manifestation of God in flesh, as it were, but they turned away from God to serve idols. But God sent them Jesus Christ, the true manifestation of God in flesh, and He dwelt among them. Him they Crucified! Yet God raised up Christ from the dead and for forty days He continued to be among them, being seen of many. Him they rejected. And Christ being taken away from them to His own place of glory, the Spirit is poured out at Jerusalem, available to all. But they wanted no part in God at all, so the new wine is given to the Gentiles to drink.

Joel paints a sorry picture of drunkards aroused from sleep to find the old wine gone and the new wine cut off from their mouths. But we should note that these people are called “ye drinkers of wine.” They were the people of the living God. Moses was not only a law-giver, Moses was a prophet. Joshua could command the sun to stand still, and what Gentile every equalled that Spirit-filled warrior? Elijah could command the heavens to send neither dew nor rain – can we do that? Scripture only records the greats of God – how many lesser men were there to heal the sick, raise the dead, or fight the battles of the Lord? Even in our Lord’s day their children could cast out demons, something we believe that only the greats of our day can do. Simeon in the temple could live on and on till the Lamb of God was laid in his arms, and Simeon could prophesy to Mary, for he was led by the Spirit into the temple, as we know. The high priest in Jesus’ time is on record as having prophesied of the death of Christ – did Isaiah do more? They were “drinkers of wine,” you see. Prophets were as common among them as prophets are uncommon among us today. Any child could cast out a demon. Their very herb-gardens were tithed for the Lord. Our ‘greats’ were their fishermen. They were the true olive-tree, needing no grafting because they were rooted in the inheritance, their tap-root in the river of living water of the Spirit of God Himself, their branches still bearing fruit when Jesus was born among them. They rejected Christ on the grounds of blasphemy, their misguided zeal for Jehovah allowing no alternative. And they rejected Paul’s gospel on the grounds that it ill accorded with their holiest traditions. Pentecost shows us other “drinkers of wine,” new wine, the onlookers testifying to their drunkenness. They were filled with the Spirit, we are told. Nay, they were all filled with the Spirit. Those of us who have never drunk deeply know little of the sheer intoxication of it, the exhilaration, the happy state of Spirit-drunkenness. Those who have so drunk know that the cares of life lose their meaning, the realities dim as new vistas open up, the pains depart in the euphoria of bliss. They never desire to be ’sober’ again. They return again and again for the new wine, and live half their lives in another – and better – world.

“Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth,” says verse eight of chapter one. We see from the New Testament that the Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father. There was a hope held out to the pure in heart, a promise to the virgin-pure that they should be wed to God in chaste holiness. The Spirit was not poured out upon all flesh then, but the pure could be led by the Spirit as Simeon was in the temple. Visions, dreams, even revelations, were part of that manifestation. Prophecy, power over unclean spirits, miracles were in attendance also. God does not change. The Spirit is the same whether in the Old Testament scriptures or the New Testament scriptures. Christ is the Word both when with God in the beginning and with man in the flesh. The Father is father to Abraham as well as to us. It is the One Eternal God, blessed for ever, Paul says. But ancient Israel rejected Jehovah, rejected the Son of Man, rejected the One God – and lost all. Joel instructs them to lament, to be ashamed (in verse eleven) to be clothed in sackcloth of mourning. Indeed, in verse thirteen he says, “Gird yourselves (in sackcloth), and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God.” Why? Because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Sorrow is their portion, and the joy is given to those who acknowledge God as their Heavenly Father, Christ as their Saviour and Lord, the Holy Spirit as their Comforter. Joel goes further in chapter one to show us that the very beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, the flocks of sheep are desolate (verse eighteen). And in the final verse he says that even the wild beasts are distraught – “the beasts of the field cry also unto thee.” It is a picture of desolation. It is a scene of sadness and sorrow. It is a story of drought – “for the rivers of water are dried up.” It is the loss of God’s Spirit, beneficial even to the beasts of the field. By contrast Christ promises rivers of living water for all, wells of inward water in the belly for whosoever will, so that we may never thirst again. Listen to Him as He stands to proclaim, “He that cometh to Me shall never thirst.” Compare it with Joel chapter one. Can we see the difference now?

Everyone knows that the prerequisite of drink is thirst. The Spirit is available, but only those who thirst, drink. Our prayer should not be for the infilling of the Spirit, our prayer should be that God would induce us to thirst! Once we begin to thirst we will not be long searching out the living water, but surrounded by such water we may never learn to drink till we sense our need. But because Joel has been so long neglected, those before us have neglected to tell us of these things. We have become so accustomed to parched conditions and famine of soul that to speak of the water of life is almost frowned upon. To tell of the new wine is considered so ‘far out,’ as we say, that it verges upon ‘false doctrines’ to many today. To explain the state of euphoric bliss of the heavy drinker of such wine is almost dangerous, at best ‘blasphemous,’ even though every word be backed by scripture. Only he that doeth it shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or not. Church history reveals that the so-called ‘Holy Rollers’ were driven from their assemblies, and the buildings burned as places of witchcraft. Such is the state of our enlightenment today! But witchcraft is not frowned upon, demon worship is not denounced, and every hellish evil is possible in our enlightened society because the church has become so powerless it must turn to politics, instead of to God for its authority today. Could we be wrong? Pause and reflect! Could you yourself be wrong? Well, obviously not, of course! But if you are right then Joel is wrong. And if scripture be found false where then the grounds of our salvation? We plow and plant the seed and there springs up – nothing! Why? Does not Joel tell us in verse seventeen that the seed is rotted under the clods because there is no life-giving rain to cause it to grow? Without the so-necessary water “the corn is withered,” Joel says. He depicts for us a hot, dry, arid condition of soul starvation and attrition. Yet we continue to frown when the question of rain is introduced. Are we then the enlightened? Or are we today in utter darkness? The simple reading of Joel chapter one should be enough to reveal our true position.

Now the essence of Joel is the truth about the Holy Ghost, but yet all scripture testifies of Christ, as we know, and even in Joel this basic principle remains. We see therefore from chapter one of the book of Joel that the promised outpouring of the Spirit is contingent on Calvary’s Cross, that except He go away the Spirit could not come. Without the Cross there is no gospel. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Without the ensuing Resurrection there is no justification. And without the ascension there is no Comforter. So Joel speaks of this also in his first chapter – “Alas for the day!” he says. Before the Spirit can be given Christ must die for the sins of the world. “Alas for the day!” – before the joy can come the Man of Sorrows must bear the sin and the shame for all. “Alas for the day!” – before the new wine can be delivered the Vine must be stripped of all its fruits. Joel shows a scene of famine in Israel, a shortage of bread, a want of corn. The true Bread is missing. The Corn of Wheat is missing. There is a famine, a very real lack in that Israel of the Manna of God. “Alas for the day!” God has done this thing. “The Lord giveth,” said Job of old. God sent them the Bread of Heaven, the Corn of Wheat, the Staff of Life in the person of His only-beloved Son. “The Lord giveth – the Lord hath taken away.” Alas for the day! Christ will never again be seen in their temple, never again be seen in their streets by the poor who needed Him so badly, for He is dead. He is buried. But the third day He is raised again – blessed be the name of the Lord! Joel prophesied in verse sixteen, “Is not the meat (bread) cut off before our eyes?” but in verse nineteen he says, “O Lord, to thee will I cry.” A prophet will never cry to a dead Lord, you see. Joel seems to catch a glimpse, amid the very poignant desolation, of One who appears briefly to the brethren in Jerusalem, and Joel cries out, “O Lord…” even as Thomas kneels to confess, “My Lord and my God.” It is the merest glimpse of the Christ of the third day.

But Joel chapter one, despite one glimpse of the Resurrection of Christ, is concerned mainly with the Crucifixion of Christ. Alas for the day! – that sums up in one phrase all that the prophet foresees. Christ is the source of the water of life – how will Israel do when He is gone? Without the Source, how long will the river continue to flow? Elijah once showed them how to exist in famine conditions – the ravens fed him – but even Elijah could not stop the stream of the water of life from drying up eventually, and so even Elijah had to move away. Joel is concerned for the same subject. Without the Source the stream they existed by must soon be dried up, and how then would the prophets prophecy or the high priest minister to the people? Without the rain in due season how should their wells of water be renewed? Without the dew of heaven what would the harvest be? And so he prophecies desolation, lamenting, grief and despair, right to the end of the chapter. The seed rotting, the garners desolate, the barns broken down – and a famine in the midst of a spiritual people. Not physical hunger or thirst, but a famine that withers up the soul of a once-great nation. Man does not live by physical meats alone, but by the Word that proceeded from God above. The Word became flesh, and dwelt among them. This Word they rejected, and the result is an arid desolation in a once-rich (toward God) people. No longer will great prophets, law-givers, priests and kings enrich the world around them. No longer will miracles and blessings be the sole prerogative of Israel. No longer will the sweet psalmist singer of Israel lead them, but only a wailing wall be left to remind them of their former glories. Alas for the day! It might be termed the lamentation of God. The Cross of Christ marks the end of an age. The Source of their water is stopped. Even though He rise again – thank God! – it is too late to benefit all but a remnant. The old wine will soon be gone and the new wine cut off from their mouth. o Israel! Alas for the day!