When a farmer plants a crop he expects that whatever he plants he will reap. If he plants corn he expects to receive corn. If he plants wheat he expects wheat. He doesn’t think he is going to receive corn if he plants beans or peas if he plants carrots. This is the law of sowing and reaping. The subject of disobedience and discipline in Joel is merely an outcropping of the Biblical principle of sowing and reaping. The Israelites had disobeyed God’s law and were merely reaping what they had sown. More people need to understand this principle because it is taught clearly in the Scripture. Some individuals can’t understand why their life is in shambles when they are merely receiving the consequences of their lifestyle. Joel speaks to us clearly about coming judgment upon the disobedient. And it is something to which we should pay close attention.
The key idea in this section of Joel’s prophecy is that God’s justice and holiness demand that He disciplines or judges any nation that disobeys His moral code.
1. Disobedience
Because Joel doesn’t mention the Israelites disobedience I had intended to give as an introduction a brief description of the disobedience of the nation of Israel. However, this introduction turned into an entire message and so is merely the first installment of the topic of disobedience and discipline in Joel. The further I got into the message, the more I recognized our need to understand just how God views disobedience not just on a national level but also on a personal level. I also want to mention that today’s message has no resolution. I list no solution to the dilemma in which we find ourselves because we do not have time to adequately pursue the solution that God gives in Joel until week 3 of this series. I will only say that if you are troubled by this message with no resolution that you either read Joel this week and look for the resolution, wait two more weeks until we come to the resolution of this “To Be Continued” message, or speak to me afterward. However, in speaking with you, I may not necessarily reveal the resolution of this conflict either. So now that I have given you an explanation of what is coming let’s delve into this issue of disobedience.
The prophet Joel lists precious little about the disobedience that these Israelites had committed and for which they were being disciplined. So in Joel, the only sin that he clearly mentions is drunkenness in chapter 1. Yet we know from other Scripture that the total and general disobedience of the nation was evidently taking place. 2 Chronicles 36 recounts the way that the Israelites behaved before their dispersion into captivity when it reads, “The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers (the prophets), because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His Word and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, until there was no remedy.”
So their disobedience was evident to the LORD. And, as Joel describes, in the midst of these warnings, almost as a foretaste of coming judgment, God sends a great plague of locusts. And the plague came in four waves. Four different kinds of locusts were sent against the nation of Israel because of their disobedience. What the gnawing locust had left, the swarming locust had eaten, what the swarming locust had left, the creeping locust had eaten and what the creeping locust had left, the stripping locust had eaten. They left desolation behind them and if that weren’t bad enough God, then sends a drought upon the nation. You must understand the severity of such a judgment upon an agrarian society, that is, a society wholly dependent upon what they could grow for food.
This was no small event. And yet we see that the situation that awaits us may be no less daunting. The scenario that may very well be in our nation’s near future could be just as serious. The Scripture says in Psalm 5:4, “You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. No evil dwells with you.” God is holy and righteous. And our disobedience as a nation cannot and will not be overlooked.
Please don’t misunderstand. God is not just waiting until we get out of line so He can smack us. As the 2 Chronicles passage told us God sent warnings to the people because He had compassion on them. God is patient. It should be evident to each of us who have a recognition of our own sinfulness and God’s holiness. If God were not patient we would not be here. All of our sin is an abomination against God’s character. It is an offense against Him. King David said in Psalm 51, “Against you and you alone have I sinned.” He wasn’t minimizing the hurt that he caused others but was making an admission of sin’s terrible offense against God.
Yet, we too must understand that God limits His patience. A person or a nation can go on only so long in their course of sin before God’s unrelenting judgment is poured out. Sometimes that patient waiting on God’s part may be a long time but there is no guarantee as to the number of years before God pours out His wrath on a people. And the truth is that God pours out His wrath against every nation that turns against Him. He doesn’t reserve His judgment merely for the Jewish nation. In Ezekiel 14:13, God said, “If a country (if any country) sins against me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch out my hand against it . . .” God doesn’t distinguish between countries. Any country that turns against God’s commands will suffer judgment. His judgment is righteous because He has put into every person the true sense of right and wrong. And when people begin to reject this moral law that God has placed inside us He turns us over to our own devices and allows us to perish by those same devices.
Romans 1 declares this plainly. First, the apostle Paul said that which is known about God is evident within us because God made it evident to us. God has revealed Himself in His creation and we can acknowledge and accept His role as Creator or reject Him. In Romans 1:21, Paul then says that even though they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. And God gave these people up to their own sinful ways. Then, after cataloguing a list of heinous sins Paul ends the chapter by saying, “Although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death (You see they recognize the necessity of the death penalty), they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
A. Three places of disobedience
Before we look at what Joel has to say about the discipline of the Lord we need to look at what the Biblical record in general says about the disobedience of nations. This has a direct impact on us as a nation and as a church. The Biblical record documents the judgment of God against disobedient or wicked nations. Some who have written historically of national decline have declared that moral decay is a factor in that decline. If we had this historical data of the decline or destruction of nations but did not have the Scriptural evidence to back it up then what I am saying would merely be a hypothesis; it would simply be an educated guess. But because we have the Biblical record that says moral corruption destroys a nation we can conclude that God holds nations accountable for their actions. And when a nation has filled up its unrequited, unpaid for sin God brings that nation into judgment. We need to look in the Scripture at how God deals with nations to gain a feel for this Biblical truth so that we will understand how it will affect us if we continue in as we are as a nation. So here we see three places of disobedience.
i. The Amorite Nation
One of the first peoples that we see marked for judgment in the Scriptures is the Amorite nation. The Amorites were a people who inhabited a large portion of Canaan as well as other sections of the Middle Eastern world. God mentions their judgment some 400 years before it occurred. In Genesis 15:16, God notes to Abraham that the wickedness of the Amorites had not yet been filled up. In Deuteronomy 9, Moses tells the Israelites that they are going in to possess the land of the Amorites, and the reason in Moses’ words is, “Not because of [your] righteousness has the Lord brought you into this land to possess it but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.”
These people were being called to account because of the sin that they were practicing. God would give them only so long to repent before He executed judgment upon them. When their wickedness was filled up (whenever that time came) God would judge them. And His judgment against them would come in the form of an invading nation.
ii. The region of Sodom
The next group we come to is the people of the region of Sodom. Their destruction is chronicled in Genesis 19. However, we find their conduct mentioned some twenty-plus years before their destruction in Genesis 13. Genesis 13:13 says, “Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the LORD.” These men were noted for their wickedness. God mentions it here and then again in 18:20 when He says that their sin is exceedingly grave.”
iii. The city of Ninevah
The third group that I want to discuss is the Assyrian City of Ninevah. In Jonah 1, the Lord calls Jonah to go and preach to the city because of their sin. God says to Jonah in verse 2, “Arise, go to Ninevah, the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” And though at that time God spared the city with its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants their continued wickedness caused God to destroy it some 100 years later.
B. Their sins of disobedience
Now that we have looked into three places of disobedience we must focus on their sins of disobedience. The urgent question that we must ask ourselves is, “What caused God to pour His burning anger against these people so that they would be dispersed throughout the world or destroyed?”
i. The murder of their children
For the Amorites, the answer to this question is “The murder of their children.” 2 Kings 16:3 is instructive on this matter. The verse speaks about Ahaz, King of Judah. It says that, “He even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before the sons of Israel.” God drove the Amorites out of the land because of their abominable practice of burning their living babies on an altar. They passed them through fire as part of the worship to their gods.
Psalm 106 describes this practice. Verses 37 & 38 read, “They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with the blood.”
God couldn’t allow the continued murder of innocent children to go on without punishment. The Scripture says that the land was polluted with their blood. The blood of those children cried out to God for justice. And God brought the Amorites to account for their sin because there was a penalty that needed to be paid on account of God’s righteousness and their sin. God cannot and will not overlook sin. Psalm 7:12 says, “If a person does not repent, God will sharpen His sword.” In other words if a person does not turn from their wickedness, God will bring judgment upon them. How much more so for an entire nation?
The death toll of unborn children in the United States, since we made their murder legal in 1973, is about 44 million. Can you fathom how great a number that is? About 1/7 of the current U.S. population has been murdered through abortion.
Are we not passing our children through the fire? Are we not sacrificing them to idols? Idols of self and so called personal rights? When saline solution is injected into the amniotic sac of a child during a mother’s second trimester and it slowly burns the baby to death are we not passing them through the fire? These children who are living, breathing (yes they are exchanging oxygen), and sentient (yes they can feel pain), [These children] are being passed through the fire to satisfy our idol worship.
God removed the Amorites from their land because of this practice. Do you think there is any reason that God should spare us?
ii. Abundant idleness and sexual perversion
Now we must ask, “What caused God to pour out His anger against the people of Sodom?” The Scripture says that it was the sins of abundant idleness and sexual perversion.
The prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 16) catalogues their sins. He mentions that they had, “arrogance, abundant food, careless ease.” Careless ease is abundant idleness. Their material prosperity made them proud and their great amount of free time caused them, not to pursue God, but to pursue their own pleasures and increased luxuries. And so in failing to acknowledge God they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart became darkened. Because they found much idle time on their hands they perverted God’s gift of sex. They were involved in adultery and homosexuality. And they would not be turned away from their evil practice. Genesis 19 details their sexual perversion. As two angels come to the city of Sodom and are invited as guests into Lot’s home the men of the city come out to abuse these guests. When they refuse to listen to Lot and are about to break into his house, the angels strike the men with blindness. But they were so intent on committing this unspeakable act with them that the Scripture says; “they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.” Their desire for sexual perversion was so great that being blinded did not dissuade from attempting to abuse these visitors.
Our nation is headed along this same path. Sexual immorality is rampant. The statistics in this country is that half of all Americans ages 35-39 have lived with someone outside of marriage. According to the 2000 national census, over 11 million people live in “unmarried partner households.” And other statistics have shown that those who marry after having this kind of relationship are 46% more likely to be divorced. The lie that living together before you marry provides greater marital stability has been unveiled. It’s just not true. But these statistics merely corroborate God’s Word. What does God’s Word say about sexual immorality and adultery? Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage is to be held in honor by all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for the sexually immoral and the adulterer God will judge.” Why are there so many extreme difficulties with these relationships? Because the judgment of God has fallen upon those who refuse to obey Him.
Not only has sexual immorality been rampant but also sexual perversion is on the rise and becoming more militant in its stand.
Homosexuality is being flaunted and touted as an acceptable alternative to heterosexual relationships. What once was closeted because people recognized it as wrong is now being flaunted and Christianity and God’s moral standard is being closeted.
Politically correct speech is causing us to watch everything we say. In our culture it is now a sin to speak against sin and very well may soon become illegal. I want you to realize that our country is now at a crossroads. And if we fail to act, the country will continue to slouch deeper and deeper toward Gomorrah (to use Judge Bork’s phrase) and find itself coming face to face with God in judgment.
Let me summarize why I am saying that our nation is at a crossroads. The Massachusetts Supreme Court is about to issue a ruling for a case involving 8 Sodomite couples who are petitioning for their towns to issue them a marriage license. If they rule favorably for the plaintiffs in this case then homosexual marriage will become the law of the land. Every other state will be forced to recognize their marriage. And the 37 states that had passed a defense of marriage act will have to revoke that law. Homosexuality will be protected as a civil right. Speaking against such behavior could be banned nationally. By merely reading certain Bible passages we could be brought to court or arrested. Don’t think this is so strange. Already, a man in Canada who bought billboard space on which he placed Scripture quotations denouncing homosexuality was ordered by a court to remove them because they constituted, in the court’s eyes, hate speech. God’s Word is now denounced as hate speech.
Yes, there are some groups that should be denounced for their treatment of homosexual people. I have known of so called “Christians” who have sought to do physical harm to homosexuals. I know of people who have denigrated others for being homosexual. Listen, homosexuality is a sin. It is committed by sinners. Sinners like you and me. And in the same way that we would reach out to an adulterer or a drunk or a thief or a liar or a blasphemer we need to reach the homosexual for Christ. Just as the liar, or the blasphemer or the adulterer must give up their sin, so must the homosexual. God never made anyone a homosexual. God’s Word says and good science has shown that there is no gay gene, nothing that innately causes someone to be a homosexual. And though we must be sure to love the homosexual in the same way that we love every other person we cannot, must not, say that their lifestyle is anything less than sin.
And we can recognize that for Sodom it was this sin that led to their demise. And unless our nation turns its back on sexual immorality and sexual perversion we will too be judged.
iii. Physical Violence
Next we ask, “What caused God to pour out His anger against the people of Ninevah?” For the Ninevites, their sin was physical violence. Ninevah was the road rage capital of the world. They were the people about whom your mother warned you. The prophet Nahum depicted the condition of the Ninevah. In chapter three of his prophecy he says, “Woe to the bloody city . . . many slain, a mass of corpses and countless dead bodies.” The Ninevites were known for their brutality. They would massacre defeated cities. They would stack bodies like cords of wood. One Assyrian king piled a pyramid of chopped off heads in front of an enemy city. These people were corrupted in their violence. They were a viciously violent people. When they invaded a city they showed no compassion. They killed young and old alike. They ripped the babies out of pregnant women’s bellies. They were wicked in their violence.
But what about the United States? Are we a gentle people? Are we a kind and considerate nation? We are a country in which violent crime continues to be on the rise. There is gang-related tragedy taking place daily. We are seeing more and more individuals venting their rage by shooting fellow employees or classmates. We hear of people using their vehicle as a weapon. As the lady who was recently convicted of murder because she rammed a homeless man with her car, putting him through the front windshield, and then leaving him trapped in the windshield for hours while he bled to death. And the list goes on. Children screaming at their parents, parents abusing their children. How much deeper can we fall into this pattern of violence before we self-destruct as a nation? Proverbs says, “The violence of the wicked will drag them away.” It is their own violence that will cause them to fall. Judgment need not come from without when we are completely capable of destroying ourselves.
Why has the nation fallen into the practice of murdering unborn children? Why are sexual immorality and homosexuality rampant? Why does violence fill our land? I say to you, “Look at the churches!”
Though we may speak out against abortion, yet we murder too by having hatred in our hearts. We kill the reputation of others by speaking evil of them. We hurt others by the cruel biting comments we make against one another. Those around us see it and they find an excuse by which they will carry out the same murder.
Look at the churches!!! Though we may be appalled at the abomination of the sexual perversion of the sodomites we ourselves entertain sexual immorality in our minds or practice it with our bodies. Christian pollsters have declared that even pornography, especially Internet pornography, is widespread among believers. Our behavior gives license to unbelievers. If we go so far then they will go that much farther.
Look at the churches!!! Though we may decry the violence of gangs and rapsters and mobsters and neighbors yet we will not control our temper. We blow up at every little thing that doesn’t go our way. Proverbs says, “The fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back.” So we scream and terrorize and intimidate our way through life as Christians. And the world simply picks up our lead and races headlong to destruction.
Let me close by leaving you with some hope. Even in the midst of God’s great wrath brought about by His holiness and justice yet He is still gracious. In speaking about the sin of Sodom, God told Abraham that He would not destroy the city if He found merely ten righteous individuals there. And we know from history that the revival that took place in Wales and the surrounding countries affecting more than 2 million people started when 20 college students diligently gave themselves to prayer for their nation. So what can we do?
First, put off murder and hatred from your heart. Stop building up resentment against others. Colossians 3:12-13 says, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” Learn to forgive those who have wronged you. Get rid of it. Let it go. Stop hurting that other person by your selfish, bitter, unforgiveness. You do understand that harboring bitterness and unforgiveness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die, don’t you? Forgive, even as Christ has forgiven you. Let the world see your compassion toward one another and not your hatred and bitterness.
Secondly, Commit yourself to being sexually pure. You who are married keep your heart set only on your spouse. You who are unmarried keep your heart pure and waiting for that one whom you will marry. The apostle Paul said, “Whatever is pure, think on this.” Stop handing your mind over for Satan to use. Think on that which is pure. Let the purity of your mind show itself in your thought life and in your speech and in your actions.
Finally, stop becoming violent. Put away your violent and unkind reactions. Recognize the sinfulness of your temper and in the power of God’s Spirit be gentle. Proverbs 3:31, “Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways.” Too often our violence is intensified by the television that we watch. The statistics show that you are more apt to be violent yourself for every act of violence that you watch. It’s merely the principle of sowing and reaping acting itself out again. Put on the compassion of Christ toward others and do not be like the fool of Proverbs who always loses his temper but like the wise man who holds it under control.
Don’t let this country see a people who are murderers, people who are sexually immoral or, people who are angry. Let those around us observe a people who love life, a people who are pure in heart and a people who have the kindness and compassion of Christ.