The prophets tended to see the future as a series of mountain peaks. Joel’s prophecy is a great example. He paints, in vivid colours, the picture of a swarm of locusts attacking ancient Judah, as a sign foreshadowing the awesome, still-in-our-future, ‘Day of the Lord’.
There were a series of ‘days of the Lord’ in the Old Testament, as the northern tribes were taken into exile by Assyria, and Nebuchadnezzar descended like a vulture on Judah, leaving Jeremiah to lament the devastation he left behind. But those days of the Lord were only foretastes of the ultimate and climactic ‘Day of the Lord’ when people will cry out for the rocks to fall on them, so they don’t have to face the full glory of the returning Christ.
Then Joel, who himself seems to leap like a locust from one glorious theme to another, jumps from terrifying scenes of judgment to glorious scenes of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the people of God. Peter quotes him practically verbatim on the Day of Pentecost: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams’ (Acts 2:17, quoting Joel 2:28).
We live in between those two great mountain peaks that Joel saw from a distance. The Spirit has already been poured out on the church, and we await the great and glorious ‘Day of the Lord’. We don’t know when the Day of the Lord will come, but as I write, Russia’s war with Ukraine seems to have no end point, the Middle East is a powder keg, and we await elections in the UK amid ongoing political and moral confusion, in both State and Church. While it is contrary to Christ’s own commands to make outlandish predictions, it is not hard to feel ‘the signs of the times’.
How then ought we to live? Clearly, we are called to live urgent lives. The Spirit was poured out on every believer, in part, so that we would witness for Christ with passion, knowing that the Day of the Lord will fall on an unsuspecting world. Our preaching must not shy away from that awesome reality.
But alongside urgency, surely we should live joyfully. The Spirit was given to put a new song in our hearts. Joel jumps so quickly from scenes of doom, and locusts climbing through your windows, to scenes of joy, with the whole of creation delighting in its Creator:
‘Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things … the pastures of the wilderness are green … the fig tree and vine give their full yield … Be glad O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God … You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you’ (Joel 2:21-27).
While the Spirit inspires us to witness urgently, He also helps us see beyond climactic judgment to the unbridled joy it will produce. A new creation freed from sin, feasting in the Lord’s bounty. If we are all ‘urgency’ but no ‘joy’ we are not drinking as fully from the Spirit as we ought. Of course, if we are all ‘joy’ and no ‘urgency’ our evangelism will lack impetus.
It’s often easier to focus on the darkness around us and forget about the joy that is on the horizon. So, let’s drink from the fountain of life, and let joy infuse our witness, as we prepare our hearts to feast with Christ on His holy mountain. ‘What a day of rejoicing that will be!’
