The Bible in a Year – 17 June

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

17 June. Joel chapters 1-3

Joel is one of the shortest books of the Bible, a mere three pages in most editions.  Its theme – that of God’s punishment of Israel for idolatry and other sins by sending the Assyrians and Philistines to conquer them, and a later restoration of the land to reoccupation and economic prosperity – is found in many other Biblical writings of the period.

 

But it also contains some of the most profound revelations of God’s future plans for his people.  Chapter 2, verses 28-32 are quoted by St peter in his address to the crowds on the day of Pentecost to explain the coming of the Holy Spirit: “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”.

 

Chapter 3 contains what seems like a vision of a final judgement of all people in the “valley of Jehoshaphat”.  The latter was a name of a king of Judah, but as the name simply means “The Lord has judged”, there is no real clue as to what location might have been intended.  It does however tie in with other Biblical prophecies such as that of Armageddon, suggesting that whatever the “last day” might be, it will involve some kind of war or other physical encounter in the Bible lands.

 

The penultimate verse of the book is a wonderful promise: “But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to all generations.” It has not been fulfilled literally, for there was a time when the holy city was abandoned, but it is still revered by all three Abrahamic religions as a holy place, and in Christian thought “Jerusalem” is a metaphor for the Church wherever it is found.