Joel and Obadiah
I. Joel
A. Locust Invasion or Human Invasion?
We now turn to the prophet Joel. It is a short book and we can only give it proportionately a relatively short amount of time but I would like to make the following comments and try to leave that there for you to look at. First, there is an interesting question. Is Joel really, really talking about a locust invasion? It certainly sounds like it. Or, is he metaphorically talking about the Babylonian invasion, either of 598 or 588, and describing the Babylonians like locusts. It is hard to tell. People have taken both points of view. Anyway, there is this invasion and these "locusts" come and they are unstoppable, then the invasion continues, there is a call to repentance, then there is a promise of hope and then there is judgment and it is judgment on the nations.
It certainly looks like Joel is addressing the concerns, what we would call national concerns, political concerns, international matters and so on, in that he is not just talking about locusts. There are, however, scholars who have argued that he is just talking about locusts. One scholar who believed that said that he is a minor cult prophet. He is all worked up over a locust plague; locust plagues are not easy things; they are hard and they are part of the way God can judge. It seems like something else may, in fact, be his concern, especially because at the end of all this locust description, when you get into chapter 2:11, it says, "The Lord thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command. The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?" That sounds an awful lot more like a human army and a human invasion than a locust plague. However, it is a thing that you will see, if you read about Joel, is a pattern that is an issue.
This makes dating the book difficult. If it is a Babylonian invasion, fine, you are almost sure it is either 598 or 588. It just sounds like a human army. Then certainly, it comes that, if it is a human army, it is going to be one of the invasions we know about. If, on the other hand, it is a locust plague, we do not have any history of locust plagues. So, could Joel be writing in the ninth century, eighth century, seventh century, sixth, fifth, fourth, third even. People have come up with dates for all of those possibilities. That is part of the challenge. It is a wonderful story of hope and of God's hope for His people by reason of judgment on the nations.
B. Themes
Four big themes to be aware of in Joel.
1. The Day of the Lord
The idea of the day of the Lord. A comment here--in the ancient world there was a very widespread popular notion. This notion was that a truly great king, when he went to battle, could win his war in a day. If King X got into a war with King Y, King X, if he were truly a great sovereign, would demolish King Y in a day. There are really many, many references to this--the idea that in one day you can overcome the enemy. I collected these and wrote an article back in 1976 called "The Sovereign's Day of Conquest" in the Bulletin of the American Schools in Oriental Research. You can check that out. I just marshal all of the evidence, Egyptian, Babylonian, Hittite and so on, lots and lots of evidence for this notion. This appears to be something that God inspired the prophets to pick up on, because who is a greater sovereign than the Lord Himself. If there is a need to eliminate evil, to go to war against what is bad and corrupt and so on, and the Lord chooses to do so, it is going to be over in a day. It is not going to be the week of Yahweh, the month of Yahweh, the year of Yahweh; it is going to be the day of Yahweh, the day of the Lord. It will be a decisive day of divine intervention against injustice and in favor of righteousness. It will be a great reversal of everything that is improper. Joel really does talk about that. That is what he is talking about--a great invasion, call to repentance, the expectation that there is a need to get right with God because that day of the Lord is dreadful, Joel 2:11. Who can endure it? Who can fight God? Who can think that he can stand up against the Lord? Will the Lord do what he does only by military means? No, of course not.
The ultimate victory is spiritual, just like Zachariah says, another day of the Lord prophet. Zachariah says, "'Not by might, nor by power but by my spirit, says the Lord." Joel has a comparable message. We read in Joel 2:28, after a lot of discussion about decisive military intervention, great armies and so on, and he says, "Then I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy; your old men will dream dreams; your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." That is a time of huge importance. If you make the wrong decision, boy is it a disaster. If you make the right decision, it is fabulous. Because, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls." The day of the Lord, decisive, decisive, which side are you on? If you are on the right side it is great; you are on the winning side and it is all over quickly. If you are on the wrong side, it is a disaster for you. That theme is here in Joel and Joel is one of the Day of the Lord prophets with a heavy Day of the Lord emphasis.
2. Oracles Against Foreign Nations
He also, certainly, has oracles against foreign nations. He has some, in general, in chapter 3:1-8. He says, "I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat." That is a convenient name because Jehoshaphat means, "the Lord will judge". So "the Valley of the Lord will judge" just works perfectly. "I will come into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, and I will deal with people who have abused and misused the people of Israel in any way."
3. War Oracles
He also has war oracles. These are sometimes subcategories of Day of Yahweh themes, the war oracles that we have talked about very briefly before; a great example, the one in Hosea 5:5-8, but there are many other places where war oracles occur. In these war oracles you have predictions of battle. Joel 3:9, "Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say I am strong. Come quickly, all you nations from every side and assemble there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord!" So you have God coming with His angelic warriors against all the nations of the earth to judge them and it melts, thus, into a judgment oracle.
4. Democratization of the Spirit
Certainly, back on the theme that I read earlier, one of the wonderful, special contributions of this book is its emphasis on, not merely the coming of the Holy Spirit, not merely the great judgment being that of the Spirit, but of the democratization of the Spirit. What do we mean by that? In Old Testament times, prophets have the Spirit of God. The Spirit might specially guide them. They could even be described as filled with the Spirit. A couple of the craftsmen who build the tabernacle are described as filled with the Spirit. Moses and the elders of Israel are described as filled with the Spirit. But generally, people were not. Most people just had to learn God's covenant, learn His law, learn what was right and wrong and do their best to live by it.
The New Covenant, that is predicted by Joel and all kinds of other prophets in all kinds of other places, is looking forward to a time, however, when the least of God's people, the newest Christian, the most uninformed Christian, the Christian having the most trouble trying to live the Christian life, will have a relationship to God through His Spirit better than anybody in the Old Covenant ever had. That is a really fantastic thing. We call this the democratization of the Spirit, the Spirit on everybody, on all the people. demos, where you get the word democracy, means "people", all the people get God's Spirit. Jesus says it this way, "I tell you the truth, among men born of women, John the Baptist is the greatest, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Even as great a prophet as John the Baptist is not in the same relationship to God that any of us is in Christ. It is a wonderful thing. So the role of the Holy Spirit is powerful.
Note what is said here, "I'll pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy." Not one gender or the other but both, they are linked together. It is not gender limited. "Old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." It is not age limited. "Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." It is not status limited. The Holy Spirit is given without regard to gender, without regard to age, without regard to status, therefore, how foolish to say, "He's too young; we can't let him go on our evangelistic team." That is bad thinking. Parents might say, "He is too young; he is still in third grade," you do not want him to go to Costa Rica for four months during the school year. That is another reason but that is not saying that he is too young to be led by God's Spirit. "This kid is too young to accept Christ as Savior, only two and a half years old, no way." If the kid says yes and appears to be real, by all means consider it. Nor should we ever say somebody is too old. "Sorry, you're in your eighties now, you ought to retire, just relax, let other people carry on the work of the kingdom." Bad, bad advice. Nor should we say, "You're not of the right social status. This is a white-collar church, you don't belong." Do not do that kind of thing. Nor should we say, "You're a woman, therefore..." There is never a "you're a woman, therefore," as far as I can tell, in Scripture. There is never a "you're a man, therefore," either, in Scripture. It is not that the gifts and calling of God are gender limited, not in the age of the Spirit. This is a wonderful text about the democratization of the Holy Spirit and the significance that has for us and seeing the power of God operate in our world.
II. Obadiah
A. Oracle Against Edom
Now to Obadiah, even smaller book, even quicker look. There are more oracles against foreign nations directed against Edom than any other foreign nation, very interesting statistic. If you count them up, as I have done and have published, you will see that there are more anti-Edom oracles than against any other foreign nations. Edom was not a very big nation. If you look at a map and you see Edom down there kind of south of and around the Dead Sea you say, "Gee, it is a tiny, little place." Rough, hard scrabbled wilderness area, not very nice farmlands there or anything, no really big cities, not a huge nation at any time. Why then do God's prophets spend so much time? They are inspired to do it. But why do they spend so much time and attention on Edom? More anti-Edom prophecies than against anyone, even against Babylon, even against Egypt, even against Assyria, not as many as against Edom.
The answer is that Edom had this absolute, consistent, constant, tradition enmity toward Judah. It starts way back in the Book of Genesis with the rivalry of Jacob and Esau. You have read that and you know some of that background. The ancestors of each nation had a rivalry. That continues as you read stories in Exodus and Numbers, especially Numbers, about how the Israelites want to go through the territory of Edom just to get to the Promised Land. "Look, we don't want to give you grief, we aren't going to give you trouble, we just want to walk through." The Edomites will not even let them do that. They give them grief and threaten to fight with them, so the Israelites have to skirt the territory. It continues on and on.
B. Edom During the Babylonian Siege of Jerusalem
It comes to one of its many foci with Obadiah. Here is the situation. When the Babylonians were besieging Jerusalem for two years, from 588 to 586 BC, there were thousands upon thousands that had to be holed up in Jerusalem; they were surrounded, they could not get out, and in some of the other cities as well, though the other cities all fell to the siege before Jerusalem did. That meant that almost nobody could be out, generally, in the countryside, farming and taking care of their flocks and so on. That means that Judean farmlands were basically sitting empty. The Edomites, perennial enemies of the Judeans, of Israel in general, but they are nearest the Judeans, said "Look, there it is, the Babylonians are dealing with these people; they have made themselves odious to the Babylonians. We capitulated right away." The Edomites were among the groups that said, "We won't fight. Whatever you make us pay we'll pay; we're not going to fight." So they capitulated immediately to the Babylonians and did not resist so they had great freedom. They had to pay the heavy tax, toll, and tribute. One way to do it is simply to take over Judean farmlands. So large numbers of Edomites filtered up into empty towns and villages all over southern Judah, and that is made reference to here in Obadiah. He says, in verse 12, talking directly to Obadiah, "You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune," that is the Babylonian conquest, "nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster." That is what was happening. The Edomites said, "Hey, ours for the taking, no Babylonians around to bother us, nobody else, no Judeans." So they just took over the Promised Land. They actually invaded and captured some of the Promised Land. This is why they have offended God; they deserve well to be criticized.
In addition, they also curried favor with the Babylonians by rounding up Judean refugees and turning them over to Babylon. You have this in verse 14, "You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives," that is, Judean fugitives, "nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble." What is going to happen to Obadiah? Day of the Lord again. Verse 15, "The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return on your own head. Just as you drank on my holy hill," meaning that Edomites actually came in and plundered even Jerusalem itself, they drank on God's holy hill, that would mean plundering of Jerusalem, "so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been." In other words, they will sort of drink into oblivion. "But, on Mount Zion there will be deliverance...The house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame; the house of Esau will be stubble..." It is like that line that Danny DiVito delivers brilliantly in the movie, The Jewel of the Nile, where he says to Michael Douglas, "Your rear end is grass and I'm a lawnmower." That is the modern equivalent of "I'm fire and you're stubble." They took advantage of the Babylonian attack; they grabbed farmlands, turned fleeing refugees over, and then sold refugees into slavery. That is not nice. Obadiah is talking about that, condemning them, saying that God will do the same kinds of things to Edomites, "Your time will come, you'll suffer." They did. The Edomites, in history, faded fast as a people and were possessed by others.
C. What God Will Do For Israel
Then, it ends with what God will do for Judah and Israel and He will improve their lot, will make things go better and better, bring people back from exile, deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau and the kingdom will belong to Yahweh; the kingdom will be the Lord's.
What we have in Obadiah, in a way, is not at all unusual. It is just like the oracles against foreign nations and that big block of material from Jeremiah 46-51 or the oracles against foreign nations in Isaiah or Ezekiel or elsewhere. It is just like that, except that what Obadiah gives us is just one foreign nation oracle. He may have prophesied plenty of things, but this was the thing he was known for, perhaps, the special message that God gave him that he preached often. It is hard to know. But this is the one that got written down and preserved and it just makes a whole book. No different author, different book, that is basically the whole format for making up books in the Old Testament, so here is his relatively small out-written output, you might say, and it is all on a single theme. It happens to be a single foreign nation oracle against Edom that becomes a book. In other cases that would be just a small part of a great, big major prophet. For Obadiah, that is it. That is the topic of his book. It is not a different thing; it is just the kind of thing you find elsewhere. In this case one book, all by itself constituting a book. In a way, we do not do justice to the many interesting and effective themes that we have in a book like Obadiah, or whatever, but that is part of the challenge of, and also benefit of, a rapid overview. You sacrifice some precision and certainly a lot of detail in favor of the big picture, which is what we are always trying to give. So, I hope that you are not discouraged by the fact that we spent 4.8 minutes on Obadiah and that is it. That is the way it should be and it is appropriate.
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