Joel 3:17-21 is my reading for today.
After all the thunder and lightening of the previous passages, we get to the end of the story.
It is an idilic picture that draws on the agrarian imagery the Jewish people of that era would know well.
Then you will know that I, the LORD your God,
dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy;
never again will foreigners invade her.
In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk;
all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the LORD's house
and will water the valley of acacias.
This state of peace and plenty occurs after God dwells in Zion (literal Zion or figurative Zion?) and the enemies are gone.
I've always wondered how passages like this would be written if there was a 21st Century Joel in America?
Would they use the same kind of imagery or what it be completely different?
I can't help but feel this kind of passage is descriptive of some future occasion though I suppose some might argue that it is symbolic for the blessings that Christ's coming has inaugurated.
Many of my blog posts on Joel have dwelt on this question.
One question I sometimes ask about life in the modern world is why doesn't God make it more obvious that He is active?
Have you ever seen the play on letter perception?
Godisnowhere.
We can read it. "God is nowhere" or as "God is now here."
This passage in Joel seems to be describing the state when there is no doubt as to whether God is around. The destruction of the enemies and the peace and prosperity make that pretty clear.
But what about today?
We live in a world where there are many who oppose God and what is good. Peace is hard to find and some places are desperately poor and in rich America, there is poverty of the soul.
I suppose the analogy can be made to the time between D-day and victory in Europe day. On D-day, the US, British, Canadian and allied forces invaded Normandy to gain a foothold in Europe. It would take nearly a year of additional fighting before the Nazis were defeated.
God has invaded into human affairs at various times by various means in the Hebrew Scriptures. Joel's message in some ways was God invading into that time and place. It was a message regarding a particularly devastating locust invasion and had its meaning in its time. But its broader theme of the Day of the LORD may have had partial fulfillment in its time but awaits complete fulfillment in a time yet to be?
The ultimate invasion was Jesus. Restoration and victory have been set in motion but it is not here yet in full.
But Egypt will be desolate,
Edom a desert waste,
because of violence done to the people of Judah,
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
Judah will be inhabited forever
and Jerusalem through all generations.
Their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned,
I will pardon."
The LORD dwells in Zion!
In the intellectual abstract situation people might wonder out loud is there really a right and wrong or is it purely a social convention these notions of good and evil. But as a gut level, we seem to know and want to believe there is punishment for those who seem to get away with things in this world. Inside the human heart is the desire to see the wicked punished. That doesn't mean a savage glee in reading a passage like this but rather a quiet assurance that the scales of justice will be evened out.
Which leads to the problem at hand for me as an ordinary human being. I'm guilty of sin. My sense of justice toward the outside has to be turned inside too. I need forgiveness. And so the book of Joel is also about how God calls people to himself and forgives them and blesses them in addition to the judgement in the Day of the LORD.
Lord Jesus, thank you that you have left the heavenly realms so that we would not be left stuck in our sins. Please speed the day when the scales of justice are balanced. There are many more faithful than me and more righteous than me who long to see injustice recompensed. For them I ask your Kingdom would come in full and take full realization. For those who stand outside your ruling in their hearts, may they be convicted of their sin and see your justice and your mercy and be drawn to you. Amen.
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