Exposition on Joel - Introduction - 5

     We now have two major ideas in mind with regards to the “zeitgeist” of the temporal Jewish kingdom: One, that the prophets delivered their messages in the context of the covenant (with its blessings and curses) and two, that the Jewish people had largely misunderstood how God’s plan to create a people for Himself would be fulfilled in what we call the ecclesia or Church. They had it in their minds that in essence, to be loved by God and to live as His beneficiary was to be nationally Jewish. So in light of this misunderstanding three topics should be taken into consideration: the reason behind God’s judgment—the covenantal disobedience of the people, the means of the warnings Joel gives—the DotL. And third—the right way to view God’s faithfulness to His people and the right way to look at the application of the signs of the covenants: both circumcision in the Old and baptism in the New.

In Joel’s day the nation didn’t really believe that God’s wrath could come down upon them, not His chosen nation. They had forgotten the curses for disobedience in the Mosaic covenant and remembered only the blessings of the covenant made to Abraham their father. Kind of like the haughtiness of Harry Potter in the “Half Blood Prince”. Many of the people had in mind that, in order to become part of the elect people of God one had to become part of the physical nation of Israel; over the years, they had equated the two. They failed to see themselves as an illustration of something greater. But because of a lack of information, we must give them a pass. It is not likely that we would have understood it any better. Theirs was an age of shadows and types and things that only pointed forward to the fulfillment—Jesus Christ. Their misgivings were in large measure the result of some of the functions of the covenant: the exclusivity in the rituals and celebrations; the peculiarity of the dietary laws, the warnings against marrying foreigners. Their misinterpretation of those things contributed to a fallen understanding of those outside of the covenant, especially in their time but even after Christ came. The transition and understanding didn’t come easily. Christ had to be interpreted. And Paul in Eph. 2:11-22 helped reform the world’s understanding of the mystery that ALL nations would be brought into the commonwealth of Israel by their adoption through the blood of Christ. Before that, this idea of being loved and cared for and benefiting from the grace of God without first becoming a Jew (which in the Jew’s minds at the time meant being circumcised and keeping the other Mosaic Laws) was unthinkable. Paul informs us, just as Hosea prophesied, that the “uncircumcision” who were “not a people” have been made a people by being brought near to the commonwealth of Israel. Consider the Galatian heresy Paul had to deal with, it only happened because of this misunderstanding. Some influential people were teaching “another” gospel, one where of course the heretics admitted that one needed Christ’s sacrifice but that the person would also need to be physically circumcised and participate in a distinctly Old Covenant Jewish format of worship. Those false teachers in Galatia had fooled many to think that a proselyte still basically had to become a national Jew before becoming a disciple of the risen Christ. So in this misunderstanding of fulfilled Jewishness, the Galatians of Paul’s day were still in disbelief regarding the expansive nature of God’s mercy, that it included all tribes, tongues and peoples. The Jews in Joel’s day were likewise confused about the punishment of their people at the DotL. Part of Joel’s message was to remind them that faithless Jews too, along with the godless Gentile nations, would receive the brunt of God’s damning wrath.