And He Relents from Doing Harm

Here is a description of the Day of the Lord. It will be a spectacular event, heralded by trumpets, and people will tremble. It appears that some kind of heavenly army will come with chariots and horses and warring angels. The mighty men on earth would be terrified.

God calls for repentance even at this very last stage. He urges people to fast, weep and mourn. Instead of tearing their garments to show they are mourning, God suggests that they tear their hearts instead. The grace and mercy of God is emphasised. He does not want to harm anyone, He is slow to anger, people still have a narrow chance to repent even at that time.

The judgment is followed by a renewal. This process of rebirth is described of the restoration of the land and nature which will become fruitful and abundant again. The people will be able to enjoy the blessings that God intended. The chapter ends with the well known prophecies of the last days where God will pour out His Spirit on the remnant and the old men shall dream dreams, and the young men shall see visions. Again it is repeated that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.



Joel 2
The Day of the Lord

1 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
And sound an alarm in My holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble;
For the day of the Lord is coming,
For it is at hand:
2 A day of darkness and gloominess,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Like the morning clouds spread over the mountains.
A people come, great and strong,
The like of whom has never been;
Nor will there ever be any such after them,
Even for many successive generations.
3 A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like the Garden of Eden before them,
And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like swift steeds, so they run.
5 With a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before them the people writhe in pain;
All faces are drained of color.[a]
7 They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break ranks.
8 They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own column.[b]
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not cut down.[c]
9 They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They enter at the windows like a thief.
10 The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
11 The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?


A Call to Repentance

12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
13 So rend your heart, and not your garments;
Return to the Lord your God,
For He is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger, and of great kindness;
And He relents from doing harm.
14 Who knows if He will turn and relent,
And leave a blessing behind Him—
A grain offering and a drink offering
For the Lord your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
16 Gather the people,
Sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.
17 Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,
Weep between the porch and the altar;
Let them say, “Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”


The Land Refreshed

18 Then the Lord will be zealous for His land,
And pity His people.
19 The Lord will answer and say to His people,
“Behold, I will send you grain and new wine and oil,
And you will be satisfied by them;
I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations.
20 “But I will remove far from you the northern army,
And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,
With his face toward the eastern sea
And his back toward the western sea;
His stench will come up,
And his foul odor will rise,
Because he has done monstrous things.”
21 Fear not, O land;
Be glad and rejoice,
For the Lord has done marvelous things!
22 Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;
For the open pastures are springing up,
And the tree bears its fruit;
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
23 Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the former rain faithfully,[d]
And He will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,[e]
My great army which I sent among you.
26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to shame.
27 Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.


God’s Spirit Poured Out

28 “And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
32 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
As the Lord has said,
Among the remnant whom the Lord calls.

Majesty and Righteousness

In these two chapters, both Bildad and Job describes the Majesty of God. Compared to God's Majesty, Bildad describes how unrighteous we are. He asks in a rhetorical manner, how can a man, which is so impure in nature, can ever be considered righteous by God. We know the answer of course, it is through Christ our Saviour, who paid the price for our sins.

However, as Job describes the Majesty of God, we see Job does not question our worthiness of establishing a relationship with God. This is perhaps Job understands what it is like to walk with God, even though he knows we are all unrighteous in our own self. Perhaps there is an element of understand in Job, about the Grace of God, that we can be with the Father simply because he allows it, not because we earned it.

Also interesting to note that in 25:13, Job refers to the Holy Spirit; as well as God inflicting the serpent - perhaps a reminder of the serpent at the Garden of Eden.


Job 25

Bildad: How Can Man Be Righteous?

 1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
 2 “ Dominion and fear belong to Him;  He makes peace in His high places.
 3 Is there any number to His armies?  Upon whom does His light not rise?
 4 How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?
 5 If even the moon does not shine,  And the stars are not pure in His sight,
 6 How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?”


Job 26
     Job: Man’s Frailty and God’s Majesty
 1 But Job answered and said:
 2 “How have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength?
 3 How have you counseled one who has no wisdom?  And how have you declared sound advice to many?
 4 To whom have you uttered words? And whose spirit came from you?
 5 “The dead tremble,  Those under the waters and those inhabiting them.
 6 Sheol is naked before Him,  And Destruction has no covering.
 7 He stretches out the north over empty space;  He hangs the earth on nothing.
 8 He binds up the water in His thick clouds, Yet the clouds are not broken under it.
 9 He covers the face of His throne, And spreads His cloud over it.
 10 He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters,  At the boundary of light and darkness.
 11 The pillars of heaven tremble,  And are astonished at His rebuke.
 12 He stirs up the sea with His power,  And by His understanding He breaks up the storm.
 13 By His Spirit He adorned the heavens;   His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
 14 Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,   And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?”

Banishment from Eden and the Tree of Life

The scripture below sheds a bit more light on the question of "The Tree of Life" which we discussed briefly in the last post. From v22, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil gives man the ability to know good and evil. Obviously this does not mean All-Knowing like God because we humans don't know so much.

The more interesting tree in this discussion is the Tree of Life which in v22 says that it gives immortality. So it appears for all the time Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they did not eat from the Tree of Life, yet God did not specifically said not to. Here we can speculate perhaps God was already teaching them about the Tree of Life. Perhaps God even promised a time in the future where they can eat from the Tree of Life. Perhaps they had an understanding that God was sanctifying / preparing them and once that is finished they can partake in the Tree of Life and achieve immortality. So perhaps because the fruits of Tree of Life were promised to man and so it did not cause so much temptation as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Whatever the plan was for the Tree of Life, it was cut short by the First Sin. As a result of sin and man being in a sinful state, God cannot allow man to be immortal and yet sinful. Hence the Tree of Life was out of bounds. But God does not intend to keep the Tree of Life from man forever. Instead God has a plan to cleanse the sinful man and then give him immortality, only when he is cleanse, by eating the Tree of Life.

Fast forward thousands of years later, our Lord Jesus of Nazareth is that Tree of Life. When we repent and accept Him, then His sacrifice makes us clean again for God. Then only we eat from the Tree of Life - Jesus - we achieve immortality and be in the Presence of God.



Genesis 3
²² Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— ²³ therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.




Revelations 2
7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’


John 6
³⁵ And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. ³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. ³⁹ This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. ⁴⁰ And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”


John 6
⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’^[e]Therefore everyone who has heard and learned^[f] from the Father comes to Me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me^[g]has everlasting life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” 
⁵² The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” 
⁵³ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵For My flesh is food indeed,^[h] and My blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” 

Garden of Eden

After God created man and woman, he also had a very special place prepared for them. We all know this as the Garden of Eden and we envisage this as a paradise. In the Garden, God also placed many trees that man can eat from. Recently, I have realised that different versions of the Bible may describe the two trees, Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in different ways.

In the NIV, it seems to suggest that there many trees which are good for food and the two trees are included in them. In the King James it appears that the two separate Trees are singled out - this means that the two special trees were not intended for food, at least not yet. This is no surprise for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, because God specifically said we can eat from it. However, considering the Tree of Life, this may lead to profound revelations about doctrine. The main uncertainty I found is that has Adam and Eve been regularly eating from the Tree of Life.Alternatively, even if the fruit of the Tree of Life is allowed to be eaten, was it being saved for a later time.

The scripture verses also tell us exactly where the Garden of Eden is, thus establishing the historical accuracy of the Bible. The only difficulty is that two of the four rivers mentioned (Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates), has been lost through time. Knowing these four rivers would allow us to pinpoint he location of the Garden of Eden.

The article here mentions the possible location of the Garden of Eden being the location where Kuwait, Iran and Iraq meets.
http://www.focusmagazine.org/Articles/pishonriver.htm


Genesis 2:
⁸ The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. ⁹ And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 
¹⁰ Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pishon; it isthe one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Hiddekel;^[b] it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 
¹⁵ Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”