The Value and Certainty of God’s End-Time Judgments
Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. Is
not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under
the clods, storehouses are in shambles; barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. How the animals
groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer
punishment. O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all
the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire
has devoured the open pastures. (Joel 1:15-20)
I. ALAS … THE DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME!
“Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty” (Joel 1:15)
A. In Joel 1, the prophet gave an account of the three dimensions of natural disasters that had come upon Israel: the
locust invasion (Joel 1:4), drought (Joel 1:17-20) and raging fires that followed the drought (Joel 1:19-20). All of Israel’s
life resources were being threatened by this progressive crisis, and things were not looking better – the devastations were
not letting up.
B. God sent Joel into the midst of the confused people to bring understanding as to why the crisis was growing and not
subsiding. After describing the great national crisis – the absence of wine and oil, the ruined grain, the withered land, the
despondency of the people – Joel proclaims a horrifying thing; He tells the people that god was the Author of the desolations
(Joel 1:15).
1. He goes on to tell them the calamity will get worse (Joel 2:1-9) because the Lord wanted His people to turn to Him.
The crisis would surely continue and even increase until God’s desired effect took place.
2. They need not look to natural solutions because the hand of God was behind the disaster. God was the One
orchestrating it. His purpose in releasing judgment is to remove everything that hindered love in the life of His people.
C. “Alas” – Joel was crying out – “Woe!” to the inhabitants of the land. We can feel the pain of Joel’s heart in this
word. There is a sense of shock and terror in Joel’s heart because he understands what is happening. He wanted this
extreme situation to be understood so they would respond in the way that would minimize the danger.
D. The parallel statement to “Alas” is, “Sound the alarm” (Joel 2:1). He wanted to summon the full attention of the
people that they might heed the word of the Lord. Destruction was coming, and in mercy God had sent him to sound the
alarm. Rising up against the current of his day and even the natural desires of the people of God, Joel cried out “Alas!”
E. He disrupted everyone’s comfort zone by prophesying that he could see on the horizon a crisis so alarming that the
majority could not even relate to it. They hardly had the ability to interpret the implications of what was happening in front
of their eyes in the locust plague. They had just assumed this disaster would quickly pass. Yet Joel cries out, in essence,
“No! It is going to get way worse! The locust plague turned into a drought! Then raging fires came! Our land is
destroyed, yet the worst is not over! It’s only going to escalate!”
II. THE DAY OF THE LORD IS AT HAND
For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. (Joel 1:15)
A. For the day of the Lord is at hand …” (Joel 1:15). I cannot overestimate the shock that this statement would have
been to the people of Joel’s day. In the midst of the crisis. Joel boldly interprets the crisis as coming from the hand of God.
Joel tells the people that the locust plague, the drought, the raging fires, the famine, and the starvation were all a part of
the day of the Lord. God was behind all of this, and more was coming.
B. This is the same as telling Israel that the God of Israel orchestrated the Holocaust (Deuteronomy 28).
C. The day of the Lord is when God fights against His enemies. In this case, sin within Israel was the enemy that God
was fighting. His enemy, in one word, is unrighteousness. It is sin and satan and all of the works of evil spread throughout
the universe. The problem was that Israel was on the side of sin, making themselves an enemy of God.
D. Joel described this day as destruction coming from the Almighty.
1. “almighty” or “Shaddai” was understood by Israel as the covenant name for God. Under the anointing of the Holy
Spirit, Joel was setting up a powerful contrast by using this specific name of God. He defined the destruction as coming
from El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God. In other words, the One who makes covenant with them is the One removing tings
that hinder love. He is the God who destroys the things that stand in the way.
2. Israel always thought of El Shaddai as the God who provided for them according to their agenda but Joel was
prophesying something different. He informed them that El-Shaddai was the One providing the answer to their greater
dilemma – that which was keeping them from His heart. As their covenant God, His answer was in fact judgment.
E. The Lord spoke this same message through Isaiah when He said, “I make peace and create calamity” (Isaiah 45:7),
and through the prophet Amos, “If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?” (Amos 3:6).
F. What a disturbing statement! Thus far, Joel’s message was mildly received as he stated the obvious, voicing the
severity that everyone knew to be true. Yet in attributing the locust calamity to God’s sovereign hand, he invaded Israel’s
comfort zones and stirred up the offenses of the people. I imagine them saying, “Wait a second, Joel. Now you have
gone too far.”
G. Israel was troubled at this interpretation of the current events. They felt abandoned by God. God’s zeal in
judgment, is proof of His commitment to His people: His discipline reveals His jealousy over them. When God disciplines
His sons, it is proof that he loves them (Hebrews 12:5-12). It is God’s proof that He will not allow things to go unchecked
and unmeasured. He will intervene to correct the situation.
H. This message will be equally offensive to our generation, even when it is declared by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
We must be prepared for great resistance in this.
I. This is not simply a history lesson about the days of Joel. We need to understand what is before us. This same
scenario that Joel walked out will be repeated again in our land and in our day.
III. DEUTERONOMY 28 – BLESSING OR DESTRUCTION
A. God desires to release blessing to His people. That truly is His desire. Yet He refuses to pour out this blessing
until His people live in agreement with Him.
1. Deuteronomy 28 gives us great insight into Joel 1-3. The body of Christ usually only studies the first fourteen
verses, which speak of God’s covenant blessings. Oh, how we love the blessing of God. We were made for it. Yet we
cannot dismiss the other fifty-four verses beyond the first fourteen. The remaining part of the chapter is just as much an
expression of the heart of God as the first part is.
2. The Lord, in essence, says, “If you do not want My presence, then I will give you the only alternative: I will take
away the hedge of protection, and I will let the destruction that is due you come upon you. If any of you refuse My mercy,
justice is what you will get.” God honors the free will of His people. If they do not want free mercy, they will receive justice
without mercy. In other words, they get what they deserve. There is not a third option if we refuse repentance with mercy.
B. The process of judgment which Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 28 is parallel with what was happening in Joel 1
and what will happen in our day.
1. Moses says, “And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall
be iron” (Deuteronomy 28:23). God prophesies a bronzed heaven, which in the natural, means the withholding of rain.
I’m sure there is also a spiritual application of the Lord not hearing their prayers, but in the most immediate application,
it is talking about literal drought.
2. He goes on, “The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on
you until you are destroyed” (Deuteronomy 28:24). In other words, the Lord prophesies that He will send the scorching
heat of drought and all of the lifelessness that it brings with His very own hand.
C. “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it” (Deuteronomy 28:38).
Scripture prophesies that God would send locusts. Amos foretold a locust plague in his day: “The Lord showed me:
Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop …” (Amos 7:1). Amos prophesied that God was
supernaturally intervening in nature to form the locust swarm and send it to the people of Israel. Talk about an unpopular
statement!
D. “You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the
worms shall eat them” (Deuteronomy 28:39).
E. Moses makes a most startling statement about God’s judgments; to be a prophetic sign for His people.
They shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder … on your descendants forever. (Deuteronomy 28:46)
1. Speaking of these curses that would be upon the people of Israel, he declares, “that the judgments shall be to them
as a prophetic sign.”
2. This astounding verse is as true today as it was then. The situation of judgment is intended by God to be a sign
and a wonder to mankind. It is devised to alert the hearts of men to the supernatural work of God – a miracle, though a
negative miracle.
F. The book of Revelation describes the supernatural work of God in releasing disaster and informing the planet that
He is God. Much of Revelation is a prophecy of supernatural events from God’s hand that create disaster. They are
intended to be as a sign and wonder, or in other words, a disaster with a prophetic message in it. The disasters
prophesied in Revelation are more than natural calamities taking place; they are specific activities of God’s hand, given
for the purpose of communicating a prophetic message.
Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolations in the earth. (Psalm 46:8)
G. God caused the crisis in Amos’ day to be a sign in that He caused it to rain on one city and held back the rain from
another city so that it would clearly be evident that a supernatural work was in play. He caused “pockets of mercy” by
sending rain on those places that were seeking Him and withholding rain from those that were not. To one city, the rain
was a sign of supernatural blessing. To the other city, it was a sign of supernatural judgment (Amos 4:7). Two or three
wandered from one city to another to find water to drink, yet they were not satisfied. And still, in this crisis sent by God,
they did not understand what God was doing, and they did not return to the Lord! (Amos 4:8) They blamed it on the devil
or on the natural cycles of weather. They missed the Divine message. They missed the sign and the wonder.
IV. MOSES PROPHESIED THE PROGRESSION OF JUDGMENT – LOCUST THEN INVASION
Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. Moreover all these curses shall come upon
you … until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God … They shall be upon you for a
sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. The Lord will bring a nation (Babylon) against you from afar … as
swift as the eagle flies … a nation of fierce countenance … they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce
of your land, until you are destroyed. They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls … come
down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your
God has given you. You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters … in the siege
and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. (Deuteronomy 28:42, 46, 49-53)
A. This was a very well known prophesy in Joel’s day. Joel follows the progression of this judgment which was to be
understood as a prophetic sign to Israel.
B. A locust plague (Deuteronomy 38:38, 42) is to be followed by a military invasion (Deuteronomy 28:47-57).
1. Babylon was the only nation that destroyed all the fortified walls throughout all Israel. Babylon did this over a 20
year period (BC 606-586) which included three major invasions occurring in BC 606, 587 and 586.
2. Just over a century earlier, Assyria besieged and defeated various Israelite cities, but could not take Jerusalem
and others.
C. Moses’ prophesy in Deuteronomy 28:52 was only partially fulfilled by Babylon. It will again be fulfilled by the
antichrist in the end-times (Zechariah 12-14).