God’s Zeal to Release Blessing
Then the Lord will be zealous for His land, and pity His people. 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. 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.” Fear not,
O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things! 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. Be glad then you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given you the
former rain faithfully, and he will cause the rain to come down for you – the former rain, and the latter
rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new
wine and oil. So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust,
the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. 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. 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. (Joel 2:18-27)
I. THE GREAT TRANSITION OF THE BOOK OF JOEL
A. The great transition of the book of Joel is with one small word in 2:18: “Then…” Then the Lord will be zealous for His
land and pity His people.” When the people gather and cry out to God, then the Lord will be zealous for the land, and then
He will have compassion on His people. It is this wholehearted response that He answers. The Lord has just spoken the
“mysterious perhaps of God” and said that He may relent and leave a blessing behind if His people will cry out to Him.
B. We see in Joel 2:12-17 that God’s zeal is aroused as a response to the prayer movement. The whole first half of
the book of Joel is about crisis and the need for wholehearted response in order to receive God’s mercy. The second half
o Joel, beginning with this word, “then”, is about the divine release of salvation for the people who cried out in a
wholehearted way. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Joel moves his focus to the manifestation of God’s saving power
and God’s vindication of the lifestyle of wholeheartedness amidst His people.
C. Salvation and triumph over enemies is the primary theme of the rest of the book of Joel. God vindicates those who
actually come before Him with a whole heart in fasting and prayer. By His actions, He says, “you have chosen wisely with
your life”. The Lord cares deeply about vindicating His people. When He does so, He vindicates the truthfulness of His
name and His covenant-keeping nature. He desires to show the nations how He keeps His promises.
D. This victory that Joel describes is specifically and literally speaking of Israel – God’s triumph over her enemies in
response to her wholeheartedness and prayer. As a rule, almost all end-time prophecy is focused on this small geographic
area. It is not that God cares only about Israel. He is the God who never changes, and he cares about all of His people
everywhere. Once again, it is the principle of “like kind but lesser degree”. He does not have to speak about Kansas City,
Johannesburg, Berlin, or Melbourne to convey His zeal for believers everywhere. He has given Israel as His messenger to
the earth (Isaiah 43:10); what is written in the scriptures of their story is for our example, “For our admonition, upon whom
the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10;11). The way He leads one people is how He leads all the peoples,
and so we know that what happens to Israel, both in terms of blessing and in terms of crisis, will also happen to all the
nations of the earth, in like kind but lesser degree. Yet regardless of the fact that the rest of the nations will experience
a lesser degree, both of revival and judgment, the dimensions will still be so substantial for people all over the globe.
E. Jesus is so clear that the world-wide tribulation will still far surpass anything that has ever happened in history.
Therefore we must take what is prophesied about Israel very seriously and very personally.
II. GOD’S ZEAL FOR THE LAND OF ISRAEL – MANIFESTING HIS SOVEREIGNTY
Then the Lord will be zealous for His land and pity His people. (Joel 2:18)
A. God describes Himself as zealous for His land, that is the land of Israel. In choosing Israel, God is making a
declaration of His sovereign leadership over the earth and history itself.
B. It is amazing that the first thing that God calls himself zealous over is a piece of geography. It is hard for a person
to understand why God would have zeal for the land. With all of the things on God’s mind, why would He care about that
piece of geography?
C. He personally chose where He would be born, where He would make His grand entrance in at His Second Coming,
and from what place He would administrate the Millennial earth.
D. God’s zeal for the land of Israel is a new idea to many Christians, yet it is a profoundly biblical idea found throughout
the Word of God. Millions of believers have no idea that Yeshua, the One they love with all their hearts, has fiery zeal for
a piece of specific real estate in the earth.
Thus says the Lord: “I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal”. (Zechariah 1:14)
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I am zealous for Zion with great zeal; with great fervor I am zealous for her’
(Zechariah 8:2)
E. The land of Israel is important to God; He possesses zeal for it. He has tremendous investment in, and deep emotion
for this little piece of land called Israel. It is amazing how much scripture references God’s thoughts, emotions and
investment in this specific piece of property. The whole earth is the Lord’s, yet this little strip of land called Israel is His
particular inheritance. “For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place” (Psalm 132:13-14). He
chose this land before there were even nations on the earth and He built world history around it.
F. He chose the city in which He would administrate the millennial earth. It is the very center of the globe (Ezekiel 5:5).
With three continents joining at its position, Europe, Asia, and Africa, it is the strategic place of the earth, the pathway to
all of the major continents of the world. This is the place where Jesus will return and the place from which He will reign in
His Kingdom over the earth (Zechariah 14:4, 16; Psalm 48). He is zealous for that piece geography because it is the “city
of the great King”. He chose Jerusalem from the beginning and He wants it for Himself.
G. In this declaration of His sovereign choosing of Israel, He knew His enemy satan would resist it. Since He said,
“This is the place”, the enemy has wanted to rule it. Satan knows that Jesus has ‘backed Himself into a corner’, so to
speak, by saying that He will not return until the leadership of Israel says to Him, “Blessed is He who comes in the name
of the Lord!” (Matthew 23:39)
1. Therefore satan has spent the last 2,000 years seeking to destroy this people who would be key to the Second
Coming of Jesus. Before Christ came, satan tried to destroy the nation to prevent the birth of the Messiah
(Revelation 12:1-5). Now he seeks to prevent the return of Christ by eliminating the people who must welcome Him back.
Satan’s rage for Israel has filled the nations throughout history and will escalate to unknown heights before the return of
Jesus.
2. As the events surrounding the Second Coming culminate and the nations of the earth come against Israel, God will
give all of the advantages in this fight to the nations. He will ‘back Himself into a corner’ yet again, revealing just how
impossible deliverance and justice is unless God is who He says He is.
3. In His Second Coming, he will suddenly change the course of the tide and show the earth just how zealous He is for
the land of Israel. No power of hell and no sinful activity will uproot His inheritance from His sovereignty. He chose it, He
declared it and He will demonstrate His ability to possess it.
H. In understanding God’s zeal for the land of Israel, we must know that this zeal is about His own glory and
sovereignty, not because the natural land in and of itself is holier than other land.
I. Some Gentiles view the land of Israel with either religious sentimentalism or superstition without biblical revelation
about it. In this unbalanced thinking, they do bizarre things like collecting dirt or water from Israel, believing that the power
is in the land itself rather than in the God who chose the land. This is just like rubbing a stone and thinking magic will
happen or rubbing the rabbit’s foot for good luck. It is unbiblical and it sets back the testimony of Jesus. God’s zeal is not
about the dirt, water, or the artifacts of the land, but it’s about God’s fiery sovereignty choosing a place before he did
Genesis 1 and proving that He can pull it off. His zeal for the land is related to the sovereign decree in His heart before
the beginning of time.
J. The Israelis themselves are not immune from God’s judgment and wrath, as the testimony of scripture declares so
loudly. When they sin before the Lord and do not line up with him, the land reflects God’s discipline and judgment and
they suffer certain consequences, such as the drought and famine of Joel’s day. The nations of the world are also
involved in God’s zeal for Israel. If they come against this land, which they have done continuously through the centuries,
God judges them as well. Anyone who treats the land of Israel with injustice, whether Jew or Gentile, is in trouble with God.
K. A dramatic reversal of history through supernatural intervention is coming to the nation of Israel; she will experience
triumph over all of her enemies by supernatural interventions – a drastic contrast! The nation that has been the weakest,
most traumatized, mocked and hated of every nation in the earth is going to experience a spectacular turning of the tide!
1. No other nation comes close to Israel, in terms of the trauma of their history. For most of the four thousand years
this nation has existed, it has been so fragile and continually on the brink of extinction and seasons of prosperity have
been sparse.
2. The very fact that Israel’s existence has continued for four thousand years is a supernatural reality. Satan has
raged against them; nations of the earth have fought them ruthlessly; and God Himself has judged this nation severely.
Yet the Lord is going to cause a supernatural reversal of all of this judgment. In so doing, He will reveal Himself as a
covenant-keeping God. Israel is going to go from global persecution to global favor!
3. God is going to transform their judgment into supernatural blessing. He will take this weak nation that has been the
most severely treated and judged of God and men, and He will make it the leader of all the nations of the earth – displaying
His own power in the process.
III. GOD’S COMPASSION MANIFESTED IN HEALING THE LAND
The Lord will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied
by them; I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. (Joel 2:19
A. God has great compassion for His people. One of the ways that He will manifest that compassion is through
healing the land. In His fiery zeal for it and His tremendous emotion for His people, He will undo all of the curses on the
land. God is going to heal the actual, physical land of Israel supernaturally releasing agriculture.
B. From God’s point of view, Israel stretches from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates River (Genesis 15). The vast
majority of this land that God promised Abraham is currently barren desert, yet it is going to be supernaturally healed by
God. By His grace, he will cause the agriculture to grow beyond anything that we can imagine. God will pour out rain
upon this land in a way Israel has not known for four thousand years. Though most of Israel is a wilderness, even the
parts that are not are constantly in a drama caused by their lacks of rain. From the beginning of time, the Lord set up this
drama to transpire in this way. He was the One who set up the rain cycles to cause Israel to be desperate for rain and to
only have the rain in relation to their obedience to God. The Nile River supplies the nation of Egypt, filling it with fertile
valleys, yet Israel possesses no natural support for water and agriculture. God has them backed up against a wall in
such a way that if it does not rain, they starve to death.
C. Israel has known so many droughts through the years, so much barrenness and so much lack in regard to natural
blessing of the land. Yet god has promised a turnaround; He is zealous to transform their barrenness into abundant food
provision and supernatural rain cycles. Both rain and agriculture will be released in a measure unknown in history. Isaiah
spoke of this dramatic healing of the land when he said “The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the
desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing …”
(Isaiah 35:1-2). The literal desert lands will experience an agricultural miracle and become plush with life, flourishing with
growth just like the Garden of Eden (Isaiah 51:3). The earth will be amazed at God’s work there, and it will be a source
of inspiration to the whole globe.
D. The fullness of this agricultural blessing will happen after the Lord returns and sets up a literal government. The fruit
of this God-Man’s righteous government from the city of Jerusalem will be seen in the agriculture, the atmosphere and the
livestock. Why do we care about what the earth is going to be like after He comes back? We care because the saints, the
meek ones, will literally inherit the earth and will rule over it with the Lord (Psalm 37:34; Matthew 5:5; Revelation 5:10).
E. There will also be a supernatural reversal – in the negative sense – for the nations of the earth that prospered in
their wickedness. Those nations that have resisted God’s will and purpose will experience a drastic change when the Man
Christ Jesus comes to set up His kingdom on the earth and rule for a thousand literal years upon the earth.
F. Though the blessing will only come to fullness after the Lord’s return, the principle of God’s kingdom is that He
never changes. Whatever the Lord is going to do across the earth in that hour of full blessing, He will do over the earth in
tokens and smaller dimensions even before He comes. Though the concept of God healing the land does not seem too
important to the western mindset, it is crucial we understand it for what is coming. We are used to just going to the
refrigerated storehouses when the land is struggling; we don’t miss a step. Yet the days are coming when a renewed land
will be a critical biblical doctrine and reality for us to understand. We want to know what is in God’s heart to do in the
fullness of his blessing, when His Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven, so that we can know what He desires to do
to bring blessing to the land of an obedient people even in the great crisis before He returns.
IV. POLITICAL AND MILITARY BLESSING
“…I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. But I will remove far from you the northern
army, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land … His stench will come up, and his foul odor
will rise, because he has done monstrous things”. Joel 2:19, 20
A. God not only promises to answer His people in terms of agricultural blessing, He has promised to give Israel political
and military victory over all nations. They will know liberation from all of the hostile nations through a supernatural work of
God. God will cause there to finally be abundant peace and honor on the literal nation of Israel as He makes them the
head of the nations of the earth. There is coming a time when the most reproached nation in history will be the leader of
the nations of the earth, because the Lord has chosen it. He orchestrated their four thousand years of weakness to prove
His power when He comes.
B. When Jesus brings this history-defying revolution, all of the nations of the earth will be amazed! He has determined
history from its beginning and set everything up ahead of time. God plays ten-dimensional chess and we play only one-
dimensional. He is the state champion and He wins every time. He will stun the nations by doing the impossible and taking
the weakest, most reproached nation in history and causing them to rule the earth with humility. He will subdue the nations
with his beauty (Isaiah 4:2). The leadership of this crucified Man, risen from the dead, will be beautiful and startling.
“Kings shall shut their mouths at Him”. (Isaiah 52:15)
C. Before the Lord’s return, all nations, even America, will be hostile against Israel and align themselves against
them. Many times in scripture we read that all of the nations will be in a coalition against Israel, and God wants it this way.
He is going to put Israel in a divine checkmate where there is absolutely no way out. Then suddenly He will exercise His
power and evil nations will be defeated. In so doing, He will keep His entire covenant with precision and the nations of the
earth will testify, “You are the only God!”
D. The powerful kings of the earth will choose the oil of the Middle East over spiritual conviction to support Israel. Yet
this is exactly how God set the whole drama up. He put the oil in the Middle East on purpose, testing all of the nations of
the earth with its location. By doing this, he gives the wicked an avenue to pursue the wickedness that is in their hearts.
All the nations that do not really love Jesus will end up dramatically opposing Him.
E. After these nations have fully exercised their hostility toward Israel, the Lord will our out wrath on them. He will wait
to pour this wrath out until after they have fully exercised all of their resources to oppose Him. He will allow them to press
to the full limit of their ability to oppose Him and His purpose before He judges them in wrath.
F. The Lord highlights a very important detail of end-time prophecy when he says, “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 …” (Joel 2:20)
1. The Lord was speaking of a literal army that will come from the north in Joel’s day (Babylon and at the end of the
age (antichrist’s kingdom). The defeat of the people from the north is a prominent theme of end-time prophecy
(Ezekiel 38-39)
2. This end-time northern army will be made up of a coalition of nations who will come after Israel with tremendous
military force, arsenal and economic power. AT no time in history has an army been bigger or stronger than this; and it
will be led by the evil world leader, commonly known as the antichrist. The Lord has allowed the nations to be against
Israel for four thousand years, but He is going to allow the drama to crescendo and culminate by the strength of this one
coalition, this northern army, allowing a fullness of assault against Israel.
G. Israel will have no military at this time, due to a peace treaty that this cunning, global leader will have made with her
(Daniel 9:27; Ezekiel 38:10-16). Suddenly, when her defenses are down, all her villages and towns will be broken down
and plundered. They will have no protection, no help whatsoever. The biggest army in history, with the best weapons,
the largest numbers, the most money, and the strongest agreement of the nations will come against them. Yet after God
has allowed them to exercise their strength against Israel, the Lord Himself will drive them into a barren and desolate
land, into the desert regions surrounding Israel.
H. Because this man of sin will do monstrous things before God, God will so defeat him and his army that his stench
will arise (Joel 2:20). Ezekiel prophesied that it will literally take Israel seven months to bury the multitudes of the slain
soldiers form all of the nations of the world who come against them (Ezekiel 39:12; Isaiah 34:2-3). The stench will pollute
the land for a season. This is not a figurative prophecy – it will literally happen. A foul odor will arise form the defeated
evil army. Perhaps the Lord included the detail of the rising stench as a provocation against these nations. They will read
these verses and it will be part of their emboldening in striking Israel.
I. This military victory will occur at the coming of the Lord. His coming has several dimensions to it, and one of the
most unusual dimensions is that the destruction of these evil nations will happen in various stages. There will be an actual
human, natural dimension to it. You would think that in Jesus’ return, He would suddenly appear and in one moment, all
would be put in order and everything would be over. Yet the Lord loves the natural processes that he Himself set into
motion at the time of creation. In a natural way with real human process, He will cause these nations to be subdued,
trained and refashioned over a period of time.
J. Jesus will begin a process of political and agricultural blessing at His appearing and then progressively develop unto
the state of fullness over the next 1,000 years (Revelation 20). Under His leadership, the agriculture, the atmosphere
and the animals will be blessed by His government.
V. BE GLAD AND REJOICE!
Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things! (Joel 2:21)
A. After describing this triumph that God will bring over the evil army of the north, Israel’s greatest enemy of all time,
Joel cried out to the land and its inhabitants, “Fear not … be glad and rejoice!” Joel is exhorting Israel to rejoice in the
Lord and to not fear even before the victory is realized – even while the hostile nations surround them. Undoubtedly, this
will be the last thing that Israel will want to hear as they endure the Great Tribulation, as the judgments of God fill the earth
and as they are invaded by a northern coalition of armies seeking their destruction! Glad? Yet the Lord’s message to
Israel and to all the nations is that He is totally in control. He will bring a global, historical reversal so suddenly, and this is
the reason that He says, “Rejoice” even ahead of time. He is calling Israel, the barren woman to sing for joy ahead of
time, before she bears children (Isaiah 54:1). She will soon have more children than the married woman, yet He calls her
to sing now, before it happens!
B. Once again, though the Lord is speaking directly to Israel, He gives this message to all the nations of the earth.
Here we are in America, and the Lord is saying to us, “The same applies to you. You too will see My works”. Surely, this
evil world dominion will also touch our lives and the Lord is inviting us to trust Him. Just as He is in control of Israel, He is
in control in every place of the earth.
C. The Lord even speaks to the beasts of the field about the renewal He will bring: “Do not be afraid … for the open
pastures are springing up and the tree bears its fruit …” (Joel 2:22) Several times the Word of God describes how in the
midst of satan’s rage and God’s judgment, there will be a worldwide famine. There will be droughts, earthquakes, all kinds
of disturbances in the weather patterns and horrifying military invasions. However, when Jesus returns, He will rebuild
desolate cities and restore the land. The end of the story is really good! Many of the Old Testament prophets speak
of both the desolations and the restorations that surround the reign of the Messiah.
D. The two prominent emotions in the earth will be fear and gladness. Jesus said that in that day, the nations of the
earth would faint from fear (Luke 21:26). Fear will be the dominant emotion outside of the grace of God. Yet gladness
and rejoicing will fill the whole Body of Christ (Isaiah 24:14-16). The Body of Christ will be a worldwide worship and prayer
movement, filled with praises even before the manifest victory happens (Psalm 149). We will be in a spirit of faith,
gladness and rejoicing until our faith is made sight and we stand on the sea of glass together at the wedding supper of
the Lamb declaring, ‘let us be glad and rejoice!” (Revelation 19:7). Joy and gladness will be the emotions of the Bride
of Christ in the painful, final hours of natural history before the Lord returns!
E. Joel continues to exhort, saying, “Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has
given you the former rain faithfully, and he will cause the rain to come down for you – the former rain, the latter rain in the
first month” (Joel 2:23). The former rains are the autumn rains that come in October and November. They are the
heaviest rains and they prepare the ground for plowing and sowing. After these former rains, it would rain lighter and
more periodically from December to April. These were the latter rains, or the spring rains, right before the harvest.
These rains would bring the crop to maturity, preventing drought and bringing about the harvest.
F. The Lord loves this issue of giving and withholding rain based on the heart-responses of His people.
Even after He returns and sets up His kingdom on the earth, this interaction will continue. Even when the Lord
is present, he will cause rain to be an issue of life or death. He will refuse to bring the rains without the people
of the earth connecting with His heart. After He appears, the nations who do not worship Him will not receive
rain on their land (Zechariah 14:18). When they cease to pray and worship, the rains will literally cease to
come to their nations.
G. The Lord promises to restore to Israel the years that the swarming locust has eaten and to cause people to eat in
plenty and be satisfied (Joel 2:25, 16). He will pay back all of the bad years with the abundance of blessing – giving
double for what was taken (Isaiah 40:2). God is speaking of far more than the years of the locust plague in Joel’s
generation. God is speaking through history and referencing the fullness of all suffering, drought, famine and military
invasion that Israel will undergo. He promises that in the thousand years beyond this age, He will make it up to them far
beyond anything they could imagine! He will pay double with vast abundance of blessing. This is our God, and it is in
His nature to pay back in such extravagance to all who call on His name!
H. Finally, the Lord says, “You will 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. 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” (Joel 2:26, 27). In the
millennium, the worship movement will be in full swing because of the wondrous dealings of the Lord with His people. In
contrast to the evil leader who will do monstrous things, God declares His dealings with His people to be monstrous work
of the evil one. The Lord is certain to have all satisfied customers with absolutely no one regretting being on His team.
I. Joel goes on to say that by these extravagant actions of wonder and marvel His people and the nations of the earth
will know that He is the Lord (Joel 2:27). His ultimate goal is always and forever about intimacy. He wants His people to
know and recognize that He is in their midst. He says, “My people shall never be put to shame!~” This “never” has not yet
happened in history; Israel has nearly always been put to shame, if not in the one season, then in the next. Yet there is
coming a day when Israel will never again be put to shame. The weakest of all of the nations will be ruler over all of the
earth that God might forever display His sovereignty and iwn all of the nations of the earth to Himself! ‘O Lord … I will
praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth … He will swallow
up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces … And it will be said in that day, ‘Behold, this is our
God; we have waited for Him …’ O Lord our God, masters besides You have had dominion over us … (But) You have
increased the nation, O Lord … You are glorified” (Isaiah 25:1, 8-9; 26:12-15). It is all about His glory winning the nations
of the earth!