Year 6, Day 215: Joel 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

I think the message of Joel 3 is that God truly is in control.  He is the king.  He gets the last say.  His word is final, and His verdict will last forever.

Let’s look into this chapter more deeply.  Joel is certainly speaking against the world, specifically against the nations around the Hebrew people and even more specifically against Philistia and Tyre and Sidon.  God is angry with them for multiple reasons.

The question is, what did they do that was so bad?  Yes, they didn’t help out the Hebrew people.  Worse, the celebrated when the Hebrew people fell.  But their worst offense was that they saw the downfall of the Hebrew people as a means to profit themselves.  God finds this deplorable.  When we see people around us fall and we get excited about the possibility that the fall could mean for us, it shows us quite clearly more about ourselves than anything else.

It is in this fact that we see God as king.  The Hebrew people were doomed to go into their own captivity.  But God as King means that He also has the ability to restore them when they are become willing to repent and listen to Him once more.  But the surrounding nations didn’t need to act like vultures and swoop down upon their downfall to look for profit.  And in this we see that God is still king.  Even though these nations may profit in the short-term at the loss of the Hebrew people, God will bring them under justice and judgment in due course of action.  Because God is king, He can bring everyone into true and righteous judgment – even those who take advantage of us when we fall.

The thing to remember, though, is that God does not play favorites.  Just as God will avenge the Hebrew people when other people step over us when we fall, we need to remember that if He is king He will do the same to us.  We must remain humble.  We must remain true to our calling and not overreach what God has called us to do.

 

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