Joel

The book of Joel was written to Israel over 100 years prior to the Assyrian Conquest of the Northern Kingdom in 721 BC.  This book encourages the Israelites to render their hearts and not their garments unto the Lord and to cry out to him and he will bestow upon them grace and compassion.  The book begins by talking about an invasion of locusts.  This probably is in refernce to the Assyrian invasion of the nation of Israel.  Chapter 2 speaks of an army of locusts which is believed to refer to the Jews and Christians in the last of the last days as an army who is advancing their kingdom.  however, verse 11 of chapter two stresses the fact that the nation needs to repent before they can be a great army much like the church in the direction of which it is going by ordaining gay ministers and advocating abortion and eastern mysticism needs to either reform or deform.  Verses 11-17 of chapter two are an interlude that tells the people of God what they must do in order for them to acomplish becoming that mighty army.  It makes the promise that when this is accomplished , the Spirit of God will be poured out upon all flesh.  The origin of the fulfillment of this prophecy started in Acts 2:17-21.  That is when th last days began.  Basically the point of the book can be best explained by telling a true story about World War Two in the Pacific.  General Douglas MacArthur appears in our elementary school history textbooks as a hero in defeating the Japanese in World War Two.  However, when one really looks at the truth of the matter, MacArthur should have ended the war two years sooner than he did.  Yet, he was so prideful in his own ability to command that he convinced Franklin Delano Roosevolt that he did not even need time to train an army because he was the man and had the ability to get the necessary job done accordingly.  Because of MacArthur's pride, the American armies lost thousands upon ten thousands more troops than they should have lost in the Pacific.  All because MacArthur thought it was all about him.  That's the problem with the church today.  It is basically a struggle for special political power within an institution built by man.  But the true invisible church is the priesthood which Christ has built and instilled within all believers and it is important for us if we want to have a great End Times army,(which whether or not we are living in the End Times I do not know) then we are going to have to unify and work together as Christians speaking oipenly against the sins that infiltrate the church like Eastern mystical practices, Homosexuality, tolerance of abortion, etc.  The way to do this is by uniting as an army and realizing that what we are fighting against is not the people enmeshed in such sin but the spirits that are leading the people to that sin.  The book of Joel concludes by speaking of the judgments of the nations and blessings for God's people.  For a small book, Joel contains a good thelogical lesson about Messianic Prophecies.