The Day of Pentecost (OT)

Joel 2:1-11

Blow a trumpet in Zion;

sound an alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,

² a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains

a great and powerful people;

their like has never been before,

nor will be again after them

through the years of all generations.

³ Fire devours before them,

and behind them a flame burns.

The land is like the garden of Eden before them,

but behind them a desolate wilderness,

and nothing escapes them.

⁴ Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,

and like war horses they run.

⁵ As with the rumbling of chariots,

they leap on the tops of the mountains,

like the crackling of a flame of fire

devouring the stubble,

like a powerful army

drawn up for battle.

⁶ Before them peoples are in anguish;

all faces grow pale.

⁷ Like warriors they charge;

like soldiers they scale the wall.

They march each on his way;

they do not swerve from their paths.

⁸ They do not jostle one another;

each marches in his path;

they burst through the weapons

and are not halted.

⁹ They leap upon the city,

they run upon the walls,

they climb up into the houses,

they enter through the windows like a thief.

¹⁰ The earth quakes before them;

the heavens tremble.

The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹¹ The Lord utters his voice

before his army,

for his camp is exceedingly great;

he who executes his word is powerful.

For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;

who can endure it?

The Day of the Lord is coming. The Trumpet in Zion should be sounded. Send out the Warning message of the coming destruction. God proclaims the coming of thick darkness and fire devouring people. God speaks of a destructed army that would jump from house to house. The army would come and destroy everything. This is the coming of the Day of the Lord.

Joel provides people with a truly scary message. The greatest fear most people have is the fear of death. If death itself is not scary enough for you, image the death of everyone you love and the destruction of your city.

We all should hopefully know the strong connection here. God provides us with a day of thick darkness. On this day there was also an earthquake. This event takes place in correlation with the Passover, in which death passed through all the land jumping from house to house. This may sound like a stretch, but it is the Day of God’s Judgment.

God sacrifices his own Passover lamb for the forgiveness of sin. God offers his only begotten Son as the perfect sacrifice for you. This is the Day of Judgment for all Israel. But the Son of Man speaks also of another day, in the future. When Jesus Christ will return to judge both the living and the dead, He will provide you with life everlasting.